Chapter 309
“Bullshit!” Natantes shouted.
“It is the truth,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“I don’t believe you!”
“It doesn’t matter what you believe. The truth does not change.”
“A mimic? Exemplar? Hahah! It’s quite a well-fabricated story. So, what is the conclusion of this novel you’ve written?”
“The codestruction of the ganoid and placoid scales. A Bachtasha-rank Chaos mimic named Dopper will kill you, and the merfolk Race Stone will be taken from you.”
“I can only tolerate so much bullshit!”
The water in the banquet hall swirled around Natantes, but Seong-Hwi spoke more quickly.
“Didn’t you find it strange? Carcharocles, a man who stepped down from his position of supreme ocean commander and served as an enlisted man, is aiming for the seat of Ocean King after all this time? A passing starfish wouldn’t believe that crap.”
Natantes remained silent.
“The merfolk whose trail was never caught after killing hundreds of ganoid scale merfolk happened to be Lodon, Carcharocles’s eldest son, out of the blue. What an odd coincidence.”
Natantes continued to stay silent.
“Would you also call the fact that the pisciceps accused of killing placoid scales after that being your daughter, Katthveli, a coincidence? A placoid scale’s death one day, a ganoid scale’s death the next, then back to a placoid scale’s death... I didn’t know such coincidences could happen.”
Natantes’s expression hardened the more Seong-Hwi spoke because he had already found everything Seong-Hwi had mentioned strange.
Seong-Hwi stared at the confused Natantes and mumbled discreetly, “Try placing the piece known as a doppelganger in this jigsaw puzzle.”
Natantes understood what Seong-Hwi meant. A doppelganger who became an exemplar of Lodon... A doppelganger who became an exemplar of Katthveli... Then all the pisciceps incidents must have been...
Seong-Hwi stared at Natantes’s changing expressions and said inwardly, If you were a doppelganger, I would die here.
However, he was certain that the man before him was not a doppelganger. No, he could go further and say that Natantes was the only person whom he trusted in Gurzes.
In my past life, Vipera Anguis killed you and obtained the merfolk Race Stone. In other words, you have the Race Stone.
Despite that, he had agitated Natantes just in case. As a result, Natantes’s intense reaction only gave Seong-Hwi certainty that he possessed the Race Stone. If he had the merfolk Race Stone, it meant that he was not a doppelganger. After all, the game would already be over if he were—there would be no need to make things this complicated. All that remained was Carcharocles.
“Albeit limited, I can distinguish between the Chaos and non-Chaos,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Then... you want to meet Lodon because—”
“Yes, to determine whether he is a Chaos or not, and to hear the truth from him.”
“What if... he is innocent?”
“I will release him and have him make contact with Carcharocles. If my hypothesis is correct, the ganoid and placoid scales must join forces.”
“Hypothesis?” Natantes asked, his eyes widening as if wondering what else there could be.
Seong-Hwi calmed his breathing and told Natantes a summary of the puzzle he had painstakingly put together. “I believe Patala is involved in this matter.”
Natantes expressed shock.
“I am certain that Patala will invade Pontus alongside the Chaos,” Seong-Hwi continued.
Only he could come to this conclusion at this time. There had been a contradiction when he realized the Chaos’s involvement. In the past, Vipera Anguis had engaged in an all-out assault against Pontus, claiming that Natantes had become a Chaos.
However, if Natantes, who possessed the Race Stone, had become a Chaos, the doppelgangers would not have needed to divide Pontus. This contradiction could be explained by one hypothesis.
Vipera Anguis and Patala have joined forces with the Chaos! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly.
Vipera Anguis and the Chaos were both aiming for the merfolk Race Stone. One would think they couldn’t work together because they were after the same thing, but it was the opposite.
The Race Stone had three core parts besides the shell: causality, the history of the race, and the piece of the Master Plot. Vipera Anguis was likely aiming for the causality to enhance her star’s magnitude, and the Chaos were likely aiming for the history of the merfolk race to turn them into fellow Chaos.
In other words, they have more than enough room to cooperate!
Seong-Hwi was certain that Pontus had fallen all too easily in his past life because it had been two against one.
“Patala? Look, Cheon Seong-Hwi. Where did that even come from? I don’t understand a word you’re...” Natantes slurred, brain feeling fried from the overload of information.
He clenched his aching head as he stared at the human before him. He had merely thought of Seong-Hwi as an envoy of the Sēmen who had come to arbitrate the civil war. Although he possessed the special position of inspector, Natantes did not believe he would be any different from the consuls he had experienced until now.
However, Seong-Hwi was different. The way he did business and drew up conclusions, his demands, and everything he did was nothing like those of the existing consuls. He wondered whether it was because he was an inferior race, unlike the consuls.
Natantes felt as if Seong-Hwi knew every future and destiny when he looked into his black eyes, filled with certainty. The unique caliber and mana he felt from him was far below his, but he could also feel a bizarre power, inexplicable by logic.
Seong-Hwi exuded Destiny Force as he said to Natantes, “I came up with this conclusion using information not from the Sēmen, but from Underground and myself. Of course, you do not have to believe me.”
He smiled, and air bubbles rose as if mocking Natantes.
He continued, “However, allow me to make one thing clear. If my hypothesis is correct, it will mean the end for Pontus.”
Seong-Hwi had said all that he needed to say. All that remained was for Natantes to choose. Natantes could feel the cogs in his head turning in overdrive. He outstretched his hand, making the water move to swing the metal door wide open.
“I need time... to organize my thoughts,” he said.
Seong-Hwi did not resist the current Natantes created and was slowly carried out of the banquet hall.
He stared at Natantes as he got further away and said, “Time may not be on our side.”
***
Gilder gulped as he looked around. He was walking along a mystical corridor where the floor, walls, and ceiling were marble, covered in strange patterns. He was in the Celsus Mountain Range, located in the western region of the mid-seventh zone. Among those mountains, he was in a corridor that went straight through the peak of the range, Mount Altus.
Gilder, who had not even been to the sixth zone, was in the seventh zone because he had been invited by a superpower that had its base of operations in the Celsus Mountain Range.
“Hehe, that’s why Echo loves the Second Knight!”
“Ahahaha! I knew he was a witty lad, but I see he is also honorable! I want him even more now.”
Gilder looked forward to where he could hear a conversation between two people. Echo was chatting up a storm, sitting on the shoulder of an old man with long, black hair, a white beard, green eyes, and jade horns sprouting from his temples.
What are you doing, Echo?! Get over here! Gilder shouted inwardly as he stared at Echo.
Echo, feeling Gilder’s gaze, looked backward as her golden hair fluttered.
“Hmm?” Echo tilted her head, noticing Gilder’s intense gaze, and smiled as she raised her arms. “Of course, I love you, too, First Knight!”
That’s not what I mean, Echo! Well... I love you, too, but...
Gilder’s expression was an odd mix of joy and panic.
“Ahahahaha! You need not be so stiff, human. We do not eat our guests,” the old man said.
“D-does that mean... You eat them if they’re not your guests?” Gilder asked.
“Well... it depends on the circumstance, I suppose,” the old man joked with a smile.
However, it only made Gilder freeze in place. It was only natural since he was before Quetzalcoatl, the Venus Dragon, a consul of the Sēmen. The superpower that held its base of operations in the Celsus Mountain Range was none other than Redeo. In other words, Gilder and Echo had entered the dragons’ den.
Get a hold of yourself, Gilder Roy! The negotiation has only just begun! Gilder shouted inwardly.
He had made contact with Quetzalcoatl using the gold coin Seong-Hwi gave him and was invited to the Celsus Mountain Range. The problem was that the fairies had to serve as the connecting link between Underground and Redeo.
It’s okay. We have several advantages.
Underground was the casting vote that had been on a meteoric rise lately. They were too charming an organization for Redeo to refuse. On top of that, they would have no issue with justification to attack Echion if they were joined by the fairies, whom Echion tormented after their Race Stone was taken. Lastly, Redeo was hostile to Echion, and Underground was also on Echion’s bad side after killing Biphatogenes.
There is only one negotiation motto! The enemy of my enemy is my friend! Gilder shouted inwardly.
“We have arrived,” Quetzalcoatl said as he stopped in front of the edge of a cliff at the end of the long corridor.
Gilder hastened his steps and stood beside Quetzalcoatl. He gasped as he looked beyond the edge of the cliff. An entity was using the Celsus Mountain Range as a bed. It was a dragon covered in golden scales. He had white eyelids and a white beard as long as a river. His tail spanned three mountains along the range, and his wings were so large that they could cover the entire range if unfurled.
“I apologize to disrupt your slumber, Master Una. You have guests,” Quetzalcoatl said to the giant gold dragon.
Una, the Fifth Fiend, the Immemorial Dragon, opened his eyes. One eye, the size of a giant cave, shone like the sun. Vertical pupils resembling a black tower moved around, then focused on Gilder and Echo.
“Yawn, how long was I asleep for? Man... I am so hungry,” Una said.
His thunderous voice rattled Gilder’s brain, and his vision blurred.
The enemy of my enemy... is my friend, right? Gilder thought, wondering whether a carnivore and herbivore could truly be friends.
***
An army of orcs exuded intense Battle Force as they regrouped and reorganized after a battle.
“Chwik! Is anyone dead?”
“Chwik! My arm was severed, but I am fine!”
“What? You got your arm chopped off like a weakling? Chwik! And you call yourself a Shanyan of the Blade tribe? I ought to demote you to an adept warrior!”
“I-I apologize! Chwik!”
Around them were rag dolls with cotton pulled out of their stomachs and wind-up dolls with their winding keys chopped off. The orc army was made up of the elites of the elites from the Blade, Hawk, Wind, Sun, and Tusk tribes, each a great warrior between the seventh and ninth tiers.
Leading the army was a robust orc, standing tall like a steel tower. He was Taidzu, an orc with a puncture scar on his left chest and no tusks.
“Hmm... What was Bodonchar trying to obtain from here? Doll’s House, huh?” he mumbled as he read the Akasha Message again.
[Entering Dungeon: Doll’s House.]
[Dimension: Vavato - Dollores’s Playground.]
[Time: Past.]
The forces of Fortitudo, including Taidzu, were currently exploring a dungeon named Doll’s House. Taidzu had found out about this dungeon not long after he became the Abkai, when he was demolishing Bodonchar’s palace. He believed that by demolishing the palace that only fostered disharmony, he could let every orc know that he would walk a different path from Bodonchar.
However, his decision brought him an unexpected result. He discovered a basement room while he was demolishing the palace—a secret room that Bodonchar had made. It was filled with various treasures like A-rank items, showing how much Bodonchar had exploited his own people.
Taidzu also found a secret map in the room, pointing to a nameless lake in the southwest region of the fifth zone, where Bodonchar had left a scribble.
Excavate, no matter what. It is an opportunity to figure out who they are.
“What were you trying to obtain from the dimension of the extinct doll race? And who’s they?” Taidzu mumbled to himself.
He had come to the Doll’s House to have such questions answered, but had not figured out anything because they were still near the dungeon’s entrance.
“We shall advance once we are done with maintenance,” Taidzu ordered.
“Chwik! Yes, sir!”
“The Abkai has ordered us to advance!”
“Chwik! Let’s go!”
Taidzu believed that he would have no choice but to head deeper into the dungeon to figure out Bodonchar’s secret, unaware that his decision would significantly influence Seong-Hwi, located thousands of kilometers away.
***
The so-called accidental is the form behind which necessity hides itself.
Friedrich Engels