Chapter 128: Things just got interesting
Inside the Grand Castle Courtroom, the weight of the ocean sat heavy and absolute.
Vitrified white-coral arches curved gracefully high overhead, supporting a ceiling carved directly from black trench stone. Strands of blue hydro-flame flickered inside crystal lanterns, casting shifting, azure shadows across the room as subtle abyssal currents drifted through the grand chamber, gently stirring the billowy, pearl-embroidered silk robes of the panicked nobility. Outside the massive arched windows, schools of bioluminescent deep-sea organisms darted past the illuminated spires of Nethros, oblivious to the storm brewing within the palace walls.
"Report!" the elder lord demanded, his voice trembling as he leaned over the central council table.
A blood-soaked Vanguard scout, his scale plate cracked and dripping dark crimson into the surrounding current, knelt on the polished marble floor. His gills flared rapidly, struggling to draw oxygen from the water.
"It wasn’t a skirmish, my lords," the scout wheezed, his telepathic voice ringing with visceral horror. "He didn’t raid the supply lines or target the armories. He... he came specifically for House Vaelen’s estate on the outer ridge."
The room grew deathly quiet. The gentle sway of silk robes froze.
"Lord Vaelen..." an elderly noblewoman whispered, her face draining of color. "And his bloodline?"
"Slaughtered," the scout replied softly. "Every single member of the house carrying the royal mark. The estate was turned to coral dust."
A collective gasp echoed off the white-coral walls. The noble anchors—the living linchpins bound to the ancient seal of The Sleeper Beneath Nethros—were being systematically eliminated.
"He isn’t trying to conquer Nethros," the elder lord muttered, his webbed hands shaking uncontrollably as he stared at the map floating in the water. "He isn’t fighting a war for power. He’s hunting *us*."
"The Calm of the Sea," another noble hissed, the name tasting like poison on his tongue. "That rogue merman knows the secret of the containment vault. He knows that if he slaughters enough of the noble bloodlines, the anchor matrix will collapse! He wants to break the seal and unleash The Sleeper to erase the entire kingdom!"
Panic erupted across the rotunda. High-ranking nobles began shouting over one another, their delicate water-mana flares making the water vibrate with frantic energy.
"We must retreat to the deep vaults!"
"Deploy the entire Vanguard to the western rift immediately!"
"What about the surface intruders?!" a voice shouted from the back. "The human in the dungeons, and his two companions roaming the city?!"
"The human is cuffed in abyssal iron inside a solitary cell," the elder lord countered dismissively, waving a hand through the current. "And his companions have gone to ground without causing a single disturbance. They are a minor nuisance. The Calm of the Sea is an existential threat!"
CLANG.
The heavy, double doors of the courtroom swung open, cutting through the chaos.
Nerissa, glided smoothly into the chamber. Her long, sapphire-scaled tail beat against the water with slow, rhythmic power, her voluptuous frame radiating an aura of cold, absolute authority that instantly quelled the noise. The iridescent scales along her hips shimmered under the blue hydro-flames as she took her place at the head of the council table.
"What’s all the commotion," Nerissa commanded smoothly, her dark golden siren eyes sweeping across the trembling nobility. "Panicked gulls make poor commanders."
"General Nerissa!" the elder lord exclaimed, bowing his head slightly. "You’ve heard?"
"I have," Nerissa answered, her razor-sharp cheek-fins flaring subtly. "The Calm of the Sea has mobilized the rogue abyssal tribes at the western rift. He believes our forces are fractured."
She turned toward her senior Vanguard captain floating beside the entrance.
"Redeploy eighty percent of the dungeon garrison and inner wall guards to the western ridge," Nerissa ordered, her voice carrying the unyielding weight of a military directive. "Form a defensive perimeter around the remaining noble estates. We will intercept the Calm before he reaches the inner district."
The captain hesitated. "General... shifting that many guards leaves the lower solitary vaults under light watch. What of the human prisoner?"
Nerissa let out a low, cold hum, glancing toward the floor.
"He is sealed in a wind-grid, bound by multi-ton abyssal iron, carrying zero mana to manipulate the lock," Nerissa said smoothly, her dark lips curving into a confident smile. "He cannot move a single inch without triggering a physical collapse under this water pressure. He is frozen. Focus on the real threat."
"Understood, General!" The captain bowed sharply and turned to execute the order.
---
Far below the grand courtroom, within the silent, pitch-black solitary vaults, the water was completely still.
Small, glowing deep-sea fish drifted past the emerald barrier of the wind-bubble, their faint light reflecting off the wet basalt floor. Vince sat motionless in the center of the cell, his wrists bound by four-inch-thick abyssal iron links resting heavy in his lap.
He hadn’t moved a muscle since Nerissa left.
However, the moment the heavy iron cuffs had slammed around his wrists, Vince had quietly activated his Sensory Perception, expanding his physical awareness outward and upward through the dense stone floors.
Because his perception tracked vibrations, physical displacement, acoustic waves and mapping the surrounding rather than magical mana signatures, the multi-ton basalt walls of Nethros offered zero interference.
Every word, every panicked gasp, and every command spoken in the courtroom miles above had echoed down through the stone, registering crystal-clear inside Vince’s mind.
Vince tilted his head slightly, a slow, dark grin gradually spreading across his face in the dim green light of the wind-shield.
"The Calm of the Sea, huh?" Vince hummed softly to himself, his grit-laced voice barely a whisper inside the bubble.
He rolled his broad shoulders, feeling the deep, bone-level ache of his Man-Beast cooldown finally fade into complete physical alignment. His internal system interface flickered faintly in his vision, the transformation cooldown timer hitting absolute zero.
He had allowed himself to be captured to understand the board. And now, the board was wide open. Eighty percent of the guards were walking away, a rogue merman was coming to break the seal, and the heavy abyssal iron around his wrists was about to meet a man who didn’t rely on magic to shatter metal.
Vince flexed his fingers inside the iron cuffs, his dark eyes glinting with cold, predatory amusement.
"Things just got interesting."