Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 106: Defeating the Mermaid Underwater

When one crossed the Void Gate in Void City, they were led to the ERE zone which was underwater.

Hence, the reason why the Transcendent who had been put in charge of the ERE zone was a Mermaid.

A being from a race which could naturally exist underwater with zero complications.

Very much unlike the Dragons and other Humanoids who had to constantly expend energy to remain underwater for extended periods of time.

It was a Mermaid Race Lord who was sent here by her Liege, who had partnered with Ikerth to reap the Harvest of Ruindeum from Zotov.

Even so, for the sake of the terrestrial type races and their subordinates, most especially the Dragons, the Transcendents had used her powers over the law of water to create air pockets in the ERE zone.

This provided spaces which were habitable by the Transcendents.

One might think that it’d be better for Ikerth to just have water dragons in charge, but Ikerth was a ’Red’ dragon king, and water dragons were mostly ’Blue’ dragons.

Red and Blue were not really allied with each other unless there was something that concerned the survival of the entire race.

So, one could not imagine Ikerth going up to ask a Blue Dragon King to lend him some of his subordinates.

Ikerth didn’t want to do so and the Blue Dragon kings wouldn’t agree so that’s why he turned to one of his Mermaid Allies.

Coming back to the main topic, the ERE zone was 80% underwater and all the air pockets combined only constituted 20% of its total area.

The ERE machines were also within the water-filled areas as well.

And right now, more than half of that area was up in flames.

Despite the fact that they were underwater, the golden flames still burned with the same intensity as they would on land.

It was absurd to think about, but that was what was currently happening.

Looking at the burning underwater kingdom, Jamie sighed softly and muttered the name of the man responsible.

"Really, Althalos never disappoints."

He told the man to wreak havoc and the man delivered.

**BOOOMM!!

Jamie heard a loud explosion, and with how loud it was, he guessed that the eardrums of anyone who was nearby must have been burst.

’I mean, the sound is muffled underwater and it’s that loud. If it was on land, I’m sure it’d be even worse.’

Looking towards the direction where the sound came from, Jamie zoomed in with his vision and caught sight of the battle between Althalos and the Mermaid.

She was a Senior Race lord who was on the verge of becoming a Race King herself; this was why her Avatar was an Intermediate stage Transcendent one, despite Zotov’s laws.

However, even that was not enough to help her against Althalos.

It didn’t matter what element she used, be it water, ice or earth, Althalos burned through it all.

The man’s sword, clad in golden flames, reminiscent of that of a star cleaved through all the Mermaid’s attacks like tofu.

Ice and Earth melted and Water evaporated before his sword.

To make matters even worse, the Mermaid’s melee combat skills were not enough to engage Althalos in close combat.

So close combat was a no go and ranged combat wasn’t working out either.

The area where they were fighting had even turned into an air pocket because Althalos’ flames had caused all the water nearby to evaporate.

Once again, it was something that didn’t make sense, and physics clearly didn’t work that way.

But for a being who had the power to control the laws of governing the very universe they lived in, and also had an authority that let him enforce his will on them, then physics could work in whatever way he wanted.

The Mermaid had long reverted to her true form, with a humanoid upper half and the lower half of a fish. Adorned in glistened scales, her movements through the water were a testament to the fluidity of her being.

She launched a barrage of razor-sharp ice shards towards Althalos, each one gleaming in the ambient light as they hurtled towards him.

With a series of casual swings, Althalos deflected each one of the shards that constituted the icy onslaught, transforming it into a fleeting mist that dissipated harmlessly.

Undeterred by this, the mermaid went on to summon the very bedrock beneath the ocean floor. Spiked pillars of earth ascended with elemental might, aiming to ensnare Althalos in a rocky labyrinth.

However, with a single swing of his sword in golden flames, he cleaved through the earthen structures as If they were nought but illusions.

The mermaid tried to flood the air pocket that Althalos had created with his presence alone, conjuring colossal waves to overwhelm the Paladin, yet Althalos dispersed the aquatic onslaught with his golden flames, raising their temperature so high that any bit of water that came into a 200-metre radius around him evaporated instantly.

As his golden flames flickered with untamed intensity, the Mermaid once again attempted to flood the air pocket, pouring in as much energy as she could in an attempt to overwhelm Althalos’s superior energy quality with quantity.

She also used her Pseudo-Authority over water to conjure dozens of watery projectiles and intertwined her earthen law techniques within them.

But as if Althalos’s sword was impervious to the powers of the universal laws she used, he neutralized every attack directed at him with ease.

Amidst the ebb and flow of elemental onslaughts, a pivotal movement arose when the mermaid, her eyes gleaming with annoyance, chose to abandon the safety of ranged attacks.

She chose to use a mix of the two; engaging him in close combat to prevent him from being able to react to her ranged attacks.

The moment she thought that, she put it into action, summoning a gleaming spear crafted from the very essence of the ocean.

Althalos seemed to sense her intention and closed the gap in the aquatic arena, his steel sword clashing against her water spear with a loud burst of power.

His flames threatened to evaporate her water while her water tried to quench his flames.

Unlike her ranged attacks from before, Althalos could not easily evaporate this water spear due to the density of the energy constituting it, but that didn’t matter much to him.

Her spear shimmered with a glow as she lunged towards Althalos, swimming in the air with movements reminiscent of a dance.

The spear sliced through the air with uncanny precision, leaving trials of gleaming droplets in its wake.

Althalos met her advance, emanating a radiant aura from his body that clashed with her chilling aura. Each clash between their weapons sent rippled through the surrounding water, creating a dazzling display of light and shadow.

All nearby mermaids and other Non-Zotovians had long since died due to Althalos’s flames, and any still present ran as far as they could from the two Transcendents’ battle.

They ran straight towards Jamie.

Our resident Hybrid welcomed the influx of ’EXP’ coming his way, using the power of his skill to create dozens of spatial distortions around the necks of anything below the Sovereign realm and crushing their necks with his spatial law energy.

For the Sovereigns, he unleashed the Galaxy sword and engaged them in direct combat, cleaving through their bodies with the weapon of spatial destruction.

Meanwhile, Althalos and the mermaid continued their close-quarters battle, and the Mermaids’ fluid finesse was faring poorly against Althalos’ disciplined might.

He countered her every thrust and parry, their movements being a blur of motion as they fought in a way that defied the conventional limitation of underwater combat

The mermaid still wielder her elemental law energies and sought to entangle Althalos in the unpredictable currents of her attacks, yet the Paladin seemed to have preternatural awareness, anticipating and countering each move with calculated precision.

The clash intensified as both sides attempted to breach each other’s defences, and very soon, their battle began nearing its climax.

Due to his superior energy quality, Althalos had consumed far less energy than the Mermaid, and now her power consumption was getting to her.

Currents swirled and lights shimmered as they fought, traversing the ocean at supersonic speeds.

Althalos took advantage of the battle and released indiscriminate beams of solar energy in all directions, blasting apart more and more parts of the underwater kingdom that the mermaids had built and burning more and more mermaids to crisp.

The Mermaid attempted to steer the battle away from the locations where her subordinates were concentrated, but this thought caused a momentary lapse in her movements, creating an opportunity that Althalos seized without hesitation.

With a decisive swing, he unleashed a burst of radiant energy from his already flaming sword, even incorporating the power of the Pseudo-Authority he was currently limited to.

The golden brilliance surged forth, enveloping the mermaid’s body in a corona of power.

Though she attempted to summon a barrier of water to shield herself, the solar prowess of the Paladin she had as an opponent proved to be overwhelming.

His sword’s flames burned hotter and brighter, their intensity eclipsing the durability of the barrier she had conjured.

Her body trembled as his blade pierced through the barrier she conjured, and before she could conjure another one, her whole body was suddenly locked in place.

"?!"

The ambient spatial laws constricted around her, freezing her in space and preventing her from making any gestures or moving away to avoid the slash.

Althalos’ eyes gleamed when he sensed this, and the power in his sword seemed to increase as he now knew that his liege was watching his performance.

His sword cut through the barrier like it was an illusion, meeting its mark and striking the mermaid deep in the chest.

A brilliant explosion of light and water erupted, casting a strange glow across the ocean depths.

Without even waiting for the ambient law energies to calm down, Althalos harnessed the residual energy of his strike and drew intricate symbols in the air.

Golden chains burst out of the ocean floor, shooting through the water and encircling the body of the still-alive mermaid.

With a small mutter, Althalos concluded his chant and sealed the Mermaids’ body and soul in a radiant prism, forged from the power of his Unique skill which afforded him his absurd control over the Sun’s power.

Jamie had only ordered him to kill the Human who could use the power of the law of time, and the Elf he poisoned; so Althalos wasn’t going to kill anyone else

"That’s a wrap."