Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 177. The Throne of Empty Waters

Myrissa told everyone to get off of Scylla’s back. Rick was the first to step onto the polished coral floor, and then Carmilla, Natasha, Liora, Zara, and Thalor followed.

Rick could tell right away that the water here was different when his feet touched it. It was heavier and full of ancient oceanic magic that had built up for centuries.

The Crystalline Observer from Zephyra stayed above Rick’s shoulder, keeping watch without saying a word. She was watching everything from a long way up on the surface through that magical link.

Myrissa’s face got serious as she looked at the group. "Pay close attention because I won’t say this again."

"If you want to stay alive, you should follow the rules in Mother’s throne room, which haven’t been broken in fifty years."

She raised one finger with webbing on it. "First, weapons must stay peaceful."

"Don’t draw unless someone attacks you first. Any movement of a weapon that looks aggressive will be considered a threat by the wards."

A second finger came up. "Second, magic must be suppressed at all costs."

"If you have any hostile intent, automatic defenses will kill you before you can blink. I’ve seen it happen to people who tried to kill someone."

And then comes the third finger. "Third, don’t move suddenly."

"Mother’s wards understand aggression right away, so better try to move slowly and clearly without any aggression in it."

She raised the fourth finger. "Fourth... only speak when someone asks you to, unless you’re making your case."

She looked straight at Zara, and her solid blue-white eyes focused intently. "Demon General, that includes your aura in particular. I need you to fully suppress it before you get punished."

Zara complained, and her demonic features faded away until she looked almost human, except for the red in her eyes. "Ugh... This is really annoying, but fine..."

Before the meeting, Rick’s gooner brain tried to wake up one last time. "Emotionally dead eight-hundred-year-old MILF empress with three hundred kids who probably has great maternal energy..."

"Goddamn! I can’t fucking wait to meet the broken milf because of how her husband of an asshole treated her."

And then his logical side took over with force. "Shut the fuck up! This isn’t a game about dating!"

"This is literally stopping the entire ocean of Zorathia from becoming corrupt!"

"Get your priorities straight!"

Sebastian’s voice echoed in his ear, yet it remained unheard by anyone else. "You’re an idiot like always... both things can be true, but maybe start with saving the world first."

The massive coral archway ahead began to shift where the living coral moved aside like curtains, showing the inside of the throne room. The sight immediately overwhelmed Rick’s senses.

The room was as big as a cathedral, so it could easily fit a flying dragon.

The crystal walls reflected the ocean outside, creating an aquarium-like atmosphere. Bioluminescent patterns covered every surface, making a soft blue-white light that was both calming and very scary at the same time.

But what Rick noticed most was how quiet it was. It wasn’t a peaceful quiet, but rather a silence that seemed utterly empty.

The kind of quiet that comes from not being there instead of being calm. His bond resonance picked up the room’s emotional landscape on its own, and what he found at the center made his stomach drop.

It was nothing. There was an absolute emotional void where Nerissa sat.

About thirty ocean dwellers stood along the walls of the throne room. They looked like they were in their forties, but it was hard to tell for sure.

All of them had small features that were similar to Nerissa’s, which made them look like her children. They stood perfectly still, with blank faces, and didn’t say or do anything.

They look more like statues that are alive and waiting for permission to live and do something.

Thalor leaned in close to Rick and whispered so softly that only bond resonance could make it clear to Rick. "This is how every council meeting has been for the last fifty years."

"We report our findings. She acknowledges with minimal words, and after that we leave without getting any care nor questions beyond absolute necessity."

"What’s worst is there’s no recognition that we’re her children rather than just court functionaries."

Rick’s chest felt tight. Three hundred kids turned into bureaucratic workers because their mother died in a way that made them feel bad.

"Honestly... my condolences to you and your family, but no need to worry. Rick’s here to fix everything with a high chance to succeed."

The throne dais was the most important thing in the room. It was raised on a platform made from a single piece of white coral.

And there, sitting still as a statue, was Ocean Empress Nerissa Abyssryn.

Rick’s first thought was that Thalor’s descriptions hadn’t done her justice. She looked to be in her late thirties by human standards, but he knew she was really eight hundred years old.

If she stood up, she would probably be about six feet two inches tall, which is tall even for someone who lives in the ocean. Her body had that graceful maternal quality that comes from giving birth to more than three hundred children over the years.

Her curves suggested both strength and softness that awakened something deep inside Rick, and he was still trying to gain self-control with the whole situation.

"I fucking knew it... the charm of a milf who gives birth to many children is unbeatable, and it’s already off the charts..." Rick said in his mind.

Her hair was the most beautiful thing about her. It was short and wavy with the color of seafoam, and it looked like frozen water that had taken shape.

It floated on its own, as if it were alive, moving in ways that didn’t make sense to physics.

Her skin was pale and had small, shiny blue scales that caught the bioluminescent light, making a bunch of blue color patterns on her arms and shoulders. The effect should have been beautiful, and it was, but beauty without warmth was just decoration.

The blue in her eyes was like the blue you get from looking into trenches where the sun never shines, but they were empty, like wells that had been abandoned and now only held darkness and echoes.

Her face made her look like someone who should radiate warmth. High cheekbones, full lips that weren’t smiling, and a face that looked like it was kind but was actually numb.

The gills on her neck opened and closed with perfect timing, with no change in rhythm. Her webbed fingers lay on the throne’s armrests without any tension, as if they were just things on a shelf.

Her dress was made of living water that flowed all the time and changed from clear to opaque. The ocean’s magic held the dress together, and it moved on its own, not with the currents.

There was no actual fabric. Instead, there was only liquid that was molded by willpower.

There were seven pearls in a coral circlet on her head. Rick thought that each pearl’s color represented a different part of the ocean, like the deep trenches, shallow reefs, the open ocean, the Arctic, the tropics, storm zones, and the abyssal depths.

But what really caught Rick’s attention was the way she stood. The spine is perfectly straight, the hands are resting without gripping, and the head is level with the eyes.

There was no fidgeting and no change at all. She didn’t move her weight, breathe heavily, or do any of the thousand small, unconscious movements that show someone is alive instead of a statue.

Rick’s internal evaluation was quick and harsh. "’She’s not sitting on that throne..."

"She became part of it fifty years ago and forgot how to be anything else.’

Nerissa’s right had a smaller throne, which held the source of her sorrow. There was Typhon, the ungrateful cursed consort.

Rick knew he was over eight hundred years old, but he looked like he was in his early forties. The ocean dweller’s scaled skin and webbed hands made him look like Nerissa’s species, but they were completely limp.

His face had probably been handsome at one point, but now it looked thin and empty, as if someone had carved away everything that made him a person and left only a shell.

His eyes were open but empty, and they were staring at nothing. His ceremonial robes were old and faded, and the style made it look like he hadn’t changed clothes in years because no one bothered to dress him anymore.

Liora’s voice came through bond resonance, soft but urgent. "Rick, that’s not a curse from outside..."

"I can see it clearly with my divine senses..." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"That’s magic that you do to yourself as punishment, and... he is picking this state."