Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 183. Four Minutes Until Disaster

The combat intensified immediately. These weren’t mindless, corrupted monsters.

Queen Seris had trained the undead ocean dwellers to fight like soldiers, so they used military tactics. They used Abyssal Trench tridents that were charged with corrupt energy.

Their magic changed the way deep-pressure water worked, which surface dwellers couldn’t stop. Coordinated attack patterns suggested that intelligence survived death and corruption.

"These monsters aren’t just random!" Carmilla yelled, stopping three undead soldiers from attacking at the same time. "These are trained warriors!"

"The corruption density is three times higher than what you see on the surface!" Natasha yelled while freezing another attacker. "Purification effectiveness went down a lot!"

Liora struggled to maintain her composure. "The anger... is too strong!"

"These souls can’t rest in peace because they’ve been full of hate for fifty years!"

Zara cut down another undead warrior. "Fuck! They’re not dying easily at all!"

Myrissa fought with tears in her eyes against the bodies of people she had known as a child. "I’m sorry...! I’m really sorry! It’s not me! I didn’t want this!"

The Kraken screeched in response to her pain, which they could feel through their bond.

Rick made a command decision. "Liora! Now is the time for mass purification and maximum power!"

"Everyone else, buy her time!"

He turned on Spirit Unity, and the golden aura explosion could be seen even in the dark water. As the one hundred eighty-second countdown began, power surged through his body.

The team worked together to defend. Carmilla and Natasha created a defensive wall combining a shield and an ice barrier.

Zara and Rick used Demon Queen’s Wrath and Sovereign’s Command to clear space for their attack. Myrissa and Kraken used their tentacles and trident to keep the crowd under control.

Liora charged her ultimate purification spell, which required thirty seconds of complete focus. "DIVINE CLEANSING TIDE!"

A hundred meters around, golden light burst forth, dispersing the corruption from the dead bodies like morning mist under the sun. After fifty years of suffering, the bodies finally found peace as the angry energy faded away.

However, the feeling of victory was hollow. The Abyssal crack remained open, and corruption continued to rise.

The Spirit Unity timer indicated that there were still 90 seconds left.

The twelve siblings who were saved were safe, but the team was exhausted.

Then, far below, something large moved within the Abyssal crack.

Zephyra’s voice came through the Observer with genuine alarm, something Rick had never heard from her before. "Rick! Big sign of corruption found!"

"It’s rising from 8,000 meters! The energy readings match those recorded in the past for..."

Her voice fell to a terrified whisper. "It’s a... leviathan..."

Zephyra shouted. "The missing Guardian...! Leviathan has been corrupted!"

It was difficult to discern the shape in the darkness, but its size was unmistakable. It exceeded 200 meters in length, making it longer and larger than the Kraken.

The huge shape was surrounded by purple energy. The roar that came out shook the whole canyon like a sound weapon.

Rick said, "Oh fuck..."

"Oh SHIT!!!"

"N-No way..." Natasha’s voice was cold and calculating. "We cannot fight that creature at all..."

"The chance of survival based on statistics is 0.3%!"

"We need to retreat right now, Rick!" Carmilla took hold of his arm.

"I don’t have enough divine power to clean something that big!" Liora’s confession was very clear.

Even Zara agreed. "Let’s get the fuck out of here right now!"

Myrissa’s fear was the same as everyone else’s. "If Leviathan gets to Meridia Citadel, the whole kingdom will be destroyed...!"

"The wards that Mother created were designed to protect against external threats, not against an internal attack of this magnitude!"

"We have to tell her, we have to—"

Leviathan didn’t go after them. The canyon passages were too small for the Guardian to get through.

Instead, she sent out a corruption pulse. A huge wave of purple energy shot out like a tsunami in the water.

"Brace yourself, everyone!" Rick yelled.

The pulse felt like a punch. Defensive walls broke down right away.

Everyone was violently thrown back. The Kraken screamed, but it wasn’t a battle cry, it was more like a cry of pain.

Rick was horrified when the Kraken’s body started to shake. The pulse’s force tore open a wound that let corruption in.

The soft blue-white bioluminescent patterns that had been glowing began to change to purple. Tentacles thrashed around wildly, hitting friends instead of foes.

"No! NOOO!!!" Myrissa yelled. "Please fight it, baby!"

"Please! We’ve been together for 200 years! You can’t lose yourself to the corruption right now...!"

The corruption spread at a terrifyingly fast rate. The Kraken’s eyes became cloudy, and it lost all sense of self and awareness. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Myrissa held her head in pain as their bond connection burned. "I can feel her...!"

"She’s afraid! She doesn’t want this!"

"She’s trying to fight, but the corruption is too strong for her to handle!"

"KRAKEN! IT’S ME! MYRISSA! REMEMBER THE FIRST DAY WE MET?!"

"REMEMBER ALL THE FIGHTS WE WON?! PLEASE DON’T LET THE CORRUPTION WIN OVER YOU!"

"PLEASE...! I’M BEGGING YOU!" Myrissa kept screaming with hopelessness.

But two hundred years of love and partnership didn’t matter because corruption was too strong for the Kraken to handle.

The Kraken spun around, its purple aura fully manifested. Tentacles coiled around Myrissa with such force that they extinguished the life of someone who had been family for two hundred years.

"Carmilla!" Rick yelled in a panic.

Carmilla swam forward, and as she cut through the tentacle holding Myrissa, Resonant Shield appeared. The ocean-dweller princess fell free, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I can’t fight her... she’s my family!"

"She’s been with me since I was fifty!"

The Kraken that was fully corrupted turned away from the team. Her huge body was facing a certain way.

Eight kilometers away from the Meridia Citadel.

"It’s going to the kingdom!" Rick exclaimed, fear gripping him instantly. "Fifty thousand people are there! Even Nerissa!"

Despite the dire situation, Natasha maintained a clinical perspective. "The Kraken knows all the flaws in Meridia’s ward system...!"

"Myrissa’s bond allowed her to access that information... and an internal attack by a ward-keyed creature means the defensive protocols are compromised."

Liora’s voice trembled. "If it reaches the Empress after today, when she’s feeling weak..."

The Kraken swam faster and faster toward Meridia, leaving the exhausted team behind. A trail of corruption followed her, making the water toxic.

The Abyssal crack below echoed with Leviathan’s roar, a sound of triumph.

Zephyra’s voice came through with deadly precision. "At its current speed, the Kraken will reach Meridia Citadel in four minutes!"

"Nerissa’s wards are meant to protect against threats of corruption from outside. If a creature with full ward access attacks from the inside, the chances of defense working are only twelve percent!"

Myrissa fell into the water and couldn’t even swim. "I... killed... them."

"I... I... led her into a trap after two hundred years together..."

"I did this... My family... will die because of me..."

Rick pulled her up against her will. "Don’t just give up now! We can still stop this!"

He shouted at the Observer. "Zephyra! Alert Meridia immediately!"

"Full evacuation protocols! Thalor, we need Scylla’s speed NOW!"

Spirit Unity showed there were thirty seconds left. Everyone was tired from fighting twice in a row.

The twelve siblings who were saved were too weak to help. Scylla was on a different mission and too far away.

They couldn’t catch a Kraken swimming at full speed.

"We all swam after it now!" Rick’s voice showed that he was very determined. "Even if we can’t catch up, even if it’s hopeless, we must... TRY AND NOT GIVE UP!!!"

The team swam desperately through the water, which was made better by Thalassic Crystals, but it still wasn’t fast enough. The Kraken’s huge body disappeared into the dark ahead as it moved toward the peaceful city that had no idea death was coming.

The beautiful bioluminescent lights of Meridia shimmered in the distance, though the inhabitants remained unaware. Just four minutes remained until the impending disaster.

There was no plan, no backup, no time left, and no hope.

Myrissa’s broken whisper broke the water. "Today, Mother finally felt something real, and that is hope..."

"She finally felt hope after fifty years of being numb..."

Next came Natasha’s cold calculation. "She’s going to lose everything... again."

"Just like it was fifty years ago."

Rick’s inner thoughts were brutally honest. "We failed... not just the alliance."

"We brought the weapon that will kill her..."

"We came here to protect the ocean, but instead we’re going to see an empress lose everything for the second time in her life!"

Carmilla’s voice showed that she was determined to keep going, even though the odds were against her. "Then we either stop it or die trying."

"There is no other choice."

They swam through the dark toward a city that was about to burn, chasing a corrupt guardian they had no chance of catching, and racing against a four-minute timer that felt like the end of everything.