Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 188. Guilt as a Weapon

The ocean dwellers slowly spread out, still shocked but following their empress’s orders. Rick’s partners came up slowly, not sure what had just happened.

"Did you just fucking grab the Ocean Empress by the face and yell at her?" Zara asked, her voice full of awe and disbelief.

Rick said, "Apparently," and then let go of Nerissa, wishing he hadn’t lost contact right away.

Carmilla appeared to be undecided between scolding him and feeling proud. "That was either the bravest or dumbest thing you’ve ever done in the entire journey."

Natasha said in a clinical way, "Adequate shock therapy."

"It’s not normal, but it works."

Liora’s divine energy was warm and pulsing. "Love sometimes requires confronting the truth directly."

"Good job as always, Rick."

Myrissa swam up next to them, her face showing a lot of different emotions as she looked back and forth between Rick and her mom. "I’ve never seen anyone act that way toward her."

"What’s even worse is that I’ve never seen Mother let anyone treat her that way."

Nerissa’s melodic voice broke through the conversation. "We leave for the Western Deep Caverns right away."

"I will look into the Leviathan and where the corruption comes from."

"Rick Rolland will come with me because he has seen the threat in person... the rest of you will stay here and work together to protect the city from its upcoming danger."

"Like hell we would," Carmilla said right away. "Where Rick goes, I go."

Natasha added, "Adequate tactical support is needed."

Liora said, "Divine purification may be necessary there too."

Zara smiled and said, "Hell no! I’m not going to miss the next fight!"

Myrissa’s voice was strong. "And I know the deep caves better than anyone else, except for Mother. I’m going as well."

Nerissa looked at all of them, and a look that might have been the ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Okay. It looks like I have a whole army with me..."

"Let’s leave before the Demon King dies from blood loss."

...

At Nerissa’s speed, it took twenty minutes to get to Western Deep Caverns. The Empress moved through the water with the ease and grace of someone who had been swimming for 800 years.

Her ocean magic made a current that moved the whole group along without any trouble.

Rick was swimming next to Nerissa, with his partners around them to keep them safe. Myrissa led from the front, and her knowledge of the land was very helpful.

As they went down, the coral landscape got darker, and the bioluminescence faded as they got closer to where they had fought before.

Rick could see the Western Deep Caverns right away, and he could tell they were different. There used to be only about fifty undead people living in the ocean, but now there are hundreds.

The victims of the genocide had grown in number, drawn by the corruption anchor that was still pulsing below in the Abyssal crack.

But things changed as soon as Nerissa walked into the area.

The Empress raised one hand, and ocean magic burst forth in a way that Rick had only seen once before, during her Kraken purification. The water itself became an extension of her will, responding to eight hundred years of accumulated power and six hundred years of imperial authority.

Within a five hundred meter radius, every undead ocean dweller that was corrupted just fell apart. It was as if Nerissa had reached into their very essence and gently undone the corruption that was preventing them from living.

The purple energy faded away, leaving behind only the faintest traces of the souls of ocean dwellers who had finally been set free to rest in peace.

Rick looked at Nerissa’s face as she cleansed hundreds of her genocide victims at once. He saw real feelings breaking through the numbness for the first time.

It was guilt that had been eating away at her for fifty years since the genocide.

Her hands shook as the last remnants of corruption transformed into clean water. "I remember their names," she said in a voice thick with an emotion that was not quite tears but was very close.

"Every one of them... when I destroyed the kingdom, every trench dweller in the Abyssal Trenches was there."

"Three thousand two hundred forty-seven trench dwellers... I can say their names."

Myrissa swam over to her mother and put a light hand on Nerissa’s arm. "Mother, the corruption brought them back... this isn’t your fault."

"Isn’t my fault...? Nerissa’s voice broke completely. "I killed them fifty years ago!"

"The corruption just made my crimes even worse until they’re not even forgivable!"

"These are the results of my genocide, made real by an enemy who knew exactly how to hurt me."

The Crystalline Observer picked up Zephyra’s voice, which had been watching everything from the surface. "Ocean Empress, if I may offer my thoughts..."

"You may speak, Grand Sorceress," Nerissa said, recognizing Zephyra immediately.

"It’s not by chance that the corruption can bring the dead back to life. It specifically goes after places where there are many deaths and unresolved guilt."

"The Archon chose your genocide because it makes the corruption much stronger when it affects people emotionally."

The Grand Sorceress kept talking in a clinical way. "Standard corruption animation makes a corrupted entity about three times more powerful."

"An animation that makes you feel something boosts power by 800% or more, and of course... the Archon uses your guilt as a weapon."

Liora added her own understanding, divine knowledge that let her see patterns that Zephyra’s magic could only measure. "The corruption thrives on negative feelings."

"Such things as hate, fear, despair, and especially guilt make it a lot harder to purify the corruption."

"That’s why the undead trench dwellers were so hard to get rid of with my divine magic before."

"It wasn’t just corruption that drove them, but it was fifty years of your hidden guilt, Empress Nerissa."

Natasha said, "The Archon’s new plan is really going after mental wounds this time."

"It’s not just any magical threat, but it’s also an emotional one."

"Both interesting and scary."

Even though the Thalassic Crystal kept the temperature stable, Rick felt a chill. "Does that mean that the more guilt and trauma someone has, the more corrupt they become?"

"That’s right," Zephyra said. "That’s why the Archon went after Typhon’s betrayal."

"Your emotional isolation, Empress, makes you very weak, and with every repressed feeling is a possible source of corruption."

Nerissa’s expression grew resolute, her guilt transforming into a fierce determination. "Then we eliminate the source, ensuring that none of my victims can be wielded as weapons against their own kingdom."

"We need to keep the Leviathan under control."

The water around them started to shake, as if her words had called it. The Abyssal crack got even bigger, and the tectonic pressure groaned as something huge moved deep down.

Before he saw it, Rick sensed it through his bond resonance—fear. A deep, overwhelming fear that made his dragon instincts scream for him to flee.

Then the Leviathan emerged into full view.

The Guardian that was missing was even bigger than Rick remembered from their short fight earlier. Her snake-like body twisted through the water with terrible grace, stretching over two hundred meters from head to tail.

Every scale was broken and glowed purple like wounds that had been infected. Her eyes were burning with mindless hunger, which was multiplied by a dozen heads that grew out of her main body in a grotesque parody of how the body works.

But her roar was the scariest thing. There was no sound, just a wave of pressure that was full of corruption.

The corruption wasn’t only in the hands of the Leviathan. It was making her stronger, turning the Guardian into something that was more than just a normal corrupted creature.

Nerissa didn’t think twice. Rick had never seen anything like it before when the Ocean Empress raised both hands and started to weave magic.

The water itself froze in geometric patterns, creating a three-dimensional seal of ancient complexity. Runic symbols appeared in layers, each one glowing with oceanic power.

"Abyssal Binding: Seven Depths Seal!"

The spell made seven solidified water spheres that were arranged in a circle, each one with ancient oceanic runes carved into it. They wrapped around the Leviathan like closing fists, making it harder and harder for the Guardian to move.

The corrupted beast thrashed violently, sending shockwaves through the canyon with every impact against the barriers.

Yet, the seal held firm, though not by much.

Rick could see cracks forming already. The corruption’s power was fighting Nerissa’s magic in a battle of pure will.

"This will hold her for maybe three days," Nerissa said, her voice strained even though she spoke in a flat tone. "The corruption is too strong for a permanent seal without the Leviathan’s control trident."

"Control trident...?" Rick asked.

Nerissa nodded, and beads of sweat formed on her forehead from the magical work even though they’re underwater. "Every Guardian had a control artifact made for them."

"Myrissa’s bond serves that purpose for the Kraken."

"For Scylla, it was a shell carved from her first molt."

"And for Leviathan was the Tidecaller Trident. A weapon made from ocean pressure and a divine blessing that can completely control the Leviathan."

"Where is it now?’ Carmilla asked the question that everyone else was thinking about.

Myrissa said, "It was lost," in a sad, musical voice.

"Two hundred years ago, Father took it on a diplomatic mission to the Ocean Kingdom’s northern territories."

"He never returned it in the end... especially after the betrayal, no one dared ask where it went."

Nerissa’s expression grew even more somber. "I can sense its presence there."

"The trident is still around, and it has my magical mark on it, but it has also been changed."

"Someone on purpose let it get corrupted because they knew it would become a weapon that could control the Leviathan to its full potential."

The implications hit Rick like a punch in the face. "That motherfucking Archon probably has been planning this for years!"

"Corrupt the control trident, wait for the Guardian to become weak, and then use the corrupted artifact to turn the Leviathan into a weapon."

Natasha agreed, "Adequate strategic analysis."

"This wasn’t opportunistic corruption..."

"...this was long-term preparation."