The tailless lizardman was missing.
Through the mycelial pillars, Lin Jun naturally saw the previous situation.
However, after clearing out the nearby bugs, Lin Jun discovered that the rock wall Norris was pulled into was indeed an ordinary rock wall.
There were no traces of magic on it, nor was it hollow behind it.
And the fungal mat's sensing of Norris also vanished as he was pulled inside.
The first thing Lin Jun thought of was a multiple-space like the Scarecrow Abyss, but it didn't feel like it.
Lin Jun actually wasn't too worried about Norris.
When those arms popped out, Lin Jun had already confirmed they were mermaids through the status panel.
Considering Keith's usage of embedding mermaids like gemstones, the two sides were definitely hostile. Then perhaps they might consider the enemy of their enemy a friend?
Moreover, the Sword Saint was probably just like Norris, both in that unknown area. Even if a live Norris couldn't be brought back, his corpse could always be transported back, right! When the time came, he would just bestow the [Scale Armor] skill to Norris Puchi again and see if he could grow silver scales again.
Of course, just in case he couldn't reincarnate, or Norris was completely destroyed with no corpse remaining, Lin Jun also had a backup plan.
That tombstone, personally carved by Lin Jun and never used, was still kept around!
Keith, on the other hand, had very bizarre abilities!
Not referring to that chorus, but the method of embedding creatures onto its tentacles.
Through the status panel, Lin Jun could confirm that that tentacle came from Keith's main body.
And on the tentacle, those mermaids were still alive; their status panels were still there, it was just that their bodies were completely controlled.
They weren't simply embedded onto the tentacle, but had thoroughly grown together from the inside out.
The key was, where did this ability come from?
While Norris and the others were getting beaten, Lin Jun was already studying Keith's current status panel.
In the status bar, there was indeed an additional [Flesh Chimerism].
But he couldn't find the skill that provided this status.
The text description of [Gluttony] didn't quite match this either.
Could Keith have used means outside of skills to embed the mermaids onto its tentacle?
How could it, a bug, do that?
Furthermore, since it could embed mermaids, could it also embed something else?
This meant Keith would have more methods. Lin Jun felt he had to tell Piggy to be more cautious.
After all, if dealing with Keith resulted in heavy casualties, wouldn't that just give the Demon King on the shore an opportunity?!
And to solve Keith with relatively small losses, he should exert more force to press down on it.
Considering both the Demon King and the Empire were in a rare state of weakness, Lin Jun felt he should throw more Puchis into the sea, or perhaps throw in a Puchi large enough?
Norris was suffocated awake.
[Underwater Adaptation] allowed his skin to extract some oxygen from the seawater for his body to use; however, he was ultimately not an aquatic creature, and there was a limit to the time he could be active in seawater.
Norris uncomfortably clawed at his throat, the feeling of suffocation enveloping him bit by bit.
Suddenly, someone moved his flailing hands away and placed something on his head.
The next moment,
"Haa! Haa!"
Norris, finally breathing air again, stopped struggling and opened his eyes.
He found an air bubble placed over his head, and in front of him, a beautiful young girl was looking at him.
No, not a human.
Fish scales on both sides of her cheeks, shark-like teeth under her lips, and as Norris rolled his eyes, sure enough, he saw a fish tail beneath the girl.
It was a mermaid, an ordinary mermaid not embedded on a tentacle.
Norris wanted to ask something, but seeing him awake, the mermaid flicked her tail and swam away.
Norris sat up and observed his surroundings.
Around him, several vanguard squad members were still unconscious on the ground, untended by any mermaids.
However, they were all fishmen, snakemen, or half-demons capable of going underwater. They didn't need to wear an air bubble created by magic just to breathe like Norris did.
And the place where they were—
A round sky over a square earth; a massive thin membrane enveloped the entire area. Outside the membrane was a constantly shifting, blurry scene.
Norris curiously reached his hand outside the membrane.
Slap.
The mermaid who had left and returned slapped Norris's hand away, then muttered something angrily in a babble.
Norris looked bewildered, completely unable to understand.
The mermaid girl clearly also realized the problem. She unhappily rolled her eyes, grabbed him, and swam toward the center of the area.
The closer they got to the middle, the more mermaid figures there were.
Norris roughly estimated that there were about a thousand mermaids in this area.
In the center of the entire area, on a coral throne, Norris saw the Sword Saint Puchi being held in the arms of a beautiful mermaid woman.
Seeing that Puchi carrying four swords, Norris's hanging heart suddenly felt much more at ease. Facing Elwyn, who was vigorously waving his tentacles, he said happily: "Lord Sword Saint, so you are here too? What exactly is going on here? And these mermaids—"
Elwyn's mushroom cap visibly shrank a size. At the same time, an unfamiliar female voice rang out in Norris's mind.
"He called you Sword Saint? What does this mean? Elwyn's pet Puchi, can you explain?"
The beautiful mermaid woman's hand pressed down on the Sword Saint Puchi's mushroom cap, her beautiful eyes glaring at him somewhat terrifyingly wide.
"It's just that I received Elwyn's true teachings, and therefore inherited the title of Sword Saint!"
"Inherited? Elwyn is dead? Then when you said you could let me see him, you were lying to me?!" The beautiful mermaid woman slammed the Sword Saint Puchi onto the ground, her expression gradually turning ferocious.
"No, no, no, Your Majesty the Queen, Elwyn is not dead, not dead!" The Sword Saint hurriedly tried to salvage the situation.
However, the Queen no longer believed him.
With a casual wave, she controlled the water current to bind the Sword Saint Puchi, then swam gracefully to Norris's side, her fingers trailing over the silver scales on Norris's face.
"Pretty scales. To have such beautiful scales, you must be a good boy. Good boy, can you tell me why you call this Puchi the Sword Saint? And do you know where Elwyn is?"
The Mermaid Queen's voice in Norris's mind was incomparably gentle, as if carrying some sort of power that made one unable to resist wanting to obey.
However, Norris could withstand even the Chorus of Flesh controlled by Keith. Although the Mermaid Queen used the [Voice of Charm] more skillfully, it was impossible for its raw power to match the Chorus of Flesh.
Norris had already realized he might have just said the wrong thing. At this moment, he decisively played dumb and simply shook his head.
Seeing the charm was ineffective, the Mermaid Queen's expression turned cold. A water current wrapped around Norris's neck, strangling him and lifting him up.
"I saved you. If you are unwilling to answer even a few questions, then I don't mind taking this life of yours back."
The water current strangled tighter and tighter. Norris, who originally just wanted to keep the peace, had no choice but to start accumulating mana in the mushroom cannon on his chest. He had no intention of just being killed off so inexplicably.
Suddenly, a sword light swept past.
The water current strangling Norris was instantly shredded.
The Sword Saint Puchi had broken free from his bindings at some unknown point and appeared between the Mermaid Queen and Norris.
Elwyn sheathed his sword, his mushroom cap tilted upward at a forty-five-degree angle.
"Sephiria, don't make things difficult for a child." He turned his round body to face the Mermaid Queen, saying slowly, "I am Elwyn."
The Mermaid Queen Sephiria's pale blue pupils trembled: "You—Elwyn?"
The Sword Saint Puchi Fish extended a tentacle: "We meet again, Sephiria."
"Who are you trying to fool!"
The next moment, the surrounding seawater surged and crushed toward the Sword Saint Puchi and Norris!
(End of Chapter)
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