Even though the way the creature said its words was rather calm and monotonous, a creeping chill crawled down the spines of both humans and mermen onboard the large metallic ship.
Winds continued to howl in the background as the strong gusts brought along raging waves, causing the whole ship to shake. The creature seemed displeased by their lack of action at this point as it squinted its eyes and muttered, “Go on… Or do both of you perhaps not wish to… live?”
With the release of its ill intent, both sides woke up from their dazed state and glanced at each other with horror, fear, anxiety, anger… and most importantly, the intent to kill.
Its words echoed in their mind.
Either way, the only way to survive was that one of them had to die, and it’s obviously not going to be them. So, with no other choice but to fight, and the already bubbling animosity from previous interactions, both humans and mermen prepared to fight.
The first to attack was the captain of the ship. With a lunge and by rearing back his fist, mana gathered around his fist and the image of a hammerhead shark formed behind him in an illusory manner.
With one swing, the nearest merman that was at his side crashed against the walls of the ship, caving in the metallic structure of the large human construct and producing a bloody mess. This caused the rage of the mermen to finally fully erupt as the two sides officially started their war.
A certain merman who was skilled in water magic and physical combat created two whips of water with a sharp edge. He only had to swing and three men fell down, split in half from the torso, causing their innards to splatter out along the floor.
A human mage stomped their staff on the ground, producing an outburst of electricity that trailed along the conductive water surrounding the mermen. Multiple of them were paralyzed, and some of them died from the severe levels of electricity.
One merman, who was a young teen and strangely had dark red eyes, raised their arms, pointing them at the human mage. With gritted teeth and a claw-shaped hand, he pulled back his fist and the human mage viciously exploded into a bloody pile of mushy flesh and fractured bones.
“Blood magic?!” Another human mage who saw the scene quickly shouted in horror as they tried to retreat away from the young merman with bloody red eyes, but it was to no avail.
Another wave of his arms and blood erupted out of the human mage’s eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.
“Go, go, go!” One burly merman, with a hulking body full of muscles, shouted and led the charge forward. With a club made out of frozen water, any human knight who opposed him was quickly met with defeat and death.
Some of them put up quite the resistance, but there was a reason why humans, on average, were considered to be the weakest race in Tyr. Unless they undergo rigorous training, any random mermen you pick up on underwater streets would dominate a fight between the two.
Only by utilizing their rather advanced and developed magical technology, alongside their incredibly talented mages and knights, and their large numbers were humans able to stand side by side with the other species dominating Tyr.
But now, in this fight, where the humans had lost their numerical, and technological advantage (courtesy to the unknown creature practically destroying the weapons they had on the ship because of its giant squid), it’s rather obvious what would happen next.
In just about ten minutes, all of the humans on board the large metallic ship were reduced to a bloody mess, with only a few casualties for the mermen.
The strange humanoid creature standing on top of the giant squid clapped their hands as their eyes squinted in joy. All of the mermen that were still alive looked up at the armored figure with wary eyes, but soon stood still as a tyrannical aura pressed down on their very souls.
“Marvelous… Marvelous!” They laughed loudly and hopped onto a tentacle of the giant squid, which then stretched out to place the armored giant right before them, with their eyes staring down at them with the natural arrogance of an emperor looking at their subjects.
“This means… All mermen are now my subjects, hahaha!” They ‘grinned’ and pointed at the young teen who used blood magic, and the burly merman who made use of ice weapons, and declared loudly. “From now on, you are my, Oliga—the ruler of all life who lives in the sea, Blood General and Ice General!”
The two silently nodded their head without resistance. But, the words uttered by the creature who named themselves Oliga, words that were said with utter confidence and assurance, invoked a sense of surprise, fear… and excitement to the mermen who were currently on the ship.
Even though they weren’t sure yet, their hearts, their soul, every single fiber of their being seemed to know—following this being might just perhaps allow them to see heights never before seen, and they’ll gladly ride along the tide that will shake the entire world.
…
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Inside a certain palace, with hundreds of maids and hundreds of butlers with horns and tails, a feast was currently underway for a certain man with pitch-black skin and a featureless face, wearing a strange outfit consisting of a white lab coat and a pair of glasses adorning his eyeless face—Mammon.
Azin Gluton, the Duke of Gluttony, gave a cursory nod to the man currently sitting at the opposite end of the incredibly long and large table filled to the brim with a wide assortment of food.
Mammon, who was quietly observing the food being placed on the table, nodded back at Azin and said, “Well, gee, now I feel embarrassed to be receiving all of these.”
“Don’t be!” Azin responded with a smile and leaned back on his chair, revealing his rotund yet solid belly. “You deserve this feast presented before you. The help you have given us these past few days, and the establishment of your partnership with us devils… It’s something we’re indebted to!”
“Well, it would be rude to deflect away your praises, so thank you…” Mammon laughed and curiously looked at the others sitting around the table.
Azin was a rather large devil, standing at over two meters in height. He has a rather rotund build, with a pig-like head, light brown skin, and generally looked like the demonic version of an Orc.
His sons and daughters, who were sitting around the table, looked just like him but had their unique differences, like differing colors of skin, or different faces, ear lengths, and such. Each of them appeared imposing and powerful, with the dignity befitting the children of a powerful Demigod… well, most of them, that is.
Mammon already knew each of their names and characteristics thanks to Azin introducing them to him, and overall, most of them fitted his needs for the birth of his last clone, Gluttony.
At first, he had wanted to pick the eldest son, the one who was most talented and strongest among Azin’s children. He was already an arch-level entity, and it wouldn’t take too much to elevate him to the level of a Demigod, but someone else soon piqued his interest.
It was the 8th son of Azin—Shuger—-who was neither a fighter nor a magician but was merely a weak devil who had a unique interest in cooking. Even though he was the weakest, and needed the most growth to become a Demigod, resources weren’t really a problem for Mammon who already had a Solid Soul and a Philosopher’s Stone.
Moreover, a unique aspect of that child was his luck, or to be more accurate, his incredibly bad luck. It was so bad, that if Mammon were to transform it into positive luck, then his fate would practically turn overnight.
And fate, this mysterious concept that was so passionately interlinked with the concept of luck, was something Mammon wished to study. Of course, he wasn’t sure if it would play an important role in the development of his Truth, but all of the experiences he’d have in his restarted life would still help.
As he was minding his own thoughts, the last serving of food was finally placed on the table, and Azin went on to declare the official start of this feast.
“Let us not make for any more ceremonies and such. Food is meant to be enjoyed, so let us feast!” Azin laughed loudly and raised a drumstick into the sky. “For food!”
His children, alongside Mammon who playfully played along, also raised some sort of food into the sky, and shouted, “For food!”
“Ahahaha! Come on then, let’s eat!” Azin licked his lips and bit into the juicy piece of meat in his hand, and practically shoved it all into his mouth and ate it all in one bite.
Shuger, who was enjoying his share of the food, went on to take a plateful of meat covered in sweet sauce. As he happily returned the spoon he used to scoop the plateful of meat, his eyes wandered to the side towards the guess this entire feast was dedicated, and a sense of curiosity welled up in his heart regarding a certain question that had been plaguing his mind ever since the day he first met the man known as Mammon—How does he even eat?
Looking at Mammon with his peripheral vision, Shuger slowed down his eating pace and watched as Mammon used a fork to stab at a steak. Raising it near his face, Shuger felt his curiosity peak as he wondered once again how Mammon would eat the steak if he had no mouth.
“Curious as to how I’ll eat, hmm?” Mammon suddenly turned to look at Shuger, with his voice echoing in Shuger’s head.
W-What?! Shuger quickly looked away as his heart skipped a beat from the sudden shock.
“It’s fine, your other siblings are curious too.” Mammon laughed softly. “In fact, the one who’s most curious is your father. Just look at his eyes that are practically burning a hole through my steak.”
“Haha…” Shuger laughed awkwardly as he took another bite from his food, and breathed in deeply to gather his calm. Then, feeling his courage grow, he gritted his teeth and turned to observe Mammon once more.
Mammon ignored the silent gazes the Gluton family gave him and instead focused on his steak. Placing the steak right in front of where his mouth should be, a white line formed right across his featureless face, which then elongated and widened to form what is basically a mouth-like orifice.
Opening his mouth wide, Shuger saw a deep endless darkness inside Mammon’s mouth, where he then saw wriggling white tentacles wrapped around a bright red stone, a bright red stone that seemed to be shimmering with the light of over a billion different souls wallowing in pain and misery. For a moment, Shuger felt his mind go numb as a sense of dread and fear overwhelmed him from head to toe, paralyzing him completely.
Those wriggling white tentacles had their image embedded into his mind. It was so disgusting, horrific, eerie, strange… weird. And the bright red stone in the center of it all eluded him as if he heard the shrieks of over a billion crying souls at once.
The voices haunted him. His originally bright and shining eyes bubbling with curiosity were now clouded with utter fear. He felt his soul tremble just by remembering the sight he witnessed, pushing him further to the brink of breaking down right then and there.
“Hey, you okay there kiddo?” Mammon asked teasingly as he looked at Shuger while wiping his lips.
With his question, everyone else turned to look at Shuger who was visibly pale and unwell. They didn’t seem surprised though, as they too, at differing levels, showed the same symptoms.
It seemed that it wasn’t just Shuger who was too curious for their own good. The only difference here was that he had the most extreme reaction out of them all.
“I-I’m fine…” Shuger forced out a laugh and grabbed his spoon to feed himself another handful of meat. “I just need to eat more… I just need to eat more, then I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so…” Mammon shrugged his shoulders and continued to eat.
As he quietly ate his fill, the members of the Gluton family couldn’t help but remember the image of Mammon’s insides… and felt beads of cold sweat drip down their foreheads and back.
Whatever they saw, it would be a memory they’ll never forget for the rest of their lives.
Short lives, really. If you won’t die this year, then you’ll absolutely die by the time my grand plan reaches its end.