“I will be right back.” Zach patted Aquarius’ head and stood up.
“Where are you—”
Aquarius stopped on her words when she saw Zach’s gloves gloving blue.
Zach walked to the shrine and stood in front of the temple’s door. He placed his hand on the door and muttered something in a celestial language.
‘What did he say?” Aquarius wondered. Even she couldn’t understand because Zach spoke in an ancient celestial.
However, Zach simply said a curse word in a celestial language with only one purpose in his mind: to anger the Sea Goddess.
Suddenly, the door shook, and everything started trembling. The water around the surface began to rise, and soon, everything was submerged into the water.
However, Zach wasn’t worried because Aquarius had cast a spell on him, so he could breathe just fine. But, for some reason, Zach was having trouble breathing.
It wasn’t as though Aquarius’ spell wasn’t working, but the water around Zach had no air to breathe. He wasn’t suffocating with water but air. Aquarius’ spell allowed Zach to breathe air, but how would he breathe if there was no air around?
Aquarius was also struggling to breathe, but for some reason, she was more affected by that than Zach.
Zach watched Aquarius move erratically as though something was controlling her like a puppet.
“…” Zach frowned his face and tried to swim towards Aquarius, but a hand made of water pulled Zach into the shrine.
The next time Zach regained consciousness and opened his eyes, he found himself in an abyss of the water.
Everything around him was submerged in water, and there was nothing else but water for as far as his eyes could see. He looked down into the depth of the sea, but he couldn’t see the seabed.
It was as though he was in a domain where nothing but water existed.
Zach covered his mouth with his hand and tried to breathe, and much to his surprise, he could breathe. He breathed out from his mouth to see where the air bubbles would go. That way, he could find the exit, but the bubbles stayed on one spot without moving.
“You can show yourself!” Zach said out loud. “I know you are here!”
The water around Zach started moving and hitting Zach’s body as though it was punching and kicking him. Soon, the water formed into the body of a sea dragon, similar to what Aquarius looked like, but it was much bigger and intimidating than Aquarius.
“You insolence!” she yelled and passed through Zach’s body, tossing him around the water.
“Would you stop doing that? I ate cake not long ago and a heavy dinner just before that. So I might end up puking.” Zach smirked and said, “You wouldn’t want me to do that in your sacred domain, right?”
“You filthy human! How dare you enter my sea realm?! First, you broke the rules of this realm. Second, you trapped my successor into your love. And then you fooled her into thinking that I forced her to become the next Sea Goddess? Not to mention your disrespect in my holy shrine!”
Zach raised his brows and said, “But you are forcing her to become the next Sea Goddess, right?”
“No! Of course not. Why would I want to ruin a girl’s life?” she uttered with a weary sigh.
“Then… who chose that?” Zach asked with a curious and puzzled look on his face.
“The sea itself!” the Sea Goddess answered. “Even I didn’t have a choice but to accept my fate when I was around Aquarius’ age. I have been the Sea Goddess for the last 1000 years. Now, I will finally be free from my duty and live the rest of my life as I want to.”
“So you are going to destroy a girl’s life just so you could live your life as per your choices?” Zach remarked. “I thought the Sea Goddess was supposed to think about the races and creatures of the sea.”
“Listen, you crazy hypnotic bastard. It’s the rule of the sea, and everyone must obey it!” she asserted.
“What happens when someone doesn’t? Will the sea come to life and—” Zach stopped on his wolds when he realized that it was completely possible.
The world he lived in had many disasters, and it was said to be destroyed in a few years. Maybe it was because the humans didn’t follow the rules of the land?
“I know you don’t want Aquarius to become the next Sea Goddess, but she has no choice. She has to become one, and that’s her fate. You can’t change someone’s fate just because you want to. It’s not how the world works. You must obey its rules if you want it to protect you. If… Aquarius didn’t become the Sea Goddesses, every sea creature and race will face the wrath of the sea.”
“This is… just too cruel…” Zach muttered in a disdainful tone. “Why do I always have to go through this? People I know always have responsibility on them, and then I lose them because of that.”
“What are you muttering?” the Sea Goddess asked. “Well, it doesn’t matter.”
The Sea Goddess brought her face near Zach’s face and said, “You must convince Aquarius to become the Sea Goddess.”
Zach frowned his face and said, “I won’t. I promised her that I would save her. I gave her hope, and I won’t let her turn into despair.”
The Sea Goddess stared into Zach’s eyes and said, “Your eyes…. who are you?”
“My name is Starlord,” Zach said with a serious look on his face.
“What’s your mother’s name?”
“Li—”
“Stop lying, and tell me the truth.”
“…”
“Your eyes remind me of that bitch who stole my love from me!” The Sea goddess looked into Zach’s eyes and said, “You don’t happen to be Erza’s son, right?”
***
Total players in the game- 902769
0 new players logged in.
38 players died.
===
Author’s Note- I quietly added 500000 more players in the last chapter to see how many of you notice it. It will be explained when I write the chapter about the real world. It will probably be at the end of this volume.