Chapter 39
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Chapter 39: Young Ones, Enduring Some Loss is for Your Own Good!
Although the fleet on the ocean escaped a catastrophe, their commander was trapped.
The once "Saltwater Queen, Albert Drake," Duchess, had become a prisoner; the flagship "Golden Deer" no longer belonged to her but instead belonged to the sea god assembly.
Now, Duchess Drake was guarded by several warriors wearing fish-fin helmets and iron scale armor.
These were the sea god’s “divine guards,” powerful warriors blessed with the sea god’s divine power. Of course, power did not come without a price; after gaining their strength, their souls belonged to the sea god, becoming extensions of His will.
After years of erosion by "divine grace,” these people could even lose all self-awareness, their bodies mutating into the sea god’s pitiful puppets.
Because of this, these extraordinary divine guards quickly crushed the forces loyal to Duchess Albert Drake under the lead of a “Sea God High Priest” in the fleet and with help from some traitors, taking control of the whole fleet fast.
The once mighty Duchess now knelt humiliated on the ground.
“Clang!”
Two tridents crossed in front of her.
Those holding the tridents were the tall, faithless puppets of the sea god—the divine guards.
But even then, Albert Drake refused to give up.
With a fierce look, she shouted accusations at the group just a trident away who were whispering, “Teach!”
“How could you do this! It was the people from that submarine who saved us!”
“What!? Have you no gratitude at all?!”
“If you have any conscience, you should—uh…”
She barely started speaking when the sea god High Priest cut her off with magic.
“Glub, glub…”
A water ball wrapped around her.
The ball held not just water but also the sea god’s power!
The huge, violent force, filled with the ocean’s rage, squeezed Albert Drake.
“NO! Free the captain!”
“You can’t do this!”
“Teach! You ungrateful wretch!”
…
The angry crew aimed their shouts at the “Sea God High Priest,” Teach.
Since Duchess Albert Drake’s fleet served Sea God Agor, most crew were sea god followers. So, it made sense for someone from the sea god assembly to be aboard.
It was the sea god High Priest, "Teach," who called the nearby sea god’s divine guards when he sensed Albert Drake might “betray” the sea god, arresting her for suspected heresy.
“Enough!”
Priest Teach yelled at the upset crew.
“Duchess Drake had made great achievements and served the sea god well!”
"But she was merely mortal, easily swayed by divine tricks."
"We shall return her to the sea god assembly for thorough ‘instruction,’ guiding her back to the sea god’s grand embrace!"
"Regarding deities who ‘overstep their bounds,’ the sea god commands us to deliver a stern lesson!"
This "lesson" naturally didn’t mean sending followers against a deity.
That would be utterly futile.
While losing a few followers—even elite ones—wasn’t a major loss for deities, frugal gods loathed wasting resources needlessly.
Moreover, mindlessly sacrificing followers tarnished a deity’s reputation and invited mockery from the sea god’s "colleagues."
Thus, the lesson Priest Teach mentioned meant only minor skirmishes between followers.
Steal my followers, and I’ll have yours hunted down!
This was an unspoken, relatively "civilized" rule among deities.
Followers, or beings serving deities, were mere "tools" or "objects"—expendable ones at that. Harming them didn’t touch a deity’s core essence or cost any shards of divine rank.
As long as conflicts stayed contained, losing dozens or even hundreds mattered little.
Sending followers to attack the followers of an offending deity was thus considered a "measured and restrained" warning among the Order Gods.
The sea god tasked Priest Teach with eliminating the "unknown deity" followers who had "lured" Duchess Albert Drake.
Teach perceived that battle far more clearly than the "Saltwater Queen" did.
The sea god granted him vision piercing through seawater, revealing that the Outer God hadn’t been drawn by a deity’s subordinate officials or a Secondary God, but by something lower—akin to a "spiritual giant beast."
This "giant beast" carried numerous ocean people warriors.
Through Teach’s eyes, the sea god witnessed the clash.
Thus, He commanded Teach: infiltrate the sea, locate the gathering place of those mysterious deity followers, and slay both the "spiritual giant beast" and the warriors involved.
If warriors proved elusive, killing an equal number of ocean people would suffice.
But the "spiritual giant beast" must die!
This served as a "civilized" warning to the unnamed deity: cease poaching followers!
It was also a lesson in the Order Gods’ rules for this newcomer.
Young ones needed setbacks to grow!
It was for his own good!
Yet the devout Priest Teach lacked his god’s composure.
Divine civility didn’t extend to followers; he was provoking another deity. Failure, death, or even betrayal by his own god to appease another’s wrath were all too common!
Fortunately, the reward justified the risk.
His gaze lingered on Duchess Albert Drake, still trapped within the water sphere. He studied her ample bosom and the long legs sheathed in white trousers.
Soaked through, her garments clung, revealing hints of flesh beneath, holding Teach’s gaze captive.
The deity’s promised reward was this woman and all her wealth!
If this woman was willing to repent for her sins, she would honorably marry Priest Teach and become his lawful wife; if she remained stubborn, she would be labeled a "heretic," stripped of all titles and status, and sent to Priest Teach as a female slave.
No matter the outcome, the Duchess and her property essentially belonged to Priest Teach.
Honestly, Priest Teach secretly hoped this woman would stay "stubborn."
The sudden fall of the high-and-mighty Duchess into a lowly, obedient slave was truly thrilling!
It made him greedy!
But Priest Teach didn’t know that Duchess Albert Drake wasn’t worried about his greed or ambitions.
She was deep in shock.
“This… is this the power of that deity?!”
“Normally, the sea god’s divine power in the water ball would bind and crush my organs, torment my soul, and make me suffer horribly.”
“But now, the force seeping into me actually shields me from that!”
“I feel nothing at all!”
The Duchess even sensed the power changing her body, making her stronger!
“Is this the strength of that generous deity?”
“Maybe this is the real power to fight chaos!”
“Relying on those stingy, proud ‘Order Gods’ to stop chaos is hopeless!”
Right then…
“Splash—!”
The divine water ball burst!
“Cough cough cough…”
Albert Drake was caught off guard and choked on water.
Teach mistook this for the Duchess suffering from divine torment.
“How’s it going? Have you thought about your mistakes?”
The Pirate Queen looked up at the greedy, confident Priest Teach and sighed.
“Ah…”
“You don’t grasp that deity’s strength; going ahead like this…”
“I suggest you be more careful.”
“Take this as friendly advice.”
Duchess Albert Drake’s warning made Priest Teach laugh.
“Ha ha ha ha…”
“Funny! Funny!”
“Don’t know that deity’s power? Sorry, I know all the big named deities, but none live in these waters.”
“And you probably missed it—those who drew the Outer God were just some ocean people!”
“That pack of desperate strays at their wits’ end worshipped a god who couldn’t be strong!”
“At most, it was only a Secondary God!”
“Under the light of my god, it could only endure silently.”
“And did you think my god would allow me to fight unprepared?”
“Look at this!?”
As Priest Teach spoke, a colossal sea beast suddenly rose from the ocean, arching its long back!
Surrounding it were numerous elite divine guards wielding sharp tridents and longswords, their faces highly “fish-like,” while their lower bodies merged into “eel tails”!
It was an entire legion of the sea god!
Strong enough to rival a squad of chaotic demons!
Priest Teach gestured grandly!
“Now! Attack!”
—-
“Hmm… not bad, not bad!”
Trilobite’s species remained “Carcharocles,” but honestly, this Carcharocles was becoming a bit of a misnomer.
He didn’t buy the grow larger option; instead, he spent 3000 points of Chaos Energy to modify his pectoral and pelvic fins into “flesh fins” with bones.
Honestly, it was way too expensive!
But Trilobite knew it was worth the 3000 points of Chaos Energy!
His “flesh fins” weren’t the basic kind like on early finned fish; he’d used Chaos Energy to upgrade them in a DLC, turning them into “flesh fins” with some bone parts.
Of course, these flesh fins worked just like the old ones.
Since Trilobite’s bones were still soft cartilage like a shark’s, he couldn’t crawl with them yet.
The only help was making digging and moving soft mud on the ocean floor a bit easier.
So he took the chance to expand his den.
He moved batch after batch of soft mud out of the City of Dimensions, piling it by his den; then, he noticed smaller Trilobite creatures going in and out near his nest, busily carrying his Bone Fragments and excrement to the den’s “toilet.”
“Quite hardworking, huh!”
These “Trilobite creatures” and plankton usually lived in the corners of his nest.
Trilobite even dug a small room just for them.
Normally, they’d rush to the toilet to “eat” skin flakes and excrement, but if Trilobite needed to use it, he’d shoo them out first.
As a civilized being, using the toilet was private.
It was unacceptable to be seen by anyone!
While Trilobite watched the “teamwork” between plankton and Trilobite creatures with interest…
“!?”
An alarm rang in the mind of Carcharocles!
Both the Lorentz Jar and layered Olfactory Membranes warned him that a group of “little things” was slowly approaching.
And their color in his system vision wasn’t red; shockingly, it was…
“Orange!?”
