Getting swallowed by Sebastian wasn’t fun. It was dark, humid and stinky. Thankfully, Penelope’s trap restrained the sea serpent and prevented it from escaping. Zero couldn’t rescue the livestock, falling to their deaths inside of Sebastian’s mouth. The hurt was also long gone, but thankfully, Zero was able to transform wings on time.
"How do I get out of here without killing this snake?" Zero mused as his dark vision activated.
Wii and Mii were busy maintaining the defence array spell. Indra Seagloo wasn’t going to sit back while their Queen’s precious pet was in trouble. Zero didn’t want to drag this out too long. It was better to settle this in one strike in the most harmless manner.
The big snake was a huge nuisance, doing whatever it pleased. A befitting punishment for such a glutton was to shrink it down in size so that its appetite would be more manageable. It was high time for this sea serpent to go on a diet, and Zero readied his Origin Grimoire.
Outside, Truen was readying his most powerful volley of mana arrows. The sea serpent’s scales were simply too thick, and there was a very annoying protective armour fashioned from seawater wrapped around the monster, no doubt something Queen Leah created.
"Take them into the Marrissa," Truen told Monoman, who agreed. The ship was covered in many layers of powerful protective spells. Truen felt more reassured to unleash his powers fully if he knew these people wouldn’t be taken hostage in the fight.
However, before Truen could jump into the sea and duke it out with Sebastian, he felt the air change before the water gravitated towards the sea serpent. The wood elf stepped back wisely as the water swirled ominously, creating a whirlpool around the entangled sea serpent.
From a distance, the elite merfolks sent to rescue their Queen’s beloved pet shrieked and were sent sinking to the bottom of the sea bed when they touched the invisible barrier. Jermine cringed at the sounds, and Ottley huddled with his crew inside the Marrissa. Pepper prayed to the Great Gods while Monoman simply stood his ground and watched the horrific birth of an artificial tornado above the whirlpool.
Sebastian screeched in anger when the web trap didn’t come loose. Why wasn’t anyone coming to his rescue yet? The pesky wood elf from ashore kept shooting arrows at him. While it didn’t hurt, one arrow came a little too close to his eye, and the sea serpent didn’t like it. Food shouldn’t try to fight back!
From inside, Zero chanted a long line of ancient words. The grimoire levitated and seemed to breathe as Zero waved his staff, combining the spell. No, it was closer to a curse than a spell. He was against killing most of the time, so this was the next worst thing than dying, in Zero’s opinion.
At first, Sebastian couldn’t understand what was happening. The water started feeling heavier, and the ship started to grow. The sticky net wrapped around his body started to coil tighter, and Sebastian struggled with all his might, yelling and spitting to break free. However, he soon came to realise something else. The ship wasn’t growing bigger, the water looked a lot closer than he recalled, and the sky looked further away. How could this be possible?! Was he... becoming smaller?
With his size becoming smaller, Sebastian could no longer hold Zero in his gut comfortably. With a powerful hack, he coughed the doctor out just as Zero completed his curse. The spell finished with a very apt bolt of lightning from the heavens as the sea serpent shrieked.
When everything was over, the winds died, and the waves resumed their relaxing rhythm. Only Zero stood levitating over the sea with a small snake in one of his hands. The doctor took care to transform into the elven king’s appearance. Queen Leah should be making her appearance soon, and Zero rehearsed the speech he had in his mind. Meeting his ’future wife’ was nerve-wracking, and Zero didn’t really want a wife. He preferred having friends to accompany him on his travels than a wife, especially one like Queen Leah. It was troublesome.
As if on cue, the calm water was disrupted again. This time, Sebastian wriggled around excitedly in his kidnapper’s hold. His owner was here to rescue him!
Whatever Zero thought about Indra Seagloo, he could not have expected it to be a huge dome. Everything about this huge civilisation reminded him of a ship design that the Seah Hand Malik drew. It was in Docky’s study, and Zero didn’t think too much about it. Now, he wished he paid more attention.
Indra Seagloo was massive! If the Marrissa was as big as five oak trees, the Indra Seagloo ship was at least ten times its size. What made Zero freeze was the countless tridents pointed at him, sizzling with electricity as the merfolk army surfaced.
"Release my pet, and I may let you live," the arrogant female voice thundered.
Any lesser creature would have succ.u.mbed and done as she commanded. However, Zero merely c.o.c.ked a brow. So this was Queen Leah? he couldn’t see her, but he didn’t have a very favourable opinion about her after hearing her voice. The great water sprite sounded very much like a little girl despite being several centuries old.
"Why should I?" Zero countered with equal arrogance. "Your pet started this first. I’m simply punishing a disobedient pet. As the owner, shouldn’t you be a little more responsible? How could you let this snake go around eating other people’s houses?"
Thoroughly shocked that there was a person in this world who dared go against Queen Leah, the merfolks trembled, their tridents unsteady. Zero didn’t harbour any fear or hesitation in his words and action. In their eyes, he was either really ballsy or very foolish. He had to swim the talk, or Queen Leah would feed him to the sharks.
Instead of getting offended, Queen Leah laughed. It has been way too long since she met someone so interesting. Sebastian looked unharmed even if he was shrunk. It made her curious about this magician. Maybe, just maybe, this person would be suitable for killing her boredom.
"Young one, you are very bold. Who are you?"
Zero smirked as he practised and adopted a nonchalant attitude. "Me? I’m your future husband."