"What is your name?"
The question fell like a stone into a still pool—heavy, cold, and carrying an authority that refused to be ignored.
"Your humble servant is called Eldred."
"Why are you here? If it is a body you seek, the world beyond would surely provide. Why linger in this tomb?"
For a fleeting instant, Eldred's lips twitched. Why ask for my name if you have no intention of using it? he thought bitterly. Ah… how the mighty have fallen. A weary sigh echoed through the chambers of his mind. Forget it. One misstep, and this little Ancestor might truly end me.
A grotesque vision seized him: his own body sprawled helplessly upon a blood-stained chopping board, while El-Mond stood over him, serene and merciless, a blade gleaming like winter ice in his grasp. A violent chill coursed through Eldred's spirit.
"T–To answer the Master," he said, bowing his head so low his forehead nearly touched the dust. "I was once an Emperor-level evolved turtle—one who had already shed his shell for human form. By chance, I acquired a rare treasure, and for that sin, I was hunted by five Emperor-level human Evolvers."
His voice steadied as the old fires of memory stoked his pride. "In the end, I was wounded beyond recovery. I fell in this very region, but not before I dragged my pursuers into the abyss with me. I—"
"Wait."
The single word cut through his boasting like a guillotine.
"What did you just say?"
Eldred froze. Hmph… so it has finally dawned on him, he thought, a flicker of arrogance returning to his chest. An Emperor. A slayer of equals. Now he understands the weight of the shadow before him.
"Indeed," Eldred said, lifting his chin. "It required five of their greatest to bring me down. I was… formidable, five centuries ago." In his mind's eye, he stood once more upon a jagged peak, robes billowing in a celestial gale, while a weeping El-Mond knelt at his feet, trembling in reverence.
"Not that!"
The illusion shattered like cheap glass. El-Mond's voice was sharp, vibrating with a frantic impatience.
"You said you were a turtle? Does that mean I can take human form again?!"
Eldred's imagined grandeur collapsed into ash. Sigh… this little demon…
"Yes, Master," he replied, his tone flat with exhausted composure. "For oceanic beings, flight is a dream beyond reach—even at the Marquis level. To walk the land, one must evolve. That transformation occurs only at the Duke level, when the core ripens and the energy matures."
"I see…" El-Mond murmured, his gaze distant. "Something akin to a merman?"
"Such beings exist, Master," Eldred said carefully, "but they are born of a different starlight. The Mermaids—the Sea Royalties—do not earn their form; they inherit it."
"Sea Royalties?" El-Mond's brow furrowed.
"The oceans are divided into vast dominions, each ruled by a supreme lineage. Among them, the Tàipíngyáng stands as the first and strongest—its power forged in the radioactive wake of the Outer Gods."
"Outer Gods?"
Eldred inhaled slowly, drawing breath from an age buried under leagues of salt and silence. "It is said that eons ago, something descended from the heavens. It struck the heart of the deep, and from that impact, a force erupted that rewrote the laws of Yang Xi. Humans, beasts, forests—entire worlds perished in its heat. But those who survived…"
He let the silence hang, heavy with the weight of history.
"They evolved. Reptiles became Serpent Dragons or venomous horrors that defy the sun. Mammals grew into colossal titans, commanding the elements of storm and earth. And humans…" Eldred's gaze darkened. "Those who did not break under the pressure absorbed that energy like parched earth. They ascended, becoming entities the world would come to call gods."
El-Mond remained motionless, a silhouette against the dim light.
"The Dàxīyáng—the second Royalty—originated from humans caught at sea when the heavens fell. Their forms twisted, merging land and tide. As the strength of the deep grew, so did their hunger to walk the earth again. Desire, in time, became biological reality."
Eldred paused, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "One hundred years after the Fall, a hermit crab dwelling at the very site of the impact underwent a miracle. Its shell shattered, its limbs lengthened, and it stood upright. That being became the first King of the Sea."
A faint uncertainty crept into Eldred's voice. "As for the specifics of the cultivation realms… that knowledge is lost to the tides. But the Dàxīyáng remain second because they carry the blood of a god who, legend says, fell in love with a daughter of the deep. Their union birthed a lineage of monsters."
He rattled off the rest—the Orca Kingdoms, the Blue Whale Lords—but El-Mond wasn't listening to history.
"Wonderful… wonderful news!" El-Mond's hands clenched, trembling with a dark, electric anticipation. "I can be human again!"
A laugh burst from his throat, wild and jagged. "Wait for me… you damned parasites. Just wait."
Eldred stared at him, his mind a blank slate of disbelief. After the fall of gods, the reshaping of planets, and the birth of empires… that was his takeaway?
Inside the sanctuary of his own mind, Eldred erupted. He imagined reaching out, grabbing El-Mond by the collar, and shaking him until his teeth rattled—like a weary scholar driven to madness by an insufferably dim-witted prince.
But outwardly, he merely bowed. He was, after all, only a servant.
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To Be Continued.