Chapter 437 - Crystal Hydra
A crack appeared on the sphere of light, and water gushed out to fill the cave. The corpses rose with the water to fill the cave, and the illusion from earlier began disintegrating.
"I told you already, My Beloved," Larza began as she stared at the shattering sphere. "You are too late. After that cry, this kingdom won't know any peace, and you can already tell, don't you? That cry was a calling for help. This city, this kingdom, will witness a war against the Mernars."
"Not unless I bring this child back," Arthur turned toward the sphere, which was making the cave shake. "You won't succeed."
"You are too late," Larza smiled. "The poison has already been extracted. The thing you came here to prevent, went unprevented," she gave a sly smile of victory. "You can try to calm the child down," the sphere broke apart as she finished her words, and the blinding searing light flew toward the ceiling and destroyed it. "But you have to give up on killing me."
Arthur turned toward her silently, staring at her with cold rage. Even if he destroyed the glass panel, her body was indestructible. The best-case scenario is that he would manage to kill her, but only after pulling every ace up his sleeve.
'By the time that I'm done, the hydra would have waged war against the Freda Kingdom,' Arthur knew that for a fact, but it was difficult to let such a chance go. That's when his eyes began shining golden.
"Stop using your powers," Arthur commanded, and his words carried an authority of the creator. However, there was no reaction from the snake woman, only a smile.
"Do you think I would come here without preparing against this power of yours?" she said with a smile. "You used it against us before, and there is no way that we won't find a way to counter it before coming here."
Arthur furrowed his brows in confusion because he couldn't feel his art grasp the snake woman's existence. His eyes sharpened as his perception probed, but there was nothing more than the physical body in front of him.
"You are hollow," muttered Arthur with a dreadful realization. The person in front of him was nothing but an empty shell with no soul or depth. She was the Larza he knew, but something was missing.
"Your abnormal powers seem to work on the spiritual bodies," Larza grinned in victory. "That means I just need to separate my soul and leave it away from you. As long as you don't use your powers against it, I'll be fine."
'They a found a way to counter my art, already?' Arthur's expression didn't betray his shock. His face was expressionless, but his shock was immeasurable. He didn't think that there would be such a method to escape his art.
The Art of Creator, Submission, had many restrictions. Arthur thought that the biggest one was the fact that his soul needed to be a lot stronger than the target's soul, but it seems that wasn't all.
When the Duke of Fire attacked him, Arthur managed to use it against the duke not because he was stronger but because his soul was a lot more powerful because of the Soul Restructure and the merging of that being with his body.
There was a cry that broke his train of thoughts, and Arthur had to look upward toward the sky. The light coming from above, along with the overflowing water, reminded him that the kingdom was facing a crisis.
'Dammit,' Arthur gritted his teeth before he rushed past Larza, and he could hear her laughs. His body levitated from the ground before he bolted through the ceiling, using his spiritual energy to push everything away.
The water-filled his view before Arthur found himself above the forest. High in the sky was the child of the hydra, generating a vortex of water around it while calling for help.
Arthur couldn't fly closer because of the powerful currents that pushed against him. So instead, he tried to peer for the child's shape, but all he could see was a blinding blue light at the center of the vortex.
The small town grew noisy as the people saw the giant globe of water illuminated by the moonlight. The eerie cry has drawn their attention, and they had no idea that it wasn't even meant for them.
'The closest river is a good kilometer away from this city,' Arthur thought to himself as he looked at the child. The cry from earlier was for help, and it was because that something was robbed from this creature.
Arthur made a deal to bring the child back safely in return for peace, but what if the child never forgave them? He saw the corpses in the cave and knew that it changed forever whatever happened to this creature.
His body began disappearing, and space got compressed to teleport him closer to the hydra's child. The moment he left the portal, he could feel the suffocation of the water and the powerful currents.
'How is this only an infant?'
Arthur couldn't fathom how strong its parent would be. If the Freda Kingdom had to meet its wrath, then it would have to give up an arm and a leg. How would they fight after losing those?
"I was sent here to save you by your mother," Arthur said, but his words went unanswered. If he had known about this, then he would have brought Rosa along to translate for him.
The powerful currents pushed against him, but Arthur used his spiritual energy to keep him in place. He descended slowly toward the center of the vortex, his forehead sweating bullets.
As he got closer toward the light, he could see the outline of the humanoid child. On its back was a white serpent head while its body was covered from head to toe with scales.
The child had tears on its face as if it was crying. It turned toward Arthur's direction and stared at him with its large yellow eyes. Arthur could see that the tears had left a black mark on their cheek, and the white of their eyes was black instead.
'What did Larza do with the corpses?' Arthur wondered as he looked at the eyes full of hatred to humankind. At that moment, he gave up on trying to stop this creature.
The boy with white scales opened his mouth, and another cry escaped it, resonating with the deepest parts of their soul. This time, it was a war cry, and Arthur knew that destruction to this land was imminent if he did not interfere.
Giant spheres of water started forming high in the sky, while every small lake and stream turned into water serpents that left their posts at the summon of their lord.
"The town," Arthur realized as he teleported away before the explosion of water. The spheres of water merged with the serpents, and they formed a hydra that looked like the mother, only made of water.
"Well, I should be able to vaporize the water," Arthur muttered, and the water-made hydra began crystallizing rapidly in response. The words of its mother appeared in Arthur's mind.
'My child rules over crystals and can turn anything into them.'
Her words became the narrative of what was happening in front of him. A hydra of crystals soon emerged from the water, its joints moving without hindrance. It stabilized itself before giving a deadly roar toward Arthur and the town behind him.
"Calm down!" Arthur commanded through his art of submission, and the hydra staggered with the child protected inside the crystal body.
Then, Arthur saw the heart of the hydra turn a different shade of blue, and his command went unanswered. After giving another roar of rage, the hydra began gathering a water sphere in all of its nine mouths.
"If something can go wrong, then it would," Arthur sighed as he raised his arm and opened his palm toward the hydra. A rune appeared in front of him, and from it came the liquid fire to create a giant wall.
The wall grew until it was bigger than the hydra, shielding the town behind him from the attack. Even though Arthur couldn't care less about the sick noble ruling this estate, he couldn't allow this child to wipe this land off the map.
The hydra blasted the water balls, each the size of a small ship, toward the town. They collided with Arthur's fire, but there was no way that they would extinguish the ancient flames.
The moment the two elements met, there was a sizzling sound of vaporizing water. Arthur could feel his wall shaking under the impact of the water blast, but the destructiveness of the fire allowed it to neutralize it.
Several presences appeared from within the town, and they were strong enough to make Arthur apprehensive.. He needed to get out of this place along with the child, unharmed, or the incoming war would be hard to stop.