Eldritch Horror Theatre

This pushed the limits of imagination a bit too far!

To be honest, Fu Qian had seen his fair share of frog eggs, but that tail just now was so excessively dazzling that, for a moment, he failed to connect it with the unpretentious style of a frog.

If anything, it looked more like the sea foam a mermaid dissolved into in fairy tales.

And this sharp contrast made the scene before him all the more impactful.

"Heh... A little surprised?"

The giant face broke into a smile. Vivian's massive eyes swept up and down Fu Qian before finally landing on his severed arm.

"Sorry I was a bit heavy-handed just now. But my senses were right—such a young body, yet carrying divinity. It truly is enviable!"

"It's fine, I'm used to it. Besides, appearance is the most trivial thing. You don't look too bad yourself."

Fu Qian flashed the rapidly knitting flesh at his severed stump, gesturing for her not to mind, and returned the compliment without batting an eye.

"Are you talking about Sarlon?"

Vivian let out a sound of realization.

"He really wasn't much to look at, especially the way he ate."

He actually had a name?

It seemed there really weren't many creatures in here.

"So you were the one who killed him?"

While Fu Qian was marveling over this, he heard her continue.

"You couldn't see it?"

Fu Qian looked slightly puzzled.

"I thought I wouldn't need to brag."

"Because of my special connection to this sea, I can indeed perceive some things, but not in such detail."

Vivian's tone even sounded somewhat self-deprecating.

"I only knew his aura had vanished, and I even wondered how it happened."

"Now that I see you, it suddenly makes a lot more sense."

"Good eye."

Fu Qian praised.

"They say appearance is born of the mind. Looking at him like that, I just couldn't bear it, so I helped open his mind a bit."

"Heh..."

This answer made Vivian pause for a moment before she burst into continuous laughter.

"It's really nice to be able to chat with someone like this! You know, even those mermaids, after getting the transformation they wanted, had no desire to chat with me at all."

"Communication issues are usually a two-way street. Is it possible it's because you were facing them with your ass?"

As she recounted her lonely and bitter life, Fu Qian seemed completely unhurried, offering his opinion in all seriousness.

"...Mind your words."

Fu Qian's words seemed to have hit a sore spot. Vivian looked a bit displeased, her expression growing heavy.

The change in expression was actually quite natural, but appearing across a face of that sheer surface area, the oppressive force was practically dialed to the max.

"I do understand now why you're so used to losing limbs."

This highly threatening remark, paired with the might of a Divine Emissary, made the atmosphere instantly tense.

Unfortunately for her, Fu Qian didn't pay her much mind, focusing intently on his injured arm instead.

In the blink of an eye, the bones and muscles had fully reformed, yet a deep, dark cut naturally appeared right alongside them.

The Dimensional Poison was no joke. At this rate, it would probably take a week or two to heal.

Fu Qian shook his head and sighed, not caring in the least that this old wound—caused by testing a blade—was exposed to a formidable enemy.

"...Do you think if I faced them, they would still be willing to accept the blessing?"

As if Fu Qian's actions had triggered some reflection on her own behavior, Vivian reined in her oppressive presence a moment later.

"That's true."

Fu Qian actually somewhat agreed with her reasoning.

"But speaking of this, there's a very obvious problem. If the fishmen all came from your modifications of the mermaids, and there's no way out of here, then what's with the fishmen that ran outside the Ash Sea?"

"Believe me, I want to know why even more than you do."

Vivian's tone even sounded a little agitated.

"I know that fishmen occasionally disappear, and some of them definitely must have escaped, but I completely fail to understand how they did it."

"I can't read their consciousness. Otherwise, I would have left this place long ago instead of slowly twisting into this appearance."

"Sounds like if I want to escape, I'll have to go find a fishman and ask for their guidance?"

Fu Qian listened carefully, lost in thought.

"If you can, that is. Their resistance to the distortion is even weaker, so they might not be keen to chat."

"I've experienced that firsthand."

Fu Qian recalled the writhing brains inside the fishmen's skulls.

"So what exactly are you?"

Seeing her get increasingly emotionally invested, he finally asked that classic philosophical question the next moment.

"What am I... Heh, that's a good question."

The giant face visibly dimmed in melancholy.

"By your standards, I suppose I should be considered a natural Mythical Creature, or perhaps a mermaid princess?"

"Hmm?"

Fu Qian once again sized up her appearance.

Having heard so many stories about the Frog Prince, was this a gender-swapped version he'd run into?

"I know it's hard to believe. Right now, I'm practically a walking mass of filth."

She clearly knew how horrifying her own appearance was.

"But at the very beginning, I did look like the fishmen outside. You should be able to see it—they have the exact same face as me."

"True."

Fu Qian couldn't deny this point. He had even expressed his doubts about the fishmen's appearance very early on.

"In short, I was born from the ocean. Not only did I look different from my kin in the general sense, but I was also born with various powerful abilities."

"I always disdained associating with them and firmly believed that I would grow into an entity akin to a Deity. And then one day, I truly received such a revelation... coming from the Ash Sea."

"That sounds a bit like what you've been doing, doesn't it?"

Fu Qian offered a timely observation.

"You're not wrong. I accepted the call all the same."

Vivian reminisced about the past with a serious look on her face.

"The Ash Sea is full of danger. I've always known that. But unlike you, I could feel more from it, such as the fleeting flickers of sublime, ancient power."

"A Miracle."

Fu Qian nodded.

"That's right... or what you call a Miracle."

"To make a long story short, I found the thing that was calling me, entered this place following the guidance of enlightenment, and completed the ritual."

"Pardon my bluntness, but the ritual looks like it was quite a success."

Seeing Vivian getting more and more sorrowful, Fu Qian offered a highly professional word of comfort.

"At the very least, you feel like a solid Tier 2."

"...You're right. I succeeded and underwent Sublimation into a higher-level existence."

"But that ritual came with a curse I couldn't understand. It constantly distorted me, ultimately plunging me into endless agony and turning me into this state."

Why did these words remind him of Old Man Anjing on the Half-Step Moon?

Fu Qian looked at Princess Vivian.

"So you must know the way out, right?"

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