“Lord Saul.” A wizard ran over and respectfully said to Saul, “The black tide has retreated ten nautical miles. The monitoring wizards have issued a notice that the black tide is over. Do you wish to continue staying here? Or return to the Evernight Royal Palace?”

Saul was completely confused at the moment. Looking at Emperor Elo flying from the sea surface toward the coast, he somewhat doubted the diary’s warning.

Everything had developed so smoothly. The wizards of Nephret Continent had once again withstood the black tide’s attack. Now the crisis was resolved, and the wizards at sea were gradually returning to the coast, preparing to pack up and go back.

“Could I have completely misunderstood, and this black tide assault isn’t the masquerade ball the diary referred to? Or did having Floco come over cause a change in the predicted future?”

Just as Saul was wondering whether he should call Sander over to continue his plan, the sea… suddenly boiled.

Saul immediately pushed aside the wizard standing in front of him, stepped forward two paces, and walked to the cliff’s edge.

The wizard pushed aside by Saul hadn’t yet had time to be surprised when he was frightened by the sea’s condition behind him.

“I, I’m going to report…”

He left somewhat anxiously without even finishing who he was going to report to.

The Black Flame Emperor Elo, who had been about to reach shore, immediately stopped and looked down at his feet.

The sea surface had become calm after the black tide’s retreat, and with the Tribunal’s control formation still not withdrawn, the sea surface only rippled slightly due to water currents.

But now, tiny bubbles were emerging from underwater, rising to the surface and bursting with “pops.”

The bubbles became more numerous and larger, like a pot of boiling water with firewood continuously being added to the furnace below.

Saul also came to the sea surface, still over a hundred meters from the Black Flame Emperor, looking at the sea surface as well.

“The seawater temperature hasn’t risen. Could it be an earthquake?”

He scanned the deep sea conditions with his mental power.

The nearby Black Flame Emperor had already rushed into the seawater.

Not just him—several second-rank wizards on site had also rushed in.

This sea area was very close to the Red Sea Trees and absolutely couldn’t have problems.

Soon, more people gathered on the sea surface.

But the first batch to enter the seabed hadn’t returned yet, including the Black Flame Emperor, so although the remaining people were anxious, no one dared to act rashly.

The bubbles on the sea surface became increasingly dense, but Saul’s mental power scan detected nothing abnormal.

No aberrant mental power, no chaotic magical power.

Except for unusually vigorous life energy, Saul found almost no noteworthy anomalies.

“Go down for a look?” Saul narrowed his eyes.

At this moment, black shadows suddenly rose from the seabed.

Those black shadows broke through the sea’s restraint at extremely high speed and flew toward the sky.

Only then did Saul see clearly that these black shadows were actually the wizards who had just entered the seabed.

But their faces now showed complete disbelief.

“What happened?” Other wizards shouted questions.

“Mermaids, the mermaids have mutated! All mutated!”

The answering voice actually carried some trembling.

“Bang!”

The sea surface suddenly exploded with massive waves, as if a heavy cannonball had fallen into the sea.

The spray shot toward the sky. Soon its momentum waned, and Wizard Elo emerged from the spray.

But what all the other wizards hadn’t expected was that this fourth-rank Black Flame Emperor actually showed signs of distress.

Saul’s gaze focused.

Although it was only for an instant, he still discovered flaws in Emperor Elo.

The other’s mental power had briefly shown a gap.

As if a mask covering his face had cracked, revealing a tiny bit of the true face beneath the mask.

The Black Flame Emperor before him was indeed Stuart in disguise!

Saul temporarily had no energy to think about where the Black Flame Emperor had gone. Presumably, a fourth-rank wizard couldn’t possibly disguise himself specifically to deal with him.

The defense formation behind him was still flashing. Saul noticed an even larger black shadow rising from the seabed.

Thinking of the death warning about Stuart, he immediately rushed forward to Stuart’s side at the very front.

“The underwater situation is unclear. Let’s retreat to the back first.” Saul said quietly to Stuart.

Stuart looked at Saul in surprise, his facial expression almost unable to hold.

But he quickly showed an expression of pride mixed with disdain, “Since the situation is wrong, naturally I should stand in front.”

Saul’s heart sank. He knew that what Stuart was saying and doing now better fit the Black Flame Emperor’s identity.

If danger appeared and the fourth-rank wizard ran first, the other wizards participating in the defense war would probably panic as well.

The more unexpected situations arose, the more someone needed to maintain order.

Stuart was now wearing the Black Flame Emperor’s “mask” and couldn’t make morale-damaging moves while wearing that mask.

Saul also understood Stuart’s thinking and knew that unless he exposed the other’s identity on the spot, the other definitely wouldn’t leave with him.

Should he just watch Stuart die like this?

Just then, the sea surface finally stopped bubbling, the boiling disappeared, but an extremely powerful oppressive force spread from the seabed. Read full story at novel(ꜰ)ire.net

The culprit that had attracted multiple wizards to explore underwater only to be frightened into fleeing the deep sea finally appeared!

Saul saw the thing emerging from the sea surface and immediately widened his eyes.

“What is this?”

What emerged from underwater wasn’t the modified mermaids Saul had seen many times before. Original content can be found at NoveI(F)ire.net

But a dark giant object whose outline couldn’t identify what it was.

The giant object’s surface seemed covered with a layer of mud that continued to be stripped away by seawater as it emerged.

“A giant mud monster?”

The monster seemingly made of accumulated mud showed no visible limbs, torso, or head, but Saul could sense extremely vigorous life force from it.

Just like what he had sensed when exploring the seabed with mental power earlier.

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he never would have thought such mental power came from the mud monster before him.

The mud monster was moving, yet no supporting bones or muscles were visible. And although mud kept dripping from its body to the sea surface, its size kept expanding.

“That’s not mud—it’s rotting mermaid flesh.” Stuart, still performing beside him, quietly told Saul.

“Rotting mermaid flesh? Such a large volume—could all the mermaids on the seabed… be dead?”

Seemingly afraid Saul might notice problems with his identity, Stuart said nothing more.

But if Stuart wouldn’t say more, naturally someone else would speak up to inform everyone what had happened.

Although Wizard Royer, who was responsible for this area, wasn’t present, the Tribunal had already absorbed much experience from years of fighting black tides.

Almost immediately someone temporarily replaced Royer, becoming the new commander.

That was one of the wizards who had previously gone deep underwater.

His surprise had been replaced by anger. Using magical power to amplify his voice, he shouted: “This monster is flesh mud formed from a large number of mutated dead mermaid corpses. Their vengeful spirits are curled up inside the flesh mud, obscured by black tide pollution. We can’t let it continue developing, or the remaining black tide pollution in the sea will become nourishment to help it grow stronger! Now attack with full force to kill the mermaid aberrant!”

(End of Chapter)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.