Chapter 243: Abyss of the Sea Returns to Ruin
At this moment, the Mermaid Queen sat upright in disbelief, gazing far out into the distance.
Her daughter swam desperately through the surging sea. Her movements had already become unsteady, and every enormous wave sent her tumbling through the water. Yet no matter how many times she was thrown back, the young mermaid struggled forward again.
"Heh heh heh!"
The surrounding sea demons turned toward her. Mockery and contempt filled their hideous faces as they watched the young mermaid's reckless attempt to reach her mother.
Mo Fan's expression darkened.
His breathing was heavy.
The battle had already consumed an enormous amount of his magic. Fire, Lightning, Summoning, Shadow, Space, and Light—his six magical systems had all dimmed considerably within his spiritual world.
Little Flame Belle and Little Lightning Belle were exhausted as well.
Even Wolfie had been held back.
Mo Fan knew better than anyone what would happen if the Snow Frost Star Wolf truly entered this battlefield. Wolfie's presence would certainly crush countless ordinary sea demons, but that ancient, serene aura of his would spread far beyond this region of ocean.
And once sufficiently powerful existences sensed it, they would come.
Not to attack the humans.
Not for territory.
They would come specifically for Wolfie.
That was why the Snow Frost Star Wolf was a trump card Mo Fan refused to reveal casually.
"Damn it..."
Mo Fan wiped the seawater from his face.
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord Monarch and the Sea Witch Monarch were still alive.
That was the greatest problem.
Monarchs possessed terrifying vitality. Even after suffering severe injuries, creatures at that level could continue fighting for hours, sometimes days. Killing one was completely different from overwhelming an Advanced Mage.
Mo Fan's eyes became increasingly cold.
If ordinary magic wasn't enough...
There was still something else inside him.
Something he had never truly unleashed.
Deep within his spiritual world, beyond his six elemental systems, something ancient seemed to stir.
The Demon Element.
It was not Blood Abyss Ascension.
It was not some temporary artificial strengthening technique.
This was Mo Fan's true, primal Demon Element—the terrifying power that had remained buried within his body ever since awakening, stabilized by his unique constitution and his six magical systems.
The Coagulation Evil Pearl trembled faintly.
Mo Fan's pupils contracted.
Ever since Old Bao had helped stabilize the pearl, Mo Fan had benefited from the Demon Element's passive transformation of his body. His strength, endurance, senses, and recovery had gradually surpassed what an ordinary Mage should possess.
But he had never actually released its combat power.
Not once.
Mo Fan could feel instinctively that once that door opened, things would become very different.
His fingers slowly curled into fists.
Do I really have to use it here?
Suddenly—
The Mermaid Queen moved.
Mo Fan immediately looked toward her.
The severely wounded Mermaid Queen slowly straightened her body.
Her once-weakened expression disappeared.
For the first time since the battle began, an indescribably sacred majesty emerged from her graceful figure.
Brilliant strands of starlit water flowed around her body.
They did not resemble ordinary water.
Tiny points of black and white light shimmered within every stream, resembling an entire night sky dissolved into the ocean.
The streams spiraled upward.
Above the Mermaid Queen's head, countless points of light gathered together.
A crown appeared.
Half was radiant white.
Half was profound black.
Yet between those opposing colors flowed innumerable stars.
Sun.
Moon.
Stars.
Three celestial forces existed simultaneously within that magnificent crown.
The ocean suddenly became strangely quiet.
Even the raging waves seemed to hesitate.
The Mermaid Queen raised her head.
Her expression was solemn and regal.
At that instant, she no longer resembled a wounded Monarch surrounded by enemies.
She looked like the true Queen of an ancient ocean kingdom.
Her aura soared.
The brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars descended across her body, transforming into a magnificent dreamlike gown woven entirely from celestial water.
It was so radiant that, from a distance, it almost resembled flame.
Buzz—
Buzz—
Buzz!
The surrounding sea demons recoiled.
Their mocking expressions disappeared immediately.
Several Commander-level creatures even began retreating.
They thought the Mermaid Queen was about to self-destruct.
But Mo Fan felt something completely different.
"Wait..."
His eyes widened.
The Mermaid Queen looked toward him.
For only a moment, their gazes met.
Then—
Her body shattered.
Not into blood.
Not into flesh.
She transformed into a dazzling celestial river!
Countless shimmering filaments of water spread outward, carrying the brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars before converging toward Mo Fan from every direction.
"What the hell!?"
Mo Fan instinctively raised his arms.
He couldn't dodge.
The celestial streams passed directly through his defenses.
They entered his limbs.
His bones.
His blood.
His spiritual world.
There was no pain.
Instead, the sensation was strangely gentle.
Warm.
Almost like being embraced.
Then another presence entered him.
BOOM!
Mo Fan's consciousness shook.
A blazing soul as hot as the core of the sun rushed into his spiritual world alongside an almost inexhaustible torrent of source energy.
His depleted magical systems trembled.
Fire lit up first.
Lightning followed.
Shadow, Summoning, Space, and Light all reacted simultaneously.
But the celestial water did not belong to any of them.
Instead, it wrapped around Mo Fan himself.
Elemental Possession!
Mo Fan's eyes snapped open.
The ocean beneath him exploded.
BOOOOM!
A pillar of water shot thousands of meters into the sky.
Dark-blue water ribbons appeared around Mo Fan's body, circling him like enormous divine rings.
His clothes transformed beneath the flowing water.
A deep-blue ceremonial robe formed around him, covered in patterns of the sun, moon, and stars.
Behind him appeared something even stranger.
A black water vortex.
It resembled a miniature black hole.
Yet the darkness inside it was not Shadow Magic.
It was water.
Water so heavy and condensed that even the surrounding ocean seemed insignificant beside it.
Northern Dark Heavy Water!
Mo Fan stared at the vortex.
"So this is what you've been hiding..."
Information poured into his consciousness through the Mermaid Queen's possession.
The Mermaid Queen possessed an extraordinarily rare Water Seed.
Tri-Luminary Divine Water.
A celestial Water Seed nurtured through three different forces—
Solar Radiance.
Lunar Eclipse.
Starlight.
Its base state manifested as streams of water containing countless black-and-white star points.
Only after reaching Commander level could its Solar Radiance and Lunar Eclipse properties truly awaken.
But after reaching Monarch level...
Sun.
Moon.
Stars.
All three could exist simultaneously.
That was the true form of the Tri-Luminary Divine Water!
Mo Fan suddenly understood why the Mermaid Queen had barely displayed its full strength earlier.
It wasn't simply because she was wounded.
Above the battlefield, the sea demon army's enormous Dark Cloud Whirlpools had covered the heavens.
Sunlight could not descend.
Moonlight could not penetrate.
The celestial connection of the Tri-Luminary Divine Water had been deliberately suppressed!
"So that's how it is..."
Mo Fan slowly raised his head.
A dangerous grin appeared.
The sea demons had successfully suppressed the Mermaid Queen's Water Seed.
Unfortunately for them...
They had made one enormous mistake.
The power currently gathering around Mo Fan was no longer purely the Mermaid Queen's Tri-Luminary Divine Water.
Her elemental possession had collided with another water force already present in the battlefield.
Northern Dark Heavy Water.
The two powers fused.
Rumble—
The ocean began sinking.
Not metaphorically.
The sea level around Mo Fan visibly descended.
Millions upon millions of tons of seawater were being pulled toward the black vortex behind him.
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord Monarch suddenly stopped struggling.
Its enormous crimson eyes locked onto Mo Fan.
For the first time...
Fear appeared inside them.
The Sea Witch Monarch reacted even faster.
Its countless seaweed tentacles immediately burrowed toward the distant ocean.
It wanted to escape!
"Trying to leave now?"
Mo Fan looked down at them.
His eyes were frighteningly calm.
The Mermaid Queen's possession had temporarily supplied the vast energy necessary to wield the fused water force at a scale Mo Fan himself could never sustain at his current cultivation.
But Mo Fan wasn't going to waste even a second of it.
That wasn't his style.
If someone handed him enough power to kill Monarchs...
Then Monarchs were going to die.
Mo Fan spread both arms.
The black vortex behind him expanded.
Ten meters.
A hundred meters.
A kilometer.
The surrounding sky darkened.
Dark-blue divine rings rotated around Mo Fan while the sun-moon-star crown above him illuminated the raging sea.
For a moment, he resembled an ancient emperor standing above the ocean.
Then Mo Fan clenched his fist.
"Elemental Restriction Domain—"
The entire ocean trembled.
"ABYSS OF THE SEA RETURNS TO RUIN!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The black vortex disappeared from behind him.
It appeared beneath the battlefield.
An enormous circular fracture spread across the ocean.
At first, it was merely several hundred meters wide.
Then several kilometers.
Then farther.
And farther!
The sea collapsed inward.
It was as though someone had removed the bottom of the ocean.
An enormous abyssal sea-eye opened beneath the sea demon army.
Tide.
Nether Force.
Mystic Gravity.
Three properties of Northern Dark Heavy Water erupted simultaneously.
The first was Tide.
Billions of tons of seawater reversed direction.
Waves that had previously surged outward suddenly folded back toward the center.
Sea demons screamed as their bodies were dragged toward the abyss.
Warrior-level creatures disappeared instantly.
Commander-level creatures desperately released their abilities, attempting to escape.
It didn't matter.
The second force descended.
Mystic Gravity!
BOOM!
The ocean became impossibly heavy.
Flying sea demons crashed from the sky.
Commander-level creatures were slammed beneath the waves.
Even enormous beasts hundreds of meters long were dragged downward as though invisible mountains had been placed across their backs.
Bones creaked.
Shells cracked.
Movement became almost impossible.
Then came the third property.
Nether Force.
Hissssssss—!
Dark mist spread through the water.
Anything touched by it began losing vitality.
Shells corroded.
Scales withered.
Flesh weakened.
Magic defenses dissolved.
The abyss did not merely swallow.
It erased.
One after another, sea demons vanished beneath the black water.
Thousands.
Tens of thousands.
The battlefield that had once resembled an endless sea demon kingdom became a gigantic funnel leading directly into darkness.
ROAAAAAR!!!
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord Monarch finally reacted.
Its colossal claws tore into the seabed.
Crack!
The surrounding rock shattered.
But the Monarch managed to anchor itself.
For barely a second.
Then Mystic Gravity intensified.
BOOOOM!
Its lower body sank into the abyss.
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord roared furiously.
The ancient crimson shell covering its body began glowing.
Serrated spikes emerged between its armored segments.
Blood-red light erupted from every crack.
Ancient dragon markings appeared across its carapace.
Its dragon blood had ignited!
The Monarch's aura surged.
Its already gigantic body seemed to become even more monstrous as the shell transformed, taking on the appearance of countless interlocking dragon totems.
"ROOOOOAR!"
Its claws slammed down.
The ocean floor fractured for kilometers.
With brute force alone, the Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord began dragging itself out of the abyss.
Mo Fan raised an eyebrow.
"Pretty tough."
Then he smiled.
"But you're forgetting something."
His hand pressed downward.
The ocean answered.
TIDE!
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
A wall of Northern Dark Heavy Water rose behind the Dragon Lord.
It wasn't an ordinary tsunami.
Every drop possessed astonishing weight.
Billions upon billions of droplets combined into a black ocean wall.
Then it crashed down.
BANG!!!
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord's massive body disappeared beneath it.
CRACK!
A fracture appeared across its shell.
Then another.
And another!
Crackcrackcrackcrackcrack!!!
The supposedly indestructible dragon carapace became riddled with fractures.
Blood erupted between the broken plates.
The Dragon Lord screamed.
Meanwhile, the Sea Witch Monarch was in an even worse situation.
Its physical body was far less durable.
Its enormous lower body consisted of countless seaweed-like tentacles, coral growths, and bizarre fleshy structures.
Northern Dark Heavy Water tore through them relentlessly.
Tentacles snapped.
Coral shattered.
Large portions of its body were dragged into the abyss.
The Sea Witch Monarch shrieked.
Its eyes suddenly changed.
Countless distorted faces appeared inside them.
Human.
Sea demon.
Unknown creatures.
Thousands of souls screamed simultaneously.
Mo Fan immediately felt a dangerous mental fluctuation.
"Mind Magic?"
No.
Something worse.
The Sea Witch Monarch abandoned its body.
Its consciousness transformed into countless spiritual threads and shot toward the surrounding sea demon army.
One fleeing sea demon suddenly stopped.
Its body convulsed.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
Thousands.
The Sea Witch's consciousness scattered among its subordinates!
Its original gigantic body became empty.
The abyss swallowed it immediately.
HISSSSSSS!
Flesh dissolved.
Tentacles vanished.
The once terrifying Monarch body disappeared completely into the darkness.
But Mo Fan knew immediately.
"It's not dead."
Countless distant sea demons turned their heads simultaneously.
The same eerie expression appeared across their faces.
The Sea Witch Monarch had transformed itself into a hive consciousness.
Its body was gone.
But its mind remained.
"Tch."
Mo Fan clicked his tongue.
"Knew killing a Monarch wouldn't be that easy."
ROAR!!!
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord suddenly exploded from beneath the waves.
Half its shell was gone.
Deep crimson flesh had been exposed beneath the shattered armor.
Blood poured from its wounds like waterfalls.
But it was still alive.
Still fighting.
Still terrifying.
Mo Fan's expression became serious.
The Mermaid Queen's elemental possession was powerful.
Absurdly powerful.
For a brief period, it had allowed him to create an elemental domain approaching the scale of a Super-tier Restricted Zone.
But there was one unavoidable problem.
This power wasn't truly his.
The sun-moon-star crown above his head flickered.
The dark-blue divine rings around his body became increasingly transparent.
The Mermaid Queen's energy was running out.
The Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord noticed it too.
Its bloodshot eyes suddenly filled with murderous excitement.
ROAAAAAR!
The injured Monarch charged.
The entire ocean exploded behind it.
Mo Fan stared at the approaching monster.
Then he glanced at the fading celestial water surrounding his hand.
Most people would retreat.
The enemy was a Monarch.
His borrowed power was disappearing.
His own magic was depleted.
The sensible choice was obvious.
Mo Fan grinned.
"Who said we're finished?"
Deep inside his spiritual world...
The Coagulation Evil Pearl trembled.
Once.
Then again.
THUMP.
Mo Fan's heartbeat changed.
The remaining celestial water around him suddenly froze in midair.
His six magical systems trembled simultaneously.
Fire.
Lightning.
Summoning.
Shadow.
Space.
Light.
And beneath them...
Something that had remained silent from the beginning finally opened its eyes.
A terrifying demonic presence seeped from Mo Fan's body.
The charging Crimson-Shell Dragon Lord abruptly slowed.
Its instincts screamed.
The countless sea demons possessed by the Sea Witch Monarch simultaneously turned toward Mo Fan.
Even the fading consciousness of the Mermaid Queen seemed to stir.
Mo Fan lowered his head.
Dark veins slowly appeared across his hand.
His fingernails sharpened.
His physical strength began climbing.
Higher.
Higher.
Higher.
The Demon Element had never truly been released before.
Mo Fan himself did not know what would happen if he opened that door completely.
But staring at the wounded Monarch charging toward him, he suddenly felt an emotion he hadn't expected.
Excitement.
The corners of his mouth rose.
"So..."
His pupils slowly changed.
"Let's see what this thing can actually do."