Chapter 829 The Origin of the Siren
In the legends of the five seas, mermaids have another more mysterious name: siren.
When Angel had just left the Northern Continent and started traveling on the sea with Klein, he encountered a child who mistook him for a mermaid because of his beauty and mystery.
Now, looking at the real siren wrapped in layers of fishing nets, she couldn't help but sigh that it was understandable that Donna and Denton on the White Agate had mistaken themselves for her.
This... mermaid, which can only be called a "strip" for now, is tightly wrapped in a fine-mesh fishing net. It is naked with a bulging chest, but the skin from the neck to the tail, which is half fish tail and half human legs, is covered with gradually thickening scales, which appear blue-green in the sunset, like a uniquely designed evening dress.
Compared with the tail with fish characteristics, the head of the siren is almost the same as that of a human. Moreover, it is a relatively beautiful young woman with a face that has the youthful and lively aura of an underage girl. Her eyes are closed, her light eyebrows are tightly furrowed, and her shiny golden hair is wet by the sea water and sticks to the scaly skin on her shoulders and back.
But under the sunlight and in the dry air, the seawater covering the mermaid's body is rapidly evaporating and disappearing. As a result, her forked tail is constantly transforming into human legs, and her scales are gradually disappearing under the skin. She is caught between "human" and "supernatural creature", making it difficult to tell which side she belongs to.
Just like the ones of her kind I saw in the ruins of the God War… Angel muttered, looking at the gathered sailors again, waiting for an explanation.
Soon, through their chattering, Angel learned the whole story of the Siren's capture.
At sea, many ships that do not have urgent missions will drop trawl nets while sailing to catch some passing sea fish, process them, and use them as a major source of fresh food.
After all, not every ship has the carrying capacity of a steamship to carry enough food for all the passengers and crew on board. Moreover, after staying at sea for a long time, everyone will always need some fresh meat instead of salted and dried meat.
Today, as usual, the sailors cast their nets and waited for the fish to automatically dive into them. They soon noticed that one side of the trawl had become uncomfortably heavy. This was not uncommon in their minds; the trawl usually caught some debris like planks and wine barrels, so they didn't pay much attention to it as long as it didn't affect normal navigation.
It was not until dusk, when the sailors pulled up the trawl net and counted their catch, that they discovered that there was a beautiful mermaid trapped in the fishing net, not the marine debris they had imagined.
"She even ate up all the fish in the nets. We caught at least 20 kilograms of sea fish on the other side!" a sailor said indignantly, looking at the mermaid lying on the deck with a look of fear and curiosity. "We were just discussing what to do with her when you showed up."
"I heard that murlocs have very tender meat. Since she ate our catch, why don't we eat her?"
A young sailor suggested eagerly.
"Idiot, that's a murloc, and this is a siren. They're two completely different creatures... I've seen murlocs before, they have fish heads and gills, they're pure monsters, completely different from her!"
another older sailor scolded.
"Indeed, I've tasted the cheek meat of a merman, a delicacy that can be eaten raw. But this one is a mermaid, a legendary sea monster that can sing and communicate with humans..." Angel nodded in agreement and looked at Elaine who was lost in thought. "Captain Elaine, you decide what to do with her."
Although he gave the decision-making power to the captain of the "Red-haired Girl", Angel believed that the clever "conspirator" could already understand what he had just said and what he meant.
"William, have your men prepare a large wooden barrel, fill it with seawater, and place this Sleeping Beauty inside. When she wakes, try to communicate with her and find out how the sirens that haunt the Sonia Sea ended up near Zhongcheng Island, thousands of miles away... We won't have much fish for dinner tonight, but you can open an extra barrel of wine. Everyone except those on night duty can drink as much as they want."
Elaine looked around and gave a quick order.
The unexpected surprise made the sailors cheer, and except for a few unlucky ones on duty, everyone else quickly forgot the existence of the Siren.
Angel nodded with satisfaction and watched the mermaid in the net bag being put into the huge wooden barrel filled with sea water.
With the nourishment of moisture, the scales on her body quickly returned to their gorgeous blue color. Her tail also changed a little, turning into a huge fish tail again. Her tightly furrowed brows relaxed, and her head covered with golden hair tilted on the edge of the barrel, and she fell asleep lazily.
Angel declined to join the sailors' dinner with extra alcohol. After the crew left, he took out a magic mirror, stood beside the barrel, and polished the mirror in the gradually dimming sunset.
She wanted to try to divine the origin of this mermaid.
When Klein sought the opportunity to be promoted to "Master of Secret Puppets" and asked Arrodes for clues about mermaids, this seal, which could answer most questions and possessed considerable divination ability, had replied: These creatures no longer roamed where humans could reach. Aside from the small number of mermaids raised by the Church of the Evernight Goddess, only a small number of wild ones existed in the depths of the Sonia Sea.
Of course, the experiences of the two also confirmed this. It was not until they went deep into the ruins of the War of Gods that they found some wild sirens in that mysterious sea where reality and illusion overlapped and possessed various uncontrollable powers. They helped Klein complete the promotion ceremony.
But at this moment, far away at the other end of the Storm Sea, close to the Misty Sea on the west side, a lone mermaid actually appeared?
Filled with spirituality, and in accordance with the custom of asking questions to the goddess, Angel successfully made the surface of the magic mirror in her hand appear a quiet black, and then, a silent scene appeared before her eyes.
It was a scene in a dimly lit prayer room and a huge pool where countless sirens emerged from the water, bowing their heads and praying devoutly.
It was a scene in the safe harbor of the island where the Sirens said goodbye to the bishop in his black clerical robes and swam towards the deep sea.
It was a picture of a mermaid with long platinum hair floating in the water, a relaxed demeanor, and agile movements, following the tribe to hunt sea fish.
Then, the surface of the magic mirror returned to smoothness, reflecting the sky which was half dim yellow and half deep blue.
It seems that this mermaid is not wild, but from one of the tribes raised by the church?
Angel looked at the beautiful mermaid still sleeping in the barrel in surprise and fell into deep thought.
"According to the information Arrodes had provided, the Church of the Evernight Goddess raises mermaids in both the Tranquil Church (also known as the Holy Temple) in the Winter County of Loen Kingdom, and the Church of Sleep on Dainos Island in the Sonia Sea. The first image the magic mirror divined was clearly the latter...
"In the second scene, the sirens bid farewell to the bishop and leave the island for the deep sea. Does this mean that the Church of Dormition is 'releasing' these sirens, who have become believers of the goddess, back into the sea, allowing them to live freely... But according to Klein's speculation, the church must have been constantly monitoring their mermaids, in order to hinder the advancement of the 'Puppet Master' and control this path controlled by the Secret Order and the Intis authorities... Releasing the mermaids contradicts this intention, but it's also possible that the church has other surveillance methods, and these mermaids are just bait in public...
"The last scene shows them hunting in the sea... When we were on our way to the ruins of the God War, Frank Lee of the 'Future' said that most of the rumors about the sea were false. Sirens don't use their songs to lure the crew or feed on humans, but rather hunt fish for their food. Most of the crew members died by drowning... This scene confirms his words."
After analyzing the divination scene, Angel had a certain understanding of the origin of this mermaid, and even felt a little closer to her.
After all, she also believes in the Goddess of Night.
"But the most important question remains unanswered... The divination image proves she has her own tribe. Sirens are social creatures and generally don't appear alone, yet she's found herself in the waters thousands of kilometers from Dainos Island... Could she have been captured, transported here, and then escaped from a human ship?"
Angel muttered to herself and decided to use another method to confirm her guess. She took out a semicircular silver piece covered with various symbols and signs from her pocket.
It was a "dream" spell, and its effect was similar to the dream-entering ability of "nightmare".
Half leaning against the mast, she activated the spell, actively allowing her spirit to embrace the power emanating from the spell, and then entered the dream of the sleeping siren.
The empty deck beside her, the setting sun looming in the distance and half of the sky burning red were surrounded by endless sea water. Angel seemed to be in the deep sea where she could not see her fingers, but she could sense all the movements around her. She understood that she had entered the dream that the mermaid was currently experiencing.
Looking around, she soon found the mermaid with long platinum-haired hair. She was floating in the endless sea, with large and small sea fish swimming slowly beside her. She would grab one from time to time, open her pale pink lips, revealing sharp, white and shiny teeth like wolf fangs, and gnaw on the raw fish roughly.
This...was her dream about feasting on raw meat? How long had she been hungry? Or was she just a greedy siren? Angel felt a little hungry too. She quickly controlled her dream, infusing it with a hint of negative emotion, allowing the siren to enter the scene that had left the deepest impression on her.
This should be the moment when she separated from her tribe and came to the edge of the Misty Sea alone.
Sure enough, as the surrounding scene gradually dimmed and then became bright again, Angel and the mermaid with long golden hair appeared beside a reef. There was an endless sea around them, and dark clouds were gathering rapidly above their heads. In a blink of an eye, heavy rain poured down, and the waves surged, almost drowning the reef where the two were.
Angel knew that this was not the real scene at that time, but the reflection of the Siren's panic in her dream. If he used this scene as a clue to find the real location, he would find nothing.
A moment later, several sirens with the same gorgeous faces, beautiful scales and huge fish tails floated to the surface of the sea. They shouted towards Angel with sharp tones, unlike the beautiful singing voices Angel had ever heard.
As the blonde mermaid jumped into the water and came to her tribesmen, the sea water beneath them suddenly boiled, surging out crimson waves.
That was blood, blood so thick that it seemed impossible to dissolve!
Angel was half confused and half alert, but knowing it was just a dream, she did not make any move. She just watched quietly as the sirens continued to writhe in the blood, communicating with each other in tones that she could not understand, which seemed to express some kind of emotion.
It didn't sound like a normal language, perhaps it was the roar of some animals... But since they could understand the goddess' teachings, they should be able to use at least one human language... Angel frowned, and was about to carefully distinguish the conversation between the sirens, when he suddenly found that a slender siren who seemed to be young was grabbed by a huge force, and was instantly dragged from the sea surface into the sea and disappeared.
The other sirens fled in all directions like frightened quails. Among them, the siren with bright red hair, mature and sexy face was swimming towards Angel, but was dragged into the sea by the same force, and the struggling sea water almost splashed on her face.
This time she saw clearly that the one who caught the mermaid was another mermaid lurking in the sea!
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