Everything around Izroth suddenly turned bright white, it was like his consciousness was being pulled into a different place. A few seconds later, he was standing in the air above a majestic city that made the one he viewed earlier seem insignificant in comparison.
He tried to view his skills to see the effects of Scagmag's Whale Song, however, he was unable to access his skills at the moment.
'Where is this place?'
Before he knew it, Izroth was within a marvelous throne room. Sitting upon the throne was a mermaid who resembled the statue Izroth saw hidden within the strangely shaped plants. Her beauty was the stuff of legends, she appeared otherworldly as only the word perfect could describe the mermaid.
She had long flowing aqua hair that if let down normally would reach all the way to the end of her tail, a beautiful pair of moonstone eyes that if one were to stare closely into, they would notice a boundless sea hidden within them. The scales on the lower part of her body were a pure aqua color and emitted a faint glow.
'It's her.'
No one seemed to notice Izroth's presence there; it was like he did not exist at all. Another odd thing was that Izroth could not feel the presence of anyone in the room, as though none of them were actually there.
Standing in an orderly fashion below the throne area were 14 individuals. There was something unique about every one of them, but they all had one thing in common and that was they were all sea creatures.
Izroth surprisingly discovered a familiar face amongst the individuals present. It was a man who bore a striking resemblance to Calder, except he seemed to be more youthful and in his prime. Resting on that man's shoulder was a small Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse no bigger than 15cm.
"Calder, you dare bring a pet before her majesty?!" One of the individuals snorted when he noticed the seahorse sitting upon Calder's shoulder. Unlike the mighty seahorse Izroth faced earlier that looked down on everything, this seahorse released a small whine before hiding behind Calder's back.
The man really was Calder!
'Where exactly am I?' Izroth examined his surroundings but nothing seemed even remotely familiar to him.
"If her majesty has nothing to say about it, what gives you the right to, Glekan?" Calder responded in a firm tone of voice.
The one called Glekan had the face of an octopus and the body of a human. The main difference was that Glekan's arms were a pair of tentacles. But he did not have just two tentacles, he had a total of eight with two of them being attached to his back. His eyes matched those of a cephalopod.
"Both of you, silence! You are in the presence of her majesty, it would be wise to show your respect!" The one who spoke possessed the head of a jellyfish with countless tendrils and a strange spectral body. It was difficult to tell how it was speaking as no mouth was in plain sight.
"Since when do you speak for her majesty, Trestix? If anything, you're being arrogant to think that you can guess the wishes of her majesty on a whim!" Glekan did not back down.
The woman sitting upon the throne held the palm of her hand up. When she did, everyone present went completely silent. "It's alright, Trestix. Even if we are not related by blood, I still consider all of us to be family." She gave a heartwarming smile that would melt the coldest of hearts.
"Your majesty please forgive my insolence but, you have the blood of the Sea Goddess Eotl flowing through your veins. You are her direct descendant. We are not worthy of such an honorable position in your heart, your majesty. " Trestix lowered his head.
"We are not worthy, your majesty!" Everyone else in the room lowered their heads as well. Even if everyone had disagreements or disliked one another, in the end, they would all die for this radiant and noble mermaid before them.
She then glanced at Calder and then looked over towards Glekan. "A Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse is a rare existence in these waters. Calder must take good care of him if he hopes to maintain its respect and one-day work together with it. After all, a Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse is a noble mount."
"If your majesty says so, then obviously I have no issue with such a trivial matter." Glekan gave a respectful bow and did not mention anything about the seahorse again.
"Come, little one." Her voice echoed through the room, though it sounded more like a song with a pleasant and mesmerizing tune. It was a voice no sea creature could resist, the Sea Goddess Eotl's Song. As a direct descendant of the goddess, the mermaid inherited her ability to naturally dominate all sea creatures.
The Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse was frightened and scared by suddenly being called out to, however, for some reason it suddenly felt really safe and trusted the voice calling to it. It was a little hesitant at first, but it swam over towards the mermaid and stopped before her.
When it arrived before her, she reached out and gently took the Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse into the palm of her hands. "Little one, you must take good care of Calder when you're big and strong. Will you promise me this?" she revealed a lovely smile that would make many people sigh in admiration.
The Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse turned its tiny body and looked over in Calder's direction. It made a light clicking sound and nodded its head. Despite its small appearance, it was a very intelligent creature. It then rubbed its head submissively on the palm of the mermaid.
The atmosphere in the room was incredibly peaceful at that moment. However, the doors to the throne room were abruptly pushed open.
When that happened, the 14 individuals standing below the throne facial expressions all darkened. Who could be so insolent as to charge into the room of her majesty?!
Just as they were about to rebuke this individual, when they saw who it was, none of them spoke out. This was someone who was close to their majesty. Though Glekan still showed his displeasure at the disrespectful attitude of that person.
'Why do they seem so familiar?' Izroth stared at the person who just barged into the room unannounced. For some reason, he felt as if he'd seen them somewhere before this but he could not put his finger on it.
"Kashysh! You must reconsider!" The person who barged into the room was a middle-aged man with black hair that had streaks of gray showing, black eyes, and a strong appearance. He actually looked just like a human and did not have any traits of a sea creature visible.
He gave off a powerful and suppressing aura that was not intentional, but it still engulfed the entire room and eventually, it felt as if the man was everywhere at once.
However, the area of water surrounding the mermaid sitting upon the throne was unaffected. The one called Kashysh was actually the name of the mermaid everyone kept referring to as your majesty. The same person who the great and boundless sea was named after.
When Kashysh noticed who it was, she could only return his advice with a helpless smile. "I have already made up my mind. If we standby and do nothing then my people will suffer. I refuse to let the children of the sea go through such a thing."
Kashysh seemed to slowly become disheartened, "If anyone can understand my intentions, it should be you… Uncle Scagmag." While he was not her uncle by blood, Scagmag and her father were very close and could be considered as brothers who fought side by side in the first Great Sea War.
'That name… It's the sea creature I met before coming here.' Izroth remembered that the name of the colossal sea creature he saw just moments ago was Scagmag. It was too much of a coincidence for the two to be unrelated and so they had to be the same person.
Izroth met many existences capable of shapeshifting, especially if they were powerful enough. So he wasn't too shocked that RML also had similar creatures. After all, with how huge Scagmag is, it was impossible for him to travel to the throne room in his natural form.
Scagmag let out a long and deep sigh. "While I do understand your heartfelt intentions, you need to look past the present and into the future. If irreversible harm were to befall you, how could I ever face your father in the afterlife?" There was a hint of worry in his eyes as he spoke to Kashysh.
A graceful smile found its way onto Kashysh face. She did not blame Scagmag for worrying and understood his concerns, however, she felt as though there was no other way. "Then it is a good thing that you will not die any time soon, Uncle Scagmag. You will not have to face my father for quite some time."
Scagmag shook his head and could not help but to also smile after seeing Kashysh expression. "You have your father's stubbornness and your mother's intelligence. Aye… It is difficult to convince you."
"I knew that I would not be successful, however, I still had to give it a try. Kashysh, I will remind you once again, every existence in this sea depends on you for guidance. Without you, there is no path left in the future for all the existences in the Great Sea. You must be extremely careful."
Kashysh nodded, "Your worries do not go unnoticed, I will be careful. You have my word."
Scagmag scanned everyone in the throne room with a serious expression on his face. "You all, be sure to take care of her majesty. If anything happens to her, don't expect to keep your lives." He then smiled at Kashysh once more before turning and walking out of the throne room.
When the doors closed behind Scagmag, the first to speak was Glekan. "Your majesty, I know that he is a close friend of your father, but he should show you more respect as the ruler of the Great Sea."
Kashysh looked coldly at Glekan. It was the first time she showed her displeasure towards anyone here. "Glekan, because of your loyalty I shall ignore what you just said this one time. Do not let such words leave your mouth again or else next time, I will not be able to overlook it."
Glekan immediately fell onto his knees and kowtowed. "Your majesty, I meant no offense, please forgive me for being so insolent!" How could he not be afraid? The last thing he wanted to do was offend her. He just felt that as their ruler, she should naturally be above everyone else.
"Uncle Scagmag has the respect and power to speak to me as an equal. Not to mention, he was like a brother to my father and took care of me until I became old enough to sit upon this very throne. You do not understand because you have not witnessed his power firsthand, but what I can say is that even I am not confident in being victorious against Uncle Scagmag."
Everyone was shocked when they heard those words leave her mouth. They knew that he was powerful, however, they never imagined that he reached such a high level in which he was capable of rivaling a direct descendant of the Sea Goddess Eotl.
"Alright, let's set that matter behind us. There's a reason I called you all here. It's time I visit the Overside World. We cannot afford to be at odds with them with what's soon approaching." Kashysh spoke in a calm voice.
While displeasure was visible on nearly all of their faces, all 14 of them knew that she was correct and so they could not express their disagreement.
"Good, since none of you disagree, we shall be leaving tomorrow. Nerita, Sakod, Trestix; you three shall accompany me." Kashysh pet the head of the Rainbow-Coral King Seahorse before releasing it back to Calder.
"Yes, your majesty!" They all responded in unison and bowed respectfully.
…
Everything around Izroth was replaced by a bright white light, and soon after he was back in the same location as he was just a few moments ago. The events that just unfolded made him feel as though he were in a dream.
'Why was I shown that?' Izroth felt that it was more than just a simple cutscene that all players would experience in this dungeon. During normal cutscenes, players should be able to access their character window, however, Izroth was unable to do so. That showed how important the events that transpired were.
'There's no use in thinking too much on it. The answers will naturally reveal themselves when it is time.'
Izroth could only continue moving forward and cross that bridge when the time comes.
