Roxanna had always known that the beast world was full of danger, but she had never imagined the greatest threat would come from her own husbands.
She was afraid for herself and for Azura, but what terrified her the most was the thought that her husbands would wake up and realize they had killed her with their own hands.
That thought alone was enough to keep her moving. She dodged every attack with everything she had, refusing to give up.
But no matter how hard she tried, someone who rarely fought with weapons could never match warriors like them.
[It’s my fault for being so weak...] Roxanna thought.
She knew her husbands could normally hear her thoughts, but the sound of the harp had drowned everything out.
[I’m so sorry...]
She slowly dropped to her knees on the seabed, watching Zeir and Calen swim toward her with their weapons raised. She still had five daggers left, but she knew they were no longer enough to stop them.
Not far away, Azul was surrounded by the Devourers. They closed in on him from every direction, stabbing him again and again with their spears.
His blue eyes looked at Roxanna in horror because he also knew that neither of them might survive.
Slowly, he turned to Sybill, who was smiling as though nothing around her mattered.
Through telepathy, Sybill’s voice echoed in his mind. "I guess our mother’s vision was wrong all along. You were never meant to become the ruler of the ocean."
"Why are you doing this?" Azul asked through clenched teeth. Whether he was trying to hold back the pain or his anger toward Sybill, even he didn’t know. "Did someone manipulate your mind?"
Sybill tilted her head and smiled. "You’re still as innocent as ever, Brother. You always believe everyone is good."
She spread one of her free arm as if presenting the battlefield around them. "But look at what happened. If you hadn’t welcomed those refugees into our home, our family might still be alive."
"If you hadn’t let them taint our land, Mera might never have lost his mind."
[Azul! Don’t listen to her! She’s a traitor!] Roxanna shouted in her mind, praying he could still hear her.
She couldn’t hear what Sybill was saying because the telepathy was directed only at Azul.
However, Roxanna could guess that it had something to do with the fall of the Aquillian Kingdom. After all, Azul still believed he was the reason his kingdom had been destroyed.
[Azul! You can still fix this!] Roxanna shouted again. [We can fix this!]
"How?" Azul asked, his voice breaking with despair.
He didn’t even bother dodging anymore. He simply let the Devourers keep stabbing him. "I probably deserve this."
[No, you don’t!] Roxanna forced her exhausted body to swim away from Zeir and Calen.
She knew there was probably no point in continuing to fight, but when she remembered that Azul and Azura needed her, she was willing to do anything to stay alive.
Her body was covered in wounds, but she refused to give up.
She was injured, then healed, and even if she had to repeat that cycle over and over again, she would endure it.
[You don’t deserve all this pain!] Roxanna’s voice echoed through Azul’s mind. [There’s nothing wrong with being kind. If the people you helped chose to betray you, that’s their fault, not yours!]
[You were only trying to do what you believed was right. But doing the right thing doesn’t mean life will always be kind to you. That’s just how life is, Azul.]
[Just because we’re alive doesn’t mean we’ll always be happy. We’ll get hurt. We’ll cry. We’ll feel lost. We’ll make mistakes, and sometimes we’ll make the right choice. That’s what life is. As long as we’re still breathing, we still have a chance to fix things.]
[As long as you still want to live... we can fix this together.]
His body was covered in wounds. Blood drifted through the seawater like crimson mist as the Devourers continued driving their spears into him, yet he no longer felt the pain.
All he could hear was Roxanna’s voice.
[Azura needs you, Azul.]
[Zeir and Calen need you.]
[Your people need you.]
Roxanna took a shaky breath. [And I need you.]
[That’s why... please... please don’t give up.]
Those words echoed through Azul’s mind again and again.
Not long after, his heartbeat grew louder and louder until it drowned out every sound around him.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A bright blue light suddenly filled his eyes. It spread across his skin like a glowing snake, slowly wrapping around his body before covering him completely.
For some reason, Roxanna suddenly felt the entire ocean fall silent. The waves stopped moving, the currents no longer flowed, and it felt as though time itself had frozen beneath the sea.
Even so, Zeir and Calen refused to stop chasing Roxanna. Before she knew it, she had been cornered with her back pressed against a massive rock on the seabed.
Zeir swung his chain toward her while, at the same time, Calen hurled his axe straight at her.
Roxanna closed her eyes because she could no longer run away. She had already prepared herself for the pain, but just before their weapons could reach her, the silent ocean suddenly came back to life.
The moment the currents began flowing again, they surged across the battlefield with incredible force.
Zeir’s chain suddenly changed direction in midair. Instead of wrapping around Roxanna, it shot past her shoulder before whipping back toward its owner.
Before Zeir could react, the chain coiled tightly around his arm and chest, its sharp blades slicing across his skin. At the same time, Calen’s axe was caught by another powerful current.
The weapon spun through the water before flying back toward him.
Slash!
The blade cut across Calen’s shoulder, forcing him to stumble backward and fresh blood spread into the seawater.
Roxanna slowly opened her eyes in disbelief. "What?"
Neither Zeir nor Calen had chosen to attack themselves, but the ocean had done it for them, as if every current beneath the sea had suddenly come alive.
The two men instinctively tried to pull their weapons back under their control, but the currents refused to obey them.
Instead, they carried the weapons farther away, preventing them from attacking Roxanna again.
At the same time, something else drifted toward her. Several Healing Injections, which had been scattered across the battlefield during the chaos, were swept up by the currents.
One after another, they floated gently into Roxanna’s hands.
The sound of the harps grew even louder, but because Calen and Zeir had been badly injured, the mind control over them finally began to weaken.
"Roxanna, what—"
"Don’t move!" Roxanna shouted.
Without wasting another second, she rushed to their side and quickly injected the Healing Injections into their bodies. Warm light spread through them, and the deep wounds that had covered their bodies began to close before her eyes.
[Congratulations, Host! Side Mission Complete: Free Your Husbands from the Harp!]
[Goals:
Prevent Azul from reaching Sybill. (1/1)
Prevent Calen from reaching Sybill. (1/1)
Prevent Zeir from reaching Sybill. (1/1)]
[Reward: 1× Mind Guardian Bell (Legendary) — Effect: Creates a protective field that greatly weakens mental attacks and mind-control effects for nearby allies.]
[Reward: +37,000 Spirit Points (SP)]
[Remaining Spirit Points (SP): 342,950]
As soon as she took the Mind Guardian Bell out of her inventory, Roxanna rang it over and over again, trying to drown out the sound of Sybill’s harp.
One by one, the people who had been affected by Sybill’s mind control regained their senses. Even Calen and Zeir were finally completely free from its influence.
As the memories of attacking their wife came rushing back, they couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with guilt.
"Roxanna... I’m sorry," Zeir whispered.
"Wife, I didn’t mean to!" Calen shouted, his eyes wide with shock.
Roxanna smiled at them before speaking in a soft, gentle voice. "It wasn’t your fault at all."
Although Sybill’s harp could no longer control their minds, the Devourers had wanted to kill them from the very beginning. They didn’t even need the harp’s influence to continue their attack.
With furious roars, they charged at the group once again, focusing all of their attention on Azul.
None of them realized that something deep within him had finally awakened. It was a power that had been sleeping inside him for a very long time.
As the blue light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter, the ocean currents began to change.
At first, it was only a gentle ripple.
Then the water started spinning around Azul in slow circles, as if the entire ocean had come alive.
The currents grew stronger with every moment. They no longer flowed naturally, but they moved according to his will.
The Devourers slowed to a stop, struggling to swim against the overwhelming force.
"W-What’s happening?"
"The currents... I can’t move!"
Azul closed his eyes for a moment before whispering to the ocean, "Come to me."
The moment those words left his lips, deafening roars echoed from every corner of the ocean.