Chapter 837: Preventative Arrangents
The sea, when the winds are calm and the waves are still, is a realm of tranquility and vastness. Perhaps the sight of the water eting the endless sky was the very image of beauty that now lay before Orion. Sunlight spilled across the surface, turning the ocean into a ribbon of gold, where countless fish leaped in a vibrant, unforgettable display of life.
“You can go.”
Orion’s gaze was fixed on the horizon, his eyes reflecting the sea’s peace, and his voice carried a similar calm. The words were directed, of course, at the two rman princes, Vorluk and Gulas, who had been forcibly detained to serve as his guides.
“Your respected Majesty, King of the Giants… what about ?” Gulas asked, panicked that Orion might have forgotten him.
“You as well,” Orion replied coolly, without turning around.
Hearing this, Gulas was ecstatic. To escape from the clutches of a killer like Orion was a stroke of incredible fortune.
“Thank you for sparing my life, Your Excellency! I will be sure to restrain the other rn and keep them from entering the waters of Moonlit Reef.”
As he spoke, Gulas grabbed Vorluk, ready to flee. Vorluk, however, did not move. He gestured for his brother to go on ahead.
Gulas and Vorluk were not full brothers, and since Vorluk seed determined to linger, Gulas had no intention of staying with him. He clapped Vorluk on the shoulder, then vanished into the sea with a flick of his tail. In the deep water far below, a Hippocampus Drake and a Tidewyrm were waiting for their master.
“Orion, thank you,” Vorluk said, his voice earnest. “My sister Marina was not wrong to choose you. It was only fate that was not on your side.”
“I thank you on her behalf. What you tried to do at the ho of the Tidefang… it was sothing I wanted to do, but I lacked the courage and the strength.”
Between his race and his family, Vorluk chose family. Sotis, if one’s kin are gone, even the grandest clan becos aningless. Between an individual and a faction, there must be mutual care for either to survive and grow.
“Go on,” Orion said, finally turning to look at Vorluk.
For a mber of the Tidefang Clan, Vorluk’s words were treasonous. But for a brother who was powerless to protect his own sister as she was dragged away to be sacrificed, they were the words of a man filled with grief and unwilling to accept injustice. The fact that Vorluk held such rebellious thoughts made him far better than the hypocrites who would raise the banner of righteousness to commit rciless acts against their own blood.
From Orion’s current vantage point, he knew that ideas like Vorluk’s were the very engine of change within a faction. In fact, he hoped for that sa spirit within the Stoneheart Horde. Only with such drive could the Horde grow in a healthy way, nurturing new generations of forward-thinking geniuses. Technology, martial arts, sorcery, magic, forging techniques… all of these required rebellious young minds willing to create and experint.
“Take care, Orion,” Vorluk said. This ti, he spoke without the honorifics his brother had used. If one were to be formal about it, by acknowledging Orion and Marina’s relationship, Orion would have had to call Vorluk his brother-in-law.
With a splash, Vorluk entered the water, his figure quickly disappearing into the distance.
With the rn gone, only Orion’s own people remained on the Sea-Devouring Warship. Lysinthia and Slagor ca forward to stand behind him, their eyes filled with fanatical devotion.
The battle had been absolutely legendary. Orion, alone in the Silvercurrent Sea, had faced three Archlords of the Tidefang Clan and had held the upper hand. It was the kind of story Slagor knew he could tell for the rest of his life. Even as a spectator, recounting this tale to his old comrades-in-arms would be the stuff of legends, certain to earn a roar of approval.
“Master, from these waters, if we head west for a month at most, we will reach the Serpent Isle of Jynx,” Lysinthia said, coming to his side and raising a slender hand to point west. She was familiar with this part of the sea, having crossed it herself on her journey to the continent of Utessar.
“Send out the Ocean Hunters,” Orion commanded Slagor. “Have them sweep the sea beasts from this ocean and make them rember whose territory this is now.”
The Ocean Hunters were vicious, but beyond their rapid breeding, they possessed an excellent mory for terrain, so long as it was within their own domain. Once they claid these waters, they would map every trench and reef.
Hearing the order, Slagor turned and went to see to it imdiately.
“Is sothing on your mind?” Orion asked, turning to look gently at Lysinthia. The young serpent-woman who had followed him from the very beginning was loyal, shy, and fiercely devoted. When sothing troubled her, she tended to fall silent, rely standing quietly behind him or Lilith. It was a habit she had ford back in their tent in Moonshadow Valley.
“Master… the serpentfolk on the continent of Jynx… would it be possible for
and my gorgons to handle them?” Her tone was pleading, a clear request to Orion.
“Tell
what you are thinking,” Orion said, neither agreeing nor refusing.
“The Gorgons and the dusa are enemies. We want to use our own strength to conquer them, to convert them. I don’t want to see more serpentfolk die in this civil war. I want to build a vast army of Gorgons for you, Master.”
“I… I also want to reach the Legendary tier, to lead the Gorgons behind
and fight for you in other worlds.”
Orion gazed at Lysinthia, certain that the young serpent-woman was speaking from the heart.
“It seems my Lysinthia has grown up,” he said, a fond smile on his face. “You have ambition and a goal now.”
He reached out and stroked her dark, silky hair with great tenderness. “Very well. I will entrust the conquest of Jynx to you. I will give you five years. In five years, I expect a result that will satisfy .”
A brilliant smile lit up Lysinthia’s face. She leaned her head into the palm of his hand, cherishing the mont of gentleness that was hers alone.
“Thank you, Master!”
Orion smiled faintly and pulled her into his arms, holding her as they looked out at the distant sea together.
Jynx… serpentfolk… dusa… Lysinthia…
Orion’s mind turned over the problem, considering how he could create the best conditions for her, to give her the strength and confidence she would need to face her own people.
He considered the complex history of her race: the dusa were the royal bloodline of the serpentfolk, while the Gorgons, like Lysinthia, were an aberrant offshoot, mortal enemies to their kin, yet possessing the power to convert them. It was a true civil war she was asking to lead. As her man, it was his duty to consider these things.
After the precedent set with Marina, Orion knew he had to make preventative arrangents for the safety of all the won in his life.
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