TOMWDET Chapter 215

Final Chapter (7)

…She might die.

Elvi found herself above the clouds, surrounded by countless Ji Xings. At this moment, apart from this thought, she couldn’t think of anything else.

A large number of Ji Xings had surrounded her. Her dragon scales were being torn off, elements disrupted her flesh and blood, and Elvi forcefully spat out a mouthful of blood that had nearly blocked her throat.

She spoke to the merman whom she had previously used and harmed, yet who was now being perfectly protected by her at this very moment. “Your ideas had better all succeed.”

“Otherwise, just thinking about all efforts being wasted, I’d want to slice up that fish tail of yours and turn it into food.”

Cold sweat streamed down Leia’s face, not because he was frightened by these words, but because the massive depletion of elements had created an enormous sense of emptiness in his body.

This sensation was truly unbearable, inexplicably making the monster beast’s heart turn cold and sweat pour down.

However, even so, the elements that emanated from his body and merged into the clouds did indeed have a restraining effect on the clouds.

He could control those clouds that supported the Ji Xing group’s proud stance above the cloud layer!

This thought suppressed the emptiness and stuffiness. Leia could hardly contain his excitement as he shouted loudly, “I succeeded!”

“By transforming water elements into silk threads, preventing the elements from becoming actual liquid water, and then manipulating them. This way, after the elements merge into the clouds, remote manipulation is sufficient to transfer control of these dark clouds to me!”

Leia seemed to already see those Ji Xings having water elements from the dark clouds invade their bodies, causing their hearts to explode.

But the merman hadn’t noticed that the light in Elvi’s eyes was rapidly dimming.

What exactly was mind control?

This thought had been deliberately pondered by the dragon after Elvi was able to remember the past she had shared with Na’an.

But the final conclusion reached was only that Clemens, who also possessed the ability to influence others’ minds, was merely basic compared to the [Spirit], and hadn’t affected human thinking from its very roots like the [Spirit] had.

The places where transformed monster beasts were affected were only the collapse of the past and the disappearance of emotions.

But the disappeared emotions weren’t truly gone in the complete sense. When Elvi hadn’t yet freed herself from the stage of having her thinking influenced, she could still feel heartache when Victoria died, but she couldn’t remember the emotions that had arisen when spending time with Na’an.

Later, when the [Tiger] died, memories surged up, emotions were rekindled, and only then did Elvi understand what she had overlooked in the past.

In the past, when she fought, she never believed she would die.

War hyena – a dragon who carried madness through to the end.

No matter what, the creature named Elvi Bessemer should have been thinking about how to utilize everything usable, control everything controllable, to achieve victory in war.

Not like now, gambling her own life and safety on the possible ultimate victory that others might bring.

The merman’s well-protected figure gave the dragon a sense of achievement, but also a sense of loss.

The sense of achievement came from the fact that she, who had once been famous in monster beast society as the War Hyena, would no longer consider ultimate victory through others’ life and death.

After all, in the past, the dragon had never minded using companions’ deaths to exchange for opportunities to deliver fatal blows to enemies.

Could such a monster beast actually perform acts of protection?

The reality was that she had not only done it, but had succeeded.

She should feel accomplished about this.

But that dejection seemed to declare that the dragon named Elvi had become the figure Victoria had imagined only because she had abandoned part of herself, and with an incomplete self, had ultimately become the king in the black dragon’s fantasy.

Protection itself meant that the dragon had once again abandoned herself.

“How disgusting…” Elvi turned her head to look at her bloody and mangled back, smiling mockingly.

Leia’s previously excited words came to an abrupt halt.

Around him, those dragon back scales that should have been intact were all bloody and mangled, except for the spot where he was currently sitting.

Just as the dragon was now confused about what her actions meant, the merman also didn’t understand why the dragon who had used him to exchange for resources and casually trampled his dignity would truly provide comprehensive protection for him during his obviously theatrical tantrum…

What was this about!

“When did Elvi Bessemer, you dragon clan ruler, you hyena-like creature, actually start doing such things that don’t suit you at all just because of others’ requests…”

“Shut up.” Elvi looked coldly at the merman. “What I choose to do is my business.”

“Besides, compared to your brainlessness, I consider myself a fairly intelligent monster beast.”

“Su Li will achieve victory – I have no doubt about that. It’s just that you, as a merman, as the Water Tribe’s ruler, haven’t thought about what happens after victory, have you.”

Elvi, already blind in one eye, could no longer see clearly the appearance of the merman on her back. She didn’t know whether Leia had refuted her, nor did she care about the merman’s reaction. She just continued speaking to herself.

“Humans don’t need transformed monster beasts. Transformed monster beasts are remnants of an era, meaning the mistakes left behind before monster beast civilization perished, and also meaning the dark history of human civilization being forcibly controlled and manipulated by monster beasts.”

“If you want to continue maintaining your lofty ruler status, controlling an entire Water Tribe, living actively in society with a status that surpasses kings and is even more noble than kings… such things will be impossible to continue after the battle victory.”

“Compared to me, who might die here, you, this ugly and fishy aquatic monster beast, will be the one who truly experiences a fate worse than death…”

“Who wants to hear you say these things?” Leia bit through the flesh inside his mouth corner. Sharp fangs pierced into his own flesh, and deep in the merman’s eyes flashed emotions of self-loathing.

Transformed monster beasts who could live for hundreds of years – none of them weren’t despicable.

Those noble ones had long died in the past.

The merman had actually considered that Elvi might desperately protect him, but he also knew that the dragon was essentially in a semi-hostile relationship with him, so this thought was only a possibility, and moreover a possibility with a low probability of realization.

But reality had slapped him hard in the face.

That invisible slap left his brain congested and his thinking sluggish.

Why would Elvi protect him?

The one being protected was Leia, the one who was actually safe was also Leia, but the one feeling disgusted with himself was still him.

Transformed monster beasts were inherently a sick group.

It was just that in the past, that sickness had been seen as an actual medical condition.

They had even found so-called “treatment plans.”

Before Clemens died, Elvi had always maintained the idea of exchanging blood with the Raven.

Mad, suicidal transformed monster beasts, in the eyes of other transformed monster beasts who considered themselves normal, were also just troubled by illness.

Looking back now, they suddenly discovered that the ones with problems had always been them – those who still wanted to live.

Those who couldn’t live weren’t controlled by invisible hands to ultimately commit suicide. Whether it was the [Tiger] or the [Spirit], they had no intention of making the transformed monster beast group commit suicide.

Those who couldn’t live simply couldn’t live.

Once self-disgust arose, it was a lesion that no amount of language and guidance could return to normal.

Shamefully, even the term “lesion” was just an evasion.

This wasn’t a disease.

The premise of madness disease had always been madness.

“Who told you to protect me? We both know that what I said was just talk hoping you could fight alongside me in a siege situation, leaning toward my side.”

“Linguistic techniques – don’t tell me you don’t know about them.”

“You are you, I am me. If whatever I say goes, then why doesn’t your dragon clan join the Water Tribe instead of going to find those stinking Beast Tribe?”

“Elvi Bessemer, are you crazy or what – protecting me?”

“Leia Somorfeld – does this kind of person need your protection? Does this kind of monster beast need your care? Who do you think you are, some great savior? Even Su Li, even that child who saw through everything, didn’t put himself in that position.”

Unable to control it, Leia clearly felt the churning in his stomach.

He wanted to vomit.

Just like what Elvi had said – truly disgusting.

The difference was, their eyes were looking at each other, but what they were actually talking about and thinking about had always been themselves.

“Then what else should I do?” Abruptly, contrary to her usual habits, Elvi directly argued with the merman despite her serious injuries. “Watch you, this brainless fool, who finally thought of some methods for battlefield advantage, only to fail and retreat because of those inferior cannon fodder influences?”

“Are you insulting me?”

“Leia! Leia Somorfeld! What dragons do has never been your business. You, a Water Tribe ruler, you, a merman who was once sold by me to the Water Tribe – what nonsense are you spouting now!”

“Stop being so self-righteous. I’m nothing like you. What I consider includes not just the present but also the future. What I think is that even if I die, you, who will owe me a debt of gratitude, as a monster beast living in the sea who essentially won’t have much contact with humans, will still leave a place for other dragons to survive.”

“And don’t tell me that Su Li would never annex the dragons’ living environment in the future. I know better than you what that young man can provide. What I care about is choice! What I want is to create the right to choose survival for other dragons who still want to live. So they won’t have to take the path toward a terrible future just because they have no other choice.”

“If you understand, then continue according to your plan – send all the elements in your body into the Ji Xing group’s bodies, then make their hearts explode, let their life force be devoured, let death descend upon those monsters trying to replace Su Li!”

The dragon and merman’s intensified emotions.

Chaotic minds, uncontrollable self-loathing.

The only common expectation in their hearts was…

Would Su Li come?

Would he come to stop their madness this time?

Elvi had gone mad before and was stopped. Leia had also gone mad before, even wanting to drag the entire ocean down with him, but he too had been blocked by Su Li.

So this time… what about this time?

No one knew the answer.

Elvi continued to resist those mechanical Ji Xings, and the merman could only continue to use water elements to invade the Ji Xing group while venting his emotions.

Thread-like elemental power followed breathing, followed pores, and merged into those Ji Xings.

But just as the dragon had absolute control over wind elements, the merman also had absolute hegemony over water that could be called rule-like.

A drop of water merging into the sea could never be found again.

But when a strand of element merged into a Ji Xing, Leia could control them, preventing them from smoothly using elements anymore.

Afterward, the dark clouds that originally allowed those Ji Xings to move as if on flat ground were also drawn by water elements and instantly dissipated completely from beneath the Ji Xing group.

Power was cut off, gravity pulled, and the mobile elemental cannons below that had already taken aim…

In an instant, those Ji Xings falling one after another from the sky left only one memory before death: the large patches of firelight from explosions of identical companions.

Ji Xings weren’t endless.

After the dark clouds dissipated, the gloom that had been cast over humans and monster beasts also slowly dispersed as if blown by a gentle breeze.

Leia, drained of power, collapsed on Elvi’s bloody and mangled back, laughing weakly.

“You’d better still have the strength to get me back to the ground.” As Leia spoke, the dark clouds drawn by water elements had already gathered beneath Elvi, supporting the dragon’s body that didn’t have a single intact patch.

Leia’s complexion was much worse than the dark clouds. “Saying things like owing you a debt and needing to look after the dragon clan afterward… handle such things yourself.”

“What does it have to do with me? When has a mermaid ruler whose reputation is rotten throughout the three tribes ever behaved according to normal human or normal monster beast common sense?”

Leia’s expression as he gazed at the sky seemed to say the dragon was really amusing.

“Creating another path for other members of your race and such… looks really noble… But why don’t you go and bear the responsibilities that belong specifically to you after everything ends?”

“You clearly dared to bring the entire dragon clan to join those stinking fellows, but don’t dare to bear the various regulations that those weak humans will produce targeting monster beasts in the future?”

Leia’s voice dropped to barely audible:

“Elvi, Elvi Bessemer, you absolutely must not die and still make me mock you for thousands and thousands of years…”