Chapter 1340: After the Last Bite

Thalvyr lifted a hand and waved it once. The look on his face made it clear—he already knew exactly what Voruun was about to say.

He walked over and crouched in front of Voruun, a pure white pearl resting in his palm. Its surface was flawlessly smooth, not a single impurity in it, and in the dim palace it gave off a quiet, steady glow.

Thalvyr brought the pearl up to Voruun’s eyes.

"Want it? Eat this and you’ll gain a miraculous power. Eat it... and you’ll be able to take revenge."

Voruun lay slack on the floor. You couldn’t read much from his face, but his tentacles wriggled in quick, messy bursts. The tips—still weak—kept lifting, then dropping again, trembling with excitement.

"Really? I... I can really have it? Your Majesty..."

He didn’t even finish the sentence.

The white pearl left Thalvyr’s palm and slid straight into Voruun’s body.

Thalvyr gave him a satisfied look, then stood, clasped his hands behind his back, and turned toward the throne.

Inside Voruun, the white pearl changed almost immediately.

A thread of blood-red bloomed from the center, then spread outward, staining the whole pearl a deep crimson. That color seeped into Voruun’s flesh and ran out along his limbs. At first it was only a few thin lines—

then it covered him completely.

Voruun’s limp, soft body flushed a vivid red. Several tentacles snapped straight at once, bracing hard against the seafloor and lifting his head.

He bent his body toward Thalvyr in reverence.

"Good."

Thalvyr halted mid-step and looked back.

Voruun’s blood-red eyes were still lowered to the floor. Only when Thalvyr nodded did he raise his head, straighten up, and look toward the figure by the throne with renewed confidence.

"I’ll bring you their heads, Your Majesty. I won’t let you lose faith in us!"

Thalvyr nodded again. Another white pearl was rolling between his fingers. After hearing Voruun out, he casually tossed it over.

"Take this one too."

Voruun sprang up, catching the pearl smoothly with a soft tentacle. He tucked it away, bowed again, then turned and swam out of the palace.

Thalvyr watched his back with cold eyes, the unease in his chest not fully gone.

He didn’t follow. He only spoke into the empty hall.

"You too. Go. Don’t disappoint me."

Several blood-red figures emerged from the palace shadows. They didn’t answer. They simply flickered through the water—

and chased after Voruun.

After the fight on the surface ended, everyone climbed back into the sea sphere and started working on the body Voruun had left behind.

Prepared octopus meat was divided up piece by piece. Elira ate the most by far. Now she was hugging her swollen belly and leaning against the barrier, eyes closed in pure satisfaction. The others weren’t much better—everyone sat wider than usual, stomachs visibly rounded.

Only Elowen didn’t truly relax.

More than once, she glanced at the small amount of octopus left. Then she closed her eyes, feeling for whatever traces of power remained inside it. After a short check, she drifted closer to Ethan and murmured her guess to him.

Ethan’s head snapped toward the nearly picked-clean giant octopus.

"Someone stole the souls?" Shock flashed through his eyes. "Then that proves it wasn’t completely dead!"

He lowered his gaze, sinking into thought.

During the battle, there had been an unknown energy ripple—something that hid itself in the seawater and never engaged directly. Thinking back now, that force was very likely what had stolen Voruun’s soul.

No sound. No clear marks.

It had waited until everyone’s attention was locked on the fight, then slipped in and took what it wanted.

So yeah—there really was something down there that had it out for them.

No sooner had Ethan reached that conclusion than the calm surface began to heave.

Wind rolled in from far away, pushing a mass of dark, cloud-like sea mist down over the water. Waves stacked higher and higher, and the sea sphere rocked with them. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Elira opened her eyes, clutching her belly as she sat up straighter.

In the center of the sea, a patch of blood-red slowly spread.

A blood-red giant octopus broke the surface.

Voruun didn’t speak. He didn’t give them even a second to study him.

Several tentacles whipped over the water, dragging sheets of seawater with them, and smashed down on the sea sphere.

The first strike dented the spherical barrier inward.

The second hit the same spot immediately after—white fissure-marks split across the blue water-film.

The third tentacle swept in from the side and slammed the whole sea sphere backward, sending it skidding across the surface. Inside, the water churned violently.

The cracks kept spreading.

Namyanna rose to her feet, trident already in hand. Through the barrier she locked onto the blood-red octopus. She drew her arm back, ice-blue energy streaming along the trident and pooling at the tip.

She released.

The trident shot out.

It pierced through the sea sphere’s surface and flew straight at Voruun. Wherever the tip passed, seawater split aside—then got pulled back by the weapon’s force, spinning around its flight path. At first it was just a thin ring of current.

By the time the trident neared Voruun, the entire sea was being stirred.

A waterspout surged up from the surface.

Voruun didn’t dodge.

He slammed a tentacle into the sea. The impact zone collapsed inward—and then a towering wave rose from the strike, climbing and climbing until it surpassed the sea sphere’s height.

A heavy shadow swallowed them.

A solid wall of water came down toward the sphere.

Namyanna raised both hands, palms aimed at the wave about to crush them.

Her frost power spread forward through the air. The crest froze first, then the center of the surge, and finally even the churning water at the base stopped moving. In the span of a single breath, the entire wave had turned into a massive wall of ice, hanging there in front of them like a suspended cliff.

On the other side, the waterspout fully wrapped around Voruun.

Spinning currents tangled around his tentacles and bulk, pulling upward from beneath the surface without pause. Voruun tried to anchor himself with his tentacles, to grab the sea and hold on—but there was nothing solid to catch. Little by little, the waterspout dragged him out of the ocean and lifted him into the air.

Elowen watched the blood-red giant octopus being hauled up, her brow tightening.

First she felt it—a familiar fluctuation, the signature of a soul she’d just sensed not long ago. Only after that did she peel the original presence out from under the blood-colored power layered over it. She flicked a glance at the sea sphere, at the small amount of octopus meat they hadn’t finished.

That was enough to confirm it.

"That octopus," Elowen said, voice steady, "is the same one we were eating."

"The soul is identical. The difference is... this time, it’s been contaminated."