Chapter 479 - Oceanid Appreciation
"I see... So, that's what happened on your side? Then, what should we do with these black slime-like creatures?" Elena glanced at the lump of ice with many black creatures inside.
"I don't know what to do either. The contaminated me seemed to have no way of turning back. Do you have a solution? If not, perhaps extermination is the only way out for them." Oceanid sighed and shook his head. He didn't have any ideas whatsoever.
"What!? Do you want to slay the contaminated you? Do you want to do the same to the more than one thousand five hundred of your other selves? That's a crazy decision! You will lose a lot of your divine energy then." Nell exclaimed with a hint of panic. She thought it was the worst way out.
."What difference does it make? I've weakened greatly from myself in the past. And now, only half of the weakened me. That is if all of me merge into one existence." Oceanid shrugged his shoulders as if he had given up.
"That's still..." Nell wanted to refute, but she didn't know what to say. She tried to find another solution, and the latest brilliant idea suddenly crossed her mind.
"Aha, I know the solution for you!" Nell drops her fist onto her open palm.
"Hmm?" Oceanid, Elena, and Rhea immediately turned their attention to Nell.
"Actually, the Goddess of Light and her precious disciple can help you to resolve your predicament." Nell pointed her palm at Elena.
"Huh? Why are you so sure about that? If I may ask, what will the Goddess of Light do to solve my problems and dilemmas?" Oceanid frowned, but he also became curious and wanted to know the answer immediately.
"Hehe, I'll tell you a secret. The Goddess of Light and her precious disciple can neutralize curse energy by eliminating it. Truth be told, they have already saved two divine beings with it." Nell spoke in a whisper-like voice.
"What!? Is that even possible? If that's true, then the newly ascended Goddess will really be a savior! I mean, the savior of the world!" Oceanid was astonished. That would be great news if it proved to be true. Therefore, he looked at the Golden Goddess for confirmation.
"Hmph." Elena kept her hands folded and still gave off a cold impression.
"Err... Excuse me?" Oceanid floated closer to the Golden Goddess so he wouldn't be ignored.
"What?" Elena looked down without changing her expression.
"Are you able to purify or exterminate the curse energy of the contaminated me? If that's possible, can you do it to help me? That way, I can participate and help this world win that inevitable battle." Oceanid rubbed his wing-like hands together. He excitedly grinned as if he couldn't wait for his recovery.
"..." Elena was silent for a moment. For some reason, she seemed to be able to interpret Oceanid's words into something else.
'You came here to help me, right? So, quickly do that? Like this, right? Meh, do you think our divine help is free? Do we need to give help to more than one thousand five hundred beings like this? Oh, dear me... It's so inconvenient and tiring. We need compensation for it!' Elena muttered in her mind to voice out her complaint.
'Then ask him for it, Sister Elena. The sea holds a lot of treasures and mysteries. Oceanid will probably thank us for our help.' Elysia had already guessed that Elena wouldn't work for free.
'Yes, that's it! This little blue creature must have a lot of treasures, hehe... We hit the jackpot, Ely.' Elena laughed. She liked the mutualism symbiosis. Everyone would benefit.
"My precious disciple and I can indeed achieve that. However, there is a bit of problem on our side." Elena heaved a subtle sigh as if she was lamenting fate.
"Please tell me about your problem. I am ready to do anything." Oceanid instantly became happy. He patted his chest with confidence.
"Even if you say that... We've already lost over a billion of energy to give aid to the two divine beings. We haven't recovered from that yet. In total, we've lost about two billion energy. Now tell me, what kind of risk are you willing to take?" Elena closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again to look directly into Oceanid's blue eyes.
"Risk? Is that a problem on your side? Why did you use the subject 'we' instead of 'I'?" Oceanid became confused. He thought for a moment to interpret the statement just now.
"Two, two, two billion energy? You and Elysia lost that much life energy to save my mother and me?" Rhea's eyes widened, and she stuttered to speak. The information she just heard this time really surprised her.
"That's the total number for everything we've done since meeting you." Elena corrected the wrong statement.
"But, that's still... Please forgive me for troubling you." Rhea bit her lower lips. She feels guilty and responsible.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered that she had shortened the lives of Elysia and Elena by that much. Even with her peak strength, she didn't even have that much life energy.
If it wasn't Elysia and Elena, it was clear that an ordinary divine being could not save herself and her mother from the death door. She had owed two lives since their first meeting.
Nell was also dumbfounded. Sometimes a divine could measure their divine energy accurately, but what happened to Elena was very unusual. The number was too big and crazy! No wonder Elena asked for compensation just to help a mortal from curse energy.
Rhea and Nell seemed to have similar thoughts and misunderstandings, but the outcomes were actually different. The former blamed herself, and the latter was enlightened.
"It's okay. We just need some free time to meditate or find a replacement for the lost energy in the future." Elena stroked Rhea's head for reassurance. She did not expect that her words would have such an unexpected chain effect.
"B-but, I..." Rhea wanted to apologize to Elysia too.
"You know what you need to do. If you feel guilty, then help and protect Ely from anything. You need to talk to her more to get to know her better. She is the one who decides everything without hesitation." Elena only threw trouble at Elysia because she didn't know what else to do.
"Mm, I will." Rhea just nodded in understanding. She looked at Elysia with some thoughts in mind.
"Hmm, I don't know what you guys are talking about, but I presume that you and your precious disciple are the ones who saved two divine beings, namely Rhea and Lifa? Am I right up here?" Oceanid scratched his head and drew a critical detail.
"Yeah." Elena responded curtly.
"Regarding your statement just now. Do you mean that you are in trouble due to a lack of magic energy? No need to worry, I will help you as much as you want if it is. The ocean is two-thirds of the world. You can recover with ease if you have Lifa's useful abilities." Oceanid stroked his chin and scratched his head as if he was trying to remember something but failed.
"Err... I forgot the name, but it's the truth. To add to that, I'll be donating a myriad of treasures to aid your recovery. Is this enough to make you rescue all of the contaminated me?" Oceanid opened his palm and made a blue bubble out of it. He made it fly toward the Golden Goddess just like that.
"What's this?" Elena pointed her finger at the nearby bubble.
"It's an intermediary medium to transfer a lot of treasures to you. Please pop the bubble in your Space Bag or your Private Realm. I put many resources there, and they will all be scattered everywhere if you pop it here. Please accept it as my token of appreciation." Oceanid provided explanations with fluent and clear sentences.
"Alright, I accept your appreciation. If that is your decision, then let's take the hard road to neutralize all of your contaminated selves. For this, we need some help to make sure everything goes as expected." Elena let the bubble land on her palm.
After that, she looked at the magic carpet above, then at Nell. "Little one, make your magic carpet land. It's quite safe here."
"Okay." Nell just obeyed the request without asking anything.
When the magic carpet landed, Elena beckoned Elysia to come closer.
"Yes, master." Elysia gave a meekly polite greeting.
"Please open one of your empty Space Bags." Elena showed the bubble to Elysia.
To be honest, neither she nor Elysia knew how that blue bubble worked so it could hold a lot of treasure, as explained. They wanted to prove it.
*Bloop*
The bubble was burst by Elena's delicate finger. At that very instant, countless treasures of various kinds and sparkles immediately appeared out of thin air. It didn't take more than five seconds until it almost completely filled the 125 square meter Space Bag.
"You're great at playing dimensional tricks as usual." Nell gave a compliment, but it sounded like a comment.
"I take that as a compliment. I'm flattered to hear that." Oceanid gave a flattering bow.
"Mermaid! The talking little blue mermaid is the Sea God!?" Sylvia was pleasantly surprised. Just now, she couldn't hear anything, but it was different now.
"Hm? No, I'm not a mermaid or anything you might know. I am a special existence embodiment of water. I can take any form for camouflage, but this is my true self as an elemental water spirit who attained divinity." Oceanid shook his head with a faint smile.