Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 550 Is there a sour smell in the air?

Galene was very fast, or Nereides took this matter very seriously. After only half an hour, the members of the Ice Curtain Mage Group she mentioned earlier arrived as scheduled. They were a group of mages wearing white robes, holding crystal scepters, and with seven water splash patterns on their backs forming an ocean pattern. Each of them had the strength of Sequence 7 and belonged to the priest class in the mirror elves' society. The commander who led them was a Sequence 6 high priest.

Going up, Sequence 5 is called the Deep Sea Priest, and only Sequence 4 and above Demigods are qualified to be crowned with the title of Origin Priest. As for Sequence 2 Angels or Sequence 1 True Gods, according to Neviel, since the Great Exploration Era, there have been very few strong people of this level among the Mirror Elves. It’s not that there are no conditions, but that the Mirror Elves’ kingdoms or city-states that have the conditions to give birth to True Gods will be targeted by some evil and terrifying enemy and face a catastrophe. Over time, they gave up the struggle, and Sequence 3 became the pinnacle of the Mirror Elves’ advancement, and it has not changed for a long time.

As for who that evil and terrifying enemy is, I believe you can guess it without detailed explanation - the races on earth always think that they have suffered cruel oppression, and the harvest moon from the Night's Watch and the dark cleansing from the Scales of Order have made them painful and numb. But in fact, in order to ensure the stability of sea routes and consolidate their hegemony in the colonial era, the cult united to carry out massacres, extermination and extermination of deep-sea aliens, which is more unscrupulous than what they did on land.

The ocean is far vaster than the land. When the living space on land is squeezed to an extremely narrow range, even races that were originally natural enemies must unite to resist, just like the alliance between vampires and werewolves; but when the aliens in the deep sea face the same dilemma, their first reaction is always to escape, because the ocean is too big, and it seems much easier to escape to an area without the joint control of the cult than to resist them.

It is difficult to say which of these two countermeasures is more reasonable, but one thing is certain: as time goes by, the resistance of the deep-sea aliens is gradually being worn away by endless escape. Maybe they can still survive today, but who says that one day, the religious group's rule over the ocean will not be as impenetrable as their rule over the land? By then, how should they deal with it when they have lost their true god-level combat power and will to resist?

Of course, these are all off-topic and have nothing to do with the current situation. After the members of the Ice Curtain Mage Corps arrived, they surrounded the Cloud Whale from different directions under the command of the commander and began to release two special sea magics, underwater breathing and deep sea adaptation. This was also the first time that everyone saw the mirror elves performing magic.

The mirror elves believe that the essence of their magic is to communicate with the great mother goddess Crystal Snow through the Origin Stone, asking her to bestow great divine power. Therefore, in the process of casting magic, in addition to the essential injection of magic power, they also need to supplement it with prayer gestures and obscure prayers.

Specifically, the gesture is to raise the crystal scepter with one hand, point the crystal ball on the top of the scepter at the target, and tilt the end of the scepter slightly to the location of the origin stone: forehead, shoulder or chest. If the origin stone is located in a special position, such as the back of the hand or back, it can be directly pointed at the heart; and the prayer to the crystal snow is spoken in the ancient Nordic language that no one can understand so far, and even the mirror elves themselves simply repeat it. A notable feature of this language is that the syllables change a lot, and the tone is prolonged at the end of each part, causing the whole prayer to sound like a sacred and solemn chant, resonating with the beating of blood and heart.

The three little girls leaned against the window in unison, curiously watching the mirror elves performing magic. At this time, the chanting of the mirror elves priests had reached a climax. They repeatedly chanted the ancient and solemn praise at the end of the prayer. Although there were only dozens of people, they aroused a mighty resonance that seemed to have come from infinite worlds and countless times, causing the originally calm sea to tremble, and huge waves rolled up at the edge of the Cloud Whale Sky Island.

With the little girls' meager knowledge, they naturally had no idea that the meaning of this praise was "We dedicate all our efforts to you, the great Crystal Snow". They only saw that the bodies of these Mirror Elf Priests were glowing - to be precise, the Origin Stones embedded in their bodies were emitting a faint blue phantom light: from the forehead, from the shoulders, from the chest, from the back of the hands... and the commander was glowing directly from the heart. The phantom glare dyed his skin and blood blue, as if he was covered with a sacred veil, making it difficult to look directly at.

As the magic was released, a circular barrier like a crystal wall gradually took shape, covering the Yunjingkong Island and its part under the sea. Inside this crystal barrier, everyone's appearance did not change much, but when they looked at the vast ocean again, they actually had a strong sense of attachment, as if they could blend into it and become a part of the deep sea.

These are the underwater breathing and deep-sea adaptability techniques that allow races on earth to move freely in the sea. They give life on earth the same racial talents as the mirror elves: absorbing oxygen from seawater, being able to adapt to different levels of pressure on the ground and in the deep sea, being able to see other things in the dark and lightless abyss... If Magellan had this ability during the great exploration period when he sailed to find the New World, he probably would not have been caught in a storm and stranded on a desert island.

"Then you can rest assured." Galene, who stayed on the island to show her sincerity, said to Nevill, "Would you please follow me to Nereids to meet Her Majesty the Queen?"

Having said that, Neviel would naturally not object. So, Galene ordered a few soldiers to stay here and explain the situation to the guests' companions after they came back. Then she took the remaining soldiers, rode a giant sea beast shaped like a seahorse, and led the way for Neviel and others in front. As for the priests of the Ice Curtain Mage Corps, they seemed to have exhausted their magic power and needed to rest in place and return to the city after recovery. After all, the Cloud Whale Sky Island was still too big. Even if underwater breathing and deep sea adaptation were both basic magic in the sea magic system, when the scale was expanded to an entire island, the consumption would still increase exponentially. During this period, Shelia was responsible for passing the message, so that Aovila, who was still studying literature in the room, and Yieta, who was basking in the sun by the windmill tower room, understood the whole story. So, seeing that everyone was ready, Yieta manipulated the Cloud Whale Sky Island floating under the blue bridge, slowly sank, and swam to the bottom of the sea.

The giant whale that once roamed the Saria Plains finally returned to the sea where it was supposed to roam.

……

at the same time.

In the sparsely populated Municipal Oceanographic Museum in the suburb of Helgoland in the city of Lothdana, Linger, who was viewing a specimen of a deep-sea monster fish, suddenly raised his head and looked towards the ocean, as if thinking about something.

Alice was lying on the display case playing a game with the strange fish specimen, and she didn't notice his abnormality. But Saint Charia noticed it, so she turned around and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong, Lingge?"

Lingge couldn't tell whether it was a premonition or an illusion. After all, he didn't use his grace magic. After a moment of silence, he finally shook his head and replied, "Nothing."

As he said this, he retracted his gaze and continued to observe the strange fish specimen in front of him, which looked full of postmodern art style and human abstractionism. Saint Xia Liya looked at his reaction, blinked, and suddenly remembered something, so she moved two steps towards him, and the two of them got closer, almost shoulder to shoulder. Then, she said slowly in a voice that only they could hear: "I know, Lingge."

"You are thinking about Miss Lorena, right?"

Ling Ge: “…”

Alice: “?”

She raised her nose and sniffed: Why is there a sour smell in the air? Is it because the specimen has been pickled?

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)