The Record of Unusual Creature

The moment Hao Ren heard Shaqira’s description, he could not help but exclaim, “Did you say a brain?!”

Shaqira was shocked by Hao Ren’s voice and her tail instantly wrapped around Wuyue’s, leading the latter to let out a strange yelp. As she released her grip, she looked at Hao Ren in surprise. “What’s with the brain? What do you know?”

As soon as Hao Ren opened his mouth, a bullet train of questions came out, “How big is the brain? How do its tentacles look like? How did it fight when you engaged it? How did—”

His series of questions had Shaqira in a whirpool of confusion. She motioned for Hao Ren to slow down. “Stop, stop, stop…. I can’t digest all of it at once. You mean to say you’ve seen the sea monster before? Do you know where it came from?”

Hao Ren bore a serious look as he nodded. “I didn’t just see one, I’ve taken one out myself… Hmm… More like a split body, but frankly speaking, that thing shouldn’t have appeared on Earth.”

Shaqira noticed the grim seriousness on everyone’s face and realized that this was something important. She then proceeded to describe what the monster looked like in detail, and brought up the process of the monster’s subjugation. “The monster suddenly crashed through the aquadome and landed in the middle of the city. No one had seen such a thing before and anyone around it turned delirious. The monster could also attack by casting magic with its tentacles, and the damage was rather considerable. After a while, the Queen and her royal guards came to subdue the monster. They locked it in the cell, but after that, the Queen started acting strange.”

“Your queen and her guards actually caught the thing?” Vivian bore a serious expression as well. “How did she do that?”

Shaqira shook her head. “I don’t know. All the information we had were from the soldiers who were present. Seems like the Queen used magic to subdue the brain creature. I wasn’t there though.”

Hao Ren found something rather off at first, but as he heard more and more, the whole thing just seemed awfully suspicious.

Aside from the part where the pacifist sirens could actually put up enough of a fight to subdue the brain—maybe there were some combat specialists among her royal gurards who could take the monster on—the question was, why did the Siren Queen started to act strangely after the monster was defeated?

Hao Ren had encountered the “brain monster” before, and while he knew that the monster was capable of very powerful mental assaults, they would not last long. The attacks could be stopped simply by drawing distance or eliminating the monster itself. Yet, the queen continued to act all strange after the defeat of the monster, and after 100 years, made the odd, but fateful decision to apprehend her own messengers. This led to only one possibility: the queen was still being influenced by the brain monster, and it was worsening.

“You lot didn’t vanquish the monster, right?” The same thing crossed Vivian’s mind and she popped the question before Hao Ren could.

Shaqira shook her head again. “No, it was still alive when I left 100 years ago. The queen had it locked in the deepest dungeon underneath the city. She said something about studying the monster.”

Vivian gave Hao Ren a motioning glance, and the two went upstairs to the balcony.

“Looks like the Siren Queen is under the monster’s thrall,” Hao Ren spoke solemnly. “The prophecy doesn’t seem to be the siren’s own, but a projection of the monster’s will.”

Vivian nodded softly. “If I’m not wrong… the Day of Return message that’s circulating right now is simply misinformation. The real meaning of ‘return’ is not what the otherworldlings think. Remember the Cult of Origination back in Holletta? I’m afraid that’s what the ‘return’ actually means.”

“‘Return your own flesh and blood, return your life to the goddess. Let the world and all life return to a swill of chaos, hence the sin of life is redeemed,’” Hao Ren recalled the insanity that was the Cult of Origination’s scripture. “Both the Siren Queen and the Cult of Origination have that giant brain thingy behind them… Looks like the brain’s goal is to return all of the goddess’ creation back to chaos. But why?”

“Who knows. Their brains were probably way too big for their own good and they lost a few nervous connections in the process?” Vivian quipped. “But there are many things still left unexplained. Why did the Siren Queen’s prophecy so muddled? Most otherworldlings made preparations to return home once they heard the prophecy. It’s way different from the whole idea of ‘return your own flesh and blood’. And how did that brain even come to Earth? Why did it choose the sirens, a reclusive race as its mouthpiece? Why not a race that’s much more influential? No matter what its plan is for the otherworldlings, starting from land is much easier than the sea. Just look at how reliable the sirens were when they first made it to shore…”

Hao Ren really took to the last part of what Vivian said. Those harmless Sirens could do anything but plot a scheme. Just looking at how that batch of sirens ended up, and then at Shaqira was proof…

Hao Ren rubbed his chin as he pondered. “Perhaps the Queen wasn’t fully under the monster’s thrall when she made the prophecy. Or, the monster was simply fishing for bigger fish, like how it had created a secret cult back in Holletta. So, it actually underestimated how the otherworldlings on Earth operated and overestimated how effective the sirens were at doing things. As for how it came to Earth…”

He thought about it for a moment before his expression turned serious. “I’m afraid that there are other gateways into the Plane of Dreams. And one of them’s in the deep sea.”

Of course, Hao Ren had no explanation as to why the sirens were made the mouthpiece. He had not figured out why Raven 12345 made a silly bugger like him her mouthpiece in the first place…

After a while the two made their way back to the living room and saw Shaqira playfully tail-wrestling with Wuyue. Hao Ren was immediately reminded of snakes doing their thing, and quickly coughed to draw their attention. “Ahem, Shaqira, I have a question. Can you bring us into the deep sea?”

It took Shaqira a good few moments to process that. “The deep sea?”

“The city of the Sirens.” Hao Ren made a sincere gesture. “Don’t reject me outright. Hear me out first. That brain monster is a very dangerous creature. It has plans to destroy all life and I’m afraid that your city is in deep peril. I’ve faced that monster before, and I know how it operates. It may have controlled your queen, so you’ll need to bring us there. Perhaps we can do something about it.”

Shaqira was dumbfounded, but seeing Hao Ren’s expression, she knew he was not joking. Upon recalling the things had happened to her, she started to ponder.

Wuyue used her tail to gently wrap around Shaqira’s. “Believe me, we mean you no harm. Besides, I want to see how my hometown looks like too… Mother always warned me to stay away from the deep sea. She was probably from a few batches earlier than yours. Maybe she had already sensed that something was wrong with the Queen and forbade me from leaving land.

Hao Ren only recalled the matter the moment Wuyue mentioned it. As a result, this expedition now felt even more important. He looked Shaqira in the eye. “I know that sirens don’t like to be disturbed by outsiders, but the situation demands action. You’ve already been hunted once, if you don’t get to the bottom of this, do you plan on hiding your entire life?”

The rest joined in on talking some sense into her as well. “Lady, listen to me, you need to adapt to your surroundings. Holding on to dead rules and regulations will not get you anywhere.”

A newspaper-wielding demon king was trying to talk sense into a siren. This scene was probably so ludicrous that you would not have seen it anywhere else other than in the telly.

Shaqira deliberated for a good while before she finally sighed. “You speak sense, and bringing a few outsiders into the city isn’t too big a thing. Nonetheless, I have a question… Can just the few of you… settle this?”

It appeared that the biggest issue was not the laws of the deep, it was Shaqira’s disbelief that this group could be of any help. She did not doubt that something was wrong back home, and she was very aware of it. She was also willing to believe that the group meant her no harm as they had just healed her wounds. She just did not believe that they had any sort of capability to resolve the issue in her city.