After seeing the cursed sword write 'North' on the wall, Lucien and his wives are shocked. Mira and Kamala have no idea what that means, but by having chosen to go south instead of the north a minute ago, Lucien doesn't doubt what that message means.
"She must feel the other Mermaid Royalty member." l.u.s.t comments.
"Saria?" Lucien asks at the same time that he also believes in that.
"I guess so." l.u.s.t responders.
"She?" Mira asks in confusion. "Are you talking about the cursed weapon? And how could 'she' feel Saria?"
Lucien hadn't talked about the Ghost Lady before as the sword disappeared into the purple world after the encounter with Leviathan. There were so many things on his mind that he just forgot the poor cursed sword.
But now that they're in the Mermaid Kingdom, the Ghost Lady may become relevant again. Lucien is especially curious to know how a Mermaid became a cursed weapon and why she became famous in the angel world, Qia.
So, wasting no time, he explains to Mira and Kamala how he found the diary of Adeline and the Ghost Lady in Argerim.
"Oh." Mira looks surprised, but she also seems to have understood something. "So that fox girl ran away to your world..."
"Did you know Adeline?" l.u.s.t asks.
"Adeline?" She shakes her head. "I didn't know that was her name, and no, I didn't really know her. All I know is a story about how two Fox princesses helped Nea save our world."
"Can you tell us that story?" Lucien asks. Despite wanting to get to Saria quickly and stop the war, he prefers to know what he's getting himself into first.
"Of course." Mira quickly starts telling him everything she knows. "That was a little over a thousand years ago; Tyrion had already stolen my power, and I could do nothing."
She continues. "The Mermaid Kingdom was as strong as the Naga Kingdom, or even stronger than us. But then our world was invaded by an army of angels."
"Angels??" Helena is confused as she doesn't remember knowing about such an attack.
"Yes." Mira nods. "I was in the capital of the Naga Kingdom, at the bottom of the sea, but everything was reported to us by spies."
"Hmmm..." Helena doesn't doubt Mira's words, although she still doesn't understand how that happened. "Do you know who led that attack?"
"The Water G.o.ddess." Mira responds, shocking Helena even more.
Even Lucien makes an annoyed expression while Helena looks furious. "The Water G.o.ddess?? Are you sure???"
Mira can see they don't like the Water G.o.ddess, but she still wants to be sure. "Well, that's what Nea sent her messenger to report when she asked for help to defend our world. Do you know that G.o.ddess?"
Helena feels her heart ache, but then Lucien holds her hand, making her feel warm again. "The Water G.o.ddess destroyed my family, not just once but three times."
"You will get your revenge; I promised you that." Lucien speaks to Helena, making her smile.
"Nea would certainly join you in this revenge." Mira comments. "She's definitely not a vindictive person, but that G.o.ddess took the most precious thing from her..."
"Her daughter, right?" l.u.s.t asks.
"Yes..." Mira responds while getting sad for Nea. "We of the Seven Stars should always help each other as a great alliance, but things aren't that simple."
"When our world was attacked, the Mermaids were the first people to face our enemies." Mira continues. "Nea quickly sought help from our allies, starting with my people."
"But Tyrion said that no Naga would leave out from behind the protective tree before allies of the other Stars came..." She sigh. "I wanted to help Nea, but I didn't even have the strength to face someone from Sky Realm, let alone that angel army lead by a High G.o.ddess."
Lucien understands that she couldn't do anything in that situation. "But what about your allies from the other Stars? They should help, right? Especially the Vampires."
"It's neither easy nor cheap to move armies between worlds." l.u.s.t comments.
Mira nods. "Yes, we knew our allies would come at some point, but the Water G.o.ddess was attacking right then. Nea asked for help from the other Stars, especially the Yellow, and Brown."
"However, the Yellow Star is a big desert full of death; no one there answered her request..." Mira explains.
"What about the Brown Star?" Lucien asks. "I thought you guys had a good relations.h.i.+p."
Mira makes a sad expression. "My people have always preferred to live in the deepest parts of the ocean, and Tyrion has further worsened any good relations we had."
"But the Mermaids are the opposite." She continues. "They are kind creatures and loved by everyone. Their relations.h.i.+ps have always been especially good with the Fox people, yet..."
"At that time, the people of Brown Star were suffering from a kind of civil war." She explains. "Almost everyone there is a demi-human fox type, so their royalty is quite large, with a complex house system."
"I don't know much about them." Mira comments. "But from what I understand, there was a major split between the King and the Queen families."
"They were fighting for power and influence when they received Nea's request for help. The King wanted to stop the war between their people and help the Mermaids, but the Queen saw that as an opportunity to turn the fox people against him."
"The King knew that eventually, everyone would realize that fighting to defend the Blue Star was also fighting for our alliance, but that prevented him from being able to send troops right away, forcing Nea to face the angel army alone for longer."
Lucien can't help but be upset. "What's the point of an alliance if your allies don't come to your help when you need it most?"
Mira agrees. "That's what the Fox King claimed. But he was also in a tough situation because the Queen had more supporters than he."
"Yet, that didn't stop the second fox princess from coming to help Nea," Mira explains. "She was a personal friend of Nea and her eldest daughter, Kaisa."
"!!!" When Mira says that name, the Ghost Lady flies around her in a very strange way.
They look at the cursed sword with confused expressions, but after it has gone still in midair, Lucien speaks. "What happens next? How did the second fox princess help the Mermaids?"
"What the Mermaids expected were troops, but only one woman came with the second fox princess, her sister, the seventh fox princess." Mira explains.
"The seventh fox princess was much younger and weaker than the second princess, but they were both willing to die to defend the Mermaids, which thrilled Nea." She continues.
"But Nea knew that without more help, they would fall, and the Water G.o.ddess would get whatever she came for here. Things looked really bad for the Mermaids..."
Mira looks into Lucien's eyes with a sincere expression. "All I know are the stories that reached the Naga Kingdom, so I can't say for sure what really happened."
"I understand." He responds.
So she continues. "Apparently, the second fox princess and Kaisa were very close, and together they brought a plan to Nea. They had a kind of enchantment that used dark magic to create powerful weapons of ultimate destruction, tools that could suppress the Water G.o.ddess and her angel army."
"The cursed swords sisters that Alexa is looking for!" Helena thinks aloud.
Mira looks at her with a confused expression. "Yeah, reports from those who witnessed that battle say the weapons were swords."
Then she looks at Lucien. "But first, you must understand that Nea was against that; I am sure of it as she is the kindest woman I know and would not agree to such a plan..."
"But I don't think she had that option." Mira sighs. "The stories say Nea was against the plan as she would not allow some Mermaids to use dark magic, corrupting their soul to save other Mermaids."
"However..." She pauses before continuing. "About that, there are different versions of this story, where some say it was Kaisa and others are sure it was the second fox princess who insisted on that plan."
"Anyway, they ignored Nea's orders and performed such an obscure ritual..." She looks really sorry as she speaks. "Kaisa and the second fox princess did everything alone and sacrificed their own souls to generate the cursed weapons that saved our world."
When saying that, Mira looks at the Ghost Lady, motionless in the air, and a thought appears in her mind. [Is it a coincidence?]
"How exactly did the cursed weapons save this world?" Helena asks.
"As I said, I can't say for sure about it since I wasn't there in person," Mira speaks again. "What was said is that Nea's heart bled until turn the eastern sea's waters in red."
Helena knows what kind of suffering that is like. "I also lost my daughter..."
"Kaisa wasn't just Nea's beloved daughter," Mira explains. "At that time, Saria was just a young child; Kaisa was strong, loyal, kind... a perfect copy of Nea. She was the future of the Mermaids."
"Losing Kaisa was like losing half of her heart." Mira continues. "Not just Nea, but the whole Mermaids Race went into a depression... that really felt like the end of them."
"But when all seemed lost, Nea had to be strong for her people. She couldn't let the sacrifice of Kaisa and the second fox princess be in vain, so using the pain and anger that consumed her heart, she managed to wield both cursed swords and bear the full weight of their pain."
Mira stares at the Ghost Lady as she continues. "Alone, those swords were just usual cursed weapons... But together, they managed to create something surreal, an energy as powerful as evil, which used as a bridge, the body and soul of the person who wielded them."
"Nea..." Lucien can't imagine how much pain that woman suffered.
"Yes, Nea..." Mira nods. "I believe that only someone with a soul as pure and a heart as benevolent as Nea could wield both those cursed weapons without succ.u.mbing to the corruption of darkness."
She continues. "And using that power of sheer destruction, Nea delivered a blow that destroyed half the angel army and made the whole Blue Star tremble."
"No way!" l.u.s.t can't believe someone from the peak Immortal Realm could make a whole medium world shake.
"That I can testify," Nea speaks with determination. "Even in the capital of the Naga Kingdom, all the other Naga and I felt when everything shook; I knew something big had happened but I didn't know it was of such magnitude."
"Was such the power of those cursed weapons?" Lucien asks.
"Not just that." Mira answers. "After destroying half the angel army, Nea fought for days against the Water G.o.ddess while the other Mermaids killed the rest of the angels."
"I bet the battle was really tough." l.u.s.t comments. "High G.o.ds are extremely powerful creatures... You have no idea; they're like us, the Sins, at our best, like h.e.l.l these days... even like that Leviathan."
"Indeed." Mira nods. "But Nea did the impossible; using the sacrifice of her daughter and the second fox princess, she pushed the Water G.o.ddess to the limit, and that abominable woman ran away when the last angel's corpse fell into the sea."
"Incredible!" Helena knows how powerful the Water G.o.ddess is, so she respects Nea a lot, not only for her character but also for the strength she had to overcome that pain and defend her people.
"What happened next?" l.u.s.t and Lucien ask at the same time.
"Those swords generated such destructive power by fusing their energies..." Mira explains. "But the amount of energy grew wildly, and soon the bridge between them began to crumble."
Her expression gets sad again. "In other words, Nea's body and soul began to break... She was almost imploding but refused to let go of Kaisa... She couldn't lose that last fragment of her daughter's soul."
"It was then that the Water Spirit appeared again. She took the cursed swords from Nea's hands and banished them from this world for the sake of everyone."
"The story is pretty vague in this part, but it looks like the vampires finally arrived, along with our other allies. But instead of helping, they tried to get those cursed swords to themself."
"The Water Spirit couldn't carry the two cursed swords together as even her soul would crumble, so she took one of the swords while the seventh fox princess offered to hide the other in a place no one would find."
"A distant inferior world..." l.u.s.t comments.
"Argerim." Helena completes her words.
Lucien looks at the Ghost Lady with a sorry and surprised expression. "So this cursed sword is probably..."
"Kaisa," Mira speaks. "Well, at least this is the result of her soul sacrifice."