Surrounded by eight Nagas from the Immortal Realm's early stages, even someone from the fifth layer of the Immortal Realm and with a powerful heritage as Saria shouldn't be really calm.
If those eight captains attacked at the same time, she could block two of them, yet the other six could hit her. And even if her treasures and natural defenses blocked that damage, it would be nearly impossible to prevent at least one of them from harming her.
And after one of them hurt her, the others would keep attacking until they suppressed her with brute force. Even if some of them died, they could actually defeat the great Mermaid Princess.
With that thought in mind, those eight Naga captains try to take Saria's concentration down with intimidating threats before attacking with everything they have.
Using their best abilities and attacks on a close target can be quite dangerous as they can also hurt each other, but such risk is worth it to defeat the future leader of the Mermaids and also capture one of the most beautiful women in the Blue Star.
So without wasting any time, the eight Naga captains begin their attacks. Some of them attack with soul weapons while the others cast powerful spells, or rather, they try.
But before they notice, Saria's eyes glow bright blue, and her aura explodes with all the power of her fifth layer of the Immortal Realm plus her powerful water mana and royal inheritance ability.
Water bubbles of the same magical blue color from some parts of her body appear around those eight captains, trapping them immediately.
As they despair, Saria smiles. "So talking is all you can do? Tsk... I don't know how my people have been oppressed by people like you. Oh, I remember, it all started when half of us died to defend our world, and you were just hiding behind the barriers of your sacred tree; You are such cowards!"
The harsh truth of those words doesn't even offend those captains, as they are more concerned with saving their lives than maintaining any pride.
The one among them most fearful uses a lightning spell with all his power to try to break the water bubble, but that seems indestructible, and his magic ends up electrifying him to death.
"Tsk, tsk..." Saria shakes her head with a disappointed expression. "You should not have done that."
"..." The other seven Naga captains are speechless. They were sure they had the upper hand against Saria, but with just one ability, she trapped them all, and the one who tried to escape died horribly.
"Holy s.h.i.+t!" Lucien exclaims and laughs at his own reaction as he watches the fight from above the sea. "She is really strong."
He had to leave the Ghost Lady in the purple world as the sword became too agitated as he approached Saria. Lucien still doesn't know how to approach the Mermaid Princess and doesn't want to interfere in her fight yet, either.
Now, he can't help but compare Saria with Kamala as they seem to have a similar power level. And even though Kamala is younger and was a layer higher than Saria when she and Lucien first met, she doesn't look as strong as the Mermaid Princess.
"This is because of her royal lineage." l.u.s.t explains. "Kamala certainly inherited some of the power of Mira's royal bloodline, but she hasn't yet awakened that ability, probably due to her age."
"Saria, on the other hand, seems not only to have awakened the power of her royal bloodline, but she already has splendid control over it." She concludes.
Lucien doesn't know much about royal bloodlines and inherited abilities, but he does know how impactful his and l.u.s.t's energies can be on any kind of power.
So he can't help but imagine how powerful Saria could be if she became his wife. Also, having an incredibly powerful, talented, beautiful, and gentle Mermaid Princess as a wife doesn't look bad.
But then the image of the jealous and upset expressions of Mira, Amelia, Sophia, l.u.s.t, and especially Envy pops into his mind, and he uses his good sense to appease such greedy cravings for the sake of his already significant number of wives.
In the sea, Saria feels a strange sensation and looks up. She can't see the sky clearly, but she notices a red dot near the clouds, which makes her very curious.
But at the same time, she notices the four thousand Naga blackguards approaching the center of the battle, led by Mira. She has never seen Mira in person, but the royal bloodline inside her body essentially screams in reaction to the royal bloodline of the Naga Queen and Kamala.
"The Queen???" Saria thinks aloud.
Mira does as Lucien planned and starts creating a barrier around the Nagas while the blackguards just try to defend their people, not attacking the Mermaids.
[What are they doing??] Saria thinks.
Although Mira, Kamala, another mysterious woman, and even a tiger have appeared with thousands of powerful blackguards out of nowhere, Saria is still confident that her great Mermaids army cannot be defeated.
But as she doesn't want to waste time with those seven captains, she summons her soul weapon, a beautiful bright blue sword, or rather a rapier very similar to the Ghost Lady.
From above the sea, Lucien can see Saria's hands shaking a little. Even though her ability is so powerful, she's making a great effort to keep those seven Immortal Realm Nagas trapped.
She approaches one of those captains, and the guy gets even more desperate. Then she points her rapier at him and looks up.
"???" The inquisitive expression on Saria's face makes Lucien think she's looking into his eyes, but l.u.s.t makes it clear that she shouldn't be able to do anything more than just a red dot from that distance due to the seawater.
He makes no move, and Saria pushes her rapier forward in a delicate and mortal move. The blue blade pierces the magical water bubble as if it doesn't exist, just as it pierces the Naga captain's body, taking his life right away.
The magic water bubble fills with blood, turning red until it explodes, scattering that man's remains in the water.
The other Naga captains are even more terrified, but Saria seems pretty calm. She even looks up again, waiting for any reaction from that mysterious figure.
But Lucien still doesn't make a move. He just stands there, looking at that scene with a thoughtful expression. "It's strange to see a creature who's naturally so kind take lives coldly."
"Each person is different from the other even if they are of the same race." l.u.s.t comments. "Yet, I believe this Mermaid is acting like this due to various years of suffering and a powerful influence..."
"Greed?" Lucien asks. From what he heard from Rupa, the mysterious human who is probably one of his sisters is Saria's best friend, so it's easy to imagine that a Sin is influencing her like Envy influenced Dawn through Amelia.
l.u.s.t nods. "Yes, I feel a lot of Greed's demonic energy in her."
"Hmmm..." Lucien looks curious as he wonders. "What's she like? I mean Greed."
"She hates being compared to Envy." l.u.s.t smiles. "But they're pretty similar, especially in personality."
Lucien sighs as he becomes concerned. "Should I expect trouble?"
"For sure!" l.u.s.t quickly responds. "Like Envy, Greed will do anything to get what she wants. But the difference between them is in the relations.h.i.+p with others around them."
"Envy wants things that other people crave, and her power comes from how powerful those desires are." l.u.s.t explains. "Greed, on the other hand, wants everything that s.h.i.+nes and is precious, that is, things everyone wants."
Then she hugs Lucien around his neck and starts giving tap kisses on his lips while smiling. "And you s.h.i.+ne brightly like a sun, as well as being the reason for many women to live, including me."
"You s.h.i.+ne like a sun for me, too, my precious gem." Lucien smiles and kisses l.u.s.t pa.s.sionately.
They both just want to ignore everything around them and f.u.c.k for days non-stop, but there's a war going on, and they hear Saria swimming to the surface after killing the other six Naga captains.
"The Mermaids Princess just pops her head out of the water and looks up before speaking in a loud, clear tone. "Are you going to keep hiding in there?"
l.u.s.t goes back into Lucien's soul so as not to influence Saria during their conversation, so he descends from the clouds towards her.
"I wasn't hiding..." He speaks as he looks at her without hiding how fascinated he is by her beauty and strength. "I just wanted to enjoy the show without getting in your way."
Saria, instead, tries so hard to hide that she is also fascinated by his look in a way she never was. And despite feeling his Earth Realm aura, all her senses tell her he's much stronger than he looks.
"Did you like what you saw??" She asks about the death of the Naga captains. "I thought you were with the Naga Queen since you guys showed up at the same time..."
'She is smart.' l.u.s.t comments in Lucien's mind because Saria recognized Mira so quickly.
He smiles. "Yes, I'm with Mira, or rather she is with me."
Saria is really confused, not only about Lucien's peculiar look but also about his relations.h.i.+p with Mira. "Really? I just killed eight Naga captains, and you didn't do anything..."
"Huh?" Lucien makes a fake confused expression. "Do you want a reward? Maybe a compliment… or even a kiss?"
A man's provocation shouldn't have any effect on Saria, and she showed it by keeping her composure even after those insults from the Naga captains.
But something about Lucien makes him look unlike any other man, person, and creature Saria has ever seen. Maybe it's his look, mysterious aura, something she doesn't understand yet, or a mix of everything, but either way, she can't stop strange thoughts from forcing their way inside her head.
Strange questions arise in her mind, like what would it be like to kiss that perfect mouth of his? Or why even from that distance, she feels his devilishly delicious fragrance?
Saria is very confused, but by seeing that Lucien isn't just going to give her answers so easily, she shakes her head and uses all her will to focus on what's important again.
"Screw this s.h.i.+t." She exclaims before diving towards the battle again, ignoring Lucien.
Now he makes a really surprised expression as l.u.s.t materializes her body in front of him and starts laughing. "Hahahaha... is this your face when a woman ignores you???"
Lucien sighs, disappointed in himself, as he knows he was the one to blame for ruining his first impression with Saria.
Maybe it's because he's been 'giving' a lot of kisses recently that he's gotten too confident in his seduction skills. And Saria is definitely far superior to any ordinary woman and also not having had any contact with him to be directly affected by his charm.
l.u.s.t continues to laugh as she wonders about how any woman would regret ignoring Lucien but also understands that for most of them, it's better to get away from him before it's impossible not to fall in love with him.
"Let me guess..." She speaks as she looks into his eyes. "Your ego didn't like that at all, and now seducing the poor Mermaid Princess is your life's mission?"
"Do you think I'm that frivolous?" He asks.
"Of course not." l.u.s.t honestly responds, but then she smiles teasingly. "But it wouldn't hurt to make her beg for that reward kiss, you know..."
"..." Lucien shakes his head as he smiles, ignores l.u.s.t's idea, and dives into the water after Saria.
"Wait!" She exclaims as she goes after him. "You can't lie to me; I know you want to see her ask for that kiss too!"