<Woo Jin/Brian POV>

’Seok... you better hurry up with that damn trident, or we are all going to die down here.’

The very moment that desperate thought crossed my mind, a golden light erupted from the darkness far behind the throne.

It wasn’t just a faint glow. It was a pillar of light that tore through the roof, cut through the deep water and shot upward toward the sky.

The force of the light sent a wave rushing across the palace floor.

That light told me exactly what I needed to know. Seok and the others had done it. They had successfully reached the altar and planted the trident right into its core.

’Heh, what a damn timing,’ I thought to myself, and a genuine smirk spread across my face. ’Anyway, thank you.’

"What?"

Trion’s shocked and bewildered voice reached my ears, and I slowly turned toward him. The prince was completely frozen, and his momentum had snapped to a sudden halt.

His hand was still stretched out in front of Vera, and his sharp talons were barely a few inches away from her face.

But he didn’t swing. Instead, his yellow reptilian eyes slowly drifted toward the blinding pillar of light behind us and traced it from the ceiling all the way down to the floor.

"How can this be?" Trion muttered as his once monstrous voice changed into a mix of disbelief and denial at what he was seeing right now. "They couldn’t have possibly defeated the Water Guardians."

Seeing him completely distracted and wide open, my smirk turned into a dark grin. I didn’t waste another second. I reached into my pocket.

Then, as soon as my fingers wrapped around the small black cloth with glowing white lines, I stepped in front of Vera as fast as my legs could push through the water.

"Woo Jin! No! Get back!"

Vera shouted behind me the moment she saw me leap past her to put myself between her and Trion.

Her eyes, which had been narrowed and murderous a second ago, widened in horror, and she reached out desperately to grab my arm. Her fingers brushed against the fabric of my shirt but missed it by a fraction of an inch.

She might have thought I was committing suicide. She might have thought the monster was going to tear me to pieces right in front of her.

Witnessing my sudden rush, Trion’s instincts also kicked in. He tried to yank his stretched-out hand back and intended to use the leverage to swing a counterattack at my skull.

But before he could even flex his muscles, I lunged forward and tied the black cloth directly onto his extended forearm in one swift motion.

"What?!" Trion’s voice was filled with immediate confusion.

Suddenly, the heavy weight of the fabric, something that could only be felt by the boss monsters of lower-ranked Gates, activated with full force.

Before the prince could even make sense of what it was, the artifact pulled his wrist toward the ground. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

CRASH!

His arm slammed against the solid floor and cracked the remaining tiles into tiny pieces. The momentum dragged his entire upper body down and forced the proud, world-ending Water Prince onto one knee right in front of me.

"Urrg... What is this?! What did you do to me?!"

Trion roared in frustration. He used his free hand to scratch and tear the fabric apart. He dug his sharp talons into the black cloth and pulled at it with all his strength, but he wasn’t able to break even a single thread.

Suddenly, the glowing white lines embedded in the cloth flared with a blinding light and locked his arm firmly to the floor.

As I stood there calmly watching his desperate struggles, I felt a sudden, familiar tug at my sleeve.

I shifted my gaze slightly and found Vera walking forward to stand right beside me. Her posture was no longer tense and terrifying. The bloodthirsty light that had begun to shine in her eyes right before the golden pillar erupted had completely faded away.

She had been right on the verge of letting her monster instincts take complete control over her mind, but now, seeing the villain reduced to a helpless mess on his knees, her deep worry and anger had subsided.

"What is happening, Brian?" she asked, her voice returning to the tone she always used when talking to me.

"Not much," I replied. "Just something I prepared beforehand. Everything went according to plan."

I had to use the cloth. I couldn’t risk letting Vera fight him while her dark monster instincts completely took over her sanity.

If she had lost control in her rage, she would have brutally torn Trion to shreds, destroying his entire body. And with it, she would have destroyed the very essence that contained the rare power I needed to extract for her.

After hearing my explanation, Vera let out a small, soft chuckle. It was a sweet and relaxed sound, but for Trion, it was the ultimate insult.

"You think a weakling like you can stop me?!" Trion screamed in madness.

He smashed his free fist onto the ground, trying to build up enough force to create a shockwave that would blow us away, but nothing happened.

Soon, the black aura pouring from his ripped-open chest began to get forcefully drawn toward the black cloth on his wrist. As the dark essence poured into it, the glowing white lines on the cloth slowly turned pitch black.

"Urrrg!"

Trion let out a loud, pained shout as his energy was drained from his body. The black spikes along his spine began to shrink, and the size of his mutated form withered away right before our eyes.

"What! Is! This! Stop it! Stop taking my power!"

Both Vera and I stood still, watching the one-sided extraction until the very last trace of his corrupted energy was completely pulled out of his frame.

The moment the extraction finished, the cloth untied itself automatically. It dissolved into the water and vanished completely.

Trion slumped forward, and his hands began trembling.

"Why... why am I suddenly feeling so weak?" he whispered as he stared at his shaking palms.

I didn’t answer him. Instead, I turned around to face Vera and reached out with both of my hands to gently grab her by her shoulders.

Looking at her face closely, I noticed a tiny drop of blood lingering at the corner of her lips from the exchange earlier.

Slowly, I raised my thumb and gently wiped the drop of blood away from her lip.

Then, guiding her carefully through the water, I walked her toward the stairs in front of the throne and sat her down on one of the steps.

"Wait here," I said, looking down into her wide eyes. "Just like I did when you fought."

Vera’s expression immediately changed, and her legs tensed slightly as if she were about to stand right back up.

She couldn’t bear the thought of sitting idly by, and her instincts told her she had to finish the enemy off herself to ensure my safety.

"But Woo Jin, he is still—"

"Hey," I interrupted her. "Look at me. I won’t let anything happen to me."

Before she could argue further, I placed the paper mask back over her head, covering her exposed face.

"It won’t take long," I murmured as I gave the top of her head a gentle pat.

Then, I turned around and started walking back toward Trion.

The fallen prince was currently in a state of absolute anger. He was desperately digging his long talons directly into his own chest, tearing his flesh apart in an attempt to reactivate his stolen powers.

But no matter how deep he clawed, only normal merman blood came out of the wounds. There was no black aura anymore.

"Hey, stop doing that," I said, and my deep voice cut through his frantic splashing. "Now, you are nothing more than a normal merman."

Trion stopped scratching his chest. He slowly looked up toward me with his bloodshot eyes, and then he suddenly began laughing hysterically.

"Hahaha! Hahaha!"

While laughing, his lips curled into a mocking grin as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"What? Are you going to fight me now, you pathetic weakling? Shoo! Go away! Send your woman over if you don’t want to die in a single strike!"

I stopped a few feet away from him and raised my dagger while holding it loosely in my right hand.

Underneath my paper bag, my blue eyes began to shine with faint light, and gradually, a sharp pain spread through my fingers.

Crack.

My nails elongated into black claws, my muscles tightened beneath my skin, and the water around me suddenly felt lighter.

"Don’t worry," I whispered. My voice dropped into a chillingly quiet tone. "You won’t be able to feel a bit of difference between her and me."

At that exact instant, as I finished speaking, a system screen manifested right in front of my eyes.

[Skill ’Shared Evolution (Rare)’ Activated!]

[A portion of the Host’s wife’s mutations may now be used by the Host for a certain amount of time.]

[Time Remaining: 30 Secs]