Translator: Jade
Editor: Cheonsa, notthepineapple
Heads up!
Hii, so in case you aren’t aware, I made a blunder and missed out 2 pages of text for chapter 62 :c I’ll be continuing on from where I last left off, then continue on to chapter 63. Thanks for understanding, and happy reading!
Chapter 62
“Don’t touch me, Rhine. Just as you can see, I already am not a human being, so it’s best that you stay away from me!” I lifted my ruthless eyes and stared at him attentively, but he still continued in trying to subdue me. The second he had the needlepoint ready in the air, he unforgivingly stabbed toward my body.
I spared no effort to block his arm, causing the syringe to fly out of his hand. However, due to geographical disadvantage, my body was still trapped in a corner, with Rhine’s larger body trapping me in place. My hands that had just been dislocated had now become my biggest disadvantage, making me momentarily unable to compete with him.
Rhine held my head in a death grip, forcing me to look up by holding my jaw, his heavy breathing still thick with the scent of alcohol. His eyes seemed to be burning with fire, “Desharow, I don’t care what you’re turning into, don’t even think about escaping from my hands, do you understand?”
As Rhine said that, he lowered his head to kiss me, however, I mustered up all of my strength to lift my head and slam it against his forehead firmly. Simultaneously, a strange power in a form of airflow bubbled up within me, filling every root of my veins.
Unexpectedly, I even heard the crackling sound of electricity burned on skins, along with an explosion of small sparks that suddenly burst in the air before my eyes. Rhine was caught off guard, and in the next moment, he was slammed harshly against the wall.
Flabbergasted, Rhine gaped at me like he had met the devil. It didn’t stop him, however, and he once again leaped toward me with unwillingness. I quickly jumped onto the bed and lunged towards him, straddling his body until he was knocked hard against the wall again. I used this chance to elbow him hard on his head and almost instantly, I felt his body becoming soft and he finally collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
I bent down to pick him up by his collar and even give him another kick or two. When I confirmed that he had really fainted, I flipped him over and quickly took his gun and key. I also took off his clothes and put them on, before finally giving him a taste of his own medicine by shackling him to the headboard.
I really wanted to kill this Nazi lunatic who erased my nationality and destroyed my future, but as I held the cold gun in my hand and aimed at his head, I realised that killing someone was easier said than done, for I didn’t had the natural deposition of an emotionless killer.
I had already flicked off the safety bolt on the gun and was pointing it onto his temples but my hands were trembling slightly. In my heart, I knew that if I didn’t get rid of him now, it would create a bigger obstacle in the future, however the sound of patrolling footsteps from outside the door brought me back to reality, reminding me that I definitely mustn’t do it at this moment.
Once the gunfire sounded, the other people would barge in here and once they realised that Rhine had died by my hands, I would really have no chance of escaping.
Examining these thoughts, I couldn’t help but feel relieved that I didn’t have to kill anyone with my own two hands, however, to ensure that Rhine remained unconscious for at least two days, I struck him hard on the head with the gun handle a couple of times and even picked up the fluid-loaded syringe he had wanted to use on me earlier and injected it into his bloodstream.
Enjoy sleeping here for a few days, bastard. I patted his face before placing the gun into my back pocket, looked out the window, and waited patiently. When the armed men patrolling nearby looked tired and became negligent, I broke the glass with my elbow neatly, and then, like a flexible fish, I slipped through and landed on the lower deck, but the scene below me immediately gave me a huge fright.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
I was on the roof of the lower deck, and below my feet was a closed sliding hatch door with a round convex glass window in the center displaying the captured merman trapped inside.
Chapter 63
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I looked around my surroundings, apparently, no one had noticed me yet, so I used this to my advantage and stooped down to examine the hatch door’s handle, only to discover that it had been fastened shut by a heavy metal lock. I fished out Rhine’s set of keys and tried them one by one, but found that none of them matched.
Currently, I couldn’t think of any other way to set these merfolk free other than breaking the glass. However, if I made any detectable movements, I’d be caught and beaten to a pulp by the armed men surrounding the perimeter before I can even break one of them out. But I needed the merfolk’s help, or at least just one of them so that I could hurry and find Nakamiya as soon as possible.
I could only release the one before me because I was sure that he was human before and that he knew about the conspiracy we were involved in; we could benefit from each other better.
“Hey, I’ll help you get out but you can’t act rashly. You have to immediately escape to sea with me. I need your help to find Nakamiya so I can save your people, do you understand what I’m saying? What’s your name?” I moved closer to the glass as I spoke in a soft tone, using my not so completely forgotten Japanese to communicate.
He looked at me and his dark pair of eyes lit up. He nodded his head vigorously, lips moving, making out a few syllabus, “Yukimura.”
I wasn’t sure if I heard it correctly or not, but I just repeated, “Okay, Yukimura.”
We didn’t have a moment to lose, we had to take action before dawn breaks. Calculating the distance between here and the sea, we needed to run a few meters across the open deck and jump over a couple of railings, but this process would make us vulnerable to snipers. I had to make a little chaos to distract their attention, which wouldn’t be a hard task with the help of my night vision.
Thinking this, I took out the gun from my back pocket and looked down at Yukimura, signaling that once I shatter the glass he had to get out immediately. He gave me a nod of acknowledgment and proceeded to hide in a corner where the bullet wouldn’t reach him, waiting for me to shoot. Then, I hid behind something that obstructed me from being easily detected by those armed men. I turned my head to one side and took aim at the other end of the ship, pulling the trigger.
The bullet immediately caused a disturbance at the other end of the ship and waves of shouts flared up not too far away. Taking advantage of the disturbances on the other end, I pointed my gun at the circular sliding glass window in front and shot another bullet. The glass started to crack after I heard the bang and with that, I added in a few kicks and thumps before it shattered entirely into a million pieces.
With a loud stir from below, Yukimura broke out from the water. Before I could even react, I saw a jade blue fishtail brushing past my body, along with a hand grabbing onto my collar, jumping up from the deck into an incredible large arc and straight into the sea, plunging into the water below like an icicle breaking.
Hail of bullets chased us from above, I was able to catch a glimpse of a flickering blaze out of the corner of my eye before I was quickly engulfed by the darkness of the deep sea. Once everything had become quieter, Yukimura grabbed me and swam up again, but I knew that once we reached the surface, we wouldn’t be in the same place anymore.
I saw that we were shuttling through a cave towards the cliff, where the island was submerged in the water. The cave was small and narrow inside, leaving Yukimura with no other choice but to let go of my collar, and for me to follow after him. The mottled light fluctuated within the deep waters, similar to that of a mystifying dreamland which made my thoughts drift away along with the lights involuntarily. Yukimura, who was in front of me, was swimming at an extraordinary pace but his tail was moving in a way that appeared graceful and natural, his blue scales tossing out blue ripples, making it look like a small river of stars.
If I wasn’t aware of the situation we are in right now, I absolutely wouldn’t think that he was once a human being like me. According to the year in that old woman’s story, the time her son, Yukimura, had spent in the ocean as a merman amounted to nearly sixty years, he had probably already adapted to this lifestyle long ago. Would that mean that how Yukimura currently was, would how I would be in the future?
Even if I may have already developed feelings for Agares, it doesn’t mean that I could accept the fact that I was turning into a merman; to leave my homeland forever, my heritage and head into their world, to be like how Yukimura was now. He should also have been reluctant to renounce his humanity, for he had gone back to see his mother, but then unexpectedly got kidnapped and taken advantage of by Mr. Shinichi’s group.
However, my body was already experiencing the mutation, so if I refused to go with Agares into his world (aside from the fact that he would forcibly bring me along), just where could I go in this world? Would my hometown and school still admit me, would I be able to return to human society? In this big world, where else could I find a place to call home?
As I questioned myself with a perplex and confused mind, the space around me gradually started to open up, the halo above became more concentrated, and its dappled lights amassed together into one whole sheet like the surface area of a blue glass plane. It appeared to be a lake from the heart of the island above our heads
Yukimura led me to swim upward, and soon, we reached the surface. I realised that we arrived at an enormous cave entrance, or perhaps I could say that we were already inside the cave since it was a cave within a cave. If they didn’t have a guide, those Nazis would have had a difficult time finding themself here, because there wasn’t any other entrance, except for the underwater one.
This cave was approximately 200 feet high, looking murky and pitch black, like being inside the body of a prehistoric creature. But as I looked around, I could only use the insect’s that were emitting glimmers to determine it’s floor area.
The cave definitely wasn’t formed naturally, the lake we were residing in contained many white remnants of collapsed ruins which very well looked to be man-made. There were also some blue light orbs made from an unknown source floating on the water surface, spaced a few meters away from one another. It was like a constellation of stars, following a certain rule of distances and formation.
What were these things? I cautiously surveyed the closest blue sphere near me. It looked like an ion atom encased in glass, or like a minuscule lightning bolt, blasting blue coloured rays of light from lumps of glowing clouds.
I couldn’t help but want to reach out and touch it, however a soaking wet webbed hand grabbed my wrist. Yukimura stared at it and quietly uttered out, “Don’t touch it, it’ll result in you being dead. These blue orbs are called ‘Isolated Galaxy’, it’s a protective layer to stop the nuclear radiation from completely destroying the ‘passage’.”
“Nuclear radiation?” I furrowed my brows, startled. “Yukimura, can you explain more clearly, please? I had previously seen the Merfolk’s world through an illusionary dream and saw that the place…had become a huge cemetery…do forgive me, I could only think of this adjective.”
“Yes, nuclear radiation.” Yukimura lowered his eyes in sorrow, his voice trembling a little. “You don’t belong to that generation of people, however you should be aware of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in the second world war. When I came to know that my hometown was hit badly by the catastrophe, I had wanted to return and bring my family back with me to Atlantis. However, I never imagined that the power of the atomic bomb had also practically destroyed that place, so you see, indeed, it became a huge cemetery, nearly all the merfolk died like those people in Hiroshima. They became fossils, becoming extinct like those dinosaurs millions of years ago.”
I shook my head in disbelief, unable to believe that beneath the silent, motionless sea, those clusters of skeletons scattered on the seabed that I saw from the figmented vision were caused by the conflicts in our world, “How could it… “
“Of course it could,” He smiled sadly, “Perhaps no one thought that the real Atlantis was hidden within the core of the Earth, where in that space, an independent universe and life system was created. Every marine trench led to its entrance and this was why the atomic bomb was able to cause destruction over there. The Atlantis spoken in the legends doesn’t exist anymore, only the leaders and some young survivors who were not exposed to nuclear radiation are left to continue the population as best as they can. However, even with such, the flames of war reached us once again.”
My chest felt stuffy like I was unable to breathe and unconsciously clench my fist, sucking in a deep breath. “Where is Nakamiya? We have to let it open the passage, if not, those Nazis would destroy this island, your last and remaining homeland.”
Yukimura nodded solemnly, and then I saw him swim towards the cave in front of us before lifting his head faintly, and opening his arms up like he was offering a sacrifice. Similar to what Agares did when he shouted at that gigantic creature, Yukimura emitted a high pitched sound and like the playing of a bugle-horn, the sound echoed through the cave, reaching a long distance.
Almost instantly, I felt the cave shake and a black silhouette trotted out from inside, a pair of blood-red eyes observed Yukimura, before shifting to my body, and later lowering his head as though he was seeing Agares, like a reverent elder bowing to show respect.
This made me feel a little embarrassed, like no matter where I go, I’d still be recognised as someone who belongs to Agares. I scratched my head and said, “Hey, er, Mr. Nakamiya, Aga… Your leader wants you to open the passage that leads to Atlantis; they have been imprisoned.”
Unexpectedly, Nakamiya nodded his head slightly in a human-like way, before lowering his enormous body and plunging into the lake. It then morphed into a black, swift lighting, disappearing into the abyss of the lake. Next, Yukimura single-handedly grabbed my arm to pull me out of the lake with him and then to lean against a nearby rock wall.
The moment we got out of the water, a whirlpool instantly began to form from the lake’s abyss to the top, sweeping along those blue orbs of light, creating a hurricane of lightning and thunder. Accompanied by the similar cracking rumbles of the Earth’s crust splitting and the heavy tremors of an earthquake, I watched in amazement as the original tranquil mirror-like lake split open into a huge, black rift like it was an ancient animal slowly cracking open their eye that could devour everything.
The cavern roof above my head also suddenly cracked open and gleams of light and gravel rained down like broken shells. The lightening blue hurricane rose up from the bottom like a water sprout. With the violent winds, Yukimura and I were tossed up into the open air.
I felt my head spin as I floated in the wind, and when I pried my eyes open with great effort to try and witness everything, I unexpectedly spotted a few helicopters heading towards the island from a distance, and on the helicopters’ metal bodies were Russian symbols imprinted!
In a split second, I became extremely excited, similar to that emotion of finally seeing your close relatives and homeland. I instinctively wanted to turn and let out a few shouts towards them, but the hurricane caused me to roll a few times in the air, separating me and Yukimura further and further apart.
At this moment, the sky and earth seemed to have been split open by the electric blue lightning. Looking down from midair, I could see the dark rift cracking bigger and bigger, like a beast opening its mouth to wrap around the seas surrounding the island. It was like making everything sink down like a landslide, or to be more precise, it was being swallowed by the ocean rift at the bottom of the sea. I know that it was the entrance to Atlantis.
Fierce wind pricked at my body, scrambling my sight and thoughts into a mess. A huge surge of panic grew in my heart, making my entire body shiver as I cast my eyes to look toward those Nazi ships. Lafarre and the others were still on that boat! Damn it, I never expected that once the ‘gate’ opened that there would be circumstances like this, emerging on both quickly and violently. Why didn’t Agares warn me?!
I have to get those helicopters to rescue them!
“Hey, hey!” I immediately waved both my arms towards the helicopters flying closer and closer, however they were obviously worried about the strength of the hurricane so they took a detour instead. In this situation, I turned to the nearest tree and leaped through the wind to hug the swaying trunk and once again shouted out for help.
Only then did a helicopter flew towards me, and lowered down a rope, which I immediately held onto and climbed upward. As soon as I was being pulled up by the rescuers, I was then immediately pressed down onto a seat by them and both hands were already being cuffed behind my back before I could even react.
I suddenly remembered that I was wearing Rhine’s clothes, perhaps that’s why they took me as an ally of the Nazis! I shouted loudly in Russian, “Hey, you guys are mistaken, I’m Russian, let me go!”
I did everything I could to raise my head but they were holding me so tightly that I couldn’t move. The helicopter flew towards those Nazis ships that were on the verge of sinking and just hovered in the sky. I gazed down to look for Lafarre and the others, along with Agares’s silhouette, but I could only see those Nazi crew members scrambling to board their lifeboats. I couldn’t help but be anxious. “They… What I meant was, those are the people I want you to rescue, they are on the second floor of the ship, please go down and help them!”
“Attention, attention, Bird No.2! No.1 had met with the hurricane’s attack and crashed, the force of the wind range is expanding, mission to assist and rescue is abandoned, retreat immediately!”
The noisy sound of the pager rang from the driver’s seat.
“No, no!” I was so frantic that I nearly jumped out of my seat. I used my elbow and hit the glass window in a frenzy, but I was then restrained onto the chair by two people seated on both sides of me. I could only turn my head and watch helplessly as the ships and island gradually disappeared into the sea.
A black shadow suddenly emerged from the center of the blue storm, it was like Satan that had already swallowed the whole world into darkness, and now was turning into a sharp arrow ready to dart back into the abyss. Even though the shadow was far away from me, I could tell that it was Agares looking at this helicopter that was taking me away from him.
This moment only lasted for a split second, after that, I saw a blinding light spreading out from the blue hurricane like an atomic bomb exploding. The island, those Nazis ships, and also Agares, had all disappeared without a trace within the darkness. The scene in front of me had been erased from my sight just like that as if it never existed in the first place.
I stared blankly at the night sky, a sudden feeling of emptiness engulfed my mind and my heart.
TBC
Whew, that was one heck of a ride :> Sorry for the late update, hoped you enjoyed the chapter <3
Thanks for the chapter ❤❤
I just wanna say that the information about atomic bombs in this chapter is not entirely right.
The bomb on Hiroshima was to provoke the surrender of Japan, as it was predicted to be a long drawn out war that would kill more people than dropping the bomb would. When Japan did not surrender, the second bomb was dropped, as planned, which provoked their unconditional surrender.
If we use higher estimates of the death toll, up to 40% of the population of each city died, and though the effects of radiation are difficult to calculate, maybe some 20%+ more from radiation. So, no, not everyone died.
In any case, today, the radiation levels can hardly be distinguished from background radiation (aka it has similar radiation levels to everywhere else), and some 2.6 million people live in total in the two cities.
As for the merfolk getting radiation, water is a highly effective radiation barrier, so they likely couldn’t die from that. As for the merfolk deaths from the explosion blast itself, which is what many of the initial deaths are from, the water would also insulate against that.
For some reason people have started associating “nuclear explosion” with “instant death,” which is only true in the very center of the blast where your atoms would literally get ripped apart. People were told to hide under their desks because it could help protect against debris and destruction from the blast. Radiation is everywhere in low amounts, and it has to get pretty high to actually kill itself (though the cancer it causes can kill more easily).
Alright, science and history lesson over.
Don’t know why this posted as a reply to someone. Whatever.
For me, from what I looked up, it seems that shock waves can actually enter through the ground or through the Earth’s crust. I’m not sure if radiation could enter the Earth’s crust, but I do believe radioactive material can and do contaminate waters.
But I do agree with you on some parts. Oh also have you looked up about Hiroshima’s shadows? They are the what was left of the people that were vaporized by the the atomic bomb because they were too close. it always give me chills when looking at them.
Militarily Japan was finished (as the Soviet invasion of Manchuria that August showed). Further blockade and urban destruction would have produced a surrender in August or September at the latest, without the need for the costly anticipated invasion or the atomic bomb. As for the second bomb on Nagasaki, that was just as unnecessary as the first one. It was deemed to be needed, partly because it was a different design, and the military (and many civilian scientists) were keen to see if they both worked the same way. There was, in other words, a cynical scientific imperative at work as well.
Waited for this chapter…thank you. Finally they are free…but desharow is still in danger..my poor guy
I am sorry but I can’t help thinking: (for a scientist) Desharow is quite dumb.
Thanks for the chapter
two words: tunnel vision.
EEEEHHHHHH!!!! I’m so confused.
How so? I’ll explain it to you!😊
so like how did Desharow even have the ability when he wasn’t really feeling all that good to even be able to jump??? to the helicopter or how in the world did the helicopter get so close to the tornado thing, to begin with, if it was so big? that’s where I’m really confused…
Also was that dimensional tornado thing going up or down???
Second, you know those moment when you are at your wit’s end, or when you are very very angry, and you suddenly out of nowhere got the strength to fight back. It’s those moment. Similar to the events where Desharow beat up that one guy a few chapters back. So seeing, the helicopters (the one Lafare had mentioned he had contacted before he was captured by Sakarol) he suddenly got the strength to do what he couldn’t do before. I hope that makes sense?
Third, It’s hurricane (think it as a whirl pool if you must), Think of the lake Nakamiya had jumped into as the EYE of the hurricane, that lake was mentioned in the chapter to be the center of the island. next you know how in a hurricane or a whirlpool, the water turns one way? Think of the sea surrounding the island to go one way, and slowly sucking in the entire island.
This was also the mystery of how this “floating” island could disappear a trace one day and come back out again after a year or so.
Hope this helps? Let me know if you got any other questions and sorry for the slow response.
I really don’t want to say desharow is kind of dumb and annoying always getting himself in trouble
Wow so much happened this chapter! Hopefully argares managed to save desharows friends when he was making a break for it. Plus I wonder if the Russians will recognise desharow since Rhine erased his identity? And speaking of Rhine I hope he died in that explosion even though I feel like he definitely didn’t.
Thanks for the chapter!
Nooooo! Desharow is left behind! 😫 thank you for the update!
meu deus ele é muito burro.
Desharow is so stupid! Gosh…
Damn it Desharow. Well not that I’d be thinking straight in that situation either.
Thanks for the great translation ♥️
Desharow jumps into the frying pan again lol… I’m a little confused, was he supposed to go to atlantis for reinforcement, or just get nakamura to open the portal and then go back for Agares because Agares knew a whirlpool would make everyone panic? But how did Agares escape? I guess we weren’t told that part yet.
Desharow doesn’t know opening the passage to Atlantis would led to this result, he only thought that Nakamiya could help free Agares and the other merfolk. Agares probably know by opening the passage it will stirrup this whole hurricane thing that could swallow everything.
This guy is he total bum? I mean who will accept him as a merman..smh am getting headaches with his dumbshit😒
Sometimes, i just want to beat him up and knock some sense into the MC’s stupidity and his endless stirred up troubles and pain that he caused to the ML….AAARRRGGGHHHHHH
Also as I mentioned to the other readers.
Desharow DOES NOT know that opening the passage to Atlantis would led to this result. It was Agares that told him to find Nakamiya, and so Desharow only thought that Nakamiya could help free Agares and the other merfolk. Agares probably know by opening the passage it will stirrup this whole hurricane thing that could swallow everything.
Spoiler: It’s gonna explain what happened to Agares and the others in the next arc. After reading it you should know that Desharow prob be dead meat paste if he was to go with Agares into the Vortex.
Even so, Agares had told him clearly to wait for him and not take actions… Im too lazy to type so long…in short, despite being a genius researcher to become a full-fledged scientist, he really lack a good logical reasoning ability….!!!! Please, dont take offense, i love the story and had waited for it for binge-reading but sometimes, he makes me so irrirated….☺
idk but he’s quite stupid lol
Instead of saving random people desharow should worry about keeping himself out of trouble.
<3