Volume 2 Chapter 57: The Obedient Ishar'mla
Upon hearing Ishar'mla's words, Garde's gaze drifted slightly.
The reason he had injected Ascension Power into her body before their battle was to sever her connection with the other Seaborn and to analyze how she communicated with them.
Once the battle ended and he had his conclusions, Garde used the Ascension Power to build an invisible wall between Ishar'mla and the other Seaborn.
Ishar'mla could no longer hear their voices, and they could no longer hear hers.
This way, even if Ishar'mla managed to decipher something from his seed, there would be no way for her to share it with the others.
The Seaborn society wasn't a hive mind—each Seaborn had its own consciousness. When all these individual minds connected, they formed what was called the Many.
If one Seaborn wanted to share its consciousness over a distance, the first step was to upload its mind into the Many. The Many would then transmit it to the others.
Because of this, if one Seaborn evolved, the others—no matter how far—could evolve along with it.
The medium for this long-distance communication was seawater.
Once removed from seawater, the transmission efficiency dropped. Complex emotions became difficult to express. Evolution, in particular—something that involved changes at the genetic level—could no longer be carried out smoothly.
The Sankta of Laterano could do something similar, but their ability was limited to exchanging basic emotions. They couldn't engage in deeper communication—it was like how Seaborn became when cut off from the Many.
Simply put, the wall Garde had built for Ishar'mla was a thick one.
Now, even in front of a crowd of Seaborn, Ishar'mla couldn't communicate properly.
"This is because of me. Did you really think that after receiving my seed, I'd just let you go?"
In the end, Garde didn't lie to Ishar'mla.
He disliked lying.
Even when dealing with Dario, he only used suggestive language, never outright deception.
Holding Ishar'mla in his arms, Garde looked at the confused Seaborn around the village and calmly said, "Ishar'mla, you should know that your kin are no match for me."
Ishar'mla bit her lip—something Skadi would never have done.
Her hesitant expression, her demeanor—it was like a saint had suddenly appeared from nowhere.
Though, admittedly, this saint has been claimed, tainted, and was no longer pure.
Ishar'mla stared at Garde with wide eyes, gaze locked onto him.
Her look seemed almost like a plea, delicate and vulnerable, as if she were seducing Garde into committing a crime.
Even after seven days of indulgence, seeing Ishar'mla like this stirred desire in Garde's heart once again.
It was as if a voice inside him whispered: This girl in your arms is yours—whatever you want to do, you can.
After all, laws were made to protect humans.
But the girl in his arms? She was a Seaborn.
No matter how much she looked like a human, a Seaborn was still a Seaborn.
At that moment, Garde felt his resolve waver.
He suddenly realized that whether it was anger or lust, they were both original sins lurking within the human body.
Just as Renekton, even after becoming an Ascended, was still ruled by his rage—if he allowed himself to be ruled by his lower instincts, he might end up just like Renekton.
"I can let them go," Garde said, carefully choosing his words.
Even with his current strength, eliminating thousands of Seaborn all at once wouldn't be easy. And if their deaths attracted the wrath of even more Seaborn, it would only lead to more trouble.
"The condition is that they must not have harmed anyone on land."
Garde noticed that the Seaborn, acting under the Church of the Deep's instructions, hadn't harmed the townspeople—they had only herded them together into one area.
Whatever the Seaborn might have done in the past, Garde chose not to concern himself with it for now.
He was neither a police officer nor a judge; he had no way to trace back the Seaborn's history to weigh their past sins. At the very least, the Seaborn before him hadn't hurt anyone in the town.
"Really?"
A glimmer of joy flashed through Ishar'mla's eyes.
Though she could no longer hear her kin's voices, the instinct to protect them as one of their own remained strong.
If Garde had threatened her life, no matter how unwilling she might be, she would've been forced to watch him slaughter the town's Seaborn and Sea Terror with open eyes.
Because, in the value system of Ishar'mla—and the Seaborn at large—her current value to their species far outweighed that of thousands of ordinary Seaborn or Sea Terror.
Still, if there were a way to save her kin, Ishar'mla wouldn't hesitate for a moment.
"Yes," Garde nodded.
"As long as you do what I say."
Garde knew there was no romantic bond between him and Ishar'mla.
Their relationship was even more fragile than what he shared with Ho'olheyak—
Because Ho'olheyak was human.
And Ishar'mla was Seaborn.
Two completely different species.
But that didn't necessarily make Ishar'mla harder to deal with than Ho'olheyak.
As long as one understood the values of the Seaborn, and as long as you were stronger than them—they would submit, for the sake of survival.
Just then, the disturbance among the Seaborn drew the attention of the Church of the Deep followers gathered in the town.
When they saw Ishar'mla, their eyes lit up with emotion and fervor.
"It's Her. She's finally come."
"Lady Ishar'mla—is She here to welcome us back into the Many?"
"We've waited so long for this moment."
"…"
The Church of the Deep followers wept with joy.
From the moment they joined the Church of the Deep, every act they committed had been in pursuit of becoming Seaborn, to escape the limitations of the human body.
For only as Seaborn, they believed, could they be free of hunger and hardship.
Seaborn who were willing to give up their own lives to save their kin were like a shining beacon of hope to them.
They truly believed that if they became Seaborn, they would live in happiness.
They were certain that persuading others to join the Church of the Deep was the right thing to do.
That everything they did, was in the name of equality.
Only Ishar'mla looked at the humans who carried only a faint scent of kinship—and her eyes showed a flicker of confusion.
Then Garde's voice rang out:
"Now, have them leave the land."
Ishar'mla nodded in response.
She turned to the Sea Terror and Seaborn in the town and spoke in human language:
"My kin, do not worry for me—leave this place."
"We do not belong on land."
"The ocean—that is our true home."
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