Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 893: The Three Sided War and the Traitorous Glutton

The dark waters near the jagged border separating the Tide Shark’s territory from the Abyssal Siren’s domain were usually quiet and stagnant. Today the oceanic currents thrummed with a heavy and violent tension. A pile of mutilated siren corpses lay scattered across the seabed near a massive black stone marker. The bodies were stripped of their cores but their pale blue skin and elegant fins made their faction allegiance undeniable.

A heavy shadow descended from the upper currents. Gart the Tide Shark landed heavily on the seabed. The Tribulation ruler glared at the gruesome display with his dark blue scales bristling. His rows of jagged teeth ground together in obvious irritation because he knew exactly what this meant. Someone was trying to frame him or drag him into a conflict he was not yet ready to announce. He was called here because of this.

A moment later the water rippled as a second powerful aura arrived.

Vortos, the second in command to Thalassa the Abyssal Siren emerged from the gloom. He was a heavily armored siren with deep indigo skin and a crown of sharpened coral resting upon his head. Vortos radiated the aura of a Karma Severing expert and his face was twisted into a mask of grief and rage. He swam directly toward the pile of bodies and stopped hovering over the corpse of his son.

"You savage glutton!" Vortos roared as his voice sent violent shockwaves through the water. "We had a deal and a timeline! I bring you the eels to feed your endless hunger and you help me overthrow Thalassa so we can split the oceans. Why did you butcher my son and my guards?"

Gart sneered down at the grieving siren commander. He did not care about the dead operatives but the accusation insulted his pride.

"I have nothing to do with the deaths of your weak offspring." Gart rumbled as his deep voice shook the nearby rocks. "If I wanted to kill your son, I would have eaten him whole and left no scraps behind for you to find. Someone else killed your people and dumped them on my doorstep to cause trouble. You are a fool to think I would jeopardize what we are doing over a minor snack."

Vortos clenched his fists and dark water Qi swirled around his armored arms. He wanted to believe the Tide Shark but Gart was a known treacherous predator and he had eaten some of his people before in the past. They argued back and forth for several minutes while trading insults and debating the logic of the sudden massacre.

They were so focused on their argument that they failed to notice the subtle shift in the toxic elements bleeding into the surrounding water. A loud and echoing voice suddenly exploded from the dark trenches above them.

"So it is true!" Mire roared as he appeared from the shadows.

The colossal ruler of the toxic maze slammed into the seabed a hundred yards away. His dark and green scales flared with a sickly yellow light and his massive jaws dripped with highly concentrated venom. Mire had not stayed idle after Li Yu visited his territory. The father had sent his own stealth operatives to track the currents and gather information on Gart.

Now Mire had confirmation because he was looking directly at the Tide Shark holding a secret meeting with the second in command of a rival faction.

"You treacherous parasites!" Mire hissed as his toxic aura rapidly expanded to poison the surrounding water. "It was the two of you!"

Gart and Vortos turned to face the enraged eel. The situation had spiraled out of control faster than either of them could have predicted. Vortos looked at Mire and then looked back at his dead son before a dark realization settled over him.

"You did this!" Vortos accused Mire while pointing a webbed finger at the colossal eel. He pieced together that Mire had figured out what they were doing and then killed his son to lure the two of them out. "You discovered our arrangement and murdered my son in retaliation to frame Gart!"

Mire let out a vibrating laugh filled with sorrow and hatred. He did not care about the dead sirens on the ocean floor because his only concern was the forty missing children that had been stolen from his maze.

"I do not care about your pathetic spawn." Mire declared as he coiled his massive body for a strike. "But you will pay for mine!"

Mire let out a deafening screech that served as a signal. The dark trenches surrounding the border suddenly erupted with movement. Thousands of massive deep eels poured out from the shadows and swarmed the seabed. Mire had brought his full forces and he intended to drown both conspirators in a sea of toxic fangs. His numbers were his biggest advantage over the other two rulers.

The two conspirators saw the massive army descending upon them and quickly realized they were in a bad position. Gart was the strongest of the three rulers in pure physical power but he was mostly solitary and did not have any followers to absorb the brunt of a full scale army assault. Fighting thousands of venomous eels alone while protecting Vortos was a foolish endeavor.

"Fall back!" Vortos shouted as he summoned a shield of Qi to block a barrage of toxic spines launched by the vanguard eels. "We retreat to my territory! I have garrisons waiting just past the ridge and I can command the border troops to intercept them!"

Gart grunted in agreement and swung his massive tail to generate a localized whirlpool as he escaped. The violent current caught dozens of attacking eels and smashed them into the stone marker. The Tide Shark swam rapidly toward the siren borders with Vortos close behind.

Mire pursued them like a crazy person. The colossal eel ignored all defensive formations and simply charged forward while leaving a thick trail of yellow poison in his wake. His army swarmed after him as they crossed the neutral zone and pushed violently into the sovereign territory of the Abyssal Siren.

The chase lasted for several miles until they reached a towering coral fortress built into the side of an underwater mountain. Vortos arrived at the fortress and immediately used his command authority to rally the troops.

Hundreds of heavily armed siren soldiers poured out of the barracks and formed a defensive wall of spears and water arrays. The siren forces clashed violently with the swarming deep eels and the ocean floor turned into a chaotic battlefield of blood and shattered coral. The eels outnumbered the sirens but the sirens were on average a bit stronger.

Mire ignored the minor soldiers and charged directly at the two commanders hovering near the fortress gates. The eel was fighting with reckless abandon because he had lost over forty children and his grief fueled his toxic Qi, pushing him into his strongest state.

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"Give them back!" Mire roared as he lunged at Gart with his jaws opened wide. "Return my kin to me!"

Gart laughed cruelly as he sidestepped the massive jaws and delivered a crushing tail sweep to the side of Mire's long body. The impact cracked several of the dark green scales and sent the eel crashing into a stone pillar.

"You are a fool, Mire!" Gart plainly stated. "I cannot give them back because I ate them all already! They were soft and rich with energy. They made a wonderful appetizer for the main course that is to come!"

The cruel revelation shattered whatever restraint Mire had left. The deep eel let out a wail of agony and his glowing yellow eyes turned a deep crimson. He launched himself back into the fray with suicidal speed and targeted Vortos.

The battle raged on as the three sides fought each other in the murky water. The siren soldiers battled the eel swarm while the three high level experts traded devastating blows near the fortress walls. Mire was clearly on the losing end now because he was fighting two powerful opponents simultaneously.

However his grief driven frenzy made him unpredictable and dangerous. Mire feinted a strike toward Gart and suddenly whipped his massive tail around to slam directly into Vortos. The heavy blow shattered the siren commander's coral crown and sent him tumbling through the water with several broken ribs. Mire followed up by spitting a concentrated glob of yellow venom that melted through Vortos's armor and heavily wounded his shoulder.

Before Mire could finish the siren off, Gart intervened. The Tide Shark surged forward and clamped his jagged teeth onto the tail of the deep eel. Gart ripped his head back and tore a large chunk of flesh from Mire's body while leaving a deep and bleeding wound.

Mire screamed and thrashed wildly to free himself from the jaws of the shark just as a terrifying new pressure descended upon the battlefield. The water froze in place and a chilling abyssal aura swept over the coral fortress.

Thalassa the Abyssal Siren had arrived.

The true ruler of the territory was a stunning but terrifying figure. She possessed dark blue skin similar to Gart but her features were refined and regal. She carried a long curved saber forged from deep sea silver and her eyes glowed with a cold and calculating light.

Thalassa looked at the chaotic warzone and did not understand what was going on here. She saw her own second in command bleeding from a venomous wound while fighting alongside the Tide Shark against the Deep Eel. Her own soldiers were dying by the hundreds to repel an invasion she had no knowledge of.

"Vortos!" Thalassa commanded as her voice carried the weight of absolute authority. "Explain this madness! Why is Gart fighting alongside you against Mire within my borders?"

Vortos panicked and clutched his bleeding shoulder. He tried to formulate a lie but Gart decided he was tired of playing games and all the hiding he has had to do. The Tide Shark let out a booming laugh that silenced the immediate battlefield.

"I will explain it to you, Thalassa!" Gart yelled as he wiped Mire's blood from his chin with one of his fins. "Your trusted second in command and I have been working together for years. We orchestrated the kidnappings and we bled both you and Mire dry to weaken yours forces. Our plan was to overtake both of your territories and then split the oceans between us! Hahaha!"

Thalassa narrowed her eyes and her grip on her silver saber tightened. She looked at Vortos with a cold fury that promised a slow death. Gart did not give her time to retaliate though. He turned to his bleeding conspirator.

"Summon our forces, Vortos!" Gart ordered with a wide grin. "Now is the time we do it. We are already in action now! Since Mire is heavily wounded and your garrison is fighting the eels. Our hidden army is ready!"

Vortos hesitated and looked at the angry ruler he had served for centuries. "It is too early, Gart! We do not have the proper arrays set up to trap her!"

"It is too late now!" Gart countered confidently. "I am strong enough to break her!"

The Tide Shark reached into his robes and pulled out a large spiral shell. He crushed it and sent a unique sonic pulse rippling through the deep water trenches. Gart laughed in victory as he abandoned Vortos and charged directly at Thalassa. He swung his heavy tail and unleashed a barrage of compressed water blasts that tore through the abyssal currents.

Thalassa met his charge with fluid grace. She swung her silver saber and deflected his heavy blows while stepping back to create distance. She was a master of the mind and she knew Gart possessed overwhelming physical strength that she could not match.

"You arrogant brute." Thalassa said coldly. "You think you can challenge my domain?"

She channeled her vast soul power and unleashed her signature technique. A massive ethereal wave of mental energy erupted from her body and crashed directly into Gart's mind. It was a soul attack designed to shatter the consciousness of her enemies and leave them as mindless husks floating in the water.

The ethereal wave washed over the Tide Shark. Gart paused for a fraction of a second but then his booming laugh returned. He pushed straight through the soul attack as if it was nothing more than a gentle breeze.

"I was prepared for you, siren!" Gart mocked her as he closed the distance. "I swallowed a pearl of a rare octopus months ago! It weakens soul attacks and removes your greatest weapon from the board!"

Thalassa’s eyes widened in shock as her supreme technique failed to register and that the shark was able to obtain such a rare treasure. She thought she had killed off that entire species so her enemies could not get their hands on the pearl they were able to create.

Gart capitalized on her brief moment of hesitation and lunged forward with terrifying speed. He bypassed her silver saber and clamped his massive jaws directly onto her left arm. With a brutal twist of his powerful body, Gart bit her arm clean off at the shoulder.

Thalassa screamed in pain and retreated while clutching the bleeding stump of her shoulder. The dark water around her turned a murky red as she struggled to stabilize her Qi. At this exact moment, the sonic signal Gart had sent out finally yielded results.

A massive shadow blotted out the minimal light filtering down from above. A large army of rogue sharks and violent sea beasts arrived on the battlefield. This was the hidden army Gart and Vortos had spent years building in secret by gathering all the displaced and aggressive predators from the neutral zones.

They were secretly kept in a hidden realm between the borders and now it was time to unleash them. They swarmed over the coral fortress and began slaughtering the loyal siren soldiers and the remaining deep eels without prejudice.

Mire saw the new army arriving and realized the dire situation. Despite his hatred for Thalassa's faction, he knew Gart was the true enemy who had eaten his children. The deep eel pushed through his own injuries and swam to Thalassa's side to offer his assistance.

Mire spat a volley of toxic spines to create a defensive barrier while Thalassa used her remaining arm to wield her saber. They fought together to hold the Tide Shark back but it was clear that Gart had the upper hand. The gluttonous ruler was nearly immune to soul attacks and his physical vitality was unmatched between the three rulers.

Gart slammed his tail against their defenses and pushed the two rival rulers back toward the edge of the fortress. He looked around the battlefield and saw his hidden army overwhelming the remaining forces. Victory was almost assured.

He glanced back at Vortos who was still hovering near a stone pillar while nursing his melted shoulder. The siren commander was weak, bleeding and relying entirely on Gart's protection.

A dark and greedy thought crossed the Tide Shark's mind. He had planned to split the territories with the siren but looking at the broken rulers before him, he realized he did not need to share. He was strong enough to rule it all alone.

Gart suddenly turned his back on Mire and Thalassa as he surged through the water with explosive speed and appeared directly in front of his ally. Vortos looked up in confusion.

"Gart? Finish them!"

"I will." Gart grinned as his rows of jagged teeth parted wide. "But to ensure victory for myself, I think I will take your share of the oceans."

Before Vortos could even scream, Gart lunged forward and bit the heavily wounded siren in half. The Tide Shark swallowed the commander whole and let the rich energy flood his body. Gart let out a terrifying roar of dominance as he became the sole ruler of the massive rogue army and laid claim to all the lands before him.