Read Novel Full Vol 9. Chapter 34: Corralled
Vol 9. Chapter 34: Corralled
Among the Sea Dragons, on a solitary island in the western sea region of Atlantis, Poseidon and Charlotte were leading a group of people to investigate the cause of the environmental anomaly.
Sea King Poseidon gazed at the lone island in the vast ocean. Other than the beach, coconut trees, and thick grass and shrubs, there was nothing else.
“Charlotte, come look—there’s no sign anything has ever lived here. Everything still looks like nature in its original state.”
“This island...” Poseidon called his daughter Charlotte over, then asked, “Is the source of the environmental anomalies in the nearby waters really going to be an island like this?”
Charlotte stepped forward and observed for a moment. The situation was indeed as her father had said: the island was primitive, with no trace of any animal or people ever living here.
But with Poseidon’s years of research experience into ocean environments and marine life, every abnormal clue had ultimately pointed to this island—so she was convinced there had to be something here causing trouble.
“Maybe it’s some kind of outsider life-form that arrived on the island not long ago.”
Charlotte held to her view. “Father, split everyone up to investigate first. In a few hours we’ll regroup and exchange information.”
Poseidon trusted his daughter’s judgment. He nodded on the spot, then immediately arranged for the group to break into teams and investigate.
He also separated from Charlotte himself, heading to a different area.
Charlotte made her way into a patch of shrubs and pushed through for a while, but she didn’t find anything unusual.
However, when she reached a tall coconut tree, she suddenly noticed a clear, man-made mark on the surface of the trunk.
Charlotte moved closer to examine it and couldn’t help frowning slightly.
“Doesn’t look like claw marks from an animal. It’s more like... it was corroded...”
But Charlotte quickly noticed something even stranger.
“But if it were corrosion, the gouged area wouldn’t be this smooth. It’s like...”
She raised a hand. Her soft fingertips lightly touched the bark’s surface as she murmured:
“Some kind of spherical object with strong penetrating properties...”
Before she could finish, a “clunk” sounded abruptly from the trunk.
Charlotte jerked back a step.
Immediately after that, the towering tree split in two at the waist without any warning.
The crack kept widening with a harsh tearing sound, until it spread all the way down to the roots.
The shattered roots could no longer support the tree’s weight. The huge tree—at least one hundred years old—collapsed in the middle.
Fortunately, Charlotte had already dodged to the side before it came down, and she wasn’t struck or scraped.
Once the tree had completely fallen, she hurried forward to inspect the break at the roots, and her eyes widened in an instant.
“This... how is this possible...”
From the break, whether it was the interior of the roots below or the interior of the trunk above, everything had been eaten away by corrosion—leaving only some insects wriggling inside.
In other words, this thick giant tree—so wide it would take three or four adults linking arms to encircle it—had been hollowed out alive by something!
“Even peril-forms with special abilities couldn’t do something to this extent...”
Charlotte crouched and carefully examined the inside of the trunk.
“Some kind of special corrosive... absorption?”
Charlotte leaned more toward the latter...
The material and nutrients inside the tree had been completely absorbed by that “thing,” and only then did the hollowed-out traces appear.
She also made a point of recording everything she was seeing, so she could study it slowly after returning to the Sea Dragon Sanctuary.
Just as she finished recording, a symbol flashed across the Recording Stone’s surface—a simple stick-figure camel.
Charlotte looked at the symbol and smiled knowingly. Then she poured magic into the Recording Stone.
“Is something wrong, Tiger?”
“The Communication Recording Stone was black-tech Claudia developed. It was still in testing, but there was no problem using it within the family. Charlotte, how much longer until you’re back over there?”
Charlotte glanced around her surroundings, then said:
“It’s almost done. If everything goes smoothly, I should be back tonight. What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing much. Leon came by yesterday. He asked to write Noa a recommendation letter.”
“Is that so... what a pity. I didn’t get to see Leon and the little darling.”
Charlotte’s mouth tilted slightly.
Tiger chuckled. “There’ll be plenty of chances. I won’t interrupt your work, then.”
“Mm. When I get back tonight...”
Before Charlotte could finish, she suddenly heard a chilling sound of choking sobs from far away.
“Ugh, ah!!"
Charlotte snapped her head up. Her dragon pupils tightened as she stared in the direction the sound came from.
And the Recording Stone transmitted that choking sob to Tiger as well. Tiger asked in a panic:
“What happened, Charlotte? I think I heard someone... choking like they were sobbing.”
Charlotte sprang to her feet and ran fast in the direction of the sound.
“That was my father’s voice. He might be in danger. I can’t talk now, Tiger.”
“Okay, okay—be careful.”
“Mm!”
Charlotte ended the call, put the Recording Stone away, and quickened her pace.
She tore through layers of shrubs and jungle. In the end, she returned to the island’s shoreline—only to find many Sea Dragon clanspeople already gathered there.
They stood scattered in place, all staring in the same direction with terror on their faces.
Charlotte followed their gaze.
Her father Poseidon was kneeling on the sand. An eerie, deathly-cold purple flame poured off his entire body. He clutched his head with both hands, hunched over, trembling violently, looking as if he were in extreme pain.
“Father!!”
Charlotte cried out and rushed toward Poseidon.
But before she’d taken more than a few steps, a Sea Dragon clansperson blocked her.
“Your Highness, you can’t go over.”
Charlotte struggled twice, but the clansperson gripped her wrist in a death hold. She couldn’t move.
Then the clansperson pointed toward the side.
Charlotte looked—and was shocked again by what she saw.
Two Sea Dragon clanspeople were lying there, covered in wounds, there was no way to tell if they were alive or dead.
“Just now we tried sending someone to check on His Majesty, but the moment anyone gets close, he attacks indiscriminately.”
The clansperson said, “We don’t know what happened, but His Majesty is very dangerous right now. Your Highness, you can’t go over.”
Charlotte stopped struggling. Watching her father’s agony, tears nearly spilled from her eyes.
But she forced herself to calm down and think.
She pressed her lips together and said:
“I found a giant tree in the jungle just now that was hollowed out inside. It should have had its nutrients drained by something. If Father was accidentally caught by that thing... then in the end he’ll be drained too...”
The clansperson’s expression shifted. He nodded.
“We found the same phenomenon in a nearby area as well. That thing has clearly taken a lot of nourishment already—and now it’s set its sights on His Majesty...”
Cold sweat slid slowly down Charlotte’s temple. She clenched her fist tightly and stared at Poseidon, wrapped in purple flame.
“Father is a Dragon King. He’s definitely far stronger than a giant tree. If that thing wants to absorb him completely, it’ll take a lot of time. And we have to find a way to save Father before that happens.”
The clansperson bowed his head. “Yes, Your Highness.”
Charlotte took out the Communication Recording Stone and poured magic into it, intending to have Tiger bring reinforcements.
After all, Poseidon possessed Dragon King-level combat power. Charlotte wasn’t a combat-type dragon, and even if everyone rushed him together, they still might not be his match.
Just look at what happened to those two injured clanspeople.
The Recording Stone connected, and Tiger’s voice came through immediately.
“Hello? Charlotte, what exactly happened on your side?”
“Tiger, right now...”
Boom!!
A beam of ghostly purple light shot in at extreme speed, slicing past above Charlotte’s palm and shattering the Communication Recording Stone instantly.
Charlotte was startled by the sudden attack. After steadying herself, she looked toward Poseidon.
That beam that destroyed the Recording Stone had come from Poseidon.
“Father... what happened to you...”
Poseidon slowly rose. He had stopped trembling.
But when Charlotte looked into his eyes, she found her father’s gaze was hollow and lifeless, his entire face blank and wooden.
The purple flame hadn’t dispersed. Instead, it was being swallowed and fused into Poseidon’s body bit by bit.
A powerful pressure surged forward. There was no doubt about it—it was utterly pure killing intent.
“Protect Princess Charlotte!”
With that order, every Sea Dragon clansperson present closed in, surrounding Charlotte and shielding her behind the crowd.
The dragon might Poseidon was releasing made it nearly impossible for each of them to breathe.
Yet not a single one of them retreated. Instead, they braced on every shred of courage they had and stood there, protecting Charlotte.
“Your Highness, we’ll stay here and hold His Majesty back. You hurry and go back to bring help!”
With the Communication Recording Stone destroyed, they could only use the old methods to call for support.
“But you...”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. We’ll protect ourselves. But you absolutely have to get this news out!”
Charlotte bit her lip. She didn’t want to leave behind these clanspeople who were willing to die to protect her, but she also knew that if everyone died here, no one would be left to save her father.
“You have to hold on. I’ll come back as fast as I can. I will. I swear I will.”
Charlotte took a few steps back, then transformed into a blue flood dragon and shot into the sky.
But just as she was frantic to leave and bring reinforcements, a figure overtook her at extreme speed.
Before Charlotte could even react, she was struck down in a single blow, slammed back into the ground.
Boom!
She crashed down. Luckily the sand beneath her was soft, so she wasn’t seriously hurt.
The clanspeople rushed to her side, helping Charlotte up.
“Are you alright, Your Highness?”
“I... I’m fine.”
Charlotte covered her aching chest and looked up into the sky.
The one who had knocked her down... was Poseidon.
Expressionless, he looked down at everyone on the island. Then he slowly raised his right hand, palm up, condensing a huge amount of magic within it.
“What is His Majesty going to do...” one clansperson asked.
The moment the words fell, Poseidon released the gathered magic.
The magic became countless beams of light, one after another, pouring into the seawater surrounding the island.
A moment later, the seawater all around surged violently and climbed higher and higher.
In the end, the seawater formed a hemispherical barrier, actually covering the entire island within it!
Super S-rank Water Magic · Modified “Heaven-Net Ground-Net”
“We’re trapped... Is this because he doesn’t want us to go get reinforcements?” a clansperson asked in panic.
Charlotte studied the surroundings carefully. Combining the clues from before, she thought for a moment, then arrived at a conjecture she didn’t even want to believe herself.
She swallowed. Her dragon pupils trembled slightly.
“N-no. It’s not trapping us. It’s... corralling us.”
“C-corralled?”
Charlotte lifted her head and looked at her father in the sky—already under control.
“Yes. Corralled. That thing... it’s treating us as food.”