A Person on Terra, with No Books Left to Read

Our coast is being harassed by unknown marine creatures that have come ashore. They want to expand their territory onto land, and we've suffered significant losses with immense pressure on our defenses. If any of you influential figures can help, please do so quickly. Otherwise, if I fall, dealing with this will be a major hassle for you all as well.

As for Iberia, there was no mention of them in the letter. However, according to Kazdel's records, Carmen was dispatched by Iberia to gather information.

As for why they arrived so quickly, Mr. Carmen was on his way to visit an old friend in Leithanien and happened to be in the vicinity. The letter Mostima sent was actually a thank-you note.

The atmosphere in the council hall immediately became much more amicable. One party secured the safety guarantees they desired, while the other received compensation. Everyone was satisfied.

The only remaining issue was the aftermath in Saltwind City.

"Mr. Carmen, it seems Saltwind City has some peculiar beliefs that are taking root."

Theresica spoke up proactively. She had heard from Amaya that shortly after Saltwind City severed ties with Iberia and began drifting at sea, people started quietly preaching a new sea god faith within the city, in the gaps of the Inquisitors' surveillance.

They revered the Seaborn as divine messengers and vigorously preached about their characteristics. Amaya herself was dragged to one of their secret church gatherings at that time. Ever since then, she became obsessed with studying the Seaborn, which led to her subsequent ideas.

Although Amaya's motives for revealing all this were questionable, it didn't stop Theresica from relaying the information to Carmen as a way to indirectly convey Kazdel's stance.

Iberia's obsession with religion is known throughout Terra.

Upon hearing this, Carmen's expression grew even more somber. He sat there in silence, seemingly deep in thought.

Theresica then stated, "I don't understand religion, but that doesn't mean I'll allow such malicious ideologies to spread. I believe we should eradicate it."

"Oh? I am very pleased that His Majesty the King holds such views."

Carmen's mood brightened slightly. "Then, regarding the aftermath in Saltwind City..."

Considering the city had likely become a Seaborn nest, Theresica and Carmen decided that Sarkaz would provide resources to help Iberia's engineers repair Saltwind City's propulsion system, allowing it to sail to the deep sea before activating its scuttling procedure.

During the repairs, Sarkaz would dispatch troops to assist Carmen in purging the personnel and eradicating all traces of the Abyssal Church. As for Iberia's loyal subjects, Carmen would secretly escort them back to Iberia.

"This has been a productive meeting."

"Indeed."

The treaty was signed without the presence of the Sankta. The two stood together, faces beaming with smiles. As for Saltwind City, it had never appeared near Kazdel.

PS: Please vote for me!!!! 2

Chapter 44: Grilled Fish

The repair of Saltwind City's propulsion system began. This was merely a matter of materials and technicians, a clear and straightforward problem to solve – just replace what's missing. However, identifying the cult members was proving to be extremely difficult. If someone claimed they hadn't done anything wrong, could you truly verify it?

It was hard to ascertain. Moreover, this was Kazdel, and Carmen didn't have enough time to arrest and interrogate everyone individually. For Iberia's safety, he could only rely on the identification of Saltwind City's surviving Inquisitors to gather the problematic individuals, compile a list, and send it to Theresica. The rest would all be treated as suspected cultists and disguised as imported goods from Kazdel, then sent back to Iberia for the Inquisition to discern.

At noon, as the residents of Saltwind City were receiving their daily food rations, a formation of Sarkaz soldiers appeared on the streets without any warning.

They stood before the bewildered residents, then drew their weapons, their cold blades instantly piercing their bodies.

Fresh red blood sprayed everywhere. Elderly men and women looked on in disbelief as their children lay on the ground, their limbs rolling away uncontrollably.

In a corner, a young child stared blankly at the Sarkaz soldiers. They weren't distributing food anymore; instead, they plunged their sharp weapons into their parents' bodies, then ferociously moved past him, heading towards the other side of the street.

Within Saltwind City, cries of anguish erupted, and occasionally, unsuspecting young adults would attempt to resist, only to be stopped by the Inquisitors.

Standing by the gangway connecting Saltwind City to the transport ship, Theresica watched as the city's residents were herded onto the ship in waves. As they passed by, most of them glared at him with fierce eyes.

Will these people become a future scourge for Sarkaz? Should I...

Theresica paused, then shook his head helplessly.

He hadn't expected to have such thoughts now.

"Ms. Gladiia, tell me... how much longer will the Abyssal Church's Grand Bishop of this city continue to hide?"

Putting aside the surrounding gazes, he asked Gladiia about the Abyssal Church, which was also the reason he personally came here.

The Seaborn he had encountered previously were all very fragile, common individuals. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of this creature, Theresica wanted to see the extent of power that stronger individuals could reach.

"Hunting requires patience. I believe you will understand," Gladiia replied calmly. She meticulously observed every part of the battlefield, not missing any details. However, her expression was not good either, as a significant portion of those identified as Abyssal cultists were Aegir who had migrated to Iberia.

What could be more distressing than one's own kin defecting?

Thump—

A dull sound echoed, and a four-story building suddenly collapsed. The next moment, Gladiia's figure vanished from her spot.

"So fast, Shining. Let's find a better vantage point."

He clung to Shining's back, and Shining leaped across the rooftops, heading towards the source of the sudden commotion.

Vaulting over rows of houses, a massive, tentacled creature resembling an octopus, with a bizarre white flower blooming on its head, appeared before him. It was sweeping its tentacles in all directions while simultaneously spraying water jets from the center of the flower. Ordinary soldiers were utterly helpless against such a colossal being.

Gladiia alone began to engage it. Her speed was so blinding that Theresica could barely catch glimpses of her afterimages in mid-air.

She wielded a large halberd, but not for thrusting; instead, she used her speed to wield it for slashing.

Massive, linear wounds appeared out of nowhere on the giant Seaborn's body, its flesh and skin peeling back, the wounds festering. Although it was regenerating continuously, the intense pain still stimulated the monster, causing it to emit piercing roars.

At this, Gladiia, who was closest to the monster, could no longer bear it. She retreated to Theresica's side.

"Have all the people in this city evacuated?"

This was the first time Theresica had heard her completely discard her usual politeness. It seemed she was under considerable pressure facing the monster.

"The soldiers and residents have all evacuated under Carmen's cover."

Theresica wasn't worried. He could escape without any problem, but he was afraid that some Seaborn would escape the Originium Arts attack, so he didn't bring any Arts users with him.

This was really shooting himself in the foot.

Suddenly, the Seaborn flung all its tentacles towards them. Gladiia vanished in a flash, and the tentacles were instantly severed, only to regenerate at incredible speed. Gladiia had to return to catch her breath, a strange heat radiating from her body.

"Is it friction with the air? Your speed is that fast?!"

Theresica didn't want Shining to take the risk, so he took out a small, staff-like Arts control unit himself. The tentacles that attacked again were immediately enveloped in a white mist. Amidst the monster's pained roars and thrashing, its tentacles fell off one by one, as if they had been steamed.

'It's just this one, as long as it's dead, that's good.'

"Land doesn't suit me. It lacks moisture. If I don't stop, I'll become like the effect of your Originium Arts."

Gladiia said, and Theresica immediately raised his hand.

"You...!"

Gladiia's words caught in her throat. She suddenly realized her body temperature was rapidly dropping! A large amount of water vapor was emanating from her skin.

"If the temperature is high, then let's cool it down."

The steam gradually lessened, and a large amount of water droplets remained on Gladiia's body. She didn't dislike it, though; it felt quite comfortable.

"Good. Can you make the area around that monster watery?"

"Of course."

Theresica aimed at the giant monster not far away. Water began to gather around it, and Gladiia disappeared from her spot.

Gruesome wounds appeared on the Seaborn as usual, but this time, Gladiia moved through the water curtain, her speed even greater, completely surpassing its regeneration speed. Just as the external wounds had begun to grow back slightly, Gladiia struck the wounds again with full force.

Gladiia continued to break down the Seaborn's body bit by bit, but the Seaborn couldn't even cry out, as its entire organs had already been shredded into mince by her.

Theresica maintained the water curtain until Gladiia finished the decomposition, and he watched the entire battle with his jaw on the floor.

'Besides Originium Arts, can Terra possess such powerful physical strength?'

He leaned closer to Shining and quietly asked, "Shining, can you beat her?"

"I don't know."

Shining replied, "There are many unpredictable factors in battle."

PS: Brainstorm 1

Operator Theresica deals Arts damage and marks attacked enemies with "water stains."

Skill 1: Temperature Adjustment. Alters the temperature of objects. When attacking enemies with the "water stains" mark, it creates a high-temperature gas impact that ignores defense and deals massive damage.

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PS: Brainstorm 2

Operator Gladiia deployed within Theresica's attack range. Her skills will cancel charging and cooldowns, changing to continuous release.

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Chapter 45: Reason and Emotion

After the Grand Bishop of the Abyssal Church died, nothing else came out to hinder the Sarkaz soldiers' cleanup operation, and the repair of Saltwind City's power structure proceeded very smoothly.

After confirming for the third time that there was no one left in the city, Iberia's engineers restarted Saltwind City's power core. The mobile city no longer moved towards Kazdel but sailed towards the vast deep sea.

On the sea valve at its bottom, a mechanical device was fixed. Once the set time was reached, it would begin to operate, twisting open the sea valve's gate and sinking the city into the deep sea.

To ensure no unexpected problems occurred, three sets of such mechanical devices were arranged, and Sarkaz drones were continuously tracking them.

When everything settled, and even Carmen and the Iberians he had chosen were sent away, Theresica lay lazily on the sofa in the royal residence, letting Warfarin tie a tourniquet around his arm.

"The Seaborn matter is finally settled."

"Is it? But I don't care about that. I only know you actually used Originium Arts!"

Warfarin muttered nervously while checking his veins, "If Theresis were still here, and she found out I didn't keep you in check and let you use Originium Arts, she would absolutely kill me! Theresia wouldn't be able to stop her!"

"Warfarin, I only used it for a little while, it's fine."

"That's not for you to decide!"

Warfarin carefully inserted the needle tip into Theresica's vein, drawing his blood into a test tube. Then, she walked to the side, unscrewed the sealed test tube, and quickly drank the liquid inside.

Theresica was used to it. This was the unique blood-testing method of Sarkaz Blood Demons. The results were no different from professional machines, and even more accurate.

However, if there were any problems with the blood itself, it could easily cause the same harm to the Blood Demon using this method.

"Warfarin, please don't use this method next time," Theresica advised, but Warfarin stood to the side, savoring it, and didn't reply.

After a while, with a gulp from Warfarin, she opened her eyes.

"The taste is a bit off. You haven't been resting well lately. The Originium content hasn't worsened, so you're lucky! Go to bed early tonight!"

"Okay, okay," Theresica nodded in agreement.

"I heard you brought in two more women from other races?"

Warfarin sat down beside him and asked, "That tall woman, I can smell blood on her. It's a bit unsafe."

"You mean Gladiia. She understands the Seaborn very well and is very strong in combat, so I wanted her to stay. However, she neither agreed nor refused."

Theresica said indifferently, "It's just one person anyway. Keeping her for free for a while isn't a big loss."

"What about the other one? The flat-chested woman. I heard from an Absolver that you just locked her up?"

"You mean Amaya. That was her own request. This woman actually yearns for the social structure of the Seaborn. So, I made an agreement with her to conduct an experiment."

Theresica explained, "The Seaborn lack a complete and independent individual consciousness; they only know survival and reproduction. To simulate a similar situation, I designed this experiment to let her experience the mental world of the Seaborn. Her vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch will all be physically shielded because these have no concrete concepts for the Seaborn."

"What kind of absurd experiment is this? Don't do anything bad!"

Warfarin frowned. Theresica quickly explained, "I only did this after discussing it with her and she agreed it was feasible! And she can request to stop at any time."

Amaya's thoughts were problematic, but her pursuit was not wrong, nor was it impossible to change. Theresica wanted to try and guide this woman's thinking onto a different path.

As for the methods... they were indeed somewhat strange, but there was no other way. It was too difficult for him to figure things out alone; this wasn't something that could be solved by reciting Earth's textbooks. This was Terra!

Considering the educational level of Kazdel's residents, he had the shapeshifter use the filming equipment bought by Columbia to shoot scenes of life and work in places like Ursus, Victoria, and Leithanien in the style of Earth documentaries.

He showed the entire population of Kazdel scenes of people working over 14 hours a day, not getting paid, not having enough to eat, and lacking proper housing, alongside the lavish and extravagant lives of the nobles in those countries. At the end of the film, he objectively described how long the current residents of Kazdel worked each day, what they could eat, and how they lived. There wasn't a single lie, because everyone lived that way.

The images and sounds were very easy to understand. After this film was released, whether in factories or military camps, regardless of literacy, everyone cheered his name.

This was not what Theresica wanted. The people of Sarkaz were currently content, but he was not satisfied with the status quo. So, when Amaya, with her peculiar pursuits, appeared, he wanted to bring her over and attempt to change her thinking.

In the Absolver's dedicated laboratory, Theresica watched Amaya through the thick glass.

Her eyes were covered, she wore earplugs, her mouth was gagged, and she was secured to a chair in an empty, soundproof space. A venous injection needle was attached to the back of her hand to prevent starvation. It wasn't out of concern for her well-being, but because this was not something the Seaborn would experience.

After trying for a few hours, Amaya herself set the experiment's duration to three days, with no interruptions allowed. Today was the very last moment of the 72nd hour.

"Time's up."

Theresica walked over, removed her blindfold, tore off the tape from her mouth, and took out her earplugs.