Mother of all sea-kings

From the place Ian and co had been watching vigilantly, a huge shadow appeared under the water, and before they could react it passed under the ship and surfaced soon after.

"Stay alert," Ian yelled.

"Ay, ay captain." Aokiji and the rest responded.

A huge sea king, that was a mic between an alligator, and maybe some scaled other beast appeared.

Its body was huge, even bigger than the winged lion, Ariel.

But that was only in length, not height.

It had six limbs, with the two frontal and two backwards having four digits full of sharp claws, meanwhile, the last two limbs extended right below its chest and had only three digits, also clawed. Its whole body was covered in tough scales, and above its back, it had sharp spikes protruding out.

Right now, in one of its frontal limbs, it was tightly holding on to a whale that appeared to be more than three times their ship's size.

"Hmm, a blue spotted whale… a delicacy on these seas." A mature but soft female voice ran out, as they all looked at the whale struggling in its hands.

Subsequently, it threw the whale right into its open mouth full of sharp teeth and gulped it down easily. (Credit to FabrizioDeRossi who drew it)

All of them shuddered.

What if that was our ship? The thought went through their minds.

But who were they? Such a thing wouldn't faze them for long. Indeed, seconds after they were as good as before. Merely looking at this sea king calmly.

Meanwhile, Ian was having some thoughts of his own as he analyzed this new addition to the scene.

'Slightly weaker than Ariel. Moreover, it can't be a coincidence that it appeared right after we came here, now could it?' He thought to himself.

But he didn't wait any longer.

"Did you by any chance come here to guide us to Laughtale?" He asked directly.

Laughter rang out soon after.

"Yes, but someone else is also needed for that, thus you should wait a bit more. In the meantime, let me introduce myself." The female voice owner said.

"I am known as Khal'druin, the mother of all sea kings." She proudly announced.

"Eh!"

"AH?"

"WHAA!"

Ian and the rest were stunned for a second.

Mother of all sea kings? Was that real?

"When you say that, do you mean literally or something else?" Ian couldn't help but ask this question.

"Haha, of course not literally. I am given that title due to being old enough to count as the mother of them all, and also because I am the mate of their lord." She amusedly responded.

But afterwards, she turned to look at the distant sky and focused.

Ian similarly did the same after he heard her answer.

Who knew how old she was, so it might be accurate to call her that. By the side, he saw Elene and Robin hurriedly clam shit on Stella's mouth lest she says something insulting to her. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew were chuckling at this.

Right now, he was meeting all the empyreans and sea-kings on their side, so he didn't mind.

He had felt a familiar presence coming towards them.

A huge winged lion came flying right next to them soon after.

That was Ariel.

"We meet again. After all, I did say we were going to be meeting up soon didn't I? haha," He spoke up.

Ian smiled.

"It's good to see you again." Ian expressed his happiness.

Ariel was someone he knew good enough since he had helped them fight against the Diavoloi the last time, and he even gave him his fire.

As such he had good feelings about him.

"Well this time, young Ian, I and Khal'druin, will be guiding you to Laughtale. Although it isn't necessary for someone of your strength, it is more about the respect and expectations our lords have for you." Ariel spoke up.

"Hmm." And Khal'druin affirmed.

They were merely here as escorts if one was to put it bluntly.

"But first, you should go ahead and accept her gift." Ariel laughed as he said.

Gift? What does he mean?

Ian was about to ask when all of a sudden, a deep blue colored crystal shot into him after it hovered next to Khal'druin.

It turned into a mist that he inhaled involuntarily.

Ian could hear the both of them laugh, but he didn't have the luxury to pay attention to them anymore.

He hurriedly sat down on the ground and closed his eyes in concentration.

****

"It should be a while for him to finish, thus let us go ahead," Khal'druin said to Ariel who appeared to be amused.

"Well, this will certainly give him the edge to finally be as strong as us." He replied.

An Ian that was as strong as them? At that time, they might just stand a chance in this coming war…

"Young members of the crew, we'll be heading out now, follow us closely," Ariel said towards the crew who didn't talk more than necessary and kept watching things happen silently.

They all gave him salutes and did as he said.

Well, rather it should be said it was Libell doing as he said, while the rest watched over Ian.

Following after both Khal'druin, and Ariel roared loud enough that the sea turned turbulent.

Then amidst the shocked eyes of the crew, a whirlpool in the sea appeared and it kept growing bigger and bigger.

"let's go." Under their shocked eyes, both Ariel and Khal'druin went right into this whirlpool and disappeared.

Libell hesitated on what to do and looked at Ian, but he was occupied so her eyes went to the rest of her family.

"Don't worry, just follow after them." Elene came over and held her.

Robin also ran her hand through Libell's hair to comfort her.

"We're here so don't worry." She said.

Akemi, Reiju from the side gave her nods too.

"If I see that you're a strong girl, later, I'll give you delicious candy," Stella promised her, as Libell's eyes sparkled.

Bert, Aokiji, and Don held each other's shoulders as they also said.

"Us uncles will protect you."

Libell couldn't help but giggle at that.

And the odyssey soon went right into the whirlpool.

****

All over the world, two shocking pieces of news were released.

The first was about how the revolutionary army colluded with the marines, yes the marines of all people, to free various camps of slaves belonging to the world nobles.

It was known that the world nobles were hateful people but not many knew how bad they were. But the news that they held a huge number of slaves under them came as shocking to most.

But they clearly saw it on the pics with both Dragon and Sengoku shaking hands and standing in front of various freed and crying, slaves.

What was even more shocking to the public though, was that the marines would work with the revolutionary army, that had the goal to change the government.

But the second piece of news explained that reason.

As the second piece of news explained that the empty throne, which should have been empty was actually not. And on it sat what the newspaper dubbed as a… Diavoloi. Or a devil. Its appearance appeared in their eyes, and all had seen for themselves that it was not human.

It was vastly similar to what they remembered watching appear in the war of the best.

Furthermore, it was included that the five elders and celestial nobles were all aware of this and had accepted to collude with the devils to rule the world.

This was the reason why the marines had broken off from the world government, and why they had joined hands with the revolutionary army to save the slaves.

The public could finally drop the wild theories they had.

It appeared a war was coming between humanity and those devils. Maybe this was also the reason the sea emperors were making moves…

Hastily, evacuations were happening all over the world. Everyone, including the whole countries were moving as far away from Marijois as soon as possible, nobody wanted to be close to that devil, and neither the war targeting it.

But nobody guessed that this war would span the whole world…