Desharow Mermaid - Chap 50

Vaguely, I felt a strong sensation in my legs, both painful and itchy, as if being invaded by thousands of ants, yet as if new flesh and skin were growing on my bones. I instinctively wanted to touch them, but my arms were held down by a pair of damp and powerful webbed claws on top of my head, while a wet and soft material licked my neck. Soon, a sharp and throbbing pain surged in my ears and fingertips, like thorns breaking through my skin, struggling like a parasitic virus.

I cried out in pain from my throat and forced open my heavy eyelids.

The moon above my head was so close that it looked like a broken glass ball in the water, because my focus was scattered and my vision swayed with my heavily burdened head. I was very dizzy and felt like vomiting. I could identify the black shadow that was pressing down on me as Ageres, and I wanted to call out to him, but my mouth was as silent as if I had lost my voice, and the increasingly intense itching in my legs made me unconsciously look down into the sky. What did I see?

A layer of silver-gray scales had grown on my legs, densely covering my skin, like a fish tail at first glance. Although my feet were still there, two fan-shaped webbed membranes had grown on the soles of my feet and hung into the water.

I panicked and glanced at Ageres, but before I could see his expression clearly, I fainted again.

Darkness swept in from all sides, and everything around me seemed to be shrouded in thick fog, disappearing instantly: no moonlight, no ocean, and no Ageres. The pain in my body disappeared, and my body seemed to sink deep into the sea, but I knew I was only trapped in a nightmare.

I tried hard to turn back and swim upstream, but I felt a force grab my legs and pull me down, down, down…

Suddenly, my body sank, and a bright light appeared before my eyes.

I found myself in a deep glass corridor without realizing when or how I got there. Giant fish and semi-transparent jellyfish swam around me, casting mottled watermarks and shadows. They looked so close, as if I could reach out and touch them, much more real than when I used to watch them through the glass. I had a vague sense that something was wrong and reached out, but my hand hit a layer of glass.

But it wasn’t separating me from the fish, it was separating me from the corridor. I was inside the glass viewing pool, like a dolphin.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?!” I shouted, but all I got in response was the gentle sound of flowing water.

Damn, where am I?

I pushed hard against the transparent barrier separating me from the outside world and felt it was unbreakable. Incredulously, I looked around and suddenly saw a pair of dark eyes reflected on the glass. It was Ares! Instinctively, I moved closer to the glass, but was stunned by what I saw before me.

Ares was wearing a black windbreaker. His long fish tail was gone, replaced by a pair of slender human legs wrapped in leather pants. Through the reflection on the glass, I saw my own appearance instantly. My legs were wrapped in long silver-gray fish tails, and the fan-shaped caudal fin swayed slowly with the current. I looked up in disbelief at him, while he frowned deeply at me, his palm pressed against the glass as if trying to touch me. He squeezed it hard until his fingertips turned white and his veins bulged, then he clenched his fist and smashed it heavily on the glass.

With a snap, several cracks spread out, and the glass shattered into pieces, instantly plunging the world before me into darkness again.

I tried to reach out my hand, opened my five fingers, but only grabbed air. The sudden panic overwhelmed me. I opened my eyes and sat up, immediately looking at my legs.

Thank goodness, nothing was there.

My legs did not turn into fish tails; they were still perfectly healthy and covered with smooth human skin, not fish scales. I then sensitively checked my hands and made sure there were no membranes between my fingers. After confirming this, I breathed a sigh of relief and touched my legs up and down, as if a patient who had narrowly avoided amputation. I excitedly kissed my own knee and broke out in a cold sweat.

Thank God, nothing strange had happened to my body.

What exactly had happened earlier…

My thoughts were in chaos, and I carefully recollected the surreal scenes from before, looking around and realizing I was back in Aegir’s lair.

Maybe I had never left here, and I had been caught in a dream since the strange mermaid ritual began? Rubbing my forehead, I couldn’t be sure because Aegir’s joyous leaps on the sea, the pain of growing mermaid features on my body, were all too real. They mixed into a conflicting feeling that still remained in my body.

If it had really happened, there must be some trace left, or my brain must have made a mistake.

Thinking so, I raised my hand subconsciously and touched behind my ear. I froze when I felt a small crack behind my earlobe, even with some water residue. This immediately reminded me of the feeling of seawater flowing out when Aegir took me into the sea. It was evidence that my body had indeed undergone some kind of strange transformation, and its existence shattered my sense of luck.

A huge sense of shock pressed on my nerves, making me almost suffocate. I took a few deep breaths, held my head, and forcefully rubbed my temples to prevent myself from fainting again because of this incredible fact and to force myself to think calmly.

Yes, my body had shown signs of a mermaid. A moment ago, I saw myself grow webbed claws, fine scales on my legs, and gills behind my ears, allowing me to breathe freely underwater. In biological terms, my body had mutated, in other words, my genes had undergone a mutation.

My head was buzzing, and a passage from “Genetics” kept hovering in my mind: gene mutation is the fundamental source of biological variation. There are many factors that can cause gene mutations, which can be classified into three categories: physical factors, such as X-rays and lasers; chemical factors, which are substances that can interact with DNA molecules and change their properties, such as nitrite and base analogs; and biological factors, including viruses and certain bacteria.

It must be the third category now!

It must be caused by Agerres. He injected mermaid DNA into my body by sexually assaulting me. Their genetic cells are highly erosive, just like viruses and bacteria, controlling, changing, and recombining my chromosomes—maybe in structure, maybe in number. Damn it, no matter how they did it, these things killed some of my cells and replaced them with new ones…

The first change…

So there will be a second time, a third time, an Nth time! The ultimate result will be… assimilation!

No, no, no, damn it!

I stood up and turned around twice in the cave, my fingers running through my hair, which was soaked with sweat.

Damn it, why am I even thinking about this! I shouldn’t be thinking about these theories at all. Even if I wrote a groundbreaking paper, it wouldn’t mean anything, because I am the most screwed-up mutant sample, and I can’t save myself! I don’t want to become a mermaid and stay on this island forever. I want to go back to my school and be with my parents and live a normal life!

Stay calm, stay calm, Desarro!

The only way to stop the mutation is to inject a serum that can suppress mermaid cells. I must leave here immediately, as far away as possible, and avoid any contact with Agerres again. There is still a chance for my body to recover. Raphael and the others may have brought snake venom serum, and I don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth a try.

With this thought in mind, I miraculously calmed down because I knew that panicking would only be useless. At this moment, the only person who can save me is myself.

So I cautiously crawled to the entrance of the cave and looked out like I would over the sea, but I didn’t see Ageres nearby. Perhaps he had dived into the sea to hunt, or he was dealing with conflicts within the tribe. But regardless, the lack of his presence gave me the confidence to escape.

I turned and went back to the cave where I had stored Ageres’ collection. I gathered some necessary items for survival in the jungle, and luckily, they were almost all there – a slightly dull knife, a telescope, an old compass, an iron anchor that could be used as a weapon, unopened alcohol for disinfecting wounds, a fire starter, and some odds and ends. I quickly wrapped them up in a piece of cloth that was similar to a sail flag underneath and tore off a few strips of cloth to wrap around my body. I tied them with the only remaining waistband from my pants that Ageres hadn’t torn apart.

I looked at myself, fully armed, feeling like a Robinson Crusoe trapped on Friday.

Now, it was the most important and critical step.

This would determine whether I could escape from the cave.

I squatted down, took a deep breath, and put my head into the water hole that Ageres had taken me into the sea before. After making sure that I could breathe smoothly, I took a deep breath and jumped in.

　At that moment, a trace of reluctance rose in my heart, but it was quickly washed away by the seawater that passed over my body. Almost instinctively, I swam quickly towards the depths, like an agile fish, shuttling through the seawater at a speed that humans could never achieve, and following the light, I broke through the water’s surface in an instant.

After wiping the water droplets off my face, I found myself on a low coastline, with the land close by. I quickly climbed ashore and pulled out the iron anchor from my waist, remaining alert for potential predators on the shore. I made my way into the jungle, needing to find a taller tree trunk to climb up and observe where Raphael and our ship had stopped before.

However, just as I was about to climb up the nearest large tree, a low roar suddenly came from afar, causing me to shudder. Even without turning around, I knew it was Aegaeus coming after me. Reacting instinctively, I rolled on the ground and hid in the low bushes, feeling the damp soil beneath me. With a sudden inspiration, I grabbed some mud and wiped it on the areas where my sweat glands emitted a strong odor – my neck, armpits, and even my underwear.

It had been some time since Aegaeus mentioned that he could locate me within a certain distance by my scent. Perhaps the sense of a mermaid’s smell was even more sensitive than that of a shark, and my scent might have been particularly strong to him, just as his strange fragrance was to me.

I crouched in the shadows, staring nervously at the coastline. Sure enough, a huge, elongated black shadow rose from the sea, dragging a long tail into the nearby woods. He looked around, obviously unable to find me thanks to the mud on my body that had worked as a good camouflage. In an instant, the restless roar echoed around me, as if it were right next to my ear, causing me to tremble and cover my mouth, not even daring to breathe out loud.