Shadow trail of the beautiful world

Chapter 21 20. Leap of Hope

"Typically, divers go into the water with their hands first, so there's less drag and less danger. But since you're jumping into your hands from 200 feet, it's the craziest thing in the world." Cliff diving, so my experience can hardly help you, luck is the most important thing..."

"I mean, if you have any special abilities, you'd better use them! This is no joke!"

Midnight was approaching, and on the cliff coast outside the lighthouse, Tom dragged a large pile of things from his pickup truck and placed them at Merlin's feet.

He said to Merlin:

"There are no reefs under this cliff. This is the best news for you. You don't need to worry about being thrown to your death. But you must remember to keep your body upright as much as possible, and reduce the impact force between your body and the water surface." At the very least, you should also wear glasses so as not to hurt your eyes.”

"The most important thing is, don't faint!"

Tom kept the key points to Merlin as simple as possible:

"Jumping from such a high place, the collision between your body and the water will produce a huge impact. You have to survive, otherwise it will be too late even if I rescue you immediately."

"I try my best."

Merlin was also a little nervous. He wore a diving suit, buckled his swimming goggles over his eyes, and moved his body on the edge of the cliff.

At a height of 200 feet, one would feel dizzy even looking down, and if there were other options, Merlin would not be so desperate.

The sea breeze from the deep sea hit his face, making him feel a burst of cold, he kept taking deep breaths, and tried his best to keep himself in the best condition.

Merlin wasn't worried about his own death.

Several experiments in the past have proved that when his life is in danger, the dark power in his body will help him avoid disaster.

What worries him the most is that even if he throws everything away to take risks, he still won't be able to catch that fleeting hope.

"Are you ready?"

Tom looked at Merlin nervously, and he said:

"How about waiting a few more days? After you become familiar with diving."

"No!"

Merlin looked back at Tom, he gritted his teeth and said:

"I can't wait any longer. If I wait any longer, I may not have the courage to do this... Thank you, Tom, for giving me a chance."

"What I give you may be the ticket to hell."

Tom is a really kind person. At this moment, he regretted a little. He said:

"I regret it, Merlin, maybe I shouldn't have told you about the people under the sea in the first place."

"It's too late to regret now, bless me, Tom!"

Merlin clenched the trident pendant in his hand, and after taking a deep breath, he ran towards the cliff, and then jumped up as hard as he could, as if flying.

His body soared into the air, and in the air, he opened his arms and maintained his balance as Tom taught him. He saw the sea under the dark night, and saw Tom standing on the edge of the cliff waving at him while turning his body. While spinning, he saw the surface of the sea.

Merlin's arms were tightly attached to his body, like a falling sharp arrow, he rushed towards the sea under the dark night.

The wind, the cold wind slapped his face, making him almost unable to open his eyes, his hair was shaking crazily in the cold wind, in front of his eyes, the endless waves of the sea were getting closer, like a real Mirror.

The dark power in his body seemed to sense the imminent danger. As he got closer to the water surface, Merlin's hands and body also began to "melt" rapidly like dissipating smoke.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Merlin felt a change in his body, which meant that the force believed that his life would be in danger.This also made Merlin couldn't help but let out a series of screams.

The moment he fell into the sea, his body spread apart in an instant.

It was like a cloud of smoke being smashed into pieces, the black smoke with sparks exploded on the surface of the icy sea water, just like a bomb exploding on the sea surface, the splashed water splashed in the loud noise Into the air, breaking the waves.

As the smoke drifted away, Merlin fell into the icy water. He still remembered Tom's warning and kept his mouth shut to prevent himself from choking on the water.

In addition to Tom on the cliff, under the dark water waves, there was another person who also witnessed Merlin's jump full of hope, but after Merlin fell into the water like a stone, the man in the water held on to the handle of the knife , said with a look of incredulity:

"Sound effects...full score."

"Pose... 0 points."

"Another overreaching suicide...Stinks of demons. May the sea forgive him."

As he spoke, the person standing in the water as if standing on land shook his arm slightly, and was about to turn around and leave.

But in the middle of his last glance, he saw the silver pendant tightly held in Merlin's hand, which made the man stop turning around.

After a while, he leaned forward, like a fired shell, and rushed towards Merlin with an unimaginable speed.Before Merlin could react, he grabbed Merlin's arm and turned sharply in the water.

Merlin felt the turbulent water splash on his face, and the almost sonic kinetic energy in the water was exerted on his consciousness, like a heavy punch on the chin.

His vision in front of the swimming goggles was shaken, making him unable to see objects in the surrounding water clearly, and he could only vaguely see a dark figure.

Merlin struggled subconsciously, causing the sea man who held his arm to show a contemptuous smile. His feet swung in the water, and his already extremely fast speed accelerated again.

The force exerted on Merlin's body instantly doubled, and he even heard the clicking sound of his spine being overwhelmed, which made Merlin's eyes go dark, and he passed out in the water.

The finger of the underwater man shook, and a moment later, a summoned dolphin circled the two of them a few times, then humped up the unconscious Merlin, followed the underwater man, and swam towards the south.

When Merlin woke up again, he was already on a piece of pure white sandy beach, surrounded by sea breeze, constant waves, and the singing of seagulls.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a dazzling sun, which made him subconsciously stretch out his hand to block the light in front of him.His mouth was full of the salty and bitter taste of sea water, which made people feel very thirsty.

"who are you?"

A voice sounded behind Merlin, causing Merlin to jump up suddenly.When he turned around, he saw a stranger sitting on a rock on the beach behind him.In that person's hand was holding the silver pendant that Tom had given to Merlin.

"Are you a seaman?"

Merlin looked at the man. His appearance was no different from that of a human being. His black hair was tied into a weird bun on top of his head, which made people want to take a second look.And he was wearing a set of black robe-like clothes. It didn't look like human clothing, but the tight-fitting robe was definitely easy to move around in the water.

In short, if you just look at it from the outside, the person in front of you is absolutely not like the man from the sea in Merlin's imagination.

No fins, no scales, no tail...it doesn't look like a fantasy creature at all.

"To be precise, I am from Atlantis."

The man looked at Merlin, a gleam of light flashed in his green eyes, he stretched out his hand and hung the pendant in the air, he said:

"How did you have Her Majesty Atlanta's token? Where did you get it from?"

"Tom Curry gave it to me."

Seeing the man admitting his identity, Merlin was a little excited, and he said truthfully:

"Tom found out that you were active around Grace Port. He was very worried. He didn't know if this was a warning from the people of the sea. He is a father, and children are always the father's greatest weakness... He wants to know, are you bringing Do you come with good intentions, or malicious intentions?"

"Tom Curry..."

The black-haired sea man pronounced the name in a voice that gritted his teeth. He took a deep breath and said indifferently:

"I should have killed him five years ago. If I had done that, none of this would have happened."

"Arrogant land people are always like this, thinking that the world revolves around you... Tom is just a dispensable mortal. The only reason I am active in Port of Grace is Arthur, Arthur Curry, The prince of Atlantis, he has the most noble blood of the Atlantis Seven Seas Kingdom in his body, that's all."

"Tom also wondered, should he keep Arthur in the water?"

Merlin added:

"Arthur has talent, I have seen it with my own eyes, he can command the creatures in the sea, those fish... even sharks and whales. But from my experience, this talent may not be a good thing for little Arthur , if he wants to live in human society, he has to hide his talent."

"Can he command fish?"

The man under the sea looked a little surprised, he looked at Merlin:

"Are you sure? The kid didn't have this ability when I visited him last time!"

"Last time? When?"

Merlin looked suspiciously at the sea man in front of him, who silently calculated the time difference between Atlantis and humans, and said:

"About a few months ago, I had other things to do. Queen Atlanna is my good friend, but I must be loyal to my king first."

Merlin keenly noticed that when the sea man talked about Arthur's mother, there was a flash of pain in his eyes, which made Merlin have a premonition of something bad.

But he chose not to speak out, explaining:

"Little Arthur told me that this is the ability he discovered by accident when he was visiting the aquarium last month. You haven't come back then, you should have missed it."

"Well, it should be so."

The sea man nodded, and said:

"It should be so. The blood of the Atlanta family runs in Arthur's body, and he is destined to do great things... But you, land people! You must stay away from Arthur!"

The tone of the sea man became a little colder. He looked at Merlin, as if he had seen through all of Merlin's secrets, and he warned:

"You are shrouded in strong dark power, you are full of bad luck, you are an unknown person. From now on, I forbid you to appear beside Arthur. If I find you approaching him again, I will not hesitate Throw you into the trench!"

"I know!"

Merlin finally seized the opportunity, he looked at the sea man in front of him, and said:

"That's why I'm desperately looking for you. Tom told me that people under the sea can use magic. You see, I'm full of bad luck, including the damn dark power. These are not what I want...I think Please help me, even if it's just to tell me how to eliminate these crazy bad luck?"

"You mean, let me help you wash away the dark magic in your body?"

The seaman smiled, and he asked Merlin a question:

"Let's not talk about whether I can do it, land people... The important thing is, why should I help you?"

Before Merlin could answer, the man from the bottom of the sea talked eloquently:

"Atlantis has existed for much longer than you can imagine, and human civilization has grown and developed almost right under our noses. In my long life, I have seen many ignorant land people blindly pursue power, like you There are so many cases in what you call the Middle Ages... People who have anything to do with the devil mostly do it themselves."

"In my opinion, you are no different from your crazy compatriots, and you don't deserve to be saved at all."

"But I didn't do it voluntarily!"

Merlin pointed to his eyes and retorted:

"All of this is not what I want! It was forced on me by that demon. If possible, I would rather none of this happened at all!"

"Oh, really?"

The seaman smiled disdainfully, pointed to Merlin's eyes and said:

"Dark magic power fills every corner of your soul. This is a sign of the establishment of the devil's contract. Since it is a contract, it means that you have made a deal... You used all this as a price to exchange something from the devil."

"Land people, look me in the eyes, and tell me, if I give you a chance to reverse everything, will you really reject that contract?"

"I..."

Merlin originally wanted to say no bluntly, but the face of James Coulson suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, which made Merlin hesitate at this moment.

Would he really want to reverse everything and watch James die in a car crash?

Is he really willing to pass up this perhaps the only chance to save James?

Maybe...

The undersea man was right.

The contract was completed, James survived, and the price was that he was plagued by bad luck, although there were no people alive, ghosts or ghosts...

But the question is, let him make a choice between his current situation and James' life, which one will he choose?

The hesitation in Merlin's eyes did not escape the gaze of the sea man. The sea man shook his head and said:

"It seems that you understand it yourself, don't you?"

"Everything you encounter now may not be due to your intention, but the source is your choice. Land people, we sea people have known since childhood that every creature has to pay for its own choice. You made the choice , you bear the result... In this world, there is no medicine for regret."

He turned and was about to leave, saying:

"What you are chasing is just a pale image of regret. What you need is not salvation, but acceptance of this cold reality."

There was bitterness in Merlin's eyes. He looked at the man from the sea who left before him. He stretched out his hand in a daze, but he didn't know how to keep him.After a few seconds, Merlin asked hoarsely:

"Okay, I get it. But, but can you tell me, is there a way to undo this bad luck? It's really driving me crazy, and most importantly, I don't want to see bad things anymore because I Born, I want to do good things... Please, please help me!"

"Oh, it's back to the question just now."

The seaman turned his head to look at Merlin, and said:

"Am I friends with you? Am I obligated to do so?"

"I will keep Arthur Curry's secret, and I believe my friends will too. I will stay away from Arthur as you wish, and never appear by his side in this life."

Merlin narrowed his eyes, gritted his teeth and said:

"Most importantly, I will keep his mother's secret from little Arthur..."

"She's actually gone, isn't she?"

(End of this chapter)