As Ethan sank deeper into the sea, he felt himself being pulled into a very distant place.
Since he was physically powerless to offer any resistance, he gave up on trying to move and allowed himself to go with the flow.
That was the last thing he remembered before his world got covered in darkness.
Suddenly, he felt something poking his cheek repeatedly, waking him up from his deep slumber.
He wanted to move his hand to swat the annoying thing poking his face like a button, but his body felt as heavy as lead.
No matter how much strength he tried to muster, he was unable to even lift his finger. Seeing his attempts fail, he switched to forcing his eyes to open. But even doing that was a very hard thing to do.
Even so, he persevered, and after what seemed like forever, his eyes slowly opened.
His vision was a little blurry at first, but after a minute, he saw a familiar person looking at him with an amused smile on his face.
"Well met, Ethan," the extremely handsome man said with a mischievous smile on his face. "It seems that we are meeting quite often these days. I just met you in Chapter 429, and here you are again. Did Chloe finally get serious and ravage you?"
Ethan blinked once and twice, as he looked at Vincent, who was grinning at him.
"Vin… cent?" Ethan tried to say the man's name, but even that was too troublesome for him to do.
"Looks like you're really down for the count this time, huh?" Vincent chuckled.
At that moment, Ethan started to hear the sound of waves coming to the shore.
In fact, he could feel the water brushing up on his body, up to his lower half.
Seeing his reaction, Vincent sighed and picked up the boy like a sack of rice, letting him hang on his shoulder.
"Let's go to a more comfortable place to talk," Vincent said. "Ah. You're in luck today. My wife is here with me. I will introduce you to my wife, the most beautiful woman in the world!"
Ethan, who was slumped on Vincent's shoulder, had once again fallen asleep and didn't get to hear the handsome man's ramblings.
———————————
A few minutes later…
When Vincent arrived at the small camp near the beach, a beautiful woman with long blue hair glanced in his direction with surprise.
"I-Is he?" the beautiful woman asked.
Vincent nodded. "The boy seems to have suffered a lot of grievance, and his spirit is a bit weak at the moment."
The handsome man laid Ethan down on one of the bedrolls and checked his condition.
Vincent's wife felt her heart ache after seeing the young man's current state.
Ethan's face was very pale, and his lips had nearly lost their colors.
His pulse was also weak, and if not for the fact that she was certain that his life wasn't in any danger, she might have already performed a ceremony to transfer some of her life force to him.
"Do you know what happened to him, Cliodhna darling?"
"Hush, Vincent. I'm trying to help stabilize his bloodline."
Cliodhna took off Ethan's robe, revealing his upper body.
Her delicate hands then moved to draw runic symbols over his body, allowing the boy to harness the spiritual power in the surroundings.
While all of this was happening, a symbol glowed faintly on Ethan's forehead.
It was a trident with six angelic wings spread wide to its sides, making Vincent sigh when he saw it.
"Thrice blessed," Vincent muttered. "The old man really did it this time."
Cliodhna nodded before she started singing.
It was the song of the sea, which made Ethan slowly open his eyes to look at her.
"Mother?" Ethan asked with uncertainty.
For some reason, Ethan was feeling a very strong sense of familiarity, which he could not explain.
Cliodhna continued to sing while lightly caressing the side of Ethan's face, making him feel drowsy. Half a minute later, he once again closed his eyes to sleep.
When the beautiful woman's singing ended, color had once again returned to the young man's face.
The symbol on his forehead had long disappeared, and the only thing that could be heard in the surroundings was his deep sleeping breaths, which made the beautiful lady sigh in relief.
"Well, I don't mind having this boy as my son." Vincent chuckled. "Too bad, he is already my nephew. Well, I can still adopt him if my brother suddenly kicks the bucket."
"That's a funny way to tell someone to go die while they are fighting in the lands of Saraqael," Cliodhna said with a disapproving look. "Also, my sister is still alive. Do you dare to adopt her son?"
Vincent lightly cleared his throat after hearing the mention of Cliodhna's sister, Catherine.
The two sisters had something in common—they were both very fierce.
Unfortunately, Catherine had lost most of her powers after giving birth to Ethan, so she was having a hard time fighting alongside her husband in the lands of Saraqael.
"Well, since you don't want to give birth because you will lose a lot of your powers like your sister, can't we just make him our Half-Son or something?"
"Vincent, you are already his Godfather. What more do you need?"
Vincent scratched his head. "I knew I should have made love with that bartender back on Midgard before I met yo-aawwww!" seaʀᴄh thё nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
The extremely handsome man immediately regretted speaking out loud about other women in front of his wife, who was overly possessive of him.
"Did you say something, Darling?"
"Wife! I was just spouting nonsense. I just had too much to drink earlier."
"But you haven't touched any alcohol since three weeks ago, remember?"
Vincent, who could easily cut monsters and deities in half with a single swing of his sword, was truly helpless in front of the beautiful woman, whose blue eyes were now faintly glowing with power.
Just as he was at a loss for what to do, the young man between them started to stir, prompting Cliodhna to stop pinching her husband's waist.
For the third time since he saw Vincent, Ethan once again opened his eyes.
This time, his gaze was no longer hazy as he stared at the beautiful woman, who was looking at her with worry.
"Mother?" Ethan asked once more, making Cliodhna shake her head.
"I'm not your mother," Cliodhna replied with a smile. "But we are indeed part of the same family. You still haven't completed your coming-of-age Trial, so I am not allowed to answer any of your questions.
"But know this, Ethan. I am very happy to finally meet you. I'm sure that if she is here with us, she would not hesitate to hold you in her arms, and tell you how much she loves you."
Vincent, who was listening from the side, lightly cleared his throat to catch the attention of the two.
"Well then, Ethan, can you tell us what happened?" Vincent asked. "I don't know how you ended up here, but I'm sure that you didn't come here with your own free will.
"We are actually very near a battlefield, you see, and your Astral Spirit shouldn't have traveled in such a dangerous place. So tell me, boy. How in Yggdrasil's name did you end up in your current state?"
Cliodhna was also very curious because when she sensed that a spirit had suddenly appeared in their location, she immediately asked her husband to investigate.
Little did he know that she would finally be able to meet her nephew, whom Vincent had mentioned a few times after the two of them had met in a similar incident, just like now.