"Wait, stop!" Bertone puts his strong arm onto Samudra's weapon, "You are not going to-"
"We must." Samudra answered, "Arnaav yet lives. Merrick gave himself to protect him. As much as it pains me to do this, and please believe me..." Samudra gently pushes that huge paw off of his trident, "It breaks my heart to do this..."
"In order to save at least one young life," Olaroc says as he drifts forward, "We must destroy our former comrade..."
"No..." Triton Bertone huffs and pants as he sees the two sea turtles approach the ice statue. He whimpers as he grips his own trident with both paws, and reluctantly paddles his strong legs along with them, "Kaiken... Your Son was..." He mumbled with great sorrow, "The finest Piscien I have ever seen..."
"Ebba... Please stay..." Samudra called to her, "Arnaav will need warmth once he is free." Ebba nods as she turns away, and faces the open water as the three mermen corner the magnificent crystal tower.
"Triton Merrick, my friend..." Samudra raises his trident up as he aims it, "Forgive me..." He shakes his head of the tears misting from his eyes, "I have failed you..."
The solid, three pronged weapon then SLAMMED right into the ice! Shards and chunks of ice break from the mass of ice. Ebba flinches from the harsh cracking and demolishing taking place behind her. She huffs and covers her ears to try and block out the noise of destruction. Please just let it be over soon...
"Ghh! HHHhhh!" Bertone weeps as he hammers his trident into the cracking of the massive ice. It's so thick and solid. With every strike he deals to the crystal, he feels as though he's ripping Merrick's very soul apart. He wishes he can just turn back around and leave to his pod so he wouldn't have to desecrate the remains of such a young and worthy merman.
Olaroc grunts as he works his heavy, armored arms into his trident, and crush into the ice beneath him. 'It's truly a shame...' Olaroc hammers into the deep freeze, driving the sharp ends of his weapon into berg, and chiseling a heavy chunk off and away from the mass, 'Son really liked you, Adra Merrick... You should have seen the look of sadness my son had on his face when he learned that you were banished.' He wipes a smidge of ice dust floating near his eye as he tightens his grip, and stabs into the ice some more, 'I wonder if Kaiken will still pretend that you no longer matter, even after learning how you ended...' Olaroc scowled as he focused a sense of anger into his digging, 'Honestly... How so much compassion as yourself has somehow spawned from such a superficial merman such as your father, is far beyond me!' More large shards break and shatter as Olaroc drills his trident into the ice.
Samudra grimaces as he forces his weapon into the jagged ditch of the ice. He can practically hear the screams of agony from the inanimate ice as the three Tritons pummel and strike sway at the ice, 'I am sorry, Merrick... I am so sorry...' Free tears swim from his eyes as he works his trident at several different angles. Merrick was so scared, was so young... And Vanora, she said she can see a whole tapestry of darkness and misery inside of Merrick on the first time they have met... To have to exist with a hurricane inside one's heart, and yet function as if nothing is hindering them...
He can already see himself walking upon the beach, with each heavy step, onto the human's dwelling... To Adam's house. He can imagine Adam's face consumed in horror as Samudra tells him is lover has been reduced to a pile of shards in a graveyard of giant slugs. Adam holds his own face as he falls to his knees, and cries hysterically as he feels his heart break inside him. To lose the only person you give your heart to in a tidal crash of happenstance... To say that he changed and died bravely is of very little comfort in the wake of loss.
As the three Tritons dig and break into the ice, the chip away at the thick crystalized water, and see a glimmer of blue/aqua color in what looks like large, leaf-like plates of pitch-black flake. They reach in, and break off small plates of ice, and see the flakey blackness of the strange new substance.
"What..." Triton Bertone plucks at the flakey leaves, only for the flimsy material to break apart just from a light touch. Trying to grab a firmer grasp, or scoop, really, the polar bear soon infects the immediate area with a tiny flurry of black snow, glimmering in the low light with beautiful bluish-cyan sheen, "I do not understand..."
"His father was a Navyn Tail merman," Olaroc told them, "That is the essence of the other half of his being."
"Let us continue," Samudra said, already feeling his body to be heavier than it was. The three males nod, and they continued to chip and chisel away at the ice. The force of each stab and hammer breaks and scatters the flakes in a rather bothersome blizzard of flake. Each merman now breathes in shallow gulps, as to not inhale any of the Navyn flakes.
Olaroc chips and forces his weapon down further. He huffs and growls as he jams his weapon down with force, breaking more and more ice, and then-
SHUNK!
His eyes widen as his trident suddenly sinks into something else.
---One Hour Ago---
Taci tilts his head as he looks upon Merrick. His body is twitching and writhing, all the while turning pale, very light blue, even, before Merrick stops moving altogether. His thin, fairy-like wings shake as the insect gives a shiver, before they zap up, and he buzzes down to his former companion.
The bug drops down, and looks unto Merrick's face. His eyes are still open, but he doesn't seem to be awake. His whole form is covered in a thin layer of frost, growing like a rapid white moss over his being. Small crackling noises can be heard as the ice can visually be seen growling along Merrick's flesh, climbing and gradually consuming his hands while his blonde hair turns into shiny, pale yellow as it turns into a brilliant silver fleece.
The insect waves his shiny, twig-like arm over his face, but Merrick gives no response. The insect pouts as his wings wilted with empathy. Buzzing sadly, Taci picks up one of the decorative scales piled onto Merrick's frozen body -- which are sparkling white beautifully, despite the fact that there isn't any light for them to reflect, they're even vibrating ever so slightly.
In a last-stitch tribute for the sake of respect for placing Arnaav into the shell, Taci arranges the scales around the Piscien's naked human body. He places one onto Merrick's forehead, onto his chin, a few over each pec, around his stomach, a few elegantly lined alone his arms, and down his legs, a couple over his genitals.
He arranges the scales in a sort of symbolic array on and around Merrick. It's not much, but at least they look like pretty black jewels around him. Taci lifts another scale up, before it started to spark and vibrate madly.
"EErrrraarrtt?!" The insect spazzes out, and drops the scales he was holding. The scales were all spitting tiny dots of fire as they crackled and warped, biting on every inch of Merrick's body.
VVVVVVVFFFffffrrrrrrvvvvvv
In a fit of panic, Taci flies away as black and ice start to creep and engulf Merrick, twisting his body as it grew like a mound of crystalline soil.
~~~
"STOP!!" Olaroc shouted. Samudra and Bertone cease their forceful digging, and look to the blue and white sea turtle.
"What, Brother?" Samudra asks. Ebba turns to see the sudden interruption.
"Look here..." Olaroc points to the end of his trident, where it seems to be leaking a dark fluid. Bertone swims around, and puts his nose towards the dark mist around the area. Olaroc pulls his trident out of its spot, and thus letting more of the substance out.
Bertone sniffs the new liquid dancing slowly in the water, before looking up to them, "It is blood... Of a fish..."
All three paused before Samudra takes his trident up, and SLAMS it into an upper part of the ice! Bertone places his trident aside, and starts to grab and break apart the ice with his bare paws, while Olaroc does as his brother does, and breaks apart the ice in huge chunks.
The polar bear merman brushes and shreds the large black ashes forcefully, until he pushed his fingers into them, grasped something soft and cold. He quickly pushed away the other flakes, almost making a cloud of black dust, until he felt a smaller webbed hand on his huge paw, with his other paw on an arm, "HURRY!"
The two turtle Tritons keep digging and shoving, making haste before they realized the boundary of the black flake. They all started to dig and pad away into the pile. Olaroc replaces and pushes around the flakes until he can make out a glinting silver key with a heart-shaped jewel at the center of it. Bertone pants as he pushes through the layers of shiny black paper, and he eventually pulls his paws at a thick tail with frilly membranes on either side. Samudra scoops several handfuls of flake away, until he was able to see a face. His heart pounds as he blows the flake away, until he sees a sleeping blue face with a pearlescent sheen with a field of sharp fins on the top head.
