Chapter 606: Finding Clues
In the storm-choked skies, Alex and Zahra sat atop a great beast that loomed like a vast shadow beneath the sky.
Ricin’s long, sinuous neck curved with an unnatural grace, while two pairs of vast wings beat steadily at his back, their motion stirring the damp, salty air around them.
His form seemed caught between flesh and spirit. Feathers shifted from pitch-dark to ghostly white, their edges glimmering like oil across water.
Some held weight and shape, while others drifted like mist, giving the impression that his body existed halfway between the material and the immaterial.
After learning of the battle site of the three kings, Alex and Zahra had left the Blue Stalion shipbehind, choosing Ricin as their transport toward the southern side of Rage Island.
"Don’t you think we should inform someone like Vasticus and have him accompany us?" Alex asked, his words nearly drowned by the wind.
"We will get help after we have confirmed whether Ozythar is still alive, and if he is not, then see if I can still track the general location of the Dark Slate." Her tone carried no weight of urgency, only the steady clarity of someone certain of her course.
"Even I have limited means of finding an inanimate object with no unique markers."
She paused, her silver hair flicking in the wind, before adding, "And also, we are not going to get help from Vasticus. In fact, not from any of the seats of power." She spoke plainly, her calm delivery leaving no room for doubt or debate.
It was an understood fact that if they did find the serpent king, a big if considering that Zarach had a three-day head start, and if he had yet to locate the serpent king, then there was a big possibility that their paths could cross.
If that happened, then they wouldn’t just be facing the world eater, they would have to deal with Zarach and powerful companions accompanying him.
The one advantage they held, however, was that, like Zarach, they too had the backing of a great clan.
Zarach’s exact influence within the Tharokarn clan was unclear, but Alex and Zahra, on the other hand, could easily call upon the seats of power if the need arose.
So, Alex had questions. If Zahra wasn’t going to seek help from the seats of power, then who did she intend to rely on? However, He decided to remain silent for the time being.
Un to this point, Zahra had already sacrificed a lot, and locating the Dark slate would only put more burden on her, so it was only right for her to deal with the situation as she fit.
It was also not lost on him that when they had first met in the Ancestral Realm, Zahra was impersonating as one of its inhabitants, hiding from her own clan.
And after learning of her past, it was clear that Zahra’s ties with the Drakaryx clan were far from whole, and far from kind.
It took several hours of flying before they finally saw land, a vast stretch as dark as the surrounding ocean, drowned in shifting shadows beneath the lightning-cloaked sky.
The anomalous atmosphere around the island was bad, but its influence grew harsher the deeper one’s gaze wandered inland. Storms brewed within storms, layered currents of wind and thunder strong enough to threaten even an Elemental Ruler.
Vision itself was obscured, the land only a fractured silhouette beyond a few kilometers.
Jagged obsidian cliffs jutted from the southern shore, their edges torn and scarred. Craters marred the blackened stone, morphed by countless tempests that had pounded the land for ages.
’We haven’t even set foot here, and I can already feel it trying to gnaw at my thoughts,’ Alex realized, an unsettling tension stirring in his chest.
Rage Island earned its name not only from the endless storms it generated in the vast domain around the island.
The very air in its domain carried a subtle, invisible weight, a force that pushed at the mind, stoking irritation, then anger, and finally the sharp edge of bloodlust.
On the open sea, its effect was faint, but on the island itself, the pressure grew steadily stronger. The deeper one ventured, the more easily reason gave way to violence.
The force worked from within, reshaping the psyche in ways that made the effect temporary only to a certain extent; if surpassed, then the changes to the mind became permanent.
The island’s strange nature also changed someone according to their strength, meaning the stronger they were, the quicker and irreversible the change they suffered.
Ricin carried them inland, wings cutting through turbulent air, until they reached a land torn apart as if a great war had been fought there.
This was the place where the battle of the three kings had begun. The scars of their clash were carved into the ruined landscape. Deep gashes that stretched into the blackened earth for hundreds of meters, as if a titanic blade had torn it apart.
Countless vast craters lay charred and glassed over as if struck by terrible lighting that had reshaped even the rigid land, cloaked in thick layers that shimmered dully beneath the stormlight.
And everywhere, like the remnants of a slaughtered army, lay bones of the undead, scattered and half-fused into the earth, as if an entire legion had been erased in the struggle.
The storm had also left its mark behind. Entire ridges had been scoured into jagged teeth, fissures split the land into crooked veins, and patches of melted stone still carried a faint shimmer, glowing as though lightning had only just passed through them.
The air itself carried the tang of scorched salt and iron, hissing faintly with static. Even now, ghostly sparks drifted along shattered rock, whispers of power that refused to die.
Zahra leaped from Ricin’s back, her descent halting as she suspended herself inches above the ground. In that instant, her aura shifted, and her black-and-white eyes clouded over, turning to a milky white sheen.
Alex, with the Eyes of the Ancient, silently observed Zahra as she scanned the devastated field, a slight frown pulling at her lips.
In his stripped-down reality, he saw nothing new, only what already existed, just in much sharper clarity.
After a minute, Zahra turned and walked toward him. "The good news is that Ozythar is alive. And it seems the fishmen are either lying to us, or unaware, but even Morvagor the Drowned Crown still lives."
She clicked her tongue, faint annoyance slipping through, before adding, "The bad news is that this island’s environment interferes with the laws themselves, so tracking them down will be difficult."
"So, what are we searching for?" Alex asked, not surprised that Morvagor still lives, since he was wielder of the death element, and while weak, an Eight Rank individual.
"If possible, blood or remains. That would make it easier to track them, but the storm has erased much of their physical imprint." She glanced across the scarred terrain.
She went on, her calm as steady and untouchable as ice. "Still, this place itself is enough to serve as their tether. All things carry a truth they cannot hide, and though drowning in chaos, their clash is enough to follow their trail."
"I trust your abilities," Alex said quietly. "Just don’t push yourself too hard."
While Alex and Zahra searched the grounds where the three vessel kings had clashed, far to the north, dozens of kilometers away, another presence lingered.
A boy no older than sixteen hovered in the sky, his piercing blue eyes set in a deep frown. "Another dead end!" he snapped, voice sharp against the rolling wind.
"This place has been nothing but trouble," he muttered. "I had to pay those idiots more than they were worth, then manipulate Ozythar into ambushing them alone, leaving me the perfect stage to collect all of their lives once they were weakened,"
"And then that damnedone in a century storm ruined everything."His teeth ground together. "Now this island’s cursed environment is messing with my ability to locate anything."
He scowled, fingers flexing as though tugging unseen strings. "The fate-lines are in a mess, and even Ayah is useless in this forsaken place."
His thoughts drifted, dark and bitter. "Should I just abandon it? Three days wasted already, and I still don’t know if that Dark Slate is truly forged from Eclipse Matter, or what is even written upon it does hold any real worth in this realm."
He was amid contemplating his decision when a flash of silver appeared in his eye, making his head jerk sharply to the south, recognition flickering in his deep ocean eyes.
’My fate-sight is nearly useless in this sea of chaos, but the sun stands out even behind clouds,’ he thought, a slow, twisted smile spreading across his childlike face. ’And this sun is all too familiar.’
"What are you doing here?" Zarach whispered to the wind. "And who is this friend you’ve brought with you?"