The ship groaned as restless waves of the abyssal ocean hammered its hull. The cloudy sky above was unusually calm, thin streaks of lightning snaking through it, accompanied by barely any sound, while the wind, too, seemed strangely subdued.
Yet the calm felt alien, like the hush before a storm.
At the forefront of the Blue Stalion, atop the raised deck, three individuals stood. A man clad in black, a woman adorned in silver, and an older bearded man with dreadlocked hair.
His deep blue breastplate lay hidden beneath a scaly cloak, thick leather pants wrapped his legs, and a bident rested across his back.
The older man's face bore a grim look, his hand already shifting, ready to reach for the weapon. "My Lady, you told us that you had friends waiting for your arrival," he said, his tone heavy, "but their naked killing intent tells me another story."
His deep blue eyes shivered as they fixed on the darkness ahead, their light dimming as he recognized the shifting forms there.
"I promised you safety, and I intend to keep that promise," came the woman's chillingly cold answer.
'Looks like something went wrong,' Alex mused, his voice weighted with quiet dissatisfaction.
He had been looking forward to this meeting, but instead of the welcome he expected, he watched nearly a dozen fishmen standing silently in the distance, as if waiting for something, their clear hatred and killing intent bled into the air for all to feel.
Among the gathered fishmen, three were Elemental Rulers, one even brushing the peak of his rank. They were no nameless raiders out for sport or plunder, they were certainly here for them but clearly with no friendly intentions.
Zahra had made an agreement with the two kings. In exchange for knowledge and a unique poison she had promised to deliver on her next visit, the Vessel Kings would hunt down Ozythar, the World Eater, keeping everything but a few select relics as their possession.
That agreement had been sealed two weeks ago. Today was the day she was supposed to meet the Vessel Kings in this secluded stretch of the Rage Sea to kick their plan into action.
But now, seeing that she was not greeted as an ally but with open hostility, something was undeniably wrong.
Alex did not believe the two Vessel Kings had gone back on their word. One of them, Naquor the Writhing Tempest, was second in strength only to Ozythar himself, and his reasons for wishing to slay the serpent king stretched far beyond material gain.
Similarly, Morvagor the Drowned Crown had agreed because the fall of the serpent king would hand him vast territories and greater control over the sea.
So, unless the King of the Deep himself had intervened, something truly terrible must have happened for their welcome to turn hostile.
'I was looking forward to obtaining an easy gain, but things never go as planned,' Alex sighed, the turn of events leaving him bitter and frustrated.
With his Eyes of the Ancient active, he tilted his head back, staring straight through the storm-choked clouds. His gaze followed the tiny being ripping across the sky like a shooting star, its form never slowing, never resting.
"What happened?" Zahra questioned, her words cutting into the air as though directed at no one.
Then, with a crackle of light, Alex's eyes dropped to the figurehead of the Stalion. A slimy, slender, and small individual stood there, his body wrapped in tongues of lightning, his inhuman face resembling that of a monstrous eel. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝔫𝔢𝔱
"Lady of the Great Clan, Sythriss greets you," came the sharp, crackling voice. "The agreement my master had with you is no longer possible."
"What happened?" Zahra asked again, her tone edged and hard.
Sythriss's beady eyes shifted to Tygrik for a moment, his stare stern, before sliding back to Zahra. "I am not privy to all the details," he said, voice carrying the hiss of lightning, "But I can tell you this: Ozythar was informed of Master Naquor and King Morvagor's plans."
"The World Eater invited the two under the guise of needing their expertise to explore the ruins he had recently uncovered on Rage Island."
His voice lowered, weighted with the memory. "The two kings were ambushed by the World Eater there. Morvagor was slain. Master Naquor suffered greatly in the encounter but has survived."
Zahra frowned, her silver gaze sharpening. "What fate befell Ozythar?"
A ripple of dread crossed the eel-like face. "In the battle of kings, an End Storm came alive, the worst seen in a century. Its maw stretched tens of kilometers, its winds tearing open the black sky, its grip reaching even the dark chasm below."
"The World Eater was lost within the storm's embrace. My king escaped only because of his nature, while Morvagor was killed within the chaos that the storm brought."
He paused, the crackle of lightning around him dimming as if just thinking about it made his blood run cold. "We have searched the island and its outskirts for the past three days, and we have yet to find any trace of that monster."
Alex's shoulders sank slightly as Sythriss spoke, disappointment growing heavier with each word. He had held out hope that, even with their plan in ruins, they could report their findings to Odysseus, who surely would have found it easy to acquire the Dark Slate.
But with the Serpent King gone, and possibly dead, that outcome seemed unlikely.
It would also be nearly impossible to find the corpse of the Serpent King, for it would lie somewhere on Rage Island, a nightmarish expanse the size of a continent.
As for using a Ruler wish to locate him, that would not help. By now, the rulers of the Rage Sea would surely have tried such a method, and clearly it did not work.
Though the Ruler Wish was mighty, it was not the only way a being of Ozythar's level could conceal itself from the eyes of it or other means of tracking.
"My Lady," Sythriss hissed, lightning crackling faintly across his slick form, "There are rumors that Ozythar, the World Eater, met with an otherworlder days before this terrible incident."
Alex's jaw clenched, a face flashing into his mind. His voice came sharp, cutting through the fishmen's words. "Can you describe him? His name...his affiliation?" The air around Alex lightly cracked as his displeasure leaked out, but he cared little who noticed.
"According to rumor," Sythriss replied after a moment of silence, "It was a human male. Very young in appearance. Short blue hair… and oceanic eyes."
'It's him... Zarach.' There was no mistaking that description, and Alex knew Zarach meeting the serpent king was no coincidence.
Alex's aura shifted violently for an instant, anger gripping his mind like a claw, then vanishing just as quickly.
But in the presence of two Elemental Rulers and one anomaly, such a flare could not go unnoticed. Sythriss narrowed his eyes at the change, though a single glance toward Zahra stopped him from voicing the question that burned in his throat. He swallowed the thought, not wishing to find trouble with the unknown lady.
"My Lady," he continued, the words slow and deliberate, "I trust I need not warn you...But I hope you will leave our sea. The fishmen tribes are not in their best state of mind after losing their king."
He straightened, lightning dancing sharper along his outline. "Now, I will be taking my leave."
Zahra did not move to stop him. Alex, too, felt no need to press further about Zarach because the picture was already clear in his mind.
With a snap of thunder and a flash of light, Sythriss vanished, leaving the deck silent and humming with the faint tang of ozone.
Tygrik, though an Elemental Ruler himself, stood baffled by what he had just heard.
The revelation about the conspiracy to kill the second strongest of the Rage Sea, and the death of one, if not two, Vessel Kings, was shocking enough. But the open threat laid at the end made him realize he might not be left alive to reveal it to the outside world, and the thought of death made his blood run cold.