Ragnar looked up first.
"Done?"
I nodded.
"Done."
Knight studied my expression.
"And?"
A faint smile formed on my face.
"I have everything."
That immediately got everyone’s attention. The information hidden within the Prime Territory had finally stopped being fragmented. The path forward existed now. It was complicated but at least visible to us. The summons exchanged looks with one another while I glanced back toward the council hall.
The three family leaders eventually emerged as well. Hida approached first. "We’ll notify the other settlements."
I nodded.
"They’ll know you’re coming."
That would save time. More importantly, it would prevent unnecessary misunderstandings. The commander extended her hand.
I shook it.
"Try not to start a war immediately."
I laughed.
"There is never a good time to start a war."
Hida groaned.
Silverbane looked completely unsurprised by my answer while Haliaka merely shook her head. A few final words were exchanged before the farewells ended. Then the resistance activated one of their long-range formations. Silver light gathered around the teleportation circle positioned near the edge of the settlement. Runes illuminated one after another while soul force surged through the structure.
I stepped onto the formation together with my summons. The pocket realm slowly began fading beneath the growing light.
The formation activated, space folded and the settlement disappeared. Moments later we emerged somewhere deep within the endless Soul Sea in the Prime territory, standing upon a lonely stretch of silver shore beneath a dark sky filled with drifting soul stars.
Silver waters reflected the distant glow of countless soul stars drifting across the dark sky above, creating the illusion that we were suspended between two separate heavens. Every wave carried faint traces of soul force and every current seemed alive with invisible energy moving through the depths below.
For several minutes nobody spoke. Even Ragnar appeared unusually quiet. He floated above the water while observing the endless ocean stretching toward the horizon.
"I’ll admit it. This place is beautiful."
Silver nodded immediately.
"It doesn’t even feel real."
Wind drifted around him as he glanced upward toward the stars.
"The sky looks like someone scattered galaxies everywhere."
Aurora floated nearby with her hands behind her back.
"The concentration of soul force here is ridiculous. My projection feels more stable than it ever did in the Blue Spiral."
Knight remained his usual silent self but even he seemed more relaxed than normal. Lyrate meanwhile stared at the distant horizon where silver waves merged with darkness.
"There are places here that would make entire civilizations abandon reality just to live inside them."
Nobody disagreed. The Null Realm was dangerous. But beautiful. Perhaps because it had existed long before most universes were born.
I let their conversation continue while slowly expanding my perception. The Soul Sea wasn’t a place where carelessness was rewarded.
Especially after everything we had learned. My perception spread outward.
Ten kilometers.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Then my expression changed.
"What is it?" Aurora asked.
I didn’t answer right away. Instead my perception expanded further.
The moment the complete picture formed, I sighed.
"We landed in the wrong place."
Everyone looked toward me.
"How wrong?" Silver asked.
Before I could answer, the Soul Sea itself moved. A gigantic shape surfaced several kilometers away.
Then another.
Then another.
The ocean exploded.
Massive black bodies erupted from the water while waves hundreds of meters high rolled outward in every direction.
Whales.
At least they resembled whales.
The similarities ended there.
Their bodies were covered in jagged crystalline growths. Multiple rows of eyes stretched across their heads while scars and strange runes glowed beneath their skin. Several possessed extra fins. Others possessed skeletal protrusions large enough to resemble mountains.
Every single one radiated Saint-level pressure. The atmosphere immediately became heavy.
Silver blinked.
"Those are whales?"
"They were whales at some point I assume." Knight’s answer came quietly.
My perception continued tracking them. The number kept increasing until it reached almost 40.
A hunting pod. It was a coordinated group. The realization immediately made the situation worse.
"Let’s leave."
Nobody argued. The moment the words left my mouth, all of us accelerated upward.
Or tried to.
The Soul Sea below us suddenly began rotating. The giant creatures moved with terrifying synchronization as they started circling beneath us. Their enormous bodies vanished beneath the water while continuing to move faster and faster around our position.
The ocean responded immediately. A gigantic whirlpool began forming. Several kilometers wide. Silver waters twisted into a colossal spiral while soul force erupted from the depths below.
Then gravity activated. The pressure crashed into us from every direction. My body immediately became heavier.
The others felt it too.
Ragnar stopped climbing.
Silver’s wind techniques faltered.
Even Aurora’s lightning dimmed slightly.
"They’ve done this before," Knight observed.
He was right. This wasn’t random behavior. The whales were hunting. Like predators that had spent thousands of years perfecting the same strategy.
The whirlpool expanded. The gravity intensified. And the whales began attacking. One of them erupted from the ocean directly beneath Ragnar.
Its mouth opened. The inside resembled an abyss. Ragnar grinned and without any hesitation his club descended. The impact shattered half the creature’s skull and sent the gigantic body crashing back into the ocean.
The battle exploded immediately afterward. The Soul Sea became chaos.
Whales burst from every direction. Aurora’s lightning illuminated the sky. Knight continuously folded space around incoming attacks.
Silver created gigantic storms capable of cutting apart mountains. Lyrate summoned enormous crimson blades from the surrounding soul force currents and used them to cut through the larger creatures back beneath the water.
I joined the fight moments later. Soul force gathered around my arm before I punched downward.
The ocean exploded. A whale surfaced. Then disintegrated.
The battle continued for nearly thirty minutes. Eventually the creatures realized something unusual.
We weren’t prey. Several began retreating. Others attempted escaping. Unfortunately for them, we needed transportation.
The idea had come from Silver. And surprisingly it wasn’t terrible. One by one we subdued the strongest survivors.
Seven of them.
By the time we finished, the remaining pod had completely vanished into the depths. The seven surviving whales floated beside us.
"Well," Ragnar said while climbing onto one of them. "This is certainly different."
Within minutes we were moving again.
Seven gigantic whales carried us across the Soul Sea while silver waves stretched endlessly around us.
The journey was surprisingly peaceful. At least initially. Half an hour passed then suddenly everything changed.
The first sign was pressure. A familiar pressure and it was overwhelming. My smile disappeared immediately.
The whales reacted first. Every single one froze. The giant creatures trembled beneath us out of pure fear.
Then the Soul Sea itself became silent. The waves stopped moving and the wind vanished. Even the surrounding soul force seemed reluctant to continue flowing.
Slowly I looked toward the distant horizon.
Something was approaching.
Something enormous.
Something I had already met once.
The moment the presence fully revealed itself, there was no longer any room for doubt.
Verilux.
The ancient guardian had found us again.