Instead of swimming back to Tulip Palace, Angor asked everyone to go to the surface of the sea where he took out his Gondola.
Once everyone was seated, Angor activated the engine power that allowed the boat to bolt toward the distance while leaving a long trail of split water waves behind.
It was the first time Shan saw Angor’s vehicle, and she was really curious about it. But she wasn’t in the mood to examine it since the deadly countdown was still haunting her mind, so she only sat at a corner and fiddled with her own fingers anxiously.
Gondola could move ten times faster than the fastest swimmer among them but was still slower than Angor’s gravity-enhanced speed. Keely was pretty surprised by this since she was expecting Angor to drag everyone in the same way.
“Are we... going to make it?” Keely was about to offer a pessimistic opinion, but she decided not to when she saw Shan’s mental condition.
Shan also looked at Angor in uncertainty.
“Don’t worry, stay focused,” Angor said as he tried to comfort them.
Truth was, he wasn’t confident enough either. He was planning to use the teleportation array to travel to the other seven underwater palaces, but he didn’t know which one could help them reach the goal faster, or if there was even one that could.
The map beside the array had a ratio scale on it; it helped him estimate the distances and directions of the palaces. After considering where their swords were pointing to, as well as their current speed, Angor reached a conclusion that the altar was about 16,000 kilometers away.
Then, he took the teleportation map into consideration and thinned down the palaces into two— Summer Palace and Crystal Palace.
He wasn’t sure which one was the best choice. Going for Crystal Palace meant they had to turn back and move for several hundred kilometers to reach the altar, but on the way, they might meet with potential obstacles.
Meanwhile, if they were to start from Summer Palace, it required them to keep moving forward for a thousand kilometers... with fewer obstructions.
The estimated ranges were all pure distances that didn’t include possible roadblocks or bad terrains, which meant they probably needed to travel for a longer period of time.
“Monster ahead!” Shan suddenly called out and interrupted Angor’s thoughts.
Angor looked up and saw a group of thousands of crystal-like flying fishes coming for their Gondola while surrounded by cold air.
Keely stepped in front of Angor. “Leave them to me. You keep the wheel.”
Keely had been in a really bad mood since she boarded the boat, probably because she was troubled by both Jebra’s survival and the countdown timer.
“Alright,” said Angor.
Keely lifted her oil lamp and unleashed a giant cloud of dark-violet embers that overwhelmed the incoming fishes.
The magnificent and terrifying sight of the deadly flame caused everyone else to flinch a little.
Gondola traveled from under the fish swarm unharmed, after which they heard a series of explosions coming from behind. They looked back and saw all the fishes blasted into shreds by the eruptions and were now falling into the sea like the sky was raining blood.
Keely turned back to the others and humphed. She used a pretty powerful move on weak monsters to vent out her rage.
They successfully reached the location above Tulip Palace in about 20 minutes.
“Is Nausica still here, Shiliew?” Angor asked.
Shiliew closed her eyes.
“Yes... she’s right under us.”
Angor sighed in relief. So far so good.
He put away his Gondola and asked everyone to dive. Up until now, Shan and Keely still didn’t believe Angor could take them to safety within the time limit. However, other than following him, they didn’t have another option.
Soon, they saw the giant seaweeds that surrounded the palace within. They didn’t have to approach the building before they sensed strong energy surges coming from it.
“Someone’s fighting?” Angor frowned and moved ahead quickly.
They swam above the structure and saw Nausica fighting against a Duon plus two Dugons. She was wounded but nothing too serious. She was fending off her enemies using Angor’s Helix Rune just fine.
The three natives seemed to be at the same level as level-2 apprentices, while Nausica was still a level-1. This told them that Nausica was naturally talented for combat.
“Hey, Nausica!” Shan called out to her happily.
Nausica was a bit surprised by the approaching group, which almost allowed the Duon to catch her off guard. Keely acted in time and used an Inferno ember to turn the Duon into an ice statue, while Shiliew used several water arrows to maim the two Dugons.
“Thanks!” Nausica nodded toward Keely as a courtesy. She recognized all except for this girl in a pair of red dance shoes.
Keely nodded back and didn’t say anything else.
“Wasn’t expecting to run into you here,” Nausica said as she smiled at Angor.
“He came to help you,” Shan explained. “To do that, he went all the way to Shiliew and dragged her away from enemies. I thought you two were only common friends?”
Nausica tilted her head, and before she could thank Angor, Angor quickly stopped her. “No need for that between us. We can talk once we get to the altar. Now follow me, quickly!”
He led everyone into the Tulip Palace and headed for the secret underground chamber.
He noticed that he couldn’t sense anything without ejecting his soul, which meant someone put a lot of effort into keeping the teleportation array hidden.
While Gank followed Shan’s order and started digging, Angor explained the situation as well as his previous estimations, “So here’s the thing. There is a teleportation node under us. We need to go to either Summer Palace or Crystal Palace, but we need to consider and discuss more before deciding on which one. Your opinions?”
“We can teleport from here?!” Shan immediately brighten up upon hearing the news. She finally believed that they might have a chance.
Keely also lifted her tight frown and thought about the choices Angor provided. “Since we don’t know anything about those unknown factors, I suggest we choose the one nearest to our goal, which means Crystal Palace.”
“I’m thinking about this too...” said Angor.
By doing so, they only have to pray that whatever obstacle that lay beyond Crystal Palace would not slow them down too hard.
Both Shan and Shiliew agreed to it. As for Nausica, she would fully support Angor’s decision.
“Wait,” Keely said again, “the Duon I froze up earlier is still alive. Maybe we can interrogate it?”
“Oh, nice one!” Angor clenched his fists in excitement. “I’ll use illusion to make sure it does not lie to us.”
Among all illusions, Mind Manipulator ones were the best choices for interrogation since these spells usually worked by controlling the victim’s emotions and desires. Angor had only studied Fear, but he had read some basic knowledge about Mind Manipulator spells.
Or he could just use Fear to achieve his goal, as long as he didn’t break the Duon’s sanity.
...
A moment later, Keely executed the trapped Duon after learning what they needed.
“Summer Palace it is. The actual distance of the route from Crystal Palace to Altar of Demise is 3,000 kilometers, while we only have to move for 1,000 kilometers from Summer Palace.”
Angor sighed in relief. If they weren’t lucky enough to find this Duon here or if Keely accidentally killed it, they might have gone to Crystal Palace and missed their final chance due to the unreachable distance.
He did a quick mind-calculation to make sure that his Gondola could take them to the destination in time. There was still the possibility of running into powerful monsters or other apprentices who wanted their swords, and there was probably a lot of desperate raiders who lay in wait in front of the final exit so that they could fight for their chances.
Angor revealed his thoughts so that everyone would stay cautious.
Their team almost had no other rivals in terms of raw strength, but there were always people with secret skills or items that might catch them off guard.
Gank finally reached the secret chamber. Everyone stepped onto the teleportation array while Angor selected their destination.
Their visions went blurry, and in a matter of seconds, they reappeared in a chamber that looked just like the last one, but without the hole in the ceiling.
Again, Gank punched an exit, which allowed them to go outside. They checked the entrance of the palace and were glad the see a name written above the door in Duon language—Summer Palace.
Also, the location indicated by their Meraid’s Swords had changed from southeast to due south.
“Shouldn’t be far now. Let’s move!”
Once again, Angor led the group to the surface so that they could ride Gondola.
At full speed, Gondola could cover the remaining distance in about an hour. Ever since the countdown had begun, they had only spent 30 minutes doing the previous tasks. This meant that they had more than enough time to reach their destination!