The speaker was a silver-haired young man who was standing on the head of the stingray, “Sorcerer of Big Fish” Sliv.
“Why does it matter?” Mariyasah stood up from his chair and replied in a lazy tone, “I’m the boss of the White Clam Association. Am I not supposed to show up on the sea?”
“Mister ‘God of Seas’ is going to descend upon the area ahead, Mariyasah. I’ll give you a piece of friendly advice. Do not annoy him in any way or you won’t get away with those petty excuses, hmm.”
Sliv was maintaining a serious attitude while speaking and never let his guard down even though Mariyasah was acting so carelessly.
“Demon Hunter” Mariyasah was one of the few true fighters from Floating Mech City, as well as a truth-finder.
“Now this is strange.” Mariyasah stretched his arms and revealed the glossy muscle chunks on his thorax. “What’s so special about what lies beyond?”
Sliv didn’t say anything.
“Guess I was right. There’s something fishy going on around the Leviathan.”
Again, Silv remained silent, but his expression had turned even more cautious.
“At first, I didn’t consider it as anything biggie,” Mariyasah continued. “I just used my fortune-telling skills—which I had been slacking off on for some time—to ask several questions. You know, I’m not a Prophet, so this stuff often goes wrong. And the answers usually aren’t reliable. But my oh my, how surprised I was to see the result as ‘not detectable’.”
Sliv scowled.
“Now this is interesting. Apparently, SOMEBODY deployed an anti-prophecy barrier around Silver Palm Isle so that they can hide whatever is happening over there. Unfortunately, it was counterproductive.” Mariyasah finished his explanation and gave Sliv a more serious look. “Now, can you tell me why are you here stopping people from going ahead?”
Sliv snickered, “It’s obvious that we invested so many assets because there is profit to gain. You should take your time and guess what kind of profit there is, hmm?”
Mariyasah shrugged. “Whatever there is, you aren’t going to tell me, are you? Well, no matter. Hey Darky, we shall keep moving and see with our own eyes.”
Darky mumbled his acknowledgment in a small voice and started driving again while ignoring the giant creature blocking their way.
“Mariyasah... have you decided to oppose us Song of the Deep?” Sliv revealed a cold look out of rage. He even forgot his oral habit.
“You’re wrong about that. It’s YOU lot who are opposing the entire wizarding world.”
After leaving these words, Mariyasah left for the direction of Silver Palm, and Sliv could only watch him go.
Stingray Brigitte suddenly spat out two bubbles and drew Sliv’s attention.
People from Song of the Deep all knew how to deliver messages over long distances using such a way. Sliv popped open one of the bubbles and listened to the message while clenching his teeth furiously.
He just realized why Mariyasah referred to their organization as the public enemy. According to the message, the secret regarding Silver Palm Isle had been known by almost everyone. People had been spreading all kinds of rumors such as a new Mystery item was in the making, or a destiny that created more truth-finders was here.
Usually, wizards wouldn’t care about such random and unreliable gossip. Yet the situation was made complicated when whoever created the rumors mentioned “using prophecy to check beforehand”.
Of course prophecy attempts wouldn’t show any result because there was a prophecy-prevention ward placed around Silver Palm. But in this case, having no result meant telling people that something was definitely here.
And of course, a large-scale ward like this suggested big fortune. This would undoubtedly draw a lot of greedy wizards to the island.
Sliv clenched his fists. He was sure it was Mariyasah who spread the message.
“Should I tell Mister ‘God of Seas’ to get here immediately? We don’t have enough hands to block too many people...”
He decided to check the second message before making the decision.
As soon as he did, he put a hand on the head of the ray fish and ordered, “Hurry, Brigitte, tell him that the door is opening soon!”
The stingray flapped its large fins while releasing a series of signals into the distance.
After the message was sent, Sliv quickly asked the creature to head to Silver Palm as well.
He managed to catch up with Mariyasah on his way. However, nothing happened between them except that Silv gave Mariyasah a really angry stare.
Then Sliv asked his mount to move faster and left Mariyasah’s boat behind.
Mariyasah held his chin and asked Darky, “What was that supposed to mean?”
Darky licked his fangs. “Master, a lowly imp like me can’t read people’s expressions.”
Mariyasah gave Darky a mighty kick in the leg.
“Master, I think Sliv was expressing his fury to you.”
“And?”
“And? And... there might be something urgent. Sliv seemed to be in a hurry.”
Mariyasah raised his foot again.
“Ma-master, that’s everything I can tell, seriously!”
While talking, Darky rapidly flapped his bat wings either to show his loyalty or to prove his incompetent intelligence.
Mariyasah put his foot down and decided not to waste time with this “lowly imp” whose real intelligence level was unknown.
“This means I came just at the right time. Heh. Darky, faster.”
...
Sliv arrived at Silver Palm Isle and immediately saw Basket Witch and Lady Payne, who directed their indifferent looks at him that felt rather scary. In fact, the presence of these two women was even more horrible than Mariyasah.
“Damn it. Enjoy your stupid superiority while you can!” Sliv muttered while telling the stingray to pick somewhere else.
The Leviathan was still wandering around the island without knowing what it was supposed to do.
There was an unknown guidance that forced it here to guard a “door”, but it had no idea what this meant or what was beyond the door. The only thing it did know was that it should obey the mysterious power that spoke to it.
However, the mysterious power was slowly getting weaker with the passage of time, which allowed the Leviathan to realize that it was supposed to be the dominator of the sea, and not some confined guard dog.
The initial awareness was like a seed that quickly gave birth to rage and the will to resist, by which time the Leviathan started attacking the door madly instead of protecting it.
When Sliv found a good spot to observe the island from afar, the entire place had been ruined already.
Yet Leviathan wasn’t satisfied. After destroying the island, it kept slamming at the strange door, which wasn’t visible to anyone else.
The powerful attacks carried deadly energy disturbance that traveled outward.
Several apprentices who managed to get here were instantly wiped out by the energy and fell into the sea. Even a powerful wizard like Sliv felt his body about to give in under the pressure, while Brigitte was trembling uncontrollably under his feet.
While venting out its rage, the Leviathan’s natural endowment gradually awakened hurricanes and tidal waves that wreaked more havoc on the sea.
The violent power of the monster slowly disrupted the energy balance in the area and created an energy storm. Since there was abundant primal mana at Devil’s Water, combined with the Leviathan’s moves that affected a large area on the sea, the energy storm it created had gained an unnatural size.
Sliv was forced to back away farther from the island, while Basket Witch and Mariyasah, who just arrived at the scene, were the only two individuals strong enough to keep steady in the storm.
“Ugh, such a mess.” Mariyasah looked at the rampaging monster ahead. “Guess I won’t need my grand entrance.”
Following Mariyasah’s order, Darky moved their boat to the north. The little imp wasn’t affected by the energy storm thanks for Mariyasah’s protection. And at the same time, Darky felt really good for getting to see people dying.
“May I ask why are we heading that way, Master?”
Mariyasah pointed to the mad girl sitting on a basket-shaped monster. “That woman right there is a worse psycho compared to Isabella. And she’s stronger than Isabella too. We should keep our distance.”
Summerdew didn’t pay any attention to Mariyasah’s move. She was holding her chin while looking at the Leviathan with a cute smile as if she just found a new toy.