2831 Sea Beasts (Part 1)

"Wake up, you idiot! We've landed." Raagu shouted.

"Finally!" A red light lit the eyes of a skull as it started floating and the various bones assembled themselves in the skeletal form of Inxialot, the King of Liches. "Are we there yet?"

"No!" She and the cat said in unison, rolling their eyes. "Thank the gods I've brought a Sealed Box with me. If I had to listen to that question one more time, I would have killed you myself, mission or not."

"Agreed." Inxialot nodded.

"On killing you?" Lith was flabbergasted.

"No, on the box part." Inxialot replied. "A nice, dark place where no idiot can disturb me is ideal for conducting my theoretical calculations. Besides, it's not like she could really kill me. She has no idea where my phylactery is."

"Yeah. No clue." Raagu clicked her tongue, pointing at the bell hanging from the cat's collar.

If bells were made of white mana crystals, the size of an apple, and encased in Davross covered by so many runes that the glimmer of the metal under the moonlight was barely noticeable.

"Don't be disappointed, sweetheart. You are a smart, amazing woman but I'm a genius. I've found a way to use part of the Darwen that's naturally mixed with the Davross as a magic insulant.

"Not only does it allow me to cut the costs of the perfect purification process since even a half-assed one works, but it also shields my phylactery from mystical senses and magical damage."

"Really?" Raagu raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

She used chore magic to attack the part of the phylactery left exposed by the metal of the bell, only for a black goo to intercept the spell and neutralize it with no strain for the metal or its enchantments.

"It sounds amazing. What's the secret?" She said with genuine enthusiasm and a flirtatious hint in her voice.

"Oh, that's easy. I discovered it by chance while looking for a way to improve on my technique to make magical metals capable of shapeshifting as a preparatory step for the Forgemastering pro-" Nero jumped on his skull, clawing at him like a rabid cat on steroids.

A single slash was enough to sever the head from the neck and cut the airflow from what was left of Inxialot's lungs to his vocal cords.

"Why did you do that?" The Lich King said in outrage with air magic.

Then, Nero flicked one of his toes against the bell, producing a silvery sound and making Inxialot gasp in astonishment when he noticed that everyone was staring at it.

"Right. I mean, meow. Meow-"

'Mind links, you idiot!' Nero said in righteous fury. 'First, you insulted my mother and then offered to bear my offspring.'

'Then I respectively apologize and respectfully take the offer back. I'm sorry, Nero. I just don't swing that way and it was cruel of me to play with your feelings.' Inxialot replied.

'For the gods' sake, we are both males! You can't- Never mind. Just whenever I meow, you shut up. Okay?'

'Okay, but you are worrying too much. I think I made a harmless blunder.'

'You think or you know?' Nero replied with a sneer. 'The difference lay in whether you remember what you were talking about or not.'

"I'm sorry for the interruption. What were we talking about?" Inxialot asked.

"Abot the preparatory step to make magical metals capable of shapeshifting." Lith replied.

"How do you know about that? It's one of my most treasured-" Nero meowed and the Lich stopped talking.

A few minutes and lots of meows later, it was clear that the opportunity was lost.

"How long for a full recharge?" Raagu asked Orion.

"A few hours. After that, we'll resume our journey and if everything goes fine, we are going to take only one more stop before reaching Jiera on the morning of the day after tomorrow."

"Why one more stop?" Friya asked. "We made it halfway through with half the power. By the time we reach the shore, we'd still have lots of energy to spare."

"You would be right, if this was a joint mission between Jiera and Garlen." Raagu replied. "We have no idea what's waiting for us on the other side. Maybe the fringe of a monster horde. Maybe a lost city.

"Maybe a strike force of rogue Awakened. Maybe all of the above. I wouldn't be surprised if our cousins from Jiera's Council tried to share their burden with us. This way, they make their problems our problems from day one.

"Our advance slows down and the pressure on their cities lessens. Two birds with one stone. No, we need to be at our peak strength to face any 'unfortunate' event that might hinder our way."

"What about the first wave of helpers we sent to Jiera via the Warp Gate? They could scout the territory for us." Lith said.

"Impossible." Inxialot shook his head. "The undead are powerless during the day, the monsters of Zelex can't get away from their mana geysers, and the elves are too worried about their own lives to care about ours. We are on our own."

"One more thing." Tyris appeared out of nowhere, conjuring a holographic map with Light Mastery.

"Until this point, we are on the turf of Myulon the Kraken. He's a neutral Guardian on the matters of Jiera and he won't give you trouble."

She circled a vast area of the ocean between Garlen and Jiera with her finger.

"After that, you might face local resistance before reaching the mainland."

"Are you sure?" Lith asked. "I mean, Zagran didn't object to our coming and Fenagar even apologized to me. Why should they intervene?"

"Not them." Tyris sighed. "Guardians don't care about small stuff. I'm thinking more about angry Jierans determined to sink the Wayfinder and then pillage it for resources.

"After all, it's a marvel of magic loaded with priceless materials. The same tools you are going to use to build your bases, the people of Jiera can employ them to hasten the reconstruction of their cities."

***

The Wayfinder got back on the ocean four hours later. The trip was uneventful for the rest of the night and the morning. Many Awakened like Friya and Kamila used that time to practice Accumulation until boredom got the better of them.

Kelia kept pocking at the cloaking runes of the Train's power core to no avail while Dusk used mind links to teach Solus everything he knew about telepathic defenses and give her the opportunity to practice them with Lith.

He would give her a simple order, like pouring him a glass of water and she had to put Dusk's teachings into practice to deny it. The problem was that she failed most of the time and when she didn't, it wasn't thanks to her willpower.

'I'm sorry, it's just that ordering you around like this and forcing you to do something you don't want to is creeping me out.' Lith said after one of his "orders" failed again simply because he expressed it as a request.

'You and me both.' Solus shuddered. 'I don't know what to do. On the one hand, I want to be ready to face another M'Rael situation.'