2837 Welcome Committee (Part 1)

'Magnificent!' Orion felt proud of his daughter but also envious of Lith and Solus.

"The good news is that we suffered no damage or casualty during the attack. The bad news is that if any of those beasts survived and called for reinforcements, it won't take them long to find us.

"If they keep attacking us in the open sea, we'll be forced to make multiple stops and delay our arrival."

"Thank the gods." Raagu sighed in relief.

"I beg your pardon?" Orion was flabbergasted.

"Oh, sorry. The full phrase was actually: thank the gods Inxialot can't hear anything from the Sealed Box. Otherwise at this point, his whining would have driven me crazy. That or he would have tried to kill us all and return to his lab."

Nero meowed in approval, but Raagu didn't fall for his act one bit.

'There's no way on Mogar that a normal cat talks, reasons, and even protects the secrets of its airheaded master. I have no idea how Nero's mana core is cloaked even to my breathing technique but if he's a cat then I'm a Guardian.' She thought.

"Maybe I can help." Kelia stepped forward. "I know that at my level I can't do much in a fight compared to you guys but I can still earn my spot among the Wayfinder's crew."

She placed her hands on the metal of the external wall, using her breathing technique, Sun Flare, to identify the main rune pathways that connected the mana crystals to each other and to the power core.

At that point, she stimulated her mana core and had its energy synchronize with Dusk's power core. It lasted only for a split second, but it opened a crack in Baba Yaga's seal that the Horseman exploited to release as much Life Maelstrom as he could before the seal reformed.

The seal only prevented Dusk from accessing his powers, it didn't diminish them one bit. The equivalent of one burst of silver lightning generated by an adult Griffon at the peak of his strength flooded the Wayfinder.

It was split between the enchantments that comprised the power core and the size of the Train also diluted the effect of Life Maelstrom but even then, it was enough to amplify the absorption rate of world energy by several folds.

"It's done." She panted, sweating profusely from the strain. "This way we should be able to resume our journey before the magical beasts can gather in numbers great enough to be a threat to us."

The system's mainframe confirmed her words. The recharge process would now last half an hour instead of four.

'I can finally give them both Hands.' Friya sighed in relief, feeling the power of Menadion's masterpiece at her fingertips. 'Master Faluel entrusted them to me in case of emergency and thanks to Kelia, there's no longer the risk of exposing them.'

Unbeknownst to everyone, Friya and Lith were using their respective Hands to empower the Wayfinder under the cover of Kelia's Life Maelstrom.

The power core ended up recovering in just a quarter of an hour thanks to the synergy between the artifacts and the bloodline ability and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

At least until they reached Jiera's coast.

"Shore!" Sentinels had been left outside the whole time in order to react more quickly in case old or new enemies found them. "Also, we've got several unidentified humanoids inbound. Everyone to the battle stations!"

A group of creatures covered in sky-blue scales were approaching the Wayfinder from both sides. Their webbed fingers combined with their steel-like muscles and their mastery over water magic allowed them to match the Train's speed.

Living at the depth of the ocean meant having bodies tempered by the high pressure and learning how to ride the water currents. The unknown attackers kept themselves below the ocean's surface and moved too quickly to notice whether they wielded weapons or not.

Their only distinguishing feature was the brightly colored mane that the soldiers assumed was hair since it came out of the creatures' heads.

Lith, Orion, and the members of the Awakened Council joined the soldiers, every one of them weaving their spells.

"At ease!" Except for Lith who recognized them as merfolk.

The Eyes even spotted a few known energy signatures but if not for Solus' memory, he would have never been able to associate a name to them.

"What are you guys doing here, Rem?" He asked to a plump merfolk with sky-blue hair that matched the color of her skin.

She was leading a unit of ten people arranged in a spear-tip formation, guiding the water magic of those behind her to bend the violent oceanic currents to her will and propel the merfolk forward.

"It would be easier to talk if you just slowed down!" Even though she spoke while gurgling the water coursing through her gills and her tone was strained by the effort of keeping up with the Wayfinder, her voice sounded friendly.

"Oh, right." Lith gestured the all-clear to Orion. "They are not beasts. They are merfolk from Jiera. I can vouch for their good nature."

"How do you know a school of legendary beings and how can they speak Garlen's language so well?" Orion couldn't believe his own ears. "Assuming that merfolk actually exist, they should speak gibberish that only they understand like everyone else in Jiera."

"We are not fish!" A short but fit male merfolk with purple hair that Lith recognized as Mal shouted. "We don't move in schools, but in units!"

"My bad!" Orion realized how rude his words were and gave Mal a small bow.

To make matters even more embarrassing, judging from Mal's offended tone and the angry gurgling sounds coming from the merfolk all around the Wayfinder, Orion was pretty certain to have used a racial slur.

"Also, every language is gibberish until you learn it. Jerk!" A muscular male merfolk with long violet hair said the moment the Train slowed down enough for him to catch his breath.

'Or maybe more than one slur.' Orion inwardly cursed his own big mouth.

"I apologize for my rudeness." He actually said. "Our people have more in common than I thought. We humans too move in small units."

Raagu checked the newcomers with Life Vision and the moment she confirmed that they were casting solely movement spells, she made sure that the Sealed Box containing Inxialot was closed shut.

Then, she set the output of its dimensional compressing array to the max, just to be safe.

'We are already on the verge of a diplomatic accident. That moron would escalate things into a war before I have the time to say-'

"Free specimens!" That was all that the King of Liches managed to say before she cut off the audio feed, but judging from the glares, it was almost enough.

"Good to know." Mal ignored Inxialot's remark and focused on Orion. "Your race must have improved a lot, then. Back in the day, everyone referred to a group of humans as an infestation."

The merfolk laughed in unison, glad to repay their guests in kind.

Half of the people from the Kingdom, the Empire, and the Council blushed in embarrassment while the other half scowled.