Chapters 104-106

Chapter 104 – Departure 

“My lord, you’ve received a missive from Rongo Moana.”

Professor Iakopo raised his eyes to meet Saikai’s, his trusted right hand. He extended his hand and took the sealed letter. Sitting in his study dealing with the organization of the school, but mostly worrying about Talia, he opened the seal, feeling the Tempest Water-attuned Mana coming from the letter. The Mana signature certified that it had indeed been written by Rongo and no one else.

Professor Iakopo’s eyes scanned the letter quickly. Then he reclined in his chair, holding the letter out for Saikai and nodding at him. Saikai took the letter and started reading it.

“He wants you alive, Professor,” Saikai said.

“He’s only saying that there will be an attempt on my life soon. As if I didn’t know that,” Professor Iakopo commented, tapping his knuckles on the desk.

“My lord, you’re not exactly full of allies at this moment.”

“And you suggest I take Rongo as my ally? With all we know about him?”

“Lord Rongo was indeed very fond of Yelena, my lord. However, that tells us he must resent all the elders and nobles alike. And, my lord, since we’re in dire need of allies... As they say, there’s no better friend than an enemy of my enemy.”

“Have you read the entire letter, Saikai?” Professor Iakopo asked in a challenging tone.

“I have, my lord. I am not surprised by his request. He wants Talia to challenge the same dungeon that Yelena became famous for. One of the dungeons I could never explore unless I wanted to create a diplomatic incident. Tempest City is very jealous of their secrets.”

“I don’t think the city nor its inhabitants are jealous of what’s in that dungeon, Saikai.”

“My lord?” Saikai raised an eyebrow. “Do you believe this is the work of Yelena?”

Professor Iakopo sighed, rubbing his face. “We know very well how vicious Yelena could be, Saikai. Would it surprise you?”

“No, my lord. But if that was indeed the case, why would Yelena want Miss Talia to go into the dungeon?”

“I think the answer to that is pretty simple,” Professor Iakopo said. “Whatever is in there clearly has the key to this whole mystery. And Rongo wants me to allow Talia to clear the dungeon as part of her second year graduation dungeon. Yelena cleared it during her fourth year at the academy. It was one of the few dungeons we didn’t visit together.” He paused thoughtfully. “I wonder, perhaps, if I should disregard Rongo’s words, storm Tempest City, and take a look at the dungeon for myself.”

“You would be left with no allies, my lord,” Saikai said grimly. “And Rongo is probably right. We have seen much movement in the underbelly of the academy. This year is going to be the last year things stay peaceful.”

“Let me correct you, Saikai,” Professor Iakopo said, with an ironic tinge to his voice. “If Rongo is right, this might very well be the last year of the Water Rider Academy.”

  * 

When Professor Tukupa had mentioned a ritual to undo the Kraken, Talia had felt a strong sense of urgency in her stomach. She knew from Professor Iakopo that her mother had found a way, she believed, to kill the Kraken. But what she hadn't known was that the Kraken had been man-made in the first place. Apparently, someone had really believed that the Kraken would have helped while fighting Abyssal Creatures. And at some point, that same plan clearly went haywire.

Talia didn't know if that was the whole truth, but at least now she had clues to work from. And since she knew for a fact that her mother had visited Aneanui, the city where Keanu came from, her next step was crystal clear.

"Are you sure?" Keanu said nervously.

Talia nodded at him. "I don't think I need Professor Iakopo's class. Perhaps learning how to draw more Mana would help. But right now, what I really need is to know the truth about what my mother did, about what my mother made me into," she said with a grave face.

"The preparations are done," Keanu said. "So we don't need to wait any longer. If you want to go," he said as they were returning from Professor Tukupa's house, "we can go as soon as tonight."

"Very well," Talia said. “Let’s go then.” 

  * 

Talia found Professor Iakopo in his study.

"Professor," Talia said, standing straight. "I'm leaving tonight. Keanu has made arrangements."

Professor Iakopo set down the letter he'd been reading. "You’re going to Aneauni?"

Aneanui, the flying city, was where Keanu came from. 

"Yes. Mom went there, and after what Professor Tukupa told us about the three races..." Talia trailed off, then met his eyes firmly. "I need answers. I know that they have the key to the Cursed Form. So, at the very least, I’ll be stronger once I come back."

“You will,” he nodded. “You should be safe there. But just in case,” he fished out a seashell from his pocket. “Keanu won’t like this, but this is a communication device and tracker that I’ve imprinted with my Space Water. I will be able to come over wherever you are as long as you inject Mana in it.”

Talia bid the Professor goodbye and went to her room to pack.

  * 

The evening air was thick with salt as Talia and Keanu made their way toward the larger docks where merchant vessels and bigger ships were moored. The setting sun painted the water in shades of amber and gold.

"The vessel I arranged is sturdy enough for deep water," Keanu explained as they walked. "We'll need it for where we're going. The waters around Aneanui can quite treacherous."

Talia adjusted the pack on her shoulder. 

"How long will it take to reach—"

"Well, well." A familiar voice cut through the evening air. "The whore's daughter, sneaking away in the night."

Maleko emerged between two warehouses, flanked by his two goons from earlier. 

“Do you know?” Talia said, putting her pack on the ground and retrieving her glaive from her back. “Elder Kawena wants you to die, I think.”

Maleko was caught by surprise by those words. “What are you saying, you stupid bitch?”

“Elder Kawena is a great teacher,” Talia commented, “and she wants you to die. She wants you to die because she knows you’re not as strong as me. You must know. But she knows she needs a reason to come after me. That’s what you are—her reason to come after me.”

Maleko wasn’t stupid, and when he heard those words, it made terrible sense to him. However, his eyes gleamed with malevolence as he commented, “Well, that means you cannot kill me, but I can most definitely make you suffer and scream.”

“That’s very wrong,” Talia said with a smile. “I said that Elder Kawena thinks she’ll be able to come after me if I kill you. But I don’t think she’s really understood that there won’t be any of you left, not one drop of blood, when I’m done.”

“I know you’re strong,” Maleko sneered. “But you clearly don’t know who I am.”

Suddenly, the temperature rose exponentially around them, with a few wooden crates around them spontaneously catching on fire. 

“I am Maleko Kanaloa, you whore’s daughter, Elder Krakatoa is my uncle. I am the Chose of the Kanaloa Family, the strongest Great Family of all, the spearhead of the North Deep.”

“And?” Talia said, activating [Blood Confluence], empowering her body to resist the rise in temperature. 

“I was born with a once-in-a-thousand-years special Skill,” he cackled, extending his arms by his side, with his goons retreating swiftly. “You are about to witness the strongest Skill in the world, you stupid bitch.”

Flames erupted in midair and the pavement below her feet started to crack, with rivulets of magma flowing in-between the ridges in the broken stone. 

“You are about to die to my [Soul Domain],” he laughed. “It is high time someone put an end to your disgraceful existence, Kraken’s Spawn.”

Talia was surprised by Maleko knowing the slur they used for her for so many years but just smiled since she was about to give him a good reason to call her that.

“[Soul Domain]?” Talia said, looking at the twisting environment around them and already feeling like her skin was on fire. “That sounds like a very powerful Skill.”

“It is,” Maleko smiled evilly. “I will be the strongest Kraken Slayer of my Family, ever. Greater than Kanaloa himself. Greater than Principal Kaimana. Much greater than that whore mother of yours. All of because of my Skill, which puts my Uncle’s greatest powers to shame. I can influence the very fabric of reality!”

“Good,” Talia smiled. “I will be taking that Skill from your dead body, then.”

She lunged forward and activated [Ravenous Wounds]. 

Chapter 105 – Soul Domain 

“You can’t even grasp the extent of my ability.” Maleko laughed violently, slashing with his hand as Talia approached. To Talia’s great surprise, flickers of superheated magma flew her way out of thin air. It was as if Maleko hadn’t even needed to conjure the spell like a normal caster would have. She rolled on the ground, raising her blade when a second wave of magma tried to fry her alive while falling on her as a large blanket. Talia, pumping as much Mana as she could inside the glaive, released an enormous sickle of Blood Water that slashed through the magma and allowed her to jump away from the encroaching death, the blazing death.

More wary than before, Talia looked around the domain and activated [Eyes of the Abyss]. She saw that a large portion of the terrain where they were staying was covered in Mana that came from Maleko. It was a scary amount of Mana. But if Maleko was indeed the chosen of the Kanaloa family, the same family of Elder Krakatoa, the man who had been her mother’s shield, then it didn’t surprise her that he had such tremendous reserves. Nobles like him were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and all the best resources and environment in order to grow as strong as possible. And she knew now that the dominance of the Great Families tracked back a thousand years and more, possibly even before the appearance of the Kraken.

“Is that all?” Maleko taunted, expanding his [Soul Domain] and collapsing the two warehouse structures beside them. “You said you would take the Skill from my dead body, you little monster. Show me what you’re capable of.”

Pillars of flame erupted from the ground around Talia, forcing her on the move. She tried anticipating where the attacks would appear with [Eyes of the Abyss], trying to guess where the flows of Mana came from in Maleko’s [Soul Domain]. But not even her Skill could guess where his next attack would come from. One moment, there was no indication that an attack was on the way. The next, the Mana would coalesce from the domain into an attack. It was perhaps even more terrifying than the Sword Demon’s signature Skill, [Silver Mist].

Maleko could not only draw upon magma and flames. Talia felt a whip of scorching air hitting her right in the chest, searing her abdomen and making her scream in pain. Keanu balled his fists, but he could do nothing. He could feel that even just entering the [Soul Domain] of Maleko would have killed him. In fact, if Talia didn’t have her vitality, she would have died seconds into this fight.

Maleko raised both his hands and summoned a rain of fireballs in the sky, the barrage peppering the ground where Talia stood. There were so many that Talia knew unless she did something, she would be killed. So she activated the Skill that she had gotten from fighting the Slashing Crusher Boss, [Tailwind]. Even though she didn’t have Wind Water as an affinity, she was still able to draw on the incredible power of the Skill, and she felt her own Mana opening up the air and pulling her forward as her speed increased dramatically.

Now with her speed increased and her ability to release larger Mana attacks after putting herself through excruciating pain during Professor Iakopo’s lesson, she managed to, at the very least, stay alive.

“Is this all?” Maleko repeated. “I heard that the whore’s daughter can wield Dark Water. Why don’t you show me?”

Talia was tempted to immediately activate the [Cursed Form]. She knew that she would have been likely able to make a run for Maleko and cut him down before he realized what had happened. However, tendrils of blood from [Ravenous Wounds] sneaked around her skin like tentacles, hungry for flesh. The only thing that allowed her to keep her mind clear and straight was the great number of Charisma Attributes she had gotten it the Abyssal Jaw Dungeon. 

Talia knew that [Soul Domain] was too powerful, she couldn’t let it go. She needed to become as strong as she could before she found the full truth about her mother. Any level, any attributes, any Skill would have made the difference between life and death. And even though Talia had never consumed a human before, this felt the exact moment when to change her eating habits.

And even though she knew this was going to soon turn ugly, she embraced the gory solution she had just thought of. She kept dodging, relying on [Tailwind] and [Blood Confluence] to empower her speed and constitution. But most importantly, she slowly made her way to the side of the domain where the two goons were watching with crossed arms, observing the attacks that Maleko was unleashing upon Talia, knowing that it was just a matter of time before the auburn-haired girl would die.

When Maleko raised a giant wave of magma, trying to smother Talia and fry her alive, he temporarily lost sight of her. And when the avalanche of magma dispersed, his eyes went wide. Talia had gotten close enough to the two goons that she had unleashed two swift sickles of Blood Water, much larger and stronger than they could ever hope to survive. Immediately after, as their bodies were cut down, [Ravenous Wounds] had latched onto them, pumping their Stamina, vitality, and Mana through [Magic Funnel] into her body.

But most importantly, one of Talia’s strongest Skills was finally getting its dues. Talia felt [Ika Toto - Blood Tide] surge with power as the corpses of the two goons were torn to shreds by the tendrils of blood. All of that counted toward the Skill, which suddenly made Talia’s muscles swell. Her blood pumped faster. Her heart beat stronger.

Maleko clearly cared about the two, who might have even been either his shield or strike team. Their loss made him crazed. He started gathering a much larger amount of Mana than Talia had seen before. He started swirling his hands, generating an immense ring of fire that threatened to encompass the whole [Soul Domain].

“You’re about to die, you wretched monster. You Kraken-loving bitch,” Maleko snarled. “No one has ever survived this.”

The swirling ring of fire suddenly took the shape of a massive drake, and Maleko shouted the Skill out loud.

“[Ahi Manu]!” Maleko screamed, and the giant ring of fire fully coalesced into a snake-like mythical dragon, whose eyes shone like resplendent rubies. The attack made a beeline for Talia, and it was several times taller than her, impossible to dodge.

Maleko watched as the giant attack swallowed Talia alive and melted the stone beneath her. [Ahi Manu] was the strongest Skill besides [Soul Domain], and the two could be combined since [Soul Domain] enhanced the power of all its other attacks on top of acting like a reality distortion where all Mana was at his service.

What happened next made the scream of victory die in his throat. A black flash broke through the [Ahi Manu]’s body. More and more projections of dark light came through the giant dragon-like construct until it shattered into a million pieces, consumed as if the sun itself had been devoured by Talia’s attack.

When Maleko blinked next, he saw many runes over the girl’s body and tremendous power brimming from her. He kept attacking, knowing that she had just used her own trump card, and it had somehow obliterated his. But now the attacks just evaporated when they touched her skin, and Talia walked almost slowly up to him.

Maleko tried everything. Magma, superheated air, flames hotter than anyone could have survived. But it did nothing to Talia, who was trembling with the instinct to consume Maleko through her Dark Water. When she came up to him and clamped her hand on his throat, raising him into the air, Maleko saw a struggle behind her pupils.

“The Skill,” Talia growled with a voice that didn’t sound like hers. “The Skill,” she snarled like a feral beast.

Dark Water had sucked all the Mana out of Maleko’s body, and he couldn’t even move. He felt the steel grip of the girl about to snap his neck. Then, however, he saw the runes on Talia’s skin starting to recede, slowly gathering around her eyes. Only now he noticed that her hair had changed color. It had become white. And now slowly but surely, it was regaining its auburn and reddish accents.

After perhaps a minute, all the runes had been sucked into Talia’s eyes as she stood, still holding Maleko in a sure grip. He breathed in relief. She could have maybe killed his shield, but she couldn’t kill him without creating a major political incident. No sane person would have ever done something like that. If she did, she was as good as dead. Not even Professor Iakopo would be able to protect her.

Therefore, he reasoned, she must have stopped whatever evil power she had because she knew she couldn’t deliver the final blow to him. Despite the fact that he had been about to kill her and mock her mother, this was the real difference between being a noble and a commoner. He had an entire family behind him ready to go to war over his death. What did Talia have?

But then Talia, whose glaive she had left on the ground behind after dispelling the [Ahi Manu], extended her hand to the side.

“[Recall],” she said, and the glaive appeared in her hand. Before Maleko could understand what was happening, Talia had pierced his chest and his heart with the large blade.

“Great Skill,” she whispered in his ear, still breathing heavily. “I’ll take it.”

And then she called forth her Skill.

“[Ravenous Wounds].”

Chapter 106 – The Vertical Shore

[You have slain Fire Pillar Level 27!]

[You have slain Magma Summoner Level 24!]  

[You have slain Magma Overlord Level 37!]

[Lifestealer reaches Level 29!]

[You gain two Free Attributes!]

[Lifestealer reaches Level 30!]

[You gain two Free Attributes!]

[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]

[Lifestealer reaches Level 31!]

[You gain two Free Attributes!]

[Lifestealer reaches Level 32!]

[You gain two Free Attributes!]

[Lifestealer reaches Level 33!]

[You gain two Free Attributes!]

[You have absorbed Lv. 24 Magma Summoner Life Force.]

[+97 to your Primary Mana Channel (421/1000 to Level Six)]

[+5 to your Constitution]

[You have absorbed Lv. 27 Fire Pillar Life Force.]

[+165 to your Primary Mana Channel (586/1000 to Level Six)]

[+4 to your Charisma]

[You have absorbed Lv. 37 Magma Overlord Life Force.]

[+650 to your Primary Mana Channel (1000/1000 to Level Six)]

[Primary Mana Channel (236/3000 to Level Seven)]

[+12 to your Intelligence]

[+8 to your Wisdom]

[You have absorbed a Skill from Magma Overlord.]

[You have learned ‘Soul Domain.’]

[Primary Mana Channel has reached Level 6!]

[You have absorbed Skill: Soul Domain]

[Soul Domain has been added to your Skill list]

[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 18!]

[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 19!]

[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 20!]

[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]

[Ika Toto - Blood Tide reaches Level 21!]

[Magic Funnel reaches Level 13!]

[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 18!]

[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 19!]

[Eyes of the Abyss reaches Level 20!]

[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]

[You have fed Star Glaive excess Vitality!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 8!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 9!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 10!]

[You gain one Talent Tree Point!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 11!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 12!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 13!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 14!]

[Ravenous Wounds reaches Level 15!]

[Name: Talia]

[Age: 17]

[Class: Lifestealer Lv. 33]

[Rank: Adept]

[Primary Mana Channel (Water): Level 6 {Flowing}]

[Secondary Mana Channel (Blood): Level 7 {Surging}]

[Secondary Mana Channel (Dark Water): Level 3 {Awakened}]

[Core Skill #1: Blood Siphon Lv. 27]

[Core Skill #2: Hemomancy Lv. 28]

[Core Skill #3: Eyes of the Abyss Lv. 20]

[Auxiliary Skill #1: Missile Swimming Lv. 28]

[Auxiliary Skill #2: Crimson Wisdom Lv. 16]

[Auxiliary Skill #3: Blood Confluence Lv. 18]

[Auxiliary Skill #4: Tailwind Lv. 5]

[Auxiliary Skill #5: Ika Toto - Blood Tide Lv. 18]

[Auxiliary Skill #6: Magic Funnel Lv. 12]

[Auxiliary Skill #7: Soul Domain Lv. 1]

[Form Skill #1: Cursed Form Lv. 5]

[Strength: 40]

[Agility: 7]

[Constitution: 8]

[Intelligence: 13]

[Wisdom: 8]

[Charisma: 37]

[Free Attributes: 10]

[Talent Trees:

Bloodborne Warrior (1)

Carmine Thunder (1)

Sanguine Guardian (1)

Hemomantic Artisan (1)

Crimson Sage (1)

Life Thief (1)

]

[Free Talent Points: 10]

The heat from Maleko's domain finally dissipated as the last of his power was absorbed into Talia's body, which also processed the other kills. 

She screamed in a near-ecstasy state and fell to the ground, convulsing. 

The rush of vitality, power, and everything else that she was feeling right now completely overwhelmed her senses. Only after several minutes did her body, which had been shut down by the sensory overload, return to her control. 

She stood there, breathing heavily, as Keanu cautiously approached. The blood tendrils from [Ravenous Wounds] had already receded, leaving behind only sludge in place of the corpses of her opponents and the devastated and partially on-fire dockyard around them.

Talia had never felt like that while absorbing a monster, which might have been because monsters used Raw Mana to power themselves, and even Talia could only absorb so much of it. Instead, humans used regular, refined Mana. So, absorbing a monster was to taking a person’s vitality what dirty water was to ambrosia.

“Are you ok?” Keanu asked, maintaining his distance. “Do you need the bindings?” 

Talia coughed and shook her head, slowly getting up. 

“We need to move,” Keanu said urgently, extending a hand to Talia and helping her up. Someone would have noticed the commotion. Indeed, yells could be heard in the distance even though this was a minor dock. They had chosen it because of its anonymity. The orange glow of the fires Maleko had started was beginning to draw attention.

Talia went to grab her pack from where she’d dropped it earlier, and they hurried toward the vessel. It was a single-mast boat, barely fifteen feet long.

“It’s reinforced,” Keanu explained as they boarded.

As they prepared the vessel, a dark figure made a silent leap from the adjacent dock, landing noiselessly in the stern’s shadow.

Keanu worked quickly raising the sail while Talia pushed them away from the dock with an oar. The small vessel caught the evening breeze, made smoky by the nearby fires, and began carrying them through the waters. They were tense for the better part of two hours, thinking that any Water Rider could have followed them out there. However, as they got further and further from the Water Rider Academy, they realized that no one had followed them.

“Most graduates are out,” Keanu said. “The academy is basically working on a skeleton crew.”

“Right,” Talia frowned. She had heard that even several professors had left to take care of dungeons. “Hopefully it will be just an anomaly of this year,” she said hopefully.

After a while, Keanu gave her a long glance. “What about the consequences for killing Maleko?”

“I don’t want to abuse Professor Iakopo’s protection, but he can take care of Elder Kawena.”

“And what about Maleko’s family?”

Talia shrugged. “I’ll leave them to Professor Iakopo as well.”

“I imagine the man won’t be too happy that you killed the dude without a second thought.”

“Oh, believe me, I had second thoughts,” Talia sighed. “But let me tell you what I just got from the kills.”

She relayed all the notifications she had received, and Keanu’s eyes went wide.

“By the Deep,” the young man said, putting a hand by his temple and dropping the spell that changed his eye color, now sending back Talia’s gaze with eyes that matched the intense blue of hers. “I mean, if it had been me,” Keanu admitted, “I’d be tempted to kill a lot of assholes right now. Those gains are telling.”

Aside from the leveling, which anyone else could have gotten, what really stood out was the amount of attributes and the fact that she had stolen an extremely rare Skill that she could use with her Blood Water. Attributes specifically were very hard to get, and they had always been one of the main reasons Talia’s Blood Siphon and Ravenous Wounds were so broken. It was actually insane to think she had absorbed more than twenty attributes from three kills of boys that hadn’t even graduated. Sure, they had been much stronger than any other second-year students since it included a chosen. But how strong would Talia have grown in a short amount of time if she started killing people at level 40 or level 50? The thought was disconcerting.

More importantly, the advances in her Primary Mana Channel had been insane. She had gotten almost a full level just from the three kills. If she killed a professor or, Deep forbid, an elder, would she just gain a level 8 or level 9 Primary Mana Channel overnight? And what if she killed two or three?

Keanu patted Talia’s shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it before you might want to kill me,” he told her.

Talia tried laughing at the joke, but it came out forced. Perhaps it had been naive of her not to use Ravenous Wounds on a person before, especially a cultist, to try to see how strong it was. She shook her head.

“Well, if other assholes throw themselves in our way, I’ll feel less guilty about having to kill them,” she said.

“I admire your restraint,” Keanu smiled. “Anyway, there are a few things you should know about Aneanui.”

Talia nodded. Keanu told her that Aneanui, the flying city, which she now knew had been founded by a colony of Ao, the people of the sky, was where his people hid.

“So how are we gonna reach it, first of all?” Talia asked.

Keanu took out a compass from his pocket. “This shows the position of Aneanui at all times. Once we’re in range, there is a simple ritual that draws on the city’s Mana reserves that will bring us up.”

“What I wanted to talk about,” Keanu said, “isn’t this. It’s about my people, Talia. There are things you need to know before we go up. You have grown up being disparaged, being treated like a monster. So maybe you will be able to understand better than anyone else the kind of people you will meet there.”

She cocked an eyebrow.

“My people are not children of Kraken Slayers. They never had a moment of respite. Whenever Kaimoro emerged in numbers, they have been slaughtered by the Great Families. It’s because of the knowledge we hold. In fact, if the Great Families knew the kind of things that Professor Tukupa told us, they would definitely kill him too. My people fully believe that the Great Families and all the nobles in the Four Seas are behind the slaughter of my people.”

“Okay?” Talia frowned.

“So they will want you to be aligned to our cause before you get anything out of them.”

“I think that’s reasonable,” Talia said. “I don’t think I like many nobles myself, Keanu. Nami and Lilo being the only exceptions.”

“I’m not sure that my people like the idea of exceptions.”

“Well, they will have to deal with it,” Talia replied. “Plus, I just killed the chosen of the Kanaloa family. That should earn me some points with them, shouldn’t it?”

“It will certainly do,” Keanu nodded pensively.

  * 

Keanu navigated the vessel with Talia’s help for two straight days, getting very little sleep in between. Finally, as he looked into the clear expanse of blue in front of them with the compass open in his hand, he nodded, relieved. “We’re here.”

Talia was happy. They had finally gotten to the destination. Manning the entire vessel with only two people had been quite tiring. Honestly, she almost resented Keanu for its secrecy, but she understood that no one was to be brought to Aneanui, the flying city.

“Well, can we just take off?” She mimicked a flying gesture.

“Pretty much,” Keanu said, taking out a purple stone from his pocket, kissing it, and throwing it in front of the vessel.

Talia frowned at the gesture, but she was so tired that she had no intention of processing whatever weird mechanism would start carrying the boat upward. A few instances later, the water in front of them started bubbling madly and then rising and rising until it formed an almost vertical path upward. An old vertical path leading toward the sparse clouds above.

“What?” Talia said, looking confused at the water. “How is that going to carry us to the city?”

“Grab something,” Keanu said, sitting in front of the helm and clutching the rail behind it tightly.

Talia had barely the time to grab the mast as the water picked up the boat and turned it vertically, slowly lifting it onto the water road that led to the sky.

“Damn you,” Talia said, hugging the mast as her legs started flinging in the air. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I knew it would be fun,” Keanu smiled, his back against the railing, comfortable as he half sat, half lied down while the boat went up.

Talia hung onto the mast, using it as a stool to sit down and gaze upward. This road of water was a thing of beauty. Unlike the Deep, the water was translucent, transparent, and it felt like a dream as the boat inched forward toward the skies.

“Is it normal that the city is not here?”

“You can’t see the city from below,” Keanu said. “It would be too easy to spot.”

Talia, not fully convinced, activated [Eyes of the Abyss], seeing a massive amount of Mana flowing into the water that was carrying them toward wherever the city was hiding. But even with [Eyes of the Abyss], she couldn’t make out much other than a shimmering patch in the sky that seemed to be charged with Mana. From this distance, she couldn’t really make out anything.

She looked back at Keanu with [Eyes of the Abyss] still active and then scrunched her brows. She looked at her glaive on the side of the boat, secured against the railing. Then she made a split-second decision.

Talia jumped from the mast, getting to the side railing where now, through [Eyes of the Abyss], she could make out a clear figure. She swung her fist with all her strength, punching the solar plexus of the intruder.

“Talia, what are you doing?” Keanu shouted, seeing his friend swing wildly at the air, risking going overboard.

But a second later, a sputtering male figure appeared on the boat, previously invisible.

Talia grabbed the railing with one hand and with the other, the robe of the man. “You!” she shouted in a space.

Kehai coughed as he tried recovering from the blow that the girl had just delivered to him. “You are really strong,” he said, wheezing between words.

“What is he doing here?” she shouted, alarmed.

“I don’t know. Should we throw him out?” Talia said, half panicked, not really knowing what to do.

“And let me die here?” Kehai said.

“What were you doing on the boat?” Talia retorted.

“I was following Maleko, and I thought you would have needed help with the battle, which—my bad. I didn’t know you were so terrifying.” He turned and spat a glob of blood into the translucent water below. “Then when I saw you boarding the ship, I thought you would be having a short trip somewhere interesting, and I just wanted to tag along. I didn’t plan to stay hidden for two entire days. But, well, here we are.”

Talia looked at the man’s icy blue eyes, furious. “Keanu, what do we do?”

“Can you deactivate the lift?” Talia asked Keanu.

“No,” Keanu said through gritted teeth.

“Well, we’ll figure it out once we’re above,” Kehai said, sighing. “I’m not gonna create problems. I’ve heard a few interesting things.” He mimicked a key turning around his cheek as if he was locking his mouth.

Talia looked toward Keanu for approval, but Keanu shook his head. “He’s a noble. They will grill him until they find out, and once they do, they will kill him.”

“That’s not ideal,” Kehai replied with a worried face.

“We’re almost there,” Keanu warned both of them.

“You shouldn’t have come here, you idiot,” Talia said, feeling rage coursing through her body. “You arrogant little piece of—”

“Talia,” Keanu interrupted her series of curses. “We’re almost there.”

“You just hide and don’t leave the boat.”

“You heard the man,” Kehai replied.

Talia raised a fist in front of Kehai’s face and then just jumped back on the mast. She looked at the cocky, arrogant young man slowly shimmering out of existence, becoming invisible once again. And once he was gone, she didn’t feel anything. Not even her developed Mana senses could perceive his hidden presence. In fact, if she hadn’t had [Eyes of the Abyss], she would have never noticed that Kehai had somehow boarded the ship.

“We’re about to land,” Keanu said, and Talia turned her eyes upward.

She saw as if a veil had just been lifted slowly. A majestic city, half swallowed by vegetation and the other half in ruin, appeared before them.