Badge in Azure

Chapter 866: Abyss (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The ship was broken beyond repair, and it was apparently not a product of the second dynasty as it was not made of thundercloud wood. It was something of an older age instead.

The single-horned white whale’s speed was kept at more than one-hundred miles per hour, not bothering to rest as it went on to kill everything in its path, which was simply done by tearing them apart and eating them on the spot. It did not stop moving for even a second.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat followed suit without rest as well. The distance between both parties was kept at eight miles, as such a distance allowed the ship be at a safe distance, regardless if the whale chose to run away or attack up close.

Saleen was able to afford the luxury to stop and study one such sunken ship in the oceanic ice block. The winged skeleton was only able to send out a spirit to wait for them to return in the sunken ship. With the spirit serving as a marking inside, the winged skeleton was able to find the ship even if undersea terrain was to shift for whatever reason.

The one left behind by the winged skeleton was a jade skeleton. The jade skeleton had yet to advance with him, remaining a grade-6 being, but it had nonetheless developed an intellect. The jade skeleton made for the sunken ship cautiously after swimming out from the pan’s turtle alchemical boat.

There was only silence around the sunken ship. The jade skeleton went on all fours about one mile away from the ship, and crawled forward. Its crawling speed was extremely slow as it went with the current. It moved bit by bit, looking as if it was the current that moved the skeleton.

Seeing how their servant seemed to be one smart enough to take care of itself, the winged skeleton severed the connection between him and the jade skeleton, and focused on the path onward. Deeming it to be a chance for it shrug its pursuers free, the single-horned white whale sped up all of a sudden, moving more than three miles further away in the span of mere seconds. Such a burst of speed was not something sustainable, but it had nonetheless almost allowed the whale to escape the pan’s turtle alchemical boat’s surveillance.

Saleen’s eyes had always been following the whale. Seeing how the whale sped up all the sudden, he decided to simply teleport out from the ship and rest himself on the shell of the turtle, letting his Elemental Eye work at full power. The pan’s turtle alchemical boat raised its speed, allowing his sight to reach as far as it was able to.

“You want to run?” Saleen snickered. “That is just how far the magic beasts’ intelligence will be able to go.”

The white whale was good with calculations. The appearance of the ancient sunken ship made the pursuing pan’s turtle alchemical boat to briefly pause to let a spirit out as a guard. The split second was more than enough to have the whale open up the distance between them by more than fifteen miles. If it was to use a similar skill, it might have been able to open said distance by more than twenty miles, effectively enabling it to leave the surveillance range of the Spirit Gaze.

It was meaningless to run like that, as the Elemental Eye was not affected by water. Water and dark elements were in abundance around the area, and Saleen was able to easily track the huge body of the whale fifteen miles away.

The whale swam faster and faster, almost reaching one-hundred and twenty miles per hour, which was the top speed of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat underwater. Any faster would have required auxiliary magic arrays as back up, making it very easy to attract the attentions of other magic beasts.

The winged skeleton chose not to speed up, as Saleen was able to breathe underwater and the pressure hardly bothered him. He was stronger than Nailisi in that regard. A body of water element became his greatest, most reliable tool in the oceanic ice block. Without the body of water element, a mage of his level would have been able to dive to the depth of three-thousand yards at most, and he would have required to go above water to breathe like some amphibian magic beasts. There was no water surface to be had in the oceanic ice block. What laid above the water, was very, very thick sheets of ice.

Nailisi also snuck out of the ship and stuck herself to the shell of the turtle, keeping herself on all fours beside Saleen. As her imp form was still severely injured, Nailisi chose to keep herself in her three-faced bone demon form instead. One face was looking to the front, one looking at Saleen, and one looking behind.

Spirits did not need to breathe, and grade-9 spirits were able to entirely ignore the effects of water pressure. A depth of tens of thousands of yards would have been required to disable a spirit’s movements underwater.

“Master...,” Nailisi vibrated the water around her using death magic, allowing her to speak with Saleen.

Saleen turned around to glare at her. “Don’t go about attracting any powerful beasts at a time like this. The ship hardly dared to stick close to the ocean floor. Lethal killers are everywhere in the deepest reaches of this place.”

“Master, look!”, Nailisi’s form was a grade-9 spirit. Using Eye of the Dead enabled her to see as far as the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The single-horned white whale began to descend at a speed of about one-hundred and fifty miles per hour.

“Soldier!”, Saleen knew that they were near what they came for.

“Acknowledged, master,” the winged skeleton’s voice rang in Saleen’s mind. Auxiliary magic arrays were all activated on the ship. A bright light appeared out of the blue in front of them. The beam of light looked impossibly bright and blinding in the pitch black deep sea environment.

The beam of light disappeared as fast as it came. Saleen opened his eyes wide to have a good look at what happened, finding that the whale dived right into an underwater cave. The cave had a diameter of tens of yards, and the whale disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Man! It’s just near impossible to keep chasing after that thing like this. I will probably need Nailisi’s spear to take down that huge creature.”

“Bing, go after it,” Saleen said to the winged skeleton telepathically.

Nicholas was very nervous onboard the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. He held tight on his Scepter of the Fallen, afraid that any mishap could have just ended up having Saleen killed by the whale. His holy spells were more effective on the magic beasts, and prophecy magic would be able to save everyone on the ship at critical times. If he were to subject himself to the cost of doing so again, his life would have been rendered even shorter though. To him, life was very precious.

He had only hoped that Saleen would give him more power of life, to mitigate the curses that such holy spells had on him.

Nicholas was afraid of death, but he also knew that if he was able to advance into grade-10, all the previous curse damage suffered before as a fallen holy master would disappear naturally. The loss in lifespan would also be compensated. It was all a gamble, and Nicholas was betting that Saleen would not just cast him aside.

Even though it was Fycro who had him follow Saleen, Nicholas himself obviously trusted mages more. That was a rather ironic thing. A fallen holy master would never again trust another holy master. Their previous enemy, the mages, became the only thing that Nicholas was able to place his trust in.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat made it to the entrance of the giant cave quickly, and dived right into it without any concern for the danger possibly lurking within.

The single-horned white whale disappeared within the spacious giant cave. The magic arrays were also unable to do much in detecting its presence in such an environment. While the cave was spacious, it also had many twists and turns. Saleen’s Elemental Eye was rendered useless altogether.

The size and shape of the ship was far smaller and narrower than the whale’s, and therefore had no risk of colliding with any rock structures within. The disappearance of the whale had Saleen feeling anxious nonetheless.

Crack...

Saleen heard a cracking sound from the rocks somewhere, prompting the ship to speed up once again without waiting for his orders. The ship made its way to a turn as a giant piece of rock fell onto where they had been.

Saleen was relieved to find that the rock dropped was smaller than expected, meaning that it was not a trap set by the whale. Saleen saw another ship after taking the turn, an ancient sunken ship. The sunken ship was more than thirty yards long, and was about the size of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. Saleen, however, was not able to tell that the ship was a submersible warship, as there was obviously another two-floored building above the deck.

Regardless, Saleen was not in the mood for doing such research, and he did not even bother telling the winged skeleton to leave a spirit behind to guard it.

The cave was tens of miles long. It got wider as they went deeper, making the entrance seem very narrow in comparison. Once they made it to the sixty mile mark, their way forward became an opened space all of a sudden, with an opening of up to one-thousand seen.

It was a tall gate, and definitely one made by humans.

The size of the gate seemed to be one meant for ancient giants. What surprised Saleen more was the fact that there were still more than a dozen giant statues standing in front of the gate. The statues were two-hundred yards tall, standing guard at the gate at equivalent distances.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was moving so fast that they made it to the entrance in the blink of an eye. The statues were spaced about one-hundred yards in between, and the ship coincidentally made it past one of the statues.

A thundering boom was heard from the statue and the entire cave shook. Saleen saw the giant feet of the statue kick right in their direction, prompting him to drag Nailisi back into the ship.

Boom!

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat was right in front of the statue’s feet, making it impossible to run. Saleen and Nailisi were able to escape, but the kick had broken the layer of bubbles enveloping the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The ship flew and lodged itself on a rock, with a loud resounding boom.

Nicholas had somehow braced for it within the ship, casting a Silence spell to keep everyone from being rendered unconscious from the booming vibrations. Such levels of concussive force were something even spirits were unable to withstand.

Nailisi took out her bladeshield and took Saleen’s wrist, sticking close to statue’s waist and making for the entrance. The statue behind turned and threw a punch, missing them. Huge bubbles were conjured on both Saleen’s and Nailisi’s bodies, they made a sharp turn and made their way straight down.

Saleen felt a powerful suction force, as if a magic beast of tens of thousands of miles long had just opened its mouth behind him, devouring every living thing in front of it.

A huge undersea basin of unknown depth was right outside the cave.

The huge basin seemed to be deeper than any undersea trenches that Saleen had ever seen personally. Saleen and Nailisi held their hands tight. The powerful suction rendered all skills of theirs useless, and they were sucked along with the flow, falling into the abyss deep under the sea.

Saleen checked his Devil Ring quickly and put on his Devil Mask. He broke out a magic staff on his hand. He felt regretful that he did not advance to grade-9 before venturing tat far.

Regardless of how strong his mental powers were, there was still a limit to the number of grade-9 magic he was able to use. The cards in his hand also seemed painfully inadequate. If only he had advanced to grade-9, he would have been able to use grade-10 magic.

Never in his wildest dreams had the idea of the single-horned white whale’s cemetery being something built by humans occurred to him. The huge statue at the entrance seemed to have been working for more than one-hundred-thousand years, and it was still working. A simple kick had been more than enough to send the pan’s turtle alchemical boat flying at rocks underneath the sea.

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