Chapter 4: A Sea Adventure

As Zax proceeded past the seashore and vanished into the horizon, he did not pay much attention to the people on the beach and those in the harbor. The sea was a fascinating spectacle it was hard for him to match it to anything he ever witnessed. The closest he could think of was the blue sky. The sea appeared just as vast and while there were differences between the two, as he went on, other than scope and color, Zax detected more and more similarities that made him equally appreciate both domains, despite that at the moment he was only able to traverse just one.

‘Amazing, life is so abundant here!’ Zax was at awe as he spread his Soul Sense and discovered myriad of living beings.

Unlike the land, Zax found many types of fish that were nothing more than regular fish, that is had no cultivation base. They roamed in the sea, seemingly unconcerned from the aquatic schools of Deformed Beings.

‘Here is the opposite’, Zax noticed. ‘Maybe it’s specific to this area of the sea, but here one scale Deformed Being and regular aquatic creatures are more common than two scales Deformed Beings’.

With was an interesting discovery, which made Zax first suspect that the reason for it was the existence of a three scale Deformed Being. However, no matter how far he advanced or how diligently his Soul Sense scanned, he could not find anything particularly unordinary.

‘My Soul Sense can’t reach the bottom of the sea’. As a result he was not certain how deep it was to the sea’s floor and if there reside two and three scales Deformed Beings.

“A ship?” It was the first sign of human and beast life he encountered since leaving Selivereb of the Western Continent.

It was sailing from the opposite direction, a not that big cruise ship, full to the brim with thousands of people and beasts in human or humanoid forms.

“What are they doing?” Zax frowned due to confusion.

As soon as he was noticed by the experts on the cruise ship and two on the fishing boat, glowing symbols and shapes resembling eels started to appear on the body of the ship. At the same time, a dome like mantle manifested above the ship. On it were engraved same glowing symbols but different shapes, something that resembled a flock of four wings birds.

As the ship’s formations were raised, the many people and beasts aboard all stared wide eyes before ignoring the urgent orders of the crew members to leave the deck and hurrying to watch excitedly the vicinity, as if they all were informed that an exceptional rare show is about to begin.

Further away came to view another, smaller vessel, a fishing boat. As the crew on the fishing boat noticed the glowing formation of the cruise ship, their complexion blanched and moments later a nearly identical formation was raised on the body of the fishing boat and above it.

In contrast to the jolly behavior of the passengers on the cruise ship, the fishing boat’s crew members were much less enthusiastic. Halting their work and everything else, they agitatedly waved their arms and shouted toward Zax, while only few did the same on the cruise ship.

“Mm?” Zax’s ears perked up, trying to hear the voices of the fishing boat’s crew members.

“ ... Back...”

“ ... Go Back!”

“Return to shore!”

“No! Don’t come over! Go back immediately!”

...

Earlier, when he utilized the worldly dark attribute to fly across the sea, Zax decided to maintain a fairly fast speed that would have prevented those below the third realm on the slow cruise ship and fishing boat from noticing him. However, when he explored the depth of the sea on his venture, he gradually decelerated almost unconsciously, and by the time he paid heed to the glowing formation of the cruise ship and the shouts from the fishing boat, he was very close to a halt, in comparison to his original pace, that is.

Having no quarrel with any of the two parties, Zax was not bored to start anything by approaching them against their wishes, even if he had the capital to do as he wants. Besides, he could read the air and temperament of each company and, as a result, an imminent sense of crisis brewed inside of his stomach.

It was not something detectable by Soul Sense or any other of the five senses. Rather, it was a shift in the worldly dark attribute, like it was reacting to an opposing attribute being used domineeringly or maybe a summons by an unknown entity. Regrettably, Zax’s familiarity with the dark attribute was insufficient to discern which was the case or if it was something else entirely.

“Go-” Was the last thing that reached Zax’s ears before all sounds vanished.

Zax felt as if the world froze and even his mind was going at a snail pace.

A gradual high pitched wail penetrated through the silence, steadily getting louder and louder while reverberating from every direction.

On the cruise ship and fishing boat the mantles with four wings bird shapes pulsated as if coming to life. As for the passengers of each vessel, by their expression they seemed to be less influenced by the wail. Most covered their ears, others did not mind, while on all were plastered either pensive or fervent looks.

Motionless between sky and sea, Zax was sweating profusely. ‘Dark Titan Storm!’ He shouted in his sea of consciousness, driven by immense fear.

In but a blink of an eye, his physique swelled and darkened, exuded indomitable air, filling him with exalted power, yet his guts told him that it was not enough!

Seeing his terrific transformation, the several third realm experts felt their hearts tightening. They all could tell that this change was brought by utilization of an attribute worldly energy, dark attribute energy, and that the level of understanding needed to master it was far beyond their comprehension.

Such expert was someone to dread, a cultivator whom even the five powers would show appreciation.

Although the experts shared conflicting views in which they regarded Zax ... two to four dared to gaze at him openly in envy, supposedly pettily glad in other’s misfortune, and the rest, upright bunch who saw how he did not impose himself on the fellows from the fishing boat, in moderate admiration, they did share the same belief, which caused some of them to shake their heads in shame.

Fixated on finishing the transformation, a sharp rise in temperature that felt like the sun was in decent, made Zax instinctively turn his head around toward Selivereb’s direction and there he saw it!

A fiery red colossal, four wings bird, resembling a ferocious emperor among storks. Being well over hundred meters tall and having a wingspan of almost twice its height, its casual flap of wings sent gales that hit Zax from kilometers away and stimulated his skin cells.

‘Peak three scales Deformed Being!’ His pupils contracted.

Its exoskeleton had a flaming luster and in a more keen observation it was possible to see minute tongues of fire in between its wings’ feathers, which were ingeniously formed from the same boney substance as the rest of the exoskeleton.

The Four Wings Stork flew in lightning speed, too fast for Zax to fully turn around to meet its apparent intent to assault.

Zax figured that the Four Wings Stork is specifically after from the conduct of the passengers on both vessels. Whatever he did to bring on himself its wroth he could not tell, at the moment, or even had the time to speculate.

Doubtful on how well he can do against the assault of a creature whose strength rivals Peak fifth level Martial Mortal, Zax dejectedly prepared for the worst.