Chapter 11: The Five Oceans

“Calling for tying and ignoring Bin Bin for the rest of the journey to the Eastern Continent, all who agree say ‘aye’!” Enderta, the Blood Claws Hound beast, peached in – though she did prefer to beat Bin Bin to unconsciousness and drag him by a rope, a very long rope.

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

Even Liminton concurred, treating it as a compromise to the previously beating suggestion.

“Nay!” Bin Bin yelled, thinking of retreat but remembered that he is currently hanging on Liminton for his dear life. Aggrieved, he sucked in a deep breath in shock, though it only was his own mist energy, and started shedding crocodile tears. “Uncle Liminton, I can’t believe that you will betray me, your ONLY nephew, like this. My heart is shattered to countless pieces. You might as well leave me here, to die by the terrible whirlpools of the Gentic Belt!”

“Brat! You are the one holding me! Did your grip just tighten?!” Liminton turned red from embarrassment.

Moments later...

“Fine, treat me like I’m the problem. This is a warning for the next to speak the truth, don’t do it, else you want to become a poor martyr like myself”. Constricted by a formation and tied to a ten meters rope of seaweed that its opposite side wrapped around Liminton’s torso, Bin Bin shouted a constant flow of words.

“When do you think he will notice”, a slandered male figure with a long flowing brown hair raised its head and looked back at Bin Bin while asking Liminton. “That Vars’s binding formation also blocks sound waves from leaking?”

“At some point he will probably say something that he knows I can’t ignore. Then he will notice”. Liminton replied, grumping. “I told his parents that I will take care of him, but I never imagined you humans can be so difficult”. Shaking his head, he submissively resigned to the situation. “Never mind him, Zenkai, right now we have to make a decision, to return or proceed with the Gentic Belt’s currents to that place...”

“I know. Actually, it’s why I slowed down to your pace. The protective formation is holding fine, but sooner or later it will collapse, it was not meant to sustain an eruption. Enderta and I convince the rest to head for that ‘place’; we don’t want to be late to the Eastern Continent. Since Bin Bin will ultimately follow your steps, I’m here to ask whether you want to join us or try your luck on a later date?”

The whirlpools’ fluctuations intensified. They started to emit dark brown lightning that disintegrated everything they struck.

“We are about to exit the Gentic Belt”. Liminton mentioned. “If the Overlords weren’t provoked...” He felt miserable for not stopping Zax when he first saw him heading to the sea.

“If only they killed him, like we all thought they would, then their temper would have been appeased. Regrettably, that man’s luck was too amazing. I really wonder if he survived the second departure, I think those that chased after him were from the five powers”. Zenkai said, knowing exactly how Liminton feels. Back then he and his three companions were also laughing at the rush Zax.

“We’ll go there. Besides, it’s been a while and the Horned Eel is preoccupied with the Four Wings Stork. Who knows? Maybe a detour through ‘there’ is a blessing in disguise...”

“Well, I’m not sure about it, but maybe you are right”. Zenkai was not as certain as Liminton, but he agreed that with the Horned Eel out of the way, things at that place might play differently. “Still, all I want is a safe passage to the other side of the Gentic Belt”.

...

‘The whirlpools are drawn to this direction’. Zax followed the undulations in the water. Initially he thought the cause of them were the whirlpools, but after observing the situation for a little while, from a safe distance, he figured that the same something he sensed in the current that hit him and the whirlpools is merely a scrap of something bigger and far away.

‘Weird, the dark attribute worldly energy his getting suppressed’. He maintained his calm, though the realization that up ahead there is something or someone strong enough to annul his greatest source of strength was terrifying. If he did not see others advancing to the same direction, he would have probably looked for another way.

‘I need to pass this wall of whirlpools to go to where the third Black Core is’. That was the essential purpose of his journey. ‘If I can’t go through water, I should examine the conditions above it before risking myself at the unknown’. By now he had to have learned a thing or two...

Ascending to the surface of the sea, in no time Zax saw beams of warm light piercing the water. ‘Clear sky?’ He sure was surprised, he thought the whirlpools were connected to some kind of storm.

SPLASH!

He came out of the sea, suspiciously hovering between it and the blue sky. Looking down and checking with his Soul Sense. ‘They are several hundred meters from here, but still there... ‘ The giant whirlpools continued to spin and block the passageway through the sea. ‘Why those who came from within’, he referred to the number of experts who showed up retreating from Gentic Belt after the eruption, ‘didn’t simply go above water?’

Zax hesitated. In the air he still felt the attraction of the Black Core. He chose the sea just because it was a fascinating new world to explore on his way.

He resumed his flight toward the Black Core in the air. ‘Below is too dangerous and the direction the whirlpools are going is taking me far from the Black Core. It’s sunny day, anyways’.

In a few seconds he got above the rim of the Gentic Belt, passing above the first whirlpool. ‘Here, too?!’ He sensed it again, an unfamiliar type of energy, an invisible force in the empty space between the sky and sea. “Argh!” An indescribable pressure weighed down on him out of the blue. “Gravity...” Zax uttered through clenched teeth.

BOOM!

It pulled him to the sea, blasting the water in an explosion that surged tsunami waves.

The pressure vanished inside the sea, but Zax was above a giant whirlpool when it pulled him.

“Grrr!” Extracting all of his strength, Zax tried to get away from the violently swirling motion of the whirlpool. The water moved so fast that they bruised and even cut him.