Chapter 105: Harvesting the Ghost-Mist Orchid

The Azure Empress’s powerful mana searchlights cut through the thick, lavender-colored fog, their beams shining like twin blades of pure sunlight.

Half a mile ahead, the disabled sport cruiser was violently rocking against the dark swells.

Clinging to the cruiser’s cabin roof was a winged monstrosity with slimy, dark-blue scales, leathery bat-like wings, and a jaw lined with needle-sharp fangs. Two more of the Level 45 Mistral Sea-Wyverns circled overhead, screeching hungrily as they prepared to dive.

"Hold on to something!" Evren called out.

Before Captain Harris could even adjust the yacht’s stabilizers, Amber stepped out onto the open bridge wing.

BOOM!

A golden shockwave detonated beneath Amber’s feet as she launched straight into the night sky.

With a thunderous beat of her ten-foot wings, she streaked through the mist like a falling star. The biting ocean wind whipped through her dark hair, while her coral bikini glowed brilliantly in the moonlight.

SCREEECH!

The two airborne sea-wyverns spotted her and banked sharply, diving toward her with extended talons.

Amber crossed her dragon-bone twin sabers in front of her chest and swept them both outwards, sending a crescent of crimson-gold light, slicing horizontally across the night sky.

The arc struck both wyverns cleanly through their necks.

The intense heat cauterized and bisected their scaly forms in a split second. Their severed halves tumbled out of the air, splashing harmlessly into the dark ocean swells below.

Down on the disabled cruiser, the beast on the cabin roof shrieked in alarm, preparing to leap into the water.

Amber folded her wings and plummeted like a golden meteor.

THWACK!

She landed squarely on the beast’s spine, driving both sabers straight through its armored back with explosive force. A burst of flame detonated inward, burning the sea-wyvern’s vitals to ash in an instant before Amber kicked the smoking carcass off the deck into the sea.

Inside the cruiser’s glass cabin, five terrified tourists and the boat’s skipper collapsed to their knees, weeping with relief as they looked at the winged warrior standing above them.

The Azure Empress glided smoothly alongside the smaller boat.

Captain Harris’s crew immediately threw heavy magnetic towlines over the railing, securing the disabled vessel against the yacht’s reinforced hull.

"Medical and deck hands, move!" Captain Harris barked through his radio. "Get those passengers aboard and into the warmth!"

Evren stepped out onto the yacht’s lower boarding platform as Amber drifted gracefully down, her radiant wings folding back into her shoulders with a soft shimmer.

She landed lightly beside Evren, her breathing steady and not a single drop of ocean spray touching her skin.

"Sky is clear, Chairman," Amber smiled, handing the twin blades back to Evren with a playful curtsy.

"Flawless work, Vice-Chairman," Evren chuckled, storing the blades back into his Spatial Storage Ring.

Ahead of them, the fog parted just enough to reveal the towering, ominous silhouette of Mistral Crag Isle.

It was a jagged volcanic caldera rising three hundred feet out of the ocean. Black basalt cliffs dropped sheer into the crashing waves, while sulfurous steam hissed from glowing cracks along the crater rim.

Captain Harris studied the depth sonar and shook his head. "Chairman, the seabed rises rapidly here. The volcanic reefs are too shallow for the Empress to dock. We have to anchor one mile out."

"Anchor here," Evren agreed calmly. "Lower the tender boat."

Zephyra stepped onto the platform, now wearing a fitted black windbreaker over her swimwear, her silver hair pulled back into a high ponytail.

She held a tactical tablet connected to the yacht’s long-range thermal sensors.

"Evren, with my arms like this, I’m of little use in a fight," Zephyra said quietly, looking down at her hands. "If I try to swing a blade, the pain will only slow you down."

"I know, Z," Evren said gently, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You’re not fighting. You’re our eyes. You watch the sensors and guide us from the tender."

Zephyra’s expression softened. "Understood. I’ll watch your backs."

Within five minutes, the yacht’s high-speed armored tender skimmed across the shallow reef waters, sliding to a stop on a narrow black sand inlet at the base of the volcanic cliffs.

Zephyra remained at the tender’s console, monitoring the thermal imaging feed through her headset.

"Thermal scan is clear on the outer cliffs," Zephyra’s voice came through their earpieces. "The caldera basin is glowing hot with mana. The Ghost-Mist Orchid is growing on the northern cliff face, forty feet above the magma pool."

"Moving out," Evren confirmed.

Evren and Amber scaled the steep basalt trail effortlessly and reached the crater summit within five minutes, peering down into the steaming caldera.

The sight was breathtaking.

At the center of the caldera sat a bubbling turquoise geothermal pool surrounded by glowing volcanic vents. And growing right on the sheer cliff above the sulfur steam was a single, radiant flower.

It was The S-Rank Ghost-Mist Orchid.

Its petals were translucent lavender, pulsating with soft, celestial light. A sweet, intoxicating floral mist radiated from the bloom, condensing into glowing droplets of pure regenerative sap.

"It’s fully open," Amber whispered, her eyes wide. "It’s gorgeous."

Evren looked down at the glowing blossom, his brow furrowing slightly. "An S-Rank treasure sitting right in the open. How has no one come out here to harvest it?"

"A few have tried over the years," Amber replied quietly.

"Mistral Crag is completely cut off by shallow volcanic reefs and infested with Level forty-five sea-wyverns. On top of that, the air inside this crater is thick with poisonous sulfur, and the orchid only blooms once every few decades for seventy-two hours."

"I see..."

"There’s a story from ten years ago... I was still young then. An elite expedition from the Coastal Guild Alliance came out here to harvest the previous bloom."

"What happened to them?" Evren asked.

"Their shattered boat washed ashore on the mainland a week later. No survivors. Everyone assumed the reef wyverns ambushed them in the fog."

"Warning!" Zephyra’s urgent voice crackled through their earpieces. "It wasn’t just the wyverns! Massive heat spike directly beneath the ledge... there’s an apex predator sleeping in the rock!"

ROOOAAAR!

The black basalt floor of the crater shattered with an ear-splitting crash.

A monstrous, thirty-foot serpent-like beast erupted from the rocks. It was covered in thick, obsidian-plated scales with glowing magma cracks running down its spine.

It was an Elder Obsidian Drake (Level 55).

The beast wrapped its body around the cliff, staring at the glowing Ghost-Mist Orchid with its golden eyes. Its massive jaws opened wide, showing rows of sharp, dagger-like teeth as it lunged forward to swallow the flower in one bite.

"Amber, draw its head!" Evren shouted.

Amber’s crimson-golden wings burst outward with a sonic crack. She rocketed across the caldera, slashing her sabers to launch three piercing beams of light directly into the Drake’s left eye.

HISS!

The solar energy blasted against the beast’s thick eyelid, blinding its left eye in a shower of molten sparks. Enraged, the Drake snapped its head around and breathed a cone of black fire straight at Amber.

Amber raised her arms, generating a shimmering golden kinetic barrier that deflected the flames across the cavern ceiling.

"Evren, now!" Zephyra called through the comms. "The scale behind its neck is missing! Strike there!"

Evren moved. As he did, the entire world slowed to a crawl in his perception through Kinetic Flow.

He saw the Drake’s tail sweeping toward him a second before it happened.

With a slight shift of his foot, Evren sidestepped the massive spiked tail by two inches, the displaced air howling past his cheek.

He stepped directly onto the tail, running up the beast’s thrashing spine.

In a fraction of a second, Evren reached the base of its skull.

His right fist pulled back, gathering the terrifying physical force of his S-Rank body.

"Down," Evren muttered coldly.

BOOOOOM!

Evren drove his fist into the unarmored spot with the force of an artillery shell.

A deafening shockwave rippled through the caldera as the Drake’s skull caved inward with a sickening crunch, shattering the obsidian plates on its neck like brittle glass.

The thirty-foot monster crashed lifelessly onto the rocky floor, its massive weight shaking the entire crater.

But as the beast collapsed, its flailing tail clipped the cliff face directly beneath the Ghost-Mist Orchid!

CRACK.

The rock ledge fractured.

The lavender orchid broke free from the stone, tumbling straight down toward the bubbling pool of boiling sulfur acid below!

"Evren, the orchid!" Amber gasped, diving toward it, but a sudden blast of sulfur steam blew her off course.

Evren reacted almost immediately.

Shadow Step!

In a flicker of dark spatial distortion, Evren vanished from the Drake’s corpse and reappeared fifty feet across the caldera, directly above the acid pool.

He dove rapidly toward the bubbling, turquoise liquid.

Evren reached out and caught the falling flower gently by its stem, just inches above the boiling acid.

Without losing momentum, he planted his boot against the basalt cliff wall and kicked hard, launching himself forty feet upward to land firmly on the solid stone rim of the caldera.

Evren let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.

He opened his hand and stared at the glowing lavender orchid, its delicate petals completely untouched by the heat or acid.

With a faint flash of his spatial ring, Evren stored the fresh blossom safely.

DING!

[CRITICAL HARVEST SUCCESSFUL: S-RANK GHOST-MIST ORCHID SECURED!]

[PURITY RATING: 100% (PEAK MATURATION CYCLE)]

[STORAGE STATUS: SAFELY STORED IN SPATIAL STORAGE RING]

Amber landed beside him, her wings retracting as she let out a breathless laugh of relief. "You caught it! That was incredible, Evren!"

Through the comms, Zephyra let out a shaky breath of pure relief. "You got it... It’s safe."

"All clear, Z," Evren smiled into the earpiece. "We’re coming down."

Twenty minutes later, Evren and Amber were back aboard The Azure Empress.

The yacht turned south, smoothly cruising away from the smoking cliffs of Mistral Crag as the five rescued passengers rested safely in the lower medical bay.

Inside the yacht’s private master cabin, Evren placed the Ancient Alchemy Crucible on the center of the low mahogany table.

Beside him, Zephyra sat on the edge of the sofa, her hands resting on her lap. Her cheeks were flushed, and her violet eyes were fixed on the crucible.

Evren placed his hand over the lid.

WHOOSH.

A gentle purple flame flared to life beneath the alchemical chamber, filling the air with the soothing, sweet aroma of the Ghost-Mist Orchid.

After a few seconds, the flames subsided, and Evren opened the lid.

Inside was about two ounces of glowing lavender serum, swirling with tiny motes of celestial silver light. Not a single trace of impurity remained.

Evren opened the yacht’s clinical medical kit and retrieved a sterile syringe. With steady hands, he carefully drew the medicine into the cylinder, tapping the side to clear any air bubbles.

Amber stepped up behind the sofa, resting her hands warmly on Zephyra’s trembling shoulders.

Evren looked over at Zephyra. "Roll up your sleeve, Z," he said with a soft smile. "It’s time to fix your arms."