378 - The Foolish Zealots and the Mutated Apeman

The air grew heavier as they advanced.

Jack raised a hand. Signaling a full halt. Behind him, his crew froze instantly. Reina's thin, grey fog magic wrapped around them like a cool, invisible blanket. Bending light and dampening sound.

To any outside observer, the section of dense jungle they occupied was entirely empty. Just humid air, twisted roots, and moss-covered trees.

Jack gestured toward the base of a towering basalt cliff face ahead.

There, half a dozen figures dressed in uniformed dark outfitted were gathered. Jack could see many of them were wearing stylized ankh necklaces. Each had a jagged, almost broken upper loop and a single, sharp point at the bottom.

They were clearly transcendent members of the Sacred Destination Sect.

Jack gestured with two fingers toward his eyes, then pointed at the base of the tall cliff ahead. The crew crouched into the dense foliage. Silent and disciplined. Even the young lightning kirin cub, Sparkle, remained motionless.

Along with his crew, Jack observed the situation more closely.

Arcane runes floated in the air around these sect people as they channeled power into a tiny, jagged fissure. One that was hovering three feet above the ground. The spatial crack was barely the length of a baby palm. Pulsing with an unhealthy, violet and grey light.

The zealots from the sect were sweating. Their faces were flushed with fanatic excitement as they used their own mystic energy and specialized spatial tools to pry the crack open further. None of them noticed Jack's hidden group.

Jack looked back at Reina. "Zealots from Sacred Destination." He whispered. His voice was barely a breath.

"Dear?" Reina murmured. Her dark eyes scanned the cultists. "Should we attack?"

"No. Stay put. I'm taking a closer look."

Jack moved through the thick underbrush like a ghost. He kept his footsteps weightless. Soundless. He stopped behind a wide trunk about eight meters away from the cultists. He focused his gaze on the flickering violet rift. Activating his [Eyes of Judgement].

[Object: Spatial Fissure]

[Spatial Destination: Grim Spirit Sea]

[Nature: Unstable, One-Way Vacuum Hazard]

[Danger Level: Very High]

[Description: A tiny crack to a different spatial realm. Subjecting this crack to further external amplification will trigger an absolute spatial collapse. Anything within a twenty-meter radius will be drawn directly into the Grim Spirit Sea with no return vector. The spatial collapse will have no anchor and will be self-repaired in one hour.]

Jack sneered internally. The Sacred Destination Sect had spent three years lingering around this island... And, this was what they discovered?

This was definitely not the doorway to their promised paradise. They were pretty much trying to forcefully open a raw sewer pipe leading straight into hell.

He and his crew had once entered the Grim Spirit Sea due to the Hungry Mist phenomenon. The realm was terrifying and the pressure there was intense. Without his [Nine-Anchor Portal Ring], they would still be trapped there at the moment.

He looked at who seemed to be the leader of the zealot group. A man with a scarred jaw who was currently channeling his energy into a tube connected to the spatial fissure. The crack was widening slowly. Coughing out a spray of grey gas that emitted the smell of rotten flesh.

Jack didn't bother stepping out to warn them. He turned on his heel and crept back to his group. Signing them to leave the place.

When they were far away enough...

"What is it, Captain?" Baroness Artheim asked. Her scholarly composure was slightly strained as she adjusted her spectacles. "Is that a stable node to the lost Malleh City secret realm?"

"It's a one-way drain to the Grim Spirit Sea." Jack said bluntly. "They are forcing it open. If they succeed, that crack will turn into a spatial implosion that will suck all of them into that cursed place. They'll be lucky if they died instantly."

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Autumn frowned. "Should we stop them? Or pull them back?"

"Why?" Jack asked, looking at the healer as if she had suggested eating dirt. "First, they think they're opening the gate to heaven. The crack is emitting rotten smoke, and they are still trying hard to open it wider. If we tell them it leads to hell, they'll definitely call us heretics and try to kill us."

"Second..." He continued. "Even if we beat them unconscious and drag them away, they'll just wake up tomorrow, find another crack, and try again. Except next time, they might open one near a town and drag a few thousand civilians down with them."

"He's right." Reina added calmly. "Fools bent on suicide shouldn't be interrupted when they're working so hard at it. It saves us the trouble of burying them."

The others nodded in agreement. Even Autumn. She was a kind healer, but she was also realistic. Saving people that had high chance to cause devastating trouble later was definitely not what she wanted.

"Let's move around." Jack commanded. "Rune!"

A tiny, brilliant speck of light fluttered in front of Jack’s face. Her small, mechanical body gleamed. And she flashed a bright, pulsing emerald green. Followed by two swift blinks of amber.

She pointed her tiny arm toward a dense, vine-covered ravine to the west. Well clear of the cliff with unstable spatial crack.

"Rune has found the detour." Jack said. "Follow her. Keep close and keep your vigilance."

They slipped away into the jungle. About fifteen minutes later, a deep, reverberating groan echoed from the basalt cliff behind them. Followed by screams.

Ten seconds later, a muted thump resounded through the forest. Like the sound of a giant boot stepping into heavy mud. It was followed by an unnatural silence.

Jack didn't look back. He could guess that the spatial crack had collapsed. Taking the cultists and everything nearby into the dark depths of the Grim Spirit Sea.

He urged his crew to ignore that and keep moving. After all, it wasn't something they could interfere with.

...

The deeper they penetrated into the island, the stranger the fauna became.

They passed through a glade where creatures with green hide were grazing on shimmering, hazel grass. The creatures were pretty much a mixture of two animals. They had horned deer heads and bipedal kangaroo bodies.

Further along, they could see a huge serpent with two bird heads slept. Coiled around the branch of a huge oak tree.

They also saw a panther, with eight spider-like legs and scales instead of fur. It was resting on a high branch.

And then, they witnessed a swarm of crystalline dragonflies whose wings were moving so fast just like a hummingbird's wings.

The biggest creature they saw was an armadillo. It was massive. As big as a heavy truck. And, it was armored in iron-like scales. When they saw it, it was lazily chewing through solid rock.

Thanks to Reina’s invisibility illusion, none of the strange beasts noticed the group passing through their territories.

Reina's current illusion was quite advanced. It didn't just hide their forms visually. It also masked their scent, muffled their footfalls, and smoothed out the displaced heat of their bodies.

Rune bobbed up and down ahead of them. Her body was glowing a steady green and golden. Indicating that the precious 'treasure' of the island was getting closer.

"We're getting close to the source of the beasts' mutation." Artheim whispered. Holding an etched brass compass that was spinning erratically. One of her personal artifact. "The energy density here is starting to scramble my mystic compass."

"And the path is narrowing..." Jack noted.

The jungle gave way to a towering rock corridor. Two shear granite walls rose nearly thirty meter into the sky. They squeezed so tightly together that only two men could walk abreast. Vines hung like heavy curtains from the lip above. Blocking out most of the sun.

After several minutes walking through the narrow pass, Jack could see the exit. At the far end of the pass, there lay the entrance to a sunlit valley. Very likely... the hidden location of the Malleh City in Baroness Artheim's theory.

However, Rune suddenly glowed dark crimson in color. Indicating high level danger.

Standing right in the middle of the narrow exit was a solitary figure. The source of danger.

Jack halted the group with a raised hand. "Break formation. Hold here."

The creature blocking the exit was humanoid. Almost identical in height and frame to Jack himself. But it was far from human.

It was a humanoid monster. Its skin was a dull, leathery slate. It was grey, hairless and tight over lean, corded muscle. It possessed four thick, and very long muscular arms. Each ended in four fingers tipped with pure black talons.

Its head was unnaturally smooth. Devoid of a nose or ears. But across its face were six glowing, amber eyes arranged in a hexagram.

The moment Jack looked at it, all six of the creature's amber eyes snapped directly onto him. It didn't just look in his general direction. It locked eyes with Jack through Reina's invisibility spell.

Jack activated his [Eyes of Judgement] immediately.

[Name: -]

[Race: Mutated Apeman]

[Karma: Neutral]

[Attitude: Hostile]

[Power Level: Very High]

[Power Traits: Absolute Illusion Immunity, Illusion Nullification Aura, Spatial Anchoring, High Physical Density, Kinetic Absorption]

[Current Status: Extremely Healthy]

[Description: A territorial mutated creature. It passively radiates a perception clarifying aura that nullifies magic illusions within its vision field.]

"It sees us." Jack said calmly. "It's a mutated creature that is immune to illusion."

As if confirming his words, the grey creature took a step forward into the narrow pass. A visible ripple of pale blue light radiated from its body.

The moment the light touched Jack's group, Reina's invisibility illusion dissolved like smoke in the wind. Exposing all of them.

"Tch!" Reina clicked her tongue softly. "Nasty trait."

"It's fine." Jack said. Stepping ahead of the group and blocking the entrance of the pass. "This pass is too narrow. If we try to push through as a team, we'll just get in each other's way. I'll handle this..."