Chapter 469 An Epic Meeting

Nilly rarely had to rack her brains, but their situation was hardly a good one.

Though the pirates had been dealt with, the Medusas were still hunting for their trail within the Sea Vortex. Those snake-haired creatures moved through the dim waters with ease, their senses far sharper than any land-dwelling creature's. It probably wouldn't be long before they picked up the scent left on the ship's hull and came calling.

Worse still, the fleet's stock of Purification Potions was nearly depleted. If any crew member got hit by a Medusa's petrifying gaze, the only thing left to counter the petrification would be her own blood. Just thinking about having to slice open her wrist and feed her blood to that many people made Nilly shudder involuntarily.

She really ought to just run, and fast.

If she could find the overseas Stone Descendants roaming these waters, maybe they could defuse this crisis. Besides, that alchemist had never shown his face again after attacking them, which was what worried her most of all. A Legendary Mage who was dead set on launching a sneak attack would be far harder to deal with than a swarm of Medusas closing in.

"Captain Jack." Nilly rose to her feet, her expression serious. "We run."

Jack removed his tricorn hat and said regretfully, "I completely understand your sentiments, but unfortunately, our Golden Lady is already riddled with holes. If she collides with anything in this place, I'm afraid she'll fall apart on the spot."

He pointed to the snapped mainmast. "And what's more, without sails, the ship can't move at all."

"Of course, even with sails, we might not get anywhere, seeing as how we're inside the Sea Vortex. Where would the wind come from?"

Nilly glanced up at the broken mast but wasn't the least bit discouraged. "That won't stump me. If there's no wind, we make our own."

"There are plenty of mages on this ship. With the leftover materials, we can build a magic formation that blows wind, no problem at all."

She turned around and called out to the mages recovering their strength in the corner of the deck. "Alright, everyone, time to work!"

Jack spread his hands. "Fine, that problem's solved. But I still have another question."

He quipped, "May I ask, Captain Nilly, which direction have you decided we should run?"

"That incredible Divine Sense tells me there seems to be an island a few dozen miles ahead."

Nilly thought it over. It wasn't like there was anywhere else to go, so she nodded. "Good. The captain approves. We're heading for that island."

Under her command, a few mages gathered around the pile of scrap materials beside the cabin and used the remaining Magical Dust to draw several circular magic formations of varying sizes on the deck. Each mage took a position and entered meditation.

A gusting wind materialized out of thin air at the stern, pushing the damaged hull slowly forward.

"Everything's ready. Set sail!"

Nilly stood at the bow with majestic bearing, raising her hand to point ahead.

Jack looked at the bare mast and spread his hands. "You're the captain now. Whatever you say goes."

He waved to the sailors around him. "Get moving! The captain says we set sail!"

"Where's the first mate? Get over here and take the helm. Tell those mages which way to steer!"

While the crew bustled about once more, Nilly and Jack found the mad Stone Descendant crouched by the gunwale, staring off into space. Since returning with them to the Southern Islands, the fellow seemed to have sobered up a fair bit. Though his speech was still incoherent, at least he could occasionally follow a few simple commands.

Nilly figured this was a good opportunity to try communicating with him while they had the time.

She crouched down in front of the Stone Descendant and waved a hand before his eyes. "Hey, can you see me?"

The Stone Descendant's pupils slowly focused, staring blankly back at her.

"We're heading to find the Stone-Heart family's Stone Descendants." Nilly tried to slow her speech, enunciating every word. "Do you know the way?"

"Family..." the Stone Descendant murmured, his eyes rolling slowly as if struggling to recall something.

After a moment, he raised his hand and pointed toward the gray, hazy void ahead. "Island... people."

Jack narrowed his eyes and looked at Nilly. "Could it be that the islands inside this Sea Vortex are actually guarded by someone?"

Nilly stood up and clapped her hands. "Guarded or not, we'll go take a look first and figure it out there."

"Captain Nilly's orders. Destination unchanged. Keep moving!"

The battered Golden Lady sailed through the void for hours on end. The crew took turns resting beside the magic formation to sustain the wind propelling the ship forward.

Before long, the outline of the distant island gradually sharpened into clarity.

It was a large island covered in grayish-green vegetation, lying in the gloom like a slumbering sea beast, silently waiting for its guests to arrive.

But just then, Jack's gaze shifted to the void behind the stern.

"Captain, I must warn you. Those Medusas are closing in on us."

Nilly's heart tightened. "Just them?"

Jack replied, "And Hopkins too, of course."

Nilly forced herself to stay calm. "Can we shake them off?"

Jack shook his head and sighed helplessly. "That's next to impossible."

"A Legendary Mage's tracking spell can be even more precise than Divine Sense. As long as we remain in this space, they'll have us locked on."

Nilly gritted her teeth. "Forget it. Let's reach that island first. Throw overboard everything that can be abandoned and speed up the ship!"

The sailors acknowledged in unison and immediately began hauling the remaining cargo from the hold up to the deck, then shoving it into the void. Heavy crates and iron barrels spun through the darkness, tumbling down into depths unseen.

The mages had a stroke of inspiration as well, using the discarded goods to craft a number of decoy traps. They stuffed empty crates and cloth bundles with Magical Dust that would burst upon contact, letting them float in the fleet's wake.

Jack watched each crate being shoved into the darkness, his heart aching. "Well, there goes everything. We're truly bankrupt now. Those were all gold, you know..."

But after abandoning the money and cargo, the ship's speed did increase noticeably. The wind surging from the magic formation pushed the broken hull, tearing a grayish-white wake through the void as it charged straight for the island.

Before long, they had drawn near.

The island's shadow loomed larger and larger, until it blotted out the entire view ahead. They could make out the reef rocks covered in gray moss, the ferns growing from the cracks, and a few faint figures standing along the island's shore.

Nilly was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a voice suddenly sounded from behind her, startling her.

"The Stone Descendants ahead. Something's wrong."

She turned around. Yano had gotten up from beneath the mast at some point, eyes closed, facing the direction of the island.

"You're awake?" Nilly waved a hand in front of him, only to find that Yano showed no reaction at all.

Nilly froze for a moment, then realized that this guy could now actually speak while in his focused state. Though his tone sounded just like that Silver Sparrow lady, stiff and methodical, it was undoubtedly a major improvement.

Jack walked up beside her, his gaze fixed on the island. "Lady Nilly, it looks like we've walked into a trap. Trouble's coming our way."

He had noticed it too. The figures on the shore were indeed Stone Descendants, but something was off about them. Their stances were rigid and stiff, more like puppets being controlled.

"We need to avoid this place. Quickly, turn us around!"

"Captain Jack, where do we go?" the first mate called out.

Just then, Yano moved.

He merged with the gargoyle's shadow, flew off the gunwale, and took the lead ahead of them.

Jack's eyes lit up. "Right! Follow Mr. Yano!"

The first mate hurriedly instructed the mages to adjust the wind direction, steering the ship along Yano's trajectory.

But no sooner had they neared the shore than those enchanted Stone Descendants on guard spotted them and came chasing after them with heavy, lumbering steps.

"Damn, we've been spotted!" a sailor shouted.

Yet Yano's pace did not stop. He finally halted before a reef that looked no different from its surroundings. He reached out and clenched his hand.

As if a switch had been triggered, ripples spread outward. The ocean currents around them suddenly reversed direction, as if stirred by an invisible hand, wrapping around the ship and everyone on it.

The next instant, the entire vessel and all its occupants were caught by a giant invisible chute, swept along by the current and hurtling deep into the depths of the Sea Vortex.

The sensation of weightlessness and acceleration hit simultaneously, Nilly's feet nearly lifting off the deck. She clung desperately to the gunwale until, after quite some time, the speed gradually stabilized and the scenery around them came back into focus.

Only then did Nilly realize they had entered some kind of hidden passage.

A silver-thread?

But weren't silver-threads only supposed to exist in the Astral Realm?

How did the overseas Stone Descendants manage this?

It seemed these overseas Stone Descendants really had mastered quite a few strange arts to evade the Medusas. They'd actually carved out a secret passage of their own within the Sea Vortex, modeled after the Astral Realm's silver-threads.

Shortly after they departed, the enchanted Stone Descendants finally caught up to the reef, but no matter how they searched, they couldn't find the mechanism Yano had triggered. They wandered among the rocks, hollow-eyed, as if they had lost their purpose.

Not long after, octopus tentacles silently extended from behind them, bearing a man steadily atop the water.

He was a mage.

He wore an old, deep-blue robe, his face showing considerable age with a certain cold detachment.

The Medusas swam forward from the water and hissed, "These humans again... We need you to find them."

Hopkins's gaze settled on the vanished silver-thread, and he said flatly, "No need to rush. These servants cannot resist my will. One of them will naturally open the path for us. All we need to do now is wait."

"Let's hope you're right."

The serpent heads atop the Medusas' heads fixed their stares on the man, and at last they slowly sank back beneath the water.

...

The Golden Lady glided through the void for what felt like an eternity, gradually decelerating until it finally came to a stop before a massive island.

This island was completely different from the last one. It had a true forest and a winding, meandering coastline.

But the moment the silver-thread was triggered, several hundred silhouettes emerged silently from the surrounding darkness and surrounded them.

They were all Stone Descendants.

With their gray skin and spears and harpoons in hand, they stared warily at the battered ship that had intruded.

Jack quickly raised both hands. "Hey... hey! We mean no harm!"

"You idiots, lower your weapons. These are our friends."

As he spoke, he kicked the first mate beside him, and only then did the other sailors snap out of it and lower their weapons one by one.

Nilly hurried forward as well. "We are Stone Descendants from the mainland, here in response to your call for help!"

She petrified her own skin, revealing her Stone Descendant identity, trying to put them at ease.

But these Stone Descendants did not lower their guard in the slightest. They still held their harpoons trained on them.

In the tense atmosphere, a figure drifted out from deep within the crowd.

She was a female Stone Descendant, tall and slender, her stone-like skin even whiter than the average Stone Descendant, with a smooth luster that made her look like a polished sculpture.

Her gaze swept across the ship, first landing on Yano, then on Nilly, before she slowly spoke.

"Lower your guard."

"But... Lady Stone-Heart..."

"Don't be afraid. They truly are from the mainland. It seems our distress signal has worked."

The Stone Descendants exchanged glances but still put away their weapons.

The woman drifted lightly onto the ship and gave Nilly a Stone Descendant clan salute. "I apologize for meeting everyone in this manner, but we had to confirm that those who arrived were not Hopkins's minions."

She lowered her head slightly. "I am Ivy Belmont, the Stone-Heart of this generation."

Nilly mused privately, guessing this was probably equivalent to their Stone Scion Grand Duke. She looked up at the woman.

Though the two groups of Stone Descendants had been separated for centuries without ever meeting, when she saw those grayish-white eyes, she couldn't help but feel a bloodline connection that transcended the long years and the vast oceans.

She clumsily returned a rough salute. "Ahem. I am Nilly Belmont."

She cast a glance toward Yano standing beside her. "This is Yano Belmont, the current Stone Scion Grand Duke, and also my nephew."

"Stone Scion Grand Duke?" Ivy looked at Yano with interest.

Yano still had his eyes closed and paid her no mind.

Nilly spread her hands. "My nephew here is currently undergoing some sort of... uh, sleep cultivation. Don't mind him."

Ivy didn't press the matter, only smiling slightly. "It seems quite a few interesting things have happened on the mainland."

"But I still have one question."

Her gaze swept across everyone on the deck. "Since the distress signal did make it back to the mainland, who exactly was the one who successfully brought back the news?"

Captain Jack conveniently dragged the overseas Stone Descendant, who had been staring blankly in the shadow of the cabin, up to the deck.

"Oh, you beautiful, radiant young lady, the one you're looking for is right here."

The moment his figure appeared on deck, the watching Stone Descendants stirred into commotion.

"It's Damian!"

"He... he actually did it!"

"Poor Damian..."

Whispers rose and fell among the crowd, some astonished, some emotional, but mostly reverent.

From the fragmented words of these Stone Descendants, Nilly gradually pieced together Damian's story.

It turned out that the Stone-Heart family had quite a few Stone Descendants like him, who left the Sea Vortex to seek help from the outside world in order to find a way out for their family.

But most of them had been affected by Hopkins's spells, their wills warped, turning them into gibbering madmen who never returned.

And Damian, this unknown young Stone Descendant whom everyone had assumed had failed, had actually pulled it off.

He had brought two clans separated by centuries back into contact with one another. A legend like that was worthy of being etched into the annals of Stone Descendant history.

The Golden Lady docked at the shore, and Nilly's group followed the Stone-Heart's Stone Descendants into the island's interior.

The island was far more habitable than it had appeared from a distance. Paths wound through the forest, with edible mosses and fungi growing along the roadside. The Stone Descendants had built low houses from the island's stone, ancient clan emblems carved into the walls.

Upon learning that they had come to rescue them, the Stone Descendants relaxed considerably. Though they still maintained a moderate level of caution, some had already begun arranging food and water, and a few of the elder-looking Stone Descendants gathered around on their own, curiously sizing up these kin from afar.

Along the way, Nilly told Ivy about their maritime experiences and the changes on the mainland.

"Actually, we're not here on behalf of the Belmont family. We came in the name of the Slime United Empire, under orders from Slime Majesty, to render aid to you all."

"...The Slime United Empire?"

The Stone Descendants exchanged bewildered looks, confusion written all over their faces.

If they hadn't misheard, the slime that this mainland Stone Descendant mentioned should refer to those sticky oozes in the caves?

An empire founded by slimes, and mainland Stone Descendants had joined them?

Hell, that sounded like the kind of nonsense you'd only spew after eating some strange mushrooms in the forest.