Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"That is unusual considering your usual choice of treating everyone like we are made of glass," Leiah furrowed her eyebrows.

"That is only because I don’t know when we will be away… I am planning to leave the golems behind to guard the mountains and scare the beast people," Rain explained. "To make sure that I won’t miss anything and do anything too reckless, it will be better if you come as well… I might try to rush things if I don’t know the situation here."

Everyone nodded… Rain was a worrywart through and through. Besides, they liked that idea… they wanted to see the end of that messy situation and finally have the chance to live in peace again. They also wanted to be sure that Rain wouldn’t return all messed up.

The whole group slowly made their preparations for the trip, but Sender was taking his time to come up with the sea emperor’s answer. At least they had time to work on making the business have enough stock of everything… Rain also used some of his money to buy more potions. He had a large stock, but he was going to move with a lot of people, so he needed more.

After one week, everything was ready… but they didn’t get any news from Seadir. In the end, Rain spent another week increasing the size of his tunnel and he ended up connecting the capital to half of the path toward Teria… but in the end, that had been a waste of time.

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"My apologies, as I had expected, convincing all of our supporters to accept your conditions took a while," Seadir suddenly showed up looking exhausted. "We are ready to go."

"Isn’t things on the sea completely under your father’s control?" Branden asked.

"It is, but he isn’t a tyrant… unless someone annoys him," Seadir looked away. "Anyway, he isn’t good at talking others down either, so making everyone do as he wanted without fussing takes a while. Anyway, we can go, but the only condition on our side is that you need to fight and stay with us all the time."

"... Was that something that your father asked?" Rain asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"... No," Seadir said while looking away again.

It seems that the sea folk politics were a pain as well, even though Seadrei had been their ruler for five hundred years, even though he was also respected. His usual modus operandi was difficult.

"That is fine, we will enjoy the cruise," Rain said. "I hope that you aren’t planning to make us swim the whole time and underwater as well."

"Only if you can," Seadir said while smiling. "We won’t hold back this time, so we are going all out to end this chapter in our story as soon as possible."

Esmeralda wasn’t very comfortable considering what she had heard, but she knew that the sea emperor wouldn’t go back to his world, she also knew that Rain and the others wouldn’t let him if anything happens and he changes his mind… Still, those possibilities began to worry her quite a bit.

The next day, the group headed to the port town and met with Orcis and Lorene. Julie wanted to go as well, but it would be difficult if only Rain’s workers were to manage the business.

It would have been easier if they just could wait for their escort in the port town, but that was an incognito job, so they flew over the ocean for a while and then stopped when they found something stupid waiting for them.

The group stood in utter disbelief, their voices stolen by the surreal sight before them. An entire island, unmistakably adrift in the vast expanse of the ocean, moved with a slow and deliberate pace. Rain’s gaze, amplified by the Magic Eyes, confirmed his suspicion that some colossal creature was indeed propelling the island through the waters.

Rain moved closer, drawn to investigate the mystery that held the island in motion. As he approached, the unimaginable truth slowly unveiled itself: the mountainous terrain dominating the island’s center was not merely a geological formation. Rather, it was a colossal fin belonging to an enormous creature hidden beneath the ocean’s surface.

The revelation dawned on him as he caught sight of the colossal being: a gargantuan, azure-hued shark of giant proportions. Stretching an astonishing ten kilometers in length and boasting a width of one kilometer, the behemoth effortlessly navigated the ocean depths, carrying the island upon its back.

The sheer scale of the creature left Rain and the others awestruck, their minds struggling to comprehend the magnitude of the living titan that effortlessly bore the weight of the island.

"How are you planning to make your friend reach the middle of the land?" Rain asked.

"You will see," Seadir grinned.

Seadir and Seara were waiting for them on the Island with a bunch of other sea folk. Sirenus and Coraline were there, but the sea emperor wasn’t. In any case, Rain could tell that he soon would find a lot more people since the sea folk were planning to show off their might for the first time in a while to get rid of the enemies and make everyone think twice before they pick a fight with them again.

When the giant shark began to move, everyone aboard soon had to fight against the powerful wind against their faces. The creature was moving quite fast, after all… there was a small forest behind them, so some people used the trees as shields.

"We are going to meet with your father and his generals ahead, do you want to share your battle plans only when we arrive there?" Seadir asked.

"It is fine either way, I suppose you can give me your opinion about what your people would think of this," Rain said. "We are going to mind redefine the borders between the magic people and the human country. I was imagining that it would take a few days to open another waterway and seal the escape routes of the human army, but with people here helping, it shouldn’t take that long."