《Azure Chronicles: Voyage Across The Oddest Seas》


 Chapter 1: The Era Belonging To The Seas

    The callous moon loomed high in the sky, presenting nought but a sliver of its true form behind the gallant clouds shielding it from the world below. The trickles of moonlight cascaded across the vast expanse of the ocean, faintly illuminating its surface as a single orange light drifted across the calm waves. The lonesome galleon gently floated along its path, its metalic wood glistening under the refracting moonlight which mixed with the orange light spilling from within the boat''s gun ports. The galleon''s deck was unoccupied, leaving the mild salty ocean breeze to go unappreciated.


    Zallino, the galleon''s captain, stood at the stern, manning the helm of the unmanned ship, his reflective hand firmly on it, and steering the ship in a perfectly straight line. Zallino stared off into the far distance, his piercing gaze cutting through the expansive darkness and fixed on the divide between the sky and the horizon, his intensity unwavering and unmatched.


    (Zallino is a super tall humanoid kitsune ego, The Path of Acceptance, with the appearance of an adult human male; his entire body is made entirely of slightly liquidy magicsteel[glowing steel], slick-back spikey solid magisteel hair, pale white eyes with glowing white ring-shaped pupils, two large phoenix wings with white tips, and six long phoenix tails with white tips)


    (Zallino''s clothes are all made from his body; he is wearing a tartan-patterned waistcoat, a tailcoat with six buttons, trousers with large white spike patterns running down their sides, and knee-high boots with the top quarter being folded outwards)


    "What''s the point of this ship having a steering wheel, Mr Lino?" Nola murmured sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she scaled one of the side stairs leading to the upper helm area of the deck. Zallino remained stoic, his imposing demeanour going completely over the girl''s head despite the faintest hints of hostility escaping his stoicism.


    "Shouldn''t you be sleeping, as stipulated by your parent''s conditions for you and Master Minia to be on the ship?" Lino replied, turning his head a few degrees so he could visually see the banana-themed pyjama-wearing girl in his peripheral vision.


    (Nola is a rather short seraph[mutant] with the appearance of a thirteen-year-old girl; she has elbow-low royal blue and golden yellow hair, a yellow left eye with flowing blue parts, a blue right eye with flowing yellow parts, tanned skin, pointy elf-looking ears with small ring-shaped ends, and glowing palms/soles)


    "Bad dream," Nola stated boldly with a mild stutter, fuelled by her tiredness. Lino remained silent for just a moment, choosing to remove his hand from the wheel, and crossing his arms as the wheel continued to correct the ship on its own.


    "Logically sound.".


    "So, I can stay up¡ª". A section of the floor beside Nola jetted upwards, snapping the girl fully awake as the extension morphed into a seat, accompanied by a normal pillow fazing up through the chair''s base. The chair''s appearance brought a cheeky, albeit small, grin to the young girl, who sauntered over to the chair and plopped her butt firmly on the pillow. The back of the chair rumbled before a collection of arms emerged from it, brandishing all the necessities for styling hair.


    "Care to share?" Lino asked dispassionately. Nola raised a hand to her chin and deeply hummed in recollection as the hands of the chair worked away at her hair.


    "Just the usual, seeing people dying is all," Nola remarked nonchalantly.


    "But this time was different?". Lino''s question struck a chord with Nola, making her grin falter from the weight of recalling her dream. She leaned to the side, resting her chin on the arm of the chair as she sighed, the hands of the chair continuing to style her hair.


    "Yeah... bound to be when your parents are the topic," Nola admitted softly, a distant gaze in her eyes as she looked up to the metalic kitsune ego. She averted her eyes to the floor of the ship, her mind racing as she became lost in thought. Like the galleon, her mind wandered, filling her with mild amusement which caught Lino''s attention.


    "Something else you wish to say?" Lino asked emotionlessly.


    "Nah, just realising how dumb it was for my brain to think Mother and Father could be beaten by giant gummy bears," Nola remarked cheekily. Her newfound amusement fuelled her mood and revitalised her grin as she swung herself back to a prim and proper sitting position.


    Lino nodded, taking in and mulling over Nola''s words as he shifted his attention back to the horizon. The following silence filled the salty air, the sounds of the waves taking the place of prior conversation. Nola pouted, her lower lip quivering in annoyance as her anticipated reaction from her barber did not come to pass.


    "Mr Lino, can''t you humour me a little?" Nola pleaded, cupping her hands together and pitifully kicking her legs about. But despite her pleas, Lino continued facing onward, his eyes zeroing in on the faint sickly green light far off in the distance. As it became evident the ego wouldn''t respond, Nola slumped into the chair''s arm, forcing it to bend like rubber under her weight. She dramatically sighed, her body going limp like a noodle as she relented, accepting the guy didn''t have an ounce of emotion in his body.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    The squishy, metalic hands of the chair finished their work, carefully pulling away from Nola''s hair. Her once untamed hair, now styled into a large, intricately woven braided ponytail with two smaller ones by its sides. The pouty girl couldn''t help but raise a hand to her hair before running her fingers across it and reluctantly admiring Lino''s handy work.


    "Not bad, not bad at all," Nola purred contently. A small snicker murmured from the base of the right stairs, snapping Nola back to reality and making her turn in the voice''s direction with mirth.


    "Master Minia do reframe from residing on the stairs in the dark," Lino stated calmly, his voice dispassionate but stern. With a startled "eep!" accompanying it, the righthand stairs sprung to life, slowly revolving like an escalator and transporting Minia to the top. Her head slowly crept over the metalic railing, her arms crossed with her cheeks and borders of her gelatin features burning a shade of pink from embarrassment.


    (Minia is a slightly short humanoid [Inky Slime Mutant] mini female oni and kitsune hybrid with the appearance of a fifteen-year-old girl; she has aknee-low spikey mess of inky-textured black and white gelatin hair with faint cyan blob tips, cyan eyes, super dark royal blue skin, and four four foot long ink-like gelatin kitsune tails with the same colours as her hair)


    "How come I''m called Master, but she gets to be Mistress?" Minia asked in a huff, blurting out a random question in a vain attempt to distract Lino from her obvious violation of the bedtime requirement. Lino simply sighed and crossed his arms.


    "I''m starting to think, your parents weren''t being serious with that curfew mandate.".


    "Ya think?" Minia asked in a snarky manner as she hopped onto the metal chair and sat next to Nola.


    "... it was an oversight on my part it would seem," Lino murmured, placing a hand on his chin and mulling over something. However, the gargled clangs of a distant bell drew the trio''s attention, piercing through the weak air like an arrow. The sisters jumped from their shared seat, bouncing off it and landing on Lino''s shoulders. The trio narrowed their gazes, the younger ones filled with concern while the older guy with a glower.


    The ghastly, greenish-grey sailboat sailed in from the horizon, oozing a pale green glow as the droning bell shrieked from its crow''s nest. Its skeletal crew clambered across their deck, their withered bones creaking and cracking with each movement. The pulsing emerald clusters protruding from their bodies radiated an eerie glow, matching the sinister aura permeating the sailboat itself. Lino vaguely softened his eyes as he took in the sight of the skeleton''s tattered leather scraps around their body, the remnants of their long-gone armour, and the rusted swords in their claw-like fingers, the blades of them dulled from their years submerged at the bottom of the sea.


    The skeleton crew''s dire state caused Lino''s defensive demeanour to completely melt away and relax his posture as the two sisters energetically bounced on his shoulders. With excitement exploding from their very souls, the sisters tracked the skeletons, their pupils dilating into feline slits as trickles of mana[wavey energy] seeped out their eyes into a wispy mask; Minia''s a super pale blue in colour and Nola''s a mix of blue and yellow.


    The duo''s mana seeped into the air, its density on par with the salty air itself. Lino knew stopping the duo now would only spell disaster for any nearby islands, especially if he had to restrain both of them by force. However, he did have something to fall back on, a solution put in place by the duo''s mother in the event this very situation occurred.


    "That vessel appears to be a Three-Pearl," Lino stated nonchalantly. His remark only caused the sisterly duo to become even more erratic, knowing without a doubt what Lino was going to say next.


    "Does that mean we can fight them, Mr Lino?" Nola asked pleadingly.


    "Yeah! Can we, can we?! Minia added, her voice erratic and chaotic as she pulled at the guy''s shoulder for permission. Lino didn''t utter a word, his expression unreadable. His silence attracted the sisters'' attention and drew their faces closer to his. They quietly purred at him as their puppy-dog eyes grew with their building anticipation.


    "Chair," Lino commaded firmly, his tone indicating the end of the conversation. The sisters turned their heads in excitement and watched the metal chair as it began to morph; its gelatinous wobbling pulled their attention in even more, its form shifting and contorting until bursting into two bronze cutlasses with the edge of their blades coated in glowing gold.


    Nola and Minia squealed in delight, each snatching one of the weapons with their sticky fingers and fiercely staring at the sheen of moonlight on the blades. Without another word spoken, the sisters raised their cutlasses to the sky before turning heel and booking it for the front of Lino''s galleon.


    "Is letting them fight those sanarui a good idea?" a small voice asked. Lino glanced down in search of the voice, peaking his head around the helm and spotting Zalxelphia in her small spider form standing on the railing surrounding the helm.


    (Zalxelphia is a hamster-sized pink-furred tsugaki[spider with a lot of fur] with two large spider eyes and four smaller ones around each of them, and eight legs)


    "You mean the Juvarui?" Lino asked brashly, brandishing his lack of worry for the situation on his chest. Xelphia slumped her head at Lino''s response, the guy''s lack of interest in anything, especially for the girls'' safety, being too much to comprehend. She could only shake her head at the guy''s absence of an attitude, a palpable sigh escaped her lips as the distant murmurs of Nola and Minia''s planning passed the tsugaki''s ears.


    "That''s not the thing you should be concerned about...," Xelphia grumbled in a huff before crawling away.

 Chapter 2: Skeletal Sailor Skirmish

    As the bell of the ghastly sailboat droned on, the juvarui shambled their skeletal bodies across the decrepit deck of the once vigorous ship. Their bones chipped and flaked with each rugged action, and their heavy steps forced creaks and groans out of the withered floorboards beneath their feet. Their movements were almost robotic, devoid of any higher thought as they mindlessly searched for something with their eyes locked on the sea.


    As the skeletons continued their search, the sisters dropped from above and landed on the bow of the ship; Nola landed with a graceful descent, while Minia stomped her feet aggressively. The duo''s obnoxious arrival caused the juvarui to freeze on the spot, the beedy embers in their hollow eye sockets flickering to life as a newfound malevolence manifested in the skeletons.


    With light green flames seeping from their eyes, the juvarui gradually swivelled their heads towards the sisters, affixing them with a motionless, vigorously intense glare as the once droning bell stunted to a halt.


    As the sole skeleton brandishing a tattered tricorn captain hat raised its rusted longsword to the sky, the three juvarui unleashed a cacophony of distorted warcries, the intensity of their emeralds matching that of the fire in their eyes, before charging at the duo. Minia brandished a sinister, ear-to-ear grin, her expression almost deranged to the point a sane person would question her sanity.


    "Well, well, well, look who decided to grow a backbone," Minia cackled, her gelatin tails spiking up in a frenzied craze as she slammed them against the floor. Her giddy cackles rang through the deck, besting the warcries of the skeletons as she lunged at the approaching skeletal trio.


    In contrast, Nola stood in place, her expression a mix of confusion and mild amusement, as she watched Minia clock one of the juvarui in the head with the flat side of her cutlass.


    "Why''d she have to make a pun...," Nola murmured defeatedly. She brought her free hand to her face, covering her growing blush as she dreaded more of them to come. Minia reeled her cutlass back, the golden gleam of its edge shimmering in the moonlight. The skeletons hurled slashes of their own at Minia. She simply smirked as she took a single hop back to avoid their attack. With the snap of Nola''s fingers, a wave of rainbow mana opened under Minia and she disappeared into the floor before dropping in from above behind the trio.


    Minia hovered in the air for a second, darting her eyes for the perfect opening. With a swift, clean motion, she sliced through all three skeletons in a single move, dividing them neatly in two. The flames in their eyes fizzled out as their skeletal remains dropped to the deck, rattling upon impact.


    Glancing down at the scattered skeleton parts, Minia scoffed, watching as the emeralds on the bones cracked and turned a lifeless grey.


    "Heh, too easy," Minia remarked cockily as she twirled the cutlass by its blade on one of her tail tips. In her hubris, the kitsune was completely oblivious to the pirate captain juvarui marching up behind her. Without making a sound, The captain raised its longsword, the shift in the skeleton''s balance causing the board beneath its feet to release a deafening creak.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Minia widened her eyes, a dread-filled chill crawling up her spine as the tip of the longsword loomed above her peripheral vision. Realising her blunder, Minia aggressively threw her gaze to the floor, her body beginning to shake with frustration and her eyes flickered a glowing pale blue for a split second. The sailboat sharply rocked, minorly diverting the skeletal captain''s attention but it quickly turned back to Minia as trails of mana seeped out of her.


    But before she could fully snap, Minia felt a light jab against the back of her neck. Her limbs went numb, allowing her cutlass to slip through her fingers to clang against the floor as she collapsed. Nola dropped her own weapon, slapping the sides of her temples in utter terror as panic seized her.


    "We''re so dead" Nola uttered pitifully. The juvarui captain briefly stared at Minia, tilting its head, as a looming inhumane silhouette landed behind it without a sound. The silhouette raised a hand to the back of the skeleton''s skull. With a light flick, the juvarui captain''s head was separated from its neck and sent hurtling into the clouds. The headless skeleton shivered, folding like a stack of cards into a pile of bones with the emeralds cracking and decolouring.


    "Lino really is playing with fire, that captain was clearly a four," the topless Zalroth remarked in between yawns whilst holding onto his black, white and grey tartan lounge pants to keep them from falling down.


    He half-heartedly chuckled, imagining the fit Chronia would throw if she were awake right now before covering his mouth in preparation for an impending wave of drowsiness. While mid-yawn, the guy flinched, feeling the sleeping Chronia cling even tighter to his cluster of tail fur and sending ripples of pain through his body.


    (Zalroth is a tall humanoid U.kitsune with the appearance of a young adult human male; he has shoulder-low unkempt silver hair with cyan ends, pale white skin to the point it''s faintly cyan, eight long tails that are double his height with the same colour gradient as his hair, and kitsune ears with the same colour gradient as his hair)


    (Chronia is short, translucent humanoid S.seraph with the appearance of a fourteen-year-old human female; she has long and spikey pale lime and dark teal hair with glowing faint blue clock hand-shaped spots all over her hair, her hair below her neck is styled into a large hoop and tied together at the end by a square-shaped azure blue crystal hoop, pale lime eyes with teal pupils, thick tighs, and pointy elf-like ears)


    Zalroth scrunched up his face, balling up his fists as he fought against the urge to scream in pain and risk waking up Chronia. He lowered his head, falling onto one knee, and lifted Minia off the floor by the back of her pjs as the cutlass merged into a mini Lino.


    "My lord, we''ve arrived at the destination of the ruins," the mini Lino explained emotionlessly. Zalroth sighed, feeling exacerbated at realising Lino used Minia having an outburst to wake him up. His annoyance was only made worse as Chronia smugly giggled in her slumber, signifying her involvement.


    "You two really are..." Zalroth uttered, letting his words trail off as he caught himself. Even with the pain clouding his judgment, he remembered Nola was present and that even uttering a single syllable of his last word would spell his doom. He looked up at Nola, who nervously wrapped her fingers together from being directly stared at while squeezing her legs together.


    "Scoundrels?" Nola quietly asked.


    "Yeah... let''s go with that...," Zalroth said quietly as he staggered to his feet. He directed his gaze to the mini Lino before saying, "I''ll head out in the morning, also deal with this boat.". Mini Lino bowed, his form devoid of errors in execution before Zalroth hopped back onto the galleon with Nola floating after him.

 Chapter 3: Ocean Dive

    Following the emergence of dawn, the sun broke past the horizon, casting the cold clutches of night away to the other ends of the vast, unified ocean. The tranquil ocean began to stir to life from its prior stillness, revitalized and empowered by the sun''s presence. But despite its efforts, the sea could only muster feeble splashes against the hull of Mino''s galleon, not even coaxing a single creak from the ship.


    With the weak and salty breeze blowing against the water, Zalroth slammed the base of his boot against the ship''s side railing, sending shudders through its frame, and managing to rock it off balance for a moment. As he overlooked a spot of the ocean beside the boat, the guy jammed a palm into the side of his neck, resulting in a mild pop from the release of tension.


    (Zalroth is wearing a black sleeveless shirt, baggy black and dark grey tartan trousers with grey buckles on the ends of the legs, muted dark blue steel toe boots, a muted cyan fur coat with eight muted dark blue buckle-like extensions from the back of its collar that reach down to Zalroth''s knees, an azure palimpsest[an azure blue, three-by-three inch hollow square-shaped crystal cylinder with a width of one and a half centimetres] secured to the back of his coat''s collar, and a pearl tag[a parchment-coloured, petal-shaped, and four-inch long metal brooch with a circular hole and small pearls embedded into it{ten azure blue pearls}] attached to the azure palimpsest)


    "You''re getting old~," Chronia remarked teasingly with the occasional snicker between her words. Zalroth scoffed in tempered amusement, tilting his head back to glance back at Chronia as she lay atop a foldable deck chair in a frilly bikini.


    "You''re one to talk," Zalroth remarked, his tone mostly playful before he retracted his kitsune features into his body. Unfazed by her cohort''s retort, Chronia raised a hand to her brow and plucked at her sunglasses, knocking them slightly down her face before leering at Zalroth, respectfully.


    "Hah! Unlike you, my body is at the mercy of my vices," Chronia stated smugly, seemingly proud of herself for her achievement. However, to Chronia''s minor terror, Zalroth only chuckled in response. Curious, Chronia lowered her sunglasses even further, puffing up her cheeks in anticipation of Zalroth''s impending retort.


    "So, you like sleeping as a baby-," Zalroth stated teasingly before a speeding ceramic sink smashed into the back of his head from above. The ceramic appliance shattered on impact, and Zalroth remained unfazed whilst the ceramic shards fell to the deck. The duo slowly glanced down at the new mess before the guy''s feet.


    "Heh... must be a good sign," Chronia remarked chirpily, a faint snicker escaping her lips at watching Zalroth scouring the sky in utter confusion.


    "She wasn''t kidding about locking my luck. What a bra-.". Zalroth was halfway through his jab before a second sink struck him, the strength behind the comically large appliance sufficient enough to send him flying off the galleon and crashing into the ocean with a towering splash.


    "At this rate, I''ll be fighting a sink squid...," Zalroth murmured as he floated beside the ship, sprawled out like a starfish. With a reserved sigh and water streaming off his face, Zalroth conjured an atmosphere magic circle(pale teal mana[wavey energy] circle with a circle encased by a fainter ring). As he peered into the distance, Zalroth scoffed, mildly ticked off but still impressed at Zukia for locking away his Azures without him noticing until now.


    "If you didn''t want her to do it, you shouldn''t have joked with her about it, dumb-dumb!" a feminine version of Zalroth''s voice barked from behind one of the galleon''s slightly ajar windows. Although direct, the girl''s words were layered behind the drumming of her shower, making it a slight struggle for anyone other than Zalroth to hear.


    "It sure sounds like someone''s looking to join the ocean dive quest, Zalina!" Zalroth rebuked amusedly, getting an exacerbated eep from the girl.


    "Are you crazy, I''m literally taking a shower!" Zalina snapped back in a frenzy, ushering frigid steam out of the window and coating it in frost. Zalroth rolled his eyes dismissively and clicked his tongue before his magic circle expanded, fading away as Zalroth began encased in a similarly coloured veil.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Heh, suppose I should hurry, those relics won''t find themselves," Zalroth remarked mentally before a comically small sink bounced against his forehead, "Honestly, those beasts.". With that last sink, Zalroth dived into the dark ocean, allowing the spell he casted to aid his descent to the sea bed.


    "That guy is way too lenient with those kaiso kids. I mean three. Three! Whole sinks, and he didn''t even respond!" Xelphia complained, throwing her arms in Zalroth''s last seen location for extra emphasis as she vented to Zallino. The metalic man simply mimed out a sign, disinterested in the smaller visage''s grievances with the kaiser beasts residing in the crow''s nest.


    "Retaliations hardly an appropriate response for something so minor, Sweetie," Chronia remarked, lazing back and in full sunbathing mode. Xelphia pouted, ballooning her cheeks until they turned red from embarrassment at being called by such a name. Like clockwork, a storm of teasing giggles descended from the crow''s nest, causing Xelphia to turn fully red from shame.


    "Wish to depart for Bridgington, Lady Chronia?" Zallino inquired as a small shadow whipped over him, followed by a loud splash erupting beside and rocking the ship. Xelphia popped her head over the ship''s railings and stuck her tongue out indignantly at the dive-bomber as their watery silhouette sunk into the water after Zalroth.


    "If you would, but try not to ruin my sunb- I mean wake up Minia and Nola by sailing too quickly," Chronia stated, physically flinching as she barely caught herself from revealing her true intentions. Zallino, choosing to ignore Chronia''s barely hidden desire to bask in the approaching sun, silently nodded as the galleon rumbled to life and slowly sailed onwards.


    A few minutes later, the sun rays beamed through the ocean and illuminated Zalroth''s surroundings, revealing the vibrant coral constructs carpeting the sandy seafloor. The kitsune peered around, taking in the sight of the slumbering aquatic cats and the sways of their tails that sent mini ocean currents through the encompassing kelp forest.


    "Must be pretty far down if the sun''s already lighting up the place," Zalroth said jokingly, his voice slightly distorted with a wavey modifier. As schools of sea life passed him by, he raised a hand above his eyes and peered around the lush coral reefs surrounding him, nice to look at but certainly not the sunken temple he was expecting.


    "Why does it feel like I''ve been dropped off at the wrong location, thanks, Zukia," Zalroth uttered as he lowered his hands and placed them on his hips, "At least it''s not a sink squid.". After a few seconds of nothing happening, Zalroth darted his head around before shuddering.


    "Low blow, Zukia. Low blow," Zalroth uttered amusedly, exaggeratedly disheartened that Zukia''s meddling would even mess with his summoning of outlandish monsters trick. As he continued playing up his fake annoyance, Mymbi gradually fluttered herself to the sea floor, falling behind Zalroth as her jacket covered Zalroth''s face and breaking his act to an end.


    (Mymbi is the Thalasso God Kaiser Beast with the appearance of a female, seven-year-old human child; she has four-foot-long pale metalic-looking bronze hair that coils together into the shape of octopus tentacles, vibrant sapphire eyes, tanned-like pale bronze skin, a seven-foot-long chonky metalic-looking pale bronze shark tail covered in sapphire-coloured urchin needles, three tongues, shark teeth, fin-shaped elf ears, coral-looking pale bronze scales on her body[on the back of her palms, back of arms, sides of thighs and legs, and soles of her feet], gills all over her body[six on her neck, three large ones on each side of her torso,] and a giant mouth filled with thousands of razor-sharp teeth where her belly button would be)


    (Mymbi is wearing a slightly oversized vibrant sapphire hooded jacket that reaches her hips with obnoxiously long arms and spikey teeth-looking extensions in its hood, and a purple one-piece swimsuit with a large opening around its midsection)


    "Fancied joining me, Kiddo?" Zalroth asked calmly as the kaiser god yawned with both of her mouths and overly stretched her limbs until they popped


    "Can we get something with jalape?o after this, plez?" Mymbi asked cheerfully without any distortion in her voice. Zalroth hesitated, not from having to consider the girl''s request but from needing to recall what she was even referring to.


    "You mean the thing that went extinct a hundred years ago?" Zalroth asked as he pulled Mymbi''s jacket off his head before tossing it onto its owner. The oceanic being cheerfully pushed her head through the neck of her jacket, blissfully ignoring Zalroth''s question and imagining a spread of dishes using jalape?os.


    However, Mymbi''s spicey daydream was cut short as she snagged her knee on the hem of her jacket, snapping her back to reality and informing her of her impending greeting with the floor.


    "Crud...," Mymbi uttered in utter despair, falling to her knees before smashing her face into the seafloor. For a second, she was physically still, only groaning in frustration as she slapped her tail against the seafloor.

 Chapter 4: Mana Mathematics In A Coral Sprawl

    "Are we there yet?" Mymbi mumbled unamusedly as she wafted from side to side in the water, already fed up with swimming only after a few seconds of doing so. The kaiser beast shot out her tail and wrapped it around Zalroth''s waist, catching his attention and bringing him to a halt from Mymbi tugging him towards her. With her tail secured and anchored to the guy, Mymbi allowed herself to float off the sea floor and hover behind Zalroth.


    Zalroth raised an amused eyebrow at the girl, finding her swift actions mildly endearing, especially with the indent of where she landed mere paces behind her. But, given her effort to minimize the impact she had on his pace, Zalroth decided to leave her be and continued on his way through the coral forest while pulling Mymbi behind him like a balloon.


    "You lot are so impatient," Zalroth remarked smugly as he trotted around the coral reef, gliding through the water like it were air thanks to the veil covering him. Mymbi let out an irritated huff to show her rising annoyance, conjuring a column of bubbles from her two mouths.


    "Less provoking, more running," Mymbi mouthed off. Zalroth silently rolled his eyes at the girl''s instructions which only served to prove his statement.


    "I swear, you lot only picked up that kaiser woman''s ''demanding'' habits," Zalroth commented, shaking his head with conflicted glee. The kaiser beast responded to Zalroth''s comment with an even more irritated huff, her expression contorted into a firey rage as she floated behind Zalroth.


    "..."


    Mymbi murmured a muffled complaint under her breath, her irritation barely covered by the shimmering water. Although ticked off with Zalroth, Mymbi reluctantly held her tongue, refusing to vocalise her retort any louder, hoping Zalroth would be appeased by her silence and pick up the pace.


    However, her mumbles didn''t fall on deaf ears, Zalroth had heard the comment with clear clarity and it got a grin out of him. Catching the guy''s smirk, Mymbi gritted her teeth, almost failing to hold back her temper while her urchin needles shuddered with rage.


    "Alright-alright, I''ll get to it," Zalroth said, adding a cheerful bounce to his tone as he raised a hand. Snapping his fingers, Zalroth directed Mymbi''s attention away from her pouting, allowing her to catch sight of the nine mini mana magic circles swirling over her head. The sight of the mana circles ushered a wave of dread through Mymbi, her two mouths agape at her sudden loss of breath as small bubbles seeped from them and her gill.


    "Right when you decide what method I''ll be using," Zalroth added teasingly, expediting Mymbi''s deflating until she was thinner than paper. Only now did Mymbi fully realise her own impatience had betrayed her, and Zalroth had capitalised on it.


    "Do I have to...?" Mymbi murmured meekly.


    "You want a serious answer?" Zalroth asked calmly. Despite the guy''s use of tone, a shiver ran through Mymbi, surging from the base of her many teeth and making its way to the very tip of her coiled tail.


    "No..." Mymbi replied quietly as she waved a hand and ushered the mini mana circles to reposition themselves before her. Despite being underwater, a sweat drop managed to form on Mymbi''s forehead, not from worry, mind you, but from the sheer mental exertion of trying to recall Zalroth''s comprehensively confusing lesson on basic magic combinations.


    [Mana circles]


    [Fire: a red mana(wavey energy) circle with a flame inside it]


    [Ice: a light blue mana circle with a snowflake inside it]


    [Electric/Lightning: a yellow/cyan mana circle with multiple lightning bolts inside it]


    [Wind: a light green mana circle with a swirl of wind inside it]


    [Light: a white mana circle containing a square with slightly inward curved edges inside it]


    [Shadow: a black mana circle containing a hollow triangle with slightly outward curved edges inside it]


    [Elementalless: a light grey mana circle with a collection of eight small hollow squares inside it that are all arranged into a ring]


    "I prefer kaiser energy...," Mymbi whimpered, wishing she had kept her two mouths shut. As she itched the side of her head, using one of her head tentacles to do so, Mymbi cautiously stared at the mana circles in silence. She methodically went over every combination her brain could muster, delving deep into the depths of her mind while mindlessly tapping on the mana circle with the lightning bolts and flipping it between its two modes.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Want a hint?" Zalroth asked smugly as he hopped over a coral cluster and continued on the sandy path.


    "No! I don''t need any," Mymbi stated, barely speaking above a whisper.


    "If you say so, Smartypants."


    "No... electricity and iron wouldn''t work... I mean it would but I don''t recall the value exponent for iron magic when mixing fire and earth," Mymbi muttered aloud. Whilst increasing the ferocity of her tapping against the electric/lightning mana circle, Mymbi racked her brain even harder but her efforts only managed to rip the first digit from her memory.


    "It''s just its melting point," Zalroth mentioned off-handedly. Without hesitation, Mymbi snapped her gaze to the back of Zalroth''s skull, drilling into it with the intensity of her bubbling annoyance as she gritted the teeth of her stomach mouth.


    "How are you so stupidly smart, enthesis on the dumb," Mymbi spouted, flapping her fin-like ears about as she pointed out she already knew that part. The girl''s pouting brought yet another smirk to Zalroth, refuelling his sense of teasing as he brought a hand to his chin.


    "Oh, I must''ve been mistaken; clearly, you must have been miming it when the others were singing that little song Maaumine thought up," Zalroth retorted. The mention of Maaumine''s song lit up a light bulb in Mymbi''s mind. But as she recited the song''s lyrics mentally, the girl paused, realising Zalroth had circumvented her defences and basically handed her the answer.


    "Stupid," Mymbi mouthed off, with her embarrassment potent to the point her ear-flapping became fast enough to push her head upwards.


    "Whom might you be referring to?" Zalroth asked, feigning a hint of offence as he flicked his hair dramatically. Despite the believability of his tone, Mymbi unamusedly frowned at Zalroth, not buying his stunt for a second.


    "For your info-mato, I was referring to the quest you took," Mymbi declared, pointing and wagging a finger at Zalroth through the sleeve of her jacket. In her frustration, she swiped at the fire and earth mana circles, plucking duplicates out of them before smushing the copied circles together and into a blurry mess.


    Mymbi focused, channelling all of her mental processing power and cyan magical-energy(spikey energy) bestowed to her into the tip of her extended finger. The unified energies combined into cyan mana that phased through the fabric of Mymbi''s sleeve, waving through the water like a radio wave and merging with the mana circle.


    After what could only be described as a gruelling academic exam, in both duration and needless complexity, Mymbi at long last managed to merge the two magic circles, fully converting them into her desired outcome. Even with the few hiccups along the way, most of which stemmed from her abysmal timing, the girl held within her two hands was a perfectly crafted iron magic circle.


    [Iron Mana Circle: an iron-coloured mana circle with a 3D-looking rube inside of it]


    "Hah ha!" Mymbi announced, proclaiming her success for all the coral to hear, not that the colourful creatures cared. As her ears now wiggled from the glee of her completed construction, Mymbi''s focus finally departed from her mana ring combining, allowing her to finally register the blatant horror that Zalroth had, in fact, stopped walking. Using her free hand, Mymbi grabbed ahold of Zalroth''s shoulder, gripping it with unyielding force as she hoisted herself over Zalroth''s shoulder to look the guy in the face.


    "Oi, what''s the hold- huh?". Catching sight of something in the corner of her eye, Mymbi softened her glare as she struggled to keep her focus trained on Zalroth. Try as she might, her curiosity got the better of her, and she whipped her head to the side before being greeted by the ominously massive slope covered by a cover of atmosphere-magic.


    "That sure is deep," Zalroth remarked, pointing out how far the slop descended and even how the bottom of it was visible despite its depth. Mymbi gave Zalroth the meanest side-eye she could muster at hearing his remark, leaving her to wonder how Chronia puts up with it.


    "It''s easy when she likes the things she needs to ''put up'' with," Zalroth declared, his voice snarky as he placed a finger on the girl''s nose and booped it. Mymbi staggered back from the sudden nose boop, turning bright red and getting so embarrassed her tail unravelled from Zalroth, which allowed her to bobble a few paces away.


    "So, she likes you acting dumb?" Mymbi mumbled meekly whilst she fruitlessly tried covering her blushing ears and head appendages with her hands. The girl peered at Zalroth, her blush still prevalent on her face as she burned with embarrassment. With the prolonged stare from the kaiser beast, Zalroth gave a half-hearted chuckle, leaning towards Mymbi and patting her forehead with his index finger.


    "It''s better than her villain phase," Zalroth mentioned awkwardly, visibly cringing as the memories of that era in his life erupted from the depths of his soul and made him shiver. Given what she''s witnessed from him, the sight of Zalroth cringing snapped Mymbi out of her current train of thought, unable to believe the guy was even cognitively capable of such an emotion.


    "I''m starting to think, neither of you are sane," Mymbi said, her tone carrying a hint of remorse but mostly pity. As she passed the iron mana circle to Zalroth, a beaming grin formed on his face when an idea that only could be described using the word radical passed through his mind.

 Chapter 5: Traversal Prep Rendered Mute

    "Are you sure this is a good idea, Mr Zalroth?" Mymbi asked as she peered down the sand slope underneath the thin layer of pale teal mana. Her face still bore a faint shade of red, indicating the embarrassment she felt was still fresh in her mind. Whilst the girl continued snooping at space under the magical veil, Zalroth sat atop a small flat-topped boulder, his legs crossed with one foot on the ground and the other balanced on it by his ankle.


    "You scared of a little sand?" Zalroth teased swiftly. He ran a finger across the base of the iron snowboard he had balanced on his vertical leg. Mymbi swung her head at Zalroth, her blush brightening ever so slightly as she puffed up her cheek furiously. After a short stare-down, she averted her gaze from the guy, unable to maintain eye contact with him as she felt her embarrassment resurface.


    "As if!" Mymbi exclaimed passionately, swiping the kid-sized iron snowboard from Zalroth, and cradling it between her arms and torso like a child protecting their favourite toy. But, as the side of the board coated in a deep blue mana made contact with the kaiser beast, the board frantically vibrated like a captive animal before it swished out of Mymbi''s grasp like a wet bar of soap.


    The iron board shot through the water, smacking Zalroth in the forehead and rebounding off him as if it were made of polyurethane foam. Mymbi silently gasped, watching the iron board slide across the sandy ground until it bumped into her dangling tail.


    "Hmnn. Seems I may have lowered the friction too much," Zalroth mentioned chirpily, acting like he hadn''t just been hit in the face by the iron board. Momentarily stunned by his reaction or lack of one, Mymbi blankly stared at Zalroth, a puzzled expression plastering her face. Before long, she found her shocked expression softening, reduced back to how it was when she was simply blushing.


    "Just... how?" Mymbi asked, her tone fluctuating between bewilderment and disbelief. Zalroth smugly placed an arm on his horizontally rested leg, passing a cheerful grin to Mymbi as he rested his chin in his raised palm with a light huff.


    "Getting stroppy over every little thing gets rather frustrating, don''t you think?" Zalroth expressed swiftly, playfully spinning the mini iron mana circle on the top tip of his boot as he spoke.


    "I suppose so-". Mymbi paused, realisation dawning on her as she registered Zalroth''s jab against her. "I... don''t appreciate your choice of words, Mr Zalroth.". The girl turned her nose up at Zalroth, conveying her contempt for his teasing perfectly.


    As she continued to express her misgivings for Zalroth''s teasing through her body language, Mymbi slowly descended, intending to land on her feet. But, instead of feeling the sandy texture of the sea floor against her coral-plated soles, Mymbi felt the smooth and frigid sensation of the iron greet her senses. Knowing what was to come, Mymbi paused, slumping her shoulders and wrapping her long tail around herself as best she could before the iron snowboard let out a faint buzz.


    "Not a word," Mymbi muttered as the snowboard slowly carried her away, treating the ground like it were ice once more. The board glided over the sea floor, transporting her efficiently with ease. Briefly, the nose of the board dangled over the slope''s precipice, teasing its passenger with the impending drop.


    Not allowing a mere object to insult her pride, Mymbi slammed her foot into the board in frustrated silence. The impact of her stomp jolted it forward just enough to tip the balance over the edge and, before long, she went diving down the slope. She retained fierce eye contact with Zalroth from start to finish, only breaking her focus as she popped through the mana veil covering it.


    Zalroth stared at the spot in the mana veil where Mymbi dropped into, watching it ungulate like a ripple in a lake. He considered making a quip before shaking his head, deciding it wasn''t worth wasting it when Mymbi was in earshot to hear it. He closed his eyes, rocking his head from side to side before letting out an amused exhale.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Can''t let her get too far ahead of me, she''ll hog all the fun otherwise," Zalroth remarked, right before a deafening tremor rippled from below. With yet another, albeit more on the reserved side, exhale escaping from his nose, Zalroth hopped off the bolder and kicked up sand from his boot as he planted them firmly against the sea floor.


    Zalroth trotted his way to the slope, a lax sway in his step whilst the iron mana circle twirled along his path. It bounced and encircled him, its movements reminiscent of an excited puppy demanding its owner''s affection. But as its colouration morphed to match that of steel, the mana circle''s demeanour became less energetic but more refined, before it elegantly planted itself in Zalroth''s azure palimpsest, ready to assist him.


    "Alright. Let''s do this," Zalroth uttered under his breath, his words slightly heavy. He raised his hands, tightly clenching them to psych himself up. But, as he brought his fists back to his side, a reserved presence emerged from the depths of his mind.


    "Yes, Zalina?" Zalroth asked, casting his gaze to the side and side-eyeing it as if someone were there. A bratty snicker rippled through his mind, its underlying sense of mockery freakishly similar to that of Zalroth''s prior teasing against Mymbi.


    "Does that mean I can indulge in the action?" Zalina asked, a snooty flair accompanying her words as a bundle of cyan and pink qi gathered on Zalroth''s shoulder and donned the shape of a miniature eight-tailed kitsune cub


    "If you''re back, I take you''ve found the staff I requested this time?" Zalroth asked sternly, causing Zalina to dart her head away and obnoxiously pout at him.


    "Duh, what do you take me for? As if I''d find the wrong one for the seventy-seventh''s time!" Zalina announced without a hint, cupping her arms together as she locked her tails into defiant crosses.


    "Only took you till a double seven, ey?" Zalroth queried playfully, intentionally using an unserious tone to get on Zalina''s nerves. Even though she knew her originator was intentionally trying to antagonise her, Zalina fell right into his grasp with her fur shooting up into jagged-looking spikes.


    "Well, if all your prototypes didn''t look identically the same, I would''ve found it yesterday. Plus your tail dimension is way too big and the organisation of everything is so wacky," Zalina whined, raising onto her hind legs and kicking at the non-existent dust on Zalroth''s shoulder.


    "You have Deva to thank for that, Mophead," Zalroth mentioned. The small mana being slowly arched her head at Zalroth, moving in short, yet rapid bursts, finding it increasingly difficult to control her mana puppet as the faint sound of a boiling kettle emanated from it.


    "I would get mad at that nickname if it weren''t true," Zalina''s mana avatar grumbled before it abruptly popped into small particles that simmered into the surrounding water.


    "Guess I''ll have to wait for her to cool off-f!". As he was mid-sentence, one of Mymbi''s octopus tentacles burst forth into the water and coiled around Zalroth''s ankle, instantly deoxidizing in a wave the instant it made contact with the water. The tentacle tugged against his leg, gently goading him to hurry up as Mymbi gazed up at Zalroth through the refraction of the mana veil.


    "No need to rush me, Mymbi. It''s not like we''re racing against anyone," Zalroth stated matter-of-factly. Mymbi frowned unamusedly at the guy''s objectively incorrect statement before rubbing at her tentacle hair and leaving an oxidised green smear on it.


    "Unfortunately, the people by the temple would say otherwise... both in the meaning of the phrase and that they literally said that," Mymbi explained jitterly, her voice only mildly distorted as she stood under the ruined temple''s atmosphere mana veil. For a brief moment, Zalroth widened his eyes, mildly surprised at the news before he donned a confident expression born from glee.


    "Looks like I own Nola seven Shulleon," Zalroth muttered merrily whilst rubbing the back of his head.


    "Only seven?" Zalina asked bewilderedly within Zalroth''s mind. The guy couldn''t help but mentally chuckle as he heard Zalina''s innocent question.


    "You were that easy to please once," Zalroth retorted, causing Zalina to audible huff. Almost sensing the incoming quip, Zalina summoned a collection of her mana and congregated it behind Zalroth in a humanoid shape before making it shove the guy. With the sudden shove, plus Mymbi''s grasp on one of his ankles, Zalroth easily lost his footing and bellyflopped face-first into the mana veil which much to the two girls'' dismay forced them to accompany the guy as he tumbled down the mountainous slope.

 Chapter 5.5

    Elsewhere, during Zalroth and company¡¯s sandy tumble, and across the ocean, a sprawling structure of intricately interlocked wood settled at the epicentre of the circular archipelago''s tranquil waters, all hardened and merged into a single entity after years of fossilisation, forming an appearance functionally identical to a natural island.


    The foundation of the connected construct swayed under the influence of the calm ocean waves, rocking the floor of the island''s lone city ever so slightly. The calls of the ocean washed through the petrified floorboards like they were a flute, distilling the air with a calming tune. But, as the tune receded, an exacerbated gasp shot out from one of the sudo island''s many marble buildings. The building in question was sizable compared to the others with a large archway and above said archway was a large stylized sign reading: Voyagers'' League.


    "What you mean he''s on an expedition!" Sunoshuuzaki whined anxiously as she dramatically bounced on her floating sword, stomping her feet into the poor thing like a pouting child. The girl''s whining rippled through the large populated hall of the Voyager''s League, catching the attention of various voyagers but none daring to glance in the direction of the wailing.


    (Sunoshuuzaki is a slightly tall kid-sized half-elf/half-foxiua with the appearance of a fourteen-year-old human; she has neck-low freakishly spikey velvet red hair with muted purple ends tied into a low ponytail shaped like an 8, pink eyes with purple diamond-shaped pupils, tanned skin, furry pointy elf-looking ears on the side of her head, a foot-long super fluffy/spikey velvet red fox tail, and a ruby-coloured marble triangle hovering behind her head)


    (Shuuzaki is wearing a plain sleeveless muted purple shirt, a robe-like hip-low dark purple fur jacket adorned in cutesy pink human skulls, puffy pink shorts with a hooped golden chain on its left side, pink and purple striped knee-high leggings, and oval-shaped birch blocks under her feet)


    (Shuuzaki''s weapon is a comically large broadsword with a thick blade; it has a dark grey marble-looking blade covered in superficial cracks that give it the appearance of being cobbled together from small marble chunks, a royal blue metal handle with hollow diamond-shaped ends, a long tanned-leather-clad handle, and a diamond-shaped royal blue metal pummel)


    "Because unlike some, he''s willing to do jobs unrelated to fighting monsters," Zukia retorted aggressively, perching over the bar counter and bringing herself face-to-face with Shuuzaki. Shuuzaki shuttered and slinked back as Zukia glared her down, the weight behind her eyes sending shivers of terror through Shuuzaki. The once-pronounced girl went silent, taking a shaky step back on her floating sword but her ruffled nerves only allowed her to place the tip of her toes down.


    (Zukia is an exactly eight and a half centimetre tall, half-pixie and half-luevion with the appearance of a young adult female human; she has super long fuzzy green hair with rouge red streaks darted around her hair with it tied behind her head styled to look like a book, a white right eye with a green sclera, a green left eye with a white sclera, tanned skin, a washboard chest, slightly wide hips, large transparent green and red butterfly wings, large transparent green and white butterfly wings, two white vine-like horns on her forehead, fuzzy white bunny ears, and a white rabbit tail)


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.(Zukia is wearing a short classic-styled white maid dress, a rouge red flower face paint on her right cheek, a black one-piece swimsuit, sandals and the chain of her hand-sized book wrapped around her neck)


    (Zukia has a hand-sized pale purple magical book with flat black flowers and a long red qi[particle-like energy] chain attached to the head of the book''s spine)


    "Hey... I''m willing," Shuuzaki murmured with a whimper, slithering back even further away from Zukia''s advance. Zukia gave the girl a single unamused sigh, mustering every bit of restraint she could spare before standing up straight and correcting her outfit.


    "That so? Then you''ll gladly take a recon quest like Zalroth to check out a newly discovered ruin." At the mere mention of new and ruin in the same sentence, Shuuzaki''s tail wagged. She managed to muster a few sways before going still as she made a decision. She swiftly swung a hand to her forehead and snapped into a rigid military salute with a stoic expression.


    "Without complaint," Shuuzaki uttered meekly whilst her tail anxiously wrapped around the guard of her sword, a stark contrast to how the rest of her body portrayed itself.


    "Lovely," Zukia stated calmly. With a minor smugness behind her tone, the pixie gave the fox-elf a playful squeeze to her ears, eliciting a reserved eep from Shuuzaki and destroying any remaining bravado she held. Before her friend could fully recover, Zukia reached into her small book and pulled out a card-sized tile from within its pages.


    "You already assigned me?" Shuuzaki blurted out in a whisper, betrayal affixed to her words. She swiftly plucked the tile from Zukia''s grasp and scoured its engraved quest, the sight of its contents alone caused her to flinch and dread. Her concentration faltered, dragging most of her focus to keep herself from exploding but in doing so she neglected to maintain the stability of her floating sword.


    "Try Chronia," Zukia stated as Shuuzaki spotted Chronia''s stamp of approval over the quest tile. The sight of such a stamp spelt nothing but doom for the foxy elf, bringing her to her knees atop her sword as she clung to her red-tipped ears.


    "noooo.... that means twenty times the paperwork...," Shuuzaki cried quietly as her floating sword touched down on the floor at last, signifying her spirit had been fully crushed and resigning herself to mountains of paperwork.


    [Is three pieces of paper really considered a mountain?]


    [It is when the phrase "dumb as a brick" can''t be applied to them]


    [Glad that doesn''t apply to me]


    [... ... ...]


    [Barely, Nuno]