Never in all my years would I, Mary Regalia, have ever imagined that I’d know what it felt like to be a fastball...and by that, I mean none of us could’ve ever predicted how hard the spirit would lob us, and we all desperately clung onto each other in the water, ensuring that no one would be left behind. Honestly, it was thanks to the fact we could all grab on to Snow that everyone stayed inside the water.
“Mary, I can see Xeoral,” Snow informed me.
I was surprised that she could still laze around outside and gauge her surroundings...but of course, I could as well. Thank you, God. Thank you so much.
The scenery that appeared in front of me was astonishing—it resembled a large turtle swimming (or soaring, rather) through the sky. While the shape of it may have looked like a turtle, there were some parts that made it clearly different from one, and there were portions that made it more akin to a dragon. The island had abnormally large fins that resembled wings, and its tail was that of a dolphin’s. Furthermore, none of those features looked alive—rather than looking like they came from a living creature, they were instead made of stone. The back of the turtle island also lacked a round, smooth shell, but rather was mostly flat, save for the rivers, foliage, ores, crystals, and mountains dotting its surface.
The massive hunk of rock had seemingly emerged from nowhere as it waded toward us. I hope it plans on staying here a while!
As the island drew closer and closer, I became astonished by the sheer scale of the thing...and just as I had that thought, the sphere of water changed its trajectory. We gazed at Xeoral from above for a few minutes before the back of the island drew near. Uh, are we falling?
It was now occurring to me that, in the midst of all my concern about the spirit’s method to send us to Xeoral, I’d never bothered to ask how we’d land. Suddenly, I turned pale. Would we all be unscathed if we just crashed to the ground from this height?
We’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. The spirit definitely thought of that... As if! No he didn’t! How in the world could I trust someone like him?! I was all but certain that a spirit like him was completely incapable of thinking about anything except for what was right in front of him—he’d probably only focused on sending us to Xeoral and nothing else. I could practically imagine him giving us a proud thumbs-up at his job well done.
Speaking of which, it looked like Tutte and the others were scrambling to get some air. I suspected that the oxygen we’d been given was beginning to run out, and I didn’t have much time to think of a plan. We should break this sphere and land.
“Snow, could you burst this water orb open for us?” I asked.
“I can, but we’re midair, so we’d have to brace ourselves for an awkward landing,” Snow replied.
“Better than us crashing to the ground in the orb or running out of air. My apologies to the Spirit Express, but I think it’s best we cut our ride short.”
I gazed at my friends. Those who could still breathe a little nodded back at me and understood what I was trying to do as they grabbed Sacher and Safina, who couldn’t use floating magic. Tutte, in turn, grabbed Noa, who herself had Lily in her arms, and I wrapped my arm around Tutte’s waist.
“Snow,” I said. “We’re r—”
Just as we braced ourselves for landing and I called out to Snow, I snapped my mouth shut when I felt a shudder down my back. I reflexively turned toward the direction we were soaring toward.
“Nike!” I roared. I’d never seen him before, but every fiber of my body told me that we were now face-to-face.
Nike flashed me a creepy smile. Were we in his range of attack? He pointed at us, then three large stakes appeared around him before they shot out straight for us. I didn’t have time to chant a spell, and tried to rush in front of my friends to protect them.
“Howling Blast!” Snow shouted, emitting a mighty roar before I could act.
All she could do was slightly change the stakes’ trajectory, and they made contact with our water orb. Snow’s roar and the stakes burst our bubble.
“Tutte, hang on tight!” I shouted.
As everyone was thrown off-balance from the impact, we all scattered in separate directions. Luckily, we were all prepared to float in the air, and we could easily land without issue. I reached out to Tutte, who was beside me, and secured her, but Noa slid out of her grasp from the impact and hurtled to the ground. It’s because I stepped away from her!
“Snow, take care of Tutte!” I felt a touch guilty, but used Snow as a platform to jump off and fly to Noa.
“Noaaaaa!” I shouted.
I reached out to Noa, who still had Lily in her arms, and I still had time before we hit the ground. I knew I could catch up, and I was relieved that she was still conscious. I couldn’t help but smile...but the grin soon vanished from my lips when a shadow loomed behind her.
“You have my thanks for delivering such a fine sample,” Nike said.
It didn’t look like he’d chased after her with me—he’d appeared out of nowhere before he grabbed Noa’s arm.
“Nikeeee!” I bellowed. I grabbed thin air as Noa was pulled out of my reach and I hurtled through the air. Nike had vanished with Noa in tow. I’ve never seen that spell before either! The stakes he’d summoned earlier were a mystery, but when he also managed to use a teleportation spell, I became painfully aware of my lack of knowledge and ignorance. I clenched my fist in frustration. My mind was a muddled mess, and I didn’t know what to do...until a soothing voice echoed in my heart, showing me the light.
“My lady!” Tutte cried. I snapped back to reality. She was gazing at me worriedly atop Snow’s back, and I forced myself to crack a smile.
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’ll bring Noa back soon.” I was really saying it more to myself than to Tutte, and I repeated it several times in my head.
I turned to the land below me. I wasn’t sure if it was just good timing, but I only had to head straight down to set foot on the island.
“Is everyone else safe?” I asked.
“W-We’re okay!” Magiluka said.
Despite the confusion, she’d managed to support Safina and report that all our friends were safe. Everyone else then began to join me in flying down onto Xeoral, the legendary island. Despite its respectable size, the maybe-actually-a-living-creature island was remaining skybound.
“So, this is Xeoral...” Emilia said with narrowed eyes. She flew around to confirm everyone’s safety before she approached me. “We’d heard stories from our mother, but this gives off a rather different impression from those.”
I recalled Queen Belletochka’s song when we’d first told her about this island. She’d said it was a paradise of the sky made by God, a legendary place of abundance that would satisfy anyone...but the land before us was desolate and abandoned. The foliage was brown and dying, the lake and river in the distance looked murky, and some sources of water had completely dried up. The song had also mentioned that there were plants we’d never seen before and legendary creatures roamed the land, but we weren’t seeing anything like that. It was a far cry from what we’d heard, to be certain. They really don’t make paradises like they used to, huh?
A few minutes after the Nike debacle had ended, we’d finally managed to touch down. The soil beneath my feet was dry and crumbly, barren and devoid of life.
“Maybe the only thing more shocking than this floating island is the state it’s in,” the prince said. “What’s going on? Did something happen here?” He glanced around, but none of us had an answer for him. It reminded me of the sorry state of nature in my past life—places lush with greenery and verdure would be stripped bare without a second thought when factories and other businesses were to be built nearby.
“This ecosystem must’ve once been rich with vegetation,” Orthoaguina observed. “If you take a look at the dead trees and shrubbery nearby, you can see animal bones hidden underneath, weathered by time. Each of them are quite ancient and worthy of research, though the poor state of the remains likely wouldn’t allow for much investigation.”
“Argh, that’s such a waste,” Sita cried sorrowfully. “How could they do this? This could’ve been an excellent resource for us!”
While we were too busy shocked by our environment, Sita and Orthoaguina were inspecting all around them.
“This place used to be rich with mana, but it all got condensed into one area,” Snow said with a low growl. “I suspect that construction over there is to blame.”
I followed her gaze and saw a temple of sorts erected on the corner of a mountain.
“Is mana being collected at the temple?” I asked. Everyone else looked toward where I was staring and began to scrutinize the temple.
“If so, there’s a high probability that the Argent Armor and Nike are in there,” the prince said. “Noa and Lily too, most likely...”
“I don’t see any other structures nearby,” Sacher added. “Since Nike personally came to greet us instead of the armor, it’s safe to say that Lady Mary wiped out all the suits.”
I nodded.
“Nothing good will come from staying here and pondering,” Emilia declared. “How about we all go and file a complaint or two about the rude welcome that we received? Noa’s surely waiting for us as well.”
I held back my desire to simply rush forward and tried to feign composure. “Yes, let’s go.” I led the way to the temple, and my friends quickly chased after me.