Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 710 - 712

But it didn't stop.

Vaelin moved in a blur, his blade flashing as he leapt toward the thing's head. The steel met flesh, then bone, then nothing.

The blade went straight through, as if the creature wasn't entirely solid.

"Shit," Mira growled. She spun, grabbing one of the harpoons from the side of the ship, and hurled it with all her strength. It struck true, embedding deep into the beast's shoulder.

The creature barely flinched.

And then, it opened its mouth.

A deep, suffocating void stretched within, something darker than the sea, something that seemed to swallow the very air around them.

And then, it pulled.

Jude felt it immediately. A force, dragging at him. At all of them.

The void wasn't just pulling their bodies. It was pulling something deeper. Something inside them.

Jude struggled, planting his feet against the deck, but the force was relentless. He could see the others fighting against it, Vaelin, Mira, Eldara, all of them resisting. But the crew,

One of the sailors let out a strangled scream as his body jerked forward. His skin withered in an instant, his eyes turning to empty sockets as something invisible was ripped from him. His body collapsed into dust.

Jude's chest tightened.

It wasn't just consuming them.

It was consuming their souls.

He had to do something.

The fire inside him raged, desperate, but he hesitated. It had failed before. Would it fail again?

No.

He wouldn't let it.

With a snarl, he let the fire explode outward, not as an attack, but as a shield. The golden flames surged around them, wrapping the ship in light, pushing back against the creature's pull.

The void shrieked.

Jude felt the force weaken. Just slightly.

But it was enough.

Vaelin moved in a blur, his blade flashing as he struck again. This time, something changed. The moment his sword connected, it ignited, the fire clinging to the steel as if recognizing an ally.

And this time, when the blade cut,

The creature screamed.

It reeled back, its decayed body shuddering. The glow in its empty eyes flickered. The void within its mouth wavered.

Jude didn't hesitate.

He pushed harder.

The fire burned brighter, surrounding them fully.

The creature let out one last, ear-splitting wail,

And then, it collapsed.

The void imploded, sucking the remains of the beast into nothingness.

The sea went silent.

Jude exhaled shakily, his body trembling from the effort.

The ship rocked gently as the unnatural waves settled. The sky above remained twisted, the stars still wrong, but for the moment, the immediate danger had passed.

Mira let out a breath. "What the hell was that?"

Vaelin wiped the blood from his blade. "A guardian."

Jude swallowed. "A guardian of what?"

Vaelin's expression was grim.

"The thing we just barely survived?" He turned toward the horizon.

"It was the least of our problems."

The ship pressed forward, its wooden hull groaning under the weight of unseen forces. The sea of blackness stretched in every direction, its unnatural stillness disturbed only by the occasional ripple from something moving beneath. The air was heavy, thick with something that wasn't quite mist, wasn't quite magic, but something in between. The crew barely spoke, their breaths shallow, their eyes scanning the horizon as if expecting another horror to rise from the depths at any moment. The silence between them felt heavier than the weight of the battle they had just survived.

Jude's hands still tingled with the remnants of his fire. He flexed his fingers, feeling the warmth pulse beneath his skin, but it was different now. The power had always felt like his, like an extension of himself, but after that thing had spoken to him, after it had claimed to know what he was, he couldn't shake the feeling that the fire wasn't just his own anymore. It had recognized something. Or maybe something had recognized it.

Mira leaned against the railing beside him, her arms crossed, her face still etched with the frustration she hadn't voiced. She had been staring at him on and off since the battle, waiting for him to offer an explanation he didn't have. Jude didn't look at her. He wasn't ready for the conversation.

Eldara stood near the mast, her fingers moving absently through the air as she traced unseen symbols, her magic crackling faintly in response. Jude didn't know if she was preparing a spell or simply seeking reassurance that her power was still hers to control. Vaelin, as always, stood at the edge of the deck, staring into the distance, his sword resting against his shoulder like he expected something worse to come.

The ship drifted through the vast nothingness of the sea, and then,

It stopped.

Not suddenly. Not violently. But in a way that felt wrong. The sails were still full. The wind still carried them forward. And yet, they weren't moving. The ocean had become something else beneath them.

Mira noticed it first. "Uh, why aren't we moving?"

Jude's stomach clenched. He stepped forward, peering over the edge of the ship. The black water no longer rippled. No longer moved. It was solid. Not ice, not stone, but something in between. The ship was resting on it as though it had landed on an invisible shore.

Eldara's fingers stopped moving. "That's not right."

Jude took a slow breath and reached out with his fire. A small flame flickered to life in his palm, its golden glow flickering in the darkness. He let it drop toward the water,

It vanished.

Not snuffed out. Not extinguished. It simply ceased to exist.

Mira swore under her breath. "That's new."

Vaelin knelt down, pressing his fingers against the strange surface. He frowned. "It isn't magic. At least, not in the way we understand it."

Jude didn't like the sound of that.

The air shifted.

Jude didn't hear anything, didn't see anything, but he felt it. The weight of something watching. Something waiting. The same feeling he'd had when the voice had spoken to him, but this time, it was different. Closer.

And then,

A shape emerged from the darkness.