The western shores of Aicenith greeted the group as they prepared to leave the continent. They had never intended to stay for long- and as cultivators, two years had not been particularly long for them. Their goal had been completed- making sure that others at least knew about the coming invasion. Now, they would be as prepared as they could be.

Now it was time for everyone to return home… except those who had died, and a few rarities who wished to stay. Chikere was one of those, though she had no wish to break off ties with the others. There was simply more world for her to explore.

More permanent relationships were planned to be set up, but a rarely traveled sea route full of danger wasn’t a great long term solution. The Twin Soul Sect had some method, but the information was incomplete. They didn’t like to leave behind records, and even much of the Whispering Watcher’s archives kept as much information about them as possible secret.

But further efforts in that direction would be fully carried out by the people of Aicenith. The cultivators from the continent they called Brogora had already caused enough disruption to the local stability- even though ultimately it should be to their benefit, it was easy to overstay the welcome.

Commodore Visser hadn’t simply stayed in port with his fleet, but involved himself in traveling up and down the western coast. But eventually, everyone returned to Blackstone Harbor where they would retrace the steps of their previous journey. Though there had been serious dangers on their previous passing of the route, they had no guarantee there wouldn’t be something worse elsewhere. Their current goal wasn’t to refine the route, but simply to return home.

-----

Given the experiences from the previous trip, the Azalea and Skylark were repaired and fortified to deal with the troubles particular sorts of beasts would cause. The cultivators could deal with direct attacks on themselves, but the ships were vulnerable. Besides the flagships, the others received minor upgrades of their own. That allowed them to get by relatively unscathed, though there were always times the ships got damaged by beasts or storm.

A larger supply of materials to refit the ships had been brought, but the fleet still would prefer to restock along the way. That meant spotting islands with natural resources, but there had hardly been any on the route before. But there had been one island. It was slightly inconveniently located on the first half of the trip instead of the latter half, but the Paradise of Thirteen Hills had sturdy trees for lumber as well as plenty of wild plants to eat, and even some medicinal herbs. They didn’t currently need it, but replenishing some of their stocks would be nice. Most importantly, they wanted to confirm the location of the island.

Grand Elder Kseniya consulted with Visser in his cabin. “So,” Kseniya said cautiously. “These charts you have made, how accurate are they?”

Visser frowned. “I will admit they are not perfect, given the circumstances, but they should be accurate within ten or twenty kilometers. It’s only a few hours until sundown. We can look again, but nothing should have gotten us far off course since last night. I can feel the currents, after all.”

“I trust what you say to be accurate… which is why I have to say that the island is gone.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“It was not insignificant in size,” Kseniya replied. “And it is not anywhere within fifty kilometers of it. Thus, it is gone.”

“Could there perhaps be a concealing formation on it?” Visser questioned.

“That is not my area of expertise, but to my understanding… it wouldn’t be sufficient. I don’t sense the ocean floor within a kilometer of the surface anywhere. And I’ve had ample time to go over the area, again and again. It’s gone. But I don’t know what could cause an island to disappear.”

“Perhaps the island itself had a natural formation that distorted the view of the stars?” Visser frowned, looking down at the records. “But each day seems to match within a sensible margin of error.”

“I’m not saying you have to know,” Kseniya shrugged. “But I will say unless you have methods that surpass my own, we likely won’t be finding it. Instead of sailing around for a few days, we should simply move on.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Visser said. “People were looking forward to it. What should we say?”

“Why not the truth? It’s some sort of disappearing, phantom island. People might be disappointed not to return, but learning we had the fortune to stumble upon a mystery island when we most needed it… that’s something to talk about, at least.” Kseniya shrugged, “And this time we don’t need it. So it’s fine, right?”

“I suppose so,” Visser admitted. “It’s a shame though, because I was looking forward to a small bit on land.”

-----

The journey continued as it had before, with scattered beast attacks and semi-frequent storms. It was almost something that the cultivators could consider routine now, but except for the professional sailors among them it was hard to feel entirely comfortable. This wasn’t their home, it was just a journey to bring them back.

The general mood dropped, not just because they had missed the Paradise of Thirteen Hills… but because they were approaching the area that caused them to need it. The world seemed to agree with the general sentiment of the passengers, as clouds darkened in the sky. By now everyone knew that storms attracted beasts towards things on the surface, and they prepared for attacks.

Anton held his bow, not the one that was half sword but his much more normal one. Though the ability to have wider attacks was valuable in some circumstances, the extra drag it caused in the water was immense. He could overcome it to still be somewhat effective, but he’d learned enough about firing into the water that his normal shots were better by far. In fact, fighting aquatic beasts was one of the best use cases for Spirit Arrows with the properties of light- water hardly restricted the motion of such arrows. Though he did find that there were some oddities when the arrows entered the water.

The first beasts to approach were a few squid and longnosed shipwreckers. They had never bothered to determine what the beasts gained from the attacks, even theoretically, but part of it must have been related to invasion of territory.

With a journey and a half under their belt, it wasn’t just Anton that was more proficient at fighting underwater but the others as well. Swarms of beasts were simply no match for them, and they even handily dealt with the tiny hulleater barnacles. Those were creatures that the professional sailors dealt with in other places. They wouldn’t immediately cause any damage, but they would latch onto ships and eventually eat holes straight through. Killing them before they got a firm hold was best, but the fleet also did daily sweeps for damage to the ships or anything sticking to the hulls. As cultivators, they didn’t have to worry about performing such removals in a drydock- they could sense and even manipulate things from the top of the deck, if they took the effort.

A great bolt of lightning struck between the ships. Though none among their number counted themselves as formation masters, there were some who were proficient in such techniques that had helped organize them so that the lightning bolts would be less likely to strike their masts. That was good, because otherwise they had to anticipate the strike and have someone sacrifice a large chunk of their energy to stop it. Lightning preferred to strike the highest target, more or less, but there were ways to manipulate it. As the storm grew worse, protecting the ships became more important.

Then the warning came. Kseniya was the first one to detect it, but even as the announcement was being distributed through the fleet others began to pick out the power of the giant creature rising from the depths. The kraken had returned. It was swiftly apparent it was the same one, as many of the limbs were mangled- but it seemed to have grown more in their place, along with its grudge.

One of the smaller ships in the fleet was the first target, a great tentacle wrapping around it. Having some experience with it, the crew and passengers worked together to destroy the offending limb before the ship was crushed. Even so, a few boards were snapped, and a mast was thrown off kilter.

What followed was a mad battle with the sea and the sky, fending off lightning as well a the great limbs of the kraken. Attacks were launched on the creature both underwater and at whatever rose into the air to destroy their ships. Smaller tendrils wrapped around individual cultivators to varying levels of effectiveness based on their cultivation.

Anton’s new bow found its place when limbs came for the Azalea. They were nearly uncountable so he obviously couldn’t deal with them all alone, but he shot arrows that became like blades, cutting wide gouges in the tendrils, and sometimes severing them. The additional Spirit Bows floating around him were used for the smallest tendrils that were primed to attack individual people, as the larger limbs didn’t care if they had a finger sized hole all the way through them. He could allow his arrows to detonate inside a target, but there was mixed success with that- and the possibility of collateral damage with so many others involved.

The Azalea still carried elder Adelina, whose ability to freeze the tentacles- even for a moment- allowed the forward flagship to mostly defend itself. In the rear aboard the Skylark Sarka’s flames burned hot and bright- but did not burn anything she didn’t wish to. But despite the fleet’s prior experience with the kraken, it also had experience with them. Considering the battle with the Whispering Watchers had resulted in not-insignificant numbers of fatalities among them, it was hard to say they were winning. And unlike the last time, it didn’t seem the kraken intended to withdraw to save its life.

“Just keep fighting!” Kseniya shouted. “We can do this!”

Anton agreed… but he wondered what Kseniya was doing. She wasn’t the sort to bother with morale. Not usually, anyway. Then he sensed it. The vast majority of his focus was on the giant death monster below them, but some things were hard to miss. He wouldn’t fail to notice lightning strikes around the Azalea, and he also wouldn’t fail to notice an island approaching.

Of course, it wasn’t just any island but a familiar one. Or rather, a familiar creature that apparently had never been an island in the first place. But the pieces clicked together in Anton’s head, and now he remembered why the turtle soup had tickled his brain. A turtle shell had a fairly regular pattern of humps, which didn’t change among varieties. Thirteen, to be exact.

Anton really hoped it didn’t eat people. They might have more than a handful of Life Transformation cultivators among them, but they couldn’t handle an island sized turtle on top of the kraken.

But he didn’t have to think about it for long, because turtles were fast. When they wanted to be, at least. A giant wave splashed into the fleet, pushing some of the ships dangerously close to each other and disturbing their careful arrangement. Yet it was worth it as the creature dove down and started chomping at the kraken.

The kraken’s tentacles pulled away from the humans and began to wrap around the turtle. There was a brief moment of hesitation from the fleet before they made the choice to focus on the assault. With the kraken mostly distracted, brave souls leapt into the water to try to attack the main body while those like Anton with attacks that were just as good from afar did their best to cover them from the stray smaller tendrils and the occasional other beasts who were still in a frenzy.

Nobody knew if they would have to fight the turtle or not, but at least for the moment they could take out a dangerous foe… and everything else could be determined afterwards.