Chapter Twenty-One

Elysia pushed the throttle all the way forward, but instead of the expected thrust, the engines struggled to respond. A glance out the back showed dozens of elemental ships gaining on them. She waved Eva toward the steering wheel, then turned to leave, but a hand stopped her.

With one hand on the steering wheel to keep the sluggishly moving Umbra steady, Eva pointed at a box mounted on the wall to the left of the door leading to the kitchen. “Open the box and feed some electricity into the crystal. In case we had an engine failure, I had an override installed. I doubt it would handle your lightning long, but it should buy us some time. It might even jumpstart the diesel engines.”

She nodded her thanks, then flipped open the box to find a dim crystal inside. Connected to the crystal were several wires running downward. Just one look at them told her they weren’t the typical copper wires. They were probably some dungeon metal. At least she hoped they were, otherwise they would melt down instantly. Eva was probably right about this not lasting long. Even if the wires handled her lightning, she doubted the motors would for a long. Was it worth burning out the motors for a short-term gain?

At the idea of propulsion, she glanced back at Eva, hand hovering in front of the crystal. “What about the sail? Are they functional?”

Eva winced. “Maybe. I never tested them, but in theory the system should be functional. At least it was before the latest damage. If given enough time, I should be able to rig something to make them work, even if the control panel fried.”

In other words, she needed to buy her enough time to get them up and running. “Please prioritize the sails if we find an opening. I’m not sure how long the motors will last, but if we don’t do something, they will catch us.”

Another glance out the back told her a couple of the elemental ships closed the gap to about eight hundred meters.

The odd thing was, they weren’t attacking yet. She was sure they could, but for some reason, they weren’t. If she were them, she would’ve sunk the ship right away. Even if they wanted to capture them alive as they should know as elementals, they had no problem surviving in water.

Her eyes widened as she came to a realization. Actually, that might be a bad idea. Sereia out swam them for thousands of kilometers and she doubted Ione was much slower. If they had to, they could easily escape, but that would mean leaving behind Umbra and the humans.

No, they would escape with everyone.

She pressed her hand against the crystal and focused inward. With the control of a single-strand she attempted to split it. It resisted, but a single strand was no match for her control. However, the resulting halves were volatile, as if some balance broke. They wiggled violently in her control, but with half the power of a single-strand they couldn’t break free. Still, their volatility gave her worry. She knew some electronics didn’t handle dirty electrical signals well. It was probably better to send a single-strand and hope for the best than an uneven half strand.

Going with her gut, she released her control of the two halves, letting them returned to her core. Now was not the time to use untested lightning. She would need to do some testing later. If later ever came.

While praying to whoever would listen, Elysia fed a single strand down her arm and into the crystal. Said crystal sparked to life, shining like a mini sun as sparks of violet lightning traveled down the wires. Afraid to overpower the crystal, she removed her hand and crossed her fingers it would work.

A moment later, Umbra jerked, then rocketed off far faster than it ever had before. With ease, they pulled away from the elemental fleet, but only seconds later she spotted smoke billowing out of Umbra’s rear. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was hope the motors held on for long enough.

To take her mind off it, she nudged Eva away from the steering wheel. “Please try to get the sails working. I don’t think the motors have much longer.”

The girl jumped to action. She grabbed a toolbox from the compartment under the couch and opened another panel to the left of the still open lightning override crystal.

Umbra’s bow lifted despite her weight as she cut through the ocean with Elysia’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. The ocean buffeted the hull, causing Umbra to jerk from side to side, but Elysia maintained the course southward.

Despite telling herself she wouldn’t focus on the motors on the verge of failing, Elysia found herself glancing behind her. The elemental ships were barely visible, whether that was because of distance or the cloud of smoke billowing out of Umbra, she wasn’t sure.

Fortunately, Umbra seemed to be holding steady at above her normal top speed. Every couple of seconds she glanced behind her, finding the cloud of smoke grew thicker each time. At this point, she couldn’t even see the elemental ships, but she was sure they would catch up if they stopped.

Eva had held a tablet connected to the panel Elysia assumed controlled the sail system. With the sails be enough to stay away from the elementals? Supercharging the engines seem to be, but she knew that was a short-term solution. It was a miracle they lasted as long as they were.

The smoke was probably visible from Portland if it still existed. She half hoped it didn’t, but that was pre-system Portland. They may have cleaned up their act after the system came. Not that she had any optimism they could.

As long as they didn’t turn into some crazy country like up north, she’d be happy to take a pit stop. If Umbra even made it that far. Without the speedometer working, there was no way of telling exactly how fast they were going, but compared to the previous max speed, they had to be going double.

The temptation to check out what was going on below deck needle in but with Eva busy, she had to stay at the steering wheel. What if Umbra veered toward the shore?

Fortunately, a few seconds later, Eva sprang up from her crouch and did a little excited wiggle.

With an exaggerated motion, she brought her finger down on the screen, causing a hum to sound from behind the wall, barely audible over the high-pitched whining of the tortured motors propelling them forward.

The hum stopped with a clunk, probably fully extended, then Eva ran her finger side to side on the screen as if to control something. A smug smile formed, meaning whatever she tested succeeded.

With confident strides, she approached Elysia and shoved the tablet into her face. The tablet displayed an animated sail, which Eva controlled with the sliding of her finger.

Elysia gave her an encouraging smile, which seemed to be enough gratification as Eva preened at her success. Then a moment later, she hip bumped Elysia away from the steering wheel and grasped it herself with the tablet resting on the dashboard within easy reach.

Without looking back at her, Eva waved toward the door. “The others need your help below deck. Frankly, it is a miracle those three kept us afloat with all the damage. If it wasn’t for some system fuckery, we would be at the bottom of the ocean.”

Not needing to be told twice, Elysia dashed out the door and down the steps or at least tried to, as halfway down there was nothing but water. Her eyes widened as she continued.

When she reached the bottom of the steps, she scanned the murky water, spotting a mermaid and cat fish shooting around the submerged interior with Joe helping where he could somehow capable of breathing underwater.

Her eyes narrowed as she realized the only possibility was a bit of thievery, but she put it out of her mind as there were several more pressing concerns.

The first of which was a handful of gaping holes in the hull. Unlike the cracks that nearly sent her to the bottom of the ocean just outside Port Alberni, she could stick her arm through these.

While Joe tried his best to stuff blankets in the holes, Sereia’s veins glowed brightly as she expelled water. Unfortunately, it was all just prolonging the inevitable as with every hole Joe plugged, another one broke open, causing water to gush in. Even with the extra boost from Ione who helped expel water, it was a losing battle.

They were so busy that they didn’t notice her approach until Elysia gave a hand to Joe. Sereia’s head jerked in her direction, then sent a flurry of images while pointing at a pile of scrap metal from unknown origins. Its proximity to the storage room meant it was probably one of Eva’s random purchases, or at least what was left of said purchase.

The images told her to melt the metal and stick it over the holes, but she wasn’t confident she had that type of precise control. She had no doubt she could melt metal, but it would likely turn into a molten puddle.

It was worth a try, though. As if moving in slow motion, she ran through the flooded interior, now looking like a war zone with the furnishings torn to shreds, and grabbed the first piece.

She grabbed a hold of one of her few remaining lightning strands and brought it to her hand, but instead of expelling it she pushed it to her fingertip, then touched the sparking fingertip to the metal. The metal liquefied instantly, causing steam bubbles to rise.

Suddenly the super-heated metal cooled, causing her head to snap up to find Sereia giving her an encouraging smile.

Understanding what her sister wanted, Elysia grabbed a piece of metal with her other hand while maintaining the lightning in her finger. With her left hand, she pressed the piece of metal to the nearest fist-sized hole, then touched her lightning charged finger to the edge. The piece of metal and the hull instantly liquefied, but just as quickly solidified when a bubble of greenish blue water touched it.

Feeling the pressure of the water pushing against the scrap metal, she continued to trace along the edges, only stopping when she welded the entire edge to the hull.

Panic shot through her as the piece of metal bulged inward, but after a few seconds, she relaxed as it held. Now hopeful the solution would work at least as a temporary fix, she grabbed the scrap metal pieces and welded them to the hull with the help of her sister.

Just before she welded the last hole shot, a sudden current pushed the water through the hole, courtesy of Ione with the residual magic Sereia left for her uses. Even after they patched every hole, Sereia waved for them to continue. They added a second layer to each patch, then the three collapsed to the floor, exhausted. Only Elysia remained standing.

She approached the sealed engine room with tentative steps. Even through the soundproofing, she heard a rather unhealthy grinding noise, but the motors somehow remained spinning, though she doubted they were producing anywhere near their optimal power any longer. A glance out the now above water windows proved her assumption. While they were still moving at a pretty good pace, helped by the fact Umbra was far lighter without all the water, it was far slower than when she first supercharged the motors.

Just as she opened the door, an ear-piercing screech sounded, then silence as the electric motors seized.

She really hoped the sails were enough to keep away from the elementals. If they weren’t they would need Sereia’s help in pushing them faster. Her eyes gravitated toward her panting sister, using Ione as a backrest. She hoped her twin was up for the challenge.

Wanting to be ready just in case the elementals caught up, Elysia strode up the stairs and onto the rear deck. Through the clearing smoke, she spotted the masts of the elemental ships far off in the distance, though only a couple of them. The rest must have fallen behind. At least she hoped that was the case.