Chapter Twenty-Three

Defying gravity, Elysia remained atop Ione as the feline soared out of the water. With her claws, Ione anchored herself to the back of the ship. They waited several seconds, expecting an alarm or something, but nothing came igniting confusion.

It couldn’t be this easy. There had to be some sort of security.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Elysia asked Ione to climb and find a way in.

Ione scaled up the vertical back of the ship, peeking in several windows, but they were too small for the large feline to fit or blocked. Fortunately, the windows grew larger the further up they went, as if the already lax security loosened further. Exemplified by the fact they spotted an open window near the top.

As they neared the open window, Elysia jerked as she sensed her sister’s essence. Confused, she checked her bond, finding Sereia swimming in zigzags out in front of the fleet.

They climbed the rest of the way to the window, then peeked in. Their eyes immediately locked onto a truck tire sized crystal glowing with greenish blue light. The crystal practically radiated Sereia’s essence.

Rage sparked from both of them at the violation but Ione didn’t immediately enter the extravagant decorated room filled with pearls, gold, and a lot of seashells.

What gave them the right to steal from her sister? They had to have bled her dry multiple times to steal so much essence. Even after her evolution, she didn’t sense that much essence from her sister when she stood right next to her.

Sereia mentioned she woke up in an elemental ship. Who knew how long they siphoned essence from her while she was unconscious?

Unable to resist any longer, Elysia climbed off Ione’s back and wiggled through the half-open window, then lifted it open the rest of the way so the large feline could fit. Through all of this, no one bothered them.

However, that changed the moment they neared the crystal. An ear-piercing screech forced them to recoil. Before they could move a step, dozens of humanoid blobs of water materialized around them.

Ione reacted first, slashing through one blob with her sparking claws only for the blob to reform. Undeterred, she tried again. This time, her claws shined bright with violet lightning. The blob boiled in an instant, then collapsed, but another blob formed in its place a moment later.

Elysia materialized a handful of bearings and tossed them in all directions, then released several lightning bolts, only to realize she didn’t refill her stash of strands.

In the end didn’t matter as instead of hitting the ball bearings, the lightning veered toward the crystal and disappeared within. The crystal now had a tinge of violet.

Her eyes snapped to the crystal, then back to the blobs. With her senses she followed the essence trails, finding the blobs had a connection with the crystal. In fact, she noticed dozens of connections spreading out from the room.

Without hesitation, she touched the crystal and attempted to store it in her ring. It resisted, forcing her to withdrawal drawers of nuts and bolts until the crystal vanished. Still, it resisted. Her ring grew warm, but she persevered.

The moment the crystal disappeared, the room went dark, and the blobs collapsed.

A smug smile formed at least until she heard dozens of footsteps rushing their way. She glanced at Ione, then at the window.

Before taking a step toward her bond, a spark of pettiness hit her, returning her smile. After dumping a couple more drawers of nuts and bolts, she dashed around the room, storing away everything even remotely shiny as Ione stood guard at the door.

Just as the door slammed open, Elysia hopped on Ione, nothing left in the room besides several a pile of nuts and bolts. Paranoia hit her, prompting her to siphon off a regular single-strand from her core, then release a lightning bolt at the pile, melting it all. The liquid metal dripped through the gaps in the floorboard, filling the air with sizzling sounds as a handful of seashell clad men and women stared slack-jawed at the room.

Despite herself, Elysia gave them a wave as they hopped out the window. The elementals finally reacted when they were halfway to the ocean below. A geyser water shot up, aimed at them. Ione flicked her tail and barrelrolled in midair, just barely dodging the geyser only to fly into the path of another.

Elysia fought off a headache as she siphoned off another strand and launched a lightning bolt at the geyser, instantly evaporating it.

Not wanting to risk it, Elysia tucked herself tight to Ione as they shot downward. The water turned rough, but Ione’s powerful tail powered through it as they shot off. However, a moment later, a spark of spike radiated through the water, turning it into molasses.

Ione struggled, but it only worsened the situation as if they were a fly on flypaper. While Ione struggled in slow motion, Elysia’s head tilted upward excruciatingly slow. After what felt like an eon, her eyes spotted a blurry figure standing on the top of the ship. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted the other ships breaking off their pursuit of Sereia, instead opting to form a perimeter around the trapped duo.

In her panic, she grasped at her core not for a regular strand, but a divine strand. If she destroyed her ring, she would take the crystal with it. Her already warm ring turned to lava as a massive lightning bolt speared through the water. Ozone filled the air as it streaked toward the figure at the top of the ship.

Her vision dimmed before she could see if she hit the target, but the lack of ding sounding worried her as her body numbed. Suddenly, everything cleared. As if everything else was in slow motion, her body and senses responded with fluidity far beyond what she thought she was capable of.

She watched as Ione shot through the water as the thick water no longer restricted her. Vaguely, she felt panic flooding through her bond with Ione and Sereia. What were they panicking about? She felt fine. Great even.

Suddenly Ione jerked downward and cleaved through a school of fish, killing dozens with each swipe, feeling the water with blood. The dings fired like a machine gun in her mind as her thoughts turned sluggish once more.

She vaguely felt her sister shooting past, flicking out the whip in the water, cleaving through the sea as life desperation flooding through her bond. Soon everything dimmed to nothing, only to spark to life a moment later as she gasped. Warmth filled her as a ding sounded in her mind.

Level up! Level 6 Path of Divine Lightning Control.

Confusion manifested as she surveyed her surroundings. It was like an ecological disaster. Thousands of fish, if not tens of thousands, floated in pieces surrounding her. She even spotted a couple of humanoid shapes, though most of the bodies were small fish. The only spot not died in red was a clean bubble of water surrounding the three of them. It was like they were a clear marble in an ocean of blood.

Arms wrapped around her torso, squeezing her with the force of a hydraulic press. Despite being underwater, a familiar choked up voice sounded behind her. “I thought I lost you again! Please don’t leave me! I can’t lose you again!” Soon the words turned incoherent as Sereia violently sobbed as she hugged Elysia tighter.

Still confused, it took Elysia several seconds for her mind to snap into clarity. Her eyes widened as she paled. Oh crap, did she drain herself with the lightning bolt? Was that sudden clarity her a moment in time skill?

She did her best to twist around to hug Sereia back, only to realize she wasn’t on Ione’s back any longer, but supported by the bubble of water instead. Said feline was rubbing against her with a fervor she had never seen before while purring up a storm.

The weight of the mistake she made slammed into her at that moment. Why did she think it was a good idea to use her divine lightning? She knew it would drain her if she didn’t level up. They weren’t in immediate danger, yet she impulsively used her divine lightning trying to be the hero. She had a family to think about. She couldn’t risk her life like that.

Together, they probably could have broken out without her divine lightning. In fact, thinking back, the essence of the figure wasn’t even as strong as her sister. Sereia probably could’ve overpowered the figure without their help.

Tears formed in her eyes as she hugged Sereia back while sending apologetic and comforting thoughts to her family, who reciprocated with loving but scolding images.

She knew she was in the wrong. Elysia didn’t contest her mistake. Instead, she agreed that them but despite her assurances, she wouldn’t do it again. Though everyone knew she would make an impulsive mistake at the next opportunity.

After several minutes of bonding, Elysia surveyed her surroundings once more, expecting some elementals to attack, but nothing did, prompting her to send questioning images to her family.

In response, she received dozens of images from Ione of the fleet making a hasty retreat. They moved far faster than they chased Sereia as if they were the ones being chased. So fast that the ships bumped into one another, desperate to escape, no matter what.

That only pushed her confusion further, prompting Sereia to disengage from her hug and give her sister a scolding expression with her hands on her hips, which looked odd since she was in her mermaid form. “When you launched that absurdly powerful but incredibly impulsive and stupid lightning bolt, the elementals bowed and ran off. To make it worse, you missed.”

She gave Elysia another hug as if worried her twin would disappear on her, then continued. “If only I knew it was that easy to scare them off. I would’ve done it ages ago. Though, unlike you, I have enough control to realize it would be a bad idea to use my divine water. Just a few drops of that stuff drains me dry even if I’m in my mermaid form in water.”

Elysia gave Sereia a one-armed hug as she scratched Ione between her ears. She opened her mouth to apologize again, only to suck in water, unable to speak, prompting her sister to break away, then send a competitive glance to Ione before taking off.

Ione waited for only a moment, just long enough for Elysia to plant herself on the feline’s back. Like a torpedo, Ione rocketed off, closing the gap between her and the mermaid. As soon as they drew even, Sereia picked up the pace, causing Ione to do the same with Elysia, tucking herself in as much as she could to give Ione better aerodynamics.

Faster and faster they went. If it weren’t for the supernatural force keeping her planted, she would’ve fallen off long ago, but as it was, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable ride. It felt like she was skydiving in freefall, yet they were swimming through the water.

Suddenly, Ione’s tail slapped Sereia. Then she shot out of the water and landed on Umbra’s deck, radiating with triumph as the mermaid breached the surface a moment later.

Elysia hopped off Ione before she got caught in the crossfire but other than a stare off, probably with tons of images exchanged, nothing physical or magical happened.

As her family had their little feud, Elysia surveyed Umbra, finding it just like she left it. Worried they kidnapped her humans, she dashed inside, finding them embracing one another on the couch.

The heat in their eyes almost made her want to back out of the room, but before she could, they noticed her and broke apart, though their hands found their way toward each other, intertwining.

While trying to keep her eyes off, the couple peered out the window, finding no elemental ships insight.

Did her divine lightning scare off the elementals? It couldn’t have been that easy.