"What could possibly go wrong?"
Leo had been saying this a lot lately. That was expected, since everything had been going smoothly for the past week or so. The ship was completed in no time, the other realm dwellers were welcomed, and there was no sign of bad things happening anytime soon.
Of course, Leo knew it wouldn't last long, considering they were beginning their journey to the end of the realm today.
They were going to conquer the Tide of Seas and hide in the neighboring realm until the Spirit of Madness had been dealt with.
"Journey to the end of the realm" sounded slightly… poetic to him. Does a realm even have an ending?
Then again, the Great Sea might be vast and somewhat limitless, but it wasn't endless. There was bound to be an ending and a beginning—which had to be the gateway to the realms flanking the Great Sea Realm.
The last batch of humans entered the door leading to the inner deck after creating a calm mind.
Leo still hadn't gotten on the ship, staring at its silhouette with a proud smile.
He had built arguably the world's largest vessel in a month. Although he received help at the end, it was still a great feat.
…There were just a lot of things to rub in Fang Rui's face.
Leo smirked and walked towards the ship. He climbed it using the magical ladder and arrived at the main deck. The main deck was only occupied by people who would be dealing with tending to the masts and helping the ship move in the right direction. Soldiers—countless of them—were also there, ready to battle sea monsters or any other hindrance. The King and Lyra were also present.
Everyone was attending to one thing or another.
Leo knew this wasn't real…. at least, that's what his intuition told him to believe. But the actions were accurate, to a certain degree, of course. He was sure only he was breaking out of character. How had the real Aquarius handled things? Was this how things also escalated for him? Did he battle a Condemned Sagittarius in the Tide of Seas?
In fact, where had Aquarius come from in the first place?
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Lyra walking towards him.
"Aquarius… we are ready to depart."
Hearing this, he discarded his thoughts and nodded. "Let's go."
With that, Lyra waved to General Keith, who was at the front of the main deck. Leo walked toward the steering oar and took his position, manning the movements of the ship…
It was his ship, after all.
'Aquarius's ship, I mean.'
He had been trying to be… distant a lot lately. Why was that?
Shaking his head, he turned to Keith, who threw a pink stone out of the ship. The stone exploded, and a blinding light assaulted Leo's crimson eyes. When the light dimmed, a pink portal, large enough for the ship to pass through, was swirling right in front of them.
Leo was left in awe for a few seconds, but then a grim expression appeared on his face. It reminded him of the ongoing Eldrath and Primroia War. Tightening his fist on the oar, he gritted his teeth and steered it forward towards the portal.
The ship moved towards the portal, caressing the white sand beneath it as if moved by an external force. All of this was with the help of magic.
Aura hadn't fully matured in this era, so people were mostly reliant on magic. Rudimentary magic, at most. Magic also took time to mature, making it seem as if Leo's era was the golden age where everything had reached its pinnacle. But one shouldn't be fooled; magic and aura would continue to mature.
It all started from somewhere—from this era where people used basic, undeveloped stances to operate magic, then to different eras until it reached the stage where humans went to meet the gods and demons to make pacts and get access to Aura fully, then using it to implement magic to create another form of power, until it led to the so-called golden age where Elara Atlantis had brought Aura to Earth through the form of a system.
Who says something much bigger won't happen in another future? Everything will keep scaling up endlessly until infinity. That was the true rule of the world.
In the end, the King had helped with the rudimentary magic, casting many more enchantments to make the ship better. It could move on sand, water, or any platform. It was indestructible, along with other characteristics Leo was still trying to understand the purpose of.
'Hmm.. I'll have to learn this magic somehow.'
If he learned magic, it would make him much bigger among his peers as an Aura Farmer. Being able to implement aura and magic together was a really great talent back in his timeline. But it was easier said than done; it would take him a year or two to move from rudimentary magic to adept or apprenticeship magic. That was a guess; he knew it was definitely more than two years.
'I'll have to find the time to learn.'
The masts were being checked. The hull was being attended to. Everything was in order. And the ship slowly entered into the portal, the domes looming like sightless eyes over the rising and falling mounds of the desert behind them.
As the last part of it entered the portal, the portal warped into itself and disappeared, leaving no trace behind but an empty desert that might remain empty forever…
****
Leo frowned.
'Where are those cursed monsters?!'
He should have felt happy that, so far after they appeared back in the ocean and had been moving through the ruins of the city towards the veil of darkness, they hadn't come across a single Condemned.
Scowling, he turned to the ruins of the city, his expression becoming solemn. He looked at Lyra, who had taken her place beside him. She was looking at the ruins with mixed, distant emotions, darkness dancing in her eyes.
The King also had the same expression looking at the city; he clenched his fists and turned to Leo, pointing upward towards the veil of darkness.
Leo nodded. Everyone on the main deck immediately held onto something as Leo steered the ship upward, pointing the serpent-shaped front towards the darkness.
"Hold on!" he yelled as he increased the speed.
Their journey had officially begun.