Chapter 594: What keeps you here?
Strax remained still.
Beatrice’s words echoed in his mind, throbbing like hammer blows. Six months. He blinked several times, as if waking from a distorted dream. But nothing changed. The sound of the sea still roared. The sand still burned beneath his feet. And four pairs of eyes still stared at him, filled with memories he didn’t have.
He sighed heavily, bringing his hand to his forehead. His breath sounded like embers consuming the air, slow and dense.
“Six months…” he murmured, as if testing the taste of those words in his mouth.
The silence remained, broken only by the distant sound of waves crashing against rocks. He lifted his face, letting his gaze scan the horizon. The sea stretched endlessly, mirroring a sky too clear to be real. Nothing but that strip of sand and the jungle that rose like a green wall behind him.
He squinted, searching for signs. No other island. No shadows in the distance. No dark lines to indicate nearby land.
“You called this an archipelago,” he said, his deep voice echoing across the beach. “But… I don’t see anything beyond this island.”
Beatrice hesitated, biting her lip before answering. She took a few steps to his side, pointing toward the sea with her chin.
“There are eight islands around. We saw them. Some are smaller, some larger, but all different. Mountains, jungles, even beaches with red sand.”
Strax stared at her, his eyes narrowed. “If there are eight… why are they still here?”
Cristine let out a nervous, embarrassed laugh. “Because you can’t leave, for crying out loud.”
“You can’t?” Strax repeated, disbelief dripping from her voice.
It was Yennifer who intervened this time, her arms crossed beneath the torn cloth covering her. Her posture was serious, as if she were tired of repeating this.
“There’s something in the sea. Something ancient. A Kraken. It hunts us every time we try to leave this island.”
The mere mention of the creature made Strax’s skin crawl slightly. The air around him seemed to grow colder, heavier.
Beatrice nodded. “It appears whenever we get close to crossing. It creates storms. Huge waves. Lightning strikes from nowhere. It always drives us back.”
Strax frowned, remembering the monstrosity he’d encountered when he first woke up in the middle of nowhere. His gaze darkened.
“I saw this creature…” he said quietly, as if speaking to himself. “A Kraken, as soon as I woke up. Huge, eyes like abysses… it must be the same creature.”
Bellatrix narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “So our theory seems to be correct, that thing caused that storm… How did it escape that thing? We couldn’t even get close.”
He sighed deeply, the black wings on his back moving slowly, still stained with battle wounds. “It makes some sense, though I still find it strange.”
Cristine snorted, sitting down on the sand with a theatrical movement, still laughing nervously. “Oh, great. So it wasn’t our paranoia.”
Strax looked at her, but didn’t comment. Deep down, he was wondering why the kraken had caused such a commotion. Could it have been just the Kraken? If the monster was the key to their confinement, then the fight was far from over.
He ran his fingers through his wet hair, taking a deep breath. “You survived… six months here. How?”
The four of them exchanged knowing glances, as if the question were even naive. It was Yennifer who answered first, her voice dry, matter-of-fact.
“We’re cultivators. We don’t need much. Cultivation sustains our bodies. The spiritual energy on this island is abundant. It’s almost like paradise… if we ignore the Kraken, of course.”
Cristine raised her hand, laughing. “Well, a rather boring paradise, I must say. Six months of looking at the same trees, the same beach, and the same faces.”
Bellatrix snorted. “I don’t complain about the company. Just the prison.”
Beatrice, on the other hand, kept her gaze firmly on Strax. “Don’t think we’ve sat around waiting. We’ve tried everything. We’ve tried flying, using makeshift boats, even creating spirit formations. But the creature always finds us and stops us, or creates great barriers with storms.”
Strax fell silent, absorbing every word. His hands clenched into fists, and for an instant, his dark aura enveloped them like a veil. The sound of the sea seemed to blend with the pulsing of his demonic energy, as if the ocean responded to his mood.
He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, as if fighting for control. Then he opened them again, and the intensity in his red eyes made the four of them shiver.
“So that’s it…” he murmured. “You were trapped. Six months in a cycle of survival. All because of a monster who dares to come between you and me.”
Bellatrix lifted her chin defiantly. “And what do you intend to do?”
Strax’s smile was slow, almost cruel. “What I always do. Destroy anything that tries to separate me from what is mine.”
Those words echoed across the beach like a dark promise.
But before anyone could respond, Strax looked back at the horizon. The sea seemed calm, but now he knew it was a deceptive calm, the ocean’s skin hiding the sleeping beast below.
He sighed again, running his hand over his face. “First, I want to understand this place. Time doesn’t flow the same way here. For me, it was hours. For you, six months.” He looked at Beatrice seriously. “There’s something wrong with these islands. Something that distorts reality.”
She nodded slowly. “We feel it too. It’s not just the weather. Sometimes the sky changes color without warning. Sometimes the nights last longer than they should. I’ve had the sun rise on the wrong side.”
Cristine grimaced, remembering something. “And the creatures here… are different. Animals that don’t exist anywhere else. Sometimes they seem… more intelligent than they should be.”
Strax listened silently, absorbing it all. His mind worked like sharp blades, assembling each piece. Kraken, time warp, living jungle, inconsistent sky. This archipelago wasn’t natural. It was a prison.
He looked up at the clear sky, and his lips curved into a cold smile.
“Then let’s break the prison.”
Beatrice took a deep breath, hope and fear mingling in her gaze. “You say it as if it were simple.”
He stared at her directly, his eyes burning like embers. “Nothing is simple. But nothing is impossible for me.”
Cristine let out a low laugh. “There he is again. The same arrogant idiot as always.”
But for the first time in a long time, the sound of her laughter didn’t carry despair. It carried relief.
Strax closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to feel the warmth of their reunion.