Chapter 1601: Where Are We?
"Wake up." Arad poked Gojo’s face and then pinched his nose. "Gojo... Wake up!"
Gojo yawned and slowly opened his eyes. He saw Arad there and, for a second, thought he was dreaming. "What’s now? An illusion?"
"I’m not an illusion. Where are your clothes?" Arad sighed, and Gojo finally sat up.
"Wait! That’s the real you? I thought it would be weeks before I found you." He looked at Arad for a moment, then his smile turned somber.
"Did you get hurt in any way?"
Arad shook his head, then looked at his arm. "Yeah, a shark bit me, but he ended up dead." He then turned around. "Do you know where we are? How did we get here?"
"That Blue Ice Nymph, she wasn’t a Nymph at all, but a monster akin to Kali. When I saw her, I knew that only death awaited us if we faced her." Gojo smiled. "So I decided to play along and follow her orders, all while sending a secret message to Lucy. I asked her to contact your wives and mother."
Arad turned toward Gojo. "Like Kali? A primordial concept? Which one?"
Gojo shrugged. "No idea. All I know is that we can’t harm her." He stood and looked around.
"For where are we, I got a guess."
Arad stood as well. "Before that, how did you contact Lucy under a promordial’s nose?"
Gojo tapped his chest with a grin. "Simple, Lucy and I share the same body and soul, somewhat. Using wild magic, we swapped bodies for a short time when fighting an undead lich. Since that time, we can connect faintly."
The link between Gojo and Lucy wasn’t that complicated or useful. It transmitted simple emotions and strong sensations. Like how a twin could tell that something bad happened to his twin, Lucy could tell at a heartbeat that Gojo faced something he couldn’t survive.
Gojo didn’t actively call her; she was the one who sensed that something bad had happened. Coupled with Arad’s disappearance, and since she is a goddess, she could tell that she must contact the strongest being she knows, and that was Kali.
At this moment, Arad didn’t know what had happened to everything that was inside his stomach, but he hoped everything was safe, just as it was safe when he lost his power at Merlin’s labyrinth.
"Right now... I have a guess about where we could be, but no definitive answer." He looked around.
"We might’ve been blasted away by Lucy’s wild magic, and this place reeks of it." He frowned.
"Lucy’s magic?" Arad tilted his head.
"No, wild magic. Primal, powerful, ancient, and all-mighty." His blue eyes glared at the sky. "If there is a primordial concept of chaos, disorder, and randomness, we’re inside it."
Arad stared at him for a second, letting it sink in.
"So... Kali should’ve come to save us. But Lucy sent us to that primordial concept anyway?"
Gojo shrugged. "I don’t think we’re inside Blue Ice, or whatever concept she was. But if we were, Lucy would’ve saved us from Blue Ice’s maw only to shove us up her frigid ass. Shitty situation." He smiled.
"We must be inside another primordial concept." He lifted a finger. "But..."
Arad nodded. "No primordial concept would sit around waiting for Lucy to shove us up their ass. So this happened outside of Lucy or Kali’s will."
"Exactly."
Whatever brought them here, it happened by mistake on Lucy and Kali’s side, but was intentional by the mysterious other concept. Getting out of this place would prove to be difficult then, since both of them were locked into human bodies.
Arad sighed. "First, let’s solve this problem." He unraveled the shirt on his arm, then waved his other hand, pouring water on the bloodied shirt.
"What are you doing? You’re going to bleed out." Gojo approached and looked at Arad’s wounded arm. The lacerations were deep and massive, spanning all the way from his biceps to his wrist, and even the bones were showing.
"That shark got you good."
Arad chuckled. "Never thought I’d get this hurt by an inflated sardine, but here am I."
After a while, the water washed most of the blood away, cleaning the shirt enough. Arad then shifted his magic into fire and dried the shirt. It took a few minutes, but it worked.
Arad then gave the shirt to Gojo. "This is for you to wear, it’ll keep the wind away."
Gojo took the shirt and gave it a look. The thing looked disgusting. It was supposed to be white, but was now pink with blood and grime. But it was better than nothing, especially when he saw the tag in its collar.
"Holy! This might be a bit too rich for my blood." Gojo laughed and looked at the shirt with a large smile. "But I’ll gladly take it."
The shirt was made by Merida and Isabelle, the two most renowned tailors in the mortal world. It would go for no less than fifty gold coins, even when used.
"It’s just a shirt." Arad sighed as Gojo made a fuss about it, but even Arad himself didn’t seem to understand the value of his own clothes, mainly because his wives picked them for him. They were dressing him like a doll, especially Merida.
"It’s not. It might look like a simple white shirt, pink now. But it is made from pure demon spider silk and demonic fabric, all masterfully tailored by Isabelle and Merida. This thing is as tough as chainmail while being silky smooth, heat and cold-resistant, and lighter than a feather."
The pure demon spider silk was provided by Anansi, and the demonic fabric was the dead mycelium of Merida, something that no other person in the world could provide.
Looking back at Arad, Gojo frowned. Every piece of clothing that Arad wore was worth tens of gold coins, even though they looked like simple clothes a commoner would be wearing. It made Gojo’s fancy royal clothes and Lucy’s god garments look far too cheap.
Gojo wore the shirt like a robe and sighed.
"Why are you naked anyway?"
Arad did want to know. There weren’t that many things that could rob Gojo of his clothes; he only knew one was called Liliana.
"I was in my draconic form when I got teleported here. I didn’t have clothes on me, so here I am." He shrugged.
"You got a chance to transform?"
Gojo nodded and sat down.
"Long story short, I had to destroy some lanterns, and the best way to do it was to fly in my draconic form." He looked at the sky, "Then I suddenly found myself here, drowning in cold water."
Arad looked around. "You swam and found this island?"
Gojo laughed. "Of course not. I made it."
Arad froze. "Wait, what?"
"Conjure earth and fire, mix them to create lava, then pour it on water slowly. But be sure to use wind magic to fill it with air on the inside so it can float." Gojo looked at Arad with a smile.
"Wait!" Arad looked at the ground. "This entire island, how? How much is your magic output?"
"Not much, just a bit over a thousand. More than ten times yours. And I already figured out how to use higher-tier spells here, Yog doesn’t seem to have any influence here after all." He smiled.
Gojo’s raw output was a staggering 1850 MP, all thanks to being a high human. But that alone wasn’t enough to create this island, which only highlighted Gojo’s efficiency and mastery of magic.
"As a thanks for giving me this shirt, how about I try healing your arm?" Gojo lifted one of his hands and smiled.
"We don’t have access to holy magic here, and neither of us is a divine." Looked at his brother with a tired, sad face.
"Gods aren’t the only ones who can heal... wait, if this place is made by a primordial concept... yeah, only the gods can heal. I should’ve figured that out before." Gojo’s fingers flashed with light, and a boulder appeared out of nowhere.
"Hide behind that. Only come out of you see a pale golden flash."
Arad looked at Gojo, then at the boulder.
"What are you going to do?"
"Use wild magic."