Chapter 597: Descent into the Depths
With a deafening crash, Ethan tore through the roof and landed in front of the two men.
The flimsy metal shack didn’t stand a chance. It blew apart into scattered sheets and jagged fragments, clattering across the sand.
"Jibberish gabble yak yak..."
"Eee yah yah yah wah..."
The two Serpent Islanders shrieked in their native tongue, scrambling back in panic. Ethan didn’t understand a word of it.
"Oh my God..." he muttered, more to himself than anyone.
He strode forward, seized both men by the throat, and lifted them clean off the ground.
Suddenly, the terrified islanders shouted something that cut through the language barrier. This time, Ethan understood.
His expression hardened. He slammed them to the ground with a bone-rattling thud.
"Ahhh..." Both cried out in pain.
"Activate voice translation," Ethan snapped at his wrist device.
[Multi-species language real-time translation activated...]
"I’m only going to ask once—where were those two women taken?"
The translation registered instantly. The islanders’ eyes widened. They exchanged a quick glance and gave a single stiff nod.
Then, almost in unison, they bit down hard.
Ethan froze, his gut tightening.
"Shit—"
It was already too late.
Both men convulsed violently, froth bubbling at their mouths as their bodies went rigid. Within seconds they went still.
Ethan clenched his jaw. These Serpent Islanders were no ordinary villagers. Who hid poison in their own teeth unless they’d been trained to die rather than speak?
"Tree Form... Swift Healing!"
He thrust out his hand, pouring life energy into one of the bodies. But nothing happened. No spark. No breath. They were gone in less than a heartbeat.
Healing magic could mend wounds, could drag someone back from the brink—but it couldn’t pull life from nothing. He hadn’t mastered resurrection techniques.
Ethan forced down the frustration and shifted tactics. "Soul Technique... Soul Reading!"
He pressed his palms against their temples, closing his eyes.
In a blink, fragments of memory rushed through him. The images were broken, distorted. Death had splintered them.
Still, there was enough. Ethan ignored the useless scraps and focused on what mattered: the women.
His pulse quickened. He saw them clearly. Lyla and Astrid.
Astrid was unconscious, streaked with blood. Lyla looked unharmed, but shaken.
How they had ended up on the island remained a blank. But ten minutes earlier, both had been loaded onto a fishing boat headed south.
Ethan’s eyes snapped open. He extended his Soul Sense in that direction, sweeping across the waves.
His heart sank. Less than ten miles away, shattered planks floated on the ocean surface. The wreckage matched the fishing boat from the men’s memories.
"Damn it..." He slammed a fist into his thigh. "Not being able to fly is such a pain!"
Every time he had to climb back into Shatterstar, dock, and redeploy, it cost him precious time.
Then a thought struck him. "Wait. Shatterstar, what about the single-soldier combat mechs I ordered after the Sea of Death mining? Are they ready yet?"
[Nine mechs completed. Basic functions operational. Combat systems not yet loaded.]
"Can they fly?" he asked, sharp with urgency.
[Flight capability is part of the basic system.]
Ethan’s tension broke into exhilaration. "Perfect. Get me one. Now."
Hum...
High above, a hatch slid open in Shatterstar’s massive leg compartment. A streak of light dropped from the sky, slowing just before it touched down.
The mech hovered before him—over two meters tall, gleaming silver-white with the raw color of metal, untouched by paint.
Ethan’s lips curled into the first real smile he’d worn since setting foot on this cursed island.
Ethan recognized the alloy instantly. Shatterstar had smelted and forged it from refined minerals inside the hangar’s own furnaces. Its hardness surpassed anything mined on Earth.
Click click click...
The mech before him unfolded with a whir of precision machinery. The front section contracted, folding away in segments until the entire unit shifted and latched onto his back.
Another sequence of clicks followed as the metal expanded again, sealing him inside.
Ethan raised his arms, then his legs, marveling at the responsiveness. There was no heaviness. The mech mirrored him perfectly, as if it were his own body.
He crouched, pushed off—
Whoosh...
The thrusters along the armor flared. Streams of air shot from the vents, carrying him upward in a sharp arc.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
He streaked across the sky, a silver-white flash cutting through the air toward the wreckage he had sensed earlier.
"This... this is incredible." Ethan couldn’t stop himself from grinning. The difference was night and day. Unlike piloting Shatterstar, this didn’t require entering a consciousness space. Here, he had direct, physical control, every motion flowing as naturally as breathing.
Even without combat systems, the mech’s sheer durability would make it a nightmare in battle.
In moments, he reached the wreckage site.
He descended and touched down lightly on the water’s surface. The mech was so perfectly balanced it walked across the sea as though it weighed nothing.
Ethan scanned the debris field. Broken planks floated in every direction, but nothing useful. No personal belongings, no signs of life.
From the Serpent Islanders’ memories, he knew there had been seven sailors aboard in addition to Lyla and Astrid. All of them were Serpent Islanders, led by a marlin Mutant. That one, at least, would have no trouble in the water. The rest were ordinary fighters. In the open ocean, their chances of survival were slim.
Yet what unsettled him most was the lack of evidence. Not a body. Not even a drop of blood. Which meant the boat hadn’t gone down with casualties already aboard—it had been struck and destroyed cleanly.
Kneeling, Ethan picked out a large piece of the keel. His eyes narrowed. A circular hole, as wide as a barrel, bored straight through it.
The vessel hadn’t simply split apart. Something had rammed it from below with brutal force.
He measured the water’s depth and confirmed his suspicion. There were no reefs, no hidden rocks. This wasn’t an accident.
Whatever had destroyed the boat had come from the sea itself.
Ethan spread his Soul Sense over the wreckage, but the ocean’s saturation made it impossible to trace Lyla or Astrid’s aura. The emptiness gnawed at him.
His gaze swept the endless horizon. If the two of them had been dragged into the depths... what chance did they have?
Lyla could swim, yes. But Astrid was a bird. Could she survive even moments underwater?
And even Lyla—swimming meant nothing against the crushing weight of the sea. She couldn’t breathe beneath the waves.
Ethan clenched his jaw. He couldn’t stand here second-guessing.
Without hesitation, he tipped forward and plunged into the ocean.
Hum hum...
The mech adjusted instantly, thrusters angling for a steady descent.
Ethan’s Soul Sense stretched outward as far as it could, combing the darkness below.
The deeper he went, the more the water pressed in. Visibility shrank, and his Soul Sense grew weaker, smothered by the ocean’s crushing weight.
Still, he kept diving, refusing to stop.