This island... carried an unsettling atmosphere.
From the moment Ray set foot on the island, the gradually dissipating mist surged back, enveloping him heavily.
He glanced down at his terminal, it should have been sunrise, yet the sky remained gloomy.
Dark clouds hung low, lightning flickering between their layers. The rumble of thunder seemed to roll down from the heavens, making the place feel like land forsaken by the gods.
"This should be the island the Second Young Miss mentioned. But..."
He murmured to himself, scanning his surroundings.
"A pilgrimage journey?"
Shipwrecks and fragments were scattered along the shore, some half-buried in black sand, others floating with the waves.
Whether they had been attacked by some terrifying creature or torn apart by violent storms was unknown.
"Oh, right, wasn't someone supposed to meet me?"
"Why don't I see anyone?"
Ray muttered to himself in confusion, then dialed Carlotta's communication line.
Fortunately, this wretched place had some faint signal.
After a few beeps, the connection went through.
"Ray? You've arrived?"
Carlotta's voice came through the terminal, sounding a bit hoarse, the weariness like a thin veil she couldn't quite hide.
"Mhm, I'm here. But this place... doesn't feel right." Ray responded while cautiously surveying his surroundings. "It's eerie, cold... doesn't seem like a good place."
"That island is indeed a bit eerie. But with your skills, you should be able to handle it." Carlotta spoke, unable to suppress a yawn, her voice growing increasingly weary. "You should have reached the Fool's Troupe by now, right?"
"Troupe? What troupe?" Ray looked puzzled, frowning slightly. "I took the gondola straight to shore and onto the island. Didn't see a single person the whole way."
"What did you say?!" Carlotta's voice instantly tightened, all sleepiness gone. "You went straight onto the island?!"
Ray was taken aback by her sudden tension. "Yeah, is there something wrong?"
"Tch, this is troublesome now." Carlotta's rapid breathing came through the line. "Stay right where you are. Send me your coordinates immediately. I'll arrange for someone to meet you right away."
"Alright."
After the call ended, Ray found a relatively dry spot to sit down. He took some bread from his bag and chewed mechanically a few times to replenish his energy.
He looked down, staring at his right hand, the Tacet Mark had calmed down, as if nothing had happened.
That moment earlier... how exactly had he split the giant wave?
Even he found it hard to explain clearly.
He only vaguely remembered devouring some kind of frequency that constituted the wave.
In Solaris-3, everything was built from frequencies. Once a frequency was lost, it would completely disintegrate.
"So... I can devour the 'frequency' of all things?"
But if that were truly the case, what happened after devouring it?
Could I use it for myself?
Also, how could I actively trigger my Resonance ability?
He reached out, experimentally waving a few times, but everything around him remained quiet. Nothing happened.
"..."
Whatever, I'll figure it out slowly once I'm back.
At any rate, he finally had a Resonance ability.
Just as Ray was focused on his own abilities, he completely failed to notice, the fog along the coastline was quietly thickening, almost swallowing all visible light and outlines.
Crunch—
The crisp sound of rotting wood being crushed suddenly pierced the silence.
Ray's head jerked up, his heart instantly tightening.
Only at this moment did he realize with a shock, he had been silently surrounded by countless Remnants.
When did they get close?
No, that's not right...
These Remnants, seem to have... materialized out of this white fog itself.
"No wonder I didn't notice at all..."
"This place really is bizarre."
Ray tightened his grip on the crystalline Swiftblade and slowly stood up.
Before this, he had never truly fought a Remnant, though Echoes and Remnants were hard to distinguish by appearance, their aggressiveness and danger levels were on entirely different scales.
If he were an ordinary person, fear might have already consumed him by now.
But for some reason, instead of fear, Ray felt a sliver of hard-to-suppress excitement at this moment, even... an eagerness to act.
"Perfect. Let me test just how sharp the sword the Second Young Miss gave me really is."
"And perhaps, during the fight, I might even trigger my Resonance ability again."
The moment his words fell, the surrounding Remnants, as if pulled by an invisible force, suddenly lunged at Ray!
He took a step back, the crystalline Swiftblade in his hand cutting a cold arc, precisely piercing the closest Remnant.
The moment the blade touched it, the Remnant's arm rapidly crystallized into translucent crystal, refracting a bizarre light in the gloom, before shattering and scattering!
This sudden change made Ray pause briefly before understanding dawned on him.
It was Carlotta's Resonance ability.
Although this crystalline Swiftblade was just a projection created by her ability, containing less than a tenth of her original power, it still inherited some of the ability's characteristics.
Ray gently shook off the lingering crystal fragments from the blade, murmuring to himself.
"It seems... this should be enough to deal with these things."
The Remnants howled, charging at him once more.
Ray spun, swinging the blade. Wherever the edge passed, the Remnants' limbs solidified and shattered one after another.
He moved like a bolt of lightning through the fog, each strike raising a shower of crystallized debris.
Screams echoed in the fog, yet he fought with increasing ferocity, an almost blazing light in his eyes.
As mentioned earlier, Ray's actual combat experience was extremely lacking, practically a blank slate.
Yet, bizarrely, his body seemed already familiar with battle.
Each swing of the sword, each dodge, was driven by a deep-seated instinct, smooth, fluid, clean, with no hesitation or wasted movement.
Even Ray himself was puzzled by this.
'Am I... really this skilled at fighting?'
"Roar——!!"
Just then, a heaven-shaking roar exploded, a vast pressure instantly freezing all the Remnants in place, unable to move.
Ray's heart also tightened. He abruptly looked up at the gloomy sky torn by lightning.
Within the churning dark clouds, a massive shadow was weaving back and forth at an astonishing speed, its form unfathomable, its presence terrifying.
He stared at the sky, whispering softly.
"That's..."
"A Dragon!?"
Without a doubt, it was a Dragon.
It unfurled its grotesque, sky-obscuring wings, emerging starkly from the cold wind and thunderclouds. Its cold, vertical pupils looked down upon the earth like a god disdainful of ants.
"This is bad..."
"The Second Young Miss didn't mention such a creature existed on this island..."
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Bonus Chapter Alert!
If we cross 100 powerstones, there will be a bonus chapter.
Read advance chapters on [email protected]/lost_moon