"Theresa, do you know where we are right now?"
"Let me see... We might be in Kazimierz. It would be great if we had a city or village as a reference."
Carried out of that strange space by an Originium storm, both of them opened their eyes to find themselves high in the sky.
Theresa didn't have wings, but flying sorcery wasn't difficult for a Sarkaz of her level.
Now, she was holding Xing Chen and gliding north through the sky, heading for Columbia.
Compared to other countries, Columbia had a large number of frontier regions within its borders, which should be quite noticeable from high altitude.
As for the active Originium in the high altitude, Xing Chen and Theresa were completely immune to Oripathy, so they didn't care at all.
"This land must have just suffered a natural disaster," Theresa said, looking at the ground covered in Originium crystal clusters. "There shouldn't be any living creatures here, except for Originium slugs..."
Xing Chen's eyesight didn't allow him to observe the ground from the air, so he left that to Theresa.
He hoped to find someone to ask for directions to confirm their location. If they veered off course and ended up in Ursus, they would face a lot of trouble.
But now, it seemed his idea might fall through.
"Wait a moment, Xing Chen, I think I see a figure."
"Oh? Let's go down and take a look quickly."
Theresa immediately adjusted her posture, circling and diving down with Xing Chen.
Because he couldn't feel pain, Xing Chen could focus more on the soft shoulder cushion behind his neck.
The Demon King was not outstanding compared to the Sarkaz, but its absolute size dwarfed most humans.
As they gradually approached the ground, Xing Chen also noticed a mass that resembled a female figure.
"It looks like she can't be saved; her body surface is almost entirely Originium," Theresa told Xing Chen.
Descending was easy, but ascending was difficult. She didn't want to land on the ground only to take off again.
"Let's go down and see. Maybe we can find a map."
As they got closer, Xing Chen noticed that the patterns on the surface of the object looked somewhat familiar.
"Wait a moment, don't get too close yet... I have an ominous feeling..."
Just as Theresa was about to slow down, the object moved.
"Careful!" Xing Chen pulled out an Assassin's dagger and clashed it against the opponent's greatsword.
"Whoa!!!" * 2
The attack was blocked, but the powerful impact still sent both of them flying.
Xing Chen got up from the ground, his hands mostly out of control; they were probably broken. He offered his hand to Theresa, and the girl took his hand to stand up.
"My ancestors! What kind of monster is that!"
"A Deep Sea Hunter, a biological weapon created by Aegir." Xing Chen looked at the monster, which was moving unsteadily towards them, and a thought arose in his mind, "But I remember, they should be immune to Oripathy."
...On Skadi's side, she had just gone through what land dwellers called a natural disaster, and strange stones suddenly appeared on her body.
She was used to the intense pain, but the complete lack of strength made her choose to rest in place, to see if she could remove these stones from her body through self-repair.
Clearly, it was useless. She, too, had contracted the so-called Oripathy, just like the land dwellers.
This wasn't bad news; if the Seaborn had truly done something to her, her death would render all their plans futile.
However, just as she was waiting for death, she suddenly sensed the aura of Seaborn in the sky.
Calculating the angle, she waited for the two people to get close enough, then immediately threw her greatsword, hoping to kill two more monsters before she died...
"She seems to have mistaken us for enemies." Theresa looked at the approaching Skadi. Given the opponent's physical prowess, there was no way the two of them could escape successfully.
"Going head-to-head, even your brother might not be her match," Xing Chen said, picking up stones from the ground.
"What are you picking up stones for? These things aren't even as tough as her flesh."
"I know," Xing Chen was well aware of how powerful Deep Sea Hunters were, enhanced by the Pre-civilization's Deep Blue Tree creations, "But they are just 'stat sticks,' without any special mechanics."
Theresa suddenly understood. If they couldn't win a direct clash of stats, then they could only outsmart her—but what did that have to do with stones? She wasn't an Earth Stone Child.
"You listen to me, like this, like this..."
"Oh, oh, oh, I understand."
As Skadi approached a certain distance, Xing Chen immediately threw a stone.
He was certainly not a goblin who threw stones—because he couldn't even hit the target, but as he threw the stone, Theresa also released a dust particle.
The dust particle's damage wasn't high, but it could definitely cause effective damage, which was enough to make Skadi wary.
Theresa immediately rushed towards Skadi, her blade, imbued with Sarkaz sorcery, clashing with the greatsword, which was replicated from Pre-civilization technology.
She didn't get entangled with Skadi but disengaged after one strike, then stood in the opposite direction from Xing Chen.
After quick consideration, Skadi deemed Theresa to be the greater threat and focused her attention on Theresa.
At this moment, Xing Chen threw another stone. She casually blocked it. Then, Theresa launched another attack, and Xing Chen also changed his position accordingly.
Purely powerful, but could only attack one target. If Whale Lord came, Xing Chen really wouldn't know what to do.
After repeating this several times, Skadi grew tired of it and decided to take a hit from Theresa to take out Xing Chen first.
She raised her greatsword, faked an opening move, then immediately jumped and attacked Xing Chen.
Seeing the opportunity was ripe, Theresa immediately unleashed her Originium Arts, binding Skadi in mid-air.
"Who are you?" Skadi used to be a Deep Sea Electrician, so her knowledge of physics was not bad, but her current situation clearly violated the laws of physics.
Being bound in mid-air out of nowhere, with no leverage points around, meant she had lost her mobility and become a salted fish at their mercy.
"We are just travelers." Theresa walked back to Xing Chen's side. He, in turn, pulled out the chitinous bayonet from his pocket. "You attacked us because of this, right?"
Skadi nodded, silently calculating if throwing her sword could kill both of them, or if the recoil could free her from the restraints.
"We found this when we were looting dead people on the road. It looked quite useful, so we took it."
"You don't even know who its owner is."
"Seaborn, right?" Xing Chen smiled. Skadi, on the other hand, had a poker face, which somewhat dashed his expectations.
"What else do you know?" Skadi was now completely on alert. The tone in which these two talked about Seaborn was neither the fear of sea dwellers nor the reverence of Deep Sea Cultists. The unknown was the most terrifying.
"I know a lot, but I am not your enemy. I think we can cooperate, Deep Sea Hunter Skadi, or do you prefer another name—Ish-Mala?"
After speaking, Xing Chen gave Theresa a look, and she understood, releasing Skadi.
"This is my sincerity, what do you say?"