After arriving at the deck, they saw Mars shouting at Leon, demanding an explanation for their late arrival.
Mars was clearly furious and seemed ready to explode.
“The wind has not been kind to us.” Leon explained, trying to diffuse Mars’ anger, but nothing he said seemed to work.
“Hah, is that so?” Mars looked up at the pirate flag that flapped furiously against the wind. “It has been windy, all right! Something fishy is going on, and I want an explanation!”
“Captain.” Apollo then stepped forth.
“What?!” Mars screamed at Apollo, his anger boiling over. “Don’t you dare to make another excuse.”
Apollo pointed towards the horizon and said, “We’ve arrived.”
Mars frowned and turned around.
A fog-shrouded island appeared in the far distance. It looked mysterious and inviting, and once they got a little bit closer, they saw something very unusual.
There was a giant hand right in the middle of the island. It was almost as if a massive giant tried to dig out from its grave and then reached out towards the sky before turning into stone.
There were slight reflections of light coming from the palm of the massive hand, as if there were a village on top of it.
They then saw slight outlines of stairs leading up the hand, going nearly three kilometers into the sky.
“Hmph.” Mars scoffed and angrily looked at his abducted crew before returning to his quarters.
Apollo heaved a sigh of relief and walked over to Leon.
“I tried delaying as well as possible.” Leon said and looked at the sky, which was already very orange as the sun was slowly setting.
In about half an hour, night would fall.
“You did great.” Apollo said and folded his arms. “It might take about half an hour to dock on the island. The night might’ve fallen by then.”
Leon nodded in agreement, still slightly shaken from getting yelled at by such a strong force. Angry Mars was always a frightening sight because he would be the most unpredictable in those moments.
“What is that giant hand?” Ambrose leaned over the railing and looked towards Necro Island.
The giant’s hand was bigger than any skyscraper or mountain he had ever seen. Its fingers were strangely trying to touch the sky, only to fail.
“I don’t know much about this place either.” Damian said beside him while taking in the windy air and gazing at the vastness of the giant’s hand.
“This might be a remnant of an ancient battleground.” Loki said near them. “Apparently, Pirate Battleground was once a battlefield where gods, angels, and mortals fought.
“Apparently, Dark Waters had been land before the battle, and the giant’s hand is a reminder of that lost land.”
“You mean, all this was land before?” Ambrose looked over the railing at the foggy sea and tried to imagine how it would look without the sea.
“That’s what I heard from my village elders a long time ago.” Loki said and shrugged his shoulders. “They might be mistaken; who knows?”
‘This world’s lore goes even deeper than I thought.’ Ambrose thought and wondered whether there was any reward for learning the ancient knowledge.
After half an hour, the black-sailed pirate ship docked on the forest side of Necro Island. It was also during this time that the sun finally set and cast a blanket of darkness over the land.
Mars slammed his door open and walked down the stairs with remnants of anger in his features.
He wasn’t the type of person who liked incompetence and getting his orders wrong—he said that he wanted to arrive before nightfall, but since Leon failed to do so, it made him very unhappy.
“Zero!” Mars shouted angrily.
“Yes?” Zero stepped forth with a cold, emotionless gaze.
“You know the death language, correct?” Mars asked angrily.
“I do,” Zero replied. The scientists taught him most of the languages used in Dark Waters.
“This is death territory, so we can assume that people in here use the same language.” Mars said. “Zero, you’ll come with me as a translator.”
Zero glanced at Apollo and others before nodding.
“The rest of you will stay here!” Mars screamed and threw an irritated gaze at Leon before walking down the gangplank with Zero.
They soon entered the thick forest that seemed to lead towards the enormous giant’s hand.
“Jake.” Apollo nodded at others, and they all then turned to Jake.
Jake looked toward the sky and saw the shimmering stars illuminating the night.
As his pupils dilated, it was almost like the stars began to show arrows, pointing in the direction of the giant’s hand.
He smiled and said, “The stars answered me. They know where it is!”
“Alright.” Apollo said and turned very serious. “This is it. If you want to stay behind, this is your last chance.”
No one spoke a word.
“Where is Ors?” Ambrose asked, as he was the only one he didn’t see.
“He ain’t coming.” Damian said with a chuckle. “He is a coward.”
“We aren’t in need of his assistance.” Apollo replied. “Well then, let’s go.”
A group consisting of Apollo, Leon, Henri, Loki, Damian, Ambrose, and Jake walked down the gangplank, and following the stars guidance, they started using a faster and shorter route to the giant’s hand.
…
At the Necro Village on the giant’s palm.
There was a tall tree in the middle of the Necro Village, and a circle of cleverly placed rocks encircled it.
It was a mystical tree that had bestowed a spell of luck upon the Necro Village, bringing prosperity and good fortune to its inhabitants.
However, there was also a downside. The lifespan of the villagers decreased significantly, and it was rare for any of the villagers to live past fifty years.
It was the Nymn Tree, but currently, it was asleep and therefore it was nothing but an ordinary tree.
The village looked to be preparing for a very specific ceremony with altar being built right in front of the tree.
On top of one of the giant’s fingers, a young villager with binoculars in hand gazed towards the edge of the island, where a black-sailed ship had just recently docked.
“Visitors.” The young villager murmured.
He looked like he was in his early twenties, but he was actually only 14 years old.
The decreased lifespan made the villagers look older than they were.
He then stood up and recklessly slid down the massive finger of the giant’s hand. It looked extremely dangerous, as with a single mistake, he would fall several kilometers to his death.
After somewhat roughly reaching the bottom of the giant’s finger, he encountered many black-robed villagers moving with their lives as they were preparing to welcome the Death Entourage to the village.
“Hey, Lunmu, I saw a ship!” The young villager shouted at one of the village elders, who was taking care of the preparations.
“Is it the Death Entourage?” Lunmu asked in surprise. “They’re supposed to arrive after midnight.”
“I am not sure; I just saw some black sails.” The young villager said.
“It must be them, then…” Lunmu looked around and shouted. “Hurry up, we’ve got to finish the preparations!”