A broad-shouldered man and white-haired young man arrived at the Necro Village and saw a shocking scene.
The villagers were sitting in a semi-circle around a cut-in-half tree, which was surrounded by a circle of candles and mysterious symbols drawn on the ground.
“Please, Nymn Tree, come back to live.” Lunmu whispered in the mystifying death language. “We are nothing without you.”
“What the fuck?” Mars frowned and approached the villagers with powerful stomps. “Where is the heart of the Nymn Tree? Answer me!”
Hearing the voice of a strange language, Lunmu and other villagers turned around to see a pair of strangers approaching them.
Their expression was one of full anger, and they immediately stood up with weapons in hand.
“Ssea wux mrith osservor osspotih?!” Lunmu asked in pure rage. “Majak vyh zurkn saur gvykn!”
“What did he say?” Mars turned to Zero, who acted as a translator.
“Mmh…” Zero struggled to make sense of some of the words because Lunmu was shouting in a strange accent. “He asked if you are with some thieves; I couldn’t understand the last sentence.”
“Thieves?” Mars frowned and said, “Ask what he meant by that.”
Zero turned to Lunmu and said. “Vaurs taalj wux rsjs zex ossurs?”
Lunmu turned to Zero with anger and shouted in the death language. “Thieves stole our luck!”
After shouting that, he pointed at the dead-looking tree on the ground.
“We tried resurrecting it, but nothing worked. The ancient spirits have also disappeared. We are all alone!”
“Uhm…” Zero turned to Mars and said, “Someone stole their “luck,” and I think they mean the heart of the Nymn Tree.”
“What!” Mars gritted his teeth and grabbed Lunmu by his throat before lifting him off the ground. “Who was it and when?”
The villagers screamed and shouted something with death language. They were ready to pounce and protect the village elder.
“Who did it and when?” Zero spoke in death language.
“Ngggh, hands off me!” Lunmu screamed and tried to remove Mars’ fingers from his throat, but he only felt the squeeze get tighter, making him unable to breathe.
With no other chance, he shouted. “I-It was a group of six; they acted as Death Entourage and stole our luck. One of them had black hair, one was curly blond-haired, one was a vampire with red eyes, and all of them had black hearts tattooed on their foreheads.”
“What did he say?” Mars asked.
“Uhm…” Zero cleared his throat and said, “They wore bluish clothes with waves imprinted on them. They stormed inside the village and stole the heart. I-It happened before we arrived at the island.”
“Sounds like Sea King’s subordinates…” Mars angrily looked at Lunmu and snapped his neck in a fit of rage.
All the villagers screamed hoarsely and attacked Mars, but he simply brushed them off with his incredible strength.
All the villagers flew across the air, through the buildings, and crashed into a pile of rubble.
“What will we do now?” Zero asked, as putting the blame on Sea King’s subordinates was a very impulsive decision.
Of course, he couldn’t tell the truth about what Lunmu said; otherwise, Mars would immediately realize who was the real culprit!
“We’ll sweep the area!” Mars screamed. “They must be en route back to the Sea King’s territory, and if we hurry, we might catch them!”
Zero nodded and followed after Mars as they began leaving the village.
‘Good job…’ Zero thought with sweat dripping down his forehead, but he also wondered where they managed to escape.
…
Back at Black Heart, a group of six exhausted-looking individuals limped up the gangplank.
“Fuck you, Damian…” Henri whispered, and as soon as he stepped on the deck, he crouched down and clutched his side, wincing in pain.
“Come on…” Damian fell beside him with his knees bleeding. “L-like I told you guys many times, you guys must skip breakfast. I-it was very hard to carry all of you!”
“Warning would have been nice…” Apollo said and sat beside the middle mast, leaning against it.
Ambrose stepped on the deck, carrying Loki’s unconscious body on his shoulder.
“I’ll… take him to his cabin…” He said and limped towards the cabins, careful not to jostle Loki’s body too much.
“Ambrose, it wasn’t my fault, ok?” Damian shouted behind him. “That was the only way out.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ambrose lazily waved his hand and chuckled. “I kind of enjoyed the thrill of death.”
Jake was the last one to walk up the gangplank, and he looked perfectly fine except for a few scratches on his arms. However, even those scratches didn’t bleed.
After a while, Ambrose returned to the deck after taking Loki back to his cabin, and sat down wearily.
“The spell must’ve ended.” Leon said as he saw his skin color turn from pale to its usual tan. “We aren’t speaking death language anymore, either.”
“I can’t believe we succeeded.” Damian laughed and asked. “Should we try to destroy the heart? It might be safe within the inventory, but the fewer risks, the better.”
Apollo nodded and turned to Ambrose. “Shall we try?”
“Mm.” Ambrose nodded and brought the beating heart to the deck, then dropped it on the floor with a splashy thud.
“I’ll try.” Jake stepped forward and picked up the heart, feeling its coarse texture and pulsation. He then squeezed powerfully, unleashing all the strength from his Starborn physique.
However, the heart didn’t break or burst open as expected; instead, it stayed intact and continued beating with a calm rhythm.
“The heart of the Nymn Tree is a valuable object for a reason.” Apollo said. “It brings prosperity to the owner but decreases the lifespan. However, it is also very durable, and even if it gets shattered, it will regenerate.”
“I’ll try!” Damian stood up with shaky legs and put his hands into a catching stance. “Jake, give it to me!”
Jake nodded and tossed the heart.
Damian caught the heart and then pulled back his right hand—long, black nails grew from his index, middle, and ring fingers.
“Tres Stab Cordis!” Damian shouted and thrust his hand forward, stabbing through the heart with his long nails.
After pulling the nails back and they retracted back to his hand, the heart’s three stab wounds slowly healed.
“The hell,” Damian muttered.
At that moment, they heard a bone-chilling scream coming from the forest near the docked ship.
“Crew, sail off!”
“It’s Mars!” Apollo screamed.
“Shit!” Damian quickly threw the heart back to Ambrose, who quickly caught it and tossed it inside his inventory.
They all stood up, trying to look less exhausted, and began unfurling the sails and reeling in the anchor.
A short time later, Mars and Zero returned to the ship. There was a cold silence surrounding them.
Mars looked at the crew with a suspicious look, as there were disheveled hairs and tense expressions on their faces.
“Captain, did you get it?” Apollo asked while untying the sails.
“No!” Mars screamed. “Apparently, Sea King’s subordinates managed to steal it before us. What a coincidence, ain’t that right?!”
“How dare they!” Damian slammed his fists together. “So, are we chasing after them?”
Mars suspiciously looked at Damian and said, “You rarely get this excited over something.”
“Ahahaha.” Damian nervously laughed.
Mars looked past Damian, and as he saw Ambrose, his expression changed.
“Ambrose, how come your fate aura also has a brownish hue?” He asked while looking at the ball of fate above his head.
Now, there was a mix of gold and brown.
Apollo’s expression changed.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Ambrose replied defensively.
“You are hiding something from me, boy!” Mars screamed and launched himself across the deck. He then grabbed Ambrose by the throat and slammed him into the wall. “I’ll find out what!”