Shark With Wings

There was a shark with swan-like wings, poison-tipped fins and skin, and venomous teeth. A beady gaze exuded from its eyes as it stared at its prey.

Bursting out of the surface of the water with droplets cascading off of its body, this winged shark had its maws wide open for the group. Mainly Javelin, who was in his wind leopard form.

He had the most meat out of them all.

[ Disperse! ] Magnus swiftly commanded through the Hivemind.

He used his gravity to send them all in their own directions, and a battle swiftly commenced.

Magnus sent out his golden sphere and slammed it against the winged shark. He established his gravity zone.

Or at least, he tried to.

"Urgh..." Magnus groaned as his energy reserves dropped sharply and continued doing so. "It's too heavy to influence..."

This was akin to Magnus' experience battling the titanic-sized dinosaurs. The only difference was the fact that the winged shark was much much smaller.

"Why is it so damn heavy?!" Magnus had no choice but to let the winged shark dive back into the water.

Splash!

Klaris had been led away from the battlefield, protected by Javelin. He was summoned so that Magnus and Restiel could fight to their heart's content.

Splash!

Restiel dove towards the waters with a beam of light emitting from his eyes. He had been able to perceive a moment wherein the winged shark moved close to the surface and thus, he struck out.

The timing was perfect.

The winged shark was just about to jump out of the water once again, but Restiel was there to meet it the moment it surfaced.

Slash! Sssuk!

The air whistled and flesh was pierced. Blood flowed from out of the winged shark's wing as it roared in defiance.

Magnus' turn came next. His golden sphere shot out like a cannonball. Full force went into collision this time.

Even at the moment of contact, Magnus added a wave of repulsion to make things worse.

CRACK!

Bone shattered, sending chills across Magnus' spine. Even the attacker himself cringed at the sound his own attack made.

The winged shark's second wing was now left dangling, useless and causing nothing but pain.

The shark then fell back into the water, dyeing it a deep crimson red.

"What now?" Restiel asked Magnus.

"We wait and see if it flees. I have no way to control it, after all."

ROAR!

It didn't seem like retreat was something the winged shark considered. Its roar was filled with anger and pain.

Once more did it rise out of the waters, but its leap into the skies wasn't as grand anymore. There was no flap of its wings anymore. The winged shark bit the air.

It blatantly missed both Magnus and Restiel.

The two glanced at each other.

"It is no longer a threat..." Magnus spoke with his hand on his chin.

Restiel nodded. "Indeed."

"Then let us finish it off when it shows itself again."

ROAR!

The winged shark with bloody wings roared once more. It leapt into the air and tried to bite at Restiel who was closer.

But that only spelt its doom.

A wave of gravity kept it stationary at the peak of its trajectory, allowing Restiel to strike at it like a butcher cutting meat.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Blood spurted like a fountain. Organs spilt out like a river.

Splash!

The waters below were dyed red with blood as the 2-star winged shark fell.

"The job is done," Magnus grinned. That was a fun bit of combat.

He and Restiel both turned their attention towards the most filthy point in the Gate.

They did not know if it was a coincidence for that point to be the place where the shark's blood was thickest.

"So, was the winged shark a guardian of sorts?" Klaris asked, floating towards them.

"That is a possibility," Magnus took note of such a fact as he descended before everyone else.

He descended to just above the bloody waters as he used his gravity to push it all away.

Although expensive, he was able to see what lay beneath the calm of the lake:

A statue.

It was of a young boy sitting on a rock. Hugged by the boy's arms was a stone tablet. No dirt could be seen on the statue at all as if the lake left nothing on it and the animals and plant growth all ignored its presence.

Or perhaps they revered it.

"The fish..." Klaris tilted his head, "They're bowing? Why is food bowing?"

Javelin purred, saying that he had the same question.

Magnus and Restiel both glanced at the two hungry critters and their faces twitched.

"They're animals, Klaris," Magnus said.

"Same difference?" Klaris looked confused.

Magnus decided to stay silent after that. Klaris was basically a wild animal when it came to food. It was as if his days suffering from starvation never left his mind—which truly did not. Magnus could sense whenever Klaris' memories bothered him. Especially when he returned his mind to him like this.

Magnus shook his head and pointed at the stone tablet in the boy's hand.

"What do you guys think about that?"

"I feel that it is important," Restiel immediately answered. "It's where my senses are screaming to purify,"

"Hm," Klaris hummed his agreement. His own intuition against danger was also reacting to it.

It was only Magnus' senses that had no idea what was happening. His original body lacked any magical thing to it, and it would still take a while for those seemingly psychic senses to form.

Although his mind told him that there was indeed something special about the statue, there was nothing else telling him that it was.

To him, it felt like a regular statue.

Splash!

The waters came crashing back after Magnus let go of his control. It was costing too much energy to peek through the waters like that. There was just too much to push.

Restiel then flapped his wings. He dove down from the skies, straight into the water with his body gleaming in divine light.

When he resurfaced, he held the stone tablet in his hands.

Magnus instantly got ready for something to happen.

All of his Hivemind members' senses were screaming at him.

But...

In the end,

Nothing happened.

Restiel continued to hover above the bloody waters, dripping blood-red colours from his garments. He was still holding onto the stone that did not have any reaction to being taken away from the statue.

The stone tablet was as normal as it came. Restiel examined it and it was quite literally a stone tablet.

The only thing that was weird was the lack of text.

"The lack of text?" Magnus recalled his wrist and the invisible symbol on his palm.

Out from his pockets came a Molecular Text Reader.

He placed it on the stone tablet.

And from it, he saw paragraphs upon paragraphs of Molecular Text.

One has to know, that Molecular Text was the code of the universe. Magnus had done some research on the topic and he discovered that Molecular Text was the reason why magic, Blessings, Curses, and everything supernatural existed.

That meant that this stone tablet here was very special. Magnus only had a few lines worth of Molecular Text for his Blessings and Curses.

This one had paragraphs.

Magnus unsummoned his Hivemind Members and rose to the skies holding the tablet.

He began studying the writing on it. Ever since Molecular Text became readable to humans, everyone adapted their language to it.

Magnus allowed the hours to pass as he relived his life as a student, reading and reading.

When it was all over, he realised one thing:

"I understood nothing."

Magnus chuckled,

"But I can tell at least, that this is some sort of seal."

He had seen an example on the MagiNet once. There were portions that indicated that the writing he was reading right now sealed something behind it.

Magnus just couldn't tell what. He also did not know how to unleash the seal.

He could only study it more.

At least now, he had a lead. And he placed that lead inside his [important objects] Storage Scroll.

"Better than being lost like before," Magnus muttered as he made his way out of the Gate.

He was going to use the lovely MagiNet and some of the real Restiel's textbooks to help himself decipher the seal.

He returned to his hotel in Midseer and had a good night of rest knowing that it would be difficult for Emerald Twilight to properly locate him. His fellow [fated to the undead] likely had some progress while he had been fighting without regard for his own life.

"Kukuku~" Magnus couldn't help but cackle whenever he thought about such a genius act on his part.

He fiddled with the Ring of Undead Fate in his hand as he looked out the window.

Fwhip!

Magnus flicked the ring into the large crowd.

"Good luck, Miss Green-haired."

.

.

.

"Madame Blaze! Another spike of undead!" Liam cried out with bags under his eyes as he pointed at a certain location on Midseer's map.

Massaging her head, Blaze sighed. "I'm heading out. I need to find whoever is crazily infecting people's fates as if it doesn't disrupt people's lives. A lunatic is out on the loose."

She then stopped in her tracks,

"That's right, how is our tracking of Amini Forethai going? Did he really leave the Heaven-Touching Mountains?"

"It's still ongoing, Madame." Liam glanced at a nearby file, "He was last spotted in Thawsore. There is a high chance that he has left."

"Mm, that's sufficient. It'll be easier for the others to track him down in a place outside the Interstellar Trinity's jurisdiction." Blaze nodded as she put on her coat, "What about the extermination of the Josuera Clan?"

"Er— our brothers and sisters are having difficulty doing that. The Josuera Clan is still a deeply rooted clan in the Continent of Haaven. Despite their recent fall, they still have many favours they can cash in."

"How much time do they have left?" Blaze asked.

"I'd say until the start of Archaeon University's entrance exams in two months."