The Warlord

Far away nearly thirty Caribbean officers landed safely on an island. The island was inhabited by humans and it was rather small with a population of a few hundred.

Boris helped two of his officers who had run out of mana while flying. He placed them down softly on the ground. Looking back, most of his men were already dead tired. None were wounded anymore as he had healed most of them.

"Ben, do a headcount."

"On it." Ben said.

"Jerry and Kenny, go around the island and ask what our current position is, if someone can give you a map even better. Also if possible find a phone we can use to call HQ."

"On it!" Both men quickly ran to the island.

"Everyone! We can only assume the fishmen have followed us here to catch us off-guard. Set up defensive positions around the island, I know we're tired and we've lost half our crew members, but it's better than being dead."

Everyone immediately stood up to protect themselves from another ambush using the island as a defensive base.

Boris quickly scanned the ocean. He could not see or sense anything, then again he could not be sure as someone used magical mist and caught them off-guard.

Thinking of the crewmembers he lost filled him with dread. It wasn't strange to see people in this line of work die, but he was always close with his crew members and even remembers their names, faces, families, which was uncommon for a high-ranking officer like him.

Then he remembered something important, "Wait, where are those kids and that mermaid?" Boris turned to his crew members.

Everyone looked around and no one saw Sky or the rest.

"They weren't there with us when we flew."

"I saw one of the kid's during the battle. He flew away."

"He did? Shae, was there anyone else with him? Did you see anyone else?" Boris asked.

"No, Captain. He flew away by himself."

"He left his crew behind to die? I did not think of him as that sort of person but it's not like I don't understand..."

"Oh, I remember something!" Someone else spoke up, "When the rest of the fishmen boarded the ship one of them yelled out "get the mermaid" so… yeah."

"They already knew about the mermaid? So this was definitely a planned assault, it's no wonder we saw Balthazar and other members of the Abyss family. They knew about the mermaid." Boris said.

Nobody else besides Boris knew why the fishmen wanted Jules, they did not bother to ask questions because none of the low ranking officers, like them, have a right to know.

Boris wondered who could have possibly known about Jules? The only ones who would know are him, Xero, Sky and his crew, and Free'd, and none of them could have shared such valuable information to anyone else,

Then he had a theory in mind on how they could have known, but he found it hard to believe.

"We can only assume they got to the mermaid and we cannot go to the bottom of the ocean to get her back. Once we take a break and find out where we are we are going back to Paradise island."

"Yes, Captain!" Everyone said and continued standing in their defensive positions.

Meanwhile…

At the bottom of the ocean there was nothing but darkness.

But as one would go lower they would see a dim light illuminating a large part of the area. There was an underwater civilization located at the very bottom of the sea. There were buildings carved out of stone.

The entire civilization was covered in water. There were even fish swimming in groups around the people living there. The size of it could be compared to a large working city.

Despite the entire city being large there was almost no one to be seen. Many buildings had been destroyed by a battle that happened not too long ago.

In the center of the city there were no buildings but a large crater with rubble in the middle that someone had collected and placed there. Standing on top of the huge pile of rubble was a throne made of stone, and sitting on it was a fishmen holding onto a human skull.

The fishmen was tall and muscular with a serious look on his face, with white hair, had a buzz cut and wore no shirt unlike other fishmen.

He created a tiny whirlpool in his hands out of boredom and did nothing else. Sensing someone familiar approaching him he dispersed the whirlpool. He left the skull on his throne and approached the two individuals.

Two people appeared before him. Balthazar, and a female fishmen with long black hair that was taller than Balthazar but slim.

"Balthazor, did you find the mermaid?"

Balthazar chuckled as he spread his hands looking around him.

"Do you see a mermaid here? Because I sure don't."

He looked at Balthazar with a deadpan expression. He stood up from his throne and walked closer to him.

"What happened? The only threat there was Boris and that should've been easy for you to take care of."

"You need to update your information, Boris is stronger than we thought."

"So Boris beat you. Hm, kinda disappointed in you honestly."

Balthazar looked down.

"What of the mermaid?"

"There was no mermaid. We dragged the ship to the bottom of the sea, killed all the humans, but there was no girl there, only men. And there was no way she could have escaped."

He shrugged and turned to the behind Balthazar.

"Juvia, what the hell happened?"

"It's like what he said. There was no mermaid. But I did see a young man fly away, he did fit the description perfectly but we did not see his crew or the mermaid that was supposedly bound to him."

"Strange… our information should have been perfect." He looked confused for a bit thinking what could have gone wrong.

Then he realized something Juvia said.

"Wait, you let the kid go?" He looked at Juvia perplexed.

"He was flying and I already exhausted all my mana summoning Megalodon, the Kraken, and magical mist. Besides nobody else flew with him, he was all alone."

"Where did he go?"

"Hell if I know."

He groaned while pinching the top part of his nose.

"If only I didn't spend all my time killing the government, I would have gone myself and asked the rest of the family to help you guys."

"What are you gonna do now?"

"Talk to our spy and figure out what the hell happened to his information. In the meantime look for survivors or, you know, destroy some ships, clear some portals, do whatever you want until I need you two."

Both of them saw away as the man sat on the ground feeling tired.

At the moment the same skull that he placed on his throne appeared before him. The skull's empty eye sockets glowed a dim, red color.

He sensed the skull's presence and turned to face it.

"The time to pay your debt is almost here, Warlord!" The skull spoke in a loud whisper that echoed, sounding sinister.

The Warlord closed his eyes out of frustration not expecting this.

"I still have two months and the debt is almost paid. That is more than enough time"

"Two months for us is but a child's breath."

"Why are you here? You said you would be here to collect the debt, there is no way you're here to remind me of that."

"I am here to tell you something that may impact our deal: we have sensed someone from our side that made a connection with someone on your side."

"What?" The Warlord stood up shocked.

"Who?"

"We do not know but this person is powerful. I do not know the reason they bothered to contact someone here but they did. I fear that it may be one of my master's enemies that are plotting something to disrupt his business."

"So he's a threat? Who did they contact? A human? Mermaid? Another fishmen?"

"I do not know yet. Once I find out, I'll tell you. For now I am asking you if you find him, kill it, for a price of course."

The skull opened its mouth wider than possible and spat out ten purple scrolls that were floating on the water.

The Warlord quickly snatched the scrolls and began reading them to see what he got. To his surprise they were all scroll abilities that were extremely powerful and useful abilities.

"I'm paying you in advance, if you kill him there'll be more. I gotta go, my master is calling for me. But I will return with relevant information."

The light in the skull's eyes disappeared and it fell to the pile of rubble.

Picking up the scroll the Warlord placed it back on the throne.

"Who could it be? Who else could have made a deal with someone from the Land of the Gods?"

The Warlord decided that for the time being it was best to put the scrolls to good use. As for the one he needs to kill, he'll find him later.

He got one of the purple scrolls to rip it obtaining its power.

"Everyone! Get down here now! I have something for all of you!" He called for his family.

Meanwhile…

Sky woke up blinded by the sun hitting his face. He stood up feeling sore, he was covered in sand and several grains of it had slipped into his clothes and hair.

From the side there were two little kids, a girl and a boy, in their swimming attire looking at him curiously.

'Oh god, I really slept on the sand again? I haven't done that since I was a kid.'

There is no worse feeling than feeling sand everywhere.

Looking back his crewmates and Jules were not here.

'Those bastards, wait!'

Panicking, he checked his side and found the golden brick wrapped around several pieces of logs and a string that he carried underneath his shirt like a purse.

Sky was so glad he did not lose his golden brick, this is his greatest money maker. During the ambush he wasn't sure if he did have it on him as he could not place the golden brick inside his inventory or transform it into a card.

Sky turned to face the kids who were staring at him in awe.

"Did you see my friends?" Sky asked.

Both kids shook their heads slightly.

"Thanks anyways."

He quickly rented a room at an inn to shower and wash out his clothes of all the sand it carried. He would wash it with water and soap, then dry it with wind, and would warm it up with pyrokinesis.

Putting his clothes back on it felt good as new. He left the inn to find his crew.

Walking through the island was boring. It was one of the smaller islands he's been on and there wasn't much.

"System, there's something I want to be clear about, I know you said I could not use the system map unless I am near a ship I own, so how come I can use it yesterday?"

{I said you cannot access the ship controls unless you're near a ship you own. The map function is not a part of the ship's controls, you just assumed it was}

"So it was my fault."

"Sky!"

Sky heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He saw Jericho and Jules walking towards him.

"There you guys are. Where's Jay?"

"On the ship."

"The ship? We don't have one anymore."

"Not yet. Follow us." Jericho was happy to show Sky what they got and she led them to the ship on the other side of the island.

The ship Jericho wanted to show him was as good as the ship they used to have but smaller, it didn't even carry any cannons.

There was an old drunk man standing behind the wheel. Beside him was Jay talking to him.

They approached the ship and approached the old man.

"Oh, there's my Captain." Jay pointed at Sky.

"What's going on?" Sky asked.

"This old man is selling the ship and we want to buy it, but you carry all the money." Jericho said.

"How much?" Sky asked.

"Not that much, only 800,000 shells."

Sky took a better look at the ship. The ship in question was not worth that much, not even half of that.

"Isn't there something better?"

Sky did not mind the price as gathering money is easy, but he did mind the state of the ship he's buying.

"No, this is the best one we could find, and there's no shipyard here."

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Sky gave the man eight cards, each card had 100,000 shells each.

"Here."

The man looked at Sky, unable to believe someone actually bought his crappy ship.

{You now own a new ship {Small ship}}

{Shells: 12.9m}

Sky hadn't had the chance to sell the items he has earned which he estimates is worth over 50 million.

"Thanks."

Stunned, he didn't even bother counting the money and left the ship.

Sky boarded the ship and inspected it.

"There's no room for the crew, only a captain's quarters." Jay said.

"We'll look for a better ship fast. First we have to sell our stuff to the Merchant if we find him. I don't want to waste a blue scroll. Also we have to avoid the Caribbean for the time being, understood?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. They were not criminals but they had a slave on board that had important information everyone wants.

"Jericho, find us the nearest portal and hopefully we'll get lucky. I'll try looking for an island that might have a shipyard."

"Aye, Sky."

Sky placed the golden brick in the Captain's quarters and removed the several pieces of cloth. Even the room he was in was small and he felt cramped.

Meanwhile…

The old man who sold the ship to Sky walked back home carrying the cards in hand, he could see just how much each card had and he cannot believe it. The liquor bottle he was holding he had dropped it on the ground on the way.

He returned home to an old woman boiling some fish. The house they were in was not grand, it was a small, worn, old house that only fit one room for everything: kitchen, bed, living room, and the bathroom was located across the street from their house.

"Oh, you're here just in time. Food is almost done."

"Hun, remember that honeymoon trip I promised you but that we never took?"

"How can I forget? It was the day we got married, forty years ago." She smirked at the thought of their younger selves.

Back then they did not have money and still got married to each other. Years later their financial situation never got better but they always managed somehow.

"Do you want to go there now?"

"Hm?"