Amun.

***

Jonet’s departure seemed to be the catalyst that brought a wave of melancholia over each of my vassals. Leaving Roheisa, Lucia, and I to study the lot of them for a few moments before turning back to the job at hand.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” I called over my shoulder after a few more moments, prompting the others to slowly turn and waddle onboard to claim their rooms.

“That’s a nice ship,” Roheisa called from the deck of her battleship-esque vessel. “What’s Her Name?”

“The Broad Bottom Packet.'” I sighed. “I think I’ll call her Packy, for short.”

“Mine is named Valoo.” Roheisa proudly proclaimed with a wave across the main deck.

It looked like a destroyer had been pulled from a naval yard to have its cannons stripped and its hull miniaturized to a length of around thirty meters before being trimmed with deep red paint that contrasted nicely with the teak decking. Most importantly…

‘That’s actually a pretty good name. It has... character.’ I mentally recoiled in surprise. Then returned my gaze to her to speak business. “It’ll take us around a day at full speed to reach the shores. That’s including our leisure breaks."

“Leisure breaks?” The Princess raised her brow, pivoted her weight to her other foot, and dramatically tilted her head. “As in?”

“I need to do some fishing.” I shrugged my hands. “But, that comes later. We’ll be setting sail here in a few minutes.”

“Okay.” She turned with nothing more than a nod. “We’ll be right behind you.”

I didn’t know if she was eager to get going or what, but I was in no rush at all. We had twenty-nine days to traverse the nineteen or so thousand kilometers stretching between our three destinations. A distance far larger than the diameter of the Earth, but with the speeds at which we could fly, we could traverse such a distance in a mere day if we wanted to. As such, there was much I wanted to accomplish during this journey and plenty of time in which to do it. So with that in mind, I turned to walk past my vassals tending the tie-downs and called Ed back to the stern to man the ‘engine’ while I settled behind the helm.

Once the all-clear had been given from the others and the enchantment had been primed with Ed’s force magic, I sent a wave towards Roheisa, then eased on the thrusters a bit to push us away from the docks and ease us out of the cove. After returning my wave, the Princess gestured to Lucia at Valoo’s helm to have her repeat my actions and settle into a meandering pace behind us.

A gentle, rhythmic, and all-too-familiar hum permeated 'Packy's' hull as I pushed on the throttle. Ejecting larger and larger amounts of Ed’s force magic out of the nozzles below the waterline that, in turn, churned the deep-blue waters into a frothing white mess and shoved us across the choppy sea. With the trim, stabilizers, and cruising speed set, I turned on the crude version of auto-steering and aligned the nose of the boat just to the left of the Epethian shores far ahead. And with that done, I lounged back in my chair and sparked up a smoke. Then turned to see my vassals staring back to the homeland with longing eyes.

While the Cole Estate couldn’t be seen from here, we were far enough to see the domineering Cast Iron Summit blotting out the northern skyline while just to its right, the comical mound that represented the Twin Capitals was reduced to a mere pimple atop the snowy earth.

‘Four years.’ I commented to myself. ‘I can’t imagine how much this place will change in that time.’ It wasn’t a long period of time. But I’ve witnessed civilizations decay into nothing and evolve into superpowers in fewer lengths of time. In those times, technology was the catalyst. In this universe, however, I was sure that magic was a far more efficient catalyst for change than technology could ever hope to be. What that meant for the Deapouan and Odissian Empires was beyond my knowledge. I was only vaguely aware of what would happen upon my return. As such, I could only have faith in my forefathers’ words and leave the place in their hands until I graduated.

Because then, the paradigm would shift.

With science and technology added onto the catalyst that is magic, I planned to create the land of my dreams. But, like many of my goals, such things were out of my reach as of yet. So I tossed my thoughts aside to smell the vast field of roses spread around me. For the next several hours, I enjoyed the passing wind, the strong hits of burnbud, the subtle tastes of salt lingering in the air, and the general vibe of the cruise until Toril and Jaimess took over for Ed and me.

Thanking them kindly, Ed went inside to whip up a meal for himself and assumedly retire to his berth for rest and work while I went to the deck above to change into the swimwear Giorno crafted for me. It was your typical pair of skivvies coupled with an elastic neck wrap that covered my mouth and nose. Naturally, wearing such garb whilst swimming would be no different from waterboarding myself. With my shadow magic, however, I could easily place my mouth into the Shadow Realm. Allowing me to breathe the frigid air of the tainted world while exploring the ocean depths at my leisure.

As Jonet was surely doing, I raced through the waters like a rouge torpedo. Only, I was using gravitational waves to detect the seafloor and a plethora of marine life that was denser than the tanks in a world-famous public aquarium.

While I swam around, capturing entire schools of fish in a temporally locked pocket dimension, I tried my best to study the strong gravitational waves coming from the depths far below. They were everywhere. Leviathans. Truly massive beings slumbering in the deep depths. Creatures so large their arms and proboscis' dwarfed the likes of colossal squids by an order of magnitude. A part of me wanted to descend to see them for myself. But the thoughts of bringing a calamity upon this realm just before I left it convinced me to turn back towards Packy.

Though, much to my delight, my actions were rewarded with the crown jewel of all ocean predators.

Orcas.

An entire pod of them.

Naturally, however, that posed a problem. Orcas were matrilineal creatures who were just as social and intelligent, if not more so, than humans. Their communities, clans, and pods could all be traced to a common ancestral matriarch. That caused each matriline to develop their own unique speech patterns, dialects, and hunting techniques. Stealing a couple would've not only turned a community of at least a few hundred orcas against me; but, depending on which one I captured, could prove to be detrimental to the survival of the entire pod.

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Still, though, I wanted orcas in my Menagerie. So I sped towards the pod with shadow mana pooled in my hands.

Once I was within range, I spread the energy in a cloud around me like a squid ejecting its ink. Reducing the ambient contrast until all I saw were twenty-six gray-on-gray whales scrambling to escape my domain. I let most of them escape and instead, sent my umbral hands after the smaller ones. Specifically, the ones with smaller, falcate fins. The females.

I managed to capture three before the pod looped around and turned on me, and, rather than kill the whole pod, I sped away to the north. It went without saying, but the compassion I showed towards animals was magnitudes greater than the empathy I had for people. Animals were the Petri dish’s retainers. Their actions had a purpose. In contrast, the culture only destroyed. Thus humanoids needed to be guided by one who could see beyond the dish's walls. As such, my willingness to help the common person was more… situational. Animals, on the other hand, were to be helped, killed only for sustenance, and only taken with moderation. Unless of course, they were abominations.

Of course, that meant that I didn’t want my companions to slaughter them either. So I led them as far north as their interest would allow before I took to the skies to loop back around to the ship for a nice shower. The several hours after were spent lounging about in my bed, reading, writing, and watching the water pass by and splash on the windows until the sun began to set. Marking the start of our first and only leisure period.

By the time I appeared on the lower deck, the perpetual hum of the engine had lulled to a halt and Valoo had been made accessible to Packy via a magnetic hook and wide passerelle. More importantly, Ed finished his latest project and arranged the dining table with several long, slender boxes. Already knowing what they were, I grabbed two of them and ran outside to toss one to Roheisa.

“What is this?” The Princess asked, despite her already ripping the box open.

“A fishing pole.” I beamed.

Her face wrinkled as she looked the fine piece of craftsmanship up and down with disgust. “A fishing… pole?”

“As in a pole, for fishing. Yes.” I amiably nodded, prompting her to throw a short-lived scowl my way.

“Why would you use a pole to fish when you can just use magic?” Roheisa scoffed.

“Because.” I settled into a seat on the stern with a groan. “It’s soothing. It makes for good conversation. And, most importantly of all, it’s an art.”

“An art.” She rolled her eyes. But sat beside me nonetheless.

“Besides.” I took her line to bait it up. “You never know when you might need the skill.”

“Oh?” She took the pole back from me with a mocking snort. “I thought it was an art?”

“Are they not the same?” I paused to cast my line. “Fishing. Cooking. Hunting. Fighting. The elements. Magic. Given enough practice, these skills can be performed in ways that can be seen as art. Beautiful. Just like paintings and music and sculptures.”

“I suppose you’re right.” The Princess said after struggling to cast out her line. Then, she turned to me with a scrutinizing gaze. “Is that what you were taught as an elf?”

I quickly shook my head. “My mother only told me stories and gave me freedom.”

She looked away, nodding slowly in response as if several questions had just been answered. Though, the scrutiny remained in her eyes and seemed to magnify after turning back to me. “What kind of stories?”

“Stories of Youtera's culling,” I calmly said.

Her face wrinkled again. “I thought elves were peaceful.”

“Drow." I corrected with a snort. "Because of our affinity with mana, we believe ourselves to be the greatest creatures in existence. My mother believes it, and so do I. Though, for different reasons.” I snorted. “On top of that, drow are incredibly selfish and driven. They’ll step over anyone to accomplish their goals.”

“But you’re still part human,” Roheisa reassuringly said. “… half.”

‘Unfortunately.’ I sighed. “According to some. Yes.”

From there, the conversation abruptly ended. Bringing about a short period of silence that was interrupted by a fish catching on my line twenty minutes later. After seeing me reel in and store a strange-looking fish in my pocket dimension, Roheisa’s interest in learning the skill seemed to have spiked, if only by a little. But nevertheless extended the blissful period of silence for a little while longer.

Luckily, that wasn’t ruined by me sparking up a smoke, nor were the fish being scared away by Lucia training on Valoo’s main deck. With Giorno, Letta, and Ed working or cooking inside, I could only turn my attention to the speckled sky, the distant graying horizon, and the other two looping around each other in the skies above.

While Toril was busy trying to master using his magics in conjunction with his chair, Jaimess had taken inspiration from Toril’s chair and some designs by me to make a sort of obsidian-clad jet plane propelled by elemental manipulation. It was an interesting sight. And so too was the Cast Iron Summit in the far distance. Reduced to a colossal mountain that still towered over the northern sky. Similarly, the lush landscape of Maru’s largest continent had grown to encompass much of the southern and western horizon. Though, we still were only about halfway there.

With nothing to really admire outside, I turned my gaze inward to the mental ‘dial’ responsible for increasing the intensity of my passives. An effort that turned out to be a far longer and much more intensive endeavor than melding my mana sight and natural vision into one field of view. Now, I had a type of spatial and temporal sense that gave precise measurements of things in my vicinity and, of course, tracked time. On top of that, I could see and feel gravitational waves and view the world in every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. A mesh of passives that, if it weren’t for my Eternal Eye, would’ve surely caused me to stroke out from sensory overload just after awakening my cores. It was that powerful.

So powerful I assumed I’d never be able to mesh all of the senses into a unified input. So, as I did with my Eternal Eye, I took the time to redesign it from the ground up.

To start, I tuned the gravitational waves to behave as mana did for the majority of the human race. Wherein it’d be akin to a sixth sense that registered the energy as a type of radiant pressure; only, the gravity waves cascaded onto me from every direction like I was standing on an omnidirectional shore. A shore with waves that swept in at lightspeed. After that, I chose to divide the electromagnetic spectrum among my natural senses. Like a snake, I made my mouth and nose as well as my eyes sensitive to infrared radiation, or heat. In turn, I tuned my ears to perceive microwaves and radio waves, then turned the saturation down on ultraviolet light before melding it with the visible spectrum. Leaving gamma rays and x-rays to deal with. With there being no source of such intense radiation, however, I elected to have the energies registered in the same way as gravitational waves and readjusted my eyes to shift through wavelengths as needed.

With that done, I actually looked inward to check on the numerous spells and growths contained within my magical second body. As always, the dozens of red and green souls stolen during my reign as Corvus Tower’s executioner were orbiting my void core like ornaments on a high-gravity Christmas tree. While I still had fifty burning souls, I lost twelve Aegis souls as a result of the ‘gifts’ I gave to my precious followers. On top of that, my match against Sergeant Velasco taught me that I still had a ways to go in Usurping Life before I could continuously fight people of her caliber. Contrarily, matching the strength of a human was nowhere near enough to bring me anywhere close to Grandpa Lich’s level. Which meant I needed one more group of degenerates to find.

‘Shouldn’t be too hard.’ I grinned to myself.

“Amun, I have a question.”

‘Dammit.’ I internally groaned. But turned to her with an amiable expression. “Yes?”

“When we first met and you didn’t bow to my father.” She said, then paused. “I’m curious. If the Necro King wasn’t present, would you have bowed to him?”

‘I have knee problems.’ I snorted to myself and masked it behind a long drag. Then, exhaled dramatically before turning to the princess with a soft smile and a curt nod. “I would’ve.”

“Hmm.” She turned away, nodding slowly. Then shifted her gaze a degree back to me a moment later. “Then, tell me. Do… do you have an eye for Jonet?”

“No.” I snorted. ‘But Jaimess does.’

“That said.” I turned to fully face her with a long sigh. “I don’t have an eye for anyone in particular.”

“Oh?” She coyly looked away.

“There’s no way to explain this without sounding edgy.” I sighed. “But, I’m a half-drow, Roheisa. And, I’m a necromancer by birth. I’ll live for centuries before I even begin to look old. And that’s without the influence of magic. Besides.” I amiably turned back to my line. “Romance isn’t my priority at the moment. That comes later.”

If at all.