Armad and his new 'family' rode from Seith toward The Wall. They took three days to reach the shore. The river surrounding the island was a tributary of The Wall and it had the same suffocating fog.
"The island is behind this fog." Aish said. "It's a deserted island that once belonged to my clan. Right now, only Dordors, Ghouls, goblins and other deadlier beasts inhabit it. They would try to kill but you will survive and kill them. If you can survive on the island for one week, you can survive the Jinzidal.
"The prolong absence of mages on the island has caused the nature energy there to raise significantly. Both spellcraft and swordmanship are significantly easier on the island. You will gain both combat experience and longevity. We will be here if you need us. Just use the ayrid comm I gave you. The Wall has been warded due to the upcoming Jinzidal, so there shouldn't be any dangers coming from there. Iliyasis, use your owls to scout the area."
Iliyasis nodded. The owl that had been floating above them and four others, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, flew into the island.
It only took a couple hours for Iliyasis to scout the island and reassured them of its safety.
Armad climbed into the waiting boat. He summoned his soul sword and disappeared into the foggy ocean.
Aish and her brothers set tents and waited for his return.
Armad spent three hours on the sea without encountering any obstacle. The closer he got, the thicker the fog became, until he could see nothing beyond his little boat. When he was a few meters away from the island, the temperature raised. As the dense nature energy from the island hit his skin, he saw fish running away from the island. Unlike mages, any being who couldn't use nature energy would feel suffocated by it. But that just meant there would be plenty of magical creatures waiting for him on the island.
It was time to hunt.
Armad could see the remnants of an old civilization, but it was all gone. All the buildings had been reduced to rubbles by the passage of time. The air was hot despite the cold breeze from the sea. It carried a feeling of fear and solitude, which further intensified the gloomy alleys between the ragged houses.
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He could already see giant brown ghouls chasing spirit nakes around. The goblins used the fallen castle as shelter while the smaller snakes burrowed into the ground.
It wouldn't have been a problem if there were only beasts, but four other people (three men and a woman) were also there on the island. And, although they weren't hiding, neither Iliyasis' owls nor Aish's senses picked them.
The woman was sharpening her sword with the nearby boulder, and the three men were locked in an argument. They all had white hairs which made them looked very old. If you looked at them from a distance, you would see wrinkled old men and a woman covered in a white hair and grey tattered robes.
"Commander, Saif Iqra has finally come to us. Our wait is over. Give the order and I will bring it to you in a blink." One of the men spoke. His voice was dry, cold and chilling, like the buzzing of a thousand bees.
The commander didn't respond. It would be difficult to know which one of them was the commander.
After a few seconds, the woman spoke. "Commander, we should wait for the one in possession of it. Think about it, how many years have we been waiting? One thousand? Two thousand? A few more hours won't matter. How many HEIRS OF WILBERFORCE have come and go but the book has never accepted any of them? I say we wait for him to come to us. If we act in haste, Saif Iqra may disappear again and we will have to wait for another thousand years. Once the target is within range, I can extract his soul and use it to control the Saif."
"And what about your sister that's waiting on the other side?" The first man asked.
The most surprising thing about this woman was that she looked exactly like Aish. Her voice, her skin, her face and even her moves looked exactly like Aish's. Their similarities had far exceeded the one seen between identical twins. If Aish wasn't there, Armad would have definitely mistaken this woman as her.
"Just because she is a Dúdu doesn't mean we are related. In case you didn't know, all female Dúdus look the same." The woman said. "All I am saying is we can't afford to make any mistake with anything that involves King Eyriyon Wilberforce. He is dead but his will still lives. If we want to steal his legacy then we have to do it smartly."
"We wait for the boy to arrive. Eliminate anyone who tried to interfere. We are lucky we find it before Uznu Urúrú, so we can't afford to make any mistakes." The commander finally spoke. He stood on the left. Short and muscular, with a voice like a sandal rubbing against mud.
As they discussed, Armad steadily approached the island, completely oblivious of what was waiting for him.