Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 309: Retribution Awaits

"I remember this place being much more difficult," Finn mused to himself, his voice audible even over the screeching wind of the temporal storms. "I needed a trance just to survive the crossing. But now..." he left the statement unfinished and simply chuckled, his meaning clear.

With a mere thought, he steered the serpent soul mass he stood on. The beast weaved through the chaotic air, banking hard to avoid a bolt of purple-white lightning that materialized out of nowhere. The spatial distortions moved in cycles that Finn predicted seconds before they occurred. Because he had others in tow, he didn’t take the direct, brutal paths he could have taken alone. Instead, he wove a route that maintained the integrity of the Error dome, ensuring Madoc and Osmund remained untouched by the "sludge-like" time outside.

Now that it was blatantly clear that the crossing was but a minor matter, Finn allowed his curiosity to take hold. He began to tour the Stagnant Sea, genuinely observing the pockets of time they passed. Massive vessels from lost ages hung in the frozen waves, their sails billowing in winds that had stopped blowing centuries ago. Finn steered the serpent closer to a multi-decked warship that was splintering in mid-crash. He could see the terror frozen on the faces of the crew, their final moments preserved in a temporal cage.

"These were experiments," Finn whispered, his eyes scanning the hull of a ship that looked built for exploration. "Exploits of Casmir and the other Transcendents when they were hunting for faith, exploring worlds to see what they could harvest. These beings were weak divines, or at least, like you Anaelle, they had the potential to be. And Casmir trapped them here like bugs..."

Madoc and Osmund only now knew he was speaking to them and not just musing to himself. The whole time, they had been watching Finn numbly after a terrifying realization dawned on them.

The two Anaelle were Space Fragment bearers, and as such, because this space... this phenomenon that was the Stagnant Sea was made with space magic, they could feel, more than anyone else, the vast chasm of expertise required to create such a location.

The looped times, the differing pockets of timeflows, the chaotic space — they were all masterpieces of their own original Transcendent. And yet, Finn was coasting through it like it was his backyard. He was weaving a monolithic soul mass through world-ending strikes and time traps without even breaking a sweat.

Now, truly and more than ever, they knew Finn was no longer human. He wasn’t even a bearer of a fragment anymore. He was a God, through and through. That realization had been creeping in their minds ever since he first came back from his time travel journey, but now, seeing this... seeing how easily he treated the original Space Transcendent’s masterwork, that realization was cemented firmly and unshakeably.

Suddenly as they were staring at Finn with this new realization, he jumped off the beast for no obvious reason whatsoever.

At first, Madoc and Osmund nearly cried out in alarm. They watched as Finn’s figure blurred into the distance, heading toward a ship that was trapped in a particularly dense pocket of chaotic space while they remained atop the dragon, floating in the roiling wave of chaos.

But then to their surprise, they found out they were unnaturally calm. They realized that they had both become so accustomed to Finn’s displays of power that they simply assumed he would return no matter what.

And as if to prove them right, after just a few minutes, Finn appeared again. His shirt was creased and he looked as though he had exerted himself slightly, but his smile was broad. He landed on the dragon’s head and looked at them. "How much time has passed for you?"

"A couple of minutes, Lord Errant," Madoc replied courteously.

Finn’s eyes lit up. "Heh. Time is truly a fickle thing in here."

He immediately steered the serpentine dragon toward a titan. The humanoid giant was drowning in the frozen sea, its massive hand outstretched toward the dark clouds. Finn disappeared again, leaving them in the shadow of the titan’s fingers. This time, he was gone for a full thirty minutes. When he returned, his shirt had a char mark at the edge and was much more crumpled, but his smile had only grown larger.

"Fascinating," he muttered. "The way the failed, broken divinity is being suppressed to fuel the sea... Casmir was a genius in his own twisted way."

For the next hour, Finn continued his excursions. He would branch off to examine ships, creatures, and ruined vessels frozen in time, always returning with new observations. He explored up until they reached the peak of the apocalyptic wave, where the water met the stormy sky.

As they reached the crest, he allowed Madoc and Osmund the chance to look back. Behind them, the island of the Anaelle was a featureless patch of green, browns and even white at the furthest regions, showing different terrains. It was the place they had come to call home. But now, looking at it in its entirety, they could see it for the prison that it was more than ever.

They tore their gaze away and looked to the other side. To the lands beyond the Stagnant Sea, setting their eyes upon it for the very first time.

Finn was also doing the same. His gaze was undecipherable as he stared at the prehistoric forest he had fled from all those weeks ago.

"There it is," Finn said, his touring excitement finally dying down. "The start of the journey back."

The descent was straightforward. Finn didn’t branch off again. He steered the serpentine dragon straight toward the shore, weaving the massive beast through the shortest path of the Stagnant Sea for the rest of the way.

In minutes, they were floating above the normal waters, the towering wave left behind them like a nightmare that had ended. They moved over the large prehistoric forest, the trees looking like a green carpet below.

The two Anaelle had conflicted looks on their faces. They were trying not to get emotional, yet they couldn’t play down the significance of this moment. They were outside the walls that had kept them like cattle for generations. They were finally free, standing above a land that had existed only in their dreams and prophecies.

Finn shared the moment with them, looking at the forest for a silent few seconds, before turning to the two space fragment bearers. The playful glint was gone from his eyes, replaced by a cold, sharp seriousness.

"It is time to get to work..."

"Retribution awaits."