My Talent's Name Is Generator

Chapter 1147: The Voyage

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

The days following my duel against Shade had been surprisingly peaceful. Preparations consumed every waking hour as representatives from each civilization finalized supplies, selected their strongest Saints and completed countless logistical arrangements that only became apparent once an expedition of this scale actually began taking shape.

By the time everything was ready...

The Prime Territory had quietly assembled the greatest exploration force in its recorded history.

Our departure took place before sunrise.

There were no ceremonies, no grand speeches and no crowds gathered to bid us farewell. The fewer people who knew about our destination, the greater our chances of reaching it before the Eternals realized something unusual was happening.

Gerald insisted that secrecy was our greatest weapon.

For once...nobody argued with him.

The vessel itself exceeded every expectation I had formed while listening to Gerald describe it.

It measured nearly four hundred meters from bow to stern, yet despite its immense size, the entire structure possessed the streamlined appearance of a native Soul Sea leviathan. Its exterior wasn’t built from ordinary wood or metal. Instead, overlapping layers of black scales covered the hull, each one engraved with countless concealment arrays that subtly altered the ship’s spiritual signature.

From a distance, even I would have mistaken it for another massive creature swimming through the endless ocean.

Only after stepping aboard did I realize how much work Gerald had hidden beneath its elegant appearance.

Every corridor was lined with reinforcement arrays.

The command deck contained enough formation cores to sustain the vessel for months without external support.

Observation towers had been constructed around the upper decks, allowing Saints to monitor every direction simultaneously, while dozens of hidden compartments stored emergency supplies, weapons and spatial artifacts contributed by nearly every civilization participating in the expedition.

Most impressive of all...

The ship was almost silent.

Despite moving through the Soul Sea at astonishing speed, it produced barely a ripple behind it.

Gerald had simply called it The Queen.

Nobody questioned the name.

There were twenty-three of us aboard.

The five Ironheart Saints—Evelyn, Marcus, Samuel, Dean and myself—formed the expedition’s core. Gerald, despite refusing any formal title, naturally became responsible for navigation, logistics and every strange invention that somehow made impossible situations seem almost ordinary.

The remaining representatives came from every major civilization that had answered Evelyn’s invitation. Sue, Dream and Ork represented the Astrals. Kaelra stood alongside her daughters, Lyra and Sera.

Aster arrived with two Essari elders whose names I still struggled to pronounce correctly. Shade traveled with two silent Noctari companions who rarely spoke unless addressed directly. Aelion, Caelan and Lady Elara represented the Elven Sanctuary, while the remaining places aboard belonged to the Griffons, Nagas, Demons and several races that had chosen to entrust their future to this expedition.

Although everyone came from different races...

The atmosphere aboard the vessel remained remarkably harmonious.

Perhaps because each of us understood the same truth.

Failure wasn’t an option.

Gerald’s communication system also proved far more ingenious than any of us had anticipated.

Rather than constructing bulky transmission devices, he had forged small bracelets made from polished black beads threaded together by silver wire. Each bead contained a miniature resonance array synchronized to every other bracelet aboard the ship.

Whether separated by kilometers, hidden within another pocket dimension or exploring entirely different sections of the Soul Sea, anyone wearing the bracelets could communicate with the rest of the expedition almost instantly.

"They’re ugly," Sue had complained while putting hers on.

"They’re masterpieces," Gerald corrected.

The conversation had ended exactly where everyone expected it would.

The Soul Sea itself, however, offered no such moments of comfort.

Every passing day revealed creatures larger than entire settlements gliding silently beneath the black water. Some resembled serpents stretching beyond the horizon, while others looked like floating islands whose backs supported forests of crystalline coral.

More than once we altered course after distant mountain-sized shadows drifted beneath the surface, and twice Gerald deliberately steered us into violent spatial storms because, according to him, they were "far safer than whatever was sleeping underneath."

Nobody laughed.

Not after seeing the things that occasionally opened their eyes beneath the waves.

By the seventh day, even the constant danger had begun feeling strangely ordinary.

I stood alone near the bow, quietly studying the endless ocean ahead, when footsteps approached from behind.

"You’ve been staring in that direction for nearly an hour."

I turned to find Evelyn standing beside me. Sue leaned casually against the railing a few meters away, while Kaelra arrived carrying two glasses of some amber-colored drink, offering one to Evelyn before taking a long sip from the other.

"I’ve been wondering," Kaelra said, resting both forearms on the railing, "exactly how much farther we’re supposed to sail."

She looked toward the endless horizon before glancing back at me.

"And more importantly....how in the world did you even find the location of the sealed current?"

Sue smiled faintly.

"I’ve been curious about that myself. The Astrals searched for the prison for generations. Our seers glimpsed fragments of its existence countless times."

She folded her hands neatly before her.

"Yet we never found it."

Her ticking eyes settled upon mine.

"So.....what did we miss?"

I couldn’t help smiling.

"Nothing."

Three puzzled expressions immediately looked back at me.

"I simply spent a very long time researching every fragment of information I could find."

Kaelra narrowed her reptilian eyes suspiciously.

"That’s an incredibly vague answer. We are not children or are your suggesting our people were bad at ’research.’"

"Its the later part."

She snorted.

"I had a feeling."

Sue laughed softly.

"I rather like mysterious leaders."

Kaelra immediately looked at her.

"I don’t."

She pointed toward me.

"I prefer leaders who explain things."

"I explained plenty."

Sue chuckled quietly, watching the exchange unfold before turning her attention toward me again.

"I have a question of my own."

"What is it?"

"You’ve mentioned the real world several times."

She studied my expression carefully.

"But you’ve never once spoken about your home."

Kaelra immediately looked interested.

"Actually..."

She smiled.

"I’ve been wondering the same thing."

Her golden eyes brightened noticeably.

"How are the Dragon Clans doing these days?"

I blinked.

"I honestly wouldn’t know."

Three confused faces looked back at me.

"I’ve never met a Dragon."

Silence.

Kaelra laughed.

"No. I’m serious. I’ve never even seen one."

Her smile slowly disappeared.

"...Impossible."

I shrugged.

"My home galaxy doesn’t have Dragons."

Sue’s ticking eyes slowed noticeably.

"No Dragons....at all?"

"Not a single one."

The three women exchanged glances.