28 There is only survival
Sky returned to his parents' apartment along with Jericho and Jay. Mrs. J and her grandson weren't there anymore.
Sky made sure to take his ship with him to avoid it being stolen. He cannot use any of his ship's functions unless he is close to any ship he owns.
"Jay, Jericho, these are my parents."
Ben leaned towards them and shook their hands firmly while greeting them.
"Hey, Jay, Jericho, nice to meet you. Sorry about the mess." Jasmine said, embarrassed while lying on her bed.
"It's fine. It's fine. I've heard so much about you from Sky." Jericho smiled at her.
Jasmine spread her arms out to welcome Jericho in a warm hug.
"Come here."
Jericho found it awkward to hug someone she just met but she ultimatetely hugged her.
"You poor child. Sky told me what you've been through. It must have been rough for you."
Jericho let out a few tears before nodding her head.
"It's okay to cry."
Jericho let out a small laugh, "that's what Sky told me as well."
"Oh, did he?" Jasmine looked at her son as if she was proud.
Jasmine was not only an overprotective mom but she always found everything Sky does fascinating and would always compliment him even in the small things such as: catching a fish, taking out the trash, helping out with the store, doing his bed.
She does that because as a mother to see your child do something, to see him accomplish even small things that don't matter to anyone else was amazing.
"Sky, listen." Ben said, "we noticed something weird in your wording, are you going to leave?"
Sky closed his eyes. He expected this question.
"Yes. I told you that Jericho is from the Land of the Free. What I didn't tell you is that I promised her to take her back home to her family safely. Her family is worried sick about her. When I saved her that day it reminded me how I also wanted to come back home."
Ben sat down beside his wife and held her hand. They were shocked to hear that he was going somewhere very dangerous.
At first they thought he was going somewhere within the Land of the Free.
"The Land of the Dead is very dangerous, Sky. We think your reason for going their for Jericho's sake is honorable and amazing there's no doubt about that. But you need to be able to protect yourself before you learn to protect others." Ben said.
"He's right, Sky."
Sky noticed someone else entered the room, Mrs. J and her family.
"Mr. J! And Jake."
Jake was the older couple's only son. He was still shocked to see Sky, who they all thought was dead, alive.
The letter was a huge surprise to them but they didn't hold out any hope especially the past two weeks when Sky should have arrived by then.
"Sky, you should know that we are from the Land of the Dead." Mrs. J said.
"We were both born and raised there our whole lives." Mr. J added, "Eventually we met, and when we had Jake we decided to move to the Land of the Free where it was much safer for our son to grow. Along the way we met your parents and we became good friends."
'Identify.'
{Katherine Jade} (aka Mrs. J)
{HP: 990/990}
{Mana: 275/275}
{Str: 99 Dex: 79 Spd: 120 Int: 55 Mind: 23 Vig: 89}
{Eye of truth: lvl 2}
{Curse of slowness: lvl 3}
{Max Jade} (aka Mr. J)
{HP: 4,540/4,540}
{Mana: 1,660/1,660}
{Str: 130 Dex: 88 Spd: 240 Int: 332 Mind: 221 Vig: 444}
{Bubble shield: lvl 9}
{Fireball: lvl 3}
{Search: lvl 5}
{Water slice: lvl 9}
Sky was impressed to see Mr. J have such high stats and two red scroll abilities.
All this time he thought the old couple were ordinary but they weren't.
"Mr. J, were you an exterminator?"
"I was, until I got married and decided to retire."
"I forced him to retire because I didn't want to become a widow and I still don't." Mrs. J smiled.
"Sky, I have a question for you: what do you intend to do after you drop off Jericho?"
"I plan to explore. Clear portals. Get stronger."
"For what reason?"
"Because…"
Sky couldn't mention his system. He couldn't say how he wants to explore more about his system and what it has to offer.
It is his desire to learn that made him decide to keep going instead of staying with his family.
"Because of reasons I cannot explain."
"Point is Sky, I am considered strong in the Land of the Free. But at most I am considered below average in the Land of the Dead. It's a miracle how the little girl is alive, but it is impossible to thrive in the Land of the Dead."
"I know. I've met some people from that place."
"And were they strong?"
"Very."
Sky could not mention how he almost died multiple times from facing such people.
"And that doesn't scare you? To know you could die? To know you cannot face such an enemy because death will be imminent?"
"It does. I fear leaving you guys behind. I know I am not nearly strong as those I saw, but I am not looking to die. I still want to be with you guys. I still want to own my own shop someday like I always told you. But I want to do this."
Everyone looked at each other unsure of what to say to him.
Jericho and Jay were feeling awkward to be in that room.
"Sky, you said you grew stronger this past month, how strong?" Mr. J asked.
"Nearly as strong as you." Sky didn't want to be cocky with someone he considers family.
"Oh? In a month? In a land where you can only get green scrolls?"
Mr. J found that hard to believe. He has lived for twenty-five years in the Land of the Dead, ten of those were heavily dedicated to being an exterminator. Yet in a month Sky claims to be nearly as strong as him.
"Sky… let's say that is true, and you can beat me in a fight, it wouldn't matter because I am not considered strong there. Beating me means nothing to the ridiculously strong."
"I know. And I could never fight you because you're my uncle and I have known you all my life."
"Let's stop talking about fighting each other." Ben interjected, "Sky, we all care about you but we almost lost you. Everyone here loves you. We just don't want to send you to an early grave."
"I know. I know. And I also know that my strength is considered below average. And it will stay that way for a while. But I really want to go. I have to go. I already knew this conversation would happen the minute I decided I wanna go to the Land of the Free."
"Sky, come here." Jasmine urged him to sit beside him.
Sky sat on the bed and his mother gave him a tight hug.
"I don't want you to go. No parent in their right mind would send their only child to death. But when I see that little girl there *points to Jericho* I can only imagine what her mother is feeling right now, and she's been gone longer than you have so her pain must be greater than what I experienced believing you were dead."
"So you want me to go?" Sky asked.
"No, I would never want that. But you're a grown man, almost eighteen, with a brave girl on her side who is willing to cross the entire two Lands to find her father. And Jay who… I'm sorry, Jay, I don't know much about you."
Jay shrugged his shoulders, "It's fine. I just met Captain less than a week ago. I don't know much about him either."
"Point is, Sky, do whatever it is you want. I obviously want you to stay here where I can protect you with my life. But if you want to go to a dangerous land to bring home a little girl to her worried mother, I won't stop you." Jasmine began to let out some tears.
"You mean it, mom?"
"I do. I will never stop worrying about you. Never." She hugged Sky harder at the thought of him leaving.
After a long while Jasmine turned to Mr. J.
"Mr. J, since you're from the Land of the Dead can you teach my son some pointers? See how he's going to fare given your expertise?"
Mr. J smiled weakly.
"Of course. Anything for Sky. Come, you three. If you are all going back you need to learn some stuff about the dungeons I've been in."
Mr. J led them out of the apartment. Jasmine had a hard time letting Sky go.
"Mom, before I go I have some methods to communicate with you even if we're at such large distance."
"Really? How? With a phone?"
"No. You just to say yes to what I am about to ask you: wanna join my crew?"
Meanwhile…
The fishmen who massacred the entire Warlord's island were standing before a fire. They all had a grim expression.
They were honoring their fallen comrades.
"We will never forget the day a single, worthless, heartless human came to our island and massacred our friends, families… loved ones." Dei held tightly onto his trident. "We will never forget this anger, this sadness. All we wanted to do in this life is to live in peace after they ran us out of our homes. We will never forget, and we will never forgive."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The hate in their hearts was too much. Even if they were to kill Sky they will never stop being angry.
"Sir Dei! A Caribbean ship is coming towards us!" A small child came running to let everyone know what was happening.
"Can you three handle this?" Dei looked at three of his strongest warriors.
The three nodded, grabbed their weapons and ran to the ship to kill everyone.
"As I was saying, here's to the day we find the killer and avenge everyone we once knew." Dei stretched out his arm that was holding a cup of coconut juice because they had nothing better.
But everything became slow motion. He saw a splatter of blood from the corner of his eye. Turning around everything felt so slow to him.
He saw his men were being cut down left and right by an unknown being he couldn't make out. They didn't even react fast enough to defend themselves, even now they didn't know they were being cut down. The only reason Dei could see it is because he was the strongest one in the group.
But even while he is the strongest he cannot react or defend his people who were being slaughtered right in front of him.
Before he knew it, out of the 30+ fishmen still living only him and two others were left alive. But all of their arms were cut off and were lying on the ground. It all happened so quick.
"My hands!" Dei fell on his knees. His arms were cut off cleanly and were already healed to stop the bleeding. It happened so fast his brain couldn't process the pain fast enough.
Even his healing ability at level 9 could not regenerate his limbs. It can only close the wounds to avoid bleeding to death, but he was already healed.
"Looks like I didn't have to order the other ships to split up for you, fishmen. And here I was so worried you would have been a part of the Abyss family, but luckily I was worried for nothing."
Dei looked up at the person standing in front of him. It was a Caribbean man wearing a red outfit with four tidal waves as his ranking.
He was cleaning the blood on his blade with his red jacket.
"You're… aren't you… why are you…"
"Nope! I'm the one asking the questions."
The one in charge circled around Dei and others while waving his sword.
"You know I am not going to let you live today… HA! Just kidding! I'll let you live and whatever's left of your kind which isn't much anymore. You just have to tell me one. Simple. Thing. Have you seen a purple scroll?"
"A purple scroll? I saw one many years ago when the Abyss family-"
The Caribbean kicked Dei hard enough to rupture his ribs.
"I am not talking about what happened years ago. I only care about recently. You see, there was this brave, stupid, greedy man who stole it from us some six months ago, and we recently found him in this part of the Land. Problem is that when we found him he was already dead in this island that you and your people massacred, and he had no purple scroll on him, and your people killed him and were the last one to see him. So where is it?"
"The hell?" Dei was shocked. "I have not seen a purple scroll recently! If this guy stole it from you six months ago chances are that it's already gone!" Dei rebuked him.
"Yeah, I know, that was my thought as well… but the stupid people at HQ want to believe its still out there so I am just following orders and pretending its still out there, wasting my time, and all I know is that you have it but won't give it to me."
"I'm telling you I do not have it!"
He got up close to Dei and grabbed his face.
"I know you don't have it. So let's just pretend you do. Tell me where it is or I'll kill these two. And then I'll kill the children who are still alive for this very minute."
"Wait! WAIT! I know who has the purple scroll!"
The Caribbean man's eyebrows arched up.
"Who?"
"We saw this human some time ago. He killed our people. That's why we massacred all those people on the island, to find him and kill him."
"Is that so? And did you kill him?"
"I… he wasn't there."
"That's a lie, I can tell you're not entirely sure, are you?"
"I don't know! We were sure he was there, we didn't let anyone escape that island-"
"EXACTLY! No one escaped that island which means you took the purple scroll. Meaning you still have that scroll. I don't care what this man did to your people, all I know is that he was doing humanity a favor. And just for planning to trick me."
The man grabbed his sword. Before Dei could scream he saw his people's heads roll on the ground. To Dei the man didn't move from his spot but he was cleaning blood off his sword.
"Bring the children!"
A bunch of fishmen children were huddled together, scared, tied up from their wrists and feet.
"Now tell me where the purple scroll is or… I will send a child to slavery one at a time. And you know what happens when a human, like me, buys a fishmen child. I mean if it weren't because we were at war with your kind, and the mermaids, they would've sent me months ago to fetch that purple scroll instead of recently. So tell me, where is that purple scroll?"
"I do not have it."
*Snap*
One of the Caribbean men grabbed a child and dragged him to the ship. He begged, cried, kicked the air as he knew what was about to happen to him. The other children could only stare and cry.
"You have about twelve more chances to tell me where the purple scroll is before you run out of children. So where is it?"
"I… do not know."
*Snap*
Another child got dragged away.
"This is a fun game! One where you don't care what happens to those children." He smirked at him.
"Fuck you. Those are fucking children!" Dei was crying, this has been a terrible day for everyone.
"You don't think I know that? And you think I care? I didn't see you care or cry when you killed those human children in those islands! And according to my reports your kind have been slaughtering humans left and right, old or young, that includes 'fucking children' you fucking hypocrite."
The Caribbean men grabbed Dei's head and forced him to watch his men.
"You see my men? All of them have nearly experienced what you're going through. Bob over there got his baby's sister's face torn apart by mermaids! Christian there was sold to slavery by the fishmen and he has been scarred for life. Mason over there, who is a terrific cook by the way, you gotta try out his lasagna."
"Thank you, boss." Mason said.
"Mason's parents were raped to death by your kind. I know what sick twisted fucks your kind has done to humans, and I know what we have done to your kind. Truth is we have been doing this to each other since the dawn of time. There is no right or wrong in this world, there is no good or bad, there is only survival."
Dei looked down angrily. "All I wanted was to live a peaceful life with my people! WAS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!"
"You did? Guess what? So did I once with my family." He grabbed a photo from his left breast pocket and showed him a picture of him, his wife and his son.
"This photo was taken before I joined the Caribbean. It was a nice family vacation. BUT! While I wasn't looking my son was dragged to the depth's of the ocean by your kind. I chased after him and nearly lost my life in doing so. My wife killed herself out of the grief and pain your kind caused her. I have not found my son's body after all these years and I don't think I ever will. Your kind is the reason I am here to avenge their deaths. Your pain is nothing new. So now, tell me. Where. Is. That. Purple. Scroll?"
Dei didn't respond.
*Snap*
"Ten more to go."
