The fleet plowed through, slicing through the water, leaving a trail of water heading towards the Heze Sea ahead.
As they glided past,
Some fragments of flesh and limbs were dragged into the water by something, presumably a carnivore.
"Bang!"
With a sound as the sea surface broke apart,
A three-meter-long, extremely bizarre, even deformed, sharp-toothed fish leaped out from the water.
"Boom!"
A thunderous roar.
A gray-blue lightning bolt shot straight from the side.
It passed Jason's shoulder, standing by the side of the boat, and struck the strange fish that leaped up, about to bite him.
The gray-blue lightning struck the fish with pinpoint accuracy, creating a massive wound. A third of its body dissipated, quickly losing its life, and it fell into the sea.
As it fell into the sea, countless other strange fish of its kind gathered around it and began to gnaw at its corpse.
Bororo strode over, observing the situation below. The lightning patterns on his body flashed.
A flood of lightning shot through the water below.
As this lightning surged into the sea,
Smoke drifted out, and flocks of strange sea fish emerged from the surface, only to be torn apart and dragged back into the water.
Watching this scene, Alka frowned.
Some of these fish, less infected, could still be roughly identified as their former species; they had eaten them before.
A large number had become completely deformed, making it impossible to tell their original species.
But it was clear that all of these had been altered by some force, not something naturally occurring.
Julia stood by the boat, observing the sea outside. A coin floated beside her, flipping over and over.
"What's going on with these fish? Why are they like this?" Jason asked in confusion.
"They're desecrating the ocean!" Pororo was furious, the lightning streaks on his body even spreading across his face, making him appear incredibly ferocious.
Not only him, but even Matlisa and Julia behind him were filled with uncontrollable rage.
As the corpses floated out, more and more strange fish gathered.
The three began using their respective abilities to clear the fish below.
Even before the Voice of Dawn reached the edge, Alka and the others joined in the clearing of the strange fish.
Although they all knew that their actions were a drop in the bucket for such a vast expanse of ocean,
Two church groups sailed behind them.
The captain of one of the Holy Mother Church's ships observed Alka and his men's actions.
"That shark-man on their ship is actually a Storm Champion?" He turned to a nearby priest in confusion.
"We only just found out now," said the priest, the liaison between the Holy Mother team and Alka's group.
He was quite familiar with Alka and his group.
"Storm Champion, truly formidable," the leader said.
Soon, the fleet approached the edge of the marsh.
Alka and his group boarded the Flying Swallow and sailed out through the opening at the bow.
As they sailed out, the Voice of Dawn slowly drifted away.
Alka and his group waited in the swamp for the church team behind them to finish their work.
The massive steel ships lined up at the marsh's edge, then, with the roar of machinery, rows of openings opened on the sides of all the ships.
One after another, ships resembling speedboats floated out, towing huge floating platforms behind them.
The platforms carried various mechanical constructs and members of the church. The machine roared furiously in the direction of the Holy Mother Church.
"Lord Sarati."
The middle-aged man named Sarati, the leader of the Holy Mother Church, waved his hand and looked toward the Holy Machine Church. "Hmph, childish."
He turned to the priests and knights behind him and said, "Pull out our ships!"
"Yes!"
With the command, soft beams of light drifted out from the ships behind them, weaving in the air into the shape of small boats.
The church members behind them boarded them.
"Are they fighting?" Lucilia asked doubtfully, sitting on Alka's shoulder.
Alka smiled and nodded.
It made sense. After all, they belonged to two different gods, separated by a single island.
While appearing harmonious, they were undoubtedly competing in secret, in various ways.
This wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
As the group was talking,
The leader of the Holy Mother Church, a middle-aged man named Arati, paddled towards Alka and his group in a small, light-woven boat.
Alka finally had time to observe the leader.
He had a head of dull, wheat-colored, medium-length hair. Scars marked his forehead and chin, and even his beard wasn't clean-shaven, giving him a rather unkempt look.
He wore a form-fitting, soft, light armor, covered by a cloak-like outer garment.
He looked like a wandering knight.
A greatsword, seemingly sixty feet long, was slung across his back, and two daggers were strapped to his calves.
In another direction, the leader of the Holy Machine Church also approached in a mechanical speedboat.
This leader was quite distinctive. He was a burly man, over two meters tall, his skin looking somewhat tanned and bearing visible signs of sunburn.
The most striking features were his shiny black bald head and his left hand. The area where his left forearm should have been was completely gone, replaced by a massive metal gauntlet larger than his head.
The exposed mechanical structure on top looked incredibly rugged, and one could see the energy or something glowing from within.
His upper body was exposed, covered in a dense mass of scars, burns, and bullet holes.
Even more striking was the weapon in his right hand: a massive mechanical power hammer taller than the rest of him.
"Tsk!" x2.
On the way over, the two men stood side by side, exchanged glances, and exchanged disdainful comments.
Finally, they arrived next to Alka and his crew's Flying Swallow.
Arati approached, saw Alka, and nodded politely. "Arati, a Knight of the Golden Wheat."
It might sound a bit corny, but wheat ears are a key symbol of the Virgin Mary.
That's why the more elite Knights of the Church are called the Golden Wheat Knights, much like the flower knights of the Flora Fairies. Simple and direct.
After introducing themselves, they looked towards the approaching ship of the Church of the Holy Machine.
To be honest, this leader didn't look like someone renowned for his knowledge and scholarship.
Even if you said he was a follower of the God of Blacksmiths or the God of War, it would be easier to believe.
Appearances can be deceiving.
After approaching, he first looked at Simon and nodded, then looked at Alka.
"Meet me, my name is Rickey. A Constructor Knight of the Church of the Holy Machine."
Alka also shook his hand and introduced himself. The two leading knights were both knights, and Alka could clearly sense their strength.
It seemed that starting at the fourth stage, he no longer needed glasses to aid his judgment. He could discern the strength of those not much superior to him with his naked eyes.
Although it was very blurry, Alka could roughly discern the strength level of these people.
For example, the two knights before him had both reached the fifth stage, or even somewhere in the upper middle of the fifth stage.
Or perhaps they were almost at the peak of the fifth stage.
The specific details were unclear, and judging the stage and the general direction was his limit.
"In recent years, few church members have been willing to explore the Zehai Sea, so our understanding of this area is still that of decades ago.
I wonder how much you know about this place now?"
Alati asked, looking at Alka.
"That's what people without ambition do," Rikai said, mocking Alka from the side.
Hearing this, Arati looked up at him. "Oh? Since you know, then tell me about it?"
"This is the Land of All Spirits, an area your church should be familiar with. How would we know? We're not impolite people."
"Polite? If your exploration team had any courtesy, it would be a sea change."
The two of them exchanged barbs, one after another.
Alka stood nearby, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Time is running out for you two. Why don't I tell you what I've learned?"
At Alka's words, the two men fell silent simultaneously. As if the previous sarcasm had vanished, they nodded calmly.
A map of the Land of All Spirits appeared in Alka's hand, and he held it between the three of them with his magic.
He could see various cursors marking information on the map.
Alka pointed to their current location and said, "We're roughly in this area, and our destination is here. This is the core of the Land of All Spirits, the fragrant land where the flower fairies reside.
According to our members who stayed on the island, approximately one-third of the Land of All Spirits has been occupied, with the main area being near the boundary between life and death.
The boundary between life and death is right here. Based on this information, we're probably at the edge of the occupied area.
So our current situation isn't entirely safe. We might run into the enemy if we move forward."
The two men looked at the information on the map and listened to Alka's account.
Alatti frowned and asked, "Is the information reliable? When was it received?"
"Reliable. Last night."
"Last night?" Rikai was a little surprised, but only slightly surprised. He nodded without further questioning.
He believed the credibility of Alka's information.
After briefly learning about Alka and his companions' knowledge of the area and their vastly superior information, the two began to question them, beginning to accept some of Alka's suggestions.
After a brief discussion, they returned to their respective teams and continued on their way.
However, Alka and his companions no longer needed to lead the way; they only needed to provide a general direction.
The team moved forward.
The light-woven boats of the Holy Mother Church sailed ahead, forming an arrowhead, while the iron ships of the Holy Machine Church were scattered on either side and behind.
Alka and his companions were positioned in the center.
Despite their formation, they were actually quite spread out, allowing them to cover a wide area.
A sound of inflation could be heard from behind, drawing Alka and his companions' attention.
A cone-shaped, blue-white balloon had appeared behind them.
Various machines floated around it, mounted beneath it.
Soon, an airship was assembled before them and floated into the air.
It stopped about two or three hundred meters away, following their team forward and providing visibility for everyone below.
"Even bringing an airship?" Jason was a little surprised.
Alka turned to Simon beside him and asked, "Can you tell what these mechanical devices they're carrying?"
Simon nodded. As a member of the Church of the Holy Machine, he certainly knew what they were.
"See those three things with those very noticeable, long gun barrels? They're powerful long-range artillery weapons. They look a bit new, likely recently modified, though fundamentally they haven't changed much.
The platforms pulled behind those speedboats are actually armed power platforms. They can quickly build a simple fortress on the spot.
Besides some standard weapons, there are more of the personal features of the church crew. They make up the majority, so I can't really tell."
Hearing Simon's words, Alka nodded.
Next to him, Sofia frowned and said, "With so many weapons, it seems this situation won't be so easy to resolve."
Alka also reminded him, "This is just the first advance team, mainly for rapid support. The main force is still behind."
The crowd only then remembered this and nodded in shock.
Clearly, this situation wasn't so easy to resolve. And they might not play a significant role in a real war.
As the group chatted, an alarm sounded from above.
"Hellish vibrations detected, 1.3 kilometers to the side and ahead."
Upon hearing this, Alka and the others immediately became alert, and the fleet quickly veered off course, heading in the other direction.
They headed straight for the location where the vibrations had been detected.
"It seems their target is clear," Alka observed, and then Ye's ship followed.
If the primary goal was to quickly support the Land of Fragrance, then turning back to deal with the Hellish vibrations elsewhere was clearly not a wise choice.
Alka didn't know about the Church of the Holy Mother, but the Church of the Holy Machine was willing to send so many people to support them, clearly because of the impact of the Hell Gate here.
Alka suddenly remembered the deformed fish he had seen on the coast. Those fish weren't simply killed. Julia examined the carcasses.
These fish had been transformed by consuming the monster flesh, and the energy fluctuations transmitted from the swamp sea had also affected them.
The terrifying thing was that the swamp sea was mobile, carrying the monster carcasses and the vibrations of Hell along with it, spreading across this vast sea.
This was clearly extremely deadly.
Thinking this way, the priority for both churches was to eliminate anything that could transmit Hell vibrations and the corresponding monsters.
The entire fleet's speed increased, and soon they sighted a massive portal, seven or eight meters tall, ahead.
The interior of the portal was a faint orange-red with yellow spirals.
A sulphurous smell wafted over.
Clearly, this smell was deeply connected to the demons of Hell.
Various demons emerged from beneath the portal. Most of them had red skin, which was more like muscle than skin.
Sharp claws, sharp teeth, and bizarre horns.
These demons, large and small, came in all shapes and sizes.
It wasn't that they were idle, but rather engaged in a fierce battle with the undead monsters that had burst forth from the boundary between life and death.
These demons were numerous.
But it was clear that the undead monsters from the boundary between life and death were even more numerous.
To a certain extent, the two sides were at a stalemate.
However, the portal seemed to have a limit on the number of demons it could transport through, and the number being transported was visibly decreasing.
But the number of undead from the boundary between life and death was increasing, seemingly endless.
Observing this situation,
The two knights of the church were very sensible and immediately gathered their team to turn and leave.
They were far away and hadn't alerted either side, who were already engaged in a fierce battle.
The team, having turned around, sped up, moving faster than they would have if they had been heading straight for the Land of Fragrance.
Alka and the others also witnessed the battle in that area.
The largest number of undead monsters at the border of life and death were much more than what they had encountered before at the Emerald Fortress on the border.