14 The Old Man And The Sea (2/2)

”So this is the old man's soul world? Looks like he's using water, like you,” Joshua observed.

”Indeed, his place is larger than mine though, he should be a fourth-ranked soul,” Catherine answered. ”We should move before the hydra realizes where we are,” she added.

Joshua nodded and looked around. The old man was nowhere in sight. He suspected he was probably trapped somewhere in here. He used Luna's mapping function to scout the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but still no sign of the man.

Seeing Joshua frowning, Catherine tried another method. She kneeled down and plunged her hand into the sea and closed her eyes. A light blue aura surrounded her as she did so. From what he could tell, Joshua assumed she was expecting the water itself. He waited patiently until she was done, which took about thirty seconds. She stood up and pointed east.

”There is something troubling the water in that direction,” she said.

He made a spoon appear in his hand. It looked like since this was still a soul world, he could materialize objects, although it costed more energy than doing so in his world or Catherine's.

Satisfied, he changed his outfit to look like a sailor, approached the shore and made a small motorboat appear.

”Arrrfff, come on, lass! The sea is waiting!” he said, in a ridiculous sailor accent.

Catherine just sighed and hopped on. She knew it would be pointless to ask about this new silly costume. As soon as she did, the boat sprang to life, similar to his bots the boat was equipped with a Luna autopilot function. The boat was much faster than the little raft Catherine had made. Still, reaching the area Catherine had found would take them several minutes. Since they were 'visitors' in this world, they couldn't just appear anywhere they wanted.

”How is it going outside?” Joshua asked.

”We're fine, we can keep the hydra at bay by constantly moving around.”

Joshua was only a soul, he couldn't be in two places at once. Catherine, however, also controlled her physical body at the same time as her soul projection. Therefore, she kept Joshua up to date with the situation.

After a few minutes, they realized the area was changing. The clear sea was ending and the water looked troubled. Even though they were still in a sea, the water was dark and muddy, it looked like it was taken from a swamp.

”We're getting close, the hydra is infecting the place,” Catherine said.

”So this is a piece of the hydra's soul world that's leaking into the old man's world?”

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”Correct, I fear the passage linking their world has been damaged and the hydra is just taking this world over. Given enough time, the old man's soul world would be completely consumed.”

”I see, this hydra is a real parasite. Slowly eating his host's soul to boost his own capacity… Hmm, I think Luna found something.”

Indeed, Luna had just detected an unusual form in the swampy area. It was too big to be a person, but it might be a small island, like the one they had appeared on. Hopeful, they sailed toward it, but when the form became visible they both looked at the horror with their mouth agape.

What stood before them in the middle of the muddy water was a large fleshly figure covered in scales. Sticking out of it, they saw the old man's figure, half-merged with it. The man appeared to be unconscious. The fleshly body seemed to detect something was coming near and soon the head of a snake grew out of it. Laying its eyes upon the intruders it let out a loud roar.

”Damn it found us. Well, that's still within expectations.” Joshua said.

”Indeed, but we also found what we were looking for. If we break the old man from that place, we win.”

Meanwhile, in the real world, the group was busy evading the hydra saw it suddenly stop its movement, roar loudly and vanish.

”Lady Catherine, did you get it?” Eric asked.

”Not yet, it found us…” she answered.

Without wasting time, Catherine told Joshua the hydra had dismissed its physical form and was most likely heading back here.

What happened next was within Joshua's expectation. Materializing a body in the real world was much more costly than in the soul world. When he saw dozens of snakeheads appear in the water one after the other he couldn't help but sigh. Despite the situation, he was strangely serene.