Dristel looked around in confusion. He hadn't sensed anyone attack him. He didn't sense anything even while he was suspended in the infinite expanse of darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, Dristel began feeling a little frightened. He couldn't sense what had happened to his body or how much time had passed since he was first submerged in the darkness. However, he realized someone had used a spell against him. After making that realization, Dristel pushed his martial energy through his body to try and push the spell out of him.
Although he couldn't sense his martial energy or the foreign mana clinging to him, he didn't have to. As a ninth level fighter, Dristel had more than enough experience wielding his energy to do it even without being able to sense it.
Dristel's martial energy scattered the darkness mana that clouded his mind and body. As soon as the spell faded, he realized only a few short moments had passed.
However, in that short time, the three pirate leaders had disappeared into thin air, and his brother was also quickly disappearing.
Dristel stepped forward instinctively to chase after his brother and the black-haired man that was dragging him by the collar. However, the hole in the ground right in front of his feet made him stumble and helped him maintain a cool head.
The black-haired man could have just as easily killed Stris if he could kidnap him. At least Stris wouldn't die immediately.
Dristel ordered his navy to split up. Half would stay and take care of Pirate Haven, and the other half would follow him and chase after the kidnapper and Stris.
Dristel cast a second glance at the hole in the ground teeming with fluctuations of space magic before he jumped to his ship.
Either someone used a treasure to teleport away the three pirates, or a space mage was involved. However, if they could teleport the three pirates, why didn't they take Stris as well? Maybe the item was riddled with limitations, or maybe there were different parties involved.
Dristel's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the black-haired lightning mage zipping to the other end of the island. He had expected someone to pick come and pick up the kidnapper and Stris. Dristel was confident that his fleet wouldn't lose to any other ship in the Void, which was why he wasn't too concerned about not being able to catch up to the kidnapper himself.
However, unlike what he expected, the black-haired mage darted right into the Void without a boat ready to catch him.
Dristel was about to throw himself off his ship and catch Stris since Stris' body wouldn't be able to hold out against the pressure of the Void for more than a few moments.
Dristel's expectations were subverted yet again. The black-haired mage wasn't jumping into the Void to kill Stris using some fanaticism or worship of the god of the Void.
Toz entered the Void as he coated himself and the unconscious Stris in a layer of void mana. He used both void magic and lightning magic to breeze through the Void, further increasing the distance between himself and the Starsling Kingdom's navy.
Dristel's eyes blazed in fury as he ordered his navy to move. Due to Stris' reports and previous investigations about Pirate Haven, Dristel knew about the Cult of Nihiltas and the cultists' void magic. However, the black-haired man had used lightning magic to escape from Dristel's grasp, so Dristel hadn't suspected anything. Even if a cultist had shown up to help the kidnapper travel through the Void without a ship, Dristel wasn't worried. There was no way even a high level void mage would be able to outrun his ship.
However, things were different if the kidnapper could use both the lightning attribute and the void attribute. The kidnapper wouldn't have much difficulty trying to escape if they could use an attribute renowned for its speed while also being able to survive in the Void without worries.
And since it was at least a dual attribute mage, they would also have enough mana to run for quite a while.
Dristel egged on his crew to move faster, even if they had to handle the ship roughly.
Dristel's ship creaked due to the pressure that Dristel's crew put it under, but he didn't care. All that he cared about was getting his brother back and putting the kidnapper through excruciatingly painful torture.
Despite being the biggest, Dristel's ship began pulling away from the rest of the navy in order to catch up to Toz and Stris.
Toz looked back now and then to see how well Dristel and the rest of the navy followed him. He was a little dissatisfied that the biggest ship was putting distance between itself and the rest of the navy, but it wouldn't change even if Toz slowed down.
Toz kept the same pace. He moved just fast enough to narrowly keep the Starsling Kingdom's ships from catching up, but he also made sure he didn't move too fast so that the ships would lose their zeal. Part of the plan was to push the ships to their limit, after all.
The ships chasing after him and Dristel's blazing fury that Toz could sense burn into the back of his head despite the distance made him slightly nostalgic. Although the situations were completely different, being chased by an angry being that was a lot stronger than he was reminded Toz of the time with the Scorched Earth Rat King.
A lot had changed since then, and Toz and the cats were incomparably stronger compared to how weak they were back then. Yet, there were still some things that didn't change. There would always be someone stronger than them. And there would also always be a way to defeat people more powerful than themselves.
Toz looked at the ships, who had, one by one, begun to drop off the chase and slow down to a stop in the middle of the Void. He smiled at the sight.
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