Release that Witch

”The Swirling Sea is huge. It’s perfectly normal that it has some strange geographical features,” Thunder said after a moment of silence. ”I’ve seen weathered rocky mountains in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. They’re pretty similar to those stone pillars although they’re not that long.”

”But unlike the land, there’s no wind underwater...” Camilla left her words unsaid.

”Wind?” Joan’s voice suddenly popped up in Camilla’s head. ”There’s wind here.”

”What did you say?” Camilla asked quickly.

”Um, didn’t I make that clear?” Thunder replied with a cough. ”Then I’ll repeat... Back in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, I saw — ”

”Not you. I was asking Joan!” Camilla snapped. She knew she was being rude, but she had no choice and had to interrupt Thunder. ”Joan just said something... There’s wind at the bottom of the sea!”

The spectators on the deck were all mildly taken aback.

”I can’t feel it, but I can hear it... Listen, did you hear that?”

Camilla immediately concentrated. She knew as the channeling witch, she could hear whatever Joan heard. Instantly, she heard wind howl down the water just as air whistled out from a crack.

”I’ll dive further,” Joan said. ”But I have to change my position.”

With these words, she untied her dress and her legs made contact with the water. Blue scales started to emerge from her ankles and crept up her legs. She now had a mermaid tail.

Suddenly, Camilla felt all the pressure weighing upon her vanish. She marveled at how far and fast the tail propelled her through water. She swam even faster than a fish.

This was what Joan really looked like!

Joan dived even faster.

”200 meters deep, and the wind seems to be louder... Still nothing has changed undersea.”

”400 meters. It’s completely dark. Luckily, Joan doesn’t need light to see things. The stone pillars... are still deeper down there, and there are now new pillars.”

”Could you stretch the rope a little farther?”

”Damn it, how deep is the water now? 600 or 800? Joan isn’t sure. However, the stone pillars — ” Camilla broke off. ”No, that’s... impossible...”

”What’s the matter?” Thunder asked.

Camilla felt an ineffable chill run down her spine. ”The pillars, the pillars... disappeared!”

”Disappeared? As in it vanished?” Thunder pursued, his brows furrowed as he turned around to look at the sea. The reefs were still there.

Camilla held her own trembling hands and said, ”There’s no seabed... nothing... They’re suspended in the water!”

Everybody gasped.

Through Joan’s eyes, Camilla only saw the upper part of those stone pillars floating in the water. Their lower parts looked completely chopped off by some invisible force. Large reefs were simply suspended in the middle of the ocean in a creepy sort of way.

This was beyond the scope of her understanding.

”Suspended? Are you saying these islands are floating on the water?”

”By the name of the Three Gods, they’re all solid rock!”

”Woman, are you sure about what you see?”

”That’s impossible. Even if they’re floating, they can’t remain in the same position all the time. Without an anchor, the water currents would flush the Shadow Islands toward the Fjords!”

The deck exploded with discussion.

”Silence!” Thunder hollered at the crowd and they immediately became quiet. ”Are all the reefs floating like that?”

”I don’t know... They’re in different lengths,” Camilla mumbled. ”We haven’t reached the very bottom of those pillars yet.”

Meanwhile, Joan slowed down.

Even as a mermaid, Joan had a limit.

Just then, Camilla noticed a weird phenomenon.

Some pillars near Joan seemed to be stretched.

Those pillars were like tree trunks as they went straight down to the bottom of the ocean. Their ends were out of sight due to the darkness, and it was hard for Camilla to tell how long they actually were. What caught her attention was the patterns on the pillars and some barnacles attached to them. The pillars started to elongate at some point in the middle, whereas the barnacles, which supposed to be in a round shape, turned oval. They looked particularly strange compared to the normal pillars and barnacles a few meters away.

”Do you want to take a closer look?” asked Joan, who sensed Camilla’s bewilderment. ”They do look weird.”

”OK,” Camilla said while clearing her throat. ”Be careful.”

Joan started to slowly draw close to a pillar and stretched out her hand to touch the strange barnacles. Suddenly, something horrible happened.

Camilla saw Joan’s scaly fingers elongate.

”What’s going on?” Joan stretched out her hands in confusion. ”Is this an illusion?”

Camilla suddenly had a sense of foreboding.

Just when Camilla was about to inform Thunder, Joan stopped moving and stared at a fish that streaked past her nose.

It was just a silvery eel that was about an arm’s length long. However, when it passed the mermaid girl, it instantly stretched to around five meters and turned into something like a ”sea snake” that instantly plummeted to the bottom of the sea. Within a few seconds, the silvery eel was stretched to its maximum and its tail was still in Joan’s sight, but its head was already lost in the darkness. By that point, the eel was more than 100 meters in length! Within a blink of an eye, it disappeared in the sea with a flash of silver. It was as if it was sucked into something!

All the little hairs on the back of Camilla’s neck stood up!

She yelled, ”Get out of there! The exploration is over. Come back!”

But it was too late.

Joan struggled and her upper body still in the same position, but her tail was being horribly stretched to more than ten meters. It was as if something was dragging her down.

With panic creeping into her voice, Joan asked, ”What... what should I do? Camilla, what should I do?”

”Move faster... don’t stop. Kick harder! You can do it!” Camilla shouted hysterically.

However, Joan was sinking even faster. No matter how hard Joan moved her tail, she was sinking rapidly as though she was being sucked into a swamp. Now not only her tail was effected but her torso and hands started to elongate.

Upon realizing what was happening, Joan stretched out her hands in despair and cried, ”Help me...”

”No!”

Before Camilla could finish, she passed out.

Camilla opened her eyes. Sweat started to drip from the tip of her nose and fell onto the back of her hand as she braced herself on the floor. Only then did she notice that she was covered with a fine sheen of cold sweat.

”What happened? Is Joan in danger?” Thunder asked as he helped her to her feet.

It took Camilla a long time to come out of her trance. She muttered blankly, ”I don’t know. The channeling... was disrupted.”