The God of Jesters
Chapter 557 - 9.01.4 The Voodoo pirates.

Chapter 557: 9.01.4 The Voodoo pirates.

There were no lies to the legends and stories Amir had been hearing about the Vercano islands, he had just entered their vicinity and the sun was already veiled by the clouds." Slow down.. There are giant waves incoming." shouted the captain through the speaker, with some of the sailers running around with a rope tied to their back, managing the ship. Though for most that remained on the deck, the waves and the storm were not much of an issue.

It wasn’t hard for them to stay on the ship with their feet alone. With Amir being one of them, he ignored the orders of the captain, considering none were for him, while watching ahead, hoping to see a silhouette of land.

"Be ready." Hemant on the other side managed the Knights that were sent to them by Deimos. Each of them being part of Deimos own private army, them coming here to back Amir won’t cause anyone to ask any odd questions. Not to mention, the things they planned to do won’t be exposed no matter what due to the heavy level of contractual limitations that have been imposed on each member of the ship.

"Kill all those you come across, there won’t be any hostages." Hemant gave the directives to the men who slowly wore the armor that was not allowed on the outside.

As for the reason?

The Vercano islands were home to pirates, and we are not talking about normal pirates. From what Rosso understood, the islanders rarely believed in any of the main gods.

Due to the centuries of isolation, the majority of islanders still believed in totems even when the ships brought them knowledge of the world around them.

The religion that followed the totems was voodoo, a branch of Curse Wielders that worship the spirits of the dead, some among which even enslave lower spirits or wraiths to do their bidding.

There is even something called the Voodoo warriors, beings whose strength never exceeds that of a Master Rank due to the flaw of their transcendent system, but it didn’t mean that their strength was false.

With an actual voodoo practitioner by their side, a voodoo warrior is even considered immortal and hence acts more like a scourge on the islands.

From what Amir understood, the Vercano islands were home to such beings. A voodoo pirate group made up of nine ships terrorized the islands in the area for centuries. There are even tales of these pirates regularly kidnapping citizens or people from the settlements close by to fuel their practice of voodoo.

As for what that entailed, one can only imagine.

"What are you thinking boy?" Came a voice, a voice that Amir hated for one reason or another, hence he didn’t speak much. Just choosing to look ahead.

"Not speaking, I presume that your grandfather spoke some unneeded words to you... don’t worry, I won’t do such things again, I have had my fill in Rudrain before." Dearma laughed while ignoring the ugly face that Amir made.

A laugh that did anger Amir a bit, but he turned quiet and said. "I am curious, these islands are so close to the mainland, and these voodoo practitioners had been headache for ages on the merchant’s ships, why haven’t they been taken down yet?’ As the storm picked up along with the waves, Most people had already started to struggle to maintain their balance, but there was not much effect of any Amir, who remained steadfast and looked at Dearma, wishing for some answer.

Though, he never asked such a question to hope for an answer from this man, no, all he wanted was to shut this sick mouth of his.

Though, Dearma, who thought that he finally got some level of response appeared happy. Acting as a senior, he spoke. "Oh My lord, you asked a question I am very privy to. Did you know, my family of Thunderbirds used to be lords of oceans, int eh old days when the sails still flew, we used to frequent this area and even hunted our fair share of pirates." The Thunderbirds were lord of the skies as well as the seas, or so were the legends in his family.

Though such legends did have some degree of reality, a Thunderbird on the ocean would experience a level of euphoria, gain heightened senses, and gain greater control over their lightning, making many wonder if the Totem of their family rose from the seas itself.

Though considering that a Thunderbird would still easily drown in the seas if they didn’t know how to swim, such considerations were abandoned with time. However, none of this stopped them from focusing their entire industry on the seas. "The issue with the old totems that have ingrained themselves here, as well as the scourge of Voodoo... for some odd reason, they are protective of each other when facing a foreign enemy."

"Solias Island Alliance made up of 57 major powers that exist in the northern seas... No, I just remember, one of the powers did disappear around four decades ago, was it Quatpol?" Due to being constrained in his jail cell for most of his life, there was little that Dearma knew of the current day. But it didn’t make him a completely ignorant fool.

Dearma in his free time had already focused his mind on some different subjects that might make his masters appreciate him a lot more, among which was a high level of mastery over Voodoo, the spiritual as well as curse practice of the island nations.

And hearing such words, Amir came to a pause. He had been aware of the alliance of the major island nations of the northern seas due to how famous they were.

The islands existed as a barrier between the Land of Azhad and Cynark, the two massive empires that were at the throat of each other all the time. Which caused the islands themselves to turn into war zones from time to time, with massive casualties of civilians and tribes that didn’t know better.

This is what forced the formation of the alliance that started with around seventy-two powers, that included small island nations to powerful warlords. Some among them were even strong pirates that occupied an entire island for their own.

However, the alliance accepted all as long as they had strength while putting not many constraints on its members. The alliance members can still take part in infighting and wars if they like.

They can still act like pirates or merchants.

But such fights will only go on as long as there is no third party involved from either of the sides... Because once they do, the whole alliance comes together and fights off the outsider.

’Yethel initially tried to become part of the island alliance, but they were kicked out.’ Of course, the reason was not something discriminatory, it was just that Yethel, even with most of its perimeters surrounded by sea, was still part of the mainland. And the culture it followed was also very mainstream.

It would be foolish to accept Yethel into their own. Not to mention, considering the vicinity of Cynark to Yethel, the Solias Island Alliance would have been forced into wars with Cynark constantly. Which they couldn’t afford.

They can only save their own, they don’t dare to save others far from them.

And nothing is wrong with that.

"Would our intrusion be considered a war?" Amir wondered, looking at his men in their sleek MAAS armor made specifically for the Knights.

"That would only be the case if any of your enemies survive or find a way to escape my domain... so don’t worry, enjoy the testing you wish to do here, it’s the least I could do for the limbs you gave me." Dearma truly enjoyed his new arms as well as legs.

It would have been easier for him to have his legs attached, unlike last time with Wortham, where he directly severed the casualty around his arm, making it impossible for him to grow organically or grafted on his body. The injury that Dragon gave to his legs was mostly a fleshy wound.

With enough time, and the vitality of a Legend, his legs might grow back on their own. And that’s what he intended for while recuperating from the harrowing fight with that monster, but then came Amir. Who after seeing the state of Dearma, made a simple suggestion that Dearma ended up accepting without an issue.

’My arms can be back?’ He thought and found the new arms made for him a bit too good.

And why wouldn’t they be good? The arms were made using high-level materials, under the hands of the Cynark’s greatest blacksmith as well as mages combined, with the blueprints and technology being provided by Amir.

All done to make sure that Dearma didn’t lose like last time. Turning his current limbs into weapons that directly targeted the abilities of Dragon.

As for what these abilities were, now was not the time, as Amir did end up finding some islands in the distance, though there were no ships on the shore. "Be ready."

******

"I have little time, I can’t suffer from burn again." He tried everything, his blood was strong and flexible if used as a thread or soft armor once it covered his body. But that was the limit of his blood, unless certain mutations were not introduced, the kind that would help him evolve to another level, then he wouldn’t be able to survive the following "flight."

"Something else, the metallic aspect... or?" It was at this time, that Rosso suddenly recalled some details about waves, how they form, and how you can control them. ’This seems... to be my memory.’

It was a classroom, an old classroom with many children of his age sitting on their desks as their teacher taught them about waves and frequencies. Knowledge that seemed useless at a time, but suddenly became useful. "... This timing feels too good to be true." Rosso wondered if this was a little bit of consciousness of the other tenant of his body. "Well, I thank thee."