Chapter 130: Two Clans
“Sky Island god, what business do you have coming to our place?”
Under the statue of the Great Warrior “Kargra” carved from Cloud Island, the Shandia Chieftain, wearing a wolf-head decoration on his head and somewhat tattered clothes, spoke to the Sky Island “god” opposite him.
Behind him were fully armed Shandia warriors with alert expressions.
However, the number of these warriors was not large, only fewer than two hundred, and there were even some women among them.
In comparison, the opposing Sky Island God Squad had over three hundred personnel, each equipped with excellent standard weapons.
“Shandia Chieftain, I have not come this time to reignite the flames of war, but for the future of both our clans.”
The Sky Island “god”—Gan Foll, dressed in a gorgeous white robe and flanked by several priests as escorts—spoke up.
He was only in his thirties at this time, in the prime of his life.
“Don’t joke around!”
Before the similarly young chieftain could speak again, a Shandia warrior with damaged wings stepped forward and cursed.
“You Sky Island bastards took our homeland, and now you come over talking about the future?!”
“If you want peace, fine! All you Sky people get out, give Xan Dorra back to us, and then we can talk!”
After he finished speaking, the Shandia warriors behind him chimed in agreement, rhythmically striking their shields to show their stance.
Of course, the opposing Sky people were not to be outdone; they directly raised the bow and arrows in their hands.
“‘Apayaado’ was given to us by the heavens, why should we give it to you?”
A member of the God Squad responded without yielding, which was the consensus of all Sky people.
These Sky people actually always had the habit of picking up things at the seaside that were brought up from the Blue Sea by the Skyward Sea Current.
Among them, ‘dirt’—something the Sky Island never had—was regarded by all Sky people as the most precious treasure.
They called it ‘Bass’ and established a faith around ‘Bass’.
This situation continued every day until four hundred years ago.
When the Sky people came to the seaside as usual, they discovered that this time the Skyward Sea Current had brought not those Bass chunks the size of a fist backpack, but an entire island.
Everyone was stunned; some even knelt on the spot, thanking this gift from the heavens, and called it ‘Apa’—meaning ‘god-given holy land’.
Then, naturally, the Sky people seeking ‘Bass’ clashed in war with the Shandia people defending their hometown.
In the end, this war between the two clans over land temporarily came to a close with the Shandia people being driven out of their hometown Xan Dorra.
But as a certain ‘Soviet father of the nation’ once said—”This is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.”
In the subsequent centuries, the Shandia people engaged in prolonged slaughter with the Sky people to reclaim their hometown.
The endless war exacted a heavy toll on both sides, with the weaker Shandia people’s population shrinking to less than a tenth of what it was four hundred years ago, pushing them to the brink of extinction.
……
Seeing their own personnel gradually losing control, Gan Foll and the Shandia Chieftain both helplessly tapped their staffs.
Both of them actually wanted to reach reconciliation between the two clans, but the blood feud between Sky people and Shandia people over centuries could no longer be resolved by just a few words from the two leaders.
Even though both held pivotal status, they ultimately had to consider the views of their entire clan, so they could only maintain a fragile truce to avoid open war as much as possible.
“Shandia Chieftain, I know the conflicts between our two clans cannot be bridged for now, but I truly did not come today with malice.”
“On the contrary, I came to inform you of a huge threat that both our clans may face.”
Pulling a photograph from his bosom, Gan Foll declined the accompaniment of the priests on either side and walked alone to the Shandia side.
Amid the hostile and wary gazes of the opposing Shandia warriors, he handed the photo to the chieftain.
“Hm? This, this is…!”
The chieftain, who had somewhat dead-fish eyes, widened them hugely upon clearly seeing the scene in the photo!
“What’s wrong, Chieftain?!”
The warriors behind saw the usually calm and composed chieftain show such an expression and thought the Sky people had done something sneaky, so they raised their spears to advance.
“Lower your weapons!”
“Chieftain?”
“Lower them.”
After the people behind the Shandia Chieftain calmed down, he gave a look to Gan Foll opposite, and the two withdrew from the crowd together to a slightly distant spot.
“Is the thing in this photo real?”
“Absolutely true! It was personally taken by the Amazon lady of ‘Heaven’s Gate’, then sent to me at the fastest speed by ‘Express Shrimp’.”
The chieftain nodded.
“Then what exactly is this? A calamity or…”
Looking at the scene in the photo identical to one after a calamity’s rampage, even someone as seasoned as him couldn’t control his heartbeat.
“It’s some kind of creature. The ‘Amazon’ lady said she saw huge red wings!”
As he spoke, Gan Foll pointed to the back of the photo, where Amazon had written what she saw after the camera was struck by lightning.
“Huge red wings wrapped in golden thunder （ This thing didn’t pay entry fees and damaged the camera, please demand tenfold compensation from them and reimbursement ）…”
Ignoring the long string of reasonable demands at the end, a bad premonition suddenly arose in the chieftain’s heart.
The patrol squad his side sent to the ‘White Sea’ hadn’t returned, with no news yet, and the squad sent to find them had also vanished without a trace…
Not daring to think further, the chieftain said in a low tone:
“If it’s true, if such a monster has really broken in here, then it is indeed a huge threat to both our clans.”
“Exactly, so I hope we can…”
Before Gan Foll could finish, noisy voices came from not far away.
The two turned to look and saw sudden commotion on the Shandia side.
“It’s Braharti and the others coming back!”
“What happened? Why are the others all passed out?”
“Did they run into some danger?”
“It must be those damn Sky people!”
“Hey! You Shandia people, don’t spout nonsense!”
Braharti, the captain of the guerrilla patrol squad in the ‘White Sea’, finally struggled back to the village with several of his still-unconscious team members.
Ignoring his companions’ anxious and concerned greetings, he shouted directly:
“Ch-Chief, where’s the chieftain?!”
“Th-there’s, there’s a monster coming up from the Blue Sea side!”
“Everyone, get ready quickly!”
“Chieftain!”
“I’m here.”
The Shandia Chieftain exchanged a glance with Gan Foll, then together pulled Braharti aside.
“Braharti, is the ‘monster’ you mentioned this?”
The Shandia Chieftain said as he handed the photo in his hand to the other.
