Sword in the Helm

Three days later, Angel floated in midair as Toby flew over and muttered softly at his side.

"Tulas still hasn't come out?" Angel nodded. It was only natural that Toby had not seen Tulas. Angel had sent scouting puppets to patrol the entire island, yet they had not caught even a shadow of Tulas. Clearly, he was still hiding in some concealed space.

Looking at the not-too-tall mountain ridge below, Angel felt an urge to start digging.

But he held himself back.

Unless there was no other choice, he did not intend to damage the terrain of this area. Otherwise, when the others found this place, the traces left behind would surely reveal his presence.

Just as Angel was at his wits' end, one of the scouting puppets relayed a message to him.

Following the riverbank where Angel had previously discovered multiple skeletons upstream would eventually lead to a cluster of mountain hollows. Near them lay a hidden lake.

The scouting puppet had discovered a ship on that lake.

Since this strange island possessed a graveyard of ships, finding a ship did not seem all that remarkable. Yet from the image sent by the scouting puppet, Angel saw that this was a pirate ship.

More importantly, the pirate ship's figurehead was a savage bull's head. Its two horns were curved and sharp, making it appear immensely imposing.

Angel remembered the record of Tulas in The Shining Silver Age. The ship he had commanded was called the Savage Beast, and its most obvious mark was the savage bull-head sculpture at its bow.

"So that's the ship Tulas used?" Angel's heart stirred. He arranged for the scouting puppets to continue searching the mountain ridge while he took Toby and flew toward the pirate ship.

At that moment, within a patch of dark