Three days after the start of their trip, Bella, who was in the middle of the guard duty change, saw it.
"Itās your turn now, Evelyn." Bella stretched her arms. "Itās quite exhausting. After several days like this, we have spent a considerable amount of ena. If we donāt find any land soon, it will be bad."
Evelyn was still casual about consumption since her reserve was huge. But others started to notice the drop in their ena reserve.
They also didnāt have enough time to gather the cores in the sea, so they couldnāt absorb their cores to get some additional ena.
If this continued, they would be exhausted before reaching their destination.
"Donāt worry. Make sure you recover as much as ena possible in the next 18 hours. The journey might be arduous, but this is what weāve agreed on." Evelyn patted Bellaās shoulder.
"Yeah, I know." Bella nodded. She waved her hand to Nathan and Vivian for the change before coming up with Melissa. Before leaving, Bella cheered for them from the deck. "Do your best!"
Nathan waved his hand before entering the water.
"Shall we go back? I want to sleep right away." Melissa smiled wryly.
"We should at least warm up our bodies. I believe Christopher is cooking soup right now."
"Well..." Melissa hesitated. "All right. We need to be healthy, so Iām going to eat first."
"Yup, letās go, shall we?"
"Yes." Melissa nodded and started walking. "By the way, Senior. I donāt know how you have so much energy. To stay cheerful all the time... Senior?"
Melissa noticed that Bella wasnāt walking next to her.
When she looked to the left, she confirmed Bella was gone. She halted her step and turned around, finding Bella stopped in her tracks and staring at the sky. "Senior?"
Melissa couldnāt help but follow Bellaās gaze before noticing what happened. "Thatās..."
Bella regained her composure and excitedly pointed at the sky while turning her head around. "Melissa. Are you seeing what Iām seeing? Is that..."
"Yes. I think weāre seeing the same thing." Melissa awkwardly nodded as she had a hard time believing it. "The edge of the ash cloud."
That was right. They finally saw the ash cloud stopping in the sky. There was nothing beyond that cloud. Because it was at night, they couldnāt find the sudden brightness from the sunlight beyond the cloud, so it wasnāt noticeable at first.
Hence, Bella observed it carefully until she confirmed it.
"Are we really out of the ash cloud? This is so unreal!"
Melissa agreed. "How long has it been since the last time I saw the sky without the ash cloud?"
"I know, right? I want to tell the others about it!" Bella cheered while rushing inside, shouting, "Guys! Look at the sky. The ash cloud is gone!"
With such enthusiasm from her, they had no choice but to come out, only to be shocked by the sight. They were approaching the clear sky. Even Kun had informed Nathan about it through telepathy.
"Wow! Due to how long we have been trapped without the sky, I have forgotten what itās like to have such a clear sky." Neyeid gasped. Countless stars were sparkling in the sky as though a treasure box had just been opened.
"Praise the Lord." Christopher smiled while closing his eyes, starting to pray.
Sonia shook her head helplessly. "Sadly. Itās nighttime right now. If only we could see sunlight... It has been so dark because of the ash cloud."
Revon crossed his arms without saying a word. But it was clear he also felt nostalgic.
Although it would only be a few days, it was a good experience. After losing their sky, they finally found out how important it was to them.
The starry sky and the sunlight they took for granted... They definitely knew not to waste it again.
"If only this kind of sky returned to our continent." Bella shook her head helplessly. "It might still be long in the future, but we can only hope that a solution appears sooner."
"Indeed."
They simply stood at the corner of the deck for a while as if admiring the beautiful sky.
"Oi!" Nathan reemerged from the sea while dispelling the barrier around him. The water splattered around him, but no droplets touched him.
"Nathan! Are you back? Well, taking it easy for once is fine, right? Look at the sky. Itās so beautiful." Bella pointed at the sky.
Nathan casually climbed the rope ladder until he reached the deck. "Itās indeed beautiful."
"Tell Evelyn and Vivian to take it easy too. I mean, let one person out at a time to admire the sky."
Nathan smiled wryly. "Yeah. Thatās what I wanted to do, except we actually have a situation here."
"!!!" They overheard Nathan and turned their heads to him.
"What did you say?"
Nathan pointed down. "Evelyn has noticed a dangerous presence underneath the sea. The strength is unknown, maybe an elite class alien.
"She asked me to inform you to get ready for a big battle."
"Are you serious?" Neyeid gasped. "Canāt we have a good thing without this? Why do we have bad luck when we finally have a clear sky?"
"The sky is clear, not the ocean," added Christopher.
"Pfft." Sonia chuckled.
"Well, a job is a job. Since thereās such a monster hiding in the sea, we have no choice but to confront it. Looks like you came here to tell us the plan, Nathan." Revon waved his hand, calming down the people.
"Itās not really a bad thing for us to encounter that alien. The fact that thereās such a powerful alien here means weāre close to our destination." Nathan shrugged. "Anyway, I know that none of you can fight at 100% of your ability underwater. Thatās why I prepared a strategy prior to this trip.
"Let me explain it." Nathan began telling them about his plan. He had to conserve their stamina and energy, so the plan had to be concise.
Still, he was quite excited to find this alien. Due to the drop in the global temperature, the meeting of this alien was a sign that they would soon find ice floating around since it would be troublesome for an alien of that level to emerge from such a thick layer of ice as well.