This sea area indeed had various extreme climate changes. One moment it was sunny and bright, perfect for sunbathing, and the next it could drop below freezing with strong winds and heavy snow.
Everyone had just experienced an extreme temperature change, but that change had been gradual. The larger the temperature change, the longer it usually took.
They had never encountered a situation like this before, where the temperature shifted from tens of degrees below zero to over twenty degrees above zero in the blink of an eye. It felt like stepping out of a deep-freeze storage room into the bright sunshine of midsummer.
"Eugen, adjust course and circle the island."
This strange situation could not be ignored. Ethan had the Prinz Eugen sail around the island. Besides wanting to observe the island with his own eyes, he also wanted to scan the surrounding sea area.
The island was not particularly large, though not small either. Even keeping a considerable distance, circling it in a wide arc would not take much time.
Logan and the others did not disturb Ethan. The captain seemed to be pondering a difficult problem.
Meanwhile, Maria Hill was doing her job, checking all the external environmental data. The snow on the Prinz Eugen had already melted, as if the blizzard they had just endured had merely been an illusion.
What made everyone feel it was even more of an illusion was the location of the sea area they had just passed through. After circling the island, they seemed unable to find it anymore.
If they could not use the island as a reference point, everything around them looked almost identical. That was usually the case anyway—on the vast ocean, no matter where you looked, there was only endless water.
But this time was different. Ethan felt there was something strange about the ocean surrounding this island.
"Eugen, adjust course and leave immediately. We're not approaching this island anymore!"
This feeling was not good. Ethan was not the type to indulge curiosity in the wrong place. The various strange occurrences led him to decide to stay away from the island. Even with his formidable strength and countless life-saving methods, he had no interest in going ashore to see what was special about it.
No one objected to Ethan's decision. There was no one here whose curiosity was so great that they would deliberately court trouble. Even Evelyn, without ancient cultural ruins to attract her, would not do anything reckless.
Everyone felt that leaving this strange island was the right choice. After all, they had enough resources on board and did not need to stop to replenish food or fresh water. Continuing forward and passing through the Sea of Storms was what they should be doing.
However, after the Prinz Eugen adjusted its course and sailed away for several hours, seemingly having left the island far behind, it suddenly reported that an island identical to the previous one had been detected ahead.
"Capture a holographic image of the island and compare it with the previous island."
Ethan looked at the beautiful small island not far ahead, then turned back to look at the holographic comparison results. The "new island" was identical to the one they had encountered before. Almost every data point was the same.
"Make no stop. Circle around the island and continue sailing forward."
At this point, everyone realized something and sat quietly in their seats, watching the holographic image.
After the Prinz Eugen sailed in an arc across the sea, it circled around the newly appeared island ahead and continued into the distance.
Everyone had a premonition that they would see the island again soon.
Sure enough, when the island reappeared on the horizon, no one was surprised.
Ethan had not said a word. He just sat in the captain's chair, silently watching the distant island, finally showing a helpless expression.
"I sensed a strange fluctuation earlier, and now I can confirm it."
Ethan spread his hands.
"We've fallen into a spatial maze."
A spatial maze was something that seemed to have nothing unusual about it, but while you thought you were moving forward, your direction of travel had already shifted, for example from heading north to heading south.
In Ethan's view, the sea area around this island was filled with such mazes, causing the Prinz Eugen to end up sailing towards the island no matter how it navigated.
Coupled with the fact that everything looked the same on the vast ocean, it was almost impossible to notice that the direction of travel had suddenly changed. It was practically a perfect spatial maze.
Ethan himself was quite skilled at using spatial mazes. Thor had suffered from this before.
Furthermore, the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj were also very skilled at distorting space, arbitrarily shattering and reorganizing entire areas to create similar spatial mazes. Ordinary sorcerers could only do this in the Mirror Dimension, but powerful sorcerers like the Ancient One could cast such spells in the real world.
Facing this kind of ability, the solution was not difficult.
One could escape by using energy of a similar nature to disrupt the energy interfering with space.
Or one could simply use brute force to directly shatter or disperse the energy affecting space. In that case, the area would return to normal, and they could naturally leave.
With Ethan's strength, he could do either of these methods, but he did not want to leave just yet.
In other circumstances, he would not be very interested. But spatial energy was enough to catch his attention.
Furthermore, after passing through the "spatial maze" several times, he even sensed a hint of the power of time.
He shared his findings with everyone and told them that he would go to the island ahead to find out what person, creature, or object was releasing these powers.
"You're going to land on that island?"
"Yes."
Ethan nodded. The island ahead was a bit strange, and he did not plan on having anyone accompany him. He intended to go alone to check out the situation.
"I might need to bring Auriel."
Auriel had the ability to sense and locate magic stones and magic cores. Based on past experience, these special abilities were likely being released by some powerful magic core. Bringing Auriel might help find the target faster.
However, just because Ethan did not want to bring anyone did not mean everyone was willing to stay on the ship and wait for him to return. Almost everyone wanted to go ashore with Ethan.
"Aren't you afraid of danger?"
Logan casually took out a cigar, just about to light it, but looking around and seeing only women and children, and being in an enclosed space, he ultimately held back. He just held it in his hand, occasionally picking it up to sniff.
"For us now, is there any real danger in this sea area?"
That was true. With the current strength of everyone present, there was probably nothing in this sea area that could threaten their lives.
The previous apprehension towards this island was not due to fear, but simply being too lazy to deal with the trouble. Humans are not afraid of insects like mosquitoes or flies, but that does not mean they allow them to stay around, because they are annoying.
"You all want to go?"
Everyone nodded together. Even Hill said, "Although I think someone should stay behind on the Prinz Eugen, I also really want to see what's causing these special circumstances."
Anyway, the Prinz Eugen itself was equipped with an intelligent system, so there was no need to worry about someone sneaking onboard and sailing the ship away after everyone left.
After everyone left, the Prinz Eugen could activate stealth mode. People in this world probably would not even be able to detect a massive steel warship parked on the sea surface.
"How do we get there?"
The area around the island was all shallow water, and the Prinz Eugen could not get close.
There were also underwater reefs and countless shipwrecks, so the Prinz Eugen had to stay at a distance.
"Take the Quinjet."
When Tony helped Ethan build the warship, he also included two Quinjets as extras, which were meant for times like this.
Of course, besides the Quinjet, Ethan could also open a portal and go directly. Teleporting within visual range was just a wave of the hand for him.
However, Tony had specifically prepared the planes, so they could not just be left in the warehouse to collect dust. It was appropriate to bring them out and use them occasionally so they would not break down from being stored for too long.
"Go back and get your gear ready. Meet in the hangar in an hour."
The group did not have much to pack and quickly finished preparing. Half an hour later, they gathered in the hangar and boarded the Quinjet.
At the speed of the Quinjet, they reached the skies above the small island in the blink of an eye. Piloted by Maria Hill, they first surveyed the various areas of the island and finally chose to land on the beach by the sea. This spot was the closest to the Prinz Eugen, the terrain was flat, and it was considered a suitable landing point.
After everyone got off the plane, they stood on the beach and looked around.
First impression: This island was beautiful.
The beach was almost white with fine sand. There were no pebbles or anything else mixed in the sand. Even walking barefoot on it would not feel rough or cause cuts. It was soft and slightly warm, making it very comfortable.
The grass not far away was lush and green, emitting a scent of earth with the wind. Laura closed her eyes and could even feel the "goodwill" released by these plants.
"Strange, I can feel that the entire island is happy about our arrival!"
Logan, who had also learned some Druidic knowledge, could feel it too, but it reminded him of the grassland island they had encountered before.
"Maybe it's happy because it sees food coming to its doorstep."
That had not been a pleasant experience at all. Logan suddenly felt a stronger sense of vigilance towards this beautiful island.
"This island is different from that island."
Ethan was no longer the novice sorcerer he once was. He could feel that there were no energy fluctuations affecting the spiritual level here, and the grass was not like the grass on that other island, which had contained extremely vigorous life force. This was just ordinary green grass.
"I'll take Auriel to explore deeper into the island. You guys set up a camp here first."
(To be continued.)