➨ "Maybe someone just sent it without telling you?"

She shakes her head. "That would be against regulations. I felt bad about not getting a response, so I expedited my request, but it's still being processed."

The boat rocks, making your back slam against the wall. Zora jolts out of his sleep from the impact. "The hell?"

You fly to your feet. "And nobody's seen Yuno? What about Vangeance?"

She shakes her head sadly. "I asked around; nobody knows. The captain has been so busy I haven't had a chance to ask him. Klaus and I are going out to look tonight, but you were my last resort."

Another unsteady creak of the wood. You grip onto a pillar to keep yourself upright. Crates and boxes slide across the floor. "Just be safe when you do, and if anything happens, call me, alright?"

"What about you? What's happening? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." Though with the way you're being rocked around, you've seen better days. "I'll let you know what happens." You didn't allow her to express any more worry because you ended the call.

Zora shakily drags himself off the ground. "I'm gonna fucking vomit."

You weren't excited to explain that you had brought him on a rogue destination-less boat—so you waited on it. Instead, you climbed up the short ladder and pushed on the trapdoor leading to the deck.

It didn't budge. Magic was sealing it shut, and when you pushed, it was pushing back. Recklessly, you threw a punch at it, and your entire hand stung afterwards. As if that wasn't enough, a forceful wave sent you flying backwards off the steps, crumpled on the ground.

"What's going on?" Zora asked, his face appearing over you while your head throbbed.

With a moan of pain, you rolled over onto your side. "Long story short, this boat didn't come from Mimosa, and we're currently being kidnapped." Standing up, you held your head in your hand. "Can you help me open this?"

Another crash nearly sweeps both of you off your feet. Zora's face pales as the words sink in. Or it could be the realization that his sea sickness is about to get ten times worse. "I knew it was too easy." He carefully maneuvers over to the steps and tries to push it open—getting nowhere.

A buzz crept down your spine, making you look up. Sylvania was still up there, and she was trying to alert you of something. Closing your eyes, you look through hers to see exactly what was going on.

She was standing behind the wheel, and it was moving in wild circles, causing the boat to spin in an array of directions. You reach out, having her place her hands on it to try and take control, but the force is too strong, and she can't hold on for long before she has to stand back.

From the ground, something is rising up in front of her—multiple entities, actually. Slowly, you can see what appears to be shadowy figures with long blades in their hands. Faceless, but from the outline, you can see hats on their heads that resemble ones that pirates wear.

Sylvania takes a fighting stance, but they keep appearing and know that she can't take all of them by herself.

Your eyes open, and you turn to Zora. "There's things up there. Shadow-pirate things." You join him on the steps to try using a combined effort to get the door open.

"Wouldn't it just be safer down here then?" His voice is strained as he applies more pressure.

"I'm assuming they're here with an intent to kill us. If they corner us down here, then we're screwed. We'd have a better advantage at the top."

He stands back and mutters something before clearly adding, "Move." Which you do without hesitation. His grimoire opens, and a white magic circle appears in front of him. "Throw an attack; I'll double it."

Nodding, you join him at his side. Puppeteers Tempest. The mini screeching assailants leap out and through the circle. On the other end, they grow four times their original size. The laughter gets louder, and they charge at the unmoving door. Some of them bounce right off, but the more they band together, the bigger of an impact they have.

With a little more force, they eventually gnaw through the wood and shoot out on the other side. You step back, waiting for them to jump and scatter to the top, and move out of the way. Once they are, you move first, leaping up the stairs, inhaling the salty air, and slipping on the wet floor.

The first thing you see is a shadow leaping over your head and aiming its sword towards Sylvania. She slides out of the way and pushes her hands out, knocking it back while she gains some distance. The physical contact places her curse mark on it, but it doesn't seem to do much damage towards it.

At the front, there's a handful of them crawling towards the quarter deck. The wheel makes a sharp right, making you, Sylvania, and Zora go skidding to the side, but the enemies persist. You dispel The Doctor and bring out The Acrobat instead.

Acro flips onto the railing, not bothered by the constantly moving ground. It lands a jump kick on the figure that was pursuing Sylvania and sends it against the wall. Then, a magnitude of fury kicks.

Zora's magic zips out and around him, blocking him from incoming slashes. Though the tilting throws him off—his feet are constantly sliding. You move quickly up to the wheel, dodging the fight Acro is having not too far from you.

Your hands touch the smooth surface and instantly get scorched by some sort of protection spell. Your palms burn, and you're surprised it didn't just completely melt off your skin. The wheel moves left, harshly throwing Zora to the ground and rolling to the other side of the boat. With a little more distance, he'll be rolling right over and into the water.

Your magic works before you do, and Aegis spawns behind him, blocking his tumble from sending him overboard. You hear him groan from crashing into the steel body, but you bet it was better than diving into the ocean.

Ditching the wheel, you leap down to join the fight with him. Bright pink light seeps out from your body, and time slows for just a moment. Mana Zone. You try to use the same spell you did back when you fought the elves.

Ragdoll.

The figures collapse. You take a breath. When you look up a moment later, they're rising again. Rebuilding and reconstructing as if you didn't just knock them down. They lunge, sword aiming straight for you, but Zora's trap circles catch it and send two of them soaring over the edge.

You turn, and find him with a hand on the railing and hunched over. It looks like he's about to pass out. "Are you okay?"

He coughs. "Too much movement."

Aegis steps in front of him and takes the hit from another incoming shadow. You swerve around him, and over to Zora. "How bad is it?" He doesn't speak, which lets you know it's pretty damn bad.

You bring Sylvania out, and she hovers her hands over his shoulders. He flinches, but you put your hand on his shoulder. "She can take some of the nausea away; it'll help." Though the rocking, and constant spray of water don't aid your words.

Your grimoire flips, and it keeps going until it reaches the last few pages. However, they're completely blank. You'd hoped by now the unknown spells would eventually scribe themselves into the damn book, but that hasn't happened.

Guess you have to credit yourself a little bit more for making do with what you have.

Acro cartwheels next to you, and Aegis stands on the other side. The shadows make a line, getting ready to take you on. Acro is the first to move forward, leaping high into the air and landing on a tall one's head. Then swiveling to land on another one. While balancing on one hand, they jab their hand directly through the top of the shadow's head.

Aegis is the backup, using strong punches to take them out in one go. Much slower, but still getting the job done.

You noticed that despite the amount they've taken out, and the accumulating damage, they don't stay down for long. In fact, they continue popping back to "life" and keep jabbing their swords. That's why it looks like you've gotten absolutely nowhere.

Narrowing your gaze, you notice they all have a dark, nearly invisible thread coming from the tops of their hats. You follow it, and it leads up... all the way up to the crow's nest. Though at first you couldn't see it, when you focused, you could see a taller, misty entity controlling them.

The only thing is, the rope ladder didn't look very stable to get up there. However, that was the only way up.

So you ran right through the crowd of them and hauled yourself up.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Zora shouts from where he is. Perhaps you were. But if you wanted a chance, then you had to go for the head of everything.

Rope ladders in themselves weren't very secure, so you had to grip on for dear life with all the absurd steering. It was trying to shake you off, and your hands were already wet, making your grip worse.

One foot in front of the other.

"Y/N!"

That might've been the first time you heard Zora use your name. You glanced behind you, and you had more company. One of the pirates was following you at an impressive speed.

The ship hit an abrupt left again, making your legs fly off, leaving you dangling from the rope. Your heart momentarily stopped when you looked below at a fall that would need a lot more than Sylvania to heal you from. The figure stalks closer and wastes no time in swinging its sword.

Risking it, you took one hand off the rope and grabbed its leg through the opening between notches. Limb Manipulation. The string wrapped around the leg, and you jerked your arm to the side, which tripped it, making it fall into the fight below.

"Oh shit." You breathed erratically and quickly re-adjusted your grip with both hands. You pulled yourself up and re-centered your body to continue your climb. Salt stung your eyes, making you look through slits instead, but you were nearly there; you just needed to take it slow.

The rest of the tedious journey was a balancing act. Towards the end, you reached up and touched the wood of the crow's nest. It was a strain of effort to get up and over, but once you did, you stood face to face with the leader. Although it didn't look like it was even conscious.

The eyes glowed a sickening green, and it was more focused on controlling its minions below than protecting its actual body. It didn't pay you any mind, but the translucent hands were tugging and manipulating the threads. You thought it might be in a trance-like state.

Strike of the Phantom. With a quick slash to the neck, its head rolled off. You stared in confusion, expecting some type of explosion or something to happen.

You waited, expecting a major boss fight to start up.

But when you looked down, the shadows were collapsing and the weapons were slipping from their hands. They melted into the wood, leaving dark streaks in their wakes. "Zora!" You shouted down at him, and his head tilted up. "Everything good down there?"

He looks around, just as surprised as they fall one by one. "I think so?" He yells back. "The hell did you do?"

"I just–" But as quickly as you ended it, a sense of dread seeped into your bones. The magic gets thicker and suffocatingly strong. A strong wall of genuine bloodlust.

You spin back around, and the now headless figure's arm shoots up and grabs you by the neck, lifting you off your feet. Immediately, you try to scratch at it, but it doesn't seem to feel the pain. You can't reach to use Limb Manipulation or even try to break free by prying yourself from its grip.

Joint lock. You grab the wrist, attempting to freeze it up and free yourself that way. And while you do feel it go stiff, it doesn't let up on you. It squeezes, creating spots in your vision and making you quickly try to weigh your options. Maybe the fall wouldn't be fatal? Or maybe...

You place both hands on the one that has you captive. Strike of the Phantom. There's a shattering sound, and the hand crumples to the ground, dropping you with it. You inhale, taking in much-needed oxygen.

From the neck and the broken hand, a white smoke shoots out, followed by a light. It swirls down and seeps through its body. Smoke curls around the two of you, and the moment it reaches your skin, there's a low sizzle, followed by a piercing bang that deafens you. A high-pitched ringing rattles your brain.

Guess that was the explosion.

The force propels you off the crow's nest and completely over the area of the boat. Searing pain shoots through every nerve in your body. Staring down, all you can see is the dark black water, where there's nothing to catch you or break your fall. The best you can do is try to flip around so you're not face first.

You hit the surface—it feels like your head splits in half—and you inhale a good amount of water into your lungs. It burns your nose and your throat. You're rapidly sinking down into the freezing ocean. The disorientation fogs your senses, and there's no telling which way is up or down.

There's still a ringing in both ears, and when you open your eyes, it's almost like they're still closed. Whatever lurks in these depths has perfect sight on you, and you have no idea where you are or how far down you've sunk. You try to move, but your left arm doesn't—it stays limp in the current.

Something swims past, causing a burst of pressure to expand around you. Due to your panic, you've already lost all your breath. Another creature swirls around you, making you try to force your eyes to focus within the murky depths. All you can make out are swift details of movement—aftereffects.

In a flash, horror wraps its slimy tentacle around your torso, and you touch something lumpy.

Then another tentacle snakes around your mouth; the suction cups force it shut. Your magic fizzed out of your hand the moment you tried to cast anything. There was no way to concentrate, no way to calm yourself down. Especially not with one working arm.

Whatever keeps zooming by is creating a metallic sound. Rubbing scales together to the point where it almost mimics a shrill laugh.

Flailing doesn't work. Out of oxygen, out of energy, you slump against the dark, spongy monster. Lightheadedness soon hits, and you're positive you're drowning.

As you completely give up, there's a flicker of a vision back on the ship. Zora was nearly fully bent over the railing, yelling something below that you couldn't hear. Aegis and Acro are in sight, so you must be looking through Sylvania's eyes.

Both of them take steady steps towards her while she gracefully floats down to the ground and folds her legs underneath her dress. Her head dips down for you to see water droplets fall onto her ghostly white hands. They're shaking, and you can't tell if it's you or her.

Although it keeps flickering in and out. Going between cloudy visions and the last few air bubbles fleeting from your mouth. Most likely because of the distance between you and Sylvania and how your body is slowly shutting down on you. Life was literally escaping you.

Sylvania doesn't move from where she is. However, Aegis takes a knee in front of her, and Acro unflips itself to stand on its legs for once. It's hard to tell what either of them were doing, but it looks like they're placing their hands on top of hers.

Nothing happens, but you sense the feeling of a goodbye from their hand pile.

Suddenly, it's black again.

When you open your eyes again, you're the one kneeling, tears endlessly pouring down your face. Except you weren't in Sylvania's head anymore; you were physically back on the ship, and she was nowhere to be seen.