Chapter 7

  End of an Ocean Voyage

  Nil

  It was a very stormy night. Rain showered our ship with pellets of hail. With the wind that blew hard against my face, it always felt like a struggle to be on the upper deck. Night after night, our ship grew battered with storms, and we would have to make sure the boat didn't overflow, and it slowly tired me out. One night, I had taken extra clothing and towels to fill the holes in the top floor from several storms, but even then, the rain kept seeping through.

  This st night in particur was the worst so far, but I’m guessing it's only going to get worse from here. With every night, the storms got louder, and the waves sshed harder against the ship, and I got more and more worried about where Si-yeir was taking us.

  Could we be going to a pce with horrible storms or do these storms normally appear here? The storm's thunder continued regardless of whether it was night or day, and the waves continued thundering, making me wonder if we would make it to wherever we needed to go. I woke up in the evening, my head hurt and I was tired. I went downstairs to the kitchen area, stumbling over as the ship rocked from the storm outside.

  We were also rationing food now. Only half a box had any food at all. I guessed Si-yeir didn’t need food because he didn’t go to the room much. Every time I saw him, he would never eat or drink. There were few fruits, and that annoyed me even more. I wondered to myself as my stomach ached in pain. What were those bags and crates we had if they weren't for food?! Even when I tried to open the crates, screws bolted them shut. After I found some food to eat though we had little, I went to the bottom floor and repaired the damage on the walls. In the walls, some leaks and cracks were flooding the room, and if these leaks went unchecked, it might as well be the end of the ship if we continued to be in this storm. I savored every st bite of the grain I found, its crunchy and stale taste barely getting me by. After half an hour, I fixed the cracks in the wall, and finally, all the leakage was solved. I walked back to my room and ate the little food I could find.

  Si-yeir was nowhere to be seen, and I had to repair the boat as he sat in his office. He didn’t even check if there was food and something about him was off. After I ate my food, I id down on my bed and rested.

  ***

  It was now nighttime, and it was pitch bck and quiet. I go up to the top deck to find Si-yeir. While I went through the dark hall and up the stairs, the stairs creaked in the middle of the silence, annoying me a little. It’s just another thing that the longer we were on this ocean voyage, the more it was being worn down. When I got up to the top deck, it was still pouring like crazy.

  I confronted Si-yeir, and he was lighting up the mps. Si-yeir asked as I covered my head from the rain. “Who’s on watch tonight?”

  “Me,” he replied. He looked at his axe and then at me. “If anything happens, I’ll wake you up. After this night, we will be within the borders of Eirini.”

  Before I went back inside, I looked back at Si-yeir. I got confused, and he looked pale and shocked. Before I could see why, Si-yeir pointed to the sky. I looked in the sky to see what was so bad, and then I saw it.

  The moon lit the ships and the surrounding water in a dark blue shade. The blue moon shined brighter than 3 full moons. Waves that once were violent and made no noise or movement, as if they stood in shock as well.

  I looked back at Si-yeir. “That could only mean one thing. Right?”

  Si-yeir nodded, and I could still hear the fear in his voice. “We have more important things to do.” Si-yeir continued to darken with any mention of that man, and it worried me.

  Even with my suspicions, this seemed like he was being genuine. I wondered to myself. How cruel can that guy be if every mention of him terrifies Si-yeir? By this time I was getting tired by now, so I went back downstairs and to the living quarters. I went back to my bed and dropped asleep, now that the waves weren’t even responsive.

  The sound of fire surrounded me, along with the smell of burnt wood. I opened my eyes to smoke and fmes on my face. What was once the ship shifted into a familiar feeling of hatred and suffering. Where once my home, now a memory of what happened. I looked around in confusion, now recognizing the smoky and fiery area. It was my home. “I’m at home again, but why?”

  I opened my door, and this time smoke didn’t barge into my face, but everything, even the rest of my house now repced with the chalky taste of ash. Fear sunk me into the ground, with sour smells of smoke swaying my breath. The only thing that wasn’t ash was this specific room, which was my bedroom. Regret fueling my emotions, I continued through the room and outside, hoping for comfort. I walked around in the debris. The air was clear enough for me to see that the vilge was just remains.

  I pick up some ash as I continue walking in shock. After finding nothing but more of what remained of my home, I turned back for all the debris and the house to be gone. And I heard a familiar voice that made my heart wrench. I looked backward to be startled by a person. The person I saw said, “Brother.” My body trembled and sweat went down my face. It was my brother. In perfect condition, he looked exactly like he was before the disaster. With a smile on his face, the pain of regret jabbed into my gut. My heart was paining at his very presence. I colpsed while crying.

  My brother looked down at me, and then patted my shoulder. “Like all the disasters you saw before your eyes, you will hear my voice again. But do not be fooled, like much on your journey for the truth, I will be there to fool you. You must learn strength in yourself.”

  “But brother, what will I do without you? You're the only family I have left.” I stood on my knees, tears pouring out from my eyes.

  “You have a job you need to do. Many innocent people who are suffering need protection. Your journey isn’t over, and you will face several challenges, but our paths will cross again, Nil. I promise.”

  My brother crumbled to dust in the wind, and I cried on the ground. I looked in the distance, still crying, at the beast that I once saw in the vilge. It was even more terrifying than before, towering above me and having four arms. The creature wasn’t waiting for me to finish crying, so I didn’t waste time either. Regardless of the environment, my will to stay away from the monster never vanished. After running away from the creature, I eventually fell down a cliff from the isnd of Irepha. The impacts of water smmed into me like concrete, nearly knocking me unconscious. Now in the water, I tried to come back up, but with no success. The beast smmed into the water, grabbing me as I started to drown. I tried to scream, but my lungs ran out of air, and no noise would come out.

  The beast said my name repeatedly, but suddenly, the beast melted. What was once the creature I feared now magically turned into a pile of rocks with the water quickly turning into the air after. I fell into a room. The room looked like a prison, worn down with cracks and pnt life everywhere. Flowers bloomed and vines thrived. It was the same one from the temple dream, but more vivid. The smell of a Monday morning raised my suspicion. Lights were shining in the center of the prison-like room. In the center of the room, there was a man, at least nine feet tall.

  The man’s clothes were ripped and tattered, and symbols of the night lined his arms and chest. His build was even more muscur than Si-yeir, and three chains held him in the center. They groaned and screeched as they held the man in pce. I got a little closer, curious, but suddenly the chain that held his right hand snapped. I stumbled and jumped back, startled by the chain snapping. The man opened his eyes, and they were pure gray, glowing brighter than the lights bsting at him.

  My heart raced, and I fell to the floor. I realized who this was because it was the man from before. This was Peraclipsis. He looked me in the eye. “The world always tries to deceive.” My dream faded back to the darkness of pitch bck.

  I opened my eyes in the middle of the night, and it was raining like crazy. Still with tears in my eyes and being shaken from the dream, I got annoyed by being disrupted in the middle of the night. I walked to the outside of the ship. Si-yeir was working at the sails as we rocked and thunder cracked.

  I stood there, my face cold and wet. “You are my enemy, aren’t you?”

  “What?”

  “You kept me alive for another reason, didn’t you?

  “What are you talking about? I saved you.”

  “You only saved me for your benefit and never cared about the others. How are you so selfish and cruel, and do you even know how it feels to suffer? You made me starve, and made me do your bor.”

  Si-yeir’s eyes lit with fire. His face tensed with concern, covered with urgency. “Don’t ever cim I don’t know how it feels to suffer.”

  “What have you felt that is even close to what has happened to me?” My blood continued to boil until he spoke.

  “I lost my home, lost my family to that man Peraclipsis. I lost my father at birth because of him. Nil, I know you have a ton of pain, but there's a reason I’m being hard on you. I can’t do everything on my own.”

  Where anger filled my body overrun with shock. Once clenched fists rexed, my breath slowed down. He continued. “I did the best I could, and that blue fire was from me. Fifty other people were found there, all injured and needed help. I couldn’t run in there, and not only would I risk my life, but those as well. Not only that, other groups came to the rescue as well. Still, I am sorry, but just because I couldn’t find him, doesn't mean he isn’t alive.”

  For a moment, we were both silent. I didn’t know how to feel, but his words were genuine. Thunder boomed louder than ever before, with the wind blowing even harder. “C’mon Nil, we’ve got bigger issues on our hands.”

  With a huge crash from a wave, it knocked us over to the side. We fell back into the cabin area, and Si-yeir got up and helped me. He looked and his eyes widened. “THE BOAT IS OVERFLOWING!”

  We were panicking and rushing to our feet. We ran from my front to the hallway and the storage room. The ship twisted and turned, making moving around the ship difficult. The wind howled from every direction, making every step a gamble. We grabbed the buckets and ran up the stairs. I trip up the stairs but quickly get back up to the hull. We tried bucketing water and throwing it back into the sea.

  The waves of water that hit the ship only got bigger. I slipped multiple times on the wet and tilted floor as I tried to take water out, ramming my body onto the cold wooden floor. While I tried to get back up, massive waves of water threw me to parts of the ship. I smmed into the wood of the ship like pavement and the waters only continued to flood the ship. Being flung back by waves of water, I nearly went overboard, but Si-yeir grabbed my hand and helped me back up. Si-yeir ran into the distance and started using his fire to get rid of the water.

  Si-yeir looked at me. “We have a few minutes to leave this ship before it goes under!”

  I went back into the ship and grabbed the remaining food as Si-yeir made a makeshift raft, and he melted metal wire from the mps into the wood of the raft. As Si-yeir finished the raft, he yelled out to me.

  “GET ON BEFORE IT’S TOO-” Suddenly, an immense creature from the sea emerged from the water.

  It was a huge centipede, and it towered above the water, showing its six huge mandibles on its face, sharper than my sword. Our ship was about a third of its length, being dwarfed as it surrounded us with two heads. The creature's scales were a murky dark green, being smooth on the surface, and its face was bck with a hard shell. Si-yeir could barely get out of the way before the creature charged. It crushed wood and metal on contact, making a hole in our boat. The ship tilted further, making it impossible to stand up straight. Cold sweat and fear overwhelmed my senses.

  The creature slivered back into the sea as we tried to regain our bance. I tried to use my ser cannon on the creature when it came out of the sea, but the ser only annoyed the centipede further. A shield of water would diminish the ser, with the ser barely doing damage to the tough scales. It came out from the sea and charged after me as I fired a few more shots with my ser cannon, with the sers barely damaging the scales of the creature. The creature shot a jet of water at me that sliced through the wood like hot butter. I tried to get out of the way, but the jet water pierced through my leg. I wailed in pain and fell, holding my hand to the wound from my leg. The creature continued charging towards me, shooting more water at me that stabbed through my skin while tearing the boat apart. I stumbled out of the way as it bit into the ship, with the cabins further inside being crushed in an instant.

  Before the creature could use its mandibles on me, Si-yeir shot blue fire at its face, forcing the creature to back away. An army of swords blinded the creature and emitted blue fire, burning its face further. The creature charged at Si-yeir on the boat and tried to bite him. Si-yeir dodged its attack, but the centipede smmed into the middle of the ship, splitting the ship in half, and we flew into the water. I fell into the water and struggled to get back up. I y in the water dazed for a decent ten seconds before trying to go back up. After I regained consciousness, I looked around me frantically while trying to get back to the surface. It gets harder and harder to breathe as I go up until I nearly pass out. Si-yeir grabbed me before I passed out and used his fire to make a bubble, and I gasped for breath.

  The creature was now in the water with us, then again charged towards us, but I used my ser cannon and Si-yeir used his swords to make the creature back off. Si-yeir summoned a wave of swords in every direction of the creature, stabbing it on all sides. It wailed in pain and charged after us, even more angrily. The creature quickly revealed its second head, whose armor had a spade to ram us upward from behind, making me and Si-yeir go flying in the air. I fell onto the boat, smming onto the hull, and the impact felt like it shattered my back.

  I watched with my vision now blurry as Si-yeir unched toward the centipede, drawing his axe. Si-yeir dodged the creature's attack and sliced at its chest. It roared in pain and swung its second head at Si-yeir. I grabbed my sword and used it to have some water lighten Si-yeir's crash as he smmed into the ship, now bleeding as he limped.

  The creature threw debris at me and forced me to drop my sword. I tried to use my ser cannon again, but it only annoyed the creature for another time. It continued to shoot jets of water again, and some sliced at my right eye. The pain was unbearable as I clutched my eye, trying to stop the seeping blood with my hands. I dropped to my knees as I y there. It tried to slice me again with the water, but I grabbed my sword in time and the water bent around me. Almost instinctively, the sword made the surrounding water form a bubble. I enveloped a water shield on its way with my sword, but it was still not effective against its scales. It smmed the ship, making me lose bance. I once again lost my sword, but this time it fell into the sea. Now defenseless and half-blind, I felt defeated and hopeless. The Centipede stood before us and prepared to unch more jet water at us.

  Before the creature could do another attack, there was a sound in the distance, a very loud noise. The noise was like that of a tsunami and a train. I looked in the distance in a mix of curiosity and fear seeing a man who appears to be on the top of a moving pilr of metal.

  The man was very tall, about seven feet tall, with white hair and gray, glowing eyes like Peraclipsis. He also looked a little younger than Si-yeir, but a bit older looking than me. He was a muscur man with chains decorating his pants and had decorations of scales and horns of sea creatures as neckces and on his chest. There were chains on his leggings that glowed white hot, with the chains were two mini scythes, shining in the sun brightly. He ughed at the creature, enraging it. The creature proceeded to attack the man, but two rge metal hands came from the water and immobilized the creature. The creature continued trying to retaliate, but the two metal hands crushed the creature's head instantly.

  I watched as the once-powerful centipede y there dead as it sank into the sea. The metal formed around the ship we were on and the ship seemed to be being picked up. I watched, still exhausted, metal encompassing the ship and raising it from the ocean. The man walked toward me and reached out a hand to pick me up. Before I could see any more, I passed out.