The lights went out.
Not one by one.
All at once.
Every lamp, every hallway crystal, every emergency rune embedded throughout the cruiser died in the same breath, leaving the lower decks buried beneath a darkness so complete that even the sound of the ocean seemed distant.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then something scraped against the underside of the floor.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Clack.
Drag.
Clack.
Drag.
It did not sound like claws anymore.
It sounded like something had learned how people walked and was practicing.
Xion stood in the middle of the corridor, his body completely still. His crimson eyes were useless in the darkness, but that did not matter much anymore.
Clock ticked inside his Spiritual Authority Core.
Once.
A faint electric-blue pulse moved through his nerves.
Twice.
The darkness stopped being empty.
Footsteps became distance.
Breathing became position.
The slight shift of air near the staircase became motion.
Sean stood three steps behind him.
Kimiko remained to his left, foxfire not yet summoned.
Vera was farther back with the unconscious waiter over one shoulder.
Kitrawr was closest to the lower stairwell.
And beneath them…
Something was climbing.
Xion's fingers slowly closed around the silver-blue pocket watch inside his coat.
The artifact clicked.
The single hand spun violently.
Then stopped.
Straight down.
Will Breaker spoke inside him.
[Do not let it touch your Authority Core.]
Xion kept his voice in his thoughts.
'You said it wants me. I figured touching it was probably a bad idea.'
[I am serious.]
'So am I.'
A pause.
[That is unfortunately true.]
A low laugh crawled through the walls.
It was not loud.
That made it worse.
"False… God…"
Kimiko's tails immediately flared.
Azure flames sparked around her fingers.
"Okay," she whispered. "I officially hate that voice."
Sean opened his pocket watch.
Nothing happened.
He pressed the crown again.
Still nothing.
His expression tightened.
"The spiritual lamps are dead. My divination tool isn't responding either."
Kitrawr's pale eyes glowed faintly in the dark.
"That thing is eating the ship's spiritual current."
Vera lowered the unconscious waiter against the wall.
"Can it do that?"
Kitrawr looked at her.
"It is Gluttony."
Fair enough.
Xion heard something crack below.
Then another.
Wood.
Bone.
Hard to tell which.
Kimiko raised both hands and released a small ball of foxfire. It floated upward, illuminating the corridor in blue.
Everyone wished she had left it dark.
The walls were wet.
Not with seawater.
A thin black film had spread along the paneling, stretching from the cracks in the floor toward the ceiling like veins. It pulsed whenever the creature below moved.
A nearby painting had been half-eaten.
Not torn.
Eaten.
One corner of the canvas simply ceased to exist, the missing section reduced to a black smear that continued crawling toward the frame.
Sean stepped closer and examined it without touching.
"It's consuming matter through contact."
"Not just matter," Xion said.
Sean glanced back.
The boy was looking at the foxfire.
Kimiko's flame was smaller than it had been thirty seconds earlier.
She noticed too.
"Hey."
The flame flickered.
"HEY."
Kimiko quickly pulled the fire back into her hand.
"Rude."
Xion stared at the black veins.
"It's eating magical output too."
Kitrawr nodded.
"And heat."
As if agreeing with her, the corridor grew colder.
Vera rubbed one arm.
"This thing is still downstairs?"
"No," Xion said.
Everyone looked at him.
He raised his eyes toward the ceiling.
"It's everywhere the black stuff reaches."
The hallway went quiet.
Then a hand pushed through the wall beside Vera's head.
She moved before anyone could shout.
Her body twisted backward and one of her hidden knives flashed.
The blade cut through the wrist.
The hand dropped to the floor.
Black blood splattered across the carpet.
Vera landed lightly several feet away.
The severed hand twitched.
Then opened a mouth in its palm.
Kimiko made a face.
"I hate everything about that."
The mouth screamed.
The black veins covering the wall convulsed.
The entire cruiser shook.
Xion's eyes narrowed.
"That wasn't pain."
Sean understood.
"A signal."
The floor exploded.
A black limb tore upward between them.
Kitrawr grabbed Xion by the back of his coat and casually threw him behind her.
"Hey!"
"Small."
"I am not ammunition!"
"You fly well."
Before Xion could argue, Kitrawr raised one hand.
Moon Water gathered above her palm in a silver-blue sphere, then collapsed inward until it formed a thin blade of pressurized liquid.
She brought her hand down.
The giant limb split cleanly in two.
The upper section crashed through the ceiling.
The lower section withdrew beneath the floor.
Black blood sprayed across Kitrawr's face.
She slowly wiped it away with one finger.
Then tasted it.
Everyone stared.
Kitrawr paused.
"Disgusting."
Xion blinked.
"You didn't know that before tasting it?"
"I confirm things personally."
Will Breaker sounded offended inside him.
[Do not learn from her.]
'I wasn't planning on licking monsters.'
[Good.]
Kimiko looked between Xion and Kitrawr.
"Why do both of you make me feel like I'm the normal one?"
"That should concern you," Sean said.
The cruiser tilted sharply.
A distant crash followed from somewhere below deck.
Then screaming.
Real screaming.
People.
Sean turned toward the sound.
"The cargo hold."
Kitrawr's expression hardened.
"It is pulling the remaining hosts together."
Vera checked the unconscious waiter's pulse.
"She's still alive."
"Then she's not one of them anymore," Xion said.
Sean looked at him.
"Because you broke the Iron Gull anchor?"
"Probably."
"That means the relics were acting as feeding routes."
Xion nodded.
"And the assassins thought they were smuggling in something that would weaken Kimiko."
Kimiko's face darkened.
"They were willing to put a Lost Soul on a civilian ship?"
"They may not have known what it actually was," Vera said.
Kimiko snapped her gaze toward her.
"That does not make it better."
"No," Vera replied. "It makes whoever gave it to them worse."
That silenced her.
Xion's pocket watch clicked again.
The hand pointed toward the cargo hold.
He frowned.
Will Breaker noticed.
[The artifact is not tracking the Lost Soul.]
'Then what is it tracking?'
[The interval that should not exist.]
Xion hated when the answer sounded philosophical.
'Explain like I'm ten.'
[You are ten.]
'Exactly.'
Will Breaker sighed directly into his soul.
[Something connected to the Lost Soul entered the ship at a time when it should not have been possible. Your watch is following that contradiction.]
Xion's eyes sharpened.
So the Gluttony creature itself might not be the real problem.
Of course not.
That would have been too easy.
He looked toward Sean.
"The cargo hold. Now."
Sean blinked once.
"You heard something?"
"No."
"Then how—"
"Trust me."
Sean looked deeply uncomfortable.
Xion tilted his head.
"You brought me on this mission."
"That does not make trusting you easier."
"Your problem."
Sean sighed.
"Move."
The lower they descended, the less the cruiser resembled a passenger ship.
Polished wood gave way to reinforced steel.
Carpet became iron grating.
Decorative lamps were replaced by industrial mana crystals mounted behind protective cages, most of which were now dark.
The engines roared somewhere deeper inside the vessel.
Or tried to.
Every few seconds, the rhythm sputtered.
The Gluttony Lost Soul was eating the fuel flow too.
Sean led with his pocket watch in one hand and a compact ceremonial pistol in the other. Golden inscriptions ran along its barrel, each letter written in Vaidika.
Kimiko walked behind him, her foxfire held close to her skin now instead of burning freely.
Vera stayed beside her.
Kitrawr walked barefoot as though she owned the ship.
Which, given how the ocean behaved around her, might have been close enough.
Xion remained near the back.
Not because anyone told him to.
Because the creature wanted him.
That made him the easiest person to use as bait.
Will Breaker immediately caught the thought.
[No.]
'You don't even know what I was thinking.'
[You were thinking something stupid.]
'That describes many things.'
[You were thinking about using yourself as bait.]
Xion paused.
'…Maybe.'
[Absolutely not.]
'Why?'
[Because if Gluttony consumes even a fragment of your False God authority, we do not know what it becomes.]
That was a very effective argument.
'Fine.'
[That sounded reluctant.]
'I said fine.'
The group reached the final staircase.
The cargo hold door stood below.
Or most of it did.
The upper half had been bent inward.
The metal looked bitten.
Literal teeth marks ran through steel thick enough to stop cannon shrapnel.
Kimiko stared.
"What kind of mouth does that?"
Kitrawr smiled.
"A committed one."
"No."
"Fair."
Sean raised one hand.
"Quiet."
The screaming had stopped.
That was worse.
He moved closer to the door.
The smell reached them first.
Blood.
Oil.
Salt.
Rotten food.
Something sweet enough to make Xion's stomach turn.
Vera covered her nose.
Kimiko's ears flattened.
Kitrawr looked unaffected.
Xion silently suspected sea snakes had terrible dietary standards.
Sean peered through the opening.
His face changed.
Xion stepped beside him.
The cargo hold was enormous.
Crates had been stacked in long rows across the chamber, secured with ropes and iron brackets.
Now half were shattered.
Cargo lay scattered everywhere.
Grain.
Wine bottles.
Mechanical parts.
Clothing.
Weapon crates.
Barrels.
And bodies.
Three crewmen hung from the ceiling.
Not by rope.
By black tendrils.
Their stomachs had been opened, but there was almost no blood beneath them.
Something had emptied them.
Kimiko looked away.
Vera whispered something in the language of the Northern Domain.
Sean crossed himself.
Xion stared.
His expression remained blank.
His hands did not.
They tightened.
One of the bodies twitched.
Sean immediately raised the pistol.
"Wait," Xion said.
The corpse's eyes opened.
Not black.
Human.
Terrified.
"Help…"
Kimiko moved.
Vera grabbed her.
"Wait."
The man's mouth trembled.
"It… ate… me…"
Xion stepped forward.
Sean caught his shoulder.
"Xion."
"He's still alive."
"Barely."
"Still alive."
The crewman coughed.
Black liquid spilled from his mouth.
"Run."
Something behind the cargo crates breathed.
The sound was massive.
Wet.
Slow.
Satisfied.
The black tendrils suspending the crewmen tightened.
Their bodies jerked upward.
Kitrawr's eyes narrowed.
"That is enough."
Water exploded from nowhere.
Not from the pipes.
Not from outside the ship.
It appeared around her.
A ring of glowing Moon Water formed beneath Kitrawr's feet, expanding across the hold.
The black tendrils recoiled.
Kitrawr lifted one hand.
The three crewmen fell.
Vera and Kimiko rushed forward.
Vera caught one.
Kimiko used foxfire to soften another man's fall.
Sean grabbed the third.
Xion kept staring between the crates.
Something moved.
Too large to hide.
Yet it did.
The cargo hold lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then returned.
The thing was standing in the center of the room.
It had been there the entire time.
Xion's breath caught.
The Gluttony Lost Soul no longer resembled the dog-sized creature from the infirmary.
It was at least twelve feet tall.
Its body was long and swollen, built from fused flesh that did not agree on what species it belonged to. Human arms protruded from its ribs. Sailor uniforms had partially merged into its skin. Broken silverware, plates, coins, pieces of wood, bottles, knives, and chunks of machinery were embedded across its body.
It had no true head.
Only a vertical mouth stretching from its chest to its neck.
Rows of circular teeth turned continuously within it.
Above the mouth were several faces.
The people it had eaten.
They moved independently.
One cried.
One laughed.
One whispered prayers.
One stared directly at Xion.
"False…"
Clock ticked.
"…God."
The creature lunged.
Kitrawr met it.
The impact shook the entire cruiser.
Her hand caught one of its limbs.
For an instant, the difference in size looked ridiculous.
Then Kitrawr twisted.
The Lost Soul flew across the cargo hold.
It crashed through five crates and slammed into the steel wall.
The entire hull groaned.
Xion stared.
"She's terrifying."
Will Breaker responded.
[Yes.]
'You sound jealous.'
[I am a weapon of Judgment. I do not experience jealousy.]
'That sounded jealous.'
[Quiet.]
The Gluttony Lost Soul rose.
Its shattered arm bent backward.
Bones snapped.
Then the broken limb opened a mouth and ate itself.
Everyone watched as flesh disappeared into its own teeth.
A new arm grew from the shoulder.
Sean's expression darkened.
"It's recycling its own body."
Kitrawr clicked her tongue.
"Cheap."
Xion looked at her.
"You are calling the monster cheap?"
"I dislike regeneration."
"Why?"
"You have to hit things twice."
Fair.
The Lost Soul's faces screamed.
Its body split.
Six long arms struck outward in different directions.
Kitrawr blocked two.
Sean raised a golden shield against another.
Vera dragged the wounded sailors behind cover.
Kimiko burned the fourth arm with concentrated foxfire.
The fifth slammed through a steel support beam.
The sixth came toward Xion.
Clock activated.
The limb slowed inside his perception.
Not actually slower.
Just readable.
Its fingers opened.
Each palm contained a mouth.
The hand was not reaching to strike him.
It wanted to grab.
To consume.
Xion stepped aside.
The hand corrected.
Too fast.
Clock ticked again.
Xion twisted his body.
The fingers grazed his coat.
Something disappeared.
Not fabric.
A memory.
Xion stopped.
For half a second, he forgot the color of his mother's kitchen.
Kiryuu's mother.
His old life.
A tiny detail.
Gone.
Then Regression burned on his left hand.
The memory snapped back.
Yellow walls.
White cabinets.
Cheap clock over the refrigerator.
Xion gasped.
Will Breaker shouted.
[Do not let it touch you!]
'I noticed!'
The Lost Soul's mouth opened wider.
"More."
Xion's eyes went cold.
"That was mine."
The creature laughed.
The voice came from every face.
"Give."
The mark of Rejection burned.
Xion raised his left hand.
"No."
The air around him distorted.
The creature lunged again.
"No."
This time the word carried weight.
Not Divine Authority.
Not yet.
Something smaller.
A refusal recognized by the anchors inside him.
The creature's hand stopped inches from his chest.
It pushed.
The invisible space between them trembled.
Clock and Rejection overlapped.
Xion's teeth clenched.
The Lost Soul pushed harder.
The floor cracked beneath his boots.
Sean saw it.
"Xion!"
"Busy!"
Kitrawr tried to move toward him.
The creature's other arms wrapped around her.
Black mouths opened across its limbs and bit into her Moon Water.
The glowing liquid vanished in chunks.
Kitrawr's eyes widened.
"Oh."
Then she smiled.
"You can eat that?"
The Lost Soul swallowed.
Kitrawr's smile became unpleasant.
"Poor thing."
Xion noticed.
"What?"
Kitrawr snapped her fingers.
The Moon Water inside the Lost Soul froze.
Not cold.
Still.
Every liquid inside the creature stopped moving.
Black blood.
Consumed water.
Spiritual fluid.
Everything.
The Lost Soul seized.
Its arms loosened.
Kitrawr tore herself free.
Then drove her fist through its torso.
The cargo hold exploded with force.
The creature flew backward again, carving a trench through crates.
Kimiko's mouth dropped open.
"She punched it."
Vera, busy tying a bandage around one crewman, did not look up.
"Yes."
"With her hand."
"That is generally how punching works, Princess."
Kimiko stared at her.
"Not helping."
Xion lowered his hand.
The barrier vanished.
His breathing was heavier now.
Clock was stabilized, but that did not make it limitless.
Every serious use still burned mana.
Every interaction with Gluttony risked losing more than blood.
Will Breaker's voice became calmer.
[We need to destroy its hunger, not its body.]
'And how do we do that?'
[Find the thing it believes it lacks.]
Xion frowned.
'That sounds annoyingly philosophical.'
[Gluttony is not hunger. Hunger ends when fed. Gluttony is the belief that nothing will ever be enough.]
Xion looked at the creature.
It was already standing again.
Kitrawr had punched a hole through its body.
The hole closed as mouths around the wound ate damaged flesh and rebuilt it.
Nothing would ever be enough.
A Lost Soul shaped by consumption.
Iron Gull anchors.
A distributed body.
It sought Xion's Authority.
Why?
Because the False God Pathway devoured authority.
Xion's eyes widened slightly.
Gluttony recognized something similar in him.
Not the same.
Similar enough to become obsessed.
He remembered the words from the lore archive.
A Lost Soul is what forms when the world tries to answer a human desire after the human has already broken.
"What were you?" Xion whispered.
The Lost Soul stopped.
The faces across its body shifted.
Sean looked at him.
"What?"
Xion stepped forward.
Kimiko grabbed his coat.
"No."
"I need to test something."
"No."
"Kimiko."
"You are the last person who gets to say my name in that tone after pretending to die."
Kitrawr looked toward the Lost Soul.
Then Xion.
"What did you notice?"
"It keeps calling me False God."
Sean frowned.
"Yes."
"It doesn't call Kimiko princess. It doesn't call you Sea God Beast. It doesn't call Sean anything."
Sean looked mildly offended.
"That is not important."
"It recognizes Pathway authority."
Will Breaker understood before he finished.
[It was a Pathwalker.]
Xion nodded.
The creature twitched.
One of the faces began crying.
Another face whispered.
"Hungry."
Xion looked at Sean.
"Can Owl Eyes read old Pathway residue?"
"If the Core is intact enough."
"It has pieces of multiple people."
"Yes."
"But the main identity should still be inside."
Sean's eyes sharpened.
"You want me to identify the original host."
Xion nodded.
Kitrawr sighed.
"Complicated."
"You prefer punching."
"Yes."
"Do both."
Her eyes brightened.
"I like you."
Kimiko made an annoyed sound.
Sean opened his pocket watch.
Golden Vaidika script appeared around his wrist.
His Owl Eyes activated fully.
The irises disappeared.
For a brief moment, his eyes became silver mirrors.
He stared at the Lost Soul.
The creature noticed.
Every face turned toward him.
Sean staggered.
Images flooded him.
A man kneeling.
A ritual circle.
Food stacked in mountains.
A starving village.
A Church refusing aid.
A Genesis fragment.
Hands.
Too many hands.
Eating.
Eating.
Eating.
Sean gasped.
Blood ran from one nostril.
Vera shouted, "Sean!"
He raised a hand.
"Don't interrupt."
The vision continued.
A man in priest robes.
No.
Former priest.
A Pathwalker.
A ritual.
He wanted enough power to feed an entire city.
He advanced wrong.
Gluttony answered.
Sean's eyes snapped back.
He nearly fell.
Xion caught his arm.
Sean breathed hard.
"I know."
The Lost Soul screamed.
"What?"
Sean wiped the blood from his face.
"The original host was a Verdant Pathwalker."
Everyone went quiet.
Kimiko frowned.
"Life?"
"Yes."
Sean stared at the creature.
"10th Array Seed Keeper."
Xion understood immediately.
A healer.
Someone who could encourage growth.
Someone who wanted to feed people.
Gluttony twisted it.
Sean continued.
"He lived during a famine. He tried to force an advancement without completing the required ritual. He wanted more healing. More growth. More food."
The Lost Soul's faces sobbed.
"Not… enough."
Sean's voice softened.
"He watched people starve."
Xion's expression changed.
Barely.
But Will Breaker felt it.
Compassion.
Not pity.
Understanding.
The man had wanted enough power to save people.
The Pathway answered wrong.
Or he did.
Maybe both.
The Gluttony Lost Soul opened its chest-mouth.
"More."
Xion stepped forward.
Kitrawr did not stop him this time.
Kimiko did.
She grabbed his sleeve.
"What are you doing?"
"Talking."
"To that?"
"Yes."
"That thing tried to eat your memory."
"I know."
"Then why are you walking closer?"
Xion looked at her.
"Because killing it isn't working."
Kitrawr nodded.
"True."
Kimiko stared at her.
"You are supposed to stop him from doing dangerous things!"
Kitrawr thought about it.
"No one told me that."
Kimiko looked ready to scream.
Xion stepped toward the Lost Soul.
Its body bent toward him.
The mouths opened.
The faces watched.
"What did you want?" Xion asked.
The creature trembled.
Sean whispered, "Xion…"
Xion raised one hand.
Not as an attack.
As a question.
"You wanted to feed them, right?"
The Lost Soul's arms twitched.
"Hunger."
"The village."
One face began crying harder.
"Gone."
"You failed."
The creature screamed.
The cargo hold shook.
Kimiko flinched.
Xion did not.
"You failed them."
Black tendrils shot toward him.
Clock flickered.
He did not move.
Will Breaker shouted.
[Move!]
Xion raised Rejection.
The tendrils stopped around him.
"You failed them," he repeated.
The Lost Soul roared.
"MORE!"
"No."
The word cut through the scream.
"You didn't need more."
The creature froze.
"You needed enough."
For the first time, every mouth stopped moving.
Xion's expression remained calm.
"But you forgot what enough meant."
The black flesh rippled.
One of the faces looked human.
Only one.
A thin man with hollow cheeks.
Tears streamed down his face.
"I…"
His voice came from deep inside the creature.
"…couldn't…"
Xion looked at him.
"I know."
Kimiko's anger faded.
Sean stared.
Even Kitrawr became quiet.
Xion continued.
"You wanted to save everyone."
The human face trembled.
"I… needed…"
"More power."
"Yes."
"So you kept taking."
"Yes."
"And after everyone was gone?"
Silence.
Xion lowered his hand slightly.
"What were you still eating for?"
The human face stared at him.
It did not know.
That was the wound.
Not hunger.
Habit after purpose died.
A desire that had forgotten why it existed.
The Lost Soul's body began shaking.
Will Breaker whispered.
[Now.]
Xion's left hand burned.
Judgment.
He called her name.
"Will Breaker."
Red-black light erupted.
The broken blade formed in his hand.
This time, the weapon felt heavier.
Not physically.
The target had a story.
That mattered.
Will Breaker spoke aloud through the blade.
[State the crime.]
Xion stared at the human face.
"Consuming what was never meant to replace grief."
The Lost Soul shuddered.
[State the guilty.]
Xion hesitated.
The creature?
The man?
The Church that failed his village?
The system?
Hunger?
No.
Judgment needed precision.
He looked into the face.
"The hunger that survived after his reason was gone."
The blade glowed brighter.
[State the judgment.]
Xion tightened his grip.
He remembered the False God Pathway.
Devouring.
Contradiction.
Authority.
He remembered what Seragrim said.
The Rejecter did not take a throne.
He denied its claim.
Xion raised the blade.
"Enough."
He swung.
The blade passed through the Lost Soul.
No explosion.
No dramatic wave of energy.
No city-shaking attack.
The creature simply stopped.
Every mouth closed.
The black flesh cracked.
One piece fell.
Then another.
The bodies trapped inside it separated from the mass.
Objects spilled onto the floor.
Coins.
Wood.
Knives.
Glass.
Food.
Metal.
Memories could not fall physically, but Xion felt several return to the room like breaths released after being held too long.
The human face remained last.
For a moment, the former Pathwalker looked almost peaceful.
"Enough…"
Then he disappeared.
The Gluttony Lost Soul collapsed into black ash.
Silence filled the cargo hold.
Xion lowered Will Breaker.
The blade dissolved.
His legs immediately gave out.
Kimiko caught him before he hit the floor.
Again.
She stared down at him.
Xion blinked.
"This is becoming a habit."
"Shut up."
"I'm fine."
"No."
"I was going to say—"
"No."
Xion wisely stopped.
Kitrawr walked toward the ash.
She crouched and touched it.
Nothing reacted.
"Dead."
Sean leaned against a crate.
"Released."
Vera finished tending the wounded crewmen.
"One of them is breathing normally again."
Kimiko looked down at Xion.
"You could have told us your plan."
"I made it halfway through."
"That is not better."
"It worked."
"You are going to make me age faster."
Xion looked at her fox ears.
"Do fox people age differently?"
Kimiko stared.
Vera burst out laughing.
Even Sean covered his mouth.
Kimiko's face went red.
"I hate you."
"You don't."
"Give me time."
Kitrawr looked over her shoulder.
"I like this group."
Sean sighed.
"This is not a group."
"It is now."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
Kitrawr smiled.
"You are adorable, little owl."
Sean's eye twitched.
Xion decided this mission had finally given him something wonderful.
Someone who annoyed Sean more than he did.
Then the pocket watch in his coat clicked.
Once.
Everyone heard it.
Xion's smile disappeared.
He slowly pulled the artifact out.
The Gluttony Lost Soul was dead.
The Iron Gull anchors were destroyed.
The remaining hosts were free.
Yet the single hand still pointed toward something.
Not down.
Not forward.
Up.
Xion raised his head.
Above the cargo hold ceiling was the passenger deck.
Beyond that, the upper deck.
Beyond that…
The sky.
Will Breaker's voice became quiet.
[The contradiction is still here.]
Xion's stomach sank.
'So Gluttony wasn't it.'
[No.]
Kitrawr noticed his expression.
"What?"
Xion held up the watch.
"It's still pointing."
Sean stepped closer.
"Toward what?"
The hand moved.
Slowly.
It turned from the ceiling toward the starboard wall.
Then stopped.
Toward the sea.
Kitrawr's expression changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
She stood.
"No."
Xion looked at her.
That one word carried more concern than anything she had said since appearing.
"What is it?"
Kitrawr walked toward the hull.
Her pale hand touched the steel.
The sea outside became completely still.
No waves.
No current.
No wind.
Her face lost its playful warmth.
"This water is wrong."
Sean frowned.
"Wrong how?"
Kitrawr slowly turned.
"It is not moving with the ocean."
The entire ship creaked.
Xion felt Clock tick.
Once.
Twice.
Then stop.
Not slow.
Stop.
The sound of the engines vanished.
The injured crewmen froze mid-breath.
Sean froze.
Vera froze.
Kimiko froze.
Kitrawr froze.
Everything froze.
Except Xion.
His eyes widened.
"No."
Will Breaker's voice came through distorted.
[Master…]
The world outside the cargo hold window turned black.
Not night.
Black.
Then something enormous moved beneath the cruiser.
Larger than Kitrawr's serpent form.
Much larger.
A shape passed beneath the ship without disturbing the water.
Xion slowly walked toward the window.
His reflection stared back.
Red eyes.
Black-red hair.
Pale face.
Behind his reflection, another eye opened beneath the sea.
Not Kitrawr's white eye.
Red.
Ancient.
Vertical.
Xion's breath stopped.
The same eye from the mirrors.
The same eye from the False God Territory.
The same one Yang Transcender had feared.
The same eye Staria had warned him about.
Do not let the red dragon open both eyes.
The eye beneath the ocean stared directly at him.
Then a voice spoke from nowhere.
Not loud.
Not deep.
Almost gentle.
"You finally looked back."
Xion could not move.
Will Breaker screamed inside his Core.
[DO NOT ANSWER IT.]
The red eye curved slightly.
As though smiling.
Then time resumed.
The ocean crashed back into motion.
The engines roared.
Kimiko gasped.
Sean stumbled.
Kitrawr turned violently toward the window.
"What happened?"
Xion stepped back.
The red eye was gone.
His hand trembled around the pocket watch.
For the first time since boarding the cruiser, his poker face failed completely.
Sean saw it.
Kimiko saw it.
Kitrawr definitely saw it.
Xion looked genuinely afraid.
Will Breaker's voice shook.
Not from weakness.
From rage.
[It found you.]
Xion swallowed.
'Who?'
Will Breaker did not answer immediately.
Then, quietly:
[The thing behind the False God.]
The pocket watch cracked.
A thin line split across its glass.
And somewhere far beneath the sea, something laughed.