On the coast of Sea Fallen, a lone female figure emerged from the shadowy veil that covered the island, scoffing under her breath.
"I know Master likes to play favorites, but that girl is the worst of the worst…"
She paused as a tremor rocked the beach, sending wave after wave crashing against the shore, each larger than the last.
"Why must I, of all people, supervise this boring slaughter alone… That bumbling fool Adam is probably still stuck in the Mausoleum. I hope he pulls himself together and finishes his job before I lose my patience."
Sighing deeply, she began walking towards the burning city; however, as she glanced back at the raging waters, something seemingly insignificant caught her eye.
How is a fishing boat still afloat? I'm certain the terrors combined with the waves would've sunk it, so how could this be?
Arianna stared at the odd sight, deciding she had enough time to investigate since the first part of the mission was already complete.
The cold, wet sand sank under her feet as she made her way along the coast toward the ship that bounced atop the white-capped waves.
"An ordinary fishing boat?"
She muttered, her voice tinged with uncertainty, as she raised her right hand and chanted a single word.
「Burn.」
In an instant, black flames erupted from her fingertips and surged to the fishing vessel tied to the dock, incinerating the air around it.
She watched as the flames struck the boat, covering it in black embers that smoldered and slowly faded away.
That was strange, however, not unheard of…
Arianna waited for the smoke to clear, narrowing her eyes at the location where the ashes of the fishing vessel should have been floating.
"It's undamaged…?"
Her eyes scanned the hull and sails, spotting a faint turquoise glow coating every surface her fire had touched.
Strange…
Tilting her head to the side, she raised her hand again; however, this time she pointed her fingers at the ship in a controlled gesture, mimicking a gun.
「Inferno.」
The wind swirled around her, then exploded in a black glow, forming a tornado of flames that burst from the tip of her finger to the fishing boat.
"That should do it…"
She stared as smoke rose from the ship once more, waiting for signs of destruction.
Behind her, she heard the scurrying of tiny feet, as though some small creature moved through the sand.
However, when she turned around, she saw nothing, which only deepened her growing confusion.
Shaking her head, she shifted her gaze back to the remnants of the ship, yet to her surprise, not even a scratch marked its surface.
"I-Impossible… Such a thing would work on anything except for something at the level of the Mauso–"
Arianna's words died in her throat as the fire parted to reveal a tiny crack in the turquoise shield.
Wedged between the bow and the rear sail, a single hole exposed something she hadn't realized she dreaded until the moment it appeared right in front of her.
"B-Blue flames…"
…
At the edge of the pier, an old dock worker barked orders at rookie fishermen as they loaded crates of lobster and crab onto a small boat.
"Quit dragging your feet! We need these shipments in by December, no later!"
Vicious rain pounded against the harbor, soaking every mariner to the bone, and some even swore it was a once-in-a-century typhoon.
One of the younger men shouted over the raging storm, his words distorting and scattering into the wind.
"Boss, it's too dangerous to sail in this cursed weather! We've gotta push it to next week or later!"
The elderly man furrowed his brow, scoffing indifferently before berating the man.
"I wouldn't care even if an apex terror showed up, so get ye smart ass back to work!"
His rough accent carried such a harsh tone that even the hardened fishermen scrambled to load the crustaceans aboard as quickly as possible.
Everyone on Strava knew the consequences of holding back a shipment to the markets of Sea Fallen, even by a few days.
Every moment of delay cost the citizens hundreds of Draught they desperately needed to feed their families or supply their businesses.
Over time, these losses could lead to poverty and starvation spreading across the island.
Nobody wanted to risk a failed season with empty nets, which is why the island produced some of the most highly trained fishermen in the world.
The most legendary of them was a stout man with no family or friends who, no matter rain or shine, always sat at the end of the second pier with his rod in hand.
His eyes stayed fixed on the stormy waters as he reeled in the line with calm precision, not a trace of struggle in his grip.
A moment later, he pulled a large black spotted tuna from the depths, swiftly slaughtered it, and placed it in a box of ice on his side.
With a look of envy in his eye, the old boss, who was ordering the harbor around, stared at the man before feeling a firm hand latch onto his shoulder.
"Who the hell…"
His words were cut off as he faced the large, green-haired man behind him with his salty and gruff demeanor immediately softening to a look of absolute fear and shame.
"L-Lord Cosmoti… What are you doing in these waters…"
He barely stuttered out his words as the Sea King released him from his grasp, with his blue eyes focused instead on the short fisherman at the pier's end.
"That man is a monster."
And, without another word, he pulled a small emerald pocketwatch from his coat pocket, clicked open the glass cover, and turned the seconds hand to thirty.
His gaze never wavered even once as he closed the watch, placing it back into the crevice he had pulled it.
Next to him, the old man looked from him to the stout man on the pier before stuttering out another word.
"L-Lord…?"
He paused, waiting for Cosmoti's response.
However, the bearded Sea King simply continued his blank stare for exactly thirty seconds before blinking and turning his attention to the boss.
"I apologize for my discourteous behavior, but that terror over made for quite the awful stench that needed to be dealt with."
The elderly man tilted his head in confusion before noticing the rain coming to an immediate stop with rays of sunlight poking through the dark clouds.
"P-Perfect weather?"
Cosmoti smiled at the man's words, pointing to where the legendary fisherman sat.
His body had slumped over with his rod slowly slipping from his hand, yet from his head sprouted a long antenna that glowed with a bright light resembling that of an angler fish.
Scales coated his body with a gruesome smell wafting through the docks, causing many of the sailors to vomit off the side.
"When monsters are left to their own devices, only darkness can sprout."
The Sea King's words echoed through the dock with a particular boy listening intensely from aboard the boat.
His turquoise eyes watched as Old Man Martin bowed his head again and again to the King, praising his deed with the utmost respect to the point that even Lord Cosmoti felt uncomfortable.
"Thank you, but you should save such praise for little ole' Lepaie, or wait… Lord Quinn, I should say."
He scratched the back of his green hair before sweeping his gaze throughout the crowd of fishermen, but stopping at a tall blonde-haired boy lifting a large crate above his head.
Under his breath, the whisper was left unheard by Old Man Martin, with Orion turning around with a smirk forming on his face.
"Interesting…"
With those parting words, he jumped into the sea, disappearing without a sound as if he hadn't ever been there.
A collective sigh of relief spread through the harbor workers, with even Martin shaken about the shocking arrival of a man revered throughout the world as the King of the Cursed.
…
"You're such a weirdo."
Eleanor held a small crab between her hands, playing with it gently, watching Aaron stare at the dock with a sense of awe on his face.
Upon their arrival in the painted world, the boy's actions had been increasingly strange, with Eleanor almost a ghost in the space while he was able to interact as if he had been there before.
He became the memory.
Her mind had accepted that thought as the cause of his actions; however, she followed him and still spoke to him as if he were his old self.
She watched as he hoisted crates of lobsters into a pile across from where she sat, noticing an error in the memory.
"Ring. He still has the ring."
Aaron's right index finger glowed with an odd light, occasionally flashing between a calm, relaxed blue and a deep black that sucked the life out of the air around it.
He hadn't seemed to have noticed it, yet Eleanor sensed that it was affecting him and the surroundings, whether he knew it or not.
She thought for a moment before standing up and looking at the boy with determination.
"We need to leave."