The lantern light glowed softly against the walls of the cabin. I sat cross-legged atop a cultivation mat, the glow of the spiral tyrant crystal still pulsing faintly in my chest. I was cultivating this with the sacred breath technique Across from me, Felicity materialized in blood tendrils with that liquid grace of hers, her red goo body forming, her eyes gleaming silver. Felicity tilted her head, lips parting in a slow smile.
Just then a bell rang above deck, "LAND HO!" We had arrived at an un-charted island in the Sea of Quatzequatel. Oria ran to my Cabin door throwing it open, "Ash it's here! I can feel it" I motioned to felicity, she merged back into my body in a wave of argent light. Me and Oria walked to the top deck, Captain Riggs barking orders, " We still got those three lurkers and I'm taking no chances, I'll bring us around on the other side of the island and we trek in from there." We lowered two skiffs into the water, me, Oria, Captain Riggs and a few crew members came with. A jungle path wound up the slope of the island, overgrown and quiet.
The crew pushed through vines and broken stone, I scouted ahead with Oria. My aura sensed it too—a pulse in the earth, old and echoing, like breath held in rock. Then we saw it. Half-buried in a cliffside was a temple gate, black stone etched with silver whorls, ancient delta patterns, and a worn sigil shaped like a crown of waves. Oria stepped forward, hand trembling. "I… know this symbol. I've seen it in dreams."
The moment her fingers grazed the sigil, a faint blue light bled from her palm. A sound like chains being uncoiled roared through the jungle. "Quick give me that relic bone Ash" I reached out flicking through my inventory until I arrived at the relic bone. I handed it to her, and it immediately lit up with blue pirate ghost flame, the femur reconfigured into a ghostly blue blazing skeleton key!
Oria inserted the charged skeleton key into the gate, the was an island wide rumble! Dust lifted kicked up from the ground. Then, with a low grinding groan, it began to open. Wind howled suddenly through the jungle, and the crew turned—stone beasts, crusted in coral and moss, were rising from the ground near the gate. Old temple guardians—shaped like lionfish and mantis shrimps—jerked into motion, glowing with ancient animus threads.
Riggs spat.
"Defensive wards! Fall back!" But I surged forward. "NO. I need to see what's inside."
I summoned Felicity "Hold them off!" Felicity's smile split wide, and her claws cracked to life with crimson animus.
"With pleasure." Me and Oria dashed through the temple's threshold, down to a long corridor, at the end of it were steps leading down into a submerged pool! The underwater passage was lit by numerous aqua glow stones. "We need the breath root" I quickly pulled two strands of the silver breath root fibers from my pocket bracelet, handing one strand to Oria.
"Eat it fast" I said gulping mine down, while Oria finished hers with a gulp. We both dove into the submerged corridor. Strangely a type of thin bubble meniscus formed around my mouth and nose! I looked over at Oria as my second lens slid over my eyes her blurry form came into view, on her face to was an Aqua lung bubble mask. The stunning effects of the silver breath root grass. We Swam deeper in, Oria taking the lead her sea dragon bloodline granting her improved under water mobility.
I kept pace as best I could, but Oria moved like a phantom fish, her limbs slicing through the water with instinctive grace. Her skin shimmered faintly—tinged now with that telltale sea-glass blue glow of her lineage. The corridor widened into an ancient domed chamber, its architecture barnacled and coral-encrusted, statues of forgotten human dragoons looming like submerged gods. Runes pulsed faintly from their eyes. Suddenly—movement.
From behind a broken column, a shape unfurled. It was a Steel tentacled siren! At least twelve feet long, its torso was vaguely feminine—but its lower half was a mass of shimmering tendrils tipped in barnacle blades! The moment it saw us, it let out a haunting pulse-scream that echoed in our skulls despite the water. Then it lunged!
I kicked off the temple stone floor, directing vestigium qi into my palm—but the water slowed me, made every motion syrupy. The siren closed in fast, a whip-like tentacle flashing forward. Oria spun mid-water, dodging beautifully, then grabbed the appendage—her arm erupting in glowing scales! "Back off, witch-fish."
From her mouth, a sharp spiral of steam fired—a boiling breath attack! Condensed by pressure and spirit. It struck the siren's torso with a hiss and the scent of cooked algae. Suddenly, a translucent sea-dragon tail formed behind Oria! She slammed it into the beast like a blaze sting scorpion. She surged forward, twisting into a tight spiral—then unleashed a barrage of tail swipes! The Siren reeled—but retaliated fast. It grabbed Oria with three limbs, dragging her toward its bone-beak mouth!
There was absolutely nothing I could do here, I was a fire lightening wind element build. And my spiral tyrant foundation offered no projectile attacks. Just then My mind lit up- Projectile attacks- It would work it had too. I quickly withdrew my Yew bow and some bone arrows; I notched and arrow and charged it with qi. Then I took careful aim and let it fly!
The arrow jetted through the water, slamming into the beast's head. The siren shrieked. That gave Oria her opening.
"Sea Dragoon Pulse: Abyss Bloom!"
A glyph flared beneath her feet as hydro-pressurized energy spiraled around Orias fists! With a roar muffled by the water, she drove both glowing fists into the siren's chest. The beast detonated in a bloom of light, its body rupturing into thousands of glowing scales! Silence returned to the chamber. We swam to the corridor opening and emerged, alive and victorious.
I looked over at Oria who was panting slightly, gills fluttering along her neck. "You good?" "Fine," she said with a grin. "Just haven't stretched these powers in a while, it was frowned upon by my surrogates." From the siren's remains, something floated. A pearl-sized orb. Dripping with anima. I reached for it. It pulsed with the same frequency as the castle's energy.
"A siren pearl" We exchanged a look—then continued through the temple's next flooded corridor. At the heart of it all was a spiral chamber—a single vast dome with murals etched in concentric rings. Scenes played out across the walls:
A man with a broken crown facing a fleet of enemies. A serpent wrapped around his throat. A sword forged of tidal glass splitting the sea in two. I whispered, "This… is the Delta King's memory." At the center of the room stood an altar of sea-glass, faintly reflective like still water. Oria approached, hands shaking. She looked back once. "This is where I bleed." She pulled a blade from her sash—small, ceremonial. I said nothing, only watched as her blood dripped onto the altar. The entire temple shuddered. The temple rumbled like a beast coming awake!
As Oria's blood soaked into the altar, a pulse of primordial light surged through the chamber—blue, then violet, then gold. The ground above trembled, and across the island, three obsidian pyramids, long buried beneath vines and moss, cracked open. With an audible boom, pillars of light erupted skyward from their peaks. They shot high—straight into the clouds—where they twisted and met in the heavens. The air stilled. Then, a miracle: A phantom castle shimmered into being above the island.
Suspended in midair like a mirage of glass and gold, its walls transparent, its towers spiraling into infinity—it hovered like a crown over the land, untouched by time, held aloft by the combined force of the three pyramid-lights. From the inside of the temple, me and Oria felt the tremor in our chests. "It's begun," I breathed.
"The inheritance has revealed itself."
Far across the water, aboard the Hammer Hand, Captain Hammerhead slammed a foot on the deck. "There it is!" he roared, iron-studded jaw tightening. "Hoist every inch of canvas—we storm the island now!" Aboard the Salt Viper, Snake Man exhaled, nostrils flaring as the snakes coiled tighter. "The gateway opens… and none of us shall leave without venom shed," he hissed. He twisted his neck with a sickening crack.
His serpents hissed in agreement. And aboard the star bite, Faeluxe the Pixie Blade master narrowed her emerald eyes. "Fools. I'll take the skies." With a flap of her gossamer wings, she burst upward in a cyclone of green wind, already hurtling toward the island's edge!
Back at the crimson typhoon, on the beach, the crew of the Crimson Typhoon stared skyward in awe. Felicity, blood still steaming from her claws, glanced at me as I emerged with Oria from the temple's threshold. "So… no pressure," she smirked, "but half the sea's coming to kill you now." I cracked my knuckles, "Let them come. It's our inheritance now." Captain Riggs turned grim. "Get moving, all of you. Into the inheritance before our window closes." Above, the phantom castle shimmered—doors wide, bridges descending like beams of light—awaiting those bold or foolish enough to enter.
The air warped as we neared the descending bridge of light, me, Oria, Felicity, and Captain Riggs stood before it, the ocean breeze thrashing behind us. The bridge pulsed faintly—golden, semi-solid. The weight of fate hovered above it.
Then came the voice.
"Chosen by blood. Chosen by struggle. Enter."
The phantom castle had acknowledged us. The bridge hardened beneath our feet, no longer light but a radiant spiral of crystallized seawater. As we stepped forward, the bridge lifted us slowly, rising toward the castle in the clouds. Far below, the other pirate ships roared toward the shore. From within the phantom castle, something old and watching stirred.
The moment Hammerhead, Snake Man, and Faeluxe set foot on the island, the consciousness of the Inheritance reached out. "Other claimants approach. Let them be judged." Three new tethers of light extended from the castle—each one shooting outward like spears of invitation. Each tether found a pirate lord—and curled downward, touching the earth.
Hammerhead
As his boots crunched onto the sand, the ground before him split open to reveal a stone coliseum carved into the cliffside.
He grinned.
"Test of strength, is it? Fine. I'll break this place in half."
He stepped into the coliseum, the air rumbling as stone doors sealed behind him.
Snake Man watched his rainbow tether slither toward him through the jungle, winding like a serpent. It led him to a jade grotto, where countless mirrored reflections of himself blinked back at him. "A trial of poison and mind…" he whispered, licking his lips. "Yesss. Just my tempo." He vanished into the emerald mist.
Faeluxe chrysalis wings shimmered in the dusk as she soared into her own gate—a blossoming aerial garden filled with blades suspended midair. She touched one, eyes gleaming. "A dance of edges? Perfect." The Typhoon party crested the light bridge—and the castle accepted them.
Glass doors groaned open, and we stepped into an atrium of impossible scope.