We definitely have the right place.
Then let’s get on with it!
Alith was first to board the ship, swimming up to the deck by herself, and suddenly letting out a surprised yelp.
GYAHH! Fu–
Alith?!
It’s nothing, it’s nothing! The ship has uh… Its own gravity? I understand why we felt that pull now.
Sofia almost reacted the same way when her feet suddenly pulled themselves onto the ship’s deck despite having been warned. The fact that it happened without any mana movement that she could feel had still taken her by surprise.
The others followed, and even Pestle ended up getting stuck on the floor.
It’s really soul magic used to prevent sailors from falling overboard I assume?
Alith took a few steps, looking like a shuffling zombie due to the sheer difficulty of getting her feet off of the deck's grey old planks. It’s clearly too fucking strong, did this ship usually take trips through typhoons or something? No wonder I felt the pull from so far away.
Meanwhile, Pestle struggled against the pull and lost, going from standing to sitting to laying flat on the floor like a starfish. Pesle stuck! Please help! Am become carpet!
Pareth scooped her up, lifting the tiny fairy with difficulty, his bones shaking as he hoisted her up to his shoulder.
Thank thank. Prett very man!
Lightly shaking his skull, Pareth took the lead, stepping toward the captain’s quarters.
Remaining in almost complete darkness, the group still could not see much, but the deck looked rough. The wear and tear of the planks bearing sword marks, the frayed ropes and banged up barrels, they all felt like signs of heavy use, rather than the damage of spending thirty thousand years under the sea.
It’s like it’s frozen in time…
Sofia had to prevent herself from pushing her thoughts further.
Also my impression. With it being like this, I’m surprised you only feel one skeleton, Alith said.
This I do have my guess as to why.
… Yeah, now that you bring this up, I think it’s about time we used some light. I’d rather attract a few local creatures than accidentally walk blindly into one of those Deep parasite things.
Fair point, let me.
Sofia gradually adjusted the luminosity of her body’s runes showing through her armor, until everybody could see clearly from one side of the ship to the other.
Looks safe, still. And pretty basic, all things considered.
Anything that stands out would have been looted already.
Entering the captain’s quarters, their words were immediately disproven, as there were still many things around. Rotten old decorations, paintings, full bookshelves, multiple tables loaded with coins, bejeweled items and gold cutlery, and a large array of navigation tools strewn around the place.
There’s like… Almost three hundred chairs. Looks like they held a banquet to celebrate their accumulated wealth and then… Just vanished.
Good chance that it’s exactly what happened, Alith approved. And then that skeleton in the back must be the captain. No paintings of the Lords this time? She asked, checking out the large room’s decorations.
I feel like you could notice those as well as I could, I don’t think there is. I wonder if there is anything worthwhile in the riches here, though.
Not seeing anything that catches my eyes, personally. Sure there’s gold and gems, but no magic items or anything, I don’t think.
Sofia walked past the loaded banquet tables, and approached the skeleton sitting on a throne-like seat at the very back, who was holding something in its extended hand, like presenting something to the missing crew.
Is that…
The skeleton clothes were ragged but still on his body, most notable was the large hole torn through his chest, even the sternum and ribs behind the hole were shattered, but the spine was intact.
… his mana heart?!
In the skeleton’s hand was a large blood-red gemstone. Sofia thought it an inert regular jewel at first, but upon closer inspection, it faintly glimmered in the Deep’s iridescent shades under her light.
This must be it.
Everyone. Enough looking around. Bookie, you come out too.
Bookie reluctantly summoned himself, grabbing Sofia’s leg without a word.
Yep, it’s looking like your theory was right, Alith commented as she approached the skeleton, Another ‘sanctuary’.
An internal world inside of someone’s core, it was actually a path I had the option to take back then…
An option you got through using Aphenoreth’s essence as the base for your mana heart. It’s really not surprising.
Or we could still be wrong and nothing happens when we touch it.
Good joke, Sof. We might get separated again, right?
Likely. We should touch each other while we touch the stone at the same time, but who knows whether that’ll help… Just in case, let’s get a few more skeletons out. There isn’t much space here so…
Sofia summoned Crowie and the Emperor pearled Snake.
Bookie, you should do your fusions now as well.
Bookie nodded, grabbing his book form from Sofia’s waist, flipping it around, and fusing himself with the high priest skeleton and the four aura mages.
I hope for you we won’t be stuck without mana again, Bookie. Alith commented, petting his skull.
Anything could happen on the other side, but remember that in all likelihood, we will be on a time limit again. And if we do get split up again, whether we investigate a bit by ourselves or try to join up first, whatever feels appropriate.
See y’all on the other side! Alith said, placing her hand above the stone.
Everyone got in place, and Sofia gave a countdown.
Three.
Two.
One.
They all touched the stone.
There was an awkward moment where nothing happened, then the light vanished.
The ancient vessel was plunged into silence and darkness once again.
The group was nowhere to be seen anymore.
In the distance, a different light shone. Two otherworldly glimmering red eyes, peering coldly at the defier of fates.
Sofia ‘opened her eyes’, feeling something poking at her skull.
She was dizzy, feeling exactly like she was waking up with the worst hangover. The only things in her vision were a dark stormy sky, and the skeletal bird standing on her face, pecking at her forehead.
“Crowie?”
The bird suddenly jumped up in excitement.
“CAAAAWW!”
It quickly rubbed its tiny skull against Sofia’s cheekbone before jumping off.
Sofia raised a hand above her head, there were only bones, her own lumian bones, their glow dim and lacking any luster, surrounded by weak bloodlight.
“Aaaah shit. Was bound to happen– Uerkh!” Sofia retched as she pushed herself to sit up, “-- at some point, right? Fuck…”
“Caw!”
“Oh, so my glove is there,” Sofia said, seeing Crowie push it against her pelvis. “Anything else made it here?” Sofia asked, “What about the others?”
Crowie shook his skull, it was no to both.
“Well that’s a start. At least we’re not alone.”
Crowie enthusiastically nodded, before flying up to perch on Sofia’s clavicle.
Sitting on strange blood-red sand, Sofia took a moment to observe her surroundings. Try as she may, she could not see a sun, only dreary dark clouds that could turn into a thunderstorm at any moment, up to the horizon. She was at the center of a lonely sand cay, some twenty meters away from the waves of an agitated dark-red sea in all directions. A few dead shrubs and a sickly looking leafless tree were the only other things around.
As for herself, she was a skeleton.
Mana heart’s there, at least… But my mana feels limited? Why does it feel so hard to gauge? My aura has lost a lot of range too…
Can’t seem to access the system menus at all…
Sofia invoked an explosive bolt in her right hand.
The plasma bolt formed instantly, and although the channeling of mana into it was slower due to her missing items, everything felt natural.
Ooh, that feels a bit hot.
After just a second, she threw the bolt at the horizon, watched it fly away for a moment, and had it blow up in the air.
The bright blue explosion illuminated the drab sky for an instant.
Pretty small. At the rate it was pumping my mana, an explosion this size… I should still have around a third of my 200 million? That’s more than it felt like, not too bad. I don’t think I’m missing a single skill either… I just can’t feel the others at all. Except for Crowie.
Standing up, Sofia roughly brushed off the red sand from her bones, put on her glove, and stretched a bit.
Whew, I need that. Could use some water, also.
Curious, Sofia took on her demon form. Her bones morphed and shifted into a new demon-form assembly, but she was still very much a skeleton.
[Regret]
She reappeared some distance away, her feet in the water.
Good en- AGGH!
She hurriedly flew up out of the water, the droplets created by her sudden movement splashing on her wings and legs, causing her to flinch in pain again.
What the hell!
The bones of her feet, and anywhere the sea’s red waters had touched was erupting in wriggly dark tendrils, like worms of blood. Sofia hurriedly cut it all off with her aura, flying further up away from the waves. Her cut bones started to regrow, slowly, painfully. Every millimeter of brand new clean bones that she regained felt like a hundred spears piercing her chest.
Even after she was fully healed, the pain left her trembling.
Not too far from there, it started raining. The rain was also red.