The trio was leaving the city by boat when the sky seemed to fracture. Two flying streaks of violet and silver light, tangled in the air before snapping to a halt directly in front of the vessel.
"We are so terribly sorry for the lack of entertainment. We thought our 'beloved' servant would do a much better job," Seth the Adjon smirked. He floated with an effortless, mocking grace, his eyes scanning the trio like a bored critic watching a bad play.
Beside him, Argo stood silent. His gaze was fixed on the teens, eyes like a dart aimed at a board, cold and calculating.
"Don't mind him," Seth chuckled, waving a hand toward his brother. "He just wants to kill you. But me? I think of you guys as my brothers." He grinned, the expression never reaching his eyes. "Anyway, the people of this stinking capital choosing death for me is just good branding. They want to feel special, so they die for their beloved **God**. Ha ha!"
Seth's laughter was like glass breaking. "Those poor losers. Aren't I right, Argo?"
A deep voice, sounding like metal scraping against stone, finally spoke. "Seth. Our Brother told us not to kill them. You are wasting my precious time."
Without another word, the massive, silent God turned and vanished into the clouds.
"What a bore," Seth sighed. He turned back to the trio, his eyes glowing as he drifted closer to the boat.
"I have such... interesting plans for you three. I can just imagine it. Absolute Cinema!"
Kenji's hand twitched toward his hilt.
"Touch that blade and I'll slaughter you like a pig," Seth hissed, his smile twisting into something predatory. "Oh, wait. I'm not supposed to kill you. But the Leader never said I couldn't snap every bone in your body just to hear the sound."
Suddenly, Argo teleported back, his hand lashing out to grab a handful of Seth's hair. He yanked his brother's head back with a sickening jerk. "Seth. There's a couple falling in love two miles East. Go ruin it. You're boring me."
"Gladly!" Seth's eyes lit up with sick joy. "Parents die, the God forbids their union... Oh, Argo, this is Gold!"
Seth streaked away like a comet. Argo turned his final gaze toward Kenji. "Don't mistake our Leader's game for mercy. Make sure you become useful... because when he is done with you, I'll be the one to kill you."
The trio set sail after the adjons left, the silence of the ocean closing in behind them.
"You know, besides the fact that we might die on this journey," Kaito said, leaning against the edge of the boat, "this is still better than that lab they had us in."
"Lab?" Kenji asked, his brow furrowing. "You never mentioned a lab."
"Yeah, They experimented on us," William said softly, looking at his hands. "Altered our powers. My original ability was Earth-Healing. Quiet. Peaceful. But they thought fusing my heart with a Mana Beast core was a better investment. They call the process Overclock."
William's expression darkened. "It takes that healing energy and detonates it through my pores. It breaks my bones every time I punch... then forces them to reset while I'm still fighting."
Kaito let out a sadly cheerful laugh. "My powers were perfect already, so they just tortured the hell out of me. I guess I was just too talented to cut open."
"Are we really doing this?" William asked with a confused, jagged grin. "Comparing our torture? We really are messed up."
"Well," Kenji stepped in, his voice hollow. "They killed me and my family."
They stared at him for a second and shared a jagged, hollow laugh, the kind that only sounds right in a graveyard. But as the echoes died down, the sea became unnervingly still. The waves stopped lapping. The wind died. The world went mute.
Then suddenly the waves became intense.
A large, dark shadow emerged beneath the boat.
SCREEEEEEE!
A massive Leviathan erupted from the water, followed immediately by a second. The twin beasts lunged at each other, their collision sending a wall of water over the deck.
"Get this damn boat moving, Kaito!" William shouted. As one beast fell toward them, William used a surge of his power to punch the air, the shockwave steering the creature's massive bulk away from the wood.
Kaito roared, his eyes glowing as he changed the axis of gravity to lift the entire boat ten feet out of the water.
"Is this what you want, Seth?" Kenji whispered to the wind. "I'll give you a show."
Kenji leaped onto the beast landing on its back, stabbing his blade deep between its shimmering blue scales. The monster thrashed, and Kenji climbed gripping the scales, making his way to its head with all his might, driving his sword into its eye. The Leviathan let out a world-ending shriek, throwing Kenji into the deep blue sea.
Kenji looked down into the endless blue. For a moment, he saw the dark silhouette of Death.
Kenji looked down into the endless blue. For a moment, he saw the dark silhouette of Death.
"Come to play with me again, Death?" he thought with a dry, internal snarl.
As he sank, the second Leviathan rose beneath him, its maw wide like a canyon of teeth.
DOOM!!
The sea didn't just move; it vanished. A localized burst from William's Overclock vaporized the water, creating a temporary vacuum in the heart of the ocean.
William reached out, his left hand hanging in a mangled, bloody ruin—the price of defying the sea. Kaito steered the boat into the void, catching Kenji mid-fall, and used his final surge of mana to launch them toward the High Peaks.
"Guys... I don't... feel..." Kaito's mana faded along with his consciousness. The boat hit the shore at super-speed, dissolving like frozen butter.
Kenji woke in the snow, the only one still aware. He dragged his friends toward the shelter of a large rock at the mountain's base, his breath a thick plume of white smoke.
"Shit," he hissed. "I lost my sword."
He looked at William's arm. It was healing, but the mountain air was fighting it, releasing a terrifying amount of steam. He dragged Kaito close to the heat, huddled for warmth.
Suddenly a humanoid shape with spindly arms and stubby feet. A Frost-Gaunt stepped out of the mist, lured by the emerald glow of William's mana.
Without his steel, Kenji relied on instinct. He ducked the creature's sweeping reach, his split knuckles cracking against its matted fur. He fumbled for a stone, his fingers so cold they barely responded, but he gripped a jagged rock and drove it into the beast's skull with a primal roar.
"Okay," he groaned. "At least it was just one."
He looked into the blizzard. Ten more pairs of eyes ignited in the dark.
He ran to his companions.
"Kaito! Wake up!" Kenji shook his friend. "I need your help right now!"
Kaito jolted awake, saw the pack, and instinctively grabbed Kenji and William, lifting them into the air. But his mana wasn't restored yet. His nose began to bleed from the pressure.
"There!" Kenji pointed to a glowing blue cave up the peak.
Kaito's light died. They didn't fly anymore. They fell. They hit the snow just outside the cave entrance with a bone-jarring thud.
"Quickly!" Kenji panted, grabbing William. "Drag him in!"