The morning sun did not rise over the Endless Sea. It merely bled through the grey clouds, casting a sickly, bruised light over the water.
The Black Manta cut through the waves in silence. The crew was exhausted from the battle with the Sea Ghouls. They moved like ghosts, scrubbing the purple blood off the deck.
Bo sat on a barrel, polishing his "lucky" bag of gold. He hummed a tune, trying to look brave, but every time a fish jumped, he flinched.
"You are polishing the leather off that bag," Kaelen said, walking up to him. Kaelen looked fresh, his black robes fluttering in the salty wind. His Spirit Ocean was calm, but his eyes were scanning the horizon with the intensity of a hawk.
"It's not just a bag, Boss," Bo said seriously. "It's my weapon. I call it the 'Hammer of Wealth'. I think I am ready for the big leagues. Maybe I should challenge a Sea King next?"
"Start with a crab," Kaelen advised dryly. "And don't get pinched."
"Captain on deck!" a sailor shouted.
Captain Vargus stormed out of her quarters. She wasn't looking at the sea; she was looking through a brass telescope at a black speck in the distance.
"Turn the ship!" Vargus barked. "Hard to port! Cut the sails!"
"What is it?" Kaelen walked up to her.
"Pirates," Vargus spat the word like poison. "But not just any scavengers. That's the Iron Shark. They are slavers. They work for the Eclipse."
Kaelen froze.
He took the telescope. The enemy ship was a monstrosity. It was plated in black iron, with jagged spikes lining the hull to ram other vessels. But what made Kaelen's blood boil was the flag.
A Black Sun eclipsing a Red Moon.
"They are heading for the Black Whirlpool," Kaelen whispered. "They are a supply ship."
"We are running," Vargus commanded. "The Black Manta is a freighter, not a warship. If they ram us, we sink. And if we sink, we are dead."
"If we run," Kaelen lowered the telescope, "we lose the trail."
"Better to lose the trail than lose our lives!" Vargus argued.
"No," Kaelen said. His voice was soft, but it carried an undeniable weight. "If that ship is supplying the Eclipse... then it is carrying something they need. Or someone they need."
He thought of the ledger. Entry 105. He thought of the jar of blue eyes.
"Captain," Kaelen turned to her. "Keep the Black Manta at a distance. Create a fog screen if you can."
"Why? What are you going to do?"
Kaelen walked to the railing. Rai, the Thunder-Spirit Hawk, landed on his shoulder, screeching a war cry.
"I am going to catch a ride."
"You're insane!" Vargus shouted. "That ship is a fortress! It has cannons! It has a barrier!"
"Bo," Kaelen ignored her and looked at the fat thief. "Give me your grappling hook."
Bo blinked. "My what?"
"The hook you used to steal sausages from the pantry last night. Don't lie."
Bo blushed. He reached into his boundless robe and pulled out a rusty iron hook on a rope. "It was... for emergency fishing!"
Kaelen took the hook. He tied it to his belt.
"Bo, you stay here. If the Black Manta is attacked, protect the Captain. Use your... Hammer of Wealth."
"You trust me?" Bo's eyes widened.
"I trust your fear," Kaelen smirked. "Fear makes you creative."
Kaelen stepped onto the railing. The enemy ship was five hundred meters away, closing in fast.
He didn't wait for them to fire.
Dragon Art: Wave-Treading Step.
Kaelen jumped.
He didn't fly; he wasn't at the realm of flight yet. He landed on the surface of the water. For a split second, his Spirit Qi hardened the water tension, creating a foothold.
Splash. Splash. Splash.
He ran across the ocean surface. To the pirates on the Iron Shark, he looked like a black demon sprinting across the waves.
"Enemy spotted!" The pirate lookout screamed. "Man on the water! Fire the harpoons!"
Boom! Boom!
Massive steel harpoons, thick as tree trunks, were launched from the pirate ship. They screamed through the air, aimed to skewer Kaelen.
Kaelen didn't slow down.
"Rai!"
The hawk took flight from his shoulder.
Screech!
Rai dove at the first harpoon. His beak, reinforced with thunder energy, struck the metal shaft, knocking it slightly off course.
It missed Kaelen by inches, plunging into the water.
The second harpoon came straight for Kaelen's chest.
Kaelen drew his black sword.
"Deflect."
He didn't block; he slapped the side of the harpoon with the flat of his blade, using the projectile's own momentum to spin himself around it.
He was now fifty meters from the ship.
"Barrier! Raise the shield!" The Pirate Captain roared from the deck.
A red energy dome flickered into existence around the Iron Shark.
Kaelen smiled. A cold, predator's smile.
"A barrier blocks energy," Kaelen whispered. "But it doesn't block void."
He leaped from the last wave, soaring into the air. He was on a collision course with the red shield.
"Void Cauldron... Devour."
He placed his left hand on the barrier. The black vortex in his dantian spun.
The red energy of the shield wasn't blocked—it was sucked in.
Fizzle.
A hole, just big enough for a human, opened in the impenetrable shield. Kaelen passed through it effortlessly.
He landed on the deck of the Iron Shark.
Thud.
Fifty pirates stood there, armed with sabers and pistols. They stared at him in shock. He had run across the sea and walked through their shield like a ghost.
"Who... who are you?" a pirate stammered.
Kaelen stood up slowly. He dusted off his robes.
"I am the Inspector," Kaelen said calmly. "And I believe your cargo is illegal."
"Kill him!" The Pirate Captain, a man with a mechanical iron jaw, screamed.
The pirates charged.
It wasn't a fight. It was a dance of discipline against chaos.
Kaelen moved through them. His sword didn't kill indiscriminately. He struck wrists, knees, and shoulders.
Crack. Snap. Thud.
Weapons clattered to the deck. Pirates fell, screaming, unable to hold their blades.
Kaelen wasn't killing them because he needed answers.
He reached the Captain. The man with the iron jaw pulled out a massive blunderbuss pistol.
"Eat lead!"
Bang!
Kaelen didn't dodge. He caught the bullet.
His hand was coated in Golden Dragon Scales—a partial transformation of the Abyssal Dragon Scripture. The lead bullet flattened against his palm.
He dropped the flattened metal on the deck.
Cling.
The Captain's eyes bulged. "Monster..."
Kaelen grabbed the Captain by his iron jaw and lifted him off the ground.
"Where are you taking the cargo?" Kaelen asked softly.
"I... I can't tell you!" the Captain choked. "The Doctor... he will peel my skin off!"
"And what do you think I will do?" Kaelen's eyes flashed with vertical pupils.
"Laboratory 4!" The Captain squealed instantly. "We are taking 'Raw Materials' to Laboratory 4 inside the Whirlpool!"
"Raw Materials?"
Kaelen threw the Captain across the deck. He walked to the cargo hold hatch and kicked it open.
He looked down.
His heart stopped.
The hold wasn't filled with gold or spices.
It was filled with cages. And inside the cages were children. Dozens of them. Dirty, crying, terrified children. Some had animal ears, some had strange skin colors—all of them had special bloodlines.
They looked up at Kaelen, shrinking back in fear, expecting another beating.
Kaelen froze.
He saw himself in them. The powerless boy in the Silver-Iron Clan.
A little girl in the front cage, holding a ragged doll, looked at him with big, watery eyes. She didn't cry. She just looked resigned.
Kaelen's hand gripped the hilt of his sword until it shook.
The Emperor Valerius had seen many atrocities. But Kaelen... Kaelen felt the pain of the weak.
"You called them 'Raw Materials'?"
Kaelen turned back to the Pirate Captain.
The calmness was gone. The mystery was gone. There was only pure, unadulterated wrath.
"I changed my mind," Kaelen whispered. The air around him turned into a vacuum, sucking the sound out of the world. "I am not an Inspector."
He raised his sword. The Black Dragon roared invisibly behind him.
"I am the Executioner."
...
Ten Minutes Later.
The Black Manta pulled up alongside the drifting Iron Shark.
Bo and Captain Vargus boarded the pirate ship. They expected a fierce battle.
Instead, they found silence.
The pirates were all tied up in a neat pile on the main deck, groaning with broken limbs. The Captain was hanging upside down from the mast, unconscious.
Kaelen was sitting on a crate near the open cargo hold. He was holding the little girl with the doll on his lap. He was awkwardly patting her head, trying to comfort her.
"It's okay," Kaelen was whispering, his voice gentle and clumsy. "The bad men are sleeping. My friend Bo... he is fat and funny. He will make you laugh."
The little girl looked at Bo as he waddled over. A small smile touched her lips.
Bo looked at the pile of defeated pirates, then at Kaelen, then at the children in the hold.
"Boss..." Bo's voice broke. "You saved them?"
"We are not taking the gold, Bo," Kaelen said, looking up. His eyes were tired. "We are taking the children. We are taking them back to shore."
"But... the Whirlpool?" Vargus asked. "Your mother?"
"My mother would not want me to step over the bodies of children to save her," Kaelen said firmly. "We take them to safety first. Then... I go alone."
Vargus looked at him. She saw the conflict in his eyes. He was delaying his own mission, risking his own mother's life, to save strangers.
She smiled. A rare, warm smile.
"You are a terrible pirate, Kaelen," Vargus said. "But you are a damn good man."
"Let's move," Kaelen stood up, handing the girl to Bo. "We have a detour to make. And after that... the Eclipse will pay for every single tear shed on this ship."
As the Black Manta turned around, towing the pirate ship, Kaelen looked back at the dark horizon.
The Black Whirlpool waited. But today, humanity won over ambition. And in the heart of the Dragon, a new kind of strength was born—the strength of a Guardian.