—HRKKKKK!
Aaron tore through the guts of the large centipede without any hint of disgust or irritation visible on his face.
They had been searching for no longer than ten minutes and had yet to locate the beast's core; however, they could tell they were getting close, the feeling of mana in the air being thick and plentiful.
"Over—krk—here!"
Eleanor, in a shrill and breaking voice, called out to the blond-haired boy from another tunnel they had carved through the deceased beast.
He, having been hacking away, retracted his sword and turned his gaze down to where he had heard the call, his feet moving swiftly towards the sound.
Thank the crab… I couldn't imagine trudging through this sludge for the next hour or so…
Shaking his head with a weak frown appearing on his lips, he arrived in the hollowed-out pocket that the girl had created.
With how vile the room smelled and looked, the overall vibe was far less putrid than what the boy had done; her efforts with her mysterious tool known as Aether were far more precise than his own.
"To think I'm being outmatched by a priestess…"
Laughing as he spoke, he walked up to a few centimeters behind Eleanor, the object within her hands instantly catching his eye.
It was a larger-than-average-sized core with thin layers of mana forming a light corona with various outcrops of spewing energy.
It resembles a star and yet is only the size of a rock…
Attempting to reach out for it with his sword-wielding hand, he realized instantly that it would be impossible to take.
"Need a hand?"
The blonde-haired girl chuckled as she moved slowly to push the orange glowing orb against his bare flesh.
In the seconds before it could be absorbed, the boy simply looked at her and rolled his eyes with a clearly pained expression.
"You really had to recycle the same joke I've been hearing for the past month…?"
He opened his mouth as if to prepare to speak again; however, a sudden burst of searing agony stopped him short.
"ACK!"
Turning away quickly, he hurled the breakfast they had eaten at the cafe onto the floor.
His skull burned, and his nose flowed with a thick, unmistakable crimson that tasted like pure iron.
In Eleanor's hand, the orb vanished into a ball of gaseous mana that shot through Aaron's bare arm and through his veins.
A grimace erupted onto his already dazed face as his lungs ceased to function and his teeth rattled like he was in a blizzard.
The boy's eyes bulged, and various pustules appeared on his chest, oozing with a sickly white milk that smelt like death.
Each of these horrific developments occurred in less than a minute; the final symptom, hard crimson scales that replaced his pectorals, ended the short, agonizing moments.
"Hah…"
Aaron panted hard, nearly doubling over.
The priestess could only watch in horror, grinding her teeth against one another to keep herself from reaching out to aid the boy.
Finally, though, he began to recover, his turquoise eyes darting over towards the site he cared for the most.
"No luck…"
His missing hand was still gone, albeit with the site of the wound now pulsating with fresh blood again, a good sign overall, but for the boy's short-term goals, not quite his need.
"Aaron?"
Eleanor called out to him suddenly in a questioning tone.
"Is something wrong?"
He hadn't meant to confuse the girl in any way, and he was certain she had watched him absorb a core before, so he couldn't quite place her confusion.
"Your chest is crimson…"
Aaron's gaze instantly shot downward, his pupils dilating and his thoughts spiraling as he saw two new features.
In place of his pale pectorals, a red armor-like substance protected his ribcage.
They were undoubtedly the same material as the hardened scales of the centipede, with little to no difference in texture or color.
"I'm becoming a bug!"
There was a short pause after his loud shout, Eleanor looking over at him with only pity.
"And here I was feeling bad for you…"
Groaning and touching her own forehead, she noticed the boy beginning to tamper with his mana.
"What are you—"
Before she could even finish her question, the crimson scales sank beneath his skin, only a slightly red patch, akin to a sunburn, remaining.
"I thought so."
He looked up at the girl with pride.
"It had the same feeling as my Mana Vision, Doppelganger, and Absolute Tranquility abilities, so I tried to change the mana supply, and it actually worked."
Smiling widely, he briefly explained the differences to the girl who had already been told about his newer abilities.
"When using something like Mana Vision, it's not always active, and there's a tug at the back of my mind that requires me to activate it with mana. However, when it comes to things like Poison Resistance or Regeneration, it automatically eats away at my mana without any way to stop it or pause it, regardless of whether I'm actually being poisoned or in need of healing."
Listening closely, Eleanor nodded with curiosity still running through her veins.
"Then does this new ability still exist? It seemed to have been absorbed under your skin, so in theory, it should still be there, right?"
She pursed her lips, awaiting an answer that would come a moment after.
"I think I might be able to feel it… Ah…"
He poked himself with his finger hard, trying to push through into the solar plexus and into the gap in his ribs.
However, as he applied force, his fingernail actually broke into two shards.
"Eh…?"
There was a pause as he looked between his fingers and his chest.
Eleanor did the same while she blinked rapidly, obviously confused by the scene she had witnessed.
"I-It broke so easily…?"
There was hesitation in his voice as he spoke breathlessly.
The blonde-haired priestess reached her hand out with a glowing light within it, instantly healing the weak wound.
"Well then."
She laughed darkly.
"It seems we've found a new classification of ability for you. The type that can be activated with mana, but remain passive regardless…"
…
They arrived at the coast by late evening with both of their forms covered in sticky green acid that had begun to corrode their flesh.
Two times after their original encounter, they had been attacked by centipedes again, each of them being defeated in a similar manner to before.
However, the only difference in their deaths was that, unlike the first, they were females, and as such, instead of the core being located in the same spot each time, it was shifted to beside the womb, which was filled with thousands of unfertilized eggs.
When the core was removed, such things would be jettisoned onto whoever took out the core, resulting in both teens being soaked in the sludge.
"Remind me to never enter the desert with you again…"
Eleanor groaned as each step she took on the stony beach made a wet squishing sound, her socks and shoes completely drenched.
"Eh, it isn't too bad. Sure, it might be a little gross right now, but think about the Ghostship shower! The water ain't warm, but the pressure isn't bad. Plus, once I'm feeling better, I can absorb the extra cores and try to grow my hand back a little more. Hell, my leg might even come back a little too!"
Always the optimist, Aaron laughed as he tapped his ring once.
With a singular, unrepeated motion—the signal to summon or desummon the Ghostship and twice being to disguise it—he felt the waves churn, and the wind begin to spiral.
The sapphire gemstone shot out tendrils of turquoise light that built layers upon layers of beautifully carved wood and cloth that formed the Ghostship.
No matter how many times Aaron saw it, he never got tired of the sight, the sheer magic of creation beyond him in all meanings of the word.
Eleanor, who had witnessed death itself and was brought back, stood quietly, basking in the authority she could only consider godly.
Neither child knew how these magical vessels were brought into this world, yet even so, their brilliance was unmatched regardless of the method.
When the formation finished and the boat fell into the sea, the two climbed aboard slowly, the cool wood beneath their fingers as fresh as the days they had first stepped aboard.
"It's good to be back."
The blonde-haired girl smiled as she noticed a turquoise crustacean at the corner of her eye, its black eye-stalks watching her carefully.
Aaron seemed unaware of its presence, and she didn't blame him for it.
After her trip to the Great Beyond, she could sense it more accurately now, the connection between the animal and the ship beneath her feet.
The beating heart of the Ghostship that she could sense deep beneath her feet mirrored the same exact beat of that crab's life.
They were connected in a way indescribable by words.
Eleanor couldn't tell if the boy had noticed such a fact; however, the new feelings racing through her mind sent a shiver down her spine.
Mr. Crab wasn't simply a helpful guide granted by the Ghostship, no, not at all.
To the best of that 17-year-old girl's knowledge, that peg-legged, eye-stalked, turquoise-colored creature was the living personification of whatever so-called 'ghosts' lurked in the depths of Aaron's Ghostship, and there was nothing it wouldn't do for that boy if he commanded it so.