"Dammit!"
Aaron kicked his metallic leg with his other foot, trying to dislodge it from the wet sand beneath him.
Eleanor wasn't far behind him on the beach, their pace having been quick through town and back to the scene of their arrival.
Far in the distance, the frozen form of the kraken could be seen, its mutated tentacles and warped appearance forever unchanging.
I don't know how long until the sky turns red again, but if we're outside when that happens…
Bringing his right hand to his nose, he tapped the gemstone once with the tip and watched as the light exploded forth.
Floor by floor, the structure began to expand, yet to him, it wasn't nearly fast enough.
C'mon. C'mon. C'mon…
A hand found itself upon his shoulder, causing him to jump, his mind on high alert even under the clear blue sky.
"O-oh, it's just you."
Internally scolding himself for being frightened of a mere touch, he shook his head, returning his gaze to the forming Ghostship.
Biting the inside of his cheek, his lips trembled with excitement and joy as the vessel fell downward into the sea.
Not wasting any time, he dove into the still sea, the water different than normal, though still traversable.
Eleanor outswam him with the use of her Aether as a propellant, allowing her to reach the ladder and climb aboard before he could even lay a hand on it.
Show off…
Pulling himself aboard, he hurriedly made preparations for departure, issuing commands to the automatically adjusting boat.
Mr. Crab wasn't visible, and the deck was rather silent, other than the two teens who were scurrying around in a rush to escape.
By the time the anchor was raised and they began to move, multiple minutes had already passed, and without an exact timer on when the mysterious crimson would return, they paid little attention to anything other than escape.
Such a distraction was the reason they missed one crucial detail.
In a land where time had ground to a halt, the flaming sails of the Ghostship were filled with the wind.
Knock. Knock.
Aaron's blood ran cold, and his heart dropped at the sound.
Before he could even utter a word, the sky turned a pure, blood-red hue, shifting its mind-warping influence onto the two teens.
"RUN!"
He could barely speak as the pains seared through his skull, the two opposing forces within him fighting one another.
Eleanor stood in a daze, unmoving as if she had succumbed to the effects of the time-freezing island.
The boy who had been running with all his might towards the cabin door stopped hard, turning around without care for his own well-being.
"C'MON!"
He stretched his hand out, grabbing her thin wrist within his grasp and pulling her hard towards himself.
The sudden tug snapped her out of whatever trance she had been in, her expression blank but still clouded with confusion.
"Where–"
She was cut off by a shriek that shredded through the air.
KNOCK KNOCK!
An invisible force slammed into Aaron's chest, the Crimson Scales, having still been activated, negating a majority of the impact.
Dammit! Move faster!
Pushing mana into his legs, he accelerated tenfold, reaching the door in only a second more and dragging Eleanor alongside him.
Leaping inside with enough force to crack one of the wooden boards of the deck, he simultaneously kicked the door shut.
Blood dripped from his nose and through his lips, the taste and smell of iron permeating his entire body.
Yet he wasn't out of danger; the ship was still far from the edge of Strava's influence, and the hourglass that would allow them instantaneous escape was near the helm.
Furthermore, the window that resided at the back of the room was left uncovered, an issue that he quickly resolved, however, through a makeshift curtain fashioned out of an old rag.
Are we… Safe…
He was panting hard, his expression grim and his eyes focused on the silent door ahead of him.
Never before had he been attacked aboard the Ghostship by something the ship could not detect; every previous encounter had been either a terror or a soon-to-be ally like Cam.
KNOCK! KNOCK! CRUNCH!
This time, it wasn't just the sound of wood being slammed against, but rather the horrifying echo of a bite-like crunch.
I-Is something eating through the door?!
Glancing over at Eleanor with a horrified frown, she returned a similar face, obviously still dazed from the crimson light.
The boy summoned Ocean's Bane to his hand, prepared to fight against that thing once more.
"Can you fight?"
Posing the question to the priestess, he watched as she trembled unconsciously, clearly displeased by the idea.
"We don't even know what we would be fighting… It struck you, right? And you still didn't see it?"
Aaron didn't respond, only pursing his lips harder than before.
This damned island…
Adrenaline coursed through his body as the relentless pounding only increased, the window left untouched, but the crunching never ceased.
THUMP! KNOCK! CRUNCH!
In situations where the Ghostship had been threatened, those turquoise runes had appeared as if warning an enemy; however, now, they were utterly silent.
Are they disabled? Or is this thing unable to be detected by them?
He took a step backwards, his foot catching on a hard object that didn't even budge from his weight.
"Ack!"
Instinctively reaching down to his ankle that had collided with the hard object, he froze, his pulse the only thing he could hear.
I-Impossible…
As he had taken a stance against the oncoming attacker, he had unknowingly backed up against that strange, ancient cabinet within the cabin.
Nothing should've happened; the locked bureau was a future goal for him, the key still missing, and the memories of his likely tied to whatever was within.
However, this time was different, or more accurately, able to be uniquely compared to only two other situations.
Below his feet, only recently knocked off the wooden cabinet, a piece of pale parchment with hastily drawn words stared up at him.
This hellish Ghostship…
Looking for any sign of Mr. Crab, he noticed Eleanor staring at him and the parchment below his feet.
"Is that…?"
Having transcribed the original document that had awakened the Ghostship, she was well aware of the cabinet's strange properties; this time, she couldn't guess what was written across the paper.
Slowly, amongst the knocks, pounds, and shrieks, he reached towards the floor, picking the paper up between his fingers.
Then, without a hint of emotion in his voice, he read the two lines on the paper that he could find legible.
"Awaken, oh Lost Ship of the Sea."
They were the first words that had awoken the Ghostship from its slumber, and once more, they changed something within him, a feeling that he had so carelessly forgotten.
Runes hummed to life, covering the entire cabin in turquoise light, but even so, the pounding from outside only increased.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
He could feel the magic protecting him beginning to wane, the Ghostship's mana limited by his own supply.
It was for this reason that, without an ounce of hesitation, he read out the second line of the parchment, one unique and new to him.
"Initiate Active Duty Protocol."
His body trembled; no, rather, it was the planks beneath him that practically leaped from their nailed locations.
Mana drained faster than he could react, sending him stumbling back while dropping Ocean's Bane with a loud thud.
He clutched the part of his chest that covered his core, waves of pain resounding outward from it.
Color escaped him alongside nearly all his senses, his consciousness intact but heavily damaged from the words.
The runes that surrounded the two teens flashed a crystal white before their welcoming demeanor shifted to something—darker.
Whispers bombarded their ears, murmurs of the past, present, and even future, weeding themselves into their subconsciousness like unwanted guests.
"Adventure!"
For Aaron, the past came first, the day he recovered the most basic of memories and began his journey anew.
"Initiate Active Duty Protocol."
The words he had said less than a minute ago, now repeated again with the force of a stone hurled at his core.
Finally, he heard his voice once more, yet it was fundamentally different, broken almost as if he wasn't himself.
"Your name…? What about ■■■■■■■? ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■■■."
Then, as the whispers vanished, a blood-curdling, almost demonic roar erupted from the deck as if the gates of hell had split wide open.
He pleaded with his body to allow him up, to locate the cause of that noise, but his own form would not respond.
Eleanor sat in a daze on the ground, seemingly dejected from the words she had heard.
There was no telling what kind of future she had heard herself mention, the boy's own semi-prophecy sending a shiver down his spine.
Outside the door, the knocking had ceased completely, and the fragments of crimson light seeping through the temporary curtain had faded back to normal.
That protocol, the one he had uttered, did one thing that he was certain of.
A defensive protocol… Just like Thorn's…
Even through the pain, a weak smile made its way across his lips.
How convenient that such a paper appears at this time and with this exact situation…
He paused, allowing his body to relax against the wood and his eyes to stare up at the ceiling.
Mr. Crab mustn't want me dead quite yet…