CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: FIELDS OF WIND.
LOCATION: CENTER OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
First Ones' Fleet on course for Senson Town—Fifteen Days before present time.
First Ones' General: "Captain please! L-Let's discuss this first! It'll be too much for them! Please! Think about what you're doing!"
Jerry tore his crimson cloak away in a single violent motion, the fabric snapping through the air before collapsing uselessly against the soaked deckboards.
The general stumbled backward at the force of it, collapsing onto the wet wood in a humiliating sprawl, rain immediately swallowing whatever dignity he had left.
Above them, the skies were a dull, suffocating gray—clouds stretched thin like bruised skin across the heavens. The First Ones' fleet cut through the Southern Seas beneath that lifeless canopy, its massive formation groaning with the weight of anticipation.
And at its center stood Jerry Windfield.
He had called them all.
Every soldier.
Every cadet.
Every knight, nurse, colonel, and director. Every fragment of the First Ones' military force gathered upon the flagship's deck, drawn inward like iron filings pulled toward a warblade.
An announcement was coming.
Jerry…
Jerry…
The wind slid through his light-blue curls, threading through them like unseen fingers, lifting and letting them fall in a rhythm too calm for the violence already etched into the ship's memory.
Not too far away, the assembled ranks stood in uneasy silence.
They had been waiting.
For something—anything—that could explain what they had witnessed.
The echoes still lived in them.
The sound of Dictator Hera's fury, hammering down like divine judgment upon their First Captain.
The dull, suffocating image of Jerry lying beneath her rage, blood pooling beneath his head.
And the sight no one could fully admit they had seen clearly—but no one could forget either.
The body of Dictator Kaiser.
Whispers had already begun to rot through the fleet, spreading faster than discipline could contain.
First Ones' Cadet: "H-Hell Raisers! It must've been the Hell Raisers!"
First Ones' Lieutenant General: "Was it a surprise attack? Impossible! No one could have surprised the Captain! Unless…"
First Ones' Nurse: "I've never seen anything like it… it's bubbling. His wound. It's bubbling."
First Ones' Colonel: "The time has come. Doom has once again been brought upon us! The Fourth Ageless War has begun!"
First Ones' Director: "Nonsense! Use your heads, you fools!"
…
First Ones' Knight: "C-Captain?"
———
Pale and silent.
Jerry dragged a hand slowly down his face, his skin tightening beneath the freezing contact of his palm. The white bear fur trimmed along his mantle whipped violently in the wind, striking itself in restless rhythm like a banner caught in a battlefield that never ended.
He exhaled, slowly wrapping his slender fingers loosely across his mouth.
Think.
Just think.
His eyes drifted shut.
And the world beneath him dissolved.
He floated instead through an endless, weightless darkness where even gravity seemed too tired to exist.
The pressure of the Fields of Wind faded into something distant and irrelevant, like a forgotten dream pressed between pages that had never been meant to be read again.
And there—
something warmer.
Something softer.
Jerry: "Remember…"
Rose-pink curls swaying like petals beneath moonlight.
Ravishing light-tan skin kissed by distant suns.
Ocean-blue eyes that seemed to hold an entire calm sea within them.
A smile—teasing and passionate—that never once felt like a lie.
Soft fingers.
A voice sweet enough to wound memory itself.
Dearest love.
Jerry: "Remember… remember what your—"
???: "First Captain Windfield. They're here."
Reality struck.
Jerry staggered backward, one hand clenching at his chest while breath tore unevenly from his lungs. Sweat broke instantly across his brow despite the cold sea air, and for a moment his body seemed unsure whether it still belonged to him.
His legs trembled—in a horrifying sensation that the ground beneath him might've simply forget how to hold him.
The woman who had spoken—Director Eir—moved immediately.
Bright-green hair whipped behind her like a trailing signal flag as she stepped forward, catching him by the shoulders before he could collapse into himself entirely. Her dark-azure cape flared outward in the frigid wind.
Director Eir: "Captain? Is everything alright?"
Jerry straightened, quickly regaining his mask of indifference. He removed her hands from his shoulders, standing once more as the First Captain—towering, composed, and distant as an unmoving statue.
Jerry: "Space."
The crowd obeyed instantly, stepping back in perfect synchronization—six measured paces, no hesitation, no deviation—as though their bodies had long since memorized obedience more than breath.
They waited.
Jerry: "Good. Good…"
At the rear of the formation stood General Jorir, the man previously dismissed in humiliation. He had returned to his feet some time ago, rejoining Jerry's personal advisors, though none of them truly looked like they were standing anymore.
They looked suspended.
Unstable.
Faces paler than snow.
Eyes unnervingly wide.
Boney fingers shuddering.
Cadets nearby began whispering again, their voices small enough to be swallowed by the wind but sharp enough to still carry meaning.
First Ones' Cadet One: "What's wrong them?"
First Ones' Cadet Two: "It's a sign. Bad news is to be expected."
Slap!
Both cadets dropped instantly, clutching their heads as pain bloomed across their skulls. Before confusion could fully form, Director Eir was already there—standing above them, presence sharp enough to cut conversation in half.
Director Eir: "Pay Attention."
The cadets scrambled back into formation immediately, apologizing in hurried fragments before melting back into the disciplined geometry of the crowd.
Somewhere to the side, a colonel scoffed under his breath, rolling his eyes with irritation as he leaned toward a cluster of comrades.
First Ones' Colonel: "Pay attention to what? The Captain has yet to speak. He's wasting our time."
An arm shot out, striking the colonel sharply in his ribs. He jolted with a suppressed snarl, half pain and half indignation, before turning—
First Ones' Colonel: "Who—!"
First Ones' Major General: "Silence, you. Someone of your status has no business spewing such rubbish in front of the inexperienced."
The Major General's gaze dragged over him like a final verdict rather than a mere glance. Then he scoffed faintly, turning away to face the First Captain once again.
…
Seconds passed.
Minutes crawled after them.
An entire hour vanished beneath the groaning winds and restless ocean before Jerry Windfield finally forced his mouth to open.
Jerry: "Listen. All of you. Listen…"
His voice came out quieter than expected.
Thinner.
Like something dragging itself across shattered glass.
Jerry: "I know you're all desperate for answers, but have patience. If I speak without giving meaning to any of this first… then none of you will understand what I'm trying to say."
Windfield inhaled slowly. Cold air scraped through his lungs.
Jerry: "We originally departed on this expedition to recover ancient treasures. Artifacts I abandoned during the Third Ageless War…"
Jerry exhaled… letting his breathe escape him as he uttered the words—
Jerry: "That was a lie."
The words dropped onto the deck like a corpse.
Jerry's eyes immediately buried themselves into the wooden planks below him. He could not bear looking upward. Not toward the soldiers who had followed him across oceans. Not toward the men and women who entrusted their lives to him without hesitation.
His stomach twisted and churned.
He took one step backward... then another forward. Both steps rigid and bent.
Unsteady.
That's when he caught it.
That familiar instinct.
That disgusting little impulse clawing through the back of his skull.
Lie.
Lie again.
Jerry: "The Hell Raisers… didn't you all see it? Even after their defeat, there was still vengeance inside their eyes. Destruction. Savagery. I couldn't trust them. Their treaty was false. Their promises were false. They—"
Pause.
His gaze lifted for only a fraction of a second.
And that was all it took.
Standing near the front ranks was a young, newly appointed lieutenant. The lieutenant stared directly at the First Captain, dark-brown eyes wide with naked fear.
Pure Terror.
…
Jerry's throat tightened painfully.
His stare snapped downward again almost immediately, boring harder into the creaking planks below as though he wished the earth itself would swallow him whole.
The fleet rocked beneath the storming sea.
Massive waves rolled somewhere beneath the ship's underbelly, making the wooden boards tremble softly beneath his feet. The motion twisted his insides so badly he thought he might vomit right there before everyone.
He couldn't do it anymore.
He just couldn't.
Jerry: "I… I-I was scared."
The confession barely escaped him.
Jerry: "Afraid. I didn't know what would happen next. Our kingdom is running low on resources, and another war… another war wasn't impossible anymore."
His fists slowly tightened at his sides.
Jerry: "So I went to the Lunar Isles searching for a solution. Something capable of preventing the catastrophes waiting ahead of us."
Another pause.
Heavier than the last.
Jerry: "My solution… was releasing the Defiled Ones sealed within the Pillar of Pandemonium and directing them toward the Hell Raiser Kingdom."
God.
Jerry wished he could shut his ears off entirely.
Plug them.
Clog them.
Anything.
Anything except hearing the horrified gasps spreading across the center of the deck behind him like wildfire consuming dry forests.
Jerry: "I thought it was foolproof. I thought nothing could interfere. Nothing could backfire badly enough to reach me."
His breathing staggered.
Jerry: "I was wrong."
A sharp hitch caught inside his chest.
Jerry: "I attracted the attention of the Titan of Banishment. The Ageless Brain."
The title itself seemed to poison the air around him.
Jerry swallowed hard.
Jerry: "Because of my actions… Kaiser… Kaiser…"
Nothing followed. The sentence simply broke apart inside his throat and died there. Jerry could not say it. Could not force the words into existence.
For several dreadful seconds, only the waving ocean and shrieking currents of wind remained audible to the fleet.
Jerry: "The Ageless Brain gave me a punishment."
His eyes shut tightly. Jaw clenching.
Jerry: "A fitting one."
Don't.
Jerry: "Perfect."
DON'T.
Jerry slowly opened his eyes again. Yet even now, he still refused to look at any of them.
Jerry: "I must anger all Five Titans within two months. Exactly two months. And if I fail… our entire kingdom will burn."
Silence devoured not merely the flagship… but the entire First Ones' fleet.
The revelation spread through the gathered soldiers like diseased claws burrowing into living flesh, wrenching violently against the hearts of every man and woman aboard until it felt as though their very souls were being strangled inside their chests.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
The numbness of complete mental collapse swallowed the fleet whole.
Jerry crushed his canines together so hard his jaw trembled.
His gaze remained nailed to the floorboards beneath his boots while violent shivers coursed through his body uncontrollably. One hand clutched rigidly against his torso as sweat streamed endlessly down his face in thick, glistening beads.
Here it was.
The moment he feared most.
The moment he had dreaded since the Lunar Isles.
This was—
First Ones' Lieutenant: "M-My wife…"
The voice cracked apart instantly.
Small and broken.
First Ones' Lieutenant: "W-What about my wife, C-Captain…?"
Jerry's body stiffened.
All color drained from his face at once while his widened eyes nearly burst from their sockets. He jerked his head upward immediately, finally forcing himself to look toward the people standing before him.
His people. The men and women who had followed him across oceans and battlefields for decades.
First Ones' Lieutenant: "WHAT ABOUT MY WIFE?!"
Fingers clawed desperately against flesh and skin.
First Ones' Cadet: "M-My sons… my boys! They'll never see my face again! NEVER!"
Rough nails scraped viciously across throats. Some soldiers looked moments away from vomiting. Others looked ready to kill.
First Ones' Nurse: "My daughter…"
Her breathing fractured unevenly.
First Ones' Nurse: "My FUCKING DAUGHTER!"
First Ones' Knight: "You monster…!"
Spit flew from his lips.
First Ones' Knight: "DEVIL! YOU DAMN DEVIL!"
Clear tears carved glistening trenches through ashen faces all across the deck, staining skin with grief so profound it almost resembled physical mutilation.
First Ones' Knight: "I'LL KILL YOU, WINDFIELD!"
Director Eir stepped forward abruptly, raising both hands toward the crowd as panic overtook even her usually composed features.
But it was hopeless.
Completely hopeless.
Trying to calm this storm of sheer rage now felt akin to standing before a humongous tidal wave with bare hands.
Director Eir: "All of you! J-Just stop and—!"
First Ones' Colonel: "DO YOU EVEN CARE?!"
Another voice crashed into the mayhem immediately.
First Ones' Colonel: "ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! ANSWER US!"
First Ones' Lieutenant: "M-My wife…"
The words echoed again.
And again.
And again.
Like funeral bells tolling across the sea.
The chants thundered through Jerry's skull with such overwhelming force blood suddenly leaked from his ears in thin crimson streams, his hearing rupturing beneath the pressure for one awful moment.
Vile ghoul.
Blood-starved fiend.
A foul creature hidden beneath human flesh.
Jerry Windfield.
That was the monster's name.
The man who had doomed them all.
He who sold tomorrow.
Jerry: "Stop…"
Daughters.
Sons.
Sisters.
Brothers.
Jerry: "S-Stop…"
Mothers.
Fathers.
Cousins.
Nieces.
Nephews.
Husbands.
Jerry: "P-Please… stop…"
Wives.
Jerry: "ENOUGH!"
The scream exploded from his throat ferociously.
Jerry suddenly lifted both arms high into the freezing storm air before threw his fists downward with catastrophic force.
BOOM!
The instant his bare knuckles collided against the deck, the entire flagship convulsed violently. Wood exploded apart beneath the devastating impact.
Massive cracks shot across rows of planks like lightning splitting through earth while monstrous shockwaves erupted outward across the fleet and roaring ocean alike.
The sea itself recoiled.
Cadets crashed against the floorboards.
Knights were hurled off their feet.
Generals slammed against the soaked deck as absolute terror flooded every face aboard the ship.
…drop.
Tears flowed from Jerry's eyes.
Clear.
Pearl-like drops splashed against the splintered wood beneath him one after another as the First Captain slowly collapsed to his knees.
His head bowed low, hollow eyes focused on tiniest puddle forming underneath him.
His face vanished completely beneath the eternal shadows of shame and regret.
Drop.
Drop…
Jerry: "Enough…"