I walk on the deck of my ship. Runes light up at each step as I release a sea of essence. It feels wasteful but its what the ship needs. They ship pivots to the side, I'm not even slightly knocked off balance, its a far better ride then flame tends to be and even better then my own driving. Really it have come to realize I am really bad at driving. Back on topic, old Tom is back. The big annoying thing has been like a particularly hard to kill fly. Always buzzing around, being far too hard to kill. I walk to the side of the ship looking down at the massive abomination. I see two dark shapes dart towards it. I toss down two crowns made of ice each with one gem. With a loud boom a cannon goes off. The cannon ball hits old Tom doing a high amount of damage, it blows off a good chunk of the thing. I glance over. Mist. Oh how annoying. I step onto the railings and I jump down, the cloak of fire opens up and I cut through the air. I create a spear of ice and I throw it. Then i do it again, and again and again. I fly around dodging cannon fire as it comes towards me. Unlike everyone, but jet and sunny, I can destroy the ships for good. My connection with death god i would assume.
A few days later in lay in my cot. It really is odd I have to say. Why would they have made storms last hope anyways? I really would love to figure that one out. I doubt i will and that's fine i guess. We had attached my ship to nightgarden so it could be protecting by the, frankly stronger, ship while going down. It was a interesting conversation that's for sure. I swear this seems like a bad idea, but that's just my bias against the ocean speaking. Noctis had ran off to go do some sorcery. What he's doing, I don't actually know. It's probably fine. So far everything has been fine, or well mostly fine. Hm. Its weird, not needing to sleep, then again i am a human so I probably should anyways. Not needing something doesn't mean it isn't beneficial.
I sit by sunny and jet carving another weapons handle. The two talk, sunny then makes quite the face
"What's the matter?"
"I think it's Old Tom. It... it seems to be dead."
Oh. That's both good and very bad. I send a message to noctis to be on guard
"Move forward slowly."
"What?"
"No, nothing. It just feels different when we move underwater - the Night Garden has to push through its mass, after all. So, there is a different relation between the effort I need to exert and the speed it can reach. There's a learning curve."
I put my tools away, their still just as good as the day i got them.
"It feels nice and liberating to glide across the sea. But here... here, it's a bit of a chore. Like running with weights tied to your ankles."
I wonder if we can take old toms body.
"Did you often run with weights tied to your ankles?"
"You didn't?"
Theres a short awkward silence
"When I ran, it was usually from something trying to eat me. Why would I go around weighing myself down?"
Jet slightly smiles
"You make a good point."
After a long silence I speak
"hey. Maybe we could harvest the body."
Sunny glances over
"i get the sense your not saying that for a normal reason"
I shrug
"i mean think about it, if we harvest the body it could feed the whole ship for a while"
sunny starts cracking up and jet sighs
"okay, you want to eat old tom?"
I nod
"the meat would probably be too tough at first so it would need to be cooked for a while. Like a stew kind of thing"
sunny cracks up even more
"okay okay okay, how about this, where would we put it."
I look up raising a eyebrow at him
"you and noctis could make a space to store it. Think about it, this could help with any food shortages."
He snorts
"okay genius, how do we get the thing."
I think for a while, i finally snap
"okay so we get close, then i freeze the area around parts of old tom and I move it over to us."
The two look at eachother. They aren't taking this seriously. After a few days, as I am sitting with headphones on, not real ones. Their made by noctis actually, to replay sounds i heard before, I use them to listen to music. Sunny bumps my side pointing out. In the distance is a faint light.
I flip a coin. Head, it lands on tails, tails, it hands on head, tails again, it lands on head.
"What... is this?"
I look up and.... its him again. Well not really. It's a message from the king of twilight, daeron, this people died to soul stealer. I do wonder what could have been if they all lived. I mean that many saints, I think they probably would have followed neph. I don't know if they would want to follow the houndmaster. I would have 100% told them about just how terrible those two were so.
[I am Daeron, the Serpent King Heed my warning, wanderer: Turn back. There is no salvation from eternity And no respite from its bond. Beyond this line Lies hell.]
I sigh loudly
"yeah. It would have been nice if he had wrote what was in the damn place too"
Soon the group gets talking about the guy then sunny runs off to go scouting. The group slowly turns to me. Bloodwave hesitantly speaks
"was.... was he telling the truth, it seems a little crazy to think he would have ever met daeron."
I nod
"he did. I cant go into it too much, but he did, it was a corrupted version of him. In the end he died to suns hands, he was already half dead by constantly fighting and completely mad so sun took the chance. The form of the sea serpent you sometimes see him take is that of daeron."
I jump from the ship. Theres too little oxygen around here. Luckily I am a sovereign and my form is that of ice, I simply changed its color and the like to look like my original organic body. Noctis and jet land behind me. Soon Sunny appears
"Where are Naeve, Aether, and Bloodwave?"
I nod to the ship
"the ship. We can't just leave it unprotected."
"How is their breathing?"
Jet smiles as if slight amused
"They are fine while aboard the Night Garden. Beyond its aegis... they'll probably suffocate. However, these are Saints of Night we are talking about — they have Memories to deal with the lack of breathing air in spades. So you don't have to worry about them."
He looks between us
"What about you two?"
Jet gets a dead pan expression
"I am dead. What do I need air for?"
I snicker "thats not really a flex, we all are."
She shrugs "yeah i guess so."
We walk for a bit before noctis snaps, we all look back and he points down. Sunny kneels looking at the ground.
"A... runic array?"
Noctis walks forward and starts studying it very intensely. We all wait for his verdict on it. He stands up taking out a pendant, sunny looks away seemingly embarrassed.
"One was made by the deamon of repose. The other i suspect was made my daeron."
I cough staring at him with wide eyes
"oh yes, I've been working on this, its to let me speak to you all. Either way, it seems to be to keep the things in this city inside of it. I'll have to study it more to figure out the true depths of it but I can do it, I am the most skilled sorcerer in the whole human domain after all"
he smiles in that cheeky way he always did. I will not cry or react more, its not the time, I will later though.
We walk together noctis seems to be the most at edge by far. We all glance over
"Come out."
A young man walks out from one of the building. Shit. I create a halberd of ice lifting it. A great beast. As the boy goes to speak we are attacked. Does he even know he's corrupted? Sunny disappears cutting his head off. I slide my foot and I keep freezing the body. Its not dying, but i can and will just keep this up. I walk over inspecting it
"i don't think he was aware he was corrupted."
Jet walks over
"and?"
I point to his chest
"ive wanted to run a little experiment for a little bit now. What would happen if I tried to attack the corruption in a nightmare creature? If im right, and this boy isn't fully corrupted, then.... then maybe I could free him"
the two glance at eachother as if very very wary of the idea
"■■■■ I don't think that will work"
I shrug
"hey who said I come up with good ideas. I just think it's a interesting idea, and if I succeed then we get a guide and I work hard enough, many many guides. Oh if I was to free the whole city of corruption? Imagine that"
jet sighs
"let me guess you got that from the battle of twilight"
I laugh
"as guilty as charged"