[I had heard stories about the sea. Living in Zaun and being close to Piltover's harbor, I got to hear countless tales from fishermen and exporters about the things that happened out on the ocean. I also studied those things, so I can say I know a few things about it, but I never thought I would end up living through one of those stories myself…]
"Load the cannons, you vermin!" the captain shouted, gripping the helm tightly.
After plotting the new course, Kalika removed her hat and tossed it aside. With a powerful voice, she yelled:
"Captain, twenty degrees to port!"
"Twenty degrees to port!" the captain's voice reverberated thunderously. With that same force, he turned the wheel and the ship shifted accordingly.
"Captain! We lost Lan! He went overboard!" One of the men beside Midas stared out at the ocean and shouted so the captain could hear him.
"Lan's fish food already! Focus on staying alive!"
Voices roared, waves crashed, and crimson eyes watched from the darkness. Midas froze at the sight of someone dying. Even after watching Briar slaughter countless people in the capital of Noxus, death right before his eyes was still his greatest trauma.
Death, its meaning… Midas was terrified, but deep inside there was something beyond fear.
"Idiot! Don't stand so close to the edge!"
Tiana shouted at Midas while grabbing him by the shoulder. With force, she threw him to the floor. As he fell, Midas' eyes met Briar's, who was standing beside Tiana.
"I… can't…"
"Midas! We're gonna fight those things!"
Even while everyone on the ship looked deadly serious, Briar was grinning excitedly. Those monsters were already too close to the ship, slithering beneath the waters.
"We can't fight them! They'll kill us all!"
Midas sounded desperate, but everyone on the ship smiled at that. At that moment, Midas understood.
These people were insane.
But then again, who was he to judge anyone else's sanity?
"Hahaha! You're a coward, brat! Just watch and learn!" the captain shouted, laughing ecstatically while the heavy rain slammed against his face.
Lightning flashed across the sky. The ship was battered by the sea beasts, and death seemed certain.
Suddenly, one of those beasts emerged from the water. It looked like a gigantic serpent with razor-sharp teeth, glowing red eyes, and black scales as dark as the night itself. The snake was as massive as the ship, with enormous white horns resembling thorny spikes. It looked as terrifying as death itself.
"Fire!"
The captain's order echoed across the ship and the cannons fired. Multiple cannonballs tore through the Leviathan's body, splattering purple blood that mixed with the seawater. The beast writhed in agony, slamming against the ship before sinking back into the depths, where every flash of lightning revealed more creatures of its kind swimming beneath the vessel.
As a result of that brief victory, the sailors' laughter rang out.
"If it can bleed, it can die! Don't piss your pants from fear, brat! We own this place!"
As always, the captain was far too aggressive and wild, but it inspired the crew. With those words, Kalika approached Midas and grabbed him by his backpack. She lifted him off the floor with ease.
"Stay focused, skinny boy," she said with a mischievous smile that, for a second, eased Midas' fear.
But there was no time to stand around. The Leviathans started doing the same thing as the one that had died earlier. They climbed up the hull and slammed their heads against the deck. There were three of them in total, and it looked like they could sink the ship at any moment.
However, these people had no intention of allowing that.
Tiana used her magic to reinforce the ship's hull. Kalika loaded and fired her revolver ten times, while the rest of the crew kept the cannons loaded. And Briar wasn't about to stay behind either.
When one of the Leviathans slammed into the ship, its head became tangled in a rope. Briar seized the opportunity and leapt straight for its throat.
The pillory shattered into pieces and the seal was released. Briar's madness manifested through her demonic expression as blood blades erupted from her arms. Like a frenzied maniac, she drove her blades into the beast and carved it apart countless times within a single second. She laughed wildly as she did so, licking the purple blood from her face every time the blades cut through flesh.
"Delicious! More! More!" she repeated to herself, ecstatic over the new blood her tongue had tasted.
Standing amid the chaos, Midas closed his eyes, feeling as though he had returned to the battlefield once again. Blood covered his body and radiant gold filled the scene. Just like back in that field of gold, just like during the fight against Darius, Midas could do nothing to save them.
When he opened his eyes, he watched everyone fighting with such passion, with insane smiles across their faces. They were undoubtedly crazy, but they did not fear death.
All these people seemed to understand that if they died, then they would all die together, fighting for their lives.
Even after losing one of their own, they kept fighting. They kept moving forward toward the future.
"Damn it! There are too many of them, Captain!"
"I know that, Tiana! Don't remind me! Keep loading the cannons! Keep firing!"
The entire crew nodded. Briar had managed to kill the Leviathan rather quickly, so now she had closed her pillory again and was waiting for the next serpent.
"This is so fun!"
Tiana extended her hands and pressed her back against Briar's.
"These things happen more often than we'd like! But it's fun kicking their asses every once in a while!"
"Hahaha! You guys are amazing! Do you want to be my friends?"
"Everyone here's friends, Briar. That's what all this is about."
Briar's eyes lit up. Now she wanted even more to fight alongside these people.
"When are we getting out of this storm, Kalika?!"
"I don't know, Captain! It's too dark to tell!"
"Damn it… How many rounds do we have left, you idiots?!"
"We still have forty shots left, Captain!"
The situation seemed to worsen by the second. The Leviathans kept coming. There were far too many for such a small ship.
Normally, killing a single one was fairly easy. Even four could be dealt with, though with difficulty, but…
At that moment, there were nearly twenty Leviathans.
Worse still, more of them seemed to keep arriving. The waters were ferocious, lightning and thunder refused to stop, and the crew's nerves began to fray.
'What are we supposed to do? If this keeps up, we'll sink and die…'
Midas' thoughts were as violent as the storm battering them. He remained frozen, unable to act, but what could he even do?
With the inhibitor on, using magic was impossible. Even so, fighting the Leviathans was still better than breaking the seal.
Then, suddenly, Midas watched the captain smash one of the Leviathans in the face with his hammer.
That man was not only a great captain, but also a born warrior.
"We're running out of ammo, Captain!"
"The hull won't last much longer! I'm almost out of mana!" Tiana tried to withstand the damage the ship was taking with all her strength, but the mana cost was overwhelming. Exhaustion had already started creeping into her body.
The captain's expression changed when he saw Tiana, his daughter, fall to her knees while enduring the damage the ship was suffering.
Then he saw Kalika desperately firing at one of the Leviathans approaching the ship. The remaining crew, fourteen burly men, continued loading the cannons and firing point-blank, but there were barely any cannonballs left.
Briar did everything she could whenever a Leviathan brought its head close to the deck, while Midas stood there like a vegetable in the center of the chaos, looking around desperately for something he could do.
"I never expected we'd get attacked by this many bastards…" the captain muttered while abandoning the helm and gripping his hammer tightly. "If we'd bought more ammo, we might've gotten through this… Nah. Even then, this mess would've killed us." He tightened his grip on the gigantic iron hammer. His eyes burned with fury toward the sea beasts. "Vermin, looks like we're gonna die! Are you ready to leave this world after smashing these sons of bitches in the face?!"
The entire crew shouted back. Kalika smiled nervously while Tiana let out a weary sigh.
"Hey, Cap. I don't wanna die yet. I still have a world and a bunch of islands left to map," Kalika said as she loaded her revolver and aimed it at one of the Leviathans. She smiled tiredly. "Are you sure you're not the one who wants to die?"
"We don't have a choice. Tiana! How're you feeling, brat?!"
Kneeling on the floor, breathing heavily, her clothes drenched and her gaze hollow, Tiana looked at her father.
"I'm running out of mana, Dad… They're going to kill us…"
Midas had no words. In just a few minutes, the situation had completely overturned, but that was the ocean. Ruthless and merciless.
Anything could happen.
The cannonballs ran out. The ship's hull began to crack. The waves grew more violent and the Leviathans refused to stop.
'Just like that… We're going to die?'
Midas' gaze darkened. His hands began to itch and the sound of screams echoed around him.
One of the crew members was devoured by a Leviathan. The captain managed to smash it with his hammer, but it wasn't enough to save the sailor.
Then Midas felt it.
That same feeling he experienced when his mother died.
That pain in his chest and the trauma that had sprouted like the first bud of a seed.
The same feeling that grew stronger ten years ago.
The same feeling he had when he tried to save Briar.
That helplessness.
That rage from being unable to do anything.
Now he had the power to save them, yet he was terrified of using it. He feared everything would end just as badly again.
Once again…
"Once again… I'm just going to stand here and watch…"
"Aaah!" Briar screamed as she crashed into the mast. She had been thrown away by the force of a Leviathan.
She flew past Midas' eyes, bleeding heavily, yet still smiling excitedly. She wanted to keep fighting, but if she continued, she would undoubtedly die.
Even so, she stood up and moved forward.
"Briar…"
'She's going to die too…'
Midas collapsed to his knees, completely surrendering. The people on this ship fought desperately against the sea beasts before his eyes.
And him?
He drowned in the darkness of his own failure.
But amidst that darkness, a gentle light illuminated his path, and the voice of a memory caressed his heart.
[Are you giving up? Just like that? Again?]
'Maissa… I'm sorry.'
He lowered his head, closing his eyes. He felt as though he would never reach her, but in his memories, the day he left for Noxus resurfaced, and his sister's words echoed even louder.
[Midas, I've told you this too many times already, but you have the mindset of a loser. You'll never improve like that.]
A child standing before an injured girl wrapped in bandages.
[Be strong, Midas. Not just for me, but for yourself.]
…
…
It was like a divine revelation wrapped in painful memories. Everyone's screams still echoed, the storm still raged, but Midas rose to his feet with a dark expression and looked at the captain.
Every step he took felt unbearably heavy, with the consequences of his actions thundering through the back of his mind. Every moment was torture.
No matter what, he would always remain the same murderer as before, but in the end…
"Captain… I need something…" he whispered in a lifeless voice. "I want you to break my inhibitor."
"That thing on your hands?"
"That's right. Once you do, I want everyone to get as far away from me as possible. I'm going to use my magic…" He looked at the captain with determination.
As for the captain, he did not fully understand Midas' request. Everyone was about to die anyway, but he looked toward Tiana and she nodded in response, confirming Midas was telling the truth.
"Ahh… Midas… Be proud, because right now you've got the eyes of a man. From this moment on, I'll stop calling you brat."
Midas nodded and placed his hands on top of a barrel. The captain gripped his hammer, preparing himself while the Leviathans battered the ship.
"Midas? You're gonna use magic? The exploding kind of magic?" Briar looked as though she was on the verge of death, yet she was still smiling and asking ridiculous questions.
Midas, however, did not look Briar in the eyes.
"Drink another bottle of blood and recover, Briar. After that, you'll need to prepare yourself."
His words confused Briar, but while she believed Midas' magic was going to be something amazing, Midas only expected tragedy.
Then the captain raised his hammer and smashed the inhibitor.
A loud metallic impact rang out through the rain, and cracks spread across the inhibitor before it shattered into pieces.
Everyone saw Midas' golden hands.
And what he had been holding inside them.
A dimly glowing red stone…
The moment he saw his hands free, Midas remembered all his sins, and his body trembled as he struggled to contain his panic attack. He dropped the stone and it clattered onto the floor.
After that, he fell to his knees, unable to take his eyes off his hands.
"It's free…"
"Midas?"
Briar sensed something strange. Midas' determined expression had twisted into a miserable grimace of fear and trauma. His hands trembled and his breathing became erratic.
Before anyone could say anything, they noticed something change in the atmosphere.
The lightning stopped.
The sea began to calm.
And the Leviathans stared silently, as if afraid.
"Don't tell me the thing the Leviathans were afraid of was…"
Yes…
They were afraid of Midas.
Suddenly, tiny droplets of water rose into the air, floating with a mystical glow. Everyone stared at Midas in confusion, but immediately collapsed to their knees due to the sudden and unnatural lack of oxygen.
No one could speak or scream because that same lack of oxygen prevented them from doing so.
At the same time, while they all suffocated, the surface of their bodies began turning gold.
Midas saw it happen and could only witness the same horrifying scene from ten years ago. Tears streamed down his face, but no sob escaped his lips.
His weak body curled up on the floor, pathetic and frail, terrified and traumatized by his own power.
"I don't want this. I don't want this…" he finally said with a broken voice. "Please… not again… I don't want to. I don't want to kill them…"
Briar looked at him while lying on the floor as her body slowly turned to gold. At least her hands and back had already been stained gold.
It felt strange to her, but seeing him cry caused something painful to stir inside her.
Midas wasn't okay.
Not the way she had believed.
Over these past few days, she had seen a side of Midas she had never known back in those prison cells. Midas had hope now, but at this moment, he had become that same depressed man from the cell once again.
"Somebody help me… Please…" He grabbed his head, trying to calm himself, but it was impossible.
And yet…
"Midas…" It was Briar, speaking without difficulty for some strange reason. She smiled while lying on the floor as her body turned to gold. "I don't know what's happening, but…" She closed her eyes. "Don't cry… Don't cry anymore, crybaby."
Briar might not understand human emotions, but she knew Midas.
At least the surface of him.
She knew that whenever he was alone, Midas looked unusually sad, but that changed whenever she was there, whenever they traveled together through the forest, living their strange little adventures.
It was fun…
"Briar…"
She opened her eyes once more.
"Show me your amazing magic, Midas. Then… let's go eat a gromp together…"
…
Maybe Midas was simply too broken, but those words completely calmed his nerves.
Why?
Because instead of seeing his horrible past, Midas could only see Briar.
Only her.
Smiling and being weird as always.
Still trembling and shattered inside, he rose from the floor and extended his hands toward the Leviathans. All the strange contamination he had created earlier gathered into his palms, stripping away some of the gold covering everyone and returning oxygen to their lungs.
The droplets of water fell and the sea became turbulent once again.
In that very instant, Midas floated a few inches above the ground and, suddenly, from his golden hands erupted an immense golden beam of light that pierced through the ocean's surface and every Leviathan in its path, disintegrating them into nothingness.
It was like an unstoppable cannon of light, immense and infinitely powerful, so vast that it covered the entire visible ocean as it stretched into the heavens.