Tolas looked up at the sky, his body drenched in sweat, greedily inhaling deep breaths of fresh air. It had been a long time since he had been in such a tense situation where his life was genuinely in danger, and he had almost forgotten the pressure and stress that came with it.

Raphaelle fell to one knee, also exhausted from her efforts, and looked up at her bloodied dagger between her trembling fingers.

She had just killed three people.

She still remembered the sensation that had washed over her when she had killed Dokland, a kind of emptiness in her stomach where joy and guilt mingled with a profound sense of discomfort, but above all, liberation.

So many conflicting emotions that she was surprised not to feel at that moment. She felt nothing. No joy nor disgust. Those lives she had just taken didn't matter to her. But before she could ponder further, slow applause rang out behind her. Then suddenly, a visceral scream pierced her eardrums.

Tolas, facing her, suddenly widened his eyes in panic. Raphaelle tightened her grip around the handle of her dagger and turned around, ready to fight, before suddenly dropping her shoulders, stunned by what she was seeing.

A man nearly 2 meters tall, with abnormally long limbs and skin as pale as death, emerged from the Kemper's cabin, slowly approaching their position. His red eyes were fixed on Raphaelle.

He wore only black baggy pants with a brown belt to which two curved swords were attached, leaving his torso, covered in still-fresh scars, visible to all. But it wasn't his physical appearance that horrified them.

It was the battered body of a child he was dragging by the hair behind him. She couldn't have been more than ten years old, her blond hair stained with blood and mud, her face nothing but wounds and swellings, and the rags she wore seemed to be the remnants of a green flowered dress.

Frozen in place, the sailors of the Altair heard muffled sobs beside them. The two Ermythians who were still on the deck were crying bitterly.

Then suddenly, emerging from the shadows of the still-open cabin, another man appeared, still applauding. This man wore a nearly full black helmet, revealing only his eyes as black as night and his mouth adorned with a smirk. He was dressed like a young nobleman in a frilly shirt stained with more or less fresh blood. He walked up to the pale man and stopped next to him at attention, observing the state of the upper deck and the corpses that littered it.

"A most pitiful sight." declared the masked man in a disappointed tone.

His voice with metallic undertones was rang like an alarm for Raphaëlle. The descriptions of Scornwallis's two lieutenants still echoed in her head, but it was another thing altogether to see Lowell and Zedek in person.

She snapped out of the trance that the sight of the dead little girl had plunged her into and stood up. Tolas had also resumed an attacking stance. Zedek glanced down at Lowell, a self-satisfied expression on his face.

"I told you they had become too weak." he said in a hoarse voice.

"I never thought it was to the point of losing to measly kids." his companion replied before emitting a shrill sound several times in a row that vaguely resembled laughter. "At least it'll give us a good reason to ask for a new crew from the fleet."

Lowell eventually shifted his attention to the rest of the people present, slowly turning his head until he stopped at Dande, whose legs suddenly began to tremble.

“Ah, Dande..." he said, shaking his head from side to side, "you could have put a bit more effort into this, I've rarely seen such a... disorganized mutiny."

The man in question seemed to struggle to maintain eye contact with the helmeted lieutenant, visibly fighting not to bow his head. It was the turn of the pale pirate to start laughing.

"Let me guess... is it because of Baste? Huh? Is it for that little shit that you're ready to betray us?"

The mention of his brother's name was like an electric shock for the pirate. He lifted his head and glared at Zedek.

"Shut up, Zedek! The mission was over! We had the Cube! But you just couldn't resist! You greedy, ignorant bastards! He died because of you!"

Zedek laughed even louder, completely ignoring Dande's furious expression. Lowell spoke up again.

"Lawrence, my dear, you can't attribute all the credit to us, can you? After all, aren't you the one who recommended him to the captain for this... expedition?" he inquired in a honeyed tone.

Dande's hands clenched. The pirate in the fancy suit struck a pensive pose, tapping his finger on his helmet at chin level in an exaggerated manner, while Zedek continued to guffaw.

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"Perhaps your memory is failing you, my dear? Fortunately for you, mine is excellent! That's why I remember your satisfied look when you saw that he would be one of the members infiltrating the island. I'll admit there was perhaps some overzealousness once we obtained the Cube, but believe me... Baste had his share of fun too."

The tall brunet bit his lower lip, unable to respond, and lowered his arms in defeat.

Abruptly, the pale man stopped laughing and turned his head. His helmeted companion noticed his change in demeanor.

"Zedek?"

The pale man let go of the girl's hair, and she fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. He frowned, watching Tolas and Raphaelle closely while placing a hand on one of his sabers.

The two sailors from the Altair had remained silent but had taken advantage of the pirates' conversation to steady their breaths. The two teenagers had started to analyze the situation from all angles, wondering if they were capable of fighting the newcomers. But the young wolf's instinct told her to stay on guard. And, as strange as it may seem to her, she felt, no, she knew that the greatest threat had not yet appeared.

"If we both attack at once," Tolas began to whisper while keeping an eye on the pirates, "I'm sure we can catch them off guard. If Dande thought they were still comatose, they're probably still pretty weak. We just need to focus on the same person, and we should be able to handle it."

At that moment, Zedek began to draw one of his sabers from its sheath and pointed it at Tolas. The masked pirate looked back and forth between the saber and Tolas.

"Wait, are those kids actually a threat?" he wondered aloud.

"More than you could fathom." came a laughing voice from behind him.

Everyone turned their heads towards the open doors of the captain's cabin. A dreadful shiver suddenly ran down Raphaelle's spine, and she curled up on herself without really understanding why. And that's when she saw them. Two piercing blue eyes that glowed faintly in the darkness of the dimly lit cabin.

“Captain!" Lowell suddenly exclaimed, bowing. "You didn't need to stoop to come. Zedek will be more than enough to—"

"Lowell." interrupted the voice echoing strangely from the cabin, "shut it."

The masked pirate froze and then lowered his head without making another sound. In fact, no one made any noise on the Kemper. The silence was unnaturally heavy, and the two sailors from the Altair realized at the same time that they were both breathing much faster.

Finally, the owner of the voice emerged from the shadows, and Raphaelle frowned, utterly confused.

The man who stepped out of the cabin looked entirely ordinary. Strangely young for such a legend, he had chestnut hair and a mischievous air about him. But his features were drawn, as if he had tried to smooth out wrinkles that no longer existed. With his purple frock coat and tall boots, he looked like a teenager wearing clothes just a bit too big for him. The only thing out of the ordinary about him seemed to be his blue eyes. There was something ancient about them, as if they belonged to someone much older.

Raphaelle could sense that he saw something when he looked at them, Tolas and her, but she couldn't say what. All she knew was that Scornwallis's blue eyes exuded such a sinister aura that she found herself trembling in the morning sunlight.

He took a few steps forward, and parts of his face began to shimmer. Raphaelle furrowed her brow, analyzing the newcomer until she noticed a detail that made her gulp. His features were drawn because they were held together by tiny staples. As if he were completely patched up.

"Ah, Captain, you always shine so brightly." Lowell exclaimed, starry-eyed.

Scornwallis's head didn't move an inch but his eyes did, fixed on his subordinate, who seemed on the verge of kneeling. He was about to put his hand on his belt when he sniffed the air. A malicious smile stretched across his face.

"Lawrence... is it to make amends that you brought me these little surprises?" Scornwallis asked mockingly.

Dande, who hadn't said anything for a while, clenched his fists, trembling like a leaf but remaining silent. Scornwallis's smile widened, distorting his face completely, and he suddenly snapped his fingers. Zedek turned his head towards his captain, saber still raised.

"Which one?"

"The girl, but don't damage the boy too much," ordered Scornwallis, sniffing the air insistently. "He's... special..."

Scornwallis licked his lips, staring at Tolas. The latter furrowed his brow but remained on guard as Zedek shifted his weapon to aim at Raphaelle. Several seconds passed, heavy with silence.

Suddenly, Zedek lunged forward, drawing his second saber from its sheath. He covered the five meters separating him from his victims in the blink of an eye and launched two simultaneous attacks towards Raphaelle, crossing his blades. Even seeing the blow coming, she barely had time to react. She dodged by throwing herself backward, feeling the air split just inches in front of her.

At the same moment Raphaelle jumped backward, Zedek caught Tolas off guard with a powerful kick to the ribs that sent the bosun flying backward, right into Raphaelle's path. Tolas's body collided with hers before she had time to touch the ground, and the two sailors tumbled backward, a mess of bodies violently hitting the deck.

Tolas started coughing, struggling to catch his breath.

"Damn... feels like I got whipped..." he spat, raising the upper half of his body to keep an eye on their adversaries.

Zedek had returned to his attack stance, but his face was closed and he looked annoyed. He moved his right arm up and down several times, grimacing each time he raised his shoulder too high.

Raphaelle, who had landed on her stomach, took a moment to get out of her dazed state. The pirate's speed had completely caught her by surprise. If she had reacted even a second later, the pale man would have effortlessly slit her throat.

Slowly lifting her head, she noticed Zedek's strange behavior and raised a questioning eyebrow before understanding what was happening. The only reason he hadn't killed her on the spot was because he wasn't at the top of his game.

"Tolas?" she asked as she got back on her feet.

"Yeah?" her friend replied, also getting up beside her.

Zedek had turned his attention back to them, and suddenly, his arms tensed.

"Don't die."