Sinking.

He could feel every thud and hear every scream coming from the upper levels of the ship, he had seen dead men and women lying on the stairs of the ship, and was completely helpless.

Through all of this, there was that sinking feeling in his stomach, and indeed from the wooden floor beneath his feet. And now he stood before the culprit, the lower levels of the once grand research vessel, the beloved Heiligdom that he had once called home.

But all the skinny, short-haired man could do was gaze at the area that had once led to the second, smaller wing of laboratories and isolation chambers. The area that had now opened itself to the sea, and was taking in water the way a lost man in a desert would upon first sight of a lake.

"Louie."

He recognised the voice immediately. "Captain!" He cried, turning around to find Veltmann in his long cloak and ridiculous hood approaching him. "What do we do, Captain? The ship is-"

Veltmann raised his hand. "I can see for myself what the ship looks like." Despite this, the fear remained on the meek face of the black man next to him. Ignoring his presence, Veltmann lowered his arm into his cloak and rustled it around under his waist for a moment, before taking out his hand once more with something in it.

Louie watched in amazement as Veltmann threw the objects in his hand to the floor. They were about half a dozen tiny silvery orbs, about the size of marbles and no doubt made of steel for him to manipulate. Without saying a word, Veltmann spread apart the fingers of his hand and watched as they rolled towards the edge of the the opening and fell over.

Now.

He felt his Ley pour into the orbs and expand them, mould them into a completely different shape. With little effort, he forced the steel to join each other and expand, while thinning out at the same time. Louie watched the new steel platform Veltmann had just created grow wider and wider as it joined itself to the bottom of the ship, connecting to the outside hull.

"Hmph. A shabby piece of work for sure, but I can't do much else to improve this current scenario, I'm afraid. At the very least, the ship will float." He didn't sound too pleased at having saved everyone aboard the ship. "Get everyone in the lower decks excluding the children to get the water flooding the bottom cavity hauled out."

Louie was still thinking rapidly. "We're useless right now...complete sitting ducks against this weather and the enemy fire combined. We need to use Bell's abilities and-"

"Catherine Bell is dead."

He paused, not processing the sentence. "Huh?"

Veltmann had turned away, and was facing the far wall. "Catherine Bell is dead." He said in the same soulless tone.

"Whitebeard was far more clever than we anticipated. He figured out her ability and immediately killed her due to a moment's carelessness...a moment that even most Ascendants should fail to notice."

He started to walk away, but felt Louie grab his left arm.

Good grief. What else is there left to say?

He had picked up the runaway slave by accident, during a storm several years ago. The idea was to kill him, or to use him as a test subject with so many others...

But young Bell had insisted on keeping him alive thanks to his skills with a rubber ball.

The idea of a rubber ball saving a man's life still made Veltmann chuckle.

"Wait, Captain. Catherine is dead? Then...then what do we do? Nobody else aboard can use Elemental Ley but you!" He cried. His panicked expression stood out in the plain face of his. His short, tidy black hair and normally narrow eyes were now frizzled and wide open.

Exasperated but not yet out of patience, Veltmann stopped in his tracks to address him. "This ship will not be in danger as long as we stop firing and focus on survival."

"What are you saying? You want us to stop the battle you were preparing all this time for now?"

Veltmann sighed. It was such a bother to have to communicate with insignificant beings like him. And yet, Louie had seniority in the crew above anyone else, making him the next vice-captain by default. He had a responsibility to at least explain what would happen next to him, as much a pain in the ass it would be.

He slid his hand under the absurd hood he wore to adjust the collar of his coat. "I never said that. And I also don't recall ever saying you would join me in my battle."

Louie stared at Veltmann's back in disbelief. "You are not saying what I think you are saying." He whispered, with his voice shaking in fear.

"I'll make this quick and blunt then. I'm leaving the ship for the Ivory. I have business with someone there." He said.

As he furiously thought about what next to say, Louie found himself remembering the day he had joined the crew. About Catherine Bell's kindness. She was so little back then, only about eleven years of age. She had always insisted the only reason she had requested him to be saved was because he was good at catch, but...but he knew that wasn't true at all. She snuck food from the galley to him when he was imprisoned in one of the many cells in the ship. She told him stories about her day with a happy eagerness he had recognized at once as that of a young, lonely child that had been yearning for someone she could talk to.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

He remembered the first time he saw the cruel experiments Veltmann carried out in the secluded chambers in the ship. His time as a slave had strengthened his gut, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of the little girl he had played with cheerfully preparing the sharp, jagged tools he used to conduct them.

"Why are you taking part in such a thing?" He had later asked, while watching the setting sun with her on the crow's nest. "Why would you help something that would cause so much suffering to them?"

Her brown hair was much shorter back then, barely reaching her nape. He could perfectly see the look in her eyes when he asked the question. She looked indifferent to it, almost as though she was happy he had asked.

"Because I trust Hans."

Trust him? Why?

Why?

Why? Why did you trust him? What did you see in him that made you trust him so? What did you see in those blood-stained walls and what did you hear in the screams of those people that made you trust him?

He would never know.

Because now, Catherine was dead, and the man she had trusted and held in such high esteem was talking about leaving this ship to fulfil his own desire aboard the Ivory.

The memory of the little girl he had cared so much about lingered in his mind, fueling him with an emotion he rarely felt. He didn't know what to think, he didn't know why he felt this way.

Perhaps it was the amount of time he had spent eating besides her at the galley or on the bow of the ship. It could have been the peaceful expression she had on her face when she fell asleep against him and forced him to carry her to bed.

She was just a girl. A girl who placed her life in Veltmann's hands without a second thought, without fear for her life because she believed in him.

Catherine. I know you wanted to believe that Veltmann liked you and saw you the way I did...but you knew, didn't you? You knew he did not care.

He reached to his side, and undid the leather strap on the large pouch holding his pistol in place. He pointed the nozzle at Veltmann without hesitation, and raised his finger to the trigger.

You just wanted him to look at you and smile.

"Louie."

Veltmann's voice made him jump. "What exactly do you think that gun is made of?" He asked, with his back to the weapon.

Louie lowered his eyes to the gun and closed them slowly. He was a fool not to realize it. The moment he had raised the gun, Veltmann already knew he had betrayed him.

Behind the darkness of his closed eyes, he wondered about his own life. He was not a very handsome man...in fact, he hated his long nose and thick eyebrows with a passion. He always saw himself as far too thin, and far too weak. The latter especially since he could not learn Ley. Veltmann had determined that he was a Ki user by birth, but he had never gotten the chance to meet Mizuki of the Schweitzer Pirates to train.

And so he had remained weak, despite being one of the most senior members of the crew.

He opened his eyes and tightened his grip around the handle of the gun.

Veltmann laughed in response to this action. It was an ugly, rasping sort of laugh that made goosebumps appear over his arms. "Impressive, impressive. I would have never thought you'd get this far by sheer pretense of courage, but here you are. However, I'm afraid that's where this game of false bravery will end, Louie."

His sentence ended with a finality that made the anger simmering beneath his fear begin to boil.

He grit his teeth, and tightened his finger against the trigger. And yet, that fear tightened itself around his finger, around his heart, and around his neck. It twisted and whispered in his ear in a disfigured and inhuman voice, whispered praises about Veltmann's strength and intelligence, and his own lack of both.

I will not fear anymore. I will shoot and kill the man who damned us. I-

He looked up, and saw Veltmann hovering above him. Now, looking up, he finally understood what the purpose of that hood was. It was not until he had become his enemy that he had understood why that hood was so absurdly long.

Intimidation.

Under the darkness of the hood, he could see the dry, wrinkled skin that hugged Veltmann's neck. He could see the yellowing teeth and texture of dying flesh around his mouth.

"Where's the gunfire, Louie?" He whispered.

He didn't reply. He couldn't. Not now, not when this terrible creature was standing before him with complete power over his gun. He was unaware that the gun wasn't even in his hand any longer. His hands and fingers were trembling hard enough to loosen, and the already useless weapon was now lying on the floor.

"I will tell you something about what you thought you had, Louie. You thought you could be brave, didn't you? You thought you could avenge Catherine Bell by simply shooting me in the back. Is that right? You thought you were brave, how touching." He said, slowly sliding his bony left hand across Louie's shoulder.

"Do you know what you lacked and didn't lack? You have never had bravery, Louie. Never. Understand that?" He asked, as though he was expecting an answer from the half-choking man he was staring at. "What you did have was cowardice. Your first mistake was ignoring it. That is why you suffered so much. Because you pushed that side of yourself away, pretending you were someone who could protect. Pretending you were one who lived to watch over Catherine. When all this time, you were really a pathetic little bug that lived off the will of others. You should have been running for your life like the rest of the captured women and children aboard this ship, but you convinced yourself otherwise and ran about with your brain on overtime."

He didn't want to hear it, but his unfeeling arms would not allow him to plug his ears.

"You are a coward, Louie. A weak, pathetic waste of space. So run away, little bug...because I was never going to control that gun of yours to begin with. Why stop an attack that won't ever come?" His hand was now sliding up his neck, and he felt the shriveled, bony fingers begin to tighten around his already blocked throat.

No, no, no, no.

Stop. No.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Out of sheer fear rather than courage, he finally found his voice and screamed. His voice now sounded nothing like himself, and resembled the sound of a cornered rat more than anything. "I'm not a damn coward...not anywhere near as much a coward as you are for abandoning your men!"

The thin, cracked lips under Veltmann's hood curled up to form something that could be classified as a smile. "What do you know of cowards when you didn't even understand that about yourself?" He loosened his grip on Louie's throat and raised his hand to his chin. "I will tell you something about cowards, Louie. Why? Because I am a coward myself. I accepted that a long, long, time ago. So listen closely."

He brought his face close to the helpless man's ear. "Cowards live. They will live for a long, long time, long after all the foolhardy courageous warriors are dead and buried. People like you and I, our reason for existence is life. So I suggest you run now, Louie...run now, while you still have life left in you. Take charge of the Heiligdom until I return. Understand?"

He did not wait to hear what Louie had to say in response. After all, there was nothing one could say to counter any of it.