Part 1: Salvation

It was a stormy night, rain was crazily pouring on the old seaship, the ship’s situation was being maintained thanks to the sailors acting calmly (as the majority of them had lived this kind of situation more than half their lives). The captain was shouting orders from the spot he always chose when this kind of situation happened.

Even when the rain was preventing the man’s voice to be clearly heard by the sailors, every seafarers were seriously doing their tasks and thus were able to maintain the ship afloat. It was not the first storm they had faced since the start of the expedition and it wouldn’t be the last.

It was to be noted that this ship was not one that could fall apart easily, a few years back it had been used to fight lawless pirates and buccaneers. It had survived five years of intense fighting, a mutiny and an encounter with a giant whirlpool before the ship had been put out of service.

But the calm mind of the sailors was not something that everyone on the ship was sharing, there was an old man who was particularly agitated. His name was Guddatta Nathris, he was a mage and he was one of the last in the world.

Along with him were his two apprentices and a paladin, yet those three were much calmer than him. The old magician was in his old age, he had lived for close to ninety three years but there was one thing that he had not been able to shed even after all those years.

He was weak of character, easily scared, a coward and a backstabber; in his young age he had been seen cutting a rabbit up and when the other kid had confronted him about what she had seen the lad had stabbed her to death before fleeing his village.

In his early twenties he had become a beggar, a benevolent man had offered him help, the saint was mayor of the town at the time. The young Guddatta had accepted like almost everyone would have when faced with that reality.

Yet Guddatta chose to repay his benefactor with enmity; after receiving a droplet in times of need he did not pay back with a spring, instead he framed the man with numerous vicious crimes and things that were considered unrepairable.

During the Splittings Wars, he went into hiding desperately trying to learn the magic of yore, the vast majority of the spells had been lost to time along with so much more. After the wars he came out of his hole to see destroyed countries and fallen empires.

The mage saw the scorched earth and felt inimaginable joy, he knew that an ocean of opportunities were in front of him. Instead of helping those who had lost all in the wars he tried to profit from their misery.

The man now in his late fifties rose above the common folks, he then sold his magical prowess to the remaining royal families. They all wanted to see the powers of a man who had learned magic of yesteryear but he had been overselling his magic, he was not as powerful as the grand archmages of the past had described.

He was a fraud, his most powerful attack was a fireball and his most wonderful feat was creating human-sized golems. And while it was impressive compared to regular humans, he could not compare to the almost divine powers of his models.

Now in his early nineties, he had started to fear death and as a human being he did not want to end, his finite life was not acceptable. He could not accept his own death, he wanted to defy the natural laws.

But he was not as strong as the Everpowerful Gods nor had grasped the strength of the Immortal Archmages of the past. He wasn’t a king, he wasn’t a god nor was he a great magician. He was one of the last mages but not a strong one.

So when he heard the rumors of the possible inheritance of Archmages in the uncharted waters, either in the Unknown Ocean or in the Abyss of Time he immediately gathered his possession, selling everything he owned to be the first to reach the possible legacy of former times.

All he had left were his clothing, his staff, a human-sized golem and the ship they were on.

The reason why Guddatta was scared of the storm were his inner doubts, he knew full well a storm would not destroy this ship. He could not help but to see a nightmare scenario:

“But what if it was a sign from the gods’, what if the gods were unhappy with his pursuit of immortality?

No… No, that wasn’t it, he didn’t want to be immortal, he just wanted to live a little longer, just a tiny bit.

He knew he was not a paragon of virtue, maybe it was the reason they were unhappy? No, that was simply impossible!

The gods would let Archmages of the past be immortal but not him, some of those great mages had waged war against empires and others had gone around wantonly killing people for fun. Yet why would they be allowed immortality when he wasn’t?

Maybe…

Maybe, it was that they saw him as weak.

Maybe the gods were not unhappy about the pursuit of immortality but they did not like who he was. They did not like his weaknesses, they hated his cowardice.

No… That was too, a nonsensical explanation. Indeed, he knew that he had gotten his cowardice out of him. During the course of his life he rejected that weakness, he had been able to throw it away.

He was strong now, he was no longer a coward that fled in shame when caught experimenting with rabbits, he was no longer the one who stabbed his benefactor in the back because he feared opening up to someone.

He was no longer the fraud that scammed all those people, he was Guddatta Nathris a living relic, he had lived through the numerous Splitting Wars and had become one of the last mages in the world.”

The old man convinced himself of his strength, he believed that the storm was not a sign nor was it an obstacle put here by the gods, he knew it was a simple natural phenomena and nothing more.

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In a white void, in a space devoid of colors stood a young girl, her name was X-29JLO, she was a golem.

Sometimes, when she was bored, X-29JLO would think about what she had done during the day. She would imagine these actions and do them in her mind once again, all of that until she grew bored of doing that.

When she was bored, she often thought about the birds that were around her creator’s mansion, they could do anything; they could fly when they wanted, they could jump around, they could eat whatever that was.

She envied them, X-29JLO had thought about it and she wanted to be free like them. She wanted to be able to do things other than moving boxes and dropping the anvil when she was told to.

“When the birds slept, were they sent to a white place like her?

When they flew in the sky did they envy those who walked?

When they were eating did they feel something other than boredom?

Did they love doi…”

The golem girl did not have time to ask herself more questions as she was being woken up by her owner. Her soul was slowly being extracted from the white void to fill her golem body.

When her eyes activated, she saw the old man and his apprentices, she could not talk to them as she did not have a vocal system implanted in her body, all she could do was look at them and hear their commands.

Of almost all the memories she could recall it had always been this way, she would not talk like them and she could not refuse like them, she could only obey their demands. In fact, her mind was actively following their orders as if she wanted to do them.

But why she looked like them when she was sleeping and why she would be able to talk when she was in the white void, she did not know. All she knew was that in the real world she was in a body whose flesh was rock and a body that could talk.

The old magician gave today’s orders: “Go in the boat’s hold and check if any water got inside. I don't want us to die in the middle of nowhere because we are carrying a load too heavy for this old ship.”

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He gave a second order: “When you are done, start fishing, I want those drunk sea lovers to have a full stomach otherwise they may do something stupid.”

The old man turned toward his two apprentices and said: “In the future you two will probably have to deal with people like them, if there’s one thing I have learned from working with that kind of people is that you need to feed them enough, otherwise they will start acting like wolves and who knows what these people will do to eat their fill.”

The two zealously nodded to the extremely discriminatory remark of the old magician, Guddatta turned toward the still golem that was X-29JLO and yelled at her for not having started with his orders.

She quickly went to work, the reason she had waited there even if she did not like being yelled at was because some of the days the magician would not give all his orders at once and if she had left to carry the first one without listening to all of them she would be yelled at for being impatient.

But those yelling sessions could sometimes be worse than the usual, something her owner would use his weird magic to inflict pain in her mind. But that only happened if she did not wait for him to say all of his orders, so even if she waited too long and got yelled at she would not receive pain.

She preferred waiting too long and getting yelled at by her annoyed owner than getting zapped by her owner in an angry mood.

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His name was Falma Atsih and he was the current captain of the Porky Red, the ship he commanded was the private property of an old mage. He was still salty of not being its owner, the reason why he was not the owner of the ship even though he should be was because he was poorer than the mage.

Falma had a history with the ship, he had fought pirates and other sea truants on the Porky Red, he was there when they got near that whirlpool in Golrmi’s golf. He even led the mutiny back then.

But the ship had belonged to his country’s royal family and after they put the ship in a warehouse, he was reassigned to another warship. After five years the royal family finally came to the conclusion that keeping the Porky Red was a waste of space and put the vessel up for auction.

He gathered up his buddy and asked them to loan money to him so that he could buy the ship he had commanded for three years. But even with the small fortune he was able to gather he was outbid by the old magician.

To add insult to injury, the old fool even asked him to be his ship’s captain, Falma had wanted to refuse the old man’s proposition but he was not able to get himself to do it. He was way too attached to the old boat to refuse using it one last time.

And that was how he became the captain of the current expedition, an expedition in the Unknown Ocean’s wilderness. The good thing about that trip was that if they were able to find something in the uncharted waters of the ocean, it was the captain and not the expedition organizer that would receive the prestige of navigating the boat to that treasure trove.

With the reputation he would gain whatever the old magician gains from this, he would be the greatest winner of the expedition.

The captain could not help but to think about his shining future:

“A mansion, I’ll buy a mansion with the money. A cozy mansion in the suburbs, not too far from the city.

It would be nice if I could have a private dock too, a private dock for my private Porky Red.

Simalee just you wait for me, I may have aged since we last saw each other but I will be a great adventurer.

Do you still remember the promise we made to each other? You better not be throwing yourself in the arms of another man.

If you were to do that, I cannot guarantee the safety of you two cheating lovers…

You wouldn’t do that to me …right?

If you cheat on me, oh Simalee… I’ll make sure you never leave my future mansion. Oh Simalee you still haunt my dreams, did you know that?

Of course, you did! You learnt so many things, I couldn’t compare to your knowledge but with this expedition, the last expedition I ever do, I’ll show why you need me.

Oh Simalee, I want to be in yo…”

His thinking was interrupted by the first mate, the young man in his twenties entered the captain’s cabin. His uniform was as dirty as always, it was to be expected of him as he was one of the most rigorous men Falma had ever met.

The lad was always dedicated to the work, he did not hesitate to do more than what was asked of him.

The lad asked: “Sir, I am sorry if I disrupted what you were doing but we have an emergency.”

Falma was annoyed to have his thoughts about Simalee interrupted but he kept his calm as he answered: “I wasn’t doing anything important, what’s happening to shake you of all people?”

“It’s Big Bill, he got bitten by a Seagrilm. The old medic said that we should cut his leg before the poison reaches his torso.”

“Alright, let me put on my coat and I’m there.” Falma answered

“Yes Sir.” The first mate said before rushing out the cabin.

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His name was Daga Zeatros and he represented the knightly spirit, he was not here for riches or other material possession. He was on this ship by duty and obligation as a Paladin of the Empire he had to show his strength, this expedition allowed him to go on the hunt for a Magical Beast.

If he were to slay a Great Beast he would be given the title of High Paladin (shortened title), he would show them how they were wrong about him. When he was forced to leave his family’s home it brought him a large amount of shame and hate from his kins.

He never forgot this offense, they had all laughed at his pursuit and mistakes, they even tried to sabotage his knight’s dream. They thought how he was much more suited for business, they thought he was too cowardly to be a paladin.

“You thought I was the worst human being, because of what? Because your blood flows in my veins?

Let me show you how far I am from you people, I grew my wings, I helped the virgin and the orphan.

Can you brag about helping out of the kindness of your hearts? I don’t think so.

Your dirty blood has not infected me with your filth, I am Daga and that is all, I am no longer a Zeatros as this family name does no longer fit my status.

I am a knight, I am a paladin of virtue, I am so distant from you that my first name represents all I am.

I am Daga, knight of the throne and paladin of great virtue. That is what the knightly spirit represents.”

He chose to stay away from the mage, the magician had a reputation among the nobility, he was known to be a fraud and a scammer. The simple fact of being on the same boat as that piece of trash disgusted the noble paladin.

A man of good, a knight of virtue could not go along with a person whose entire personality was being a concentration of everything wrong with humanity. On the contrary, Daga appreciated the youngest apprentice of the mage.

The kid’s name was Jeyna, he was still pure, the lad knew kindness and humility yet he learned under the tutorship of Guddatta Nathris, a pure person was following the teaching of the incarnation of filth.

While the sorcerer was not as bad as the sinister Archmages of the yesteryear, he was evil in a different way, so much so that Daga could not stand being near him.

All the bad the knight had heard about the magician made him want to puke.

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The storm slowly but surely retracted itself, leaving the cloudy night sky to lightly project the starlights of space. The northstar showed them that they had only slightly deviated from their original trajectory.

The unknown of the ocean was both terrifying and fascinating, you could discover new marine species like you could meet a whole new and priorly unknown phenomena that would completely wreck the ship you used to drift amongst the unending waves.

What if you were to be stranded here? You would most probably die due to the lack of people that explored. In fact, the Porky Red was one of the first expeditions to explore the Unknown Ocean. They were the pioneer and the forerunners of the ocean’s exploration but with being the first of many came lots of risk.

If something you could not expect happened to you in the middle of nowhere you would either die or be stranded far from civilization, either of which were undesirable.

After moving forward for a few minutes the Porky Red was hit by a wave of energy, almost like they had gone so fast the air surrounding them had been blocking their advance, as if they had rushed into a soft wall. The next moment they saw a blinding light appear in the sky, the light it produced was so strong the whole night sky turned white and the sea water under the boat turned translucent.

They could see the fishes from the deck of the ship, the bottom of the ocean could be seen due to the enormous amount of light that the pillar to the heavens produced. The crew could only look at the sudden shift of environment with a flabbergasted face.

Some sailors cursed while others silently prayed to the gods for mercy and salvation for their past sins. But there were a few individuals on the ship who were excited instead of scared. They each had different reasons for their joy but the excitement they each produced was enough to put them all in the same category.

Guddatta Nathris the old mage saw his reward and his salvation in the form of the potential immortality he could gain from this weird encounter.

X-29JLO as a golem could not help but see this light as an opportunity to grow wings of freedom, maybe just maybe she will be able to get out of her owner’s claws.

Falma Atsih looked at the halo with satisfaction and joy, he had achieved what he hoped to do, he had found a relic of the past without any maps, it would give him enough status and riches to live with Simalee.

The knight Daga was full of expectation as this was his one shot at slaying a Great Beast, if he was to this dangerous task he would be promoted to the rank of Fiery Knight, High Paladin of the great Final Empire, follower of Mielna & Sword of the Imperial Family.

The mage’s apprentice Jeyna looked at the blinding light with admiration while his fellow apprentice Neissa was watching the light with a surprised yet joyful glint in his eyes.

The first mate kept an indifferent expression in front of the ridiculous occurrence in front of him.

With a slow movement, the light column seemingly started looking at the ship. Much more light showered on the deck as if the sun had focused its light toward a single point. The huge pillar and the Porky Red’s crew seemingly looking at each other.

It was as if time itself had stopped, the wheel of time had taken a break from spinning, the clock’s hands had stopped moving. As if the sand of the hourglass had simply stopped falling, the crew were unable to breathe under the gaze of the pillar to the heavens.

The light was looking at the ship slowly bringing it out of the water, it was a strange feeling for the people on the Porky Red as the technology to make flying vessels had been lost along with yore’s magic and the maps that depicted the ocean’s waters they were currently treading.

The now flying warship was strangely stable, the light was surprisingly and expert at holding ships in the air. And with a flash of light much stronger than the previous light beams the ship was no longer there.

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The people of the ship slowly awoke, the temperature was no longer the ocean’s cold breeze that they had been facing for the last weeks. A scorching sun had replaced the cold night, everyone was surprised by this sudden change. Everyone but one, amongst the crowd there was a person who lightly smiled at the weird shift of environment.

A sailor then cried out: “Look around us, it's all sand, we… we are in a desert.”

The passengers of the Porky Red all rushed toward the two taffrail around the deck, with incredulous expression the sailors, the knight and the magicians could only curse this unfavorable situation.

The boat had lost all its usefulness, they were stuck in the middle of a sea of sand, what use was a vessel that treaded water?

When they looked in the distance the sailors could only hold their breaths: A large golden tree that had blue flames burning on its leaf was currently battling against a tiny flying person (the perspective makes the person small).

Some of the sailors fell on their knees to pray, in front of them was a man that was currently fighting against the divine Unzolt’Ukmis: God of natural Death, King of every Forest, Spirit of the Seas and Oceans, the Mute God.

Branches would fly out of the God’s main body with the goal of piercing the man who flew in the sky. The flying mage used his nimble body to dodge the incoming attacks before putting his two arms and legs in a position that made him look like an X.

The mage spellcasting was quicker than a lighting strike, in less than a second the spell was sent. When the crew saw the magical technique in action they immediately knew the spell’s name.

- Great Natural Laws, Dytsi’s Slow Song: Edge

It was as if the name of the magic had suddenly appeared in their mind, their heart simply told them that this guess was right and that the spell truly had the same name as the one in their heads.

A large amount of musical notes started writing themself in the sky, they slowly gathered around the man as he dodged the incoming burning branches. The tree-like God did not want the mage’s spell to be casted as it sent more and more attacks toward the man.

But it was too late, the musical notes had gathered into a giant ghostly red longsword, and the man sent his sword toward the God of natural Death. The longsword rubbed the tree but was not able to destroy it.

The tree-like God now had a large gash on one of its sides.

Thanks to the spell he had performed, the crew could easily guess the identity of the man. The flying man that had the guts to fight a literal god was: the legendary Archmage Dytsi Eatri, Killer of thousands, Ruler of the law of Fire.

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The people of the Porky Red did not have time to admire the Divine Grandness of Unzolt’Ukmis nor the magical power of Archmage Dytsi Eatri as they could hear in the distance that a lounge of Rolp Lizards coming their way.

They were not foolish enough to look at the fight of amplitude beyond human-level and discard the imminent threat of anthropophagus lizards coming their way.

The humans and the golem started gathering weapons for the defense of the ship.