Ships sat idly near the rocky shores over the horizon. There were three in total, one of which belonged to royalty. They boasted in size, far outclassing any ships which Isaac had in the entire kingdom. Such presence should've humbled any man. Instead, Isaac could only see enemies which needed to be subdued.

Lucius lowered his egg on the wayward side of the beach shore. Waves of water pushed passed the egg, and pulled it away into the rising tides. He waved goodbye as it floated among the waters. The eggshell gradually dissolved, sizzling away exterior layers to awaken the monstrosity that would soon emerge.

"I love nature," Lucius said smiling to himself.

A woman almost a head taller than him walked forward next to him. Her bleak hair was tied back in a ponytail. She didn't stare away from the obscuring mist which brewed away from Lucius' drifting egg. "Killing again?"

"Nah, capturing," Lucius said proudly to her. "Royalty's no good dead."

The hot mist quickly covered the area across from them. It obscured their vision of the invading ships, giving only dark silhouettes of what was coming. "Weird, you told me once that noble blood is better off gone and forgotten. Were you lying to me then?" Her tone was devoid of any tension or strain. Even as the hissing noise echoed across the shoreline, no explicit emotion was expressed from her beinghood.

"Beatrice," Lucius started, "just because noble blood is useless, doesn't mean it can't be used. Its a lot like money. No one gives a damn about silver for its practical usage, but enough people think its important enough that they'll kill and slave over for it. The same is with royalty. You and I might not care about it, but other people do. And I intend to use them for my own twisted advantage."

"Hmmm..." Beatrice kept staring forward at the rising sea creature. The eggs shell dissolved into a wide puddle of salt and foam. It covered most of the shoreline near their feet, and a crackling noise arose from the ocean's depths. "Is that how you intend to use me? To marry me, for your own twisted reasons?"

"Of course," Lucius said nonchalantly. He stretched his arms out and placed it over her shoulder. "You shall continue being my tool till I deem it unnecessary."

Beatrice reached over to his hand and removed it from her shoulder. "What exactly do you intend after my father lets you marry me?"

"Assuming he doesn't backstab me."

"Indeed."

Lucius gave pause to the question. He raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it methodically. "Well, we've got two choices. Either I can stay here with you, and recklessly dismantle the nobility with an iron fist of despotism and evil."

"Sounds luxurious," Beatrice commented with a hint of boredom in her voice.

"Ooooor," Lucius grinned, "we could run away together. Watch the island crumble by having their king and queen go missing."

Beatrice took her time to respond. She often wondered what the outside world was like. When they laid together in bed with boredom in her eyes, he'd always let her rant about dreams she could never experience. Traveling away was a common theme for her.

Beatrice asked, "so that's you're grand plan? To let the island crumble either way?"

"Only so long as they deserve it," Lucius gestured his shoulders out. "And we both know they deserve it."

"Heh," Beatrice's lip raised slightly. By now, the monster that hatched from the egg was rising to abominable heights. Inflating like bread in a furnace, snake like tentacles expanded outwardly, stretching its limbs like a child having just been born. The string-like arms moved in swirls, displaying a massive silhouette of a dozen lines, spluttering against the water.

"I find it funny how you think only the powerful will suffer, and not everyone beneath them." Lucius looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. Beatrice continued, "my father is a cynic, but do you really trust the nobles left to their own vices than us? You're being offered a kingdom, and the best you can do with it is run away from it? If that's what you wanted the whole time, why take up the task in the first place."

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Lucius only shrugged. "I guess I did it more for the rep. Who doesn't want to be called the savior of Cyprus?"

Beatrice tapped a finger against her thigh. The carnage was commencing. The mist was quickly evaporating as the tentacle beast shifted its direction towards the massive ships docked to the seaside. The tentacles crept brashfully against the hulls of the ship. Jabbing against the vessel's wood, crackling its hull with persistent thrusts.

Beatrice said to Lucius, "I'm breaking up with you."

He shot his head in her direction. "What?"

"This. Us. Its not working. When you save Cyprus, I'm not going to be yours."

Lucius stretched his neck forward with an eyebrow raised, "you're kidding right? You know I'm doing this entire thing for you."

"No you're not." Beatrice pointed her finger towards the ships. A vessel cracked into pieces from the monsters whips. Every sustaining piece crashed over the sides, knocking the people into the ravaging seas. "You're doing this to hurt people. I know you. You hate this world and you want to hurt this world as much as possible. You can be king, but you'll never create anything. So when you save this kingdom from the Crusaders, I'm not going to let you pretend that you did it for my sake."

"What?" He said in a harsher tone, "why not?"

Sailors screamed at the distance. When the first vessel finally fell, the beast shifted its focus onto the next ship. "Because that blood, this blood, its not going to be in my namesake. If your sole purpose is to inflict as much pain onto this god forsaken earth as possible, so be it. But I won't let you act ignorant in the fact that you're doing this for yourself."

Beatrice turned away before the monster wrapped its whip around the boat. It crushed the hull slowly, letting soldiers jump overboard in panic rather then get crushed from the monsters snap.

"Okay fine," Lucius said over the sound of crackling ship wood. "But what the hell am I supposed to do when this is over? We both know I'm gonna come out on top, I can't do all of this for nothing!"

"That's your problem, not mine. I like you for your brutal honesty, but the moment I heard you were saving us just to marry me, I knew I was just an item to you. You can treat every human in the mediteranean like dirt, but not to me. Fight your battles for your own reasons."

Lucius stepped forward and pulled her hand. He asked, "Beatrice, you're the only one that really gets me."

Beatrice shook her wrist away. "We both hate the world, that sure as hell doesn't make us soul mates."

He let go and she walked off. She didn't even bother to watch the monster move forward to the final ship. Lucius looked over at the sea with a solemn frown. Despite his plan going perfectly, he felt like a greater failure in the grand scheme of things.

"God fucking dammit, this was supposed to be fun!" Lucius yanked at his hair and stomped his sandals against the sand. He marched back and forth on the seashore with his feet touching the tips of the waving sea. "How old are the princesses? Maybe I can seduce them. Get them to reign hell on this god forsaken island."

He turned towards the castle sitting center of the island. "Hell, I could tell them this came from a mad witch, and betray Isaac in just the last minute. Just... How do I make this... Fun?"

Light glimmered from behind him. Looking back, he could see the ball of light stretching away from the deck of the ship. It shimmered from a distance. Moving up the sail like an ant, and leaping across surfaces like a panicking grasshopper.

"The hell is that?"

He walked closer toward the image. Ankle-deep in seawater, he observed the mysterious figure skirting between the giant tentacle arms.

The ball of light zapped between loops of air. The monster pulled is tentacles back, heaving its weight towards the mysterious light. Squinting, Lucius noticed balls of energy shooting from the glowing figure, burning portions of the monster's slick arms before jumping back onto the ship.

"Its a deviant," Lucius puffed in disbelief. "I thought they were extinct."

The monster's arms were getting dismantled. Eventually, it submitted to flinging its body into the ship. Rocking it with slams until it would eventually tipped over.

The person of light didn't relent. It jumped a dozen meters into the air, and slammed its body into the center of the kraken's body. The monster screeched agonizingly in pain, but by then it was too late. The ship's hull was cracked, with portions of the ship flipped over beneath the water.

Lionheart's vessels became pieces drifting in the ocean. Despite the easy victory for Lucius, it was plainly obvious the war had just begun. "How could they... The crusaders have a literal angel aiding them."

The ball of light warped into a physical person. It handed on a floating piece of drywood before swimming back towards the shattered pieces of the ship; looking for survivors. Lucius turned away with a grin.

People like his mother believed that deviants were archangels. Messengers of God bringing damnation to humanity. If one was living among the crusaders, then he would be forced to kill it for his own victory. A feat which hadn't been done since the time christ walked the earth.

Such an act would make him an abomination in the eyes of God. For Lucius, the thought of becoming like satan only excited him.