Rocking back and forth, I found my feet glued with the aid of a petty incantation—one that would go unnoticed, unlearned, or forgotten about on the lands of the adventurers. But, in the shadows of the sea, on the lost and breaking waves, everything was essential.
"Big one coming, brace yourselves, now!!."
With my hands extended, I grabbed the two rolling bodies that came my way. Buckling and bracing, I shifted their weight and fractured my spell into one of three lesser parts, making us weigh one hundred more stones than we did. This kept us from flying off over the ship's edge; even with the spell's power, it still sent us into the side of the boat with a thump.
Creaking, the ship wailed in response. The makeshift raft groaned under the agonizing sea, under the torture of the waves. It wasn't a song that partnered with the waves. A deadly duo, they harmonized against one another. Only the yelling and hollering of those with fingernails dug into the splintered timber, holding on for dear life, interrupted their duet.
A part of me, the cold part, the logical side that interprets instead of feeling, knows that with each person flown overboard, our probability of survival increases.
"Thanks." The man replied as he kneeled and grabbed anything that could provide an anchor.
The woman with whom I was doing my best to avoid eye contact only stared off into the sea as if looking for something beyond the storm. Catching her gaze, I followed her visual trail and saw what she saw. Her body clenched at the sight, and my body responded before my mind could react to the situation.
What we both saw and now, as the man's body tensed, he saw as well, was a dwarfing wall of a wave that loomed in the distance—a wave that no number of minor incantations could repel. This was the last resort—the system denying entrance into the main continent.
We had officially made it to the unbeatable section of the map.
Shivering and crying, the rest of the ship's occupants had now realized that this was it.
Everything up to this point had been child's play, the fodder mobs that led up to the boss's chambers.
Then, there came a voice, a breaking loud tone that broke through the distress, slicing the air of defeatism with optimism that shone through.
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"Get in the cabin. This isn't the end. We will bunker down, take the wave head-on, and cling to the ship's rubble. It doesn't matter if the ship goes down; the moment we pass here and into the waters of the mainland, we'll regain our system control. With our powers restored, what is surviving the open seas?"
The mood became tolerable as everyone bustled into the small cabin in the middle of our dismantled ship. Astra's words did the job, but they weren't all true. Everything she said was possible, but who knew if the system turned back on once you entered its regions? Also, who knew if that was the last bit of the Barren Sea or the first half of the arduous journey back?
Either way, it mattered not. A fatalistic mindset wouldn't help anyone, even if it were the first thought that entered our collective minds.
As they bundled into the cabin, I made my way to the helm, catching myself with every wave. Stumbling to remain on the ship, I realized that the minor incantations could only do so much. If only I had absolute power, I thought to myself.
Her voice broke through.
"What the hell are you doing? Get over here?"
"I gotta try something."
"This isn't the time to try something; this is the time to bunker down and brace for the worst."
"Sounds exactly like the time to try something to me. Here goes everything."
Closing my eyes, I began to hum the words of power—the ones I had first learned long before, at that place that now was so far in the past that I didn't even register as real anymore. I learned the basics there, and here, in the isolated purgatory we called the "Dead Zone," I had come to terms with their origins.
Power comes in all forms. As "Adventurers," the spawn of those from the other world, we grew confined to the system's power, so much so that we lost grasp of the ancient primordial strength that this world holds at its core.
From the beginning, originating in that faraway hidden village where a young me found refuge, guidance, and love, I had been introduced to the natural power of the realm.
A power that was lost and waiting within myself.
The system tried so desperately to destroy this, and it had to be the origin of the glitches. It was the battle between natural power and systems. They did not coexist, or at least, they didn't like to share hosts. Greedy, they wanted the host to draw only from their strength. But true power...true power was somewhere in the middle.
Crashing, booming with energy, the towering wave had reached the heavens, broken the clouds, and now loomed over. Its crashing pinnacle falls with a speed and force that would not drown us; no, it would wipe us from existence. Taking us in its motherly hold, nature brings us home, converting our souls to fragmented light to join the realms of the cosmos.
Opening my eyes, I realized that my song was complete.
I was at peace.
Then, I warped the peace, fragmented it into many pieces, and grasped what I needed: the chaos within peace and the power within the chaos.
I held out my hand, unleashing pieces of my wrath onto the unstoppable foe, the barrier to returning, and the system and its forces.
I was not the breaker returned.
Above me, a system error flashing in red removed the title of the breaker.
Golden light hummed in a song that had never been heard before. It was more virus than automation.
It flashed in neon, with a glow reflecting off the water's torrents.
{Soul of The Broken Blade acquired.}
A quiet crash hit the realm, which would be heard throughout the land. In the city, a woman felt a chill and dropped her dinner plate, scattering a freshly cooked meal. A boy's spine froze with fear as his heart palpitated an extra beat. A man on the front lines, one with an iron will, was filled with an ennui that spoke of death and helplessness.
Most importantly, a woman who led the charge on the latest expansion raid stopped her orders as a feeling rushed over her. It told her she was wrong to lose hope. That change was brewing onboard the winds of fate.