In a small port city, to the southeast of where Roth was currently struggling for his life. A large wooden ship was moored at a pair of docks, bobbing ever so lightly in the small waves sweeping across the small harbor.
Half covered by the waves, the ship's name could faintly be made out. “The Algo”.
A few meters from the shore, a small group who’d just departed from the vessel were about to enter the town in front of them when the woman in the lead suddenly paused.
“Liaden, why are you stopping?”
Captain Wilson paused, waiting for the young woman in the lead’s response. Just a moment ago, she had been rushing down the docks toward shore, but now she was stopping out in the middle of the street?
“That island we stopped at before, the one we left those lost sailors at. The danger on it is a lot worse than we realized.”
Wilson opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it again without saying anything, and his eyes wandered to where one of the girl’s regards was hidden by her dress’s sleeve.
“How bad is it? Are the townsfolk and the sailors alright?”
Lia’s eyebrows furrowed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of metal. It looked the exact same as the necklace she had left for Roth. Her normally energetic blue eyes shone with a dull gray light as she peered at it.
“They’re probably all dead. The attacker is a Half Deity rank artifact. And it can possess humans.”
Wilson recoiled visibly, a shade of fear visible in his eyes. The other crew members close enough to hear her words were similarly shocked.
Wilson quickly pushed away the sadness at the news of his friends’ likely death, straightening his back and turning back toward the ship. If there was a hostile Half Deity rank on the loose, the havoc it would wreck on the nearby northern towns would be immeasurable. It needed an immediate response.
“We need to hurry over to Elnorth City then. There should be a team there that can handle it-”
“No need. Those lost ghosts have weakened it enough.”
“Wha-...”
The gray light around Lia suddenly began to spread out into the air all around her, and Wilson’s words faded away. All of the panic faded from his face, along with any other emotions he might’ve been feeling.
A few of the sailors backed away before the gray light emanating from Lia touched them, and they watched in horror as all of their crewmates within its range stood there stupidly. A few of them sat down peacefully, their expressions fixed with dumb smiles.
A few of them turned to look for help, but their expressions fell as they realized that Wilson, who was by far the strongest person both on their crew and in the current town, was also completely under the control of Lia’s ability.
“Witch! Stop tha-”
“Hush.”
Lia lightly pulled the sleeve back on her right arm, then put all of her focus on the necklace in her hand. A few small sparks jumped off of her hand, and a light whisper left Lia’s lips.
“Don’t eat all of it. That young ghost is interesting.”
-
-
Back on Marie Island.
Roth recoiled as the dented metallic emblem leapt off of Tolus’s chest and catapulted toward him. Before it could touch him, a dull gray light started shining beneath Roth’s shirt, on his chest. The corrupted emblem’s flight stopped in an instant, and it clattered down to the ground.
The gray light continued to expand outward, engulfing both Roth and the emblem. Unlike how Wilson and his nearby crew mates completely lost control of themselves, though, both of them still retained their senses of self.
The gray light was considerably weaker around Roth’s necklace than it was at Lia’s location, but he was also resisting it much better than Captain Wilson. Roth wasn’t the only one resisting it, though. The emblem started rolling along the ground slowly, desperately trying to escape the vicinity of the gray light.
“Hmm? You are still awake… Roth, was it? That artifact still has some strength left, don’t let it escape.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The young mapmaker blinked his eyes slowly as he heard a soothing voice speaking directly into his mind. All of the anguish and fear he was feeling a moment ago was gone. Holl’s body was still lying right next to him, but he felt nothing even as his gaze swept slowly over it.
“Aish. I’m not good at balancing this. You are interesting, I hope this doesn’t break you.”
There was a slight pause after Lia’s words echoed in Roth’s mind, and a moment later, the previously cold metal of the necklace pressing against Roth’s chest changed. A brilliant orange flame wrapped around it, burning through the gray light and putting some life back into Roth’s eyes.
Fear. Anguish. Loss.
Anger.
Emotions exploded back into Roth’s mind, much more intense than he’d ever experienced before. The flame around his necklace dimmed a bit, and the emotions dimmed slightly with it, but it was already more than enough to have Roth jumping back up to his feet.
Instead of instantly running over to where the emblem was close to rolling out of the field of gray light, Roth stooped down, grabbing the discarded pistol from Holl’s side. Smooth, highly refined silvery-metal. Still warm from the captain’s grip.
Roth’s hand clenched around it, and he turned back to face the corrupted emblem. Taking just a few steps forward, he arrived before it, fully engulfing it in the gray light surrounding him once more.
Wordlessly, Roth raised the pistol, pointing it directly at the small circular metal piece that still tried to escape.
C-Crack! Crack! Click. Click. Click.
Roth pulled the trigger repeatedly, firing the final two bullets, then continued to pull it even after the weapon was empty of shells. A burst of bright orange light shot out from the necklace still buried beneath Roth’s shirt, burning through the leather in an instant and exploding onto the nearly-destroyed corrupting emblem. It ravenously engulfed the black mist that still hung around the artifact. The air around it warped from the intense heat as the tiny flame ate through all of the mist that’d been gathered by the emblem, enough to warm the young mapmaker who watched on dully.
A spark suddenly jumped off the flame, shooting toward Holl’s fallen body, but it suddenly stopped midair and faded from existence.
“Hah, this is great! It’s been a while since I picked up this much mist at once!”
A satisfied, somewhat wild voice sounded in Roth’s mind again. Somehow, it reminded him of the look in Lia’s eyes.
“Lia?”
“Hello there, young ghost. You don’t need to worry about that Half Deity anymore.”
“Lia, it is you! How-... Lia, please save Captain Holl!”
Pushing away any questions of how the girl was speaking into his mind, Roth ran over to where Holl’s body lay still.
“Aye, this is your captain? Sorry, no healing abilities here. You’d have to ask Generosity or Kindness for that.”
“What?”
“If you continue surviving, you’ll hear who they are eventually. You’re on that island still though, right? Sorry, but nothing could bring your captain back now. He has joined the army of specters.”
Roth stood there blankly, staring down at Holl’s body. He understood what Lia was saying. He was gone. As Roth looked at the dead captain, his eyes picked up something. There was a faint cloud of gray mist rising from the body.
“If the area is safe, you should absorb that right away. You don’t want anyone else snatching it from you. I left just enough from the emblem that it should bring you up to First, you might be able to make it all of the way up to half with this fellow’s mist, too.”
Roth turned to look back at the emblem, his eyes passing over the destroyed battlefield that the street had become as he refocused on the emblem. There was some mist hovering over the scorched remnants of the metal, too.
“NOO!!!”
A shriek ripped through Roth’s mind, causing him to jump.
“The fluffy dogs! Don’t tell me they died!”
When Roth turned, whatever Lia was doing to speak and influence the area around him took notice of the pile of sled dog bodies on the other side of the street. Just like Holl, all of their bodies had already gone cold, all of their heat drained away by the freezing rain that was now barely drizzling down.
“Yeah… they’re dead too.”
The faint gray light that still hung around Roth’s body dimmed, and when Lia spoke again, he could barely hear her voice.
“They were too cuddly to die. Hmph.”
Roth glanced down at the small blue dot still on the back of his hand, and he opened his mouth to speak again.
“I think I-”
“There’s someone approaching you. Your necklace is out of energy. I’ll use the last bit to help you absorb the mist and recover quickly. Good luck.”
The gray light winked out, and all of the mist hovering over both the corrupted emblem and Holl’s body surged toward Roth. A faint feather-like shape hung within Holl’s mist, and as it reached Roth, it burrowed under his jacket and into the skin on his shoulder.
At the same time, the emblem’s mist surged into the golden rabbit Regard on Roth’s lower back. All of Roth’s blood seemed to rush to his brain, and the world around him went black.
A single image appeared in front of Roth.
A young man was picking an apple from a tree. Faintly in the distance behind him, a golden rabbit watched with observing eyes, and reached up to grab an apple from another tree.
Somehow, just from the single image, Roth was able to understand. It was copying the young man.
The world around Roth shifted suddenly, and now he was in a river. Deep, all of the way up to his shoulders. If he had Holl’s memories, he would’ve recognized it as the exact same place the captain had seen when he received his Regard.
“This is my only Regard, my Legacy. I will pass this on to you, young man. Please carry the memory of the man you called Holl.”
A soothing female voice echoed through the air around Roth.
“I would show you, but you are in danger right now. You have gained the same as what your senior had. May we speak again when you advance. For now, wake up.”
"Wake up."