Despair

*** bulkhead = wall in a ship ***

Blonde vibrant golden hair with hints of amber which once covered a beautiful fair pretty face and complimented a pair of bright blue eyes was now no more.

This blond hair now lay stained with patches of blood, some areas completely soaked in in it, while the beautiful face which it once covered was now a face straight out of a horror story.

Out of the bright pair of blue eyes which had once lighted a young man's world, the right one was no more, a black dagger having been stabbed into it, going into the brain and coming out the back and into the bulkhead behind, while the other eye was forever frozen in a look of pure terror.

Before Kruxe stood Rita's body, dead and pinned to the wall.

Looking at her one remaining eye, Kruxe could imagine the horror and fear she had felt, and this thought served to further hamper his mind, making him totally forget the precarious situation he was in as tears began flowing down his eyes.

"How?"

"Why"

"Why wasn't I there for you? Why did you have to be here?"

Thoughts both comprehensible and incomprehensible filled Kruxe's mind as he mindlessly began crying, at the moment he was petrified and couldn't even summon up the will to move toward the woman he loved, the woman who was meant to be his wife.

He didn't even get a chance to tell her how he felt, tell her they could get married, spend quality time with her, and most importantly he wasn't there to protect her.

All sense of reasoning left Kruxe as he stood there crying for more than a minute before a high-pitched scream reached his ear.

The scream resonated like thunder within Kruxe's ears, and it wasn't because it was loud, as the scream was rather faint.

The real reason for Kruxe's abnormal reaction towards the scream was because of its treasured nature.

The scream was made by a voice which he treasured and couldn't always hear, it was the scream of his mother without her mask on.

Immediately Kruxe heard this scream his nerves which had gotten petrified kicked back into action, this time even going overdrive.

For a few seconds, Kruxe's heart which had already been beating quickly further increased in tempo, and his brain which had been lax due to Rita's death began firing signals.

Kruxe tried to calm himself and think things through, wanting to be reasonable with the next actions he took, but immediately this thought entered his mind, his eyes once again staring at Rita.

Blaun was dead or in a half-dead state, Rita was dead, dozens of the crew who had interacted with and even joked with were most likely all dead, and now he had heard his mother scream.

Kruxe had nothing but praise for Cletina's battle prowess, but at the moment all trust and faith in her went out the window.

With fear in his heart, Kruxe's feet once again got moving, and this time they went into a sprint, being worked to their highest as Kruxe quickly began ascending the ladder.

1st step, 2nd step, and by the 3rd step, the bright light from outside was already shining on his head, the loud sounds which had once been stifled by the overhead now fully raging in his head.

4th step, 5th step, 6th step, and then he could now see the quarter deck where he had once stood to practice with his bow which now had half of its right side burning and creating flames that defied the night and lit up the ship in the barest of lights, while also lighting up enough of the surroundings that it was able to bring up a shadowy image of the enemy ship that sailed beside the Breezing Ania.

While the enemy's ship wasn't a behemoth, it more than towered above Kruxe's humble barquentine, giving its occupants a view that looked down on their ship.

These things were what was around Kruxe but after he ascended the ladder he didn't put any of them in sight.

Kruxe ignored the towering ship and looked around him, ignoring the gazes of the bearded and non-bearded savages who were all slowly beginning to notice his arrival.

Around Kruxe, he could see fights going on…., no not fights, but rather beatdowns, as he could see about 4 men dressed in an assortment of clothes, punching and kicking around several Darhara soldiers and servants who were holding onto weapons and trying to fight back.

While the men screamed as they were severely beaten, the soft scream of a few females reached Kruxe's ears.

All around Kruxe was Chaos, but he didn't pay attention to it as he was looking for a particular scene.

Kruxe didn't have to search for long as he quickly came across a scene that had his blood running cold and his fury high.

Close to the quarterdeck, four men stood in a rough square formation and amongst those men, three were casually standing and laughing while the last man engaged in another activity.

While his colleagues watched on, he engaged in a fight with a red-haired, silver-armored woman.

The woman had blood running down her lips with most of her armor torn off and revealing her left shoulder and chest.

She spun around a sword as fast as she could in desperation but the man she faced deftly moved out of the way, and in a blur got close to her and pushed her hard, making her stumble forward till she got close to another of the men who moved to engage her.

Watching Cletina be played about brought about despair to Kruxe's heart as the thought of his mother having died began filling his head.

Due to Kruxe having paused at the sight of Cletina, he had given the strange men on the main deck ample time to observe him, and in the end, he had drawn two men towards him.

Kruxe noticed this and immediately panicked, he moved to lift up the sword in his hand only for him to find it empty and then remember that he had dropped it earlier.

A new wave of panic began rinsing in Kruxe as he watched the two men approach him with curious and amusing looks.

"Where did you come from, I thought Buchgi wanted to hog all the fun in the lower deck" one of the men muttered, but before any more words could be spoken, everyone suddenly froze.

One minute Kruxe's heart was racing, and then the next minute he found himself falling to his knees, unable to both breathe and move a single part of his body.

While stuck in this weird state, Kruxe noticed that everyone else had suddenly become still, looking in the direction of their ship, and then a voice spoke.

"Stop with your plays, bring the woman over, and destroy the ship" A thick voice came out, sounding in Kruxe's ears coming out of the dark, and with its descent, a thick bolt of thunder eerily flashed in the sky lighting up the surroundings for Kruxe.