Journey’s Beginning

The ship continued to slowly move away from Kuraran, as the Legion of Elite watched Rune's Shining Behemoth become overwhelmed by the sheer number of Colossal Soarers.

With an expression of grief, Rune looked on. "My behemoth... to have been taken out in a matter of mere moments. These Colossal Soarer entities... they are the closest manifestation of demons I have ever bore witness to. The sight is truly horrifying."

A massive beam of blue flame lit up the night sky. One of desperation, as the Shining Behemoth struggled to do something to prevent its demise. It stumbled around, covered in thousands of Soarers, before eventually falling.

All of the Soarers had latched onto the body of the Shining Behemoth. It took some time, but they were eventually able to break through its skin. They were tearing it apart.

Sighing, Noda glanced over at Schalle, who was controlling the boat. "Hey. You said there was some impressive shit this boat could do that you wanted to show me, right? So hurry the fuck up and do it. What the hell are ya waitin' for? They're gonna be done with that big ass thing soon. If we aren't gone by then..."

"No need to worry, Noda. Calm yourself my dear friend." Responded Schalle. "You see... that is the thing. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of our vessel here, it is my intention to allow each and every last one of those vile creatures to gather amongst each other, and finish deconstructing Rune's monstrosity. Then, the precise moment their attention has returned to us, we will strike..."

"Strike, huh? What are you gonna do, blast 'em?"

"Not quite." Schalle smirked. "Well, I suppose it is true that blasting them is still what we will be doing. But not with the intention of wiping out the target. No... I have equipped our vessel here with a new device of mine, that is capable of brainwashing these damned creatures and bringing them to our side. Quite the game changer, wouldn't you say?"

Noda's eyes widened. "It sure as shit is. When the fuck did ya build somethin' like that? And what're its limits? There's no damn way you created a weapon that can turn any enemy into our allies without restrictions."

Moving toward a handle which was used to operate his mentioned weapon, Schalle shook his head. "You would be correct indeed. This device of mine is capable of accomplishing a feat that is quite unheard of. Because of this, it holds within itself a level of firepower that makes it unimaginably difficult to operate. The margin of error is extraordinarily slim, which is why we must wait for every last one of the Soarers to gather, before blasting them with one carefully aimed shot."

"So it's the type of weapon you can only use on stationary targets. Good. That's a limit we can deal with. Alright then. Go ahead and-.."

Blood suddenly splattered across Noda's face. He looked over at Schalle, who had an entire arm through his chest. The arm of a Colossal Soarer.

The Soarer made a chirping sound, and slowly tilted its head toward Noda.

Noda held an expression of complete distraught. He opened his mouth but no words came out. After a moment passed, he finally regained his senses, and proceeded to slam his fist against the Soarer's face, sending it across the boat and into the ocean.

Schalle's bleeding body collapsed to the floor. He profusely choked on his own blood.

Everyone who was on the upper level of the boat took notice of what had just occurred.

"Nobody noticed that piece of shit... climb onto the fuckin boat, huh?" Noda asked.

Setsuna looked at him harshly. "Does it seem like we did? Of course not. Now isn't the time to ask such ridiculous questions. Raise your guard and prepare for any others who may have bypassed Rune's behemoth!"

"Tch.. yeah. Yeah... you're right."

Rune rushed over to Schalle. "A-Allow me to summon the Fair Lady of Recovery! I shall restore our beloved king!"

"You'd better hurry up Rune, his blood's getting all over the place! He's gonna croak any minute here!" Valah had also approached Schalle, and was curiously leaning over, examining him.

"Yes Valah I am indeed aware! The issue is that the Fair Lady of Recovery requires an intense summoning process! But do not worry... I will bring forth this ancient goddess in record time!! Hyahhhhh!!!!" Screaming, Rune used all of his might to try and quickly summon an ancient entity of his which could heal Schalle. Before he could do so, however, another tragic occurrence presented itself.

From the nearby ocean, dozens of Colossal Soarers leapt from under the water, then hovering mid air. They completely surrounded the entirety of the Legion of Elite's vessel. To make matters more bleak, every last one of them was equipped with the metallic, electric leggings.

"Just wonderful...." Setsuna pushed up his glasses, and gritted his teeth.

After spitting out his toothpick, Tahara dropped his jacket to the floor. "Well then... this is one hell of an army. But I've got faith at least some of us'll be standing in the end."

"Thanks to Schalle, you're right." Noda claimed. He then glanced over at Setsuna. "Hey Setsuna! Somewhere inside the ship there's a weapon Schalle invented that's got a shit ton of power! It should be somewhere under where he's bleeding out right now! Bring the thing to life, now!"

Setsuna simply nodded, and removed his glasses. He had an intense look in his eyes as he parted his lips, and used his ability to bring Schalle's weapon to life.

As this was going on, all of the Soarers began to charge up their leggings.

The boat soon started to shake. Schalle's weapon had begun to move around from within the boat. Eventually, it broke through the top floor and climbed onto the main deck.

Though Setsuna's ability was working, Schalle's weapon was moving very sluggishly. After watching Schalle's weapon for a second, Noda looked back over at Setsuna, who's eyes and mouth were excessively bleeding.

"Whatever this new mechanism of his is, has an absurd amount of power... not once have I encountered something that's rendered my ability more difficult to control...!!" Setsuna barely was able to squeeze out.

"It doesn't matter. You've already done more than enough." Noda said. He shifted his attention to Esten. "Esten! Help me out here! We've gotta launch this fuckin thing as far into the air as we can! Once we do, I'm gonna need Valah to rip it apart with her chains! There isn't even half a second to spare for explanations! We'll all be torn to pieces if we don't do it right here and now!!"

"Aye aye sir!!" Valah saluted to him. Blood leaked from the scars on her arms as she then prepared to have numerous chains burst from them.

As she did so, Noda sprinted toward Schalle's weapon. He skidded to a stop once reaching it, firmly planted his feet, and slammed his fist against it with an immeasurable amount of power. His veins and muscles pulsed and flexed as he pushed it upward.

Simultaneously, Esten had made her way over to Schalle's weapon in a far more elegant fashion. Once she had reached it, she timed a kick of hers flawlessly with Noda's punch. The two of them successfully knocked Schalle's weapon into the air.

"Alrighty, guess it's time to see what this thing does!" Valah swung an arm toward Schalle's weapon. From her bloody scars, her chains burst outward and tightly wrapped around it. She dropped to a knee, pulling her arm in the opposite direction, which tightened her chains further due to how she could manipulate them to an extent, rather than relying on physics and gravity.

Valah clenched her teeth and grunted, her eyes widened as she applied as much force as she could against Schalle's weapon. Gradually, the weapon cracked and snapped, before it eventually exploded into a blinding light.

Nobody could see for a substantial period of time. "I call upon the All Seeing Wyvern. I ask of thee, return our sense of sight at once!" Rune suddenly said, slamming his staff against the floor, negating the effect the explosion had on everyone's sight.

Once things cleared up, it was revealed that the entire boat had been occupied with countless Colossal Soarers. However, the effects of the explosion had brought every one of them to the Legion of Elite's side.

"Hey, bastard!" From behind one of the Soarers, Resk swapped his body over to it's lava form, and proceeded to hug it, causing the Soarer to shriek as it melted.

Noda called over to him. "Hey shithead! Just hold on a fuckin second!"

"Why in the hell would I do that? The assholes with those lame metal pants are responsible for the loss of my arm. I won't let them get away. It's payback time. Plus... do you really think I'm just going to sit here and let them kill us, man?"

"Take a good look at 'em Resk. The reason why I had us blow Schalle's weapon to pieces, and the reason why it didn't effect us, is because it's a weapon that brings enemies to our side. And something that's capable of accomplishing that crazy of a task, holds a shit ton of power within it. That's what Schalle told me. So I assumed if we destroyed it, there'd be a big ass explosion. The only possible way we coulda survived that shitty situation we were just in, was if we tore the thing apart, and brought the army of Colossal Assholes over to our side by catching them in that explosion. And well... it looks like I was right on the fuckin money. It worked."

"What...? Well I'll be damned. So these Soarers are our buddies now." Reacted Resk.

"Oooo!! So it's a weapon of enslavement! What a twist!" Exclaimed Valah.

Noda nodded. "Yeah. I guess you could call it that." He then began to walk over to where Schalle was still bleeding out. Rune had returned to attempting to treat him.

Interrupting Rune, Noda grabbed Schalle by the collar, and lifted him high into the air.

"Noda! Just what on earth are you doing?!" Rune asked with great surprise.

"Ya know. This asshole scared the ever living shit outta me for a while there. But now that I've had a few seconds to actually think, I've realized... Schalle's gotten us out of way too much shit for him to have been killed by a lame ass sneak attack. Not to mention, I find it pretty interesting that not a single person here noticed a Colossal Soarer fully climb onto our boat, and make its way all the way over to Schalle." Noda peered deep into Schalle's lifeless eyes. "Hey. Just what in the fuck do you have planned? You really created somethin' that helps you cheat death? Well guess what, smart guy. Nobody here knows how the fuck to maneuver the boat."

"You may have a point, filthy berserker." Said Esten. "However, our other comrades who have been killed by the Colossal Soarers died in an instant. At this point, Schalle suffering such a sudden death is not much of a surprise."

"Yeah... I know they did. But this is Schalle. He's the king for a reason. I've known him longer than anyone else here, and he would've had some sort of gadget or whatever set up to at the very least, warn us if an enemy came aboard. Do ya really think I'd be lifting his dead corpse like this if I wasn't a hundred percent confident? He's alive. There's no way he wouldn't have brought all of his most powerful and advanced shit on a mission of this magnitude."

Tahara chimed in. "Now that Noda's putting things that way, I've gotta agree. The guy's made it this far without any offensive or defensive powers. Hell, he even became the king of Obliviana. I've seen him in action myself a handful of times, and while I don't think it's outta the question for him to be killed by one of the bugs, I imagine it'd probably happen in more of a direct combat scenario. In fact, none of us, who are supposed to be the most elite individuals in all of Obliviana, even saw the Colossal Soarer hop aboard and make its way behind him. It's like he was plannin' to be killed, for some reason or another."

Esten responded. "Then his plan was completely moronic. It was unnecessary to have a Colossal Soarer be the cause of his death."

"Hey, c'mon now he's the king, so he's a smart guy. Maybe he needed to get himself... uh, killed I guess for some reason, and decided he could see how strong the punch of a Colossal Soarer is in the process!" Added Resk, switching from his lava form back to his standard form.

"I very much doubt that is the case, but it is not impossible, I suppose." Said Esten.

"Damn right it isn't impossible! I've been really practicing my deductive skills as of late. Looks like it's paid off. Heh heh." Resk grinned.

"Tch.. well, I'm sure we'll find out whatever the hell his reasons were soon enough. Until then, Kore, do ya have any idea how to control a ship like this? I dunno if ours is comparable to whatever you've rode on with the Colossal Soarers." Noda dropped Schalle's corpse, and turned Toward Kore.

"As you could probably surmise, the vessel we initially began our journey with was quite different than others we used over the years. We piloted a variety of them, and I myself did in fact learn how to operate many of the ships we used during our travels. However, looking at this one in particular..." Kore eyed the controls of the ship from a distance. "It does not seem too comparable to anything I am familiar with. Even so, I will see what I'm able to figure out, as I do have quite a bit of knowledge in regards to how vessels must be maneuvered across the sea."

"Sounds great. And if ya can, try to hurry up. I'd rather not have our new personal Soarers go to war with the ones who're just about finished with Rune's big ass ancient monster."

"Neither would I like that to occur. So I will do what I can to try and get us moving."

Before Kore was able to examine the controls any further, the boat shook violently for a split second, shooting a glowing ring of blue outward, which rippled along the surface of the sea. Several different sections of the boat were now lit up in the same blue color.

"There is no need, my creepy new friend." A loud voice coming directly from the boat claimed. "My mind is now in direct control of this ship. In which case... its capabilities have been improved astronomically. I am glad to see my years of research have led to a successful transition."

Everyone on the ship paused for a moment after hearing the voice.

"Well I'll be damned... Schalle created a living ship..." Resk suggested in awe.

"Incorrect." Responded Setsuna, who had been healed by Rune during the others conversation. "Based on everything that has occurred and what we know, it seems pretty clear that the vessel has not been given a mind of its own. But instead Schalle himself, is now the ship."

As Schalle began to activate a variety of unknown systems among the ship in preparation to soon depart, Noda placed a hand on his face, shook his head, and then glanced over at the Soarers who were finishing off the Shining Behemoth.

"All this shit, and we've barely gotten onto the water." He said to himself. "This is gonna be one hell of an experience."