The Smiles

Tahara had a look of shock on his face. It had taken Rune a full ten minutes to explain the ingredients and specific requirements necessary to properly put together a meal of the elders. "Uh, interesting. Guess the elders were damn particular about things. Somehow even more than I am in the kitchen. Can't say I know for sure if all that's gonna be possible, but hey, I'll give it a shot." He said with a slightly awkward expression.

"I look forward to examining and tasting the finished product." Answered Rune.

"I'll try not to disappoint if not everything you mentioned is somethin' I can do on this ship. Anyway though, who's next up? These first two requests have been pretty interesting I've gotta say. If everyone has such interesting suggestions then I can't wait to hear about 'em all."

"Ohh, hey hey! I have a suuuper interesting one I just came up with!" Valah eagerly stated, raising a hand. She then crossed her arms and smirked as she revealed what she had in mind. "How about you make a ginormous batch of fries, buuut you completely cover them all with a whole bunch of frosting! I declare them to be officially called 'Candy Fries'!"

Resk's eyes lit up hearing her idea. "Oh hell yeah! I love that idea! Count me in as a Candy Fry supporter!"

"Frosting on fried potatoes wouldn't work. Just what kind of a ridiculous idea is that?" Asked Asada.

"It's just something unique that I thought would be pretty cool to try! Whaddya say Mr. Sir. Tahara?" Valah looked toward him.

"I say let's give it a go." He responded. "We've got the ingredients and it's somethin' I could make in a flash. If it ends up bein' terrible there's plenty of other stuff I could conjure up."

"Alrighty! I will be looking forward to the day we decide to go with my new invention!" She exclaimed. "Hey Asada, what's your super cool idea for what you'd like to have for a dinner?"

Faintly glancing toward Valah, Asada said. "I only eat lean meats. It's what is best for the body and muscle growth. Another reason why I was wanting to cook my own dinner in my room."

"Lean meats it is then. If ya want, I can even cook up different meals for you specifically each day so you don't go messin' up your diet." Suggested Tahara.

"That... would be fine. I suppose if you plan on forcing me to eat with you all anyway, having it at least be foods catered toward my diet would be beneficial."

"Good to know. It's a deal then." Tahara then shifted his attention to Esten. "Yo, Esten. I'm curious. What kinda dinner would you be lookin' to have? I know that you love your crazy sandwiches, would you want me to come up with some more combinations?"

"Well you see, I was thinking that we have already combined an absurdly high number of foods onto sandwiches in the past. It is a hobby of mine and I will continue to experiment with it for many years to come. Nevertheless, during this trip I believe changing things up for my dinner idea could provide important insight into another highly customizable food I have been looking to experiment with. The food I had in mind is similar to sandwiches, and I will be filling it with one of my personal favorite sandwich fillings." Esten looked at Tahara with a very concentrated expression. "I would like to have Macaroni and Cheese filled, soft shell tacos."

"Heh. Perfect. That's absolutely somethin' I can do." Responded Tahara. "Mac and cheese filled tacos, huh? That may be the best idea yet."

Setsuna adjusted his glasses. "It's an overall basic dish, yet simply hearing about it is enough to make one's mouth water."

Esten nodded. "Yes. I have discovered that it is not always necessary to develop overly complex recipes to come up with something creative and delicious. More often than not, it is as simple as placing a unique food onto a sandwich or in this case, a taco shell."

"Yeah. Cookin' is an art form that can be complex as hell, but depending on how ya go about it, things can also be real simple." Stated Tahara.

Placing a finger on her lip, Valah said. "A frosting filled sandwich... a frosting filled taco... oh! Frosting covered pizza is something I'd definitely love to try! Have you ever thought about testing out different crazy pizzas Esten?? That's another food you can really change up and add all sorts of cool toppings to!"

"Pizza is in fact a food I plan on experimenting with once my research on tacos is complete." Esten answered.

"Maybe one of these nights, you could take over in the kitchen instead of Tahara, Esten." Noda said to her. "You're a hell of a capable cook in your own right when it comes to these more simple combo meals."

"I am not too sure how to work with tacos quite yet, however I don't believe it would be very difficult to figure out. I would not be against preparing dinner for everyone for a night or two."

Leaning back in his seat, Resk put his hand in his pocket. "Damn, well hey, none of us better let ourselves get killed if we're starting to make all of these plans."

"Heh, yeah. That's right." Noda agreed. "I mean, no shit, we don't wanna die either way. But now we're all gonna have to put in some extra effort so we can eat Candy Fries, Mac and Cheese tacos, a shit ton of wings, and so on. We're gonna be running into the fuckin' smiles within a day or two. Based on what Kore's said about 'em, they're creatures who can kill one of us in an instant, just like the Colossal Soarers." He subtly clenched a fist, before turning to Kore. "So, Kore..." His expression became much more serious. "You wanna tell us about the smiles now?"

"Are there not others who intend on sharing their ideas for future meals?" Questioned Kore.

"It can wait. It's past midnight, everyone's finished their food, and we've all gotta get some rest. I don't wanna wait any longer to hear about these things."

"I'm also ready to finally hear about just what on earth we'll soon be up against." Added Setsuna.

Valah jumped in, saying. "Everyone else can just tell us what dinner they had in mind during tomorrow's meal! Even you Kore!"

"Hm. Very well then. We will delay things no longer." Kore began. "It is time to explain to you all the extent of what we know about the entity we now call 'The Smiles'."

He paused for a moment, taking a moment of silence before beginning to explain. "These creatures appear to be made entirely out of a strange fleshy material. They leak a mucus like substance from a large, hairy red sack they have attached to the abdomen. In many ways, they are like the trees I told you were commonplace upon the Blackened Archipelago. Each of these creatures also have two short worms attached to each of their shoulders. Upon these worms, is where their mouths lie. The same pair of mouths that are said to guarantee death upon seeing a smile slip from them."

"Well they certainly sound cute!" Valah exclaimed.

"Fuck no they don't." Noda said. "The things sound like shit that'd show up in my nightmares. But I guess I should expect creatures from the Archipelago to be all kinds of fucked up."

Setsuna then asked. "And just what sort of abilities do they possess?"

"The smiles have a handful of dangerous powers." Kore continued. "Firstly, they are capable of opening a series of magical doors that lead to horrific, fictional locations. While these places can at times be areas that do truly exist, we later determined that the versions within the doors the smiles create are nothing more than imaginary. Although they are indeed imaginary, this does not mean they are not physically present. In other words, any enemies you come up against inside, are able to hurt you. Do not allow the smiles to capture you within one of these doors. If it does occur, you will have quite a low chance of survival."

Tahara nodded.  "Avoid doors when takin' these guys on. Got it."

"The second ability that the smiles possess..." Kore suddenly stopped. He looked around carefully, slowly turning his head. He examined and watched the waves of the ocean splash upward against the side of the ship.

"Hey man, is something wrong? Is there a shark out there or-.." Resk was cut off by Kore shortly after he had begun to speak.

"DROP ONTO THE FLOOR!! DO IT AT ONCE!!" Kore screamed.

Everyone immediately did as he said. Rune, however, was not quite quick enough. A long string of mucus tightly wrapped around his body. It's grip grew tighter and tighter, soon beginning to crush his body. "A-A-Ahh!!" He choked. "The Elders... is this the tragedy they-..." Runes body exploded into a heap of flesh and blood due to the pressure. His staff flew into the air, then clanking onto the deck of the ship.

The Legion of Elite all held expressions of shock and distress. None of them were able to speak.

The army of Winged Warriors began to fly, and spread outward around the ship. They frantically looked around for the source of this attack.

At the same time, Schalle began to transform the ship. Before the ship's transformation was able to make much progress, however, a creature rose upward from within the water. It resembled the description Kore had gave for the smiles, however it had a few additional details. It's body now contained eleven different worm like mouths, rather than only two. The fleshy body it had pulsed with organs that hung on the outer surface of its skin. It was also immensely sized. This Smile was slightly larger than the entire ship itself.

During the split second that they were able to get a look at it, everyone felt a jolt of fear inside of their stomachs.

With an insane amount of speed, the smile opened up a twelfth, eerily wide mouth it had on top of its featureless head, and used an elongated, bloodied tongue to completely bludgeon the ship several miles across the ocean. The impact also blew back the Winged Warriors who were hovering in the air.

"Keheheh..." it chuckled. "After so many years, to think you didn't consider other beings would discover what the strange mouth of the Blackened Archipelago can do. You bugs are no longer the only creatures who know of this phenomenon." It's loud, low voice caused the ocean water to vibrate and violently splash.

The smile glanced to his left, as several other smiles arose from the ocean. "Gauren." One of them said. "Please... be cautious. These things... several of them appear to be of the same species as the man from earlier."

"Hm. That may be so." Gauren responded. "However, we cannot allow them to get onto the island as the previous individual did. If that were to happen, the queen will insist she mutates herself again. After what happened last time, I do not want to imagine what she would become upon a sixth evolution. It may end up getting all of us killed at this rate."

"A fair point. But if these guys are as strong as the other individual, we could all die right now."

"No Kron. Calm down. Did you not see how little effort it took to immobilize their little boat? These ones were also scared of us. They are no threat. They aren't like the one from earlier."

"Alright. Good. In that case, let's take care of them quickly so that we may get back to the queen before she gets hungry again."

"Agreed. That last event was a nightmare. We can no longer leave her unattended to for too much time. So, let's hurry up and slaughter these intruders."

Slowly, Gauren looked in the direction of where he had hit the ship. From behind and around him, dozens of other smiles rose upward from the ocean.

Meanwhile, the Legion of Elite had been scattered across the ocean. Asada stood upon the waters surface, and examined her surroundings. Off in the far distance, she was just barely able to make out the countless number of smiles that had appeared. "Well then. It's clear that taking them on isn't currently an option. And are we already that close to the Blackened Archipelago? What happened to it taking around a week?" She shifted her gaze downward, staring at the water. From underneath, an aquatic, mammoth looking creature torpedoed in her direction.

As it leapt out from the water, Asada scraped her scythe against it, slicing the creature in two. It's split halves plopped back into the ocean, sinking deep below. "Jesus, can't I stand somewhere here without getting attacked by some abomination? Dammit. Hm. If there are things like that in the water, the Archipelago should be somewhat nearby. But, it shouldn't be this close to Obliviana. Has it.... moved?" She thought about the possibility for a brief moment. "I'll worry about what happened to it later. Right now, my goal is to find the shore."

She began gliding along the water surface at an incredibly high speed. Before too long, something grabbed her leg. It was Noda. "Hey dumbass." He said. "Was your plan to head over to the fuckin' island by yourself? Like any of us or not... there's not a chance you'd survive on the Archipelago alone. So how about you bring me along and we look for the others, instead of leaving us all to die and getting yourself killed in the process."

Staring down at him, she responded. "No. The smiles are headed this way. Even if for some reason I wanted to save any of you, they'd kill us before I can."

The smiles had began moving toward them, gradually increasing their speed.

Suddenly, an ear piercing buzzing boomed across the ocean. All of the Winged Warriors, led by Kore, had risen from the water. They all began swooping by Legion of Elite members, lifting them high above the surface.

Everyone was now held within the arms of a Winged Warrior. Kore flew alongside them and yelled. "Brethren! I cannot apologize enough for my lack of awareness! As you just saw, the smiles seem to have discovered how to mutate themselves since we last encountered them! I should have considered other creatures may find out about it! Not only that, but the Blackened Archipelago has also seemed to have grown dramatically closer to your home of Obliviana! I do not know how that has happened... but right now we must-..."

Just then, Kore glanced backward. The smiles were accelerating toward them at an unbelievable rate despite their large size.

Kore had a massive, incredibly thick blade appear into his hand. He tossed it into the air, and yelled to Tahara. "Tahara! Use the ability you possess to morph this blade-.."

"No need to explain!" Tahara yelled back. "I already get what ya had in mind!" He then used his ability to morph the huge blade around. He extended the blade outward into a gigantic, but thin wall of steel.

Several of the smiles then arrived, smashing into the huge, shielding steel wall. The impact pushed the steel wall into all of the Winged Warriors with a dangerous amount of force. It sent everyone flying countless miles away yet again. However, it ended up being beneficial this time, as they tumbled right onto the shore of a Blackened Archipelago island.

Noda stood up, and spit a small bit of blood onto the flaky surface of the island. "That wasn't the most ideal method of gettin' here, but hey, now that we're on land, I can beat these things 'til they're flat pancakes."

"Hey hey, that's another delicious food we could have had Tahara make!" Suggested Valah.

"Ya know, for some strange reason I feel like we're not gonna have an opportunity for him to make shit for a while. Especially with us having no clue where the fuck Schalle is."

Setsuna quickly replaced a broken lense on his glasses. While doing so, he said. "Dusk. While it hasn't yet been twenty-four hours, we have reached the next day. Are you capable of using your ability yet?"

"No, not quite." Answered Dusk. "I don't believe it needs to be twenty-four hours on the dot, but I do know it must be somewhat close."

"Hey, it's no prob. We're on land now, so kicking these guys's ass should be a piece of cake on a platter. Especially now that we've got a bunch of Soar-.. I mean, Winged Warriors on our side!" Resk shifted his body over to its lava form.

Noda clenched his fists and glared. "Guess we'll find just how tough they are to take down."

The smiles who had not ran into the steel wall were still bursting forward at unbelievable speeds. It wouldn't be long until they had already again caught up with the Legion of Elite and Winged Warriors.

They came closer and closer. The entire elite and all of the Winged Warriors had gone into each of their own battle stances. In only a brief moment, the two opposing forces would collide.

And at last, exactly that happened. The smiles reached the island, and a grand battle ensued.