Like a grease that wouldn’t come off, the red smeared across his skin. Chammie could smell the iron in the air. His entire face and body were covered in blood that did not belong to him. His hands shook violently and his eyes scrambled for help. He touched his face, marking through the blood and smearing it on his jaw.

“H-Help.” He said, whimpering as the deck was covered in corpses of sailors. He looked around and the only life he could see was the terrifying monster that towered over him. His black hair and green eyes pierced through his heart like a dagger.

“P-Please don’t hurt me.” Tears drew from his eyes and down from his chin.

Erick was protecting Zaya further back.

“Master…what has gotten into you?” His eyes were sharp and he could tell something was off. This was not how Aldweck normally acted. He went over the events that had transpired in his mind.

First, they had accepted the captain’s offer and went aboard the ship. As expected, Captain Valhart had failed to uphold his word and immediately tried to separate Zaya from the rest and have them stripped and planked.

From then, Aldweck started recklessly killing the sailors to get them out of the situation. The penguin was clapping his hands the entire time he did this, clearly confused about the context of the situation. Otherwise, why would he be clapping so profusely?

Now, Aldweck stood over Chammie. A helpless boy.

Inside of Aldweck, his heart churned. His body rejected everything that had happened. Mitch’s mental state plummeted as he felt as if he had killed them. Looking back on Aldweck’s memories, he had killed before, but they hadn’t felt as if it were by his hands. Now, Mitch felt like he had taken his hand and personally stolen these lives from these people.

Aldweck vomited all over himself and fell to his knees.

Alex from behind let out a sigh of disappointment, “Ahhhh! But I was having so much fun killing those guys and making you look like a piece of shit! Ahhhh! Why did your mind have to break so easily? Are all of you victims this pathetic? Go back to your world. Go back, I say!” He kicked at one of the dead bodies.

Chammie scampered away, crying and unable to catch his breath.

Erick slowly approached Aldweck who was looking down at the planks of the ship, holding himself up as he puked.

Zaya’s eyes had widened during this whole spectacle. Her body was covered in goosebumps. She had seen many battles and killed many people but never had she seen someone kill with that level of violence. It made her gulp, her legs paralyzed to where she stood.

Erick put his hand on Aldweck’s shoulder, “M-Master? Are you okay?”

Aldweck looked up at Erick, his eyes not seeing Erick. As if his mind was replaying the events that just transpired over and over again. His face was pale as death and his vision unfocused. Aldweck laid down against the deck beside his pile of puke, surrounded by bodies. He closed his eyes as tears rolled down his cheeks. His entire body trembled.

Erick took a step back and looked at the penguin. The penguin turned its head and looked back at him, which sent chills up Erick’s spine. Something about that penguin was far too intelligent, but whatever had done this to his master couldn’t have been related to the penguin. When his master had experienced a near-death state, could he have developed new powers with amazingly bad consequences?

No, even before then. Back when he had heard about his master’s collapse later on in the evening. Things had changed about him by then.

Erick rubbed his chin before he picked up his shoe and inspected the blood pooling around it.

“I don’t think this was like you master. I know the truth. You didn’t mean to hurt these people. Ever since you passed out that night on the Glowing Mariot, things have been different. You’re not alone in this. I will help you find a way out of all of this, master.” Erick nodded solemnly.

“Sir Aldweck isn’t feeling well at the moment. I’m not sure what has happened in recent times, but this is not like himself. Please help me remove these bodies, Zaya.”

Zaya turned her head to Erick, “I’ll help you, but only for now. Since it’s also in my best interests.” She pinched her nose and kicked one of the bodies off into the ocean. It made a popping sound as it dropped into the deep waters below.

They began removing the bodies, but as soon as Zaya put her hands on one of the ones closer to the foremast, a voice beckoned out.

“No, stop!” Chammie yelled out from the crow’s nest, fear still embedded deep within him. He gulped, “I want you to promise me you won’t do the same thing to me. That--that you won’t kill me.”

Zaya sighed, “Kid, I promise you I have no interest in killing you. These guys were going to try and take advantage of me anyway, but whatever got into that shit-for-brains is not something I’ve ever seen.”

“B-But you can’t just drop the bodies in the ocean like that!”

“And why the hell not?!”

“These waters are known for having Jawsnappers. They are attracted to the smell of blood, and with that many bodies…”

Zaya’s eyes widened and her neck snapped to Erick, “We have to go get those bodies.”

“Wha--”

“Right now!”

Zaya jumped into the water below. She wanted to hit herself on the head for having been so foolish and short-sighted. Ever since she had been in Aldweck’s presence, she had been off her game. Even with Lord Warner negotiations hadn’t gone perfect. She nearly lost to Erick, and now she had lost her magic to her slob of an ex. Things hadn’t been going well lately.

She dove into the waters below and grabbed one of the bodies before swimming back with it and dropping it on the deck. She turned to go back for another when her vision was full of Erick casting magic to pick each and every last corpse out of the ocean.

The ocean was dark here and it was hard to perceive the motions under the water. Chammie gasped as he saw the ocean suddenly turn darker.

“J-Jawsnapper!” He clenched the siding of the crow's nest and tightly shut his eyes as the ocean exploded in sound and violent energy. Large waves of water were displaced as it rained back down on them. The ship rocked backward as the tail fin of the Jawsnapper disappeared into the sea below. Its dark shadow was so large it was hard to follow in the water.

Zaya gulped, her eyes bugged out as she scampered back to the edge of the railing.

“Oh, we’re so dead!”

As large as a blue whale and as vicious as a piranha. A glowing six-eyed head appeared from the water with sharp teeth and a long protruding jaw. Its mouth was open and ready to consume the ship. A large amount of water was displaced as the shadow overcast the group.

Chammie put his hands over his head and put his head into the floorboard, accepting his fate.

Zaya screamed at the top of her lungs, her hands in the air as she thought about how bad being crushed to death by boundless weight would feel.

Aldweck was lifeless on the ship. His mind was broken from the penguins' antics, but Erick started to cast a spell to try and save the group. His hair flowed in the wind that the massive fish had created by jumping out of the sea.

Halfway through his spell, he fell to one knee and clutched his arm, his brows furrowed.

Alex, standing calmly on top of one of the bodies he had been kicking, turned to the Jawsnapper.

“What? You wanna die?” Alex pointed at the fish and it exploded into a million pieces. Flying flesh bits flew in every direction. Guts and blood splattered all over the deck, a pungent smell filled the air.

Erick looked at the sky, his eyes in disbelief. He looked back at his arm in shock. Had he done that? He didn’t even complete his spell. He looked at everyone, including the penguin, and found no answer to his questions.

Zaya and Chammie had done the same thing.

“D-Did you kill it?” Zaya asked Erick.

“No, that wasn’t me. I couldn’t finish my spell before my mana gave out.”

“It couldn’t have been the pengui--” Zaya was cut off by Aldweck’s voice.

“It was me, I killed the beast.” His eyes were still lifeless as his face lay against the deck without making eye contact. He looked dead as he took credit for the kill.

Alex clapped his hands and sighed, “I have to be more careful. They might actually start suspecting me and it won’t be fun anymore! Time to lay low, looks like you get a break you stupid fuck.” The penguin laughed at Aldweck, running around him in circles.

“How did you kill it so effortlessly!?” Erick held his temples in shock, “What kind of magic could be so powerful to kill a Jawsnapper with that level of ease?”

“I told you, kid, he’s signed a contract with the God of Hell! There can be no other explanation.” Zaya put her hand to her forehead and sighed with stress in her breath. She couldn’t decide if she was going to be alive or dead in the next moment. Everything had gone to hell since she had been reunited with Aldweck. She needed to jump ship from this guy before she really lost her life.

Chammie rushed down the crow’s nest and looked at the others before realizing that he was actually alive. His frown turned into a smile as he let out a sigh of release. The book in his hand dropped onto the ground beside Aldweck. Aldweck’s eyes grew wide.

Mitch’s heartbeat started to race. He picked himself up from the ground and wiped his jaw. He turned to grab the book but Chammie got to it before him.

“W-Why do you want my book? It’s mine.”

“Let me see that book.”

“A-Are you going to kill me if I say no?”

“I’m not--I will if I have to.” Aldweck quickly corrected himself, realizing the presence of the penguin was something he had to adjust to with grace.

Chammie took a step back before handing him the book.

Erick looked at Aldweck, “That isn’t something Sir Aldweck would ever say.”

“I was joking.” Aldweck grabbed the book and lightly tapped Chammie on the head before sighing, “I’m sorry about earlier. There are...side effects to my new powers that I don’t have control over. I hope you can forgive my overreaction.”

Mitch tried his best to apologize in the presence of that evil penguin. He knew Alex was one for situational irony, so he wanted to try and stay in between the lines that let him pass through. He did have a plan before Alex had decided to take over his body and kill everyone on board. But that went up in flames.

All that mattered was this book now. Mitch looked at the book with hunger. A hunger to escape all of the terrible shit he had just gone through and more. This book was his path out of this world. A book that existed on Earth and in this world. That is something that could only happen by the powers that brought him here. If there was a way home, Mitch was going to find it.

He opened the book and began to read the story once more. In hopes of finding something, he had missed previously. In hopes of finding freedom from hell, and waking up from this nightmare of a dream that had destroyed his life and stolen his comfort.

It was time to find a way home.