“There it is!” Lissa calls, standing at the bow of the ship, her pike resting on her shoulders. “Encantado Archipelago!”

The ship continues to sail with the winds, and Ren runs a hand through his tousled hair. They pass by islands covered with jungles and forests, and from within, they hear the chirrup of birds and other inhuman creatures. It’s as though they’re taking a cruise ship through a sound, taking in all the sights that the archipelago has to offer.

“I don’t think we’ll be out here for more than a day,” Lissa says, and she turns to Ren and Penny. “So, from here on out, you’re remaining on deck.”

Ren furrows his brows. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m releasing those handcuffs on you and letting you roam free. And that also means that I’m going to need to keep a close eye on you. Otherwise, my crew aren’t going to trust me no more.”

Makes sense, as much as Ren hates to admit it. It’s not like he’s got an issue with staying here anyway. The view is breath-taking, and he’s the kind of guy who can listen to the noise of nature forever. Lissa raises a hand to call one of her crew, who soon returns with the key to their handcuffs. In a matter of seconds, the rings that encircle their wrists clatter to the ground.

Ren rubs at his sore wrist, at the angry red lines across skin when Penny pulled at those cuffs in her sleep. A wide grin spreads across Penny’s face as she looks down at her free arm, as though she’s just witnessed the most incredible sight.

“Glad to see you’re looking real happy.” Lissa flashes Penny a smile. She then turns to Ren, and the smile falls from her face. “As for you, I’ve sent Maggie to fetch your staff. But use it against any of our crew, and I will have you taken care of at a moment’s notice, understand?”

Ren nods stiffly. Never challenge a woman with a pike, he thinks.

Not long after, the crewmate Lissa sent, Maggie, arrives with Ren’s staff. He looks at Ifrit in her hands. It’s polished to the nines, its shaft sparkling, and the shining red gem that Ren has missed so much is as free of blemish as ever. Ren receives Ifrit from her, fingers curled tight around it as the familiarity flows back into him like water of a stream.

He’s never letting Ifrit out of his hands ever again.

Just then, a neigh resounds through the archipelago. It rings in Ren’s ears—one that he knows all too well.

“Well now, I’m glad I made that call. Giving your weapon back, that is.” Lissa’s head is tilted to the sky, gaze following the white horse as it leads its team through the clouds. “It looks like our quarry’s coming to us earlier than I thought it would.”

The Horseman of War—his very presence heralds the arrival of an adversary, and Ren can only wonder who it is. Cascasia, or the Devil’s Coffin? Only time will tell.

“Cap’n!” the sailor on the mast shouts. “Ship approaching! Ahead of us!”

So quickly? And which one? Ren hopes, with all his heart, that it is Cascasia. If they can reunite with Gridel, Vane and Clemon, then surely, they would stand a chance against the other ship, the fabled harbinger of death.

Ren can see it now: a ship as big as theirs making its way through the narrow canal towards them. It possesses giant sails, set at an angle, and a massive hull of dark wood. That’s a ship he recognizes, and one that he knows all too well.

“Which ship is it? Can you tell?” Lissa calls.

“It’s…It’s Cascasia! It’s the ship of Cascasia!”

Cascasia. It’s finally time to put an end to this war. Ren tosses a glance to the islands around them. There are beaches all around, thankfully, all empty. If any ship sinks, then everyone on board would be able to swim to the nearest coast. They’d be spared, at least, from being stranded out at sea.

“Ready the cannons!” Lissa shouts. “Everyone else, on deck and ready for battle!”

“I’m going to be sticking with you, if you don’t mind,” Penny says, tugging at Ren’s sleeve. “That is, until I get Mira back.”

Ren can only hope that Gridel or Vane kept it safe and in good condition.

The seconds counting down till they inevitably sail past each other is frightening. Ren forces himself to breathe, filling his lungs with as much oxygen as he can with each inhale. It’s as if time slows, and Ren is very aware of each droplet of sweat rolling down his cheeks, each twitch of his brow as he watches the vessel that gets nearer and nearer with passing second.

Then, the cannons roar. And the battle begins.

The hull of the Cascasia splinters under the impact of one of their cannonballs. Debris burst from where the ball struck in dusty clouds. Shouts and screams ring out through the air. Balls of fire and scythes of wind hurtle towards Cascasia, across the sliver of sea that separates them. Swinging from ropes above their heads, sailors descend upon their deck, landing with hard thumps against the planks. They are armed with blades, gleaming menacingly and ready to slice some heads off.

“Blasted Luminary! Have you betrayed your mission?”

Ren turns on his heels, only to find a sailor from the Cascasia with his sword raised. He grabs Penny’s hand and hurls them both to the side, out of the way of the slash. The man stumbles forward into the side of the ship. With a single kick to his back, Penny sends him tumbling over the edge, screeching as he plunges into the water below.

Looks like the sailors of Cascasia believe that they’ve abandoned their quest to rid them of the Horseman. So, what? They’re under orders to slay them where they stand? Or is it merely to capture them, and that this man didn’t get the memo?

“Ren!” Penny screams.

A shadow falls over the duo. Ren spins around, only to come face to face with a man with a mallet in mid-swing. He barely has time to react when the mallet smashes right into his face, the impact enough to send him flying.

Pain splits Ren’s skull and he flies straight into a crowd of battling sailors. It’s as if someone set his face on fire. His cheek pulses with a terrible ache, and his vision blurs. The sounds of blades clashing and people yelling hardly register in his mind, mixed into an unintelligible cacophony.

“Oi!”

Someone puts their hand on his shoulder, and Ren jolts at the touch. He glances over, barely able to make out Lissa’s face as a cooling wave flows through him. The fog in his mind clears, and Ren finds himself focussing once again, the pain having drained out of his system.

“Don’t you go dying on us, Luminary,” Lissa hisses, and returns to the fight. Ren turns at Penny’s battle cry, eyes widening as he watches her rush a man with a cutlass in hand. She must have stolen it from a fallen sailor.

Ren sees a flash of silver in his peripheral, of a cutlass swinging Penny’s way. Coming up from behind her. Ren raises his staff, but he’s not going to make it in time. It’s—

A sword meets the cutlass. Ren watches, slack-jawed, as a man stands between her and the sailor, parrying the attack with his blade. Penny snaps her head around, a wide grin growing on her face.

“Vane!”

“Are you all right, Your Reverence?” Vane grits his teeth as he forces the sailor back. With a single swipe, he disarms the sailor, the cutlass flying into the air and stabbing into the wood of the mast. “We apologise for not coming sooner.”

Penny shakes her head. “It’s fine. We’re just going to sink the Cascasia.”

“Sink the… What?” Ren’s never heard Vane’s voice go this high. And betray this much confusion. “Your Reverence—”

“It’s Penny!”

“Lady Penny, what are you proposing?”

Ren doesn’t get to listen to any more of their conversation. The next thing he knows, a bolt goes hurtling by his face, and an agonized scream rings out from behind him. Ren spins on his heels, gaping at a man collapsed on the ground w, sword tumbled from his hand. Ren looks up at the source of the arrow, to find Gridel perched on the mast—when did she get up there?—with her crossbow in hand.

She grabs a rope and swings down to the deck, kicking a sailor out of the way. Turning towards their fighting companions, she shouts, “Penny! Catch!”

Penny glances over, raising an arm and snatching a spinning blade from the air. With a single, fluid move, she brings Mira down and slices into the sailor’s side. Not too deep that he would bleed to death, but deep enough for him to keel over, clutching at his side.

Ren bats an incoming sailor away with Ifrit. He bumps against someone and finds himself fighting back-to-back with Gridel.

“Don’t kill them,” Ren says.

“But…”

“Just throw them in the water.”

Gridel gives him an affirmative, yet reluctant, answer. Sailors of the Cascasia sprint towards them with weapons raised, battle cries ripped from their throats. Ren keeps them at bay with a fan of fire, and Gridel disarms them with bolts to the arms.

A sudden shriek splits his eardrums. Ren glances over to see the cannonball that has snapped the Cascasia’s main mast. The splintered wood topples, taking the man on the crow’s nest with it to the seas below. The cannonball crashes into the face of a cliff, and debris rains down on the ship.

“That’s right, girls!” Lissa shouts, swinging the pike and bashing a sailor’s head in. “Keep those shots flying!”

Another round of cannonballs soars towards the Cascasia, slamming into the hull and crashing through to the insides. Cascasia retaliates, however, in the same fashion. Cannonballs smash into their own hull, rocking the boat and almost throwing Ren off his feet.

Just a little more… A single push more and…

Then, a horn blows, long and loud, reverberating throughout the sound. Ren’s never heard that noise before, at least, nothing as deep as this one. The horn continues to blow, bouncing off the cliffs around them like an echoing yodel. Where is that coming from?

All around him, it’s like time stops. Sailors, of either ship, turn to the source of the horn. Even Lissa and Captain Percival, who were duking it out in the middle of the deck, have also ceased for a brief moment to look. Ren squints at the approaching vessel, its full size covered by the wisps of fog. However, once the cloak dissipates, Ren realizes that it’s much, much, bigger than both Cascasia and the Witches combined.

“That’s… the Devil!” a sailor shouts, stabbing a finger in its direction.

The Devil? That’s the Devil’s Coffin? It’s here already?

“Sink the ship! Sink the Cascasia!” Lissa shouts, and on cue, the fighting resumes. Then, the final cannonball slams into the Cascasia. The ship begins to sink, the vessel slowly but surely falling victim to the claws of the sea.

Wait. It’s not just the claws of the sea, but the claws of something else, too.

Pale arms emerge from the waters, white, spindly fingers scrabbling and scratching at the hull of the vessel. Once or twice, Ren sees a head pop up from the water’s surface. Heads with damp, silvery hair, yellow eyes bulging from their sockets, prominent against the gauntness of their faces.

There’re things in the water, and by God are they vicious.

“No!” Captain Percival yells. The sailors on the Cascasia scramble up the masts, up the ropes, as high as they can get. The white creatures rise from the sea, snarling and hissing as they attempt to pull the ship, deeper and deeper into the ocean.

Ren rushes over to the side, wondering what the heck’s going on. However, when he sees the massacre below him, in the sea, he wished never did.

The ocean has turned crimson, as unlucky sailors falling from the Cascasia are now seized by menacing mermaids. Fangs ripping at whatever piece of the sailor they can get their slim hands on. Tearing at their flesh and spraying blood as they stab them through their chests and necks.

That’s… What the hell…? Ren bites back the vomit rising in his throat. Why are there mermaids here? Since when…?

“Why…” Penny leans over the edge of the ship, fingers gripping it tightly. Her voice is soft, words hardly audible over the din of battle. “I thought…”

“It’s the Devil’s Coffin!” Lissa screams. She turns to her pirates. “Fire! Sink the Coffin!”

The Devil’s Coffin continues its journey towards them. The deafening horn still echoes in Ren’s ears, though it is nothing more than background noise at this point.

Gridel grabs Ren’s shoulder. “Ren, Clemon and Isla are still on the other ship. We have to go back for them.”

Ren’s eyes widen. “Are you serious?”

The Cascasia is sinking fast, and some of the more impatient mermaids are already hoisting themselves out of the water, grabbing at whatever human meat they can get. The water has not yet reached the deck; there is still a chance that they can save their companions from this devastating fate.

“There they are!” Gridel shouts.

Clinging onto the net of ropes that held up the sails are Clemon and Isla. Clemon has his arm around Isla’s waist, his other hand holding onto his pistol and waving at them. They’ve managed to get to higher ground, but it would only delay the inevitable unless Ren and his team do something.

“Could you manifest that dragon, Master Ren?” Vane calls, as he deflects a watery blow from one of the Witches. With a mighty swing, he sends her flying, crashing into another duelling pair. “Could they ride on that fiery monster of yours?”

That’s an idea. Ren stabs his staff in the direction of the duo, trying to imagine the dragon. To recall it from memory. He sees first a splutter of embers from Ifrit’s ruby orb. Then a fireball goes hurtling straight at the net of ropes, and the orb is drained of its lively red.

Panic seizes Ren as he watches the fireball lurch towards the ropes, searing past where Clemon and Isla perch. It explodes upon hitting the net, and all-consuming flames engulf it. Isla screams, but Clemon climbs the ropes like a spider, grasping her wrist and leading her along the web. However, there is only so much higher they can climb.

“Master Ren!” Vane exclaims.

“I… I wasn’t trying to kill them. I just…” Ren flounders for an answer—why didn’t the dragon form?—but it was much too late. The damage is already done, and now, Clemon and Isla’s situation is even more dire. Not only might they be victims of a band of savage mermaids, they also have the fierce blaze to worry about.

Think, Ren, think! You caused this. You have to salvage this. Is there another way to get them across the waters?

All of a sudden, an idea pops into his mind. He’s only ever seen it in video games, or movies, but… it could work. And as long as there is a chance, no matter how small, in which it could save their lives, then it falls upon them to at least try.

“Gridel!” Ren grabs a coil of rope from the floor and tosses it to her. Gridel catches it, and glances at Ren quizzically. A second later, realization dawns on her, and Gridel sets about tying the rope to the end of her bolt.

Once she achieves a firm knot, she loads it onto her crossbow and lets it fly. The bolt sails through the air, and Gridel’s aim is true. The arrow stabs into the wood of the mast, just beside where Isla and Clemon are.

A smile grows on Ren’s face as he watches Isla clamour onto Clemon’s back. The boat jerks as the mermaids shake the ship, and Clemon shudders, almost losing his grip on the netting. The rope pulls taut, and for a single instant, Ren believed that it would snap.

But it didn’t even so much as fray. Gridel steadies the rope, keeping it as straight as possible. Clemon hooks his pistol onto the makeshift zipline.

Then, they glide.

The pistol screeches noisily on the rope. Isla keeps her head down, clutching tightly to Clemon’s shoulders as they go. They crash into the Witches’ deck, the two of them lying tangled in a heap of limbs.

“Clemon! Isla!” Ren rushes towards them. He grabs Clemon’s hand and helps him to his feet. Gridel does the same for Isla.

A snap has Ren whipping his head about, only to find the mast the rope was stuck to collapsing. The fire spreads and ravages the ship, leaving the sailors on board with no choice but to jump into the water, and into the waiting jaws of those…

“How dare you betray the people of Cascasia!”

Ren looks up just in time to see a man rushing Penny, sword raised.

“Penny!” Ren shouts. However, if Penny heard him, she doesn’t respond. She remains staring at the water, as if in a trance.

Ren grits his teeth, sprinting and throwing himself at her, the two of them rolling out of the way of the man’s swing. Captain Percival pants harshly and screeches to a halt. He spins on his heels and parries Vane’s sword. Vane snarls, standing his ground, blade pressed against the Captain’s in a deadlock.

“You joined forces with the enemy and took my ship down!” Captain Percival screams. His voice no longer holds the regality that Ren remembers. This Captain Percival is nothing more than a husk, everything stripped from him besides his very life. “You betrayed the trust of all Cascasians!”

He breaks out from the deadlock and, with a desperate battle cry, rushes Ren and Penny again. Ren lifts his staff, ready to fire another flaming ball. However, the sudden bang resonating in his ears stuns him.

Captain Percival stops in his tracks. His face is a mask of shock, eyes wide and lips parted as he topples like a rag doll. Ren stares at his body, the captain’s hair matted with blood oozing from the singular hole in his skull. Lifting his head, Ren finds Isla standing over him with a smoking gun. Clemon stays behind her, hands held as if in the middle of trying to persuade her to put it away.

And just like that, the fighting’s halted. As though Captain Percival’s death signals the end of the vicious battle between the Witches and Cascasia. No longer does Ren hear the bash of metal against metal, nor the screams of sailor and pirate. It’s as if everyone on the ship became simultaneously aware that Captain Percival, their leader, or their worst enemy, is dead.

No one speaks for the longest time. Not even with a cheer of celebration. But the one to break the silence is…

“Isla, you—” Penny pushes herself to her feet. She runs towards Isla and snatches the gun from her hands, throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. Clemon gives a cry of surprise and he drops to a squat, if only to pick up the gun that is now all bent out of shape.

Penny rounds on Isla, pinning her with the most piercing gaze. “How could you do that? How could you just take his life like that?”

Isla shrinks away from her and darts behind Clemon, as if hoping to use him as a shield. Ren jogs up to Penny and grasps her shoulder, turning her around to face him. He opens his mouth to speak, to tell her not to be too harsh on Isla, but all the words dry in his mouth at the tears shining in her eyes.

“This wasn’t… This wasn’t supposed to happen…” Penny sniffles, wiping at her eyes. “I thought… I thought everyone could be saved if we fought near the shores, but…”

“It’s not your fault, Penny. We didn’t know.” Ren draws her into his arms, hoping that this mere gesture would be enough to soothe the pain that ails her. However, this moment of comfort does not last long.

If Ren hadn’t been listening for it, he wouldn’t have heard it. Scratches against wood, the slap of something against the hull. He glances over to the side of the boat, noting not only the remnants of the Cascasia’s mast sinking beneath the waves, but also the bony fingers of white-skinned intruders curling around the edge of the hull.