As Tsuna succumbed to the blue fire that crept around his skin, Zio took action on the impending threat. Several apes approached Tsuna’s slumped body, slowing down when Zio intercepted them but turned him into their target instead. “So they’ll attack him now? Things were different in the forest.” Zio threw the jacket on his shoulders over Tsuna, the flames being consumed by it. “Come on!” An ape lunged at him, quickly knocked aside by Zio’s foot lashing across its head. He whirled around, using the same foot to kick high into the mouth of the next ape, then with a shove sent it flying into the onrushing crowd. “Easy!”

A groan from Tsuna turned his concern back to him.

“No time to lose.” Lifting him over his shoulder, Zio took off towards the Black Crow. Leaps over rusted weapons and flips over corpses urged Zio to look over the battlefield. More has happened here than I realized. Near his foot was a man's body with several bullet holes. Was there a mutiny? With the amount of shit that’s happened, Rylen’s certain to have noticed, right? Unless he got caught in the crossfire of things, but there’s no way these wannabes could take him out. None of them would win that trade. The close sound of a gunshot sounded near him. Zio dodged right, eyes tracking the bullet, watching as it barely missed his chest. He glanced in the shooter’s direction while balancing Tsuna.

Zio’s face relaxed as an arrogant grin took the place of his tense look. “Ah, Saria. It’s turned to this, has it? I’d always known your Captain wanted to shoot me in the back, but you too? Talk about the lack of individuality.”

The barrel of a rifle raised for his head, smoke exiting as the spring pulled backward. “I do whatever the Captain orders. And if you’re here, with no trace of The Captain or Zikel.” She quickly loaded a bullet. “I will kill you in their place. We should’ve never trusted someone like you! Disobeying orders, being nothing more than a detriment to our plans! But, who am I kidding. I don’t give a shit about any of that. Tell me where Zikel is!”

“Put the gun down, Saria. You know what will happen if you don’t.”

“Where is he!” She shouted, a vein popping on her forehead. The cries of her companions in the distance failed to swing her focus. Even as they called her name, she didn’t waver. “The love of my life, the only man who treated me like a person! Not some minion or some tool to be used!”

Silence passed as the tension rose, Saria’s finger wrapping around the trigger. Zio turned sideways, so that Tsuna was facing away from her. A flicker of fire kindled at the tip of his finger. A closer look at Saria’s face and he could see that she was crying. The surge of tears burning her eyes showed through her constant blinking.

“You’ll die today!”

Saria let out a yell, and a gunshot went off. Her eyes fluttered, the numbness flowing from her fingers to her trembling fists. Eyes drifting towards the ground, she spotted the rifle that was once in her hands. A sigh pulled her attention to her right, meeting the emerald eyes of a man who scratched his long ear as he walked toward her.

“While I can’t contend with the point that you should’ve never trusted us, it’s not unthinkable that simple pirates would turn away a few volunteer rejects. Especially if those rejects have skillful reputations.”

The fire on Zio’s finger vanished. “Rylen. It’s about time you showed up. Is everything rea-?”

Rylen lifted a finger toward him, waving it as he let out a yawn. “Bear with me, I’m still groggy. I probably won’t remember what you mention for the next two to three minutes.”

“Groggy!? We talked an hour ago!” Zio said with an explosive yell. “Look around, at the corpses and guns laying around! You’ve been dozing the entire time!?”

“Not the entire time.” Rylen said, casually sauntering by Saria and booting the rifle aside. “I finished the job hours ago, so I’d been catching up on lost sleep here and there. The mere problem I came across was delaying the pirates from going through the ship for whatever they forgot. Had to pull the ‘Elves that leave Yggdrasil sleep longer than others’ card and it served better than I thought. I’m probably giving these people too much credit, honestly but I call that a success regardless!” Rylen leaned to get a better glimpse at Zio’s turned shoulder. “Is he alive? He’s no use to us dead, you know.”

Visible fumes shot out of Zio’s ears. “Of course he’s alive! Did you forget we’re in the midst of a battleground! The pirates are dying and we’ll be next if we don’t get moving!”

A cheeky smile broke from Rylen as he rose straight up. “You’re right. Let’s get out of here first.” Rylen turned to Saria, granting her a swift nod. “It’s the least you deserve for your choices and you’re only getting that because I don’t have any mints with me. I am genuinely sorry for your loss. This is the road you walked.”

Saria stood helpless as she watched the two of them run towards the Black Crow. She twisted around, watching a larger flock of bird creatures rising from the forests before The Crossing. The men and women she fought with fell one at a time, the creatures overrunning them. The radiance of the tower burned her eyes, overflowing her pupils with bright white.

“My love…”

***

The two went further into the crippled ship, shooting down its long pipe-filled hallways eventually ending up at a hangar filled with debris. Light invaded the room from the wrecked hangar doors, shining straight on pearl white round pod surrounded by other alike that were missing parts. Inside the vehicle was a front chair with a steering wheel and two stretched seats on each side allowing space for up to five people.

“Set him down and we’ll be gone.” Rylen tapped it with his palm before opening the door, allowing Zio to set Tsuna down and strapped him in. “Alright! Time for a test run!” Rylen rushed into the front seat and pulled a shift. A button blinked, shutting off as Rylen’s pinky finger slid over the top.

“Test? You slept instead of testing? Are you sure this salvaged junk will even take off?”

“Why wouldn’t I be confident about what I built? I’d question the maker who’s required to assess their experiments first.” A hum from within a vehicle shook them as the pod slowly raised into the air. “So, while this warms up a moment, inform me of what I missed on your venture to The Crossing. The lad’s out cold for good reason, I hope. Skip the minor details, including the part where I step outside to get a clean whiff of air to Saria, furious as hell, for whatever dice roll of a reason she’s mad today and we end up here.” He shifted his hand in a circular motion as if telling Zio to go on.

“To start, we made it inside of The Crossing and it was nothing like those who’ve been there have said. It was empty, with pillars of the Deities sitting in the room, surrounding some sort of contraption. Our theory of there being some sort of second tower is developing into a more credible hypothesis.” Zio sighed and collapsed back into his seat. “Like you predicted, the kid could open the door and once we made it in, The Captain did as he does and tried to kill me again. He shot the kid too.”

Rylen scanned Tsuna’s body as he spoke, squinting around every exposed segment of his body. “No blood or bullet wound?”

“No. He was completely unharmed when I checked, but that’s where things become... complicated. I felt something when he awakened, something all too familiar. I’m absolutely certain that the kid carries a part of Infernus’ essence inside of him.”

The engine blew, the pod thrusting them out of the hangar and into the sky. Rylen turned, seeing Zio desperately reaching out his arms to secure himself in the vehicle. “Sorry about the rush! I heard something ghastly in the wind about the lad having the dragon deity inside of his body! Either the light’s getting to me or the lack of food that isn’t merely partially edible. Say again?”

“You know damn well what I said! We’re sitting next to someone who’s doomed to turn, it’s just a matter of when! I wanted to kill him and still think we need to!”

Suddenly the pod slowed, Rylen turning his head towards the Twin Sea.

“No.” Rylen’s voice became void of expression. “You’re not to kill him unless I say so. That’s an order.”

Rylen’s changed of emotion brought a shock to Zio’s face. “Tch, fine.”

“I can see why you want to. It’s been centuries since Infernus’ disappearance and we discover him here of all places. Inside a false tower posing as The Crossing? Are you certain about what you felt?”

“Completely. When we were in the tower, I watched him kill The Captain. He’d, out of nowhere, obtained a fire affinity and killed him with a single punch. After that transpired, he looked dumbstruck like he had no inkling of what he’d just done.”

“When you put it that way, it sounds like the influence. But what, why, or how would his ether be so far away from the continent? Naturally, it should be bound to his mountain, right?”

“While that should be the case, we can’t expect anything natural to occur when it involves Infernus. Ether, even from a deity, shouldn’t have the capacity of possessing people or creatures. Infernus was the only oppressive deity.”

“According to legend, none of them were. The Draconic War might’ve played some part in that, but we’re not here to debate the contrary of what history records are composed of. We’re talking about the lad. Why is he unconscious and slobbering on himself?”

“After what he did to The Captain, I ran him to the beach to find you. The influence was becoming more potent, him mentioning how difficult it was to breathe and flames coming from his mouth. He lost control while struggling to keep up and so I struck him with the Azure Blaze technique.”

“Must have been serious. Doesn’t that technique normally kill dragons and even people?”

“I knew if he was holding Infernus, then this technique would do nothing to him. I took a chance and I was right. Rather than killing him, he lost consciousness.”

Silence passed between the two of them, the smell of the seas sweeping through their nostrils. The path ahead was clear, allowing Rylen to look back. “Are you alright? Using that couldn’t have been easy.”

“No.” Zio tilted his head back, looking towards the waters above. “I’ve transformed nearly twice in one day. Fought several times, been shot, and I even used the Azure Blaze. I’m more exhausted than you could imagine.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen you pushed to the limit. Bright side, you have about twelve hours ahead of you to do nothing but relax. I’d take that chance now if I were you.”

Crossing his arms, Zio shifted himself until he was comfortable in his seat. “I’ll do that. Don’t go yelling or flipping the ship sideways while I’m asleep.”

“You can count on me. The Twin Sea is calm and it should be night when we get far enough away from that weird aurora. Rest up, we may require you sooner than we know.”

“Yeah, yeah! Now let me sleep.”

As Zio drifted off, Rylen mumbled to himself, leaning forward onto his knuckle as he closed his right eye. “There’s no uncertainty about it. What she told us all those years ago is developing. I posit this is who she sent. A boy dangerously close to being possessed by Infernus.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes. “If you were here, what would you do? I don’t think you understand the magnitude of responsibility that you’ve dropped on my shoulders?” He straightened up. “I’m whining, that’s the last thing I should be doing. For the good of all of us, I must see this through.”

The pod slightly altered, enough to jerk Rylen’s attention behind him. Eye to eye, he and Tsuna locked stares. Tsuna’s face held a mild confusion that looked as if a wrong choice of words would quickly change that.

Rylen moved his hand into the air, tilting sideways while simultaneously smiling. “Hey there! I’m Rylen Gran!”