Ren pulls himself up the last of the chain, strained muscles crying for relief. He flops onto the deck of the ship, panting hard. He raises a brow at the numerous ghouls lying on the floor, and turning his nose up at the stench wafting from their rotting bodies. His friends are finishing up the battle, blades cleaving heads from shoulders and projectiles slamming hard into crumbly flesh. As the ghouls fall, one by one, the rest of the crew scramble below deck. Back into the cabins and away from the little band of combatants.

Ren turns around at a grunt behind him. Isla made it as well, panting as she steps out of her seal skin and hides it in the folds of her dress.

“Ren!”

Penny runs over. She throws her arms around him, and he returns the embrace. However, unlike her usual hugs, this one is just a little tighter, her face buried in the crook of his neck.

“I thought you were going to die,” Penny mumbles.

“I told you they’d be back,” Clemon says with a huff. The boy is splattered with blood, but he is grinning from ear to ear. Ren flashes him a smile, and Clemon moves to attend to Isla. Gridel pats Ren on the shoulder, congratulating him for his survival.

Vane bows his head, like a samurai greeting his liege. “It is good to see you again, Master Ren.”

“You, too.” He angles his head at the deck, now empty save for the motionless bodies of the ghouls. Gesturing at them, he asks, “Did you guys actually manage to kill them all?”

Penny nods. “It wasn’t easy. I mean—”

The door to the cabins slams open. Penny whips her head around, and the rest of the celebrating group turn to face the intruder. Marching through it is none other than what must be the biggest humanoid creature that Ren has ever seen. His skin is of similar complexion to his undead crew, and his face is nothing more than a bony skull, a single, glowing, blue eye dancing in the sockets. A signature pirate’s hat sits atop his head, and the hook on his hand and his wooden peg for a leg completes his pirate captain look. Behind him cower the ghouls that fled, the malicious creatures eyeing them with hatred and fear at the same time.

“So,” the man says, gaze darting from one face to another, “you are the one who incapacitated my crew.” When he speaks, his jaw clicks against its hinges. It grates on Ren’s ears.

“That’s right,” Penny says, tensing. She raises Mira. “And we’re going to lay waste to you too. You won’t be going around and killing people anymore.”

At her declaration, the rest of their team ready their weapons as well. Ren draws Ifrit from his back. Silence descends upon the ship for only a second, before the captain throws his head back and laughs. His remaining crew rattle and clatter with their own screechy cackles.

Ren narrows his eyes. What’s so funny?

“You think that you can kill us?” the pirate captain says. “Let me teach you something, little girl.”

With a snap of his fingers, what was once the dead bodies of the ghouls rise behind him.

“You can’t kill what’s dead.”

The fallen crew members get to their feet, groaning and cracking their joints like skeletons. They glare at the group with crimson eyes, but they remain where they are. Ren tightens his grip on his staff. Have they—the Luminary’s brigade—sincerely dug their own grave? If these sailors cannot be killed, then… how are they supposed to…?

“But I have principles that I abide by,” the pirate captain says. He extends a hand, paper-thin skin stretched so tight over the bone that it looks like it could tear as soon as Penny touches it. She gazes at it suspiciously, and the pirate captain withdraws it with a sigh.

“Youngsters these days don’t know their manners.” The pirate captain shakes his head. With a flourish, he tips his hat. “My name is Seth. Seth of the Southern Seas, they used to call me.”

“We don’t need to know the name of—” Vane starts, but Penny steps forward.

“Penny Gladsworth,” she says. “That’s my name.”

Seth claps, palms smacking loudly against each other. “Lady Gladsworth, is it? I applaud your courage. You are the leader of this band of… misfits?”

Penny hesitates. “Something like that.”

Well, Ren can hardly be offended. If he thinks about it, they really are a bunch of misfits. Two people from another dimension, the prince of the colony of Gravelle, and one of its Captain of the Guard. And finally, a teenager who just so happens to be a naval expert and a Selkie who just found her skin.

“Well, Lady Gladsworth.” Seth takes a bow. “I usually see people running from me. Very rarely, they will run towards me.”

“It was a choice between the lesser of two evils, I’d say.” Penny smiles wryly. “And besides, I wasn’t the one who proposed the idea.”

“I see.” Seth peers up at her. “Now, in light of your bravery, I shall offer you a deal.”

“A deal?”

The pirate captain makes a sweeping gesture at his ship. “This vessel and her crew are built for war, and nothing more. We live for bloodshed. It runs in our essences, and it is a fate that we cannot escape.”

Penny frowns. “What do you mean?”

“We were once sailors, much like you,” Seth says. “That is, until the apocalypse struck, and we were caught in the crossfire. We were revived by the Horseman of War, and our ship rose from the depths of the sea.”

“You’re saying that—”

“Do you see now? We are supposed to be dead, yet we still live. This curse inflicted upon us keeps us from death, leaving us teetering on the border.” Seth roars the last sentence, and Ren jolts at the boom of his voice. “What fuels us is our need for war and combat.”

“What does this have to do with your deal?” Gridel asks.

Seth steels his expression, and his frown twists into a smile. It is the smile of nightmares, grey lips hardly visible against the pallor of his skin, revealing a set of black, decaying teeth. The stink of his breath overpowers the scent of death from the rest of his undead crew. “One of you will fight me, on this very deck. If you win, you will kill me and relieve this ship of its curse. Otherwise, I will claim all your lives and you will join me as part of my crew.”

At that, the skeletons behind Seth pump their fists into the air and cheer.

“Wait, wait.” Clemon holds up a hand like a schoolchild. “If us killing you is good for both you and us, then why can’t we just—”

Seth stabs a finger at him. “Haven’t you been listening, boy? We’re nothing more than puppets of the Horseman of War. We cannot go against his orders—the only way we can perish is to be slain in the heat of battle!”

“But we did kind of slay your crew in the heat of battle,” Penny points out. “So…”

“Magic,” Seth says. “We can only be killed by magic.” Ren vaguely remembers Bart having mentioned this. “I will hold this duel with your mage, if you possess any amongst your ranks.”

“The only mage we have is…” Penny glances over at Ren. Seth follows her gaze, and he meets Ren’s eyes.

“So, he’s your only mage?” Seth asks. He makes a sweeping gesture at the centre of the deck, by the large mast. “Please, sir, this way.”

“This is absurd!” Vane snarls. “Master Ren is a Luminary. He should not need to entertain—”

“Even better!” Seth grins that creepy grin again. “The Luminaries are meant to deliver the world from the apocalypse, aren’t they? This is just another hurdle in their path.”

“Another hurdle that Master Ren—”

Ren places a hand on Vane’s shoulder, and Vane jolts. He glances back, brows knitted.

“It’s fine,” Ren says. “I got it.”

“But—”

“It’s fine.”

Ren turns back to the pirate captain. It’s been moments since he’s just scaled that anchor, and now he’s supposed to participate in a fight with an undead creature to the death? But he has to do this. He’s the only one with magic that is, probably, strong enough to kill them for good. Send the dead back to death.

“There.” Seth points at the spot a couple of metres from him. “Stand there.”

Ren does as he is told. A ring of shambling undead sailors circles them, forming a makeshift arena. Ren swallows uncomfortably, keeping his gaze focussed on the undead captain before him. Seth draws his cutlass and drops into what Ren assumes is a battle stance.

“Right then, lad. On the sound of the horn, we shall begin.”

Ren retrieves Ifrit from behind him and stands with his knees apart. The space for the duel isn’t very big, and Ren darts from one curve of the ring to another. He spots his friends gathered among the ranks of the undead, cheering him on.

Well, their lives hang in the balance, after all. All of theirs.

Seth begins to count down from three. With each syllable that passes his lips, Ren grows ever more tense. He has never seen Seth fight before. How fast is he? Which direction is he going to strike from first? How should Ren act?

The horn blows. Long and deep.

Seth is gone.

A punch to Ren’s midsection catches him off guard. Pain shoots through him, the air forced from his lungs as he goes flying into a crowd of sailors. He grimaces, coughing as dizziness assaults him, and the sailors hurl him back onto his feet. Ren’s arm comes up to nurse the throb in his stomach.

Seth only shoots him a taunting smirk. “That all you got?”

Ren grimaces. Clearly, Seth has more centuries’ worth of experience in battle than Ren does, so Ren’s not going to beat this man by skill. No way in hell. And given his limited magic power…

Ren grits his teeth. He’s got to think of a plan, and quick.

Seth darts to the side, boots squeaking on wooden planks. Ren barely leaps out of the way, shooting a fireball in retaliation. Seth dodges the flaming projectile easily, ducking his head and letting it sail into the distance. The crowd cheers, fists raised into the air and whooping.

Ren has no time to rest. Seth quickly follows up with a kick, his heel catching Ren’s side and slamming him to the ground. The impact is so great that it’s as though Ren’s bones shattered, and he hacks, struggling to get air into his lungs. He vaguely hears Penny’s yell, and Vane’s shout, but he does not register what either of them are saying. His ears are ringing much too loudly.

A boot rests on his head, forcing him to the ground. Ren hisses, and vomit rises in his throat as he takes in a whiff of… of whatever is growing on the bottom of Seth’s boot. Seth stands over him, casting a shadow upon Ren’s defeated person. And Ren didn’t even manage to get a hit on the captain, and he’s already on the ground, at the man’s mercy.

“Pathetic. This is the Luminary?” Seth roars. He sounds more furious than triumphant. “You are nothing more than a joke!”

“Hey! Let him go!” Penny screams.

Ren’s head aches, and he squeezes his eyes shut as Seth scrunches his sole against Ren’s crown. His skull feels like its being pulverised, but that’s nothing compared to just how battered the rest of his body is. However, he can’t give up here. He has to—

He has to fight.

Ren grasps Ifrit, and his other arm comes up to grab Seth’s ankle. Seth barely has time to hum in surprise, when fire bursts from Ren’s fingers and engulfs his leg. Seth screeches, leaping away, but Ren doesn’t let him go that easily. He wills the fire to grow. And grow the blaze does.

“What the devil are you—!” Seth draws his cutlass, but Ren is prepared for it. He rolls out of the way, a single moment before the blade stabs into the ground where he was. Ren pants, scrambling to his feet, looking up and into the face of the pirate captain. Seth cackles, and draws his fist back.

But Ren jabs Ifrit into his middle with as much force as he can manage. Seth stumbles and falls, and now, it is Ren who has his foe on the ground. He’s not going to pass up this chance.

Ren conjures a fireball, cinders manifesting into a fiery sphere of flames. The fireball barely grazes Seth, singeing his clothes, as the latter dives to the side. The sphere crashes into the wooden deck, fizzling away into harmless embers. Seth counters with a swing of his sword, and Ren lifts Ifrit to block it. He flinches at the clash of metal.

“So, you were hiding your true strength all along? Not bad, Luminary.”

Ren ducks away from the deadlock and sidesteps Seth. He raises Ifrit, now crackling with another fireball at the ready. Before he can sling it at the pirate captain, Seth’s leg carves a wide arc. His boot catches Ren’s ankle and neatly sweeps him off his feet.

Ren exclaims, slipping and slamming his butt against the wood. He hisses, gritting his teeth as another throb pulses up his back; he must have hit his tailbone. Propping himself on his palms, Ren is about to push himself back up when a blade rests against his neck.

Seth grins down at him, and Ren shivers at the touch of cold steel to skin. “Nice try, Luminary. But your best is not enough.”

Something tells Ren that the moment he moves is the moment his head is flying off his neck. Like Lissa’s. Perspiration trickles down the side of his head, and drips from his chin. The tension in the air crackles, like electricity.

“You lose,” Seth coos.

Ren shuts his eyes, bracing for the impact. Bracing for death.

But death never comes. Or maybe it came too quickly for Ren to feel anything.

Then, he feels the heat. He hears the roar of fire. Ren cracks open an eye, only to see Seth with his head angled up, staring at something behind him. Ren blinks, and then the dragon strikes.

It’s the same dragon that he summoned on so many occasions, the one that drains him of all energy every time he does. The dragon snaps Seth’s head between its jaws, and Seth screams. Breaking through the crowd, the fiery creature ignites the undead soldiers on fire. With a vicious twist of its head, it slams Seth into the side of the ship.

Ren can only watch on in horror as the dragon engulfs him in flames, and Seth’s body crumbles into dust without even so much as a struggle. Upon vanquishing its foe, the dragon fizzles away, leaving nothing in its wake. For a moment, no one dares to speak. No one dares to even move a muscle. Everyone remains staring at the spot where Seth burned, the wood utterly blackened.

“What was that?” Penny gapes. She turns to Ren and repeats, “What was that?”

Ren can’t even begin to comprehend it himself. He was at Seth’s mercy for a good few seconds, then suddenly, he was not. Saved by a dragon who appeared out of nowhere, the dragon that appears only when he needs it the most.

Just like that, Seth is gone. Dead in the blink of an eye. And with his death…

The undead sailors, one by one, begin to dissolve into dust as well. Their bodies that served them for centuries, that served the Horseman for centuries, are now finally put to rest. The ship rumbles and quakes, and Ren cries out. Vane rushes over and offers him a hand, pulling him to his feet.

“Are you alright, Master Ren?”

As far as his physical body is concerned, he’s as fine as one can be after a near-death experience. “Yeah.”

Before he can continue, the ship is gripped once more with a vigorous tremor. Ren’s stomach drops as he nearly topples. Vane’s fingers tighten around his arm.

“The ship’s sinking!” Gridel calls.

It’s not just sinking, Ren realises. It’s disintegrating, just like its crew! Already, the bow of the ship is gone, the wood rotting before disappearing and scattering across the vast ocean. And out here in the sea, a distance away from the Encantado Archipelago, they can’t possibly all make it to shore. Sure, Isla would be able to ferry one or two of them…

“Why are you just stood there?” Penny grasps Ren’s arm. “We have to—”

“There’s nowhere to run, Penny,” Ren says. “We’re—”

“Not quite. We still have one last hope, don’t we?” Penny’s eyes twinkle. If Vane is baffled by any of this, he doesn’t show it. She turns to the side of the ship, hands coming up to cup her mouth. “Aquarius! Help us!”

“Aquarius?” Vane utters. “How…?”

At that moment, the boat tips, almost taking Ren and Penny with it. Vane scoops the both of them into one of his arms, his other hand grabbing a loose rope dangling from the mast. The ship tips, its stern dipping into the water and going below. Gridel, Clemon and Isla appear to be holding up well too, clinging onto the rotted wood for dear life.

It is then that Ren sees it. There, just across the expanse of blue, is a fleet of ships. Much smaller than that of the Devil’s Coffin, or any other ship that Ren has sailed on. But for some reason, those ships feel very familiar to him, as if…

“It’s Calysso!” Penny cries.

Betty and the others have come to save them.