Isabella looked at me with eyes that seemed to say she was in horrible pain.
"Mi...zik..." She whispered.
I looked at her sadly.
"What...happened?" I asked.
"You went...crazy... Used the heart stone... So I did too..." She said.
Then she pulled out a black katana still in it's sheath.
"I killed...Tyranus..."
I felt proud of her, but I was also very worried...
"Did we kill Cain?" I asked.
She shook her head sadly.
"He got away... We're not going to die...are we?" She said.
"I don't know..."
Isabella slowly got up and hugged me.
Doing so seemed to cause her quite a bit of pain and eventually, we managed to stand up. We leaned on each other as we made our way to the door and it opened in front of us.
Rastair stood in the doorway and looked down at us.
"You two are quite the sight... But thank the gods that you're alive. You were out for four days after that crazy battle..." Rastair said.
"Four days...? I can't even remember the fight to begin with..." I said.
"Jallah said you went completely berserk after seeing that Cain guy...and that our world might be in terrible danger. Are we doomed?" Rastair said worriedly.
"Not if...we can help it..." Isabella managed to say.
"I don't want...to die... I haven't spent enough time...with Mizik..." Cassandra said through tears now forming in her eyes.
I truly didn't have the patience to deal with this. I was in so much pain right now that I could hardly see straight...
Everything hurt. My body felt like it was on fire. And there was a certain numbness that was very slowly growing.
Besides...
In about seventy days, we would cease to exist.
It was a pretty dire situation. If I died, I would go right back to Lorelei and I would never be able to save Isabella again...
It was time to get serious. We needed to see the Mad Admiral. Whether he would just kill us or help us, we didn't know. But we knew he would have the answers... That's what the frost dragon said.
"Cassandra... No...he's mine...please..." Isabella said weakly.
"I'm surprised you two still have the energy to argue, in all honesty. But we're going to go see the Mad Admiral. It should only take three months to go to Ripper Isle, grab a more acceptable crew, and make our way to Elysium. Just hang tight!" Rastair said with a smile.
"No... We have to go now. We don't have three months. Rastair...we're degrading. In seventy days, we'll cease to exist. We're going to crumble to dust," I said.
Rastair sighed.
"That's a really big risk... I tend to not go back on my word, but...I suppose I could break my contract just this once. We can be there in a few weeks. Until then, try not to kill anyone, okay?" She said.
"Thank you...Rastair..." Isabella said.
"Umm...also... You two reek of magic. You're literally radiating so much magic power that it makes me feel sick. So the others, the Enforcers, will probably be avoiding you for a while. Especially considering the fact that they became terribly sick while dragging you back here..."
"Sick...? How?" I asked.
"Like, throwing up everywhere. They said something about it being like a thing called radiation? I don't know what that is, though..."
I kind of felt really bad about that... But I was thankful that they tried so hard to help us out.
I still wanted to see them.
But I would try to hold myself back.
I had another question.
"Will it be okay? Going to Elysium like this?" I asked.
Rastair just shook her head.
"No. No, it won't be okay. The last time I sailed into their waters was the time I had to make the deal with them. They don't tolerate pirates in any way at all. They were alerted to our presence immediately and the Admiral came to visit us, himself. He nearly killed me and I decided to work out a deal with him... Then we had a wonderful and somewhat awkward night together... Heh..."
Pervert...
"Won't he try...to kill you?" Isabella asked.
"Maybe! But I'll just say I came back for seconds just to get his attention. That should work!" Rastair said with a laugh.
Then she turned and walked away.
"She's a pervert..." Isabella said.
I nodded and we walked up to the main deck. It took a while because we were so sluggish at the moment, but we made it.
As far as I could tell, the ship was moving very quickly. Then suddenly, its direction changed as Rastair modified our course. I could feel the water shift beneath the ship and saw Leiso near the front using her Aspect to grant us more speed.
We slowly approached Leiso and she quickly turned around.
"STOP! RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!" She shouted as she held her hand over her mouth and nose.
"Umm...Leiso?" Isabella said.
"Please...just stay back! That magic coming off of you is toxic to us. Like radiation. It makes me feel sick when you get too close! I'm sorry... Please just keep your distance for now. I'm glad you're alive though. Rastair already explained what was happening and we're going to move as quickly as possible," She said.
I simply nodded and Isabella looked like the wanted to cry.
"Let's go, Isabella... We should lay down...conserve our strength..." I said.
"Okay..."
Then we made our way back below deck and laid down.
Isabella slowly and gently laid her head on my chest and quickly fell back to sleep.
I closed my eyes and felt myself drift off as well.
* * *
Without going into too much detail, degrading is a very slow and painful way to die.
The searing pain in our bodies didn't cease. It only got worse.
Additionally, we became numb to all other kinds of feelings.
We lost our sense of taste, smell, and touch.
Our skin slowly began to crack and occasionally, bits of dust would come off of us...
Our hair also began to turn white.
As if it wasn't bad enough, at one point, Isabella noticed that some of her hair was slowly falling out.
She...didn't take it well...
"Nooooooo! My beautiful hair! Why!? I love my hair! Please noooo!" Isabella wailed in sorrow.
I gently hugged her and she wept bitterly on my chest.
I didn't tell her this, but my hair had begun to fall out days prior.
Over the few weeks that we spent on the ship, things only continued to get worse. Our muscles started giving out and it felt like our bodies were losing circulation.
Eventually, eating by itself became a difficult task as our bodies slowly began to break down inside and out.
Taking these heart stones was the single worst decision I had ever made. To make matters worse, Vengeance wouldn't tell me anything except that he manifested a fragment of his fourth form.
Yeah...apparently, he had a fourth form.
The tremendous strain that he placed on me from it only further crippled my already-degrading body...
Cassandra tried her best to cope...but she was beyond terrified.
She kept Isabella awake at night sometimes with her mad ramblings.
The thing she feared most was now a very real possibility.
If I died, everything would reset.
And Cassandra might one day torture me again since she wouldn't have her memories...
The thought of hurting me was too much for her to bear and she kept apologizing before anything even happened.
I appreciated the thought, but I wouldn't remember her anyway! Her apologizing was utterly pointless!
It didn't matter how many times I told her that it was fine, Cassandra only felt worse and worse the nicer I was to her.
Granted, this was my original plan...but now that I saw it in action, I began to feel kind of bad about it. Especially since she had been so loyal to me.
Isabella had slowly begun to lose hope... The way things were going, it didn't seen like we would last the entire seventy days...
At one point, we had a a conversation just before entering Elysium waters.
"Mizik...I feel like I'm dying so quickly... I don't want to leave you all alone... I can't bear the thought. And what's worse, is that I know the Oracle will make sure that I won't survive next time around... I don't want you to suffer alone..." Isabella said.
"I don't want to torture my darling again!!! I hate my old self! I want to shower Mizik in love and comfort... Why did I do such horrible things!? Why!? Uwaaaaaaaaa!!!!"
"I understand... We still have time. Hopefully, the Admiral can fix us, but I don't know... Things seem pretty dire..." I said.
Just then, Rastair entered the room quietly and shut the door.
"I want you two on the top deck. We're about to enter Elysium territory and I need you present," Rastair said.
"Rastair...I can barely lift my sword, much less fight... If I try to attack anything, I'm likely to kill myself with the magic contained within me..." I said.
"I know. I don't need you to fight. Just to be present. Can you agree to that, at least?" Rastair said.
I nodded, then both Isabella and I made our way to the top deck.
* * *
A few days later, we'd developed a routine.
Every day we would spend time on the top deck as we slowly decayed away. Rastair would nervously take us further towards the place closest to the Elysium capital of Argus. It was a massive city on the coast of the central country of the Elysium Empire.
Truthfully, I didn't understand why they would put the capital on the coast, but...
It likely had something to do with the Mad Admiral as far as I knew.
Argus was ruled by a young elven boy named Emperor Alwen Silexandross Elysium.
This was the territory of the Mad Admiral...
And eventually...
"SHIP SIGHTED!!! IT'S THE EXODUS!!! THE MAD ADMIRAL HAS ARRIVED!!!!" The crew member in the crows nest shouted.
"WE'RE GOING FULL SPEED AHEAD!!! I WANT TO SEE THE ADMIRAL UP CLOSE!!!" Rastair shouted.
At once, she slammed her glaive into the slot next to the wheel and moved it forward.
Leiso made an effort to speed the ship up towards their goal.
Then the ship in the distance, 'The Exodus', fired what looked like an aerial plasma torpedo at The Leviathan.
Although it looked more advanced than anything I ever saw on Ignitus.
It slammed into the water and exploded. Then The Exodus stopped moving.
From what I could tell, it looked more like a heavily armored battleship from Ignitus. Although...
Far more advanced. Like something out of one of Michael's science fiction movies.
I really didn't want to mess with that thing on our wooden ship...
Suddenly, a small flying drone approached The Leviathan and stopped.
"THAT WAS A WARNING SHOT, RASTAIR!! YOU'VE ALREADY BROKEN YOUR CONTRACT! CEASE YOUR APPROACH AND I MIGHT CONSIDER SPARING YOU!!!" The drone said.
"Oh? Ain't that sweet!? FULL SPEED AHEAD!" Rastair said.
Just then, the drone flew away and The Exodus opened fire on us.
Leiso blocked the shots by creating swirling torrents of water and steel while Rastair maneuvered the ship around the attacks.
Rastair also manipulated the twelve magical streams coming from the ships sides to block and parry the enemy fire.
It was quite impressive and would have been amazing to watch if I didn't feel like death.
Eventually, The Leviathan pulled up to The Exodus and wrapped its tentacles around it.
Leiso sealed the guns with water and metal as the gang planks were dropped.
"THAT TEARS IT!!!" A man shouted angrily.
Someone shot straight into the air from the center of The Exodus and landed straight on the deck of The Leviathan. Cratering the ship itself.
He had a sapphire-blue naval uniform on with dark navy-blue pants and black boots.
He wore black gloves and his uniform was highly decorated with silver and gold.
On his head, was a magnificent sapphire and navy blue hat bearing the insignia of a silver anchor.
And on his face he wore a black mask with a blue visor. The mask depicted a skull and wrapped around his head like a helmet along with covering his neck.
He slowly stood up.
I could feel his strength. And in my current state...a single hit from this guy would probably kill me.
"I am Vakra, The Supreme Admiral of Elysium. Where is Captain Rastair!?" He said.