On the coast of Sea Fallen, a figure appeared from the shadows that blanketed the island, scoffing under their breath.
"Master always has his favorites, but that girl is the worst of the worst…"
She paused her thought as a tremor rocked the beach, bringing wave after wave of increasing size crashing against the shore.
"Why must I, of all people, supervise this boring slaughter alone… That bumbling fool Adam is probably still in the Mausoleum, so hopefully he'll complete his job sooner rather than later…"
Sighing deeply, she began to walk towards the burning city; however, her attention was caught by a seemingly insignificant object floating in the water.
How is a fishing boat still afloat? I'm certain the terrors combined with the waves would've sunk it, so how could this be?
Arianna stared at the odd sight, deciding to investigate the anomaly as the first part of the mission had already been completed.
The cold, wet sand sank under her feet as she maneuvered across the coast toward the ship that bounced atop the white capped waves.
"An ordinary fishing boat?"
Her voice was confused as she raised her right hand, uttering a chant that brought black flames to her palm.
「Burn.」
In an instant, the fire jumped from her fingertips outward to the bobbing fishing vessel attached to the dock, incinerating the air around it.
She watched as it made contact with the boat, covering it in black embers that slowly burned away.
That was strange, however, not unheard of…
Arianna paused, nearly squinting her eyes in confusion at the location where the ashes of a tiny fishing vessel should be floating.
"It's undamaged…?"
Her eyes scanned the hull and the sails, noticing a barely visible turquoise glow coating every surface that her fire grazed.
Strange…
Tilting her head to the side, she raised her hand again; however, this time she formed a finger gun.
「Inferno.」
Around her, the wind whirred together before exploding in a black glow, forming a tornado of flames that burst from the tip of her finger to the fishing boat.
"That should do it…"
She stared for a moment, watching the smoke cloud rise from the ship yet again.
Behind her, she heard slight movements as if a tiny creature was scurrying around.
However, when she turned around for a moment, nothing appeared, deepening her growing confusion.
Shaking her head, she returned her gaze to the remnants of the ship, yet to her surprise, not even a scratch covered the ship.
"I-Impossible… Such a thing would work on anything except for–"
Arianna's words died in her throat as a tiny crack of damage revealed itself through the fire.
Wedged between the bow and the rear sail, a single hole appeared ahead of her, showing something that she then realized was the exact thing she wished to see the least out of anything in this world.
"B-Blue flames…"
…
At the edge of the pier, an old dock worker was yelling at the rookie fishermen who were hoisting crates of lobster and crab onto a small boat.
"Hurry it up! We need these shipments in by December at the latest!"
Vicious rain pounded against the harbor, soaking every mariner to the bone, with some even calling it a once-in-a-century typhoon.
One of the younger men was shouting over the harsh storm that blew against them, distorting his words and scattering them into the wind.
"Boss, the conditions are too dangerous for us to sail! We need to postpone until next week or later!"
The elderly man furrowed his brow in confusion before scoffing in indifference and scolding the man loudly.
"I wouldn't care even if an apex terror appeared, so get ye smart ass back to work!"
His rough accent carried a harsh tone that frightened even the hardened fishermen, with them hurrying to load the crustaceans aboard.
Everyone on Strava knew the consequences they would face if they were late, even by a few days, to the markets of Sea Fallen.
For every moment of delay, the citizens lost hundreds of Draught they could've used to feed their families or supply their businesses, leading to poverty and widespread starvation throughout the island.
Nobody wanted to risk the possibility of a blank season that yielded low product, leading to the entire island being some of the highest-trained fishermen in the entire world.
The most legendary of these men was a stout gentleman without any family or friends who, no matter rain or shine, sat himself down at the end of the second pier with his rod in hand.
His eyes were trained on the distance while holding the rod firmly between his fingers, carefully reeling it in without even a speck of struggle.
After a moment, a large black spotted tuna was pulled from the depths and into the man's hands, where he quickly slaughtered it and placed it on ice.
With a look of envy in his eye, the old boss, who was ordering the harbor around, stared at the man before feeling a firm hand latch onto his shoulder.
"Who the hell…"
His words were cut off as he faced the large green-haired man behind him with his salty and gruff demeanor immediately softening to a look of absolute fear and shame.
"L-Lord Cosmoti… What are you doing in these waters…"
He barely stuttered out his words as the Sea King released him from his grasp, with his blue eyes focused instead on the short fisherman at the pier's end.
"That man is a monster."
And, without another word, he pulled a small emerald pocketwatch from his coat pocket, clicked open the glass cover, and turned the seconds hand to thirty.
His gaze never wavered even once as he closed the watch, placing it back into the crevice he had pulled it.
Next to him, the old man looked from him to the stout man on the pier before stuttering out another word.
"L-Lord…?"
He paused, waiting for Cosmoti's response.
However, the bearded Sea King simply continued his blank stare for exactly thirty seconds before blinking and turning his attention to the boss.
"I apologize for my discourteous behavior, but that terror over made for quite the awful stench that needed to be dealt with."
The elderly man tilted his head in confusion before noticing the rain coming to an immediate stop with rays of sunlight poking through the dark clouds.
"P-Perfect weather?"
Cosmoti smiled at the man's words, pointing to where the legendary fisherman sat.
His body had slumped over with his rod slowly slipping from his hand, yet from his head sprouted a long antenna that glowed with a bright light resembling that of an angler fish.
Scales coated his body with a gruesome smell wafting through the docks, causing many of the sailors to vomit off the side.
"When monsters are left to their own devices, only darkness can sprout."
The Sea King's words echoed through the dock with a particular boy listening intensely from aboard the boat.
His turquoise eyes watched as Old Man Martin bowed his head again and again to the King, praising his deed with the utmost respect to the point that even Lord Cosmoti felt uncomfortable.
"Thank you, but you should save such praise for little ole' Lepaie, or wait… Lord Quinn, I should say."
He scratched the back of his green hair before sweeping his gaze throughout the crowd of fishermen, but stopping at a tall blonde-haired boy lifting a large crate above his head.
Under his breath, the whisper was left unheard by Old Man Martin, with Orion turning around with a smirk forming on his face.
"Interesting…"
With those parting words, he jumped into the sea, disappearing without a sound as if he hadn't ever been there.
A collective sigh of relief spread through the harbor workers, with even Martin shaken about the shocking arrival of a man revered throughout the world as the King of the Cursed.
…
"You're such a weirdo."
Eleanor held a small crab between her hands, playing with it gently, watching Aaron stare at the dock with a sense of awe on his face.
Upon their arrival into the painted world, the boys' actions had been increasingly strange, with Eleanor almost a ghost in the space while he was able to interact as if he had been there before.
He became the memory.
Her mind had accepted that thought as the cause of his actions; however, she followed him and still spoke to him as if he were his old self.
She watched as he hoisted crates of lobsters into a pile across from where she sat, noticing an error in the memory.
"Ring. He still has the ring."
Aaron's right index finger glowed with an odd light, occasionally flashing between a calm, relaxed blue and a deep black that sucked the life out of the air around it.
He hadn't seemed to have noticed it, yet Eleanor sensed that it was affecting him and the surroundings, whether he knew it or not.
She thought for a moment before standing up and looking at the boy with determination.
"We need to leave."