Chapter 17
The Goal
[Three minutes earlier]
"Did the intercontinental bridge fall?" asked Eilor, eyes wide open. His voice cracked halfway through the question.
The silence between him and his uncle weighed heavier than usual. Laios didn't answer right away; he inhaled slowly.
"Rather… something fell from it," he finally said, his voice grave.
Eilor stood up slowly, swallowing hard.
"The monsters were… the other crew members?" he pressed, bringing a hand to his forehead. He shut his eyes for a second.
"Yes," Laios replied. This time without emotion, his expression twisted in disgust.
The memory struck Eilor suddenly.
"But what we saw falling earlier, from the corridor…" he stammered, staring at his uncle.
Laios lowered his head, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"It seems another giant creature fell from the bridge. Which means there are two giant monsters in the water."
The silence that followed spread like a stain. The hall's murmur, once constant, seemed to fade. Many of those listening didn't react at first, but when they heard "giant creatures falling from the bridge," more than one jerked their head up.
"Then the cryptids I saw climbing into the ship's hull…" said Eilor, breaking the silence.
That was information impossible to ignore.
"What…?" slipped out of Laios, incredulous.
Eilor noticed the immediate shift in the atmosphere. Several heads turned toward him; people's eyes gleamed with repressed fear. The air grew denser.
"When I was hanging outside," he continued, his voice lower now, aware of the stares, "I saw dozens of those monsters climbing and entering through gashes in the ship's hull…"
His uncle didn't respond. Nobody did. The words just lingered in the air.
A scream of pain ripped through the silence from the far end of the hall. The tension burst into motion: some ran to assist the wounded, others laid the moaning onto improvised stretchers, while a group hurriedly organized equipment and salvage.
On one side, the blue-robed alchemist was crushing ingredients with mechanical gestures, two others helping him.
Then Laios spoke suddenly, without taking his eyes off his nephew:
"Did they have six limbs?"
The question startled Eilor. It took him a second to react.
"No."
Laios's sigh of relief was immediate and so intense that he leaned forward, covering his mouth with his hand. He hunched over, as if something had just dawned on him.
Eilor watched in silence, uneasy. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced again at the blue alchemist. He remembered the blue-robed man's proposal: to drink a potion, though he hadn't had time to ask what it was for. He almost stood up, but something stopped him—the atmosphere of uncertainty, or maybe fear of the answer.
That was when his uncle suddenly raised his head, eyes wide.
"This is horrible…" he muttered.
Eilor stiffened.
"Why?"
Laios hesitated. He took a few seconds, as if each word weighed a ton. Finally, he spoke:
"Do you remember there's a city stretched across the bridge?"
"Yes…" the boy answered, though his voice faltered.
"People rest there because the journey on foot or by transport is too long…"
Eilor's expression changed immediately. He could feel where his uncle was heading.
"And therefore…" Laios went on, his voice growing heavier, almost like an executioner pronouncing sentence, "…there are thousands of people on the bridge every day."
Eilor's face drained of color. His lips parted, but no words came.
Laios looked at him, his expression a mix of weariness and resignation.
"Yes," he confirmed, sealing the magnitude of what they both understood.
---
[Present]
"Uncle!"
The man turned calmly. He didn't look surprised; his gaze said he already knew what was coming.
"I'm going too," said Eilor, with a firmness that barely trembled on his lips.
Laios sighed, tired, and instead of replying directly, turned toward the burly man, as if refusing to give more weight to his nephew's plea.
"How many limbs did the creature have?" he asked.
"Six," answered the burly man bluntly.
The impact showed on Laios's face. He tensed, sucked in air sharply, about to shout something… but the burly man cut him off, raising his voice and his hand.
"It's not the one you fought on the deck!"
The words froze him in place. Laios closed his eyes, covering his face with his hand. For a few seconds, silence hung in anticipation, until a bitter laugh broke from his chest. It was dry, short, shaking the room's tension.
Everyone stared, surprised.
"So… there's more than one," he said, lowering his hand. His weary gaze seemed to sink inward. "No… maybe even more."
At that instant, something glimmered under his uniform, on his left shoulder. Laios's expression softened suddenly. He reached under the fabric and pulled out a glowing stone, like a medal of honor, radiating warm light in the gloom.
"You know?" he said, lifting it between his fingers. "When all this is over, I want to go to Nexoria."
His words hung in the air with an unexpected tone.
"They say it's a very prosperous city. They call it 'the most comfortable city'…"
The hall, busy with treatment and organization, didn't stop, but some nodded while tending the wounded; others watched him with curiosity. The mere name Nexoria seemed to drag out memories and emotions.
Murmurs began, scattered at first, then growing into a chorus:
—"My brother came back from there with clothes finer than any noble's, more… contemporary…"
—"Mine brought back a mechanical animal, like a living pet made of copper…"
—"My father insists we move there, says he'd never leave again…"
—"Mine… died on the way."
That last remark swallowed all the others. Silence fell harsh, uncomfortable. No one wanted to look at each other.
A few clicked their tongues at the comment.
"Yes, that ruined the chance to lighten the mood," thought Eilor, turning his back on the now crestfallen group.
The alchemists kept working without lifting their eyes, as if the words were a dangerous distraction. The smell of reagents filled the air while Körper lay unconscious, watched over by a man in a white coat who patiently checked his breathing.
In a corner, a young woman with tired eyes stared at Laios's glowing stone. Her fingers brushed her own, hanging from a choker against her neck. Her lips trembled faintly as she slowly stood, gathering strength to speak.
But Laios's voice cut the air before she could.
"You can't come," he told Eilor without looking at him, cutting off the attempt at the root.
The boy's mouth fell open, incredulous.
"What? But…" He stopped himself. He already knew the answer.
The words unsaid lingered. Eilor clenched his fists, frustrated, because he understood all too well: six-limbed monsters were stronger than his uncle. If he, with half his strength at best, joined… he'd only be a burden. Or die in his place.
Laios readied himself to leave, but first pointed at Körper.
"You take care of him now. That was supposed to be me, but… ironic, isn't it?"
Eilor lowered his eyes, unable to reply.
The burly man clicked his tongue and muttered:
"Him, take care of Körper? Really?"
Laios turned briefly toward him, serious, almost cutting. He touched the man's shoulder as he moved toward the door alongside the officer and the burly man.
"Not really. He's not up to helping. But worse would be leaving him with nothing to do," he said quietly as he crossed the doorway.
As the three left, the officer shut the door.
"And Jenna…?" asked the officer.
"We split up in the machinery levels," the burly man answered while slipping on gloves.
"I see…" Laios frowned, his voice hardening. "That thing was able to crush Körper. And there's more than one…"
The officer pondered while removing a torn piece of uniform, then looked at the other two.
"Hey, I have a theory," he interrupted, raising his hand.
Laios and the burly man turned to him at once. The first arched an eyebrow, expectant; the second, curious.
"At first I thought it was coincidence we didn't transform into those things," said the officer, choosing each word carefully. "But now I have no doubt, after carefully watching everyone in the hall."
The three exchanged tense glances, as if each already sensed what he was about to say.
"These stones…" he continued, raising his own. It no longer glowed, but bore an unreadable engraving. "It's likely they're what prevent us from transforming."
Silence fell absolute.
Laios considered it for a moment. Then nodded slowly, seriousness hardening his features.
"Now that you mention it… on the deck, only the crew without runes transformed. Aside from the people in the chamber, I don't think any of them had one."
"Exactly," the officer confirmed firmly. "All of us still here… carry one."
The burly man let out a disbelieving snort, as if realizing something far too obvious that had escaped him. He looked at his own stone under his shirt, tracing the relief with his fingers.
The three men nodded almost in unison.
"That means…" concluded the officer, "it's not enough just to survive. We can't part with these stones."
"But nothing stops them from falling off in battle or elsewhere," Laios remarked.
"And we're still about three days from land," added the burly man.
"In the middle of such a voyage, nothing guarantees we'll get help—especially since this was supposed to be the first intercontinental trip to inaugurate the new ships," the burly man continued.
"How great it would've been, being able to reach Nexoria more easily. And now we're in this mess. But worst of all is the possible situation on the bridge you mentioned, Laios," said the officer.
"Yes. It's possible the people living on the intercontinental bridge transformed. And those giant things that fell from it may well be devastating the city on top of it."
"And… what if they destroyed it?" asked the burly man.
"The city?" the officer asked, puzzled.
"No, I mean the bridge."
Both officer and Laios looked at each other, then back at the burly man.
"I don't think so," they answered together.
"I know what you're thinking. That bridge is ridiculously big, big enough to host a city on its sides. But think about it: if something that huge fell from it and we could see it from here… wasn't it too big for the brid—forget it. On second thought, it couldn't be. Besides, that bridge isn't like normal bridges. The fact that it stretches between two continents without supports is already astounding," the burly man muttered.
Screech
Suddenly, a grotesque screech tore the air from the corridor. It wasn't human: sharper, wetter, a sound that scraped the ears like twisted metal.
The three tensed at once. Laios turned toward the source, muscles rigid, fingers already seeking his weapon's hilt.
"New weapon?" asked the burly man in a thin voice, trying to rationalize what he heard.
"Yes. Found it in a transformed one's quarters," said Laios, eyes fixed on the corridor's depths.
The screech came again, louder, closer. This time it was accompanied by frantic footsteps: wild, erratic, hammering against the corridor's metal like a storm of blows. The echo resounded on ceiling and walls, making them tremble.
"Listen, instead of fighting, let's lure it away from the hall," said the officer.
The three exchanged glances. They nodded.
"To buy time. It'll be a test of endurance," said the burly man, forcing a grin.
"Three days, or to be exact, 120 hours," Laios commented, bracing himself in the opposite direction.
"Let's wait for that thing to see us, then draw its attention," Laios said, flicking a thread of fire with his finger.
It lit the corridor's path, revealing the creature. The three tensed.
The monster was coming, and the three simply readied themselves.
120 hours is the goal, they all thought, their gazes steady, lit by the glow of the stones.