'This ship is quite big,' Arthur thought to himself as he followed Theodora. In his life, the only thing he had ever taken interest in were the vessels that sailed the seas—quite contrary to his hatred of the ocean itself.
Looking around, he noticed designated crew quarters, which told him they were above the hold, perhaps even the orlop deck.
The place was bustling with people—men and women in austere military uniforms. Everyone seemed in a hurry, but the moment their eyes fell on Theodora, they stopped. They didn't look at her with admiration or attraction; to Arthur, the woman wasn't particularly beautiful anyway. Their stares were filled with something else entirely—pity.
But when their eyes shifted to Arthur, the change was undeniable. Their gazes hardened into contempt, rage… even disgust.
'I'm not even that ugly,' Arthur thought bitterly, though deep down he knew the real reason. He was a rebel—or at least, the body he now possessed belonged to one. And these people were Navy, just like the old man Earl.
"I'd recommend you stick close to me," Theodora murmured, confirming his suspicion. "They don't like rebels around here."
Arthur kept right behind her as they reached a ladder. She climbed first, and before anyone could grab him, he quickly followed.
'It really doesn't hurt at all.'
He was still amazed by how well Theodora had healed him. It felt as though his limb had been regrown completely new.
The ladder carried them up and out onto the main deck. Arthur vaulted over the last rung, and behind him soldiers poured out one after another in a disciplined line, all glaring at him.
The deck stretched wide, the masts rising so tall they seemed to pierce the sky itself.
'It's the largest one.'
Arthur recognized it instantly—the same mahogany giant with four towering masts he had seen from the canoe before passing out.
The officers eyed him with visible disdain but said nothing. They didn't strike him either, though Arthur could feel how badly they wanted to.
He carefully walked towards the bulwark and looked over the gunwale. Below, he saw a complex maze-like city of functional and wrecked-up ships that were interconnected to one another by means of smaller ships, wooden bridges, or just ropes.
'Damn.'
It was all Arthur could think; he was at a loss for words.
He turned around. The last of the officers had come out, and Theodora was nowhere to be seen. There, at the far end, was a ladder that everyone was using to climb down the ship.
Arthur waited till the last officer was gone before he went there, as he admired the ship. Reaching one end, beside him was a bundle of rope, thick enough to strangle a Leviathan...
Arthur thought about it and was reminded of the humongous silhouette he saw when he arrived in this trial.
The rope tied to one of the masts, bundled up, and the other end attached down towards a cliff.
A cliff with a flat side risen up from the surface of dark waters—the ship somehow dwarfed the cliff. One end of the rope had an anchor which was stabbed somewhere in the lower side of the cliff.
Over the cliff was a crowd of thousands of people, gathered around as if they were going to wage a war against someone or something.
"I fucking hope that's not the case."
A ladder ran along the ship's outside. Down there was a bridge.
'How many bridges have these buffoons made?'
Arthur wondered. And why? Why'd they need these... or any of this, a shipwreck city in the middle of nowhere.
Arthur took a deep breath and began climbing down the ladder.
'One step at a time.'
As he descended alongside the ship's outward curve, he noticed that officers under him were doing the same thing as him—watching their steps.
It took him half an hour to reach the last of the ladder. There was something similar to a wooden platform attached to the middle of the ship, and the dock-like platform stretched towards the cliff with a slight downward hike.
Arthur followed behind the officers, who were glancing behind them once in a while, keeping an eye on him. He kept his head low but alert as to not be stuck with one of these guys.
While walking, he peeked down the edge of the platform. Under him, the water was serene—no waves, wind, or monsters.
"Now that's.... unsettling."
Arthur expected one of two things when he thought of the possibility that he might get into a Hex trial.
First was to die in the first few minutes at the hands of a Corrupted monster, which did not happen; he'd been here for hours now.
The second one was a bit more optimistic, in that he'd have to fight a weak monster such as a drowned sailor's corrupted hollow reincarnation.
'Which I did, but still... only got a bottle of alcohol that makes me bit crazy.'
Everything he had heard about Hex back in the real world was not helping him much, because it was common knowledge that the Hex tunes its trials according to the challenger—and this one was very vague in its goal.
Arthur reached the end of the bridge and stepped onto a stone path that clung tightly to the gigantic stone wall. The path led in two directions: one towards the top of the cliff where everyone was gathered, and the other downhill, leading somewhere unknown.
Arthur began trekking upwards, making sure not to lose his balance on the left and tumble down the path into the water below, which probably had rocky formations submerged just beneath the surface of darkness.
After several cautious steps, he reached a bend to the right, and just as he was about to move forward, someone collided into him. He grabbed onto the wall immediately.
"Who the fuck—"
Arthur paused mid-sentence. In front of him was a girl.
A head shorter than Arthur, she seemed a bit younger than him. Her face was sharp, her hair like molten silver, and her eyes the color of amethyst. She was dressed in an austere military uniform of a size too big for her.
"Who—oh, it's you..."
Behind the girl was Theodora, who spoke softly.
Arthur took a few careful steps back, letting the girl come closer so he could see Theodora.
"What happened?" he asked, sensing something odd.
"I'll explain, but for now turn around and keep walking."
Theodora seemed in a hurry as she spoke. Arthur widened the distance between them before turning around so neither of them would be able to push him down if they wanted to.
"Tell me why, or I'm not moving from here-"
"The Herald has opened the gate of the Last Spire. They are about to wage a war against—" The girl, unfamiliar to Arthur, spoke, but she only got halfway through her sentence before Arthur immediately began pacing away from them.
'Yep! I'm not getting stuck in no damn war!'