LOCATION: THE SHINING CRUSADERS' LODGE
DURING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PEARL HARVEST—PRESENT TIME.
Morgel: "Who are you, and where exactly did you just come from?"
Johnathan: "I already told you, it doesn't matter who I am! We have to get everyone off this peninsula! NOW!"
Beyond the lodge, ominous pillars of black smoke clawed at the heavens above the distant coastline, their colossal plumes churning like the foul breath of a slumbering, malevolent god.
The piercing screams of the Senson folk tore across the peninsula as they fled back toward their defiled home, driven by an indescribable, unnatural dread.
Panicked footsteps pulverized the mire below, each heavy, frantic stride striking the earth like a falling boulder. Yet the madness failed to reach the ears of the Shining Crusaders' renowned captain.
Levy Pharloom Kronos.
Her attention remained solely focused upon the heated confrontation between her trusted subordinate and the mysterious boy who had just emerged from otherworldly depths.
Her scarlet curls swayed gently in the chilling breeze, their vibrant strands contrasting against the ashen complexion of her battered face.
Grunting in defiance, she dragged herself upward from the wooden seat in which she had been placed. Her wounded body resisted immediately, a miserable surge of agony flooding through her limbs, yet she stubbornly continued to lift herself from the backrest.
Levy: "Tch! M-Morgel…"
Morgel: "Huh?"
Morgel whipped around, his eyes widening as he saw his captain's desperate attempt to stand. In a heartbeat, he was at her side, seizing her by the arms and carefully easing her back into the chair.
A small, ragged gasp escaped Levy's lips, her fragile frame trembling under the heavy weight of his hands.
Morgel: "Stop! Don't make any more sudden movements! You'll reopen your wounds…"
Levy: "Let me speak to him… the boy."
Morgel shook his head instantly, his gaze descending toward Levy's injuries for what must have been the hundredth time since the morning star's radiance had first swept over the peninsula.
He pressed his gloved palm against one of the shallower wounds, applying just enough pressure to stem the blood leaking through its jagged edges. Levy hissed softly, her body instinctively attempting to recoil from the searing touch, only to remain anchored by Morgel's other hand.
Levy: "E-Enough! I'm okay—"
Morgel: "No. You're not okay. Far from it. Just… just let me handle this. Just this once."
Levy gritted her teeth, turning her head aside with a sharp scowl. She refused to acknowledge his words, her tangled curls spilling across her face to bury her expression in shadow. But eventually, her resistance began to crumble beneath the pleading gaze of the man standing before her.
A deep, weary sigh left her lips, followed by a slow, reluctant nod.
A small, grateful smile formed across Morgel's face.
He stood tall once more, releasing his captain's shoulders before returning his attention toward the sweat-drenched boy standing a couple of feet away.
Johnathan's bloodied white tunic fluttered in the freezing wind, its torn fabric clinging to his skin alongside a mud-brown cloak whose shredded edges swayed like the remnants of a forsaken banner.
Even with the stark sunlight cutting across his emerald eyes, his gaze remained entirely defensive, weighed down by a bottomless exhaustion.
His breathing was shallow and tortured. Every miserable inhale came as a hitched, desperate gasp, as though the very air had turned to glass inside his lungs.
His arms trembled incessantly, while the countless wounds scattered across his body seemed to worsen with every passing minute. His fingers slipped against Calypso's iron hilt, quivering violently before he locked them into a frantic, white-knuckled grip.
The boy had suffered a tragedy that eclipsed anything his harrowed mind could even begin to fathom.
And now, he was here.
He was here to warn them.
To warn them all of the unstoppable cataclysm creeping to devour the peninsula whole. A twisted, ruinous storm of cruelty, born from the Titan of Love's unearthly desires and her sadistic thirst for mortal suffering.
Johnathan: "You need to listen to me! Something terrible is going to happen! Something no one on this peninsula is prepared for!"
Morgel: "Something terrible? I'm afraid you're too late. Something terrible has already happened."
Johnathan froze.
His grip faltered against his Blessed Tool as he stumbled backward, his eyes darting frantically around the surrounding landscape.
Confusion washed over his expression, his previous urgency momentarily giving way to a discomforting realization that he couldn't quite comprehend.
Johnathan: "W-What?"
Morgel: "Who are you, and where did you come from?"
Morgel casually wiped some grime from his cheek before slowly approaching the troubled boy, prompting Johnathan to immediately raise his blade and assume a defensive stance.
Johnathan: "I said stay back! Don't you dare come any closer!"
Morgel's expression sharpened at the threat, his sky-blue eyes narrowing into steady, unwavering gaze of a hawk hunting in eternal darkness. He stopped short, maintaining a considerable distance between them—enough room to withdraw swiftly should the young man suddenly decide to violently lash out.
Brushing the dust from his leather pauldron, Morgel silently examined the dreadful ruin of Johnathan's body.
Gaping, crimson gashes yawned open across his neck and arms, jagged tears and mottled purple bruises clustering together like a festering hive of maggots.
Nearly every inch of the boy's flesh bore the wicked brand of torment; not a single piece of him had been spared.
It was a wonder Johnathan was still even standing.
Morgel: "My name is Morgel Truice, an experienced healer of the Shining Crusaders. You're deeply hurt. I can help with that. But I'm going to need you to tell me the truth first."
Johnathan: "The Shining Crusaders…? Here?"
Morgel paused, carefully weighing his options before taking another cautious step forward. Johnathan's shoulders tensed immediately.
Morgel: "I must know whether you're in danger… or whether you are the danger. Understand? Let's try this one last time, alright? Who are you… and where did you come from?"
Silence.
A pure, deafening silence swallowed the land like a colossal tide, enveloping the two men as the Shining Crusader stood facing Omenstar.
Morgel's pale, freckled complexion shone softly beneath the sun's ethereal glare, his polished black cape billowing like a shadow behind him as he awaited the boy's response.
From her seat, Levy watched keenly, her eyes locking onto Johnathan through her spectacles. There, she witnessed a chaotic whirlwind of emotions spiraling beneath the mask of his ravaged skin.
Burning frustration.
Inescapable unease.
Dire need.
And a profound unwillingness to allow himself to be trapped in a cycle of anguish and despair.
Levy: "What happened to you…?"
She whispered, her fingers tightening around the wooden armrests of her chair. Johnathan briefly glanced over Morgel's shoulder, catching Levy's concerned gaze before quickly returning his attention to the Health Specialist.
This man… was asking him to trust him.
To rely upon his promise to help him.
To grant himself the luxury of being reassured and comforted by his calm, measured words.
…
If only he knew how utterly impossible that was for someone like Johnathan.
For he had witnessed firsthand what it was like to place his unsuspecting heart in the hands of another… only to watch it be ruthlessly torn apart as though it were nothing more than meaningless baggage.
Worthless filth, fated to be cast aside.
Useless, sickening waste that would be swept from the earth by the breeze or swallowed by the merciless tides of a gluttonous ocean.
A pathetic, flawed soul with no reason to exist in this pain-stricken realm.
A heart with no true purpose, forever destined to be discarded…
NO.
Johnathan clenched his jaw with such force that his teeth threatened to shatter beneath the pressure. Without a second thought, he spun Calypso around in his hand… and pointed the gleaming longsword directly toward Morgel's face.
Johnathan: "Sorry, but I don't plan on taking any more chances when it comes to blindly trusting people."
Morgel: "…Neither do I."
Morgel released an exasperated sigh before calmly reaching into his pocket.
His fingers soon settled around the frame of a peculiar object, gripping its uneven base before drawing it into the open.
A long oak branch, heavily engraved with strange runic markings and uncanny inscriptions.
Johnathan's brows furrowed in bewilderment as he watched Morgel casually twirl the unnatural branch in his left hand, all while maintaining constant eye contact.
Morgel: "We're quite similar in that regard. No longer willing to let our empathy blind us to the potential dangers surrounding us."
Morgel raised the barbed end of the branch toward his soft lips, whispering something inaudible into its ancient, weathered husk… before driving it straight through his wrist with brutal, unrestrained force!
Johnathan: "What the hell?!"
Blood erupted from his wrist like a pair of savage geysers, coating his palm in a deep scarlet as he continued forcing the jagged length of wood farther through his flesh. Morgel's expression remained frighteningly indifferent, even as enormous streams of blood rushed down his forearm and splattered against his boots with wet, nauseating squelches.
He slowly raised his head toward the open heavens, gazing upon the peaceful, snow-white clouds drifting leisurely overhead.
His luminous irises stared unflinchingly into distant firmament as crimson rivers began pouring from his eyes, tracing paths down his ghost-white cheeks like the bitter tears of a fallen deity.
That was when it happened.
It all unfolded… with only two words.
Just two.
Morgel: "Hreinasta Blóð."
BLOOM!
Morgel's gaze snapped violently toward the soil as the thorny branch embedded in his wrist splintered into a cascading web of ink-black fragments.
His midnight curls lashed through the frigid gale as torrents of unleashed blood surged upward, twisting and intertwining into massive, looming spires.
The ocean's sacred, untamed palette choked out the unsettling maroon; the monoliths contorted, reshaping themselves into magnificent, woven chains of regal blue lifeblood.
Simultaneously, the wild shower of shards spiraled toward Morgel's open palm, snapping together and locking into a seamless hold.
Piece by piece, the splintered shrapnel converged in rapid succession, binding into a slender obsidian staff that sprouted wicked, pitch-black thorns at its base.
His Blessed Tool.
Reiven.
Johnathan watched in stunned silence as Morgel masterfully handled the newly manifested weapon, tracing a blur of dark steel through the air before planting the staff directly into the earth at his side.
The mystical chains coiled around the Crusader, their veinlike structures snaking through the frozen air as he took a commanding step forward.
Levy: "Morgel! What are you—?!"
Morgel: "Stay calm, Captain. You're just going to have to trust me on this, okay?"
Levy responded with an incredulous stare, clearly unconvinced by whatever Morgel intended to do.
She clenched her bandaged fists, struggling with the prospect of allowing her subordinate to take on a boy from the very town they had failed to protect.
Levy: "Damn it…!"
She muttered beneath her breath, anxiously watching Morgel begin closing the distance between himself and Johnathan.
Johnathan: "I said… STAY BACK!"
The boy staggered a step backward, his foot slamming into the muddy earth as he drew Calypso behind him.
Then, with a thunderous cry of defiance, Johnathan swung the Blessed Tool with all his might, unleashing a vast wave of golden flames directly toward the approaching Crusader!
The brilliant inferno roared like a ferocious pride of a thousand lions, surging forward with one singular purpose: to annihilate anything that dared threaten their wielder, leaving nothing but smoldering devastation in their wake.
Morgel didn't even blink.
He immediately dropped into a low crouch, narrowly avoiding the blinding claws of the savage fire as they ripped through the air above his head.
Glancing over his shoulder, he watched the swirling blazes gradually disintegrate into the freezing atmosphere.
Johnathan gritted his teeth, stumbling back another step as he prepared to unleash a second wave of giant, lethal power!
Morgel: "Svefndreyri!"
Before the wounded boy could even react, one of Morgel's chains lunged across the gap, wrapping around his frame like a starving, bloodthirsty serpent.
The ribbon of sapphire essence constricted his muscles with malicious precision before slowly dissolving into his scarred skin.
Johnathan thrashed wildly against the shackles.
With an enraged roar, he launched himself skyward, shattering the air beneath him with an explosive shockwave that rattled the terrain and nearly knocked Levy out of her chair.
The glowing tether of lifeblood refused to break, ignoring the vast distance between earth and sky.
Even as Johnathan fled into the azure expanse, the blood-fueled corruption kept tunneling its way through his body, sinking deeper into the dark recesses of his flesh until the last of the blue light vanished inside him.
Johnathan: "Huh?!"
Disbelief swallowed his expression as gravity claimed him, dragging him into a sudden, helpless plunge. His eyes snapped toward ground, locking onto the faint, amused smirk curling across the Morgel's lips.
Johnathan snarled, wrenching Calypso back as he prepared to unleash another torrent of unbridled fury upon the Crusader.
Johnathan: "Bastard—!"
SNAP.
A colossal wave of drowsiness crashed over him like a collapsing mountain, instantly suffocating his senses with irresistible force.
A rush violet vertigo clouded his vision, pulling his world into a quiet, lavender undertow.
What was happening?
The question echoed pointlessly within his mind as he plummeted earthward. Calypso slipped from his numb fingers, his broken muscles yielding to the tremendous weight of an enforced slumber.
Morgel immediately sprinted forward, his bloodied boots pounding against the ground and crushing the delicate little plants unfortunate enough to lie in his path.
He thrust his arms upward, positioning himself beneath the descending boy before catching Johnathan just seconds before his body could collide with the surface.
The immense force of the landing caused Morgel's knees to buckle, sending a brief tremor through his legs.
Nevertheless, the healer managed to maintain his footing, tightening his hold around the now-unconscious boy before gently securing him against his chest.
A deep, measured breath followed.
Morgel slowly turned around, smearing the sapphire blood across his face before meeting his captain's worried gaze with a calm, reassuring smile.
Morgel: "See? All good. Now we can have a proper discussion with this young man. One under much better circumstances."