Abyss

Chapter 1: Despair

The whispers of a silence deep and ephemeral wash over me. Like a nightmare in which one falls and falls and falls ad aeternum; yet the embrace of the quietude that surrounds me lulls me into a gentle reverie.

"Captain!"

A voice? I wonder where it comes from. I wonder where it is I am.

"CAPTAIN!"

I jerk awake. A sharp, nauseating smell of dried blood assaults my senses. The world before my eyes appears to be flowing a million miles a second.

"Captain! Are ye okay?!"

A man, scruffy and scrawny, stands over me. A panicked stare.

"Where are we?"

"Whe— what do ye mean?!"

"I mean, where are we, right now?"

The pale man's accent was thick, and it took me all the mental strength I could muster to decipher the curses he spewed.

"Captain, 'tis ain't no time to be lollygaggin'. Did ye hit yer head?"

"Perhaps."

"Per—"

Right before he opened his mouth to utter his retort, a sight so utterly horrifying caught my eye. A two thousand feet tall wave rose from the horizon. The ground beneath me began to sway, left and right and left again.

The man extended a helping hand and I received it. He gestured me toward cover with a slight nod. As I walked, I felt a strange encumbrance in my gait. It was then that I first realized where I truly was. My mind's eye felt a sudden sense of clarity and clairvoyance, and the scenery around me painted itself in distinct hues of black and grey. The rickety sounds of wood against wood, the rattling of the sails against the unceasing winds, the screams of those that witnessed their impending doom.

"CAPTAIN! IN 'ERE!"

The man was beckoning me from below deck. And though I wished to absorb more of my bleak surroundings, I complied and tramped down the blackened steps.

"—without the Captain, we have no choice."

"Shut ye yappers, the Captain lives!"

A short man with one eye hidden behind an eyepatch rushed up to me and embraced me. Another in the distance sighed.

"Kaptein, der iz no hope für zurvival. Ve made it zu da Pazifik. Few miles away früm ze Chinees vaters."

"Chinese...?"

He gestured to a map that lay across the wooden table. The map appeared discolored and terribly inaccurate, but the outline that demarcated the Chinese mainland was clear as day.

A bellowing shriek like that of a dying whale froze us all in place.

"Ik wist het... Ik wist het... I WARNED YOU ALLE! Zees vaters hold a power zo untamable... V-Ve should hab ne'er opened zat cursed box!"

The man who had guided me to this place rushed to the port hole and opened the shutter. The next moment, his brain lay scattered across the room. The charred stench of his pistol's smoke mingled with that of rusted iron. Despair pervaded the room, and one by one the men around me began to take their own lives.

"Captain."

A hand on my right shoulder brought me back to my senses, and I realized I had begun to cry.

"Come. Let me show you."

The man's voice contained no accent like the rest, and I could understand him clearly. I followed him willingly, or perhaps unwittingly. Did I have a choice either way?

He stopped at a room. The room was smeared with blood.

"That is where it began. The treasure of Blackbeard. The Devil's Haul. Do you wish to open it?"

A chill ran down my spine.

He smiled. "You have gotten so weak, Captain. How will you protect us against the mighty Yinglong with such a cowardly demeanor?"

He walked over to the chest calmly, taking his time to avoid the smears of blood from tarnishing his coat. He unfastened the tightened rope with ease. Without hesitation, he opened the Devil's chest, and a bright light unleashed from within. The next moment, the man was gone.

Tremors began—first slow, then gradually intensifying into a frightening quake.

"K-KAPTEIN!!"

I ran back to the map room. A few men still stood there, including the Dutchman.

"K-Kaptein...l-look."

I took a deep breath and walked up to the port hole.

The haunting Leviathan whose shriek drove the men of this vessel to madness. The source of their despair. It rose from the brackish waters like the coiled serpent of Eden. Wings like birds of prey, horns of Lucifer himself, a single motion of its gargantuan being bemoaned horror in my heart and soul. I wished so desperately to be able to return back from whence I came.

"No Kaptein! Look there!"

The Dutchman startled me and pointed towards silhouettes of men that seemed to be approaching from the West. Men... no... those are not men... those are—

A flash of lightning whirred across the skies. The next moment, the titanic monstrosity screeched in agony.

I looked to the right, and a massive arrow had lodged itself into the dragon's chest.

One of the giants charged forth on a massive stallion and sliced off one of the beast's wings. Thunder burst forth from within the monster's mouth, but the giant was far too nimble. He served as merely a distraction, for as he circled the beast, another giant approached. Despite having a limp, his speed was unmatched. Grabbing onto the monster's tail, he anchored his feet deep into the Pacific seabed, swirling with a motion of a thousand wheels.

Yinglong was launched at tremendous speeds to the West. In a moment of terror, I recalled the map. West was where China lay. West was where the cities lay. One of the titans charged at unimaginable speeds, outrunning the gargantuan serpent. He caught onto its head and threw it into the ocean.

"Enough, Manabharana." A voice thundered. "You will let it escape. Leave the Makara to me."

Heavy footsteps caused riptides to form within the open sea. The giant was twice the size of the rest. He held onto the dragon's neck, and with a loud wail, its head was ripped right off of its body. The next moment, the giants were gone.

I clamber up the wet stairs and open the hatch that leads outside. The storm continues to rage. Why?

I turn around.

The massive wave of the horizon now stood towering above me.