A Distant Reverie

Chapter 57

When Marine turned ten, she realized the world was cold and unjust.

When Marine turned eleven, she witnessed the full extremes of human depravity.

At a young tender age, she lost everything, and experienced more despair than what an average person could find in a single lifetime.

And yet because she lost everything and saw everything, she feared nothing.

That tragic insight was the foundation of the person who would later become the fearless and ferocious leader of the Houshou Pirates. The blinding symbol of a crew of marauding pirates infamous for their cruelty, boldness, and above all, their sheer audacity in the face of the world's powers.

In her world, the name Marine Houshou was synonymous with daring and ruthlessness.

But even the renown Marine Houshou was only human.

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Marine's mind blanked. Her eyes were disoriented. Her head rumbled, her thoughts dissociated and detached from the insanity unfolding around her. Her knees suddenly refused to hold her weight. They buckled; she caved, kneeling on the ground. Her guts churned, stirring uncomfortably with an unnerving emptiness.

What the hell is wrong with me?

It took a moment for her to figure it out.

Oh.

I'm terrified.

Towering before her was a monstrosity beyond her comprehension. The eldritch creature already stood over fifteen feet tall, still growing, nearly reaching the ceiling of the subterranean chamber. Its shape was vaguely humanoid—the only remnants of what used to be the body of the Grandmaster, now twisted and malformed into an unholy miscreation. Globular masses of flesh pulsated from its body, beating asynchronously, as if each limb or part had a heart of its own. Large eyeballs sprouted along the monster's body where they weren't supposed to be. They flickered and darted about with an unnerving intensity, scanning the vicinity with apparent intelligent intent.

Marine could only gawk at the abomination. Her mind scrambled to understand what she was looking at, teetering on the brink of insanity.

Nothing in her tumultuous life could have prepared to deal with this.

"Marine."

She felt a weak tug on her sleeves. It was Suisei. The young lady managed to rejoin the legionnaires amidst the chaos. Her eyes were wide, watering, trembling in distress. The hands that grabbed her were shaking out of control.

"W-What do we do?" she whimpered, just loud enough to be heard over the calamity.

What do we do?

Marine blinked.

You're asking me?

She realized the entirety of the legionnaires were staring at her. Each of them frozen, aghast, on the precipice of madness. Just a single spontaneous movement—a scream, a gasp, a step back from this hell, and all of them would have descended into hysteria. But miraculously, everyone held onto their nerves, waiting. They were waiting for an order.

Stop it.

Stop looking at me.

I don't have an answer for this!

They were stuck inside this cavernous chamber. Their exit was cut off. A sea of boiling magma stood to their left. Kersen was down. Vesper was incapacitated. All they had left were rifles and swords to fight against the eldritch being towering before them.