The Princess of Wrath

Chapter 5 - Part III: The Phantom Reaver

"Asura!"

The Princess looked abruptly to the right: she had not noticed that Stanislaus had left her side to stare out the window alongside his father and the Councillor. From the expression on their faces, it did not seem like she was the only one surprised at the moment. 

She got up to see what was attracting so much attention to them, temporarily putting aside the dozens of questions that arose in her head as soon as she saw the Alchemist's signature on that paper.

"Look," Stanislaus told her as soon as she stood next to him: they were seeing a frigate that was approaching the docks and being escorted by a series of warships.

Asura was about to ask him what was so eye-catching about that ship if it were not because, by observing more carefully and aided by the shortening of distances between them, she realized its condition: the hull of the ship was in a very deplorable state, with the wooden structure in a state of putrefaction, the metallic part oxidized to the point of acquiring a deep orange color; it was largely encrusted with barnacles, and the veils were tattered and had holes all over.

Out on the street, there were workers and sailors watching the damaged ship with the same curiosity and perplexity as Asura and her companions. But with each passing second, the picture changed in meaning: the warships were actually chasing the wandering ship that was on a collision course with one of the piers.

"No...no, shit, no!" Asura found her voice and yelled with both hands against the windows as she realized that the ship was going directly towards the rocky memorial to Janos. "Why aren't they stopping it!? Do something, you fuckers!"

There was nothing that the chasing ships could do in time, much less the tugs that came after them with their multiple harpoons out of range. Asura was compelled to watch, with much pain and helplessness, as the out-of-control ship violently collided with the memorial, destroying both it and the front of the hull.

All the necklaces that she imprinted with her memories, all the tokens of love from the people... All lost.

"By the Gods," Mr. Belmont whispered when the sound of the crash reached them and had an unaware Royce slam into the office to check on the Princess.

On the other side of the cloud of dust and water, the pier was intact and the ship ran aground above it, inserting several meters of it inside the hull.

"FUCK!" In a fit of anger, Asura slammed her fists against the windows and the glass shattered negligibly but making the four men around her jump. "MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Before anyone could react or say something, she shoved Stanislaus out of the way and ran down the hall. She felt blood inside her mouth and the stinging pain of cuts on the edge of her hands but it mattered little to her compared thanks to the fury that was clouding her reasoning.

"Lady Asura, please stop!" Royce was yelling behind her, trying to stop her only with his voice. Impossible. The security guards at the entrance to the research complex could not stop her; much less was he going to be able to do it.

She ran down the street to the crowd of people gathered a block away from the pier, where the naval military had already made a perimeter. After pushing her way through and receiving insults of all kinds, her path was finally blocked by a soldier armed with a musket.

"Stop right there, madam! Back off right now!" the soldier, a young-looking woman whose eyes could barely be seen behind the full-helmet she was wearing, threatened Asura with the bayonet of her firearm. Royce and Stanislaus came to her side and were also threatened by the military.