The Princess of Wrath

Chapter 5 - Part IV: The Shifting Horror

It was impossible that it was him...but there he was, looking at her with a blank expression. His physical appearance and clothing were the same in every way as she remembered him from the last time she saw him before his departure to the Forbidden Continent, as if for him time had not advanced in the last five years.

Asura wondered if the curse had already started wreaking havoc on her mind, without even once having fully manifested itself. The two options were very clear: that individual was truly Janos, or a perfect impostor.

When she saw her brother turn around to disappear from her view onto the deck, Asura began to run. No soldier, not even Captain Mossman, dared to stop her from boarding one of the warships through a connecting bridge with the pier; they were all visibly confused, looking at each other and slowly lowering their muskets as if the individual they were targeting had disappeared without a trace from their sight.

"No! Wait, Asura!" she heard Stanislaus scream at her and did not see a soldier stopping him from going any further. That was not the case with Royce, lady Fontaine and her team, who followed her closely.

She crossed the deck of the warship to a halt next to a visibly perplexed naval officer who was standing with his firearms up in front of the makeshift bridge connecting both ships. From there, Asura had a perfect view of the shipwreck's deck: apart from being devoid of human life, the wooden floor was completely wet and blackened with moisture. Oddly, there were also dozens of fishing nets with hundreds of rotten fish inside arbitrarily scattered everywhere.

There were no signs of Janos, but there were two possible ways he could have retreated: through the open door towards the dark inside of the upper quarters, or under the two stairs that led to the holds that had not yet been flooded due to the simple fact that the pier itself was preventing the front part of the ship from sinking.

"Where did he go?" she asked the officer next to her.

"I don't know! One second he was there, but when he turned around he...he just vanished!"

"Princess Asura!" before she could continue to question the officer, Justine Fontaine called out her name, visibly upset and imposing. Asura was intimidated by the veteran and her augmented metal arms when she stood in front of her, looking at her as if she were a child who committed mischief. Even Royce did not seem to have the courage to face her and ask him to take a safe distance from her. "You're interfering with my operation! Ask your knight to escort you to safety and let me do my job!"

"N-no...No!" she exclaimed, fighting against anxiety and the intimidating cold eyes of the woman. Fear before an authority inferior to her could not be a reason to prevent her from reuniting, even if it sounded completely absurd, with her older brother. "I'm going with you, Fontaine. If by any chance he's my brother, I have the right to be there."

"Is that an order?" Asura nodded, making the Shield Saint even more irritated than she already was. "I can't fucking believe it... Well, do you have a dagger or something to give to her, knight?"

"Yes, ma'am. It's alright with you, my lady?" Royce pulled out the combat knife sheathed in his belt and offered it to her with an inherent hope plastered in his face. Obviously he knew about what happened with her and her brief training regime when she was younger.

"I...I can't..."

She tried. She truly did. But the trauma was still a powerful invisible force: as soon as her hand reached out to the black handle, it began to shake and stood against that part of Asura's brain that demanded her to take it.