章 21: Sea Monster
"MANN THE FUCKING SAILS, YOU FLACCID PECKERS!" The ship's Captain roared to his crew.
Rafel could almost feel the spittle spray of the man's mouth from where he stood at the helm of the NEPOLITA, his favorite frigate. Her awning was tight and slender, just the way he liked.
The Captain was a large man with the signature eye patch. He truly had one eye. An ex-Pirate—because Rafel seldom employed the heroes into his fold. He didn't trust the kind of man without some villainy to boast of.
The Captain currently clutched his red hat under the crook of his muscly left arm. With his right, he pointed and barked. The reason he shouted and cussed was because they had been caught in a storm. Apparently, the north wind had blown in sooner than expected.
While the man was roaring, he dutifully kept his hat under his arm lest the whipping wind pluck it out and send it sailing into the cold waters about.
"Where's the compass, wiener? Give me the fecking compass?" He yelled to his first attendant, standing nearby.
As they struggled in just which direction the wind was taking the ship, Rafel looked up from his place by the secure railing to the immense clouds above.
The skies were cold and black, full of dense lightning nimbus. It loomed over them like the fist of an angry Titan. Rafel should know. He was one—that is if he ever chose to transform into his Behemoth form. His original demon form.
The great stern of NEPOLITA was being tossed like a child's toy amongst these endless waters. She was steered by invisible hands of a sea goddess.
It was going to rain. Hard.
And they were caught in it. No backing out now.
Rafel hoped it was only the rain that loomed in the rapidly encroaching darkness, not for his sake, but that of his ship's mortal captain and crew.
Just few seconds of him thinking this, the sky broke apart like a burst barrel. The heavens were rent asunder and shattering discs of icy rain came rushing down. Slanting pellets collided like pebbles with the deck of the ship. Rafel stood in it, unbothered, as the host of his crew scampered about for dear life.
Corazón soon appeared at his side, a large umbrella unfolded and held over the both of them. She kept it from being torn apart by the gale with the force of her magic. The sea's rage was no contest for dark sorcery.
Rafel stood in silence with her for sometime as the tempest dragged the ship far out from the way that led home to Eldoria. The Captain's cussing was futile against the sharp frosty winds. But everything really went up a notch, when one of the crew lads lifted his watery eyes up to the ocean, gazing northward. His pale skin was littered with goosebumps as he pointed out, stricken in equal parts horror and cold.
"W—What is that? At sea?!" He yelled.
His frantic voice drew everyone's attention to him. And the skittering dozen men struggling to keep the ship from capsizing paused in their hustle to mill around the young man.
"What ails ye, boyo?" The Ship's Captain glared with his blonde hair stuck to his face.
"There!" The boy pointed again. "In the waves. Monstro Magnificus!" He added in his native dialect.
All aboard NEPOLITA stared out as one, Rafel included. Immediately, swears, curses, and gasps filled the rain. Fear, seeping out more than any other emotion.
"Good gods!"
"Dear Heavens!"
"Gaia's tits!"
"Fucking Hell!"
"What the shit is that?"
Rafel stared along with the stupefied attendants of his ship, NEPOLITA, to the colossal rolling mass of what appeared to be a serpent's tail, rushing in circles through the water beyond like a shark rounding its prey. It was a sea serpent. A gigantic python hidden partly underwater by the high cold waves.
Rafel couldn't see the end of it from their short distance away. But the extent of its circling tail was enough to tell him that he was dealing with a megalodon of the ocean.
A sea monster. And the mysterious thing it circled got clear in the rainy fog as the ship was dragged closer to it by the errant gale. Rafel began to doubt the appearance of a storm being coincidental.
His red-caped Captain breathed clouds of frost in the artic aquatic temperatures, struggling to stay steadfast in his soaked boots while his crew of pale men shivered by the posts they clung to, dehydrated by the sea water but forcefully swallowing more gulps of it. Rafel couldn't afford to pity them as they neared the massive water hole which the anaconda's swirling had deepened in the sea.
It gaped like a great watery abyss, swirling erratically, pulsing with strange dark mana, and pulling every sorry thing great and small into the open mouth to the deep.
The mighty ship was little more than a paltry contraption against the magnetic force of it.
Rafel beheld sullenly in the tempest as his dear favorite, NEPOLITA, gravitated to the frightful hole in the sea. The rushing wind threw pebbles of ice at them as the hull collided with other fragments of similar frigates, destroyed into nothing but remnant planks and floating bloated blue bodies.
All around them in the misty waterscape, great cyclones tunneled the air, reaching up to the sky in their ferocity.
The ship headed straight for the plunging waterfall, into a trench that was like the sky god had reached down to punch a hole in the ocean.
[🎶 Bismarck – SABATON.]
Just as Rafel was contemplating just how many of his crew he could save by teleporting away with his [Shadow Self] ability, for he knew the ship was already lost, the sea serpent seemed to notice them. Seeing this new band come to their Waterloo in its lair, the monster stopped circling the thing at the center and began slithering with rushing speed toward them.
Rafel stared forward, wanting to know what mystery toy had such a great horror so occupied.
He found the thing in the massive liquid crater to be a small dinghy made completely out of ice. Blue magic runes of an underwater faction shimmered around the structure, keeping it afloat in the storm.
A young woman sat in the dingy, her long blue hair wet and glued on her but glowing with the mana her system was using at the moment.
This far out at sea, only the mermaids survived the great pressure of the deep.
Sure enough, Rafel saw her tail sparkle and swish in the hail. It was elegant, of grand scales, more beautiful and desirable than that of a dragon. Certainly more lovely than that of Bloody Mary. Whew! Seeing the mermaid cling to her small pad for survival, Rafel got why the sea serpent was circling her.
This creature was ethereal. As ancient as the demon and celestial race. They were the first Lords of the earthly void. A mermaid's blood was an ambrosia with [Regeneration] qualities. Her scales were an [Epic] battle armor on the open market. And in the deathly black market, mermaid or merman tails were sold for a hefty sum as those mummified on stakes were rumored to attract riches.
And who didn't want to be rich?
Everything about the water tribes made them coveted. And so merfolk were now an endangered species in Eldoria.
Since his arrival on the mortal realm, this was the first Rafel saw of one. And she was on the verge of being eaten alive by a sea python.
"Ay! Ay-ay!" Rafel sucked in his teeth. "Isn't she lucky we showed up?"
The sea monster was barreling straight for them. The ship's hull vibrated with the incoming assault. Only Rafel, and Cora beside him stood on the wet deck like it was sunny out. Cora's magic had kept out the winds and hail. Rafel stood dry as hay under the rolling skies.
"Yes, my Lord. It would seem so. Though we are the unlucky ones." Cora replied.
Rafel smiled grimly. "No, we aren't, Corazón. The men with the shriveled balls behind are. You think this sea monster would require a sacrifice?"
BOOM!
THRAAAAAC!
The water serpent collided with the hull of the NEPOLITA, and Cora didn't get her chance to reply immediately as the entire ship rocked from stern to sail. The banners came crashing down, staking the poor lads squirming on the deck into the hard wood. Blood gushed out across the deck.
Desperate for survival, many men turned to rush down into the cabins at the lower level. But the serpent's body had crashed a giant hole into the ship's wooden side. Cold water flooded the hull.
NEPOLITA would be submerged in seconds.
"MY LORD GRACE! HELP US! We are but mortal men. Don't just stand there! Do something, please!"
It was the Ship's Captain, eyes wild and crazy at the beam jutting out from a young man's open mouth. His severed tongue flailed at the end of the stick, dead eyes open and unblinking. He begged Rafel, but seeing not even a backward glance from the Earl, the Captain resigned himself to his fate.
He turned to the gangplank dipping out the edge of the ship and walked to it. He held his red cap solemnly in his hands. His cloak breezed in the frigid winds.
"Ye would never have a taste of me flesh, you sodden sea monster. To hell with ye!"
And then the Captain jumped, surrendering himself to the ocean.
It was just a moment before the sea serpent lunged out of the water, revealing more than it's black corrosive tail this time. Its entire length was hundreds of feet long, extending, twisting, like tentacles on an octopus. As Rafel watched it, he discovered it was actually more of a centipede, with thousands of tiny hairy arms running along its sides.
Waves rushed down its immense slippery body and with the humanoid hands, it plucked the crew not staked or drowned from off the ship's deck, plunging them three at a time into its wide mouth. It gulped, swallowing them whole.
It was then that Cora was finally able to reply Rafel's question earlier.
"Aye, Your Grace. I think the water tribes might have sacrificed to this entity. But Gulpers get greedy. I wouldn't be surprised if it kidnapped the little mermaid over there.
This kind of unholy cross between centipede and anaconda species is what happens when stray dark mana spills into the ocean. Frightful hybrids as such are born of the eerie radiation. Oi Vay! Should we be on our way then, Your Grace?"
Cora tutted as the monster wiped its many arms drenched in human blood. No one was left on the deck save them. It turned with six red eyes on its basilisk head for them.
"No, Corazón." Flames entered Rafel's eyes. "We kill it."
Just as he finished speaking, the monster lunged with its many weird arms for them. Rafel, quick as light, pulled from his Hel pocket dimension one of the [Legendary] silver Shields gifted him by the Headmistress of [C. A. W], Dr. Shetty.
The monster's arms met with the shield in a lancing blow that would send any other man careening across the deck. But not Rafel. He parried off the monster's many reaching hands, pulling Cora into himself until they were both behind the shield.
And then he activated his crimson [Titan Grasp].
It appeared as an infernal giant arm, shooting out of his back to ascend dozens of feet into the slashing rain. In deliberate action, Rafel controlled the large red arm, closing it into a fist. He punched the anaconda in it's snake head.
Four of the six red eyes immediately winked out, blinded by the fury of Rafel's blow.
The serpent screeched out in pain. It turned, hurrying out across the water, trying to dissolve back into the sea. Apparently, it was just learning that it had underestimated Rafel.
"Oh no you don't! Hold this." Rafel said to Cora, pushing the magic shield into her hands.
His [Titan Grasp] retreated into his back. And quickly from the pocket dimension again, Rafel pulled out a saintly arrow and bow, made of the most pure gold. It was ranked [Blessed], and it glowed with angelic white light.
To Cora who stared at him, Rafel seemed to just reach out into thin air, these arcane weapons suddenly appearing in his grasp.
With a great accuracy, Rafel nocked and pulled back the arrow.
Rich golden light began gathering at the tip of it. The bow thrummed with mana, picking up more energy from his own demon core. Rafel let the golden pulse of magic gather until he was shining like a burst of sunlight on the sinking ship. The entire deck of NEPOLITA was bathed in this rare divine essence.
Ten seconds later, he let loose. And the arrow flew straight and blinding as lightning, brightening the gray clouds above as the streak dove directly for the retreating head of the sea monster.
The golden streal struck the serpent's face just as it turned to the onslaught, right between the remnant eyes. Its entire head immediately exploded.
Bloody bits of meat and bone went flying everywhere, landing with splashes into the sea.
The colossal headless body crashed into the water with so much force that it rose a wave.
Cora held up her hand, whispering magic.
"Up from the flame of Hel, a voice doth a dragon fell. As a sinner of a heart without repent, burn with infernal light this accursed serpent!"
The body of the sea monster instantly lit ablaze in the water. The fires raged into the rain, until the surface of the ocean was a steam of charring flesh. She had summoned [Hellfire], the kind many waters could not quench.
Cora and Rafel watched the sea snake burn until there was nothing left. Rafel put away his quiver and shield as Cora steered the loose plank of the destroyed ship they were floating on to the dinghy of the mermaid.
The hole in the sea was gone. The skies had begun to brighten. The rain had stopped. To any ship that would pass in a few hours, it was like chaos had never seen the horizon, except for the hundreds of frozen bodies and the full capsized frigate of NEPOLITA slowly making their way to the dark bed of the ocean.
"Who are you?" Rafel spoke to the mermaid without preamble.
"Someone who owes you her life," was all the blue-haired woman replied. Before she turned and hopped into the calm waters, her tail sparkling like a beacon as she swum away.
"A thank you would suffice!" Cora yelled to the disappearing tail.
Rafel laughed, pulling Cora to him on the plank. He spoke softly into her neck.
"Forget it, love. I like the mystery there. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of her. Come, Corazón! We must be heading back before the sky spills enough light to hinder our travel."
In the last vestiges of the stormy night, Cora embraced Rafel, tighter than was needed as he equipped his [Shadow Self]. The two vanished from the plank in a gust of darkness as Rafel teleported them right into one of the many dark corners behind a tasteful curtain of his bedchamber.
Their 'travel' from the deep northern marina of the vast Eldorian sea to Emberfall had taken less than a second.
Rafel released Cora and undressed for bed.
Admittedly, he was tired. Moving from a sumptuous office fuck to battling a sea monster in a storm was one hell of a day. His eyes were quick to close on the bed. And sometime during the night, he heard the door to his room creak open and the patter of small feet on his floorboards.
He smelled Corazón and Aya Naamah reach his bedside.
Quietly, they climbed in.
Rafel was sure they prayed he wouldn't wake up as they spooned him from both ends. But he was awake alright. However, he was glad for the bundles of female warmth filling his hands. And so he let them stay. Just for one night, he persuaded himself.
It was daylight behind his shut crimson drapes as Rafel pulled the blanket over himself and the two women. He smelled the scent of succulent plucked apples and cold misty snow until his infernal mind let of all battles and depravity.
章 22: The Bone Huntress
[🎶 Monster 2.0 – Jacob Banks ft. WESTSIDE BOOGIE.]
A FULL WEEK passed in Emberfall since Rafel sent Ravenna de Vries by ship to the Isle of Corynthia to be schooled in the kingdom's elite Academy for Witches. He spent most of his days in the Manor's study, acquainting himself with the maps of the Eldorian realm—vast as it was. His nights he spent in bed, recuperating from the battles of the last moon.
Just a month on the mortal realm, and Rafel had fought in a war, flown on Griffins, killed a Sphinx, exploded the Lord of Monsters, and rescued a mermaid. He loved these little adventures. Eldoria provided a prime magical atmosphere where all factions thrived.
He loved fighting alongside his beautiful sidekicks. He had a horned Succubus. A Dark Witch bonded to a goddess of the Underworld. And a Fey Queen. He had successfully leved up to [Demon Anointer]. Thus, Rafel felt a stay-at-home moment was well deserved.
Plus, it was Fall.
The trees thick around the Emberfall Estate were reddened by flame leaves that littered the grounds. His pet Hellhounds, three large disguised as Rottweilers, happily bounded everytime during the windy evenings. The gamekeeper fairies bonded to Rafel's lordship always struggled with their leash.
It was one of such evenings. And Rafel sat in front of the double windows overlooking the lake behind the Manor, in a rocking bamboo chair. Pelicans waddled in the still blue water as he picked up reading glasses from the small cushion to the side.
He could smell the aroma of roasting mutton coming from the massive kitchen a storey below.
Cora's sultry voice accompanied the chefs, hurrying them along so dinner would be ready on time, "Blu, get to mixing the tomato paste. Hope the onions are well ringed? Don't let them out the pan until they are good fried and golden. Yinhua, let the potatoes steam some more. Yes, I know this is your domain. But I'm the taster here! Antonio, I think the oven needs a little more heat. His Grace likes his meat browned and soft.
Yvonne, keep the mayonnaise sparingly over the salad. We don't need a case of diarrhea, thank you. So...I think that's all, people. Good job everybody!"
Rafel's hellborn perception made it seem like he was right there in the room with them. Cora's voice was clear right down to the pitch. He could almost see his Chamberlain in her voguish breeches, intimidating the poor cooks with the attractiveness of her blue eyes and bleach-white hair.
He smiled into the silence of the study, adjusting his reading glasses.
Ravenna's first letter from boarding school had arrived today.
Rafel would sooner offer himself to a Dragon's breath than admit it, but he missed her. She was the life of the party around her. Aya Naamah tried to spice up the broodiness himself and Cora were comfortable with, but she wasn't the kind of perky little creature like his Little Raven.
If she hadn't sucked his cock impromptu, Rafel would have let her stay.
"Much ado 'bout nothin'!" Rafel whispered to himself.
He picked up her letter, unfolding it. The seal was a luxuriant primrose. It spoke of the trendy taste of her school. Rafel broke it and began reading. The room was bright enough with oil lamps and sunlight. Ravenna's handwriting was like she wrote with a fiend's finger.
It was scraggly, but legible. Beautifully goth.
Her letters were like a drawing, figures of tiny creatures running across the paper scroll.
She wrote thus,
[Greetings, Your Grace!
—Shit. Who am I kidding? Good Evening, Lord BlüdThïrste. How are you faring these days? Is it also Fall there at Emberfall? Here on the isle, it is. The leaves little the school grounds beautifully and we get a heavenly sight of migrating doves each morning.
I have met and made two friends, Percival and Brunhilda. You'd like Percival. He's your kind of man. A villain.
He too ruthlessly charms all the females he meets.
I am eternally grateful for the chance you've given me among these lot. Words cannot describe it. You know I mean it. Coming up from fuck all, being among these rich kids would make my father proud. He'd probably shit his pants at the sight of my uniform.
They serve us whole turkey for supper. Did you know that?
The oxtail stew is nearly better than Cora's steak deluge—please don't tell her I said that.
Everyone here is entitled. You'd kill at least ten each day if you were here. A bunch of little shits, gossiping in the robust dark corridors or wanking off behind closed doors. And sometimes not. The only thing Brunhilda seems to love above studying the history of past Fey Kings and warrior Queens is being an indifferent voyeur to the teenage boys jerking it in their socks.
She says they secretly watch us in the showers, so it's only fair. I believe her.
Brunhilda's mother is Countess Penderghast. I believe you know her. Percival's parents are the Queen's immediate cousins. And no, I do not kid you! They are half siblings. Pure blood Fae. It makes Percival hot cake among the hellcats of the Academy.
I've fallen in love with the Isle of Corynthia. The school is amazing. And for the first time, it doesn't hurt to act my age. Thank you for this, sir. Few people lift their heads in class when my surname is mentioned during roll call. The de Vries legacy is near forgotten. But I hope to revive it soonest.
How is our silver-haired kickboxing champion, Corazón? I miss our catfights—you can tell her this. I trust Aya Naamah is keeping you satisfied down there. I won't ask. I do miss Emberfall. Even C.A.W in its rich misty glory cannot complete.
I miss you guys.]
Rafel paused his reading when the light in the room dimmed a bit. The sun was setting. He casually reached out a hand to bring a glass lamp closer to his reading nook.
"Much better." He leafed through Ravenna's letter again. In his eagerness, his mind conjured up her tiny voice saying the very words to him. Suddenly, she became the imaginary beauty sitting across from him and talking in the quiet Study.
". . .For our Elven History 101 class, we are studying the lore of the Bone Huntress. Have you heard of her? Well, as the Legend goes, Annabelle's mother was a wildling killed by an Elk. Since stags are considered to represent a good hunt, Annabelle's claims were dismissed. No one believed an Elk would intentionally attack and kill a person.
Just like no one believed my father when he said a unicorn horned my mother to death.
These magical creatures are totems of the ancient magical dynasty, we are taught. Stags, and unicorns, and Griffins; they don't hurt humans. Typically. But I'm starting to think there is more. Though I was two years old when it happened, I believe my father.
He was a drunk and a gambler, but never a liar. He couldn't manage it.
My teacher on the subject, an actual elf with pointy ears and long white hair, actually thinks my ardent interest in her lecture is because I love her class.
NOT!
I like her, but damn! I'm here to restore my family's name. So I figure studying the Bone Huntress's lore, at the same time conducting underground investigation with Percival and Hilda is to kill two birds with one stone. As one of her favorites, my elven teacher indulges me.
As the story goes, Annabelle retreated to the Northern woods. And there she hunts the caravans that pass through. Only the little daughters are spared, and she takes them to her eerie cottage deep in the forest. As for the rest of the family, the vanish without a trace. Her armour is said to be the bones of her victims, clanging like bottles down her neck.
Annabelle is an Immortal like you. Rumor is, she haunts the village of Gūndlheim every last moon before winter. Gūndlheim is under your patronage, isn't it?
Anyway, I've got to go now. The bell just chimed for supper, and there's no frickin' way I'm missing the porridge yams and steamed vegetables being served this evening.
My regards to everyone at Emberfall. And. . .I think of that night often, of what would've happened if you hadn't stopped me. Despite what you show to people, Lord BlüdThïrste, you are a good man. And that's not because you didn't fuck me.
Your loyal ward,
Ravenna de Vries.
PS: Headmistress Shetty sends her 'love'. Whatever did you do to that poor woman, Rafel? She's a tigress—just saying."
The letter ended in that sentence. And Rafel found himself turning the paper around for more. There was nothing else. He pored over the part where Ravenna signed her name. The letters were extra gnarly over there.
Your loyal ward? Huh?
Rafel stroked his chin. The Corynthian Academy was making his fiery Little Raven into a Lady after all. But he didn't want her too ladylike. Else the entire island would burn.
This was why Rafel liked having Ravenna around. Conversation flowed freely with her. With just this letter, he knew the basics of how operations ran at the [C.A.W]. This Bone Huntress of a woman though?
Rafel figured it was a shot to check her out. She was an Immortal like him so she'd make a formidable opponent. He could level up besting her in combat. Not to mention, if there was truth to her admission about an Elk murdering her mother, there was a likelihood of it being linked to the murder of Ravenna's mother too, Eleanor de Vries.
It could help with her investigation.
Rafel squeezed the letter in his grasp. When did he go from caring only to ascend ranks to caring about a particular green-eyed lolita?
But he couldn't stop himself.
He was smoothing back the letter when Cora softly walked into the study room. Her blue eyes fell on his reading nook and she blushed. Rafel was one hell of a beautiful man, extra lush with those gold-rimmed glasses framing his amber eyes.
"Your Grace, dinner is served." Cora offered with blooming cheeks.
It was sundown outside. And Rafel took a while to respond. Lifting his gaze up to her, she colored some more as he pulled off the spectacles and rose to his feet.
"Thank you, Corazón. Shall we?" Rafel smiled.
Cora held the door open for him. And as they descended the stairs to the set dining area, Rafel turned to catch Cora staring. He thought nothing of it. His allure astounded even Lilith. Speaking directly into the ice of her irises, Rafel commanded.
"I would need something else of you, love?"
Cora looked to Rafel, enraptured. "Anything for you, Your Grace."
"Percival of the Van Imperia house, parents are cousins of the Queen. Brunhilda Penderghast, her mother's the Countess. Get me everything you can on those two. If they have sinned, Hel would have a record of it. Enquire of the unholy scribes! I want to know where they shit and who they fuck. Everything, Corazón. Everything."
"It shall be done, my Lord." Cora's blue eyes flashed determination.
When Rafel cleared into the wide dining area, Aya Naamah was already seated. She stood at his arrival and bowed. Rafel took the head of the table. Cora sat left of him. Aya took his right. Cora made a small joke and they all laughed. Satisfied with the two beauties surrounding him, Rafel smiled darkly into the candlelit room of a finely set supper.
No one was going to fuck with his Little Raven. Not even the Bone fucking Huntress.
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