Ellie was the first to regain clarity, and she began it by chuckling at nerve-wracking ideas, pinching her cheeks, and checking her head. She couldn't help but feel like an idiot, shake her knees, and fall shortly to the floor. She realized it was real, and she was glad her sense of self was back after a few moments.

  “W-who in the world was that?” Haggard asked as the sole person who didn't get too much of Fain's attention.

  “Madman of a Walker,” Ellie let out, kneeling on the deck.

  “A stranger... Lunatic. Assembly is full of them, I bet.” William said in an icy tone, trying to be calm but failing. He had a mild curiosity about the painful reality and hoped to know what had happened or what meaning it had. It was clearly Walker's Skill or a concept that was absolutely out of this world.

  He was also sure it was a useless worry, as he couldn't do anything about it.

  He felt less and less afraid as time passed without that man on the deck, eyeing him, or just existing.

  More emotions lingered like an erupting volcano that was unable to breathe, though only when that man drew closer did the eruption become much more imminent. He was like a star worth admiring. William would have no problem with looking if his emotions and hands were even half as calm as they should be.

  He was still on the ground, clutching his right hand, which had become quite strained and bloodied. The internal waves were like throbbing knots of millions of threads, and by this point, his skin had reclaimed some peace, but his muscles and joints were worse.

  Blood remained, cracks healed, and anything about his crimson itched. William moaned when loudness ceased to exist, and his mind felt at ease.

  Like Ellie, he needed to calm down a lot.

  “Uncle, let's get out of here. I don't want to stay here any longer,” Ellie muttered and begged him like never before in her life.

  “R-right...” Haggard shook his head and found his legs workable.

  Celeste glanced at her vial on top of her open palm. Then, she glared at Assembly Island, at that distant top, before looking at the stars and the moon above it.

  She had no words to say, let alone a judgment. It was another reminder that people were not simple and that faces and actions didn't always make sense to her, even when she tried her best.

  Slowly, the boat's journey turned back to where it started.

  ***

  On top of the Assembly Island.

  Alan Fain was glad over his nap in the ocean, landing, smiling, and letting nothing obscure his path. Sizing the moon, stars, and the boat below, or that little, wicked girl who looked at him, he enjoyed everything. Then, he sat cross-legged on the peak of this place and waited.

  Gazing forth yielded further wonders of men and sky, ocean, or further lands, and many things beyond it. The Federation protruded wide or bare for his eyes of silver and gold that seemed to shift and flicker from time to time.

  Then, he began to sing in strange rhyme with words that weren't entirely fit or good for a song. “A new starlight is here yet again. With a flicker that has yet to shine, it acts for time, and choice comes with character, yet the Ego refuses to die. It grows. It will falter or die. The end is up to the lie.”

  Afterward, he put his fingers up into the sky and snapped them shut as he seized no star in his palm. A word soon followed.

  “Butler.”

  A moment followed the second until a gust of wind and dark Vectors cruised through the ground, and a person stood behind him, all black and straight like a blade.

  “Master called?” a lady in pitch-black clothes said, bowing politely and almost kneeling as ritualistic black snakes of Vectors circled around her.

  “I wonder about something.”

  “Master is wondering about a lot of things these days. The past month has been hectic, so many wonder why you have remained in the Federation for so long. Is it because of the Sea that you have retrieved and decided to gift to this land out of nothing but principle, luck, and vision of that mission? They would have lost it, Master. They don't know that, or are they trustful of the one called Dreadus?”

  Once again, she was talking and asking way too many questions, but Fain didn't hate her for this.

  “They do wonder? Why would they do such thinking?”

  “A sensible wonder, Master. There are moments when those who offer equal support or friendship to the Master. Rank 8 does that to a person a lot, doesn't it? This land is careful, or have you forgotten it?”

  “I don't know. Ask me later.”

  “Who does that, Master?!” The lady said in a shocked, too-fervent voice.

  “I do?”

  “I would dare to say that there is no one besides Master who sees over the horizon and chances of this era!”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Hm.” Fain nodded approvingly, touching his chin, and his pearl perked up. It sizzled in notable delight and flickered in waves of a colorful spectrum beyond human comprehension.

  Swish!

  The lady tensed, noting a finger around her neck, and her Master stood behind her, breathless and way too close. Then, the second finger caressed her lips until he guided her eyes towards the moon, and then... that cruising boat.

  “Master...” Not even a blink happened in that step.

  She could appear as indifferent as she could, but that wouldn't help against this person. Fluster, embarrassment, and excitement swelled her cheeks and aroused her mind because this was not normal.

  The touch of her Master wasn't what she could imagine, as it never happened, so why now? Was it often?! It should be often... for she was taken.

  “I am curious, Rave,” Fain whispered in her ear and still played with her neck and face.

  “Master is always curious. Always.”

  “I know.”

  “Then...”

  “Look...”

  “Where? That... boat? The moon?!” Rave gazed, looked, and got his intentions but not the meaning.

  “I swam and met some folks. Interesting ones, I think, and I forgot it. Then...” he caressed her cheeks next and kept whispering to her while he was still almost naked. “Take it.”

  Waves of his touch grazed past her, sunk into her head, pressured her mind, and turned her eyes silver. Then, she shivered, almost falling to her knees, and started to mumble a bunch of nonsense.

  “Examination is in a little while, Raven. The Forced Awakening is important and good. Would you inform me of a youth with an interesting soul and Ego?”

  “I can't watch the soul, master,” She said coldly and stopped shivering. “But I see now. I see.”

  “Right? It's fun.” Fain's finger crossed her cheek and moved downwards. There was no special reason for finding bones, soft skin, or whatever else, but it was fine to dwell deeper.

  “Right-hand Emblem. Crimson. Plenty of other reasons. There was also an interesting girl whom I met once. No dog in sight, unfortunately. Shame. I think it is an unexpected variable, wouldn't you say?”

  Rave shuddered upon that memory. Then, she growled and began to convulse. “No... No! It is eating me. No! M-master... That thing.... that...”

  Touching her cheek, he could only toss her to the ground and close her eyes by gouging them out.

  “I know. It tastes. It wants to feel. Everyone does that: me or you. Please inform me and work privately on this matter, as that's given the nature of the situation. No words to the other Parties. The true party is yet to start.”

  “I will inform Master.” Rave asserted, blinded but still watchful, and her arousal intensified so suddenly that her anticipated moment came. The touch of her Master left her, and she was all alone, remembered, and remembering.

  Rave crawled on the roof and held a simple goal in mind. Those youths weren't an issue. That memory crawled to her like a gratifying reality that ate her soul, and it reminded her of what was possible. It wasn't nice in the slightest, but it wasn't as if her Master was ever a nice person.

  Shivering, she remembered her dignity and Butler's status. She would finish it, through death and blood, to the bitter end of her life, and nothing would stop her. That was her goal. A gust of wind pushed her black hair, leaving her eyes empty.

  There were pretty starry sights beyond Assembly Island that day, and it was a perfect, still, silent night. Rave disappeared, as she too had places to visit.

  The Principal had them too.

  ***

  Down below, a single boat on the horizon was moving quickly in its tactical withdrawal. It seized the motion, waves, and fuel when the four people on board had various confusing beliefs and ideas. There was less panic and more disjointed fatigue, for they were taken by that man.

  William and Ellie sat beside each other. Ellie took care of his right arm, which calmed down. There was an emergency healing kit onboard, consisting of pure alcohol, bandages, and medicines manufactured by the Association, and she was able to handle them.

  They weren't speaking to each other. Even Celeste was wobbling in frowns on the ground, thinking over this entire situation over and over again. It couldn't remain like this for too long, and the roofed deck was not silent, and the waves, or the engine, were loud.

  Haggard looked at them from time to time, unsure what to even think, let alone what to say. That's why he sped up the boat and knew that forgetting that man's potential origin was for the best. Anyone from Assembly Island was no simple person.

  Thinking about them was curious. Seeing them was not. Yet, when he had watched him, it wasn't pleasing, even if it wasn't dangerous. They were heroes of this land... Not horrors.

  That playful smirk of that man left him weak and silent for a long time. He couldn't even imagine the thoughts or power behind such a person, who looked human yet not at the same time.

  Coming onto the shore, the boat suddenly wavered, and everyone on board tumbled around as if they had hit a boulder. But the boat was safe. It just wavered before calming down, swaying gently from left to right.

  “What is it this time around?! Did a freaking Rifts spread and tossed a Dark on us?” Haggard shouted.

  Lo and behold, it was almost exactly that. At the back of the boat, close to the pair of engines, Hound growled, looking at least ten feet tall, and his spiked fur danced in darkening flames. Then, there were those blazing eyes, paws, and he rest of his smearing, dangerous body and fur.

  He landed on the boat successfully, which was good. It would never want to miss or swim, and so this jump was a gamble, yet it felt personal and necessary.

  Yet when he bent, glancing with his big head into the roofed deck, he had never felt better seeing Celeste in one piece.

  “Hound!?” Celeste said from the ground, and everyone else could not think of anything to say.

  Ellie hugged William without even thinking. He didn't either when he saw that beast, which gave him a weird look.

  Hound snorted dark flames that dispersed in a puff of smoke, and bowed down, shaking the whole boat again, and its tail swirled in chaotic storms.

  This time, Haggard almost fainted because the air changed, and the boat started to move against his wishes.

  “Sit...” Celeste demanded as she got to her feet and got her clothes from his mouth. Thankfully, they were in one piece and not charred to dust. It was a work in progress, unfortunately.

  Hound's control and numerous charred sets were costs that she could swallow, but not with her original piece. It was the same as Dreadus, who had to pay for her clothes after every failed attempt.

  It was a wonder why even Celeste thought of it that way. It was just clothes, and why give them to such a nasty mouth, or think of those credits? Dreadus didn't get it.

  Getting smaller, Hound barked and jumped onto her lap, where he stayed thanks to her arms. “Thanks. Good boy.” She cheered and cherished her soft robes and the sharp, heavy thing.

  “Could today get any worse?” William mumbled and pushed Ellie back to the sofa, where she stayed in silence.

  Without much ado, the boat returned to its rightful place after Haggard cried and sped for the sake of his life. Oh, how much he regretted accepting this shitty offer; it would make any of his peers laugh.

  Ellie still had William's hat on her head and kept it on.

  “We are back,” Haggard eventually said in the dock.

  Seeing his four passengers, it was twice as many as before this whole trip started. He forced them out and hoped they would never come back.