Chapter 24: 22 : The First Wave of the Sea Witch

The night had been nice for the priests of Scylla. With plenty of food and drink, they cast their usual reservation for the yearly ritual commemorating the enshrinement of their goddess. They planned to drink and party until morning and send a boat filled with gifts and offerings at sea when morning came. But it was now impossible as their ritual offering was stuck in the sand with its content spilled because the sea retracted far away. They lamented their fate thinking it was divine retribution and that their goddess was angry at them. In desperation, one of them even went as far as running after the sea but fell on a slippery rock and broke his ankle.

Some laughed while others were worried and tried to help the wounded man. They slowly approached their friend trying not to fall, but the man had fallen into a hole, making it difficult to rescue him. They stumbled back and forth in their drunken stupor to try and find sticks or ropes able to reach the wounded but to no avail, nothing was long enough.

They tried to ask for help and to their surprise, unknown footsteps came their way which gave them hope. They begged for help, not able to see that well as some clouds hid the moon. Suddenly, the drunkards’ voices were cut short. Then, as the cloud cleared up, the man still stuck inside the hole, upon looking up, was struck by fear, and let out a bloodcurdling scream before he was also silenced…

Those who stayed behind to keep drinking were alerted by the screams of their friends but when they tried to get up to investigate, a screech barreled from the distant sea and violently pushed them to the ground. They attempted to get up, but most of their bodies didn’t respond. A few managed to free themselves, but most looked helpless as abominations captured them with various kinds of man catchers. What captured them looked like crudely expended fish which had human limbs attached to them. They were almost like failed experiments with empty eyes and limbs not working correctly.

The mutated monstrosities, pleased with their prizes, tied the captured priest above strange sea urchins with multiple arms for legs which they used to stabilize themselves over the slippery rocks. Their bodies were impaled in parts as the hard spiky exterior of those mounts could soften or harden at will to secure anything riding them. They looked adorable playing in small puddles with one another, if it wasn’t for the screaming or dead people on their backs…When a group of five was each mounted with a captured priest, they headed outside the gulf to where the sea had escaped to.

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Slowly, the village was gaining a new life blossoming with panic and confusion. Its layout was simple; when looking at a map with the sea at the bottom and the main entrance at the top, three parts could be identified. The left was where the poor lived; the center was where most trades took place; The right was where the rich lived. Both wings were jammed between a flush forest of warm reddish leaves which had hosted a few killing squads of the strange invasive sea monsters. They waited patiently until their lord called for them. When the scream came from the sea, they rose to arms and attacked both residential districts at the same time. Those monsters intended to spearhead toward the village’s exits and hold their position until their main battalion could collapse from the escaping villagers’ backside and capture as many as they could. It was crude, simple, and had many flaws but they expected that many would be able to flee.

Their lord, their master, their god: Scylla, a vengeful god of the sea born from the village’s belief and fear of the sea…

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Of a vermillion-cerulean union with bands of silver and crystal encrusted; the Lord painted the canvas which crowns all life in this bond’s color for every night henceforth. But only until they may learn and create something of their own in the image of this distant sky. Yet nary they breathe a blossom of lavender. The first, blessed for his might, a name fit for kings was gifted to him; the second, her mind instilled with greater wisdom, her name followed the brightest star; the third, with a heart of gold, the loveliest flower the parents could find became his name.

For many waning moons, nothing more than sorrow came from the union. Red darkening sky overlooking tired and empty arms begging for a young bud of buddleias became the usual as empty words of flourishing, neither boon nor curse, were thrown to the family without a care as to wonder about the cause of this now impotent couple: simple poverty and starvation…But soon, came a wind of hope as the husband, peddling his father’s arts, found great success in distant towns.

The family’s life returned to them as they regained strength yet, the youngest remained weak and became a burden. This great hospice didn’t last long as a common hoodlum lusted for the merchant coins. This thief would later use them, a bloody dagger hiding in his pants, to purchase a simple hour of joy with a boring prostitute.

The father’s body was sent to the sea to let it claim his soul so that he might still protect his family from the calm deep; the news of his wife being pregnant with his fourth kid would never reach him.

Poverty haunted them once more and the mother as well as the two oldest were forced to work to survive. The mother bought a small boat and a few nets in the hope to catch fish. But not even driftwood dared enter her nets while the only catch she fished were weak and dying: the fish took pity on her, said most people. It was the eldest who earned the most and helped the family survive as he relied on a simple ax and his strong body to lumber the equivalent of five lumberjacks’ output by himself. The girl used her tactical mind to lure any fool with a bit of money or power, playing with them while her heart remained cold and dry, for she only ever had love for her family.

From dawn till dusk, they earned their keep while also managing to pay many doctors and healers in the hope they could cure the youngest ailment. Yet none were able to help the young boy. It was he who allowed the broken family to keep fighting against fate. His words always found their place in their troubled mind and were always able to untangle years of suffering with but a lovely whisper.

Only when the mother’s belly was round and full, was she able to catch plenty of fish, her nets overfilled and weighing on her small boat: it was a trap, the sea luring her, said most people. Yet she didn’t heed their warnings. She left during the night hoping to catch a fortune that the other fishermen were too scared to catch. They were rightfully scared as the sea was traitorous when the moon was high in the sky leading the woman to capsize and drown. Her belly round and filled, she became one with the cold depth just a few weeks before giving birth to a child in the perfect image of this now castaway couple.

Yet, the mother didn’t die. Her dream of giving birth to a child dressed in blooming sage mixed with the many prayers people gave to the sea for various reasons. Overfilled with aimless faith, the sea desired a body that could hold the title of a god. The vessel became the mother who accepted the sea’s demand in exchange for the safety of her unborn child.

She lived deep below the waves, looking over her three children. She was proud of them. With newly gained power, the mother helped her family as much as she could. But it was something she should have never done as the sea who had given her her godly power forbade any interaction with her kids. Breaking part of the deal, a curse that invited misfortune was placed on all three.

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It was the eldest who was first touched by this cruel curse. This boy was already not in a good situation as even if he had a mighty body, he was weak of mind and easily manipulated. People used him to do their dirty work for a few coins and those ‘jobs’ he was tasked with, annoyed a few people. A wealthy merchant paid people to have the eldest son assassinated, this extreme measure being forced by the curse. They fought this mighty man for ten days and nights and he was only fell after more people joined the fray after mistaking the bloody and raging man as a demon.

When the fumes of the curse decreased, the man with the constitution of a lord was dead. The villagers cleaned his bloody body to realize who he was and regretted the loss of a good man whom many consider a hero. Just like his father, his corpse was sent on a boat drifting on the horizon.

The mother made her son sink below the wave to embrace him and lament his fate. She had seldom lived for herself thus seeing part of her reason to exist in this sorry state broke the mother. In the end, she consumed her son’s body which caused a growth to form on her side. It was a mass of flesh and muscle forming something resembling her dear son.

Realizing she might be able to revive him, the mother searched far and wide for any flesh to consume to be added to the face on her side. Miraculously, it worked, but the son was just a head attached to his mother’s side by a long and powerful neck covered in scales. His mind was filled with rage against the people who had killed him which in turn infected the mother’s conscience. She wasn’t just satisfied with watching her children, now requiring they all be by her side.

The mother then worked with the curse to have her two other kids killed. It was the youngest who died before his sister, already weak and sick, he passed out from a sudden outbreak of an unknown disease. He might have had a heart of gold; his body was weak. Once again, the mother consumed his corpse and most fish in the surrounding area which would cause trouble for the village’s greatest source of food.

Before she could put a hand on her daughter, this girl had left the village with some nobles. The mother cried and raged, molding the curse to kill innocent people to feed on their flesh. In this destructive state, with famine tearing the villagers apart while sickness made their hope crumble, the insane mother was, for a strange reason, seen as a benevolent god. Mostly by accident since the mother would often capsize boats but there were a few times that people miraculously survive, either coming with great fortune or alive sharing broken planks: a blessing of the sea goddess, said some people...Because of that, not everyone escaped the village, and the flesh of humans was many times more useful than fish. The fresher they were, the stronger their brains. They allowed the mother to become more intelligent and in control of her ever-expanding body. As for the damaged goods, such as broken limbs or rotting organs, she was able to combine them into new children. Combining the sea creatures with humans, she created new species that followed her every word. Thus, she needed cattle to grow in the village and she stopped the curse from killing people.

As for her daughter, she came back after 50 years. She managed to climb the rank of nobility quickly and was even awarded a large territory just east of the forest surrounding her childhood village. With five kids of good standing and a rich husband, the girl never felt so empty. For she was blessed with a wonderful mind, what she lacked was a heart. Her every day was filled with manipulation and plots to gain more power. In the end, she fought all her life for things she never cared about. The only time in her life she felt happiness was when she was young and played with her family. It was when her family needed help that she learned to manipulate people but now, they were all gone. Kids, husband, and servant, she didn’t love any of them as they all learned from her manipulative nature.

Thus, at 64 years old, the daughter kidnaped a bastard kid of one of her own children to then gave it to her grandfather, a fae still living in this old fishing village. Then, taking a boat to feel the waves of her childhood, she took her life with a dagger: her throat severed so she could never trick anyone again...

After all these years, the mother’s belly was still round and filled with a baby that wouldn’t come out. The sea was cruel for childbirth was dangerous and could thus break the deal of keeping this kid safe. It still moved from time to time; its limbs pushing on the overly stretched belly as if trying to get out, and its cries which spread far and wide for help proved it was still safe and sound…

Years passed by in this strange peace with the mother growing stronger and bigger. The three kids were now able to adventure many kilometers away from the mother’s body which they used to devour many things. As such, their heads adapted into a predatory form similar to wolves with scales replacing furs. They howled to drown the unborn kid’s cries which created an eerie sound. Regarding the father, no one could find him: the sea took him too far from the coast.

Everything was stable when Tsuki came to this world and this goddess of the sea now known by the name of Scylla would have never attacked the village. But when The Great Devour showed up in the sky, it scared Scylla. This being of pure hunger’s strength was in another world. She saw it get wounded and flee north and thought it was her only chance to grow stronger to keep her children safe. It was her only goal: a mother’s wish for her children’s safety. If a path that didn’t require killing and ensured her kids’ safety existed, she would have taken it without question…

This was the reason the village was attacked. The people were grown as material to protect the eternally growing child of violet. Those from the wealthy district were more useful since they had various knowledge of the world. They were bound to die one way or another anyway. The things that Yuu discovered in the snowy peak were also felt by Scylla. Since The Great Devour showed up, a domino effect that woke up many strong gods was initiated, and Scylla wanted to survive no matter what.

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“MAAAAAMAAAAAAA!!!” an hour before Scylla launched her attack, Alphonse could be heard screaming as he ran, knocking on every possible door.

He was mad, his eyes shifting everywhere as if someone was after him. His action woke almost everyone as he ran without a care for people screaming at him. His nose, eyes, and ears were bleeding as pain wrought havoc in his mind. A dream warned him of the attack but the being who forcefully informed him was too complex for his mind. In truth, this boy had always shared dreams with a strange being sealed in the forest just southeast of the village. A forest of crystal and insanity where everything is like a dream. Of all things, this being considering Alphonse as a friend gave him many visions that could keep him safe. But now, even if it did give him a vision, the boy would have simply hidden in his bed and died, which he tried to do. So, this unknown being took control of the boy’s body and did everything it could to wake as many people as possible.

In the end, this allowed many people to avoid the worst, and Alphonse’s unconscious body was carried on Cain’s large shoulder with people trying to escape the village. The monsters that attacked them were weak and easily dispatched by a small pocket of guards and a few civilians able to fight. In the bloody escape, Rouhong was the one to shine the brightest as he fought barehanded and covered in flame. He was especially tall with well-toned muscles which only became stronger under the burning blaze embracing him. On his back were two short stubs of something that might have been cut wings and a large tattoo of a salamander in blazing colors.

As Rouhong ripped limb after limb of the monstrosity facing him, brown scales grew on his skin protecting him from the shabby weapon used against him.

As an arrow was shot toward an elderly woman, Rouhong focused his strength into a punch aimed at the arrow and caused a burst of flame which sucked in air, causing the arrow to change trajectory, and hit a disgusting octopus with half its limbs made from children’s arms. “Bastard! Touch them and I’ll be sure to fill you up with stones so you can never walk again!” He said as he punched with his other hand, creating a pillar of stone impaling the archer. “Fight with honor or go back to your pond!”

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