Jack's gift, Resonance between Misfortune and Laws, and the Nightmare of the Contestants

The voice wasn't that of a singer, but it had an aloof charm to it.

"Yo ho...ho ho ho ho! Hardy har har. Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!" Jack Sparrow sang, raising the bottle of rum.

Kai slammed the empty bottle in his hand on the floor, and let it go rolling in the distance. The rum bit at his throat and lungs, but there was a lover's pain about it, too.

"Another?" Kai asked, taking out a bottle of ale. "I can still go on, Haha!"

Jack wiggled and waggled, almost sprawled on the floor. When he saw a fresh bottle in Kai's hands, he smacked his lips, pulled out a ring from his left thumb, and threw it toward him between the bars.

Kai, though heavily drunk, snatched it off midair with great swiftness.

This was the 7th Artifact Kai had made Jack give him to hold after their last bout of negotiations.

Kai still hadn't handed over the two crystals to Jack, refusing to do so before holding each and every Artifact on the Captain's body for a minute.

Captain Jack was a walking armory of Artifacts, to begin with.

There was a knotted striped-red sash tied around his waist, where he would stow his pistol. The sash was made for him by Amenirdis, one of his love interests. It was said the sash had the magical ability to protect Jack from injuries, sickness, or harm.

Wrapped around his head was the red bandanna, a gift from Jack's lover Esmeralda. Another Artifact.

Then there was the piece of eight; the most famous of Jack's possessions, if one were to ignore his lost items and the Compass.

His hair adorned several beads, and two of them were given to him by Tia Dalma herself as a means of unlocking the eye of Stone-Eyed Sam. Two Artifacts.

And Rings! Moreover, there were five of them; all Artifacts.

The ring in Kai's hand, a silver and jade oriental dragon ring, was the second ring and the 7th Artifact, he had gotten out of Jack if he were to ignore Jack's hat, sword, pistol, and the Compass from the morning.

But Jack Sparrow hadn't made it easy on Kai, either.

'For each of my belongings, you want to hold, you will have to empty a bottle, mate!' Jack had said, grinning.

So, Kai had gone and returned with dozens of bottles from the marines' cellar.

"Why not gift this ring to me, Jack?" Kai offhandedly commented, feeling a bit dizzy. By now Cersei would have already left the Black Pearl, obtaining Barbossa's hat, he guessed. And the moment he gave the crystals to Jack, the Compass would become an Item as well.

No point in staying in the Random World after that, Kai knew.

"Still not a pirate from heart, eh, eh?" Jack laughed. "We steal and plunder, mon ami. Gifts… they don' suit our business."

Kai's eyes shone as if he'd stumbled upon something. Nevertheless, once he got the notification, he threw it back at Jack, who put it on his left thumb again.

Kai put the bottle of ale to his mouth and began gulping it down. He wanted all of them. The remaining 3 rings; 3 Artifacts. Kai needed 40 Artifacts to become a Proficient Collector, which would let him raise his Luck by a whopping 15 points upon equipping the Title.

15! Kai could slaughter an entire floor for even 10 if given the chance. Much less needed to be said about getting drunk in the company of one of the greatest pirate Captains.

Jack Sparrow twisted and turned the ring on his right ring finger, taking several mouthfuls of rum. It was a gold onyx Spanish flower ring that he stole from a wealthy Spanish widow. However, his thoughts weren't eying this ring, but another; already lost.

Before he turned to piracy, Jack had received a gold ring from Amenirdis. That ring could summon Amenirdis when Jack sailed near her island, Kerma. However, that ring was lost when Cutler Beckett threw it into the sea before he branded Jack as a pirate.

Many years had passed since then, and yet, the memory was still as fresh as the smell of the sea.

Captain Jack Sparrow eyed the ring on his finger, thinking of the lost one, and mumbled, "Say, have yeh ever loved someone?"

Kai let the bottle's butt kiss the floor and became quiet. He lifted his head and looked at the full moon through the gap in the walls, at the moonlight, and the vast blankness of night. The drunkenness had already turned his sight blurry.

Kai could lie at this moment. He could use the Facelessness' Contrasts to fool both Jack and himself. Yet, when Kai asked himself what would be the point of doing so, he found no answer.

"No," Kai said, shaking his head. "Love… is not for me."

There was no sadness in Kai's words, no pain, no remorse, and no regrets. It was as if he had come to accept the fact that the emotion of Love and he would never come close to each other like the north and south poles of the earth.

Forever distant and unknown!

Jack Sparrow looked at Kai deeply as the white-haired pirate gulped down another bottle. The ex-captain of Black Pearl once more twisted and turned the onyx ring, looking thoughtful. [Image 1]

Then, as Kai groggily let the empty bottle fall, Jack pulled out the ring and threw it toward him.

Kai's tongue had gone numb. Still, he didn't fail to grab the ring with a rare, genuine smile. One more Artifact! This was enough to make him smile, no matter how empty it must have felt to others.

Once Kai was done with it, he was about to throw it back.

It was then that Jack laughed. "Keep it, mate. You wante' a gift, eh? Well, there yeh have it. May it help yeh in findin' love…"

Kai frowned.

The moment Jack said that he could keep the ring, Kai could feel that the Artifact had transformed somehow. Artifacts couldn't be brought out of the Random World or put in Inventories. Only certain Artifacts, that were Items, or could become Items, as well but had no Stats, could be put into Inventories (-including MRB-), just like Devil Fruits, the Compass, and the Philosopher's Stone.

The gold onyx Spanish flower ring shone with a dull color, Kai perceived. But when he took more looks at it, the ring showed no changes.

Dejected, Kai put it on his right ring finger, the same one on which Jack had been wearing it.

Then Kai took out another bottle, throwing another to Jack.

"Say," Jack drawled, "I am runnin' nowhere, mate, eh? Why not just give 'em to me?"

Kai paused and contemplated. The only reason he hadn't handed the crystals over was that he feared Jack would not let him hold the Artifacts. Only two rings remained now, and the chances of the Captain not having a look at them after this long were nil.

'Well, I do want to have a look at the Compass,' Kai reasoned. 'Let's see what kind of absurd Stats it even has.'

With this thought, Kai opened the two boxes and took out the two blood-colored crystals, both giving off a bloody glow. The empty boxes disappeared once the crystals had roped Jack Sparrow's eyes.

With a flick of his hand, Kai threw them toward the Captain.

Time… stopped, then.

The wind died; the sound of waves crashing against rocks and on each other choked; sheets of ominous clouds veiled the bright moon, darkening the entire land and sea alike; and a sinister howl echoed everywhere as if ghosts and the dead were crying, welcoming some unnamed pagan deity.

Both Kai's and Jack's heart thumped instantly, the two crystals of the Philosopher's Stone crossing the gap between the iron bars.

This was the sign they had hoped, looked, and waited for, but forgot when trading the Compass had brought no changes to their surroundings.

It was even more so true for Kai, for he was a Contestant. Kai knew the moment he was to hand over the crystals to Jack Sparrow, they wouldn't remain Artifacts anymore, as this Random World had no concept of Philosopher's Stones, to begin with. They would become special mystical objects after interacting with the Timeline's laws.

This very thing was happening right now, and somehow… this process of transformation seemed to have resonated with the Compass' wrath over Jack Sparrow's betrayal.

Kai had never cared for what kind of misfortune Jack would face after his return. But it was Jack, the main Character… he would survive, as he had always.

Or so Kai had thought.

This sudden change caught even the Blood Demon off-guard. It was as if a strange power that he could never resist was pressing down on him, preventing him from stopping the trade; preventing him from calling the crystals back.

Even Jack Sparrow wanted to snatch his outstretched hand back, it felt.

Too late.

BOOM!

This boom wasn't loud. Nor was it real.

This boom had exploded in the hearts and minds. In the real world, a pulse, just like the one the gold medallion had sent after coming in contact with the sea, exploded in all directions starting from Jack Sparrow and Kai Stormborn and then engulfing the entire Port Royal, the harbor, the sea, and vanishing into the dark horizons.

The moment this pulse stirred through the port, all Contestants felt it.

But only one person had felt it the most, in his heart; and he wasn't a Contestant.

In a bar with demolished walls, a white-bearded man, tall and bulky, but telling a story of lost handsomeness, was drinking rum. His eyes were cloudy gray as if he had seen just too much of the world. His breath smelled of rum, ale, and wine; alcohol seemed to be coursing through his veins.

When the broken people of Port Royal looked at him, after being raided down by the pirates, there was nothing but disgust on their faces.

It was then that the pulse arrived, making the old man tremble.

The bottle of rum fell out of his hand, shards of glass shattering and flying everywhere.

A hundred meters up in the air, glass shards like that of a mirror dimension separated, and a man with a golden helmet walked out. He, too, was trembling all over. "This?! What just happened?" he blurted, shaking, looking at the old man in the bar. "No! This is…"

The old man in the demolished bar, who had shown no emotion other than that of a drunken fool, suddenly threw himself to his feet and looked toward Fort Charles. "Life Stone!" a hoarse, ancient voice escaped his mouth. "I can feel the aura. Yes. It's the Life Stone. Hahaha!"

Under the shocking and bewildered eyes of all, and the helmet-wearing man hovering up midair, the old man laughed outrageously, throwing his hands up.

And then, with a bang, dense black fog burst out of him, becoming a coat and a hat. It was as if the shadows themselves had come alive.

"My time has finally arrived…" the old man mumbled, laughing like a maniac, "… once again. The Day of the Shadow will return, and this time there would be no one who could stop it. SHADOW ARMY! RISE!!! DEVOUR EVERYONE! BRING ME THE LIFE STONE!!!"

Hands, legs, heads, and torsos, dead and rotten, shot out of the ground and the walls, and every non-living thing.

It was as if the dead had taken the forms of shadows, crawling their way out of cold hell.

The logic-defying combination of the Compass' wrath and transformation of the Philosopher's Stones had woken up a hibernating legend.

This was a power that was not supposed to be in this Random World, for it had already surpassed the level that was known to the Contestants as the 7th floor.

This power… belonged to this old man.

A Character, who shouldn't exist in this timeline, not with the Overall Difficulty allotted to this World.

A Character, who would become the nightmare of all Contestants.

The Pirate Lord Henry Morgan…

… The Shadow Lord!!! [Image 2]

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AN: To read ahead, you can try Patre0n. Link is available in synopsis. The entire Pirate Mini Arc can be accessed there. Enjoy!

A Break Tomorrow.