A statue in a prison

The spirit of Freedom, Era.

Having appeared before Tristan Parsifal with a distinct spider shaped scar on their abdomen and with no head while wearing ragged red captain's clothing, she hadn't always been this way.

What? Think that she was always this headless? Well not always.

Before she was headless, before she had the spider shaped scar on her chest even.

Era was a devout follower of the Goddess's sigh.

Established by the million feathered Roc in honor of the breath of the mother Goddess that turned the world round.

The Goddess's sigh had many followers with no set system to govern them, only following the doctrine of freedom.

Go against the wind, go with the wind, go around the wind, but always follow the wind.

 - An excerpt from the chapter of the free wing that attracted many to follow the word of the Goddess's sigh.

These followers of the Goddess's sigh came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, usually only identifying themselves as free spirits with some of the more well known ones being variations of the title such as the Spirit of Freedom and the Unbound spirit.

This of course had a minor problem of promoting smugglers and bandits to act under the guise of the Goddess's sigh as they were able to rely on their status to cause trouble wherever they wanted while also being able to pass through borders without problem.

This stopped once the Goddess's sigh clarified a free spirit didn't need to worry about the eyes watching them.

In other words, they had to carry with them a pass that they had to stamp to be legally allowed in the country.

This caused a few other minor problems, but at the least nowadays smuggling was harder than before since the pass system was adopted by many countries as it was more convenient to identify smugglers this way.

This also gave the border guards something else to do to spice up their time although they were already bored as is.

And in fact, most of the time outside of smuggling, the free spirits usually were a merchants best friend as they usually brought with them several exotic goods from other places boosting the economy.

But besides that, because of the doctrine of the free wing which usually had many interpretations to it, it was incredibly improbable to see the same free spirit twice outside of their gathering places.

And even then, they usually left in a week or two save the winged spirits that managed the place.

And again, once a year passed, it was brand new winged spirit taking their place.

They were a rather lively religion that was more a collection of nomads than a whole religion which had led to a few disputes since they were literally everywhere.

And if not for the insignia of a million feathers proving the existence of their worshipped idol being real much like the rest of the esoteric religions that worshipped beings of dubious origin, they were an orthodox religion.

But there was a problem

To Era's knowledge, for some reason, the named Spirits of the Goddess's sigh were being killed off for some reason.

This didn't initially catch any attention since traveling everywhere their heart desired had its risks and it wasn't strange to see reports of named Spirits periodically dying as they usually disappeared in forbidden areas that were usually the homes of belligerent monsters that didn't take to kindly to outsiders trespassing on their territory.

So although they gave their regards for an old friends death and visited their grave every now and then, they continued with their lives.

The problem was that all the named spirits were dying.

From the Unbound spirit to the Freely floating to the Golden spirit all the way to Winged freeman, every single one of them started to die off.

That was when it caught their attention.

Because Named Spirits were the equivalent of Gods in mortal form, above all mortals and below the divine beasts, they were already rare as is.

And the fact that they were being killed off periodically was concerning, especially once it was revealed that it was the doing of some sort of group.

So in favor of finding out what was the cause of the death of numerous named spirits, all the remaining survivors made a pledge to gather at the Sky's edge.

Sadly however, just as Era was about to arrive at the Sky's edge on her treasured ship the Spiritfarer, she was attacked.

|And that's the last of what I can remember since I was beheaded by an unknown figure.|

|And even then, the bastard didn't let me dissipate peacefully to join the great wind of the Goddess, sealing my body with that damned sword you saw earlier|

"Wait, then why didn't you tell me to take it out?"

|It's no use since the binding weave that the bastard cast onto me manifested as the spider scar you saw on my body, making the sword completely useless as it only served as the medium for the weaving.|

"Then why didn't you remove the sword from your chest?"

|I did that earlier, but it just looked weird to have a hole on my chest so I just put it back.|

"Ah"

|It was also because my body couldn't really keep it's form without the sword so I just stuck it there were you saw it.| 

"Oh"

Trying very hard to not hit his head on the ceiling once again, Tristan slowly navigated the bowels of the ship looking for... something.

Era wasn't exactly clear on that part.

|I told you were looking for the Shard of freedom.|

"Just what exactly is that shard of freedom you're talking about and why do you want me to get it? Heck, isn't it possible that the guy who attacked you took the shard of freedom if it's this important?"

|It's hard to explain what the shard of freedom is exactly, but I'm positive that it hadn't been taken.|

"Are you sure? I've combed through the ship thoroughly now, and except for the place we're heading to now, we haven't seen it."

|Don't worry, it's still here.|

Looking unnecessarily confident, Tristan didn't know what to say.

Especially since it seemed that Era also had no idea where this so called shard of freedom was, especially since they were now heading to the brig.

|Watch your head.|

*Bonk

"Gah!"

Rubbing his forehead, Tristan slowly sank down and made sure to not disturb the angry crustaceans on the ground and opened the door.

It really didn't look like it, but these nasty little critters were able to pack quite a punch once they got a grip.

Thankfully this semi heart attack he got from every snap of the claw trained the speed of which he fired bullets from Lighthouse and Firefly.

The further usage of the two weapons also highlighted the positives and negatives that the both of them had.

Firefly was a gun that primarily used Ignis mana threads to form bullets and the resulting bullets usually boiled the surrounding area in a self contained steam explosion.

This had the downside of causing harm to himself as well since the heated water didn't discriminate unlike a certain group back on earth that had three K's in their name, although he could actually adjust the intensity of the explosion.

Lighthouse on the other hand usually used Illuminae mana threads to form laser beams instead of bullets.

This came at a higher cost, but if he wanted to be precise then Lighthouse was the way to go.

And if he really wanted to be stingy on the usage of his mana despite having an eternal supply of it resting on his spine making it glow weirdly, Tristan could space out his trigger pulls like a semi auto, making the once whole laser split apart into laser blasts like the ones from space wars or something.

Having those random thoughts ping pong back and forth in his head, Tristan finally reached another relatively intact portion of the ship that was hidden amongst the coral reefs.

'Curses those edges are sharp.'

Pushing away from the coral reef that scratched the side of his arm, Tristan finally set his sights on the final room.

Like the rest of the ship that was scattered around the coral reef like ruined buildings, this portion of the ship was made of still intact wood that hadn't rotted a single day.

However, much unlike the rest of the ship parts, this one seemed... different.

Covered in blood red rust, several skeletons hung around the room, rusted and broken weapons lying all over the empty coral basin that the ship was placed in.

Strangely enough, the space around the ship was completely devoid of life 

Especially now since the room in front of him was locked up in a rusted over chain that seemed to have seen several decades pass by as coral had already merged it to the wooden door.

As if trying to consume it.

Hell, at this point, the rust and coral had covered the door entirely making it much more durable than the rest of the already durable ship that was relatively intact.

'Well that's not ominous at all.'

|Be warned Tristan, I can sense something evil lingers in this place.|

'Ya don't say.'

Holding up lighthouse in a fashion akin to a very unconventional flashlight, Mana flowed through his body to form a cone shape that quickly converted itself into illuminae that briefly flashed.

And seeing that Tristan nodded, if worse comes to worse he could flash them before stuffing explosives into their body with Firefly.

The Blind and explosion combo he would call it.

Slowly nearing the ship part he ignored the wood that was strangely more durable than the metal and caught sight of a helmet wearing crab.

'Why hello there little thing.'

Moving past it, he reached the ship and morphed the cone shaped bullet into a rod that would shoot out a laser instead of a flash of light to make what was known as a handheld deep sea cutter.

Or in simple terms, a laser cutter.

A pure white ray leaving the barrel of Lighthouse and landing on the rusted door, it quickly started to melt at the portions where the laser met it.

And from that point on it was just a manner of applying his engineering knowledge.

'Slow and steady.'

Trying his best to stay in the water that continued to swirl around him every so often, Tristan slowly moved his hand to create a sizeable enough hole that could fit his body.

Training Firefly on the doorway as he did so, the laser slowly melted through the doorway like a hot knife through butter.

And once he did, he raised his legs in preparation of kicking down the door like all those action movies.

*Bang

A muffled thud rang out in the ship as Tristan kicked down the cut out door, letting the thick plate of rusted metal collide against the wooden floor, exposing the innards.

Floating away since the law of constant force existed, he swiftly returned to look into the ships innards that had revealed itself while morphing the rod into a cone once again as he aimed Firefly into it's insides.

And once it did, he poked his head inside and widened his eyes as he stared at the one thing standing in the middle of the room.

That's right, Standing.

'!'

|Damian!?!?!|

And it seemed that Era knew who exactly that figure was as they stood in the middle of the prison like a statue.

|What happened!? Why are you in the prison!? Answer me First mate!|

Questions came tumbling out of Era's as Tristan's mouth moved uncontrollably, an echoey voice leaving it much to Tristan's surprise.

But his surprise that Era could control his motor functions was matched by the fact that the statue was actually alive.

"CaptAiN...?" A hoarse and warped voice leaked out of the statue's mouth as a pair of purple eyes slowly opened.

And as the statue did so, Tristan watched with wide eyes as an abrupt transformation occurred before his very eyes.

Purple speckles of light periodically lighting up on their skin, it exposed black coal like skin that seemed to have been scorched in the fires of hell.

Fingers crackling and snapping as they tried to grasp at something but failing abruptly, purple pupils with a black sclera snapped towards Tristan's face a set of five purple circles spinning around in his eyes.

Their body seemed to tremble as their pupils dilated and opened chaotically, exposing a black mist that swiftly spread from their mouth like poison.

Head snapping to and fro, Damian who looked nothing like a human anymore stared at Tristan as a distorted voice left their throat.

"CaAPtaIn isS ThAT YooUu?!"

|Damian! What happened to you first mate!? Tell me!| Era shouted loudly in Damian's ears, causing them to snap their head 90 degrees to the side in a way that would've snapped someone else's neck.

"CaPtAINNNNNN!?"

Damian twisted around menacingly as their limbs spun around chaotically and bent in ways that a normal human body shouldn't have been able to as their skin rippled like water.

Purple speckles that had been initially only sparse now appeared in more numerously as a hoarse scream tore out of their throat.

"ThE LoRddD SpEAkkkSS!!!"

Chaos reigned in Damian's eyes as more and more changes occurred before Tristan's very eyes.

Contorting their body, Damian crouched down as a purple glow suffused their skin with a menacing glow, several shapes revealing themselves on the coal like skin.

'Wait isn't that the mana organs!?'

Gem on their hand glowing blue for a brief moment, it quickly turned a corrupted purplish color as the gem quickly split into five unequal parts before returning to a single whole while as if the previous appearance was a lie.

And to mirror the chaotic shifting of the gems, Damian's hands quickly extended and morphed into large clawed hands with a varying number of fingers.

Trinity on their back cracking and splitting apart, it turned into a stream of purple threads that rapidly crawled all over Damian's body like a group of parasites as they hunched over

And finally, the star that rested on their shoulder.

Briefly appearing like a seven pointed star, two of its points suddenly disappeared, transitioning from a seven pointed heptagram to a distorted five pointed star like sigil that if it had only one less point would've become something reminiscent to a red symbol of terror.

One that blazed with a dark purplish glow that suffused the rest of their body in a blazing black light as a terrifying scream left their throat that had already expanded to cover half of their body.

|No... Damian...| A soft cry left the blue orb that was called Era as they stared in horror at the horrid transformation that was occurring right before their eyes.

And once the transformation stopped, Damian's... no that thing's head snapped towards them at an impossible angle as they whispered menacingly with the last strands of their sanity.

{Run}

It's head split apart to release a skull splitting scream as elongated arms arced towards Tristan's head.

+++

It ain't always about winning, sometimes it's just making sure they lose.

Tree