Episode 13: Methodic Insanity

The duo of marines had previously decided that as soon as the two ships made half a revolution around the whirlpool, the next step of the plan would commence. The next step was to bring Scarn over to the pitch-black ship and leave the main ship behind, unmanned.

So, following the plan, Scarn walked out of the steering room.

But as soon as Scarn got out of the main ship's steering room, he was almost thrown back to the rear of the ship. But he controlled himself and walked towards the railing that was adjacent to the anchor rope.

Because of the vessel's accelerating speed, his gait was slanted. When he reached the railings, he had to use them as a ladder to climb down to the place where the anchor rope was attached…

After a few seconds of awkward movements, he finally reached the anchor rope. He gulped at seeing it strained to its limits and on the verge of snapping.

But he didn't slow down. He took out a huge hook attached to his belt and carefully latched it onto the anchor rope, which was as thick as a man's thigh.

After that, he stood still and breathed in deeply. Then he turned back and took one last look at the spot where his private room and exquisite art pieces were. Then he turned his gaze to the cold compartment where his fallen comrades slumbered, looking there, he closed his eyes and heavily sighed.

A few moments went by in peace, after that, he shook his head and finally locked in. "Your plan better work, you damn brat."

Then, he gripped onto the hook and jumped off the deck…

He used the anchor rope like a zipline and glided across the gap between the two vessels.

Scarn careened through the air. The strained anchor rope's surface withered even further from the friction of the gliding hook. Dirt and bits of the rope erupted behind it, following its trail.

The ships were travelling so fast that the gliding Scarn flew towards the pitch black ship horizontally, like a waving flag in the wind.

…

At the same time, Light sat beside one of the two cannons on the ship and observed the sideways hang gliding of Scarn with a stupid smile. 'Well, that's amusing. I understand why that emo shinigami wanted to see a show now. Amusement in life and death situations is truly amazing.'

But soon the smile was wiped off his face, and he had to pull himself to the side and get out of the way.

Because Scarn was about to land.

Scarn pulled himself up by gripping the hook and careened onto the secondary ship's deck. He came on with such force that he kept moving forward parallel to the floor and crashed into the side of a cannon.

A loud thud ensued. The impact was so great that the cannon almost uprooted from the deck, even though it was drilled into it. The screws came loose.

Scarn's body fell onto the floor. He coughed out saliva and was discombobulated for a moment.

But before Light could even go up to check on him, his eyes regained their usual sharpness. He shook his head and got up like nothing had happened. He looked at Light and said nonchalantly, "Well, I guess your plan wasn't all bad."

Light continued to stare at the middle-aged man, dumbfounded. 'Is this guy even human? I thought he might have died after crashing into that cannon, but bro just walked it off… Well, glad to have him on my side at least.'

"Guess so," Light replied with a facade of a nonchalant tone.

But there was no more time left for idle conversations. The two ships continued to revolve around the crimson whirlpool's edge even faster.

By the time they revolved back to the spot where they first entered the spiral and completed the first lap of their revolution, the pitch black ship was already losing control.

By now, it was moving so fast that it was not only skiing through the waves but also jumping above them. At first, the change was subtle and almost unnoticeable, but as time passed, the pitch black ship was like a skipping rock that bounced across the water's surface while being pulled by the main ship.

The main vessel, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly unstable. Its movements became erratic because no one was there to operate its steering wheel.

This continued on as the two ships completed another lap around the perimeter of the whirlpool, this time much faster than the last.

The two puny humans were struggling with all their might to hold onto the ship and not fly off.

'God, even those water park roller coasters are nothing compared to this. If it goes on any longer, I might become dizzy and go unconscious.'

Light looked sideways to see how his companion was doing. To his surprise, Scarn was walking toward the anchor rope. 

He gripped the edge of the boat tightly and then unsheathed an exquisite long sword from his back.

'Wow, so he took at least one of his art pieces with him. Is that his favourite? Wait, but why is he using it now?'

Scarn brandished his sword and slashed down directly at the anchor rope.

Light's eyelids flew wide open. "WAIT! What are you doing? Don't cut the damn rope so soon, we still need more speed. Wait a few laps more."

Scarn's slash slowed down but didn't stop. A shallow incision appeared on the thick rope. He turned to Light and said, "I know, idiot, I am just cutting it part way so that when I have to completely sever it, I can do so in a single swing."

"Yeah, but look at how strained the rope already is, it will probably snap anyway-"

Before Light could even finish his sentence, the pitch black boat rumbled and crashed down hard on the ocean surface.

The duo of humans got thrown up in the air. Light was off the boat, but the small rope he had used to tie himself to it held strong. Scarn, on the other hand, almost got thrown off, but at the last moment he caught onto the other side of the ship.

The speed of their revolution had reached new heights. The pitch black ship completely left the surface of the water and started flying while orbiting the whirlpool.

'But why the sudden change?'

Perplexed, Light pulled on the rope that was holding him to the ship and tried to look towards the whirlpool. He turned his gaze around the whole scene.

He kept searching restlessly, but suddenly a drop of cold sweat formed on his forehead as he finally found what he was looking for.

'Well… that happened faster than I expected.'

The unmanned main ship had nosedived and slid over the edge, plummeting into the swirling abyss.

But as Light was staring into the dark depths of the crimson whirlpool, he blinked. For a moment, he felt like he gazed upon something resembling two pools of glowing blood.

…