Great Blue Sea

Abraham stared over the railings towards the horizon. The blue ocean glistened from the sunlight.

"Ah Young Abraham, such beauty is the result of Solis' light." 

Abraham glanced over at Starrk. "Who even is this Solis, anyways?"

Baron cut in. "A bitch."

Starrk coughed, muffling Baron's voice. "She's the light of this world. She has sovereignty over light." Starrk stared towards the horizon.

Abraham looked at him, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. "How far does her influence span? You make her sound very important."

Starrk smiled. "The entire world, of course." He paused. "The sun is her influence. Where the sun shines is where she has influence."

Abraham raised a brow. "Then what of the places in the dark, like at night?"

"Ah, that's under the influence of her brother, Noctis."

Baron scoffed. "Noctis is way cooler, he doesn't flash you every time you look into the sky."

Starrk frowned. "Noctis is an interesting person… he usually strays away from the other Malakhs. Keeps to himself." 

Baron cut in again. "No shame in that. Everyone needs their own space to themself from time to time."

Starrk gave him a menacing look. "Sure, but his followers are… incredibly fanatical. They hang and kill followers of Solis."

Baron smirked. "To be fair, I'd do that too."

"Young Abraham, please for just a moment, excuse my language, let me beat his ass."

Abraham's expression dimmed. "Dial it down a bit, yeah Baron?"

Baron shrugged. "I'm just saying what everyone is thinking."

Leon, from above, cut into the conversation: "If you guys are gonna fight, can you do it after breakfast?"

Baron smiled slightly. "As fun as that would be, I'm not stupid. He's a resonant, remember."

Abraham continued his questioning. "So uh, what exactly is a malakh? I mean, I know what they are but not entirely."

"Malakhs are essentially the strongest living people on the planet. Their power can increase endlessly, as long as they gather more pulse of course." He paused, giving time for Abraham to process that.

"What does malakh even mean? It doesn't sound like it came from the same language we speak."

Starrk looked up at the sky. "Malakh comes from an old world language. If I'm not mistaken, it means angel."

Abraham, finally working up the courage to ask, says: "Are there any… bad malakhs?"

Starrk froze. "Not anymore…" Abraham raised a brow.

"You are aware of the current big three of the twelve malakhs, right? Ervina, Jugram, and Valor."

Abraham nodded.

"Well, there used to be three before them. The second most prominent of which was Anouk. The Maiden of War."

The weight of the name caused even Baron to go quiet. The ship went silent and the only sound that could be heard was the ship moving through the ocean, and the wind.

"Anouk was ranked second amongst the big three, but she had the most influence. This was because of her affinity to war. As long as war existed, she had immense power and influence." 

"It didn't help that she could stir up wars — which let her essentially cheat the system into making her all the more powerful."

Abraham, reminiscing his experience inside her temple, felt a cold sweat roll down his forehead.

'Gee… what have i gotten myself into.'

"Uh, what happened to her?"

Starrk, feeling more relaxed, responded, "The Great Ervina killed her. Not by herself of course, she wouldn't have pulled it off without the help of Solis and a few other Malakhs."

'Wait a minute…' Abraham thought to himself. 'Solara's mom… IS ERVINA?'

Hiding his surprise, he nodded as a sign for Starrk to continue.

"Ervina however, couldn't absorb all of the pulse from Anouk's body. It was far too risky and it could have led to one of the worst potential cases of overburn in history."

Abraham was speechless. Solara's mom killed the literal manifestation of war and is now one of the strongest malakhs of today.

"Ervina ended up absorbing around twenty-million pulses from Anouk's body. Which, as big as it sounds, was a huge loss in comparison to the eighty-million she had."

"What happened to the other sixty-million?" Abraham asked.

"Unabsorbed pulses usually decays and disappears." Starrk replied with a sigh.

"Ah but anyways, I've had enough of storytelling for the day. Let's get back to training, yeah? Meet me in the same spot ten minutes from now." And with that Starrk walked down into the lower deck.

Abraham rested for a moment. He took a moment to reflect on everything that had just been said.

'I wonder if Solis looks good…'

Solara walked up to him. "Hey Abraham. Guess you know about my psycho mom now, huh."

"Yeah… you didn't tell me your mom was the literal Eldritch Queen."

Solara frowned. "Didn't think it would've been a good idea to tell a complete stranger that."

"Fair enough, I suppose."

'And here I was thinking she was just a crazy witch with a frog on a stick.'

Baron yawned, clearly bored from Starrk's storytelling. "Look guys, how about we do something a bit more fun instead, like diving and seeing who finds the coolest item in the ocean."

Kassi raced out of the cabin, "Hell yeah let's do that."

"You're only excited because you're part shark, aren't you…"

"Maybe, plus I'm bored waiting to get to our destination."

Abraham paused for a moment. "Where even IS our destination??"

Baron, raised a brow, somewhat confused. "Uh… we're going to the Crystal Desert… didn't Purdeeg tell you about that?"

"No… no he did not."

Baron shrugged. "Well now you know."

Abraham sighed and then finally decided to walk down into the lower deck.

'This is going to be… a long journey.'

Kassi smirked at him as he walked down. "G'luck Abe! I'm rooting for you!"

Abraham sighed.