For one brief moment, the cruiser became quiet.
Too quiet.
No sailors shouted.
No passengers whispered.
Even the ocean seemed to pull away from the hull, leaving the ship suspended inside a silence that did not belong to the sea.
Xion stood at the top of the stairwell leading below deck, one hand resting near the silver-blue pocket watch inside his coat. The artifact had stopped clicking, but he could still feel its hand trembling against the casing.
Downward.
Always downward.
Whatever had crawled into the cruiser was somewhere beneath them.
Kitrawr stood beside him, her long white hair drifting despite the lack of wind. The serpent-shaped flames behind her head curled inward, no longer decorative. They looked alert now, like creatures smelling blood through water.
Kimiko stepped up on Xion's other side.
Azure foxfire burned around both her hands.
"Gluttony," she repeated. "You mean a Lost Soul?"
Will Breaker answered from inside Xion's Spiritual Authority Core before anyone else could.
[Most likely.]
Xion kept his face still.
'Most likely?'
[Gluttony leaves a particular spiritual residue. Consumption without completion. Hunger that survives after the thing doing the eating has already died.]
'That sounds lovely.'
[It is not.]
Sean opened his own silver pocket watch.
Unlike Xion's artifact, Sean's had numbers and hands. Small rings of Vaidika script circled the edge of the face. When he pressed the crown, the glass darkened and the hands began moving backward.
His pupils changed.
For a moment, the shape of an owl appeared inside them.
"Something entered the lower decks during the storm," he said.
Vera drew a second knife from the sleeve she had insisted contained no knives.
The first rested in her right hand.
The second was smaller, curved, and almost invisible against the black fabric of her glove.
"How many people are down there?" she asked.
Sean's gaze remained on the pocket watch.
"Crew quarters, storage, engine maintenance, kitchens, cargo compartments."
"That was not a number."
"Seventy-three, according to the manifest."
Kimiko's ears lowered.
Xion looked toward the darkness below.
"And according to reality?"
Sean's expression tightened.
"Seventy-four heartbeats."
No one spoke.
The staircase descended beneath them, narrow and poorly lit. Brass lamps had been mounted along the walls, but three were already dark. The remaining flames flickered blue at the edges.
Seventy-four heartbeats.
Seventy-three people.
One extra.
Or one heartbeat pretending to belong.
Kitrawr leaned slightly toward the stairwell.
"No."
Sean glanced at her.
"No?"
"There are seventy-four heartbeats," she said. "But only seventy-two living scents."
Vera's tail went rigid.
Kimiko's foxfire flared brighter.
Xion's eyes narrowed.
"So one person is dead, and something is using the body."
Kitrawr smiled faintly.
"And another is being eaten slowly enough to remain alive."
The words landed coldly.
From somewhere deep inside the cruiser came a muffled sound.
Not scratching this time.
A wet cough.
Then silence.
Kimiko took one step forward.
"We're going down."
Vera immediately moved in front of her.
"No."
Kimiko's eyes narrowed.
"I wasn't asking."
"You are the mission."
"I am not hiding upstairs while people are being eaten."
"You are the person we were ordered to keep alive."
Kimiko's tails spread behind her.
"And I'm still a Pathwalker."
Vera's jaw tightened.
The two stared at each other.
Xion looked between them.
"Can we argue after the hungry corpse stops redecorating the crew deck?"
Kimiko shot him a glare.
"You do not get to make sensible comments today."
"That seems unfair."
"It is."
Sean shut his pocket watch.
"We go together."
Vera turned sharply.
"Sean."
"If we separate, we make it easier for the Lost Soul to isolate the princess. Gluttony-class entities target attachment, resources, heat, and magical density. Kimiko's foxfire makes her visible from three decks away."
Kimiko's expression soured.
"So I'm bait."
"You are valuable bait."
"That did not improve it."
Kitrawr drifted past them and stepped onto the first stair.
The blue-white light from her body spilled down the corridor.
"I will go first."
Xion raised an eyebrow.
"You're volunteering?"
"I am the oldest."
Kimiko crossed her arms.
"That does not mean you automatically lead."
Kitrawr looked back over one shoulder.
"It does in the sea."
"We're on a ship."
"In the sea."
Kimiko opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Xion looked mildly impressed.
"Strong argument."
Kitrawr smiled.
"I know."
They descended.
The stairwell narrowed as it curled into the cruiser's lower levels. Above them, daylight vanished. The air grew hotter and heavier, filled with coal smoke, oil, cooked meat, damp wood, metal, and the faint sour trace of fear.
Xion's shoes struck each step quietly.
Tick.
Clock measured the intervals.
Sean behind him.
Kimiko three steps higher.
Vera beside her.
Kitrawr below.
No unexpected movement.
No immediate attack.
Yet.
The first lower corridor opened into the service deck.
Doors lined both sides. Crew sleeping quarters. Laundry rooms. Storage closets. A narrow infirmary. Several sailors stood frozen near the far end of the hall, holding lanterns and improvised weapons.
One carried a wrench.
Another held a mop like he was trying to convince himself it was a spear.
A third sailor clutched a kitchen cleaver with both hands.
Their faces were pale.
When Kitrawr entered the corridor, all three backed against the wall.
The man with the wrench crossed himself.
"The sea woman."
Kitrawr looked at him.
"Snake."
The sailor swallowed.
"What?"
"I am a sea snake, not a sea woman."
Xion whispered, "That is what you corrected?"
Kitrawr whispered back, "Details matter."
Sean stepped forward.
"What happened?"
The sailor with the cleaver looked past him toward the stairwell.
"One of the coal workers went missing."
"When?"
"During the storm. Maybe an hour ago. Then Bram heard something under the floor."
The man with the mop nodded quickly.
"It sounded like chewing."
Kimiko's ears flattened.
"Chewing what?"
The sailors looked at one another.
The man with the wrench answered.
"Couldn't tell."
That meant they could.
They simply did not want to say it.
Sean activated his Owl Eyes.
The silver reflection of an owl flashed through his pupils.
"Where is Bram?"
The sailors went silent.
Sean's voice stayed gentle.
"Where is he?"
The man with the wrench pointed toward the infirmary.
"He started bleeding from the mouth."
Vera moved first.
She opened the infirmary door without touching the handle directly, using the tip of her knife.
The room beyond was small.
Two cots.
A cabinet.
A washbasin.
A single lamp.
A sailor lay on the nearest bed.
At first, Xion thought the man was asleep.
Then he noticed the movement beneath his shirt.
Something traveled slowly through the sailor's stomach.
Not a twitch.
Not breathing.
A shape.
Long and thin.
It pushed against the skin from inside, moving beneath the ribs like a worm searching for a way out.
Kimiko stopped in the doorway.
"What is that?"
The sailor's eyes opened.
They were bloodshot and unfocused.
"Hungry," he whispered.
Vera entered carefully.
"Bram?"
The sailor smiled.
His teeth were black.
"Still hungry."
Sean grabbed Kimiko's shoulder before she could step inside.
Kitrawr's expression changed.
The sleepy amusement vanished.
Her pale eyes sharpened into red slits for a heartbeat.
"That is not the host."
Xion heard Will Breaker inside him.
[Do not let it speak your name.]
Too late.
Bram's head turned toward Xion.
The movement was slow.
Wrong.
His neck twisted farther than it should have.
His blackened teeth showed.
"Xion Trinity."
The room became colder.
Xion did not move.
The sailors in the corridor stared at him.
Kimiko's foxfire brightened.
"How does it know your name?"
Bram laughed.
Something inside his stomach laughed with him.
Two voices.
One mouth.
"False little god."
The words scraped against the room.
Xion felt his Authority Core react.
The marks on his left hand burned under the glove.
Regression.
Rejection.
Judgment.
Clock.
Will Breaker's voice sharpened.
[It recognizes your Pathway.]
'Can Lost Souls do that?'
[This one can.]
Bram sat up.
His body folded forward unnaturally. His spine rose beneath the skin in sharp points. The thing inside him shifted from his stomach into his chest.
A sound like wet cloth tearing came from beneath his ribs.
Vera threw her knife.
It struck Bram in the shoulder.
He did not react.
The blade sank into his flesh, but no blood followed.
Instead, black liquid seeped around the metal.
Kitrawr raised one hand.
Moon Water gathered in the air, forming a translucent serpent around her wrist.
"Everyone out."
Bram's mouth opened wider.
His jaw cracked.
Then split.
The skin around his cheeks tore backward as something pushed through his throat.
A black tongue emerged.
Too long.
Covered in tiny teeth.
Kimiko gagged.
Xion stared.
The tongue curled toward him.
"Hungry."
Kitrawr snapped her fingers.
The water-serpent struck.
It wrapped around Bram's body and slammed him against the far wall hard enough to crack the wooden paneling.
The bed overturned.
The lamp shattered.
Bram screamed.
The thing inside him screamed louder.
Sean grabbed one of the sailors and pushed him back into the corridor.
"Evacuate this deck. Take everyone toward the upper passenger halls. Do not let anyone travel alone."
The sailors did not need to be told twice.
They ran.
Vera pulled Kimiko out of the infirmary.
Xion remained inside.
Kimiko looked back.
"Xion!"
Bram's tongue shot toward him.
Clock ticked.
The world slowed.
Not truly.
Xion perceived the attack in pieces.
The tongue tightening.
The muscles beneath the corpse's throat contracting.
Black saliva separating into droplets.
The angle of impact.
The gap.
There.
Xion stepped sideways.
The tongue passed his face and struck the doorway.
Wood hissed.
The saliva ate into it like acid.
Xion looked at the spreading black rot.
"Venom?"
Kitrawr's water-serpent tightened around Bram.
"No. Hunger."
"That does not explain anything."
"It eats structure."
"Still terrible."
Bram's chest split open.
Ribs bent outward.
A black shape pushed through them.
Not fully formed.
Human arms.
Too many.
Six narrow limbs unfolded from inside the corpse, each one ending in fingers shaped like feeding hooks. A head emerged between the ribs, smooth and eyeless, with a circular mouth opening at the center.
Rows of teeth turned inside that mouth.
A Gluttony Lost Soul.
Still small.
Still feeding.
Not yet finished.
Kitrawr's expression darkened.
"It has been hiding inside people."
Sean stood in the doorway.
"How long?"
"Long enough to learn speech."
The creature tore itself free from Bram's body.
The corpse collapsed.
The Lost Soul hit the floor on all six limbs, its black body slick with blood and oil. It was no larger than a large dog, but its presence filled the room with spiritual pressure.
Hunger moved through the air.
Xion felt it inside his stomach first.
A sudden emptiness.
Then his throat.
Then his thoughts.
For one terrifying instant, he forgot what he had eaten that morning.
Then he forgot whether he had eaten at all.
The creature's authority was not merely physical consumption.
It ate the feeling of completion.
Kimiko staggered in the corridor.
"I'm starving."
Vera caught her.
"You ate less than two hours ago."
"I know."
Sean pressed two fingers against his temple.
"It is spreading hunger through the deck."
Will Breaker spoke.
[Do not let it feed on your identity.]
Xion's eyes narrowed.
'How?'
[Remember what belongs to you.]
The Gluttony Lost Soul turned its eyeless head toward him.
Its mouth rotated.
"Creator."
Kitrawr's gaze snapped toward Xion.
Sean went still.
Kimiko's hunger momentarily vanished beneath confusion.
"What did it call you?"
Xion's face remained blank.
"Nothing important."
The creature lunged.
Kitrawr struck first.
Moon Water speared through the room, forming a blade that cut the Lost Soul in half.
The two pieces hit opposite walls.
Black blood sprayed across the floor.
For one second, no one moved.
Then both halves began crawling.
The front half dragged itself toward Xion.
The back half grew another mouth.
Kitrawr sighed.
"How irritating."
Xion stepped back.
"It can regenerate?"
"It can divide."
"That is worse."
The rear half leaped toward Kimiko.
Vera shoved the princess down and slashed with both knives. One blade cut through a limb. The other sank into the creature's mouth.
It bit down.
The knife vanished.
Not broken.
Eaten.
Vera stared at her empty hand.
"That was expensive."
Kimiko's foxfire erupted.
Azure flames slammed into the creature, throwing it across the corridor. The fire clung to its body, burning black flesh into smoke.
For a moment, it worked.
Then the creature opened its mouth and swallowed the flame.
Kimiko stared.
"It ate my fire."
Xion moved beside her.
"Gluttony."
"That was my favorite fire."
"You have favorite flames?"
"Of course I do."
The front half of the Lost Soul crawled from the infirmary.
Its body had already begun growing.
The room's furniture shrank around it.
Not physically.
The wood blackened, softened, and flowed toward the creature's mouth in thin streams. Bed frame. Cabinet. Broken lamp. Even the cloth sheets peeled apart into threads and disappeared between its teeth.
Every object it consumed added mass.
Its body swelled.
New limbs pushed from its sides.
The circular mouth widened.
Sean opened his pocket watch and whispered a phrase in Vaidika.
Golden symbols rose from the face.
"By recorded truth, reveal the false appetite."
The Owl Eyes flared.
Threads appeared around the creature.
Not fate threads like Venus's.
Information.
Connections.
Bram.
The female waiter.
The cargo hold.
The banquet wine.
The storm.
Sean's face changed.
"This is not random."
Xion looked at him.
"What did you see?"
"The Lost Soul was brought aboard."
"By the assassins?"
"Possibly. But they did not create it."
The creature screamed.
The sound traveled through the ship.
Then screams answered from below.
Multiple.
Sean looked toward the floor.
"There are more hosts."
Kitrawr's eyes closed.
Her senses spread through the cruiser.
Blue-white light moved along the walls like veins beneath skin.
When her eyes opened again, she looked annoyed.
"Six."
Vera tightened her grip on her remaining knife.
"Six Lost Souls?"
"Six bodies carrying pieces of one Lost Soul."
Xion understood.
"It divided itself before boarding."
Sean nodded.
"A distributed Gluttony entity."
Kimiko looked between them.
"Can it rejoin?"
The ship shook.
A heavy impact struck from the cargo deck below.
Then another.
Kitrawr's pale eyes narrowed.
"Yes."
The floor beneath them bulged upward.
Everyone moved.
The boards exploded.
A massive black arm tore through the deck.
It struck the ceiling, fingers spreading like hooked branches. Black fluid ran from the limb, eating holes through the carpet and wall panels wherever it landed.
Kimiko shouted as Vera pulled her backward.
Sean raised a golden ward.
The arm slammed into it.
The ward cracked.
Xion's pocket watch artifact clicked wildly inside his coat.
He pulled it free.
The single hand spun, then stopped.
It pointed not at the arm.
At the far wall.
Xion followed it.
A shadow stood there.
Human-shaped.
Female.
The waiter.
She watched from the end of the corridor, still wearing the black dress and white apron from the banquet room.
Her smile was gone.
A small token hung from her hand.
Iron.
Shaped like a gull.
The Iron Gull.
Xion's eyes narrowed.
"There."
The woman turned and ran.
Vera immediately moved after her.
Kimiko grabbed her sleeve.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Yes."
"Princess."
"I'm not staying next to the mouth monster."
"That is a fair point," Xion said.
Vera glared at him.
"Do not encourage her."
Sean struggled to hold the barrier against the enormous arm.
"Go. I'll contain this piece."
Kitrawr looked toward the hole in the floor.
"I will deal with the main body."
Xion looked at her.
"Alone?"
Kitrawr's smile returned.
It was not sleepy now.
It was hungry in a different way.
"I was eating monsters before your kingdoms learned to name the ocean."
Then she stepped into the hole.
Not fell.
Stepped.
Water rose from beneath the ship and caught her feet.
She descended into the lower deck like a goddess entering her own temple.
The enormous arm jerked after her.
Sean's barrier shattered.
The limb withdrew through the floor.
Below them came a roar.
Kitrawr's.
Then something answered.
Deep.
Wet.
Full of teeth.
The cruiser tilted sharply.
Passengers screamed from above.
Xion grabbed the wall.
Kimiko nearly fell, but Vera caught her waist.
Sean snapped his pocket watch shut.
"Xion, follow the waiter. Do not engage unless necessary."
Xion stared at him.
"That sounds like an invitation to engage."
"It is the opposite."
"Then you should phrase it better."
Sean looked exhausted already.
"Vera, keep the princess behind you."
Kimiko protested.
"I can fight."
"You can," Sean said. "That is why you are dangerous to the Lost Soul and useful to the assassin. Do not let pride make their job easier."
Kimiko's ears lowered.
The words landed.
She did not like them.
That was why they worked.
Vera pulled her toward the corridor.
Xion followed.
The waiter had disappeared around the corner, but Clock could still feel the disturbed intervals she left behind. Footsteps arrived slightly too late. A door closed before the sound of its hinges. Her shadow turned before her body had.
Wrong.
She was carrying something.
Or something was carrying her.
They reached the next junction.
Three directions.
Engine room.
Cargo hold.
Crew kitchen.
Xion stopped.
Vera looked at him.
"Which way?"
He closed his eyes.
Clock ticked.
The world became fragments.
Recent motion.
Heat disturbed by a passing body.
A faint chemical smell.
Salt.
Blood.
Oil.
The pocket watch pointed toward the crew kitchen.
Xion opened his eyes.
"Kitchen."
Kimiko frowned.
"Why would an assassin go to the kitchen?"
Xion started walking.
"Knives. Food. Staff exits. Or she's hungry."
"That last one was not funny."
"It wasn't a joke."
They entered the kitchen corridor.
Pots and pans hung from hooks along the walls. The ship's motion made them sway gently, tapping against one another.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
The sound followed them.
Several plates lay shattered on the floor.
A trail of black liquid led toward the pantry.
Vera crouched and touched the edge with the back of her knife.
The metal began dissolving.
She pulled it away.
"Same residue."
Kimiko's foxfire lit the corridor.
The pantry door stood open.
Darkness beyond.
Xion heard chewing.
Slow.
Careful.
Human.
They entered.
The waiter stood in the center of the pantry with her back to them.
Shelves surrounded her, stocked with bread, salted meat, dried fruit, grain, wine, and spices.
Or what remained of them.
Half the food was gone.
The woman held a raw piece of meat in both hands.
She bit into it.
Blood ran down her chin.
Kimiko's face twisted.
"That's disgusting."
The waiter stopped chewing.
Then turned.
Her eyes were normal.
Brown.
Tired.
Human.
Tears streamed down her face.
"Help me."
Vera raised her knife.
The woman shook her head desperately.
"I didn't know. They gave me the token. They said it would frighten the princess. They said the creature would only make people sick."
Xion looked at the Iron Gull token hanging from her wrist.
Black veins had spread from it into her skin.
The object was feeding on her.
Or through her.
Sean had been right.
The assassins had brought the Lost Soul aboard, but they did not understand what it was.
"Take it off," Kimiko said.
"I can't."
The woman sobbed.
"I tried."
She held up her wrist.
The token had fused into the flesh.
The gull's iron wings moved faintly.
Like breathing.
Will Breaker spoke inside Xion's Core.
[Relic anchor.]
'Can we break it?'
[Yes.]
'Safely?'
A pause.
[Possibly.]
'That is not confidence.'
[You are holding a Chaos Key of Judgment and asking for caution.]
The waiter suddenly doubled over.
A bulge moved through her throat.
She coughed.
A black coin fell from her mouth and struck the floor.
Then another.
Then another.
Iron tokens.
Each marked with the gull symbol.
Vera's eyes widened.
"She's carrying more anchors."
The woman clawed at her throat.
"Get them out."
Her stomach swelled.
Kimiko stepped back.
Xion looked at Vera.
"Can you restrain her?"
"Yes."
"Without cutting anything important?"
Vera gave him an offended look.
"I'm a professional."
"You hid six weapons in a maid outfit."
"Seven."
Xion glanced at her hair ornament.
"Of course."
Vera moved.
She swept behind the waiter, hooked one arm around her shoulders, and pinned both wrists. The woman screamed and thrashed with surprising strength.
Kimiko raised both hands.
Azure foxfire formed into thin bands that wrapped around the woman's ankles.
Xion approached.
The Iron Gull token pulsed.
The black veins spread farther.
Will Breaker manifested faintly inside his mind's eye, arms folded.
[Use Rejection.]
'I thought I couldn't use books as abilities.'
[You cannot use them as ordinary Array abilities. They are continuity anchors bound outside the normal Pathway progression.]
'Convenient.'
[Dangerous.]
'Less convenient.'
Xion removed his left glove.
Three marks glowed beneath the skin.
Regression.
Rejection.
Judgment.
The mark of Rejection burned black and crimson.
He placed two fingers against the Iron Gull token.
The relic was cold.
Then hot.
Then both.
A whisper entered his mind.
Hungry.
Xion's jaw tightened.
The relic tried to establish ownership.
Host.
Carrier.
Food.
Door.
It tried to define him.
Xion pressed harder.
"No."
The token pulsed.
The whisper grew louder.
Hungry.
"You don't get to claim me."
The Rejection mark flared.
A black-red line spread from Xion's fingers into the token.
The iron gull screamed.
Not metaphorically.
A thin metallic shriek filled the pantry.
Kimiko covered one ear while maintaining the foxfire restraints.
Vera gritted her teeth.
The waiter convulsed.
The black veins pulled backward.
The token tore free from her wrist.
Xion caught it.
The moment it left her body, the waiter went limp in Vera's arms.
The other Iron Gull tokens on the floor began rattling.
Then all turned toward Xion.
Like compass needles.
That was bad.
Will Breaker's voice sharpened.
[Drop it.]
Xion threw the token.
Vera kicked the pantry door shut.
The token hit the far wall.
All the Iron Gulls exploded.
Black mist filled the pantry.
The shelves vanished behind it.
Kimiko's foxfire flared outward, forming a protective ring.
Shapes moved inside the mist.
Mouths.
Hands.
Faces stretched from hunger.
The Gluttony Lost Soul spoke through all of them.
"Give."
Xion's eyes narrowed.
"Give what?"
"Name."
The mist pressed against the foxfire.
"Memory."
The flames bent inward.
"Authority."
Kimiko strained.
"It's eating my fire again!"
Vera dragged the unconscious waiter toward the door.
"Then stop feeding it!"
"I'm trying!"
Xion looked at the black mist.
The entity had not followed them physically.
This was a projected piece.
A mouth formed through the anchors.
A feeding route.
Its main body below deck was using the Iron Gull network to consume from multiple places at once.
Will Breaker appeared more clearly in his mind.
[Judgment.]
'What about it?'
[Use me.]
'How?'
[Call my name.]
Xion hesitated.
'That's it?'
[Names are never just names.]
The mist surged.
Kimiko's foxfire barrier cracked.
Xion raised his left hand.
"Will Breaker."
The Judgment mark opened.
Red light burst from his palm.
The pantry vanished beneath a wave of crimson-black energy.
A weapon formed in Xion's hand.
Not a sword.
Not fully.
A broken blade wrapped in red script and black chains of light. Its edge looked unfinished, as if reality had stopped halfway through deciding what it should become.
Will Breaker's voice echoed from the weapon and inside his mind at once.
[State the crime.]
Xion stared at the Gluttony mist.
The mouths lunged.
"Unlawful consumption."
The blade ignited.
Kimiko looked at him.
"That sounds ridiculous."
"It worked."
[State the target.]
"The Iron Gull anchors."
The weapon hummed.
[State the judgment.]
Xion's crimson eyes sharpened.
"Rejected."
He swung.
The blade did not cut the mist.
It cut the connection.
Every black mouth froze.
The red script on the weapon flashed.
Far below the ship, something screamed.
The mist collapsed.
The Iron Gull fragments shattered into ordinary rust.
The pantry returned.
Shelves.
Food.
Broken glass.
Smoke.
Silence.
Xion lowered the weapon.
Will Breaker dissolved back into the mark on his hand.
His knees nearly gave out.
Kimiko caught his shoulder.
"You okay?"
Xion looked at her.
"That was almost concern."
"I can drop you."
"I'm fine."
"You always say that."
"I'm usually correct eventually."
Vera dragged the unconscious waiter into the corridor.
"Save the argument. The connection broke, but the main body is still below us."
The ship shook again.
A massive roar traveled upward through the decks.
Then water burst through the floorboards at the far end of the corridor.
It did not flood randomly.
It formed a wall.
Within that wall stood Kitrawr.
Her clothing was torn along one sleeve. Black blood stained her pale blue skin. The serpent-flame halo behind her burned brighter than before.
She stepped out of the water.
Behind her, the liquid sealed itself.
Xion stared.
"You look terrible."
Kitrawr looked down at her torn sleeve.
"This was expensive."
Kimiko pointed.
"You're bleeding."
Kitrawr touched the black stain on her side.
"Not mine."
A deep impact struck the hull.
The entire ship groaned.
Kitrawr's expression became serious.
"The pieces are joining."
Sean appeared behind her, breathing heavily. His robe had been torn at the shoulder, and one lens of his glasses was cracked.
"The cargo hold," he said. "It is pulling every remaining host toward the lower compartment."
Vera looked at the unconscious waiter.
"How many hosts remain?"
Sean's Owl Eyes flared.
"Four."
Kitrawr shook her head.
"Three."
Sean looked at her.
"One was consumed."
The corridor went silent.
Kimiko's foxfire dimmed slightly.
Xion slid his glove back over the glowing marks.
"What happens when they all join?"
Kitrawr's pale eyes moved toward the floor.
"It becomes whole."
"How strong?"
She smiled without humor.
"Strong enough to eat the ship before reaching shore."
Outside, the ocean shifted.
The cruiser tilted toward the port side.
Passengers screamed from above.
The hull creaked as something enormous moved beneath the cargo deck.
Xion looked toward the stairwell.
His first mission had begun with protecting a princess from two assassins.
Now one assassin was broken, the other had become a host, an ancient Sea God Beast had joined his group, and a Gluttony Lost Soul was preparing to consume a cruiser carrying more than three hundred people.
He sighed.
"I miss the poison."
Kimiko stared at him.
"You drank it on purpose."
"I still miss when it was the main problem."
Kitrawr lifted both hands.
Water coiled around her wrists.
Sean opened his damaged pocket watch.
Vera shifted the unconscious waiter over one shoulder and drew another hidden knife.
Kimiko's foxfire burned brighter.
Xion looked at them.
"No one goes alone."
Sean raised an eyebrow.
"That is surprisingly sensible."
"I'm capable of sense."
"Occasionally."
Will Breaker stirred inside him.
[The Lost Soul knows your Pathway.]
'You said that already.'
[It may not be trying to eat the ship.]
Xion's expression changed.
'What is it trying to eat?'
A slow knock came from beneath the floor.
Once.
Twice.
Then the creature's voice traveled through the cruiser.
Every wall spoke at once.
"False… God…"
Kitrawr looked at Xion.
Sean went pale.
Kimiko's ears flattened.
Will Breaker answered coldly.
[You.]
The lights went out.
In the darkness below, something began climbing.