Davina Jones had now been exposed from where she was hidden.
She stood in the crater in the sea, standing on top of a rock the size of a mountain. The water around her was still churning, still healing from the wound that had been carved into its surface. She looked at the destruction that surrounded her the shattered ships, the scattered bodies, the sea itself torn apart like paper. It looked unreal.
It was not even something near anything she saw when she was alive. Neither was it like anything she had heard of. This was like a new world to her, something that was not in her reach. As she stood there, she could only say one word.
"This power..." She looked at the crater, at the ruins, at the evidence of what the Black Knight had done. "That Black Knight—how did he get it?"
She shook her head.
"This is out of anything."
The man marked with the X on his face walked up to her from behind.
His boots crunched against the rock, each step deliberate, measured, calm. She turned and saw his full body, which she had not been able to clearly see earlier. He wore a destroyed navy uniform that was sprayed red the fabric torn, the buttons missing, the blood still wet. He looked like a ghost, a spectre, a man who had walked through hell and emerged on the other side.
She said to him, her voice quiet, uncertain.
"You were once a member of the navy?"
He smiled and said to her, his voice warm, almost affectionate.
"Yes, that's right." He paused. "I was once a member."
He laughed a short, soft, knowing sound.
"HAHA. " He tilted his head. "You could say I was the greatest navy man."
She was about to say something to him, but then he interrupted her. He put his fingers across her lips, silencing her. His touch was gentle, but firm.
He said to her, his voice dropping.
"It's better you remain quiet and don't pry anymore into my life." He paused. "After all, I'm not your ally."
He removed his hands from her lips.
"I'm just on a mission to deliver a lost daughter to her father."
He paused.
"Even we will have to fight our own battles."
He looked at her.
"Davina Jones." His voice hardened. "I hope that all you have done hasn't drained from you."
He paused.
"We have enemies to fight." His voice dropped. "Or let me correct that we have a very large enemy to fight."
The crater that had been made by the Black Knight didn't just change the landscape of that part of the sea it created a rift, allowing monsters that had been trapped in the waves of the sea to come out.
Behind the man with the X on his face and Davina Jones, a monster emerged.
It had the head of a camel its eyes wide, its nostrils flaring, its mouth open and hungry. The rest of its body was covered with hard rocks, jagged and sharp, like a mountain given life. It had the legs of a spider eight of them, each one long and spindly, each one tipped with a claw that could tear through steel. And it had a worm for a tail that shot out acid, its tip dripping with green, hissing liquid that burned through the rock beneath it.
The man smiled.
He pulled out two guns.
The weapons were long, ornate, deadly their barrels carved with scenes of battle and death, their handles wrapped in leather worn smooth by years of use. He held them in his hands, feeling their weight, their balance, their purpose.
He said, his voice filled with anticipation.
"Well, time for some prime shots."
He laughed a short, sharp, excited sound.
"HEHEHE. HEHEHE."
in the space between the monster's emergence and the warrior's readiness, between the daughter's uncertainty and the banished one's purpose.
Davina stood on the rock.
The banished one raised his guns.
And the sea roared.