4 The Ruler and The Infinity

"A strong ruler never just watches! Use your power damn it!" Samuel yelled as Captain Garret knocked him out with a swift chop to the back of the neck.

"That brat," the rat man said, holding his nose that dripped blood, "I should have him killed for that!" The rat man looked at Garret, hoping that he would agree with him.

Terror. The side eye that made the rat's soul feel sidelined. Terror. With his 5 senses of; smell, taste, sight, touch, hearing; working no longer for his pleasure, but for his survival. Terror gloomed over him like a cloud blocking the sun on a sunny day. Sweat swam down the sides of his face like raindrops during a hurricane. it dripped faster than his own blood. "Ah- Captain Garret," the rat man said fixing his posture. "I didn't mean anything by it. I'll just erase this whole thing and won't report it back to the Admiral"

"Leave. You've killed my men for no reason. You've stolen from me. Now you threaten my new student. Leave, or by the gods in Infinity I will rain down spears upon your whole crew- no the whole Navy itself. Until I die or until the gods rip me away from this world. Do I make myself clear!"

"Yes, captain! Men! We leave for Water Prison immediately," the rat man rushed toward his ship, ushering his men to move along as quick as possible. "Sir what about the dead," a navy man asked. "Leave them! Return to the ship."

As all the navy men ran back to the ship, and set off, Garret looked around the deck of his ship. Each man plastered with red on their clothing and skin, the pattern of the splashes, the size of each gunshot hole, the amount of ooze that came out of a man. It all engrained themselves into Garret's mind.

"Captain," a teary eyed Jordan whimpers, "What are we going to do."

What are we going to do, Garret thought.

"What are we going to do," Junior asks several hours later waking up in a small row boat with his father rowing the boat while reading a book.

"Oh, you're awake already," Garret said, turning a page in his book, while also taking a puff from a recently lit cigar. "Careful getting up. Sam is still knocked out cold."

"Did you hit him with Infinity," Junior asks looking at Sam who slept soundly next to him in a balled up position. "I thought you said you got your control down."

"Well, I thought I did. I was sure I only hit him without any Infinity though. I guess I can't completely get rid of it as quickly as I want to."

"See this is why I told you we needed to get a eunuch! Jordan's detector was not going to get us that far."

"It got us through 20 years."

"Yeah, 20 years of crewmates dying! Even if they did survive, they had no proper training," Junior coughed after the sentence left his mouth. It echoed throughout the quiet night sea.

Captain Garret "Junior. You wouldn't understand. You weren't even born when I left the navy."

"Why did you leave?"

Silence rose, as Samuel silently rose from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He looked all around him, the open sea, and the two men that sat still, intensely staring at one another. He stood up, rocking the row boat a bit, then leaned his body toward the edge of the boat.

"Don't fall out Sam," Garret said retreating into his book.

"Why didn't you fight back? People die all the time? What kind of bullshit is that! Avenge them at least," Sam slumped back into the boat, sitting on Junior's spear.

"Sam- this goes to you too Junior. First off, shut up. All these questions in the middle of the night, distracting me from my book," Garret closed the book with his thumb between pages to save where he was at. He stopped rowing the boat, turned around, then pointed at the cover of the book with his other hand as the boat came to a stop. "I don't usually read nonfiction works, but this one is..." He went silent, reading the cover of the book, then the back.

Meanwhile Sam and Junior watched annoyed.

"Ah! The basics of Infinity, it's written by some eunuch. That's where we're going by the way. To Eunuch Mountain."

"You didn't answer any of the questions we asked you," Sam and Junior say simultaneously.

"I bet I answered a question you had later though. Now that's foreshadowing"

"Dad, that's not foreshadowing."

"Seriously?"

"Wait, what's foreshadowing," Sam asked.

"How do you- Never mind. That's not what's important here. Why are we going to Eunuch Mountain," Junior asked letting out a hard cough.

"Now that's a question I will answer. So since Jordan's phenomenon detector got taken, we decided that we will split it for now. Jordan will get funds together and begin reforming the crew. While I go to a eunuch to get training. Sam will go to learn the basics of Infinity. While you, Junior, will go to experience a phenomenon."

Junior jumped up, rocking the boat enough to get water splashed into it. "Seriously! Finally!" A huge smile grew across Junior's face.

"Why can't you teach me some basics," Sam asks reminiscing on his punch on the rat man.

Junior fell back down to the floor of the boat, he let out a few coughs before laying back down. "I completely forgot to ask, who is this guy dad."

"He's a featherless bird," Garret said opening his book up again to read it. He held the book with both hands, as he did the boat began to move forward.

"Huh? Not that again, that's a cursed title. Sorry, Sam."

"What," Sam asked scratching his head, "My mom said that curses don't exist," Sam turns to Garret and notices the boat moving without Garret touching the oar.

"Wait, how are you-"

"Infinity. From now on Sam you will begin your infinite journey on the path of understanding infinity," Garret said flipping through another page. "Cool quote right? I got it from this book."

"And this is the part where I go back to bed," Junior said coughing and turning to his side. He struggled to settle himself, before he turned back around to grab his spear from under Sam. "This isn't a seat, dumbass," he said as he held it tight and wiggled himself into a comfortable position.

"Sorry," Sam says as he stands up. "Stay standing," Garret yells, flipping through yet another page.

"If you want to grasp infinity. You need to know where it is. You can't expect to count if you've never seen how much one is. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah like one melones."

"Exactly. I don't know any of the hard science of it all so I'll try to explain it," he paused for a moment, then continued, "Infinity is everywhere! In the air, in ourselves, in the sea, and even in the very earth. It exists right now, has existed in the past, and will exist in the future. What makes infinity so great is that it can be shaped however you want it!"

Garret closes his book and puts it on the ground, as he does the boat stops moving. He stands up and turns to Sam. "What I am about to show you here, will change your life forever. To be able to grasp infinity means to have the ability to conquer the very essence of existence."

Garret extends his arm outside of the boat, opening his hand. "First you feel the infinity inside you. Then you feel the warmness of the cold breeze that flows throughout every fiber of your body. Once you feel that, release it out of your body."

Junior got chills down his spine, which woke him up from his sleep. However the warm air that protruded from Garret's body, followed by the calming cool breeze, excited Samuel to a point of inspiration.

"Once it's released. You firmly grasp it!" Garret clenches his fist, immediately the breeze that Samuel felt disappeared, it turned into a white blueish flame like aura around Garret's hand. "Take a good look Sam! This is infinity."

Sam's face was blank, his mouth open, but his deep eyes lit up. His mind however had one sentence running through his head. To grasp the infinity is the power to conquer.

"Sam, what is your goal in life," Garret asks lowering his arm and making his infinity disappear.

Before Samuel could answer Garret's question, one must first know of his past to fully understand the weight of his answer. The terrible island from which he was born and raised in. The terrible island that Samuel forces himself to forget the name of. The terrible island where Samuel was the sole survivor of the phenomenon that took place there. it was an island of the abandoned.

Due to the island being full of people who were abandoned, the poverty rate was so severe that the concept of being rich had seized to exist in the society of the island. No matter what level of society you were from, you struggled to survive on a daily basis. Education was rare, food was scarce and fighting was rampant. There were only two high paying jobs on the island.

The first was the hardly successful government. The second were the people who provided the island's inhabitants with special services. Among those people was an educated young lady that meant by many names, Naomi was the most common one that she was called. The second most common was, "Mom!"

A 10 year old Samuel called out one day. "What is it Sammy," Naomi responded. "Can you read to me again?"

"You know I can't I have work soon. Why don't you go play with London?" she said crouching down to be at eye level with him. "All he does is fight me, I don't always want to fight."

"You're growing up to be big and strong. You need to be able to take hits and to even read on your own."

"But," he put his head down. Naomi raised from her crouching position to a standing one, she patted him on the head. "Come on, let's go buy something from the market." He grabbed her hand as she began walking out of their little tent of a house.

The walk to the market wasn't far, but it felt long to Samuel, who continued to see many men hit on his mother, it was the same thing everyday. At first Samuel thought it was strange, but his mother told him this, "They keep complimenting me, because they know if they don't they'll be angering their ruler." What Samuel asked next and what his mother's exact words after, was all a blur to him, but he remembers the essence of what she was trying to say.

"I am as powerful as the government. I've conquered their hearts so now they obey me."

Samuel's biggest idol and inspiration for everything he stands for. No! The person who had fully conquer Samuel, was his mother. Much like most children, Samuel wanted to be exactly like his mom. So when Garret asked Samuel the question of what his goal in life was. The light in Samuel's eyes disappeared, the darkness strengthened, and his mouth closed.

"I want to conquer the world."