VOLUME 2 - TEASER Chapter

This teaser will be updated soon to reveal more information ●○●●●●○○○●○○●○○●●●○

On an island far from any common pirate or marine route, two ships lay stranded on the shore.

One was little more than a wreck, its sniper's nest jutting out of the water, a jolly roger of a sea dog fluttering weakly in the wind. The larger ship, however, remained anchored a few feet away, its hull swaying gently with the rhythm of the waves.

At first glance, the island appeared lifeless. Its soil was rotted, coated with a faint layer of ash that resembled gunpowder. There was hardly a trace of greenery in sight, and a dense fog clung to the island, as if it existed somewhere between the world and the clouds.

Though there were trees, they were few and far between, their trunks dry and brittle, with no leaves, their broken branches hanging like forgotten relics of a bygone age.

Among these withered trees, one stood out—not because it had any leaves, but because its trunk was stained with a deep, red ink. The strange color seemed to be fading, as though the tree itself was absorbing the blood-red hue, drinking it in with a strange urgency.

Leaning against this tree was the head of a human figure, a girl—or was it a woman? Despite the gaping hole in the upper left side of her forehead, where a bullet had clearly struck, she appeared remarkably youthful and beautiful.

Her slightly curly, dark blue hair cascaded around her face, framing lips that were full and a complexion pale yet unmarred.

Next to her stood beings I could hardly describe, for as the SYSTEM, I should've understood them. But I didn't. They were entities of bone—skeletons, but not just in their limbs. Their entire forms were skeletal, though some wore strands of white hair, a bizarre contradiction to their eerie, deathly appearance.

"Pack her up," muttered one of the skeletons, its voice dry and hollow. In its mind, I could hear its thoughts: Poor lads... they fell for the same trap I did a hundred years ago. Eh, at least they'll be revived to serve that bastard...

Across the island, several bodies—three women and a man—were being dragged toward a deep hole in the ground, perhaps ten feet deep. The bodies were stacked one on top of the other, discarded like refuse and hastily covered by a thin layer of the same sickly, dead soil.

Watching over them was a seven-foot figure, part man, part skeleton. His body was a grotesque patchwork of flesh and bone. As he took a drag from a wooden pipe, he coughed quietly, muttering to himself, "Two weeks... Hopefully."