Chapter 84: Shadows
A moment later he handed the wheel to the ebony knight and climbed up the mast. The crow’s nest on this ship was much bigger. Perfect room for two. Enough room to sit comfortably while her head rested on his shoulder.
But tonight he sat alone.
The view was perfect. The moon hung low, not quite full, missing a piece of itself. He stared at it for a long time.
"I feel your pain."
Although the ship was full of people, he still felt alone.
Every time he looked down, he saw their shadows. Nora. Richard. Luca. Ana. Darius. Their shapes moving across the deck like a mirage. Visible but untouchable.
They weren’t here. But they left their shadows behind.
His eyes formed pictures. Ana drinking from a bottle she definitely wasn’t sharing, laughing at a hammered Darius who was one sip away from falling overboard. Nora and Luca laughing together—and even now, even in his own imagination, on his own deck, the image made him want to bash Luca’s face in.
And Richard. Standing at the wheel. Gloomy as ever. Silent.
He dove down.
The sea embraced him. Cool water rushed past his face, his chest, pulling the noise out of his head and replacing it with nothing. Beautiful nothing.
He swam alongside the ship, matching its pace, letting the current keep his mind calm.
After a while, the panic settled. The tightness in his chest loosened. And he realized something simple—panicking wasn’t going to help his situation.
So he swam. Deeper. Looking for food.
’They did scrub the entire ship spotless. The least I can do is feed them.’
That, and he almost killed most of them. So a nice meal felt like the bare minimum.
He swam deeper, hunting for one of those eel-like beasts. He was craving that belly meat—the good kind, rich and fatty, the one he once fought the entire crew for. But finding a decent size was harder than he thought. Plenty of creatures down here, sure, but they were small. Bottom of the food chain. The kind of thing other fish bullied.
He needed something bigger.
’This whole process would be so much easier if I just let my beasts do the hunting.’
He sighed.
’But where’s the fun in that?’
He needed to go deeper. Something was keeping all the hunters away. The ones that should be prowling this depth—all gone. And he’d even been nice enough to recall all his beasts beforehand.
’So what’s down there that’s scarier than me?’
He sucked in one more breath and dove again. Deeper. Deep enough to finally feel the pressure squeezing against his ribs. Deep enough for the light above to thin out and the dark below to creep in like it owned the place.
Then he saw it. A single light. Hanging in the water. Still. Patient. Like a lantern left out for someone stupid enough to follow it.
He swam closer.
The pull hit instantly—a massive suction dragging him forward, the water around him funneling into something vast and open and alive. A mouth. He was being swallowed.
Shiro smiled.
’You stink.’
He drove his dagger upward into the roof of its mouth. Lightning erupted from the blade—raw, blinding, turning the black water white. The creature screamed, a deep, guttural sound that vibrated through the ocean like a shockwave.
Shiro used that moment. While its jaw hung open and its body convulsed, he kicked off the tongue, shot through the gap between its teeth, and plunged his dagger straight into the top of its skull.
[You have acquired 1 soul fragment.]
[Soul Fragments: 1/100]
He grabbed the glowing lure dangling from its head with one hand and snatched the small shard falling into the dark with the other. Then he dragged the whole thing to the surface and hurled it onto the deck.
It landed with a wet, heavy thud that shook the planks.
"I really hope you don’t taste as bad as you look," he muttered, pulling himself up after it.
He stared at it. Like part of him didn’t want to touch it, let alone eat it.
The thing was massive—thick, bloated body covered in rough, bumpy skin that looked like someone had glued rocks to its flesh. Its eyes were too small for its head, and worse, they were pointed in completely different directions. A jaw that unhinged wider than anything he’d ever seen.
It probably could have bitten the serpent he fought clean in half with one snap. Rows of needle-thin teeth curved inward, designed not to catch prey but to make sure nothing ever escaped. Its lure still flickered weakly. Pathetic and sad, like a streetlight on its last day. The tail was almost insulting—short, stubby, completely useless for a creature this size.
It was an abomination.
’Damn you, Poseidon. What the hell did you create?’
He wasn’t sure if this thing was actually strong or if every other creature in the area just ran because of how ugly it was.
He skinned it fast, removing the guts and tossing them overboard like they owed him a new pair of eyes. Even its insides were ugly.
’Is there a single part of you that isn’t offensive?’
He cut a piece of flesh and tried it.
’Huh.’
To his surprise, not only was it good—it was actually great. And this ugly monstrosity didn’t carry any poison either.
’So you’re hideous, terrifying, and delicious. Life really isn’t fair, is it?’
He removed the skin and hacked off its nightmare of a head. Then got to work cleaning the rest. Between gutting a fish the size of a small boat and scrubbing the deck of everything it left behind, it took way longer than he expected.
By the time he finished, the sun had come up.
He felt good about getting them food. But he also felt disgusting, so he dove back into the sea and cleaned himself up.
Just as he pulled himself back onto the deck, they started coming up. One by one. Groggy. Half asleep. Rubbing their eyes.
And the first thing they saw was a massive twenty-five-foot skinned beast laid out across the deck like a grotesque buffet display.
Shiro jumped up from the railing, ran his fingers through his soaked hair, and grinned.
"You all hungry?"
