Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Kintar couldn't help but wonder, as she stood amidst the tall, wooden structures above the Amanas, if it was a coincidence.

She'd been forced to stop the vessel and warp herself and two other people to its summit so that she could get a better look at them. But then, something other than the Prime worlds in the distance began shimmering. It was like a flare, shining in a fluctuating purple hue, as though signaling to something… or someone.

As it happened, Pherdanta had also just left with all the new recruits to conduct the Impossible Task in the Timemould Mirror Box.

Was it really a coincidence?

Now, Kintar was left as the acting Commander of the Stark-Soul Order. She, Uyuniya, Elita, and the Troops would be the ones to deal with the threat that had suddenly appeared.

"What do you reckon they want?" Kintar asked Uyuniya.

All three women were eyeing the giant, catfish-shaped Fiend above Amanas warily. It was almost thrice the vessel's size, with great, unassuming eyes on either of its head, and white fins and whiskers that were making a relentless attempt to probe past the barrier around Amanas.

"They are pirates. All we need to know is that their intentions are malicious," said Elita.

"You don't say…" said Kintar, acting surprised and then rolling her eyes. "Plundering, pillaging, pleasuring… Sure, they're probably all for that, but they haven't attacked yet. What are they waiting for? They don't even seem to be preparing for a possible attack. You said that Fiend of theirs isn't even as strong as the ones we blasted before, right?"

"Yes. I do find that strange too," said Uyuniya. She'd been the one to sense the thin but sharp presence of enemies somewhere on the catfish Fiend.

They were all Divine-level threats.

Uyuniya and Elita had faced their share of pirates – individuals with no loyalties to some grander power, who only sought to plunder and survive in the wider Reality. They were even more callous than mortal brigands and rogues, and a lack of decorum, tact, or decent garb was usually a telltale sign as to their identity. There were a large number of organizations in Reality, and most of them desired to maintain their dignity, even in the simplest of ways.

"Should we take the initiative?" Uyuniya said, and then turned to Kintar. "We don't have time to linger here waiting for them to make a move."

Kintar gave a dismissive, posh wave. "Nonsense. We can afford detours, like I said before. I'm curious as to how bandits look on a larger scale. They should be a bigger threat than the goons the Severed Union hired on Aigas. Besides, they could be useful."

Elita was about to retort when the Fiend inched closer, so close that the end of its face bumped into the Gradient Cage around Amanas. It then tilted its head such that the top of it, where a net of fins pulsing with a strange, stark-white energy was brought to full view. Three individuals nested within those fins – the enemies Uyuniya had sensed.

A humanoid with a feminine shape but made almost entirely out of some coarse, black stone was staring with bright, blue eyes. She had an Exora Mead skin in her mouth and two more in her hands.

Another, some hulking, hairy monstroid with resemblance to a werewolf but with three heads atop its torso, was sticking three long tongues from its mouths. Its eyes were so red, they were hard to see from a distance.

Closest to the Fiend's snout was the third figure, and the oddest one among them. A giant eyeball. Its iris flashed pink, the pupil constricting as it honed in on the three women atop Amanas. Suddenly, four spectral arms appeared around it, with some kind of contraption in one of the hands.

Oddly, all three of these enemies looked as though they'd seen better days. The sparse clothing they wore was ripped and burnt, and there were bleeding scars on their bodies. Even the eyeball had gashes all around its iris, all of them tinged with blue blood.

Kintar recoiled at the sight. She looked like someone who'd just eaten spoiled food.

"Urgh. Are they really Divines? Are we sure they aren't Fiends too?" she said.

"Not all worlds have humanoid species, you know?" said Elita.

"…Right," said Kintar, her lip rising in further disgust. "What's that eyeball holding?"

"GREETINGS!"

The sudden bellow of the voice made all three women grimace. The contraption in the hands of the eyeball shone at the same time.

"A translator?" said Uyuniya, twisting a finger in her ear.

"I don't suppose a foreign fucking eyeball would know Aigas' Common Tongue, so yeah."

"OH. TOO LOUD," came the voice again. "Let's try that again. Greetings, all aboard this lovely vessel."

Indeed, the words reached Kintar, Elita, and Uyuniya's ears in the Common Tongue. The Zelozeldian princess was glad she'd taken on learning the language after Aurolio had learned hers.

"Polite pirates," said Kintar, chuckling. "No doubt they are thrilled that only one of us here is Divine."

Elita and Uyuniya thought the same.

"Greetings," said Uyuniya. "Why are you standing in our way?"

The object in the eyeball's hands shone, and the princess' voice echoed from it in a different language. The eyeball's pupil dilated slightly.

"Might you invite us aboard your vessel. As you can see, we've been through some hard times. Some food, a bed, safety for a Consternal or two would be appreciated."

"How convincing," murmured Kintar to herself. She scanned the two other enemies. The hulking mutt looked deranged. All three of its mouths were now frothing. The stone woman whispered something to it, perhaps to calm it down.

"We don't have the room nor the resources," said Uyuniya. "And even if we did, we'd know better than to save it for brigands like you."

The eyeball turned to the other two. "She called us brigands." He'd naturally taken offense to the response. He turned back to the three women.

"Would it change anything if we said we once had the pleasure of an audience with Momem Thyrgga?" he said… somewhat tensely.

"Who?" said Kintar, brows raised. Elita and Uyuniya mirrored her confusion.

That reaction must have meant something, because Amras flared around the eyeball. It was like the entity was abruptly cloaked in hostility.

"I see," said the eyeball. "Well, whoever you work for clearly won't mind what fates you're about to suffer."