Bro, I'm not an Undead!

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

Kintar donned a duck face and turned to Uyuniya and Elita.

"What the fuck was that response? Was that name supposed to mean something?" she said.

"I've never heard it before," said Elita, and she unleashed her Broodweiler.

"He's probably using it to judge what we know and maybe our affiliation as well. Apparently, his verdict is that we're ignorant, weak fools," said Uyuniya, surging with Amras like the eyeball.

And indeed, the eyeball thought so. Hiding the translator he'd been using, he cried, "Mongul!" and his hairy partner growled threefold, excited.

Mongul's three heads livened. Amras flushed from his Broader Existence, and he planted both his hands on the catfish Fiend's skin, channeling a large chunk of it through the creature. The Fiend hissed and grew restless. Its fins and whiskers, which were already lit, stark white, shone further. The creature drew back, swimming rather quickly in the density of the great void, and then flashed forth, crashing headfirst into the cubical Gradient Cage around Amanas!

There was a muffled bang. The catfish drew back again, its mass squelching as it grew larger. It flashed forward again, striking the barrier. Again, and again, and again and…

"…Are they idiots?" said Kintar, dumbfounded.

The barrier didn't budge at all, and of course, it didn't. The Gradient Cage was Amanas' strongest shield. Earlier, it had been able to withstand the might of a Retucent without being crushed immediately. That was the power of a Void rank Treasure.

"I…guess so," replied Elita uncertainly.

Uyuniya looked more disappointed than surprised. "With the impression they just gave, I thought they'd be able to tell the value of our vessel. That is their target, right?"

"Without a doubt."

Elita squinted at the catfish. It hammered against the barrier for the thirteenth time, its size now even more imposing. That didn't make a difference, however. It seemed that the Fiend's unique quality was to feed off of Amras and get marginally stronger, but as she and Uyuniya had said, the creature was far from being the most formidable kind of Fiend.

How did the three Divines riding it not realize that it wouldn't be a match for a Void rank Treasure? Even as pirates, they should have known that, unless they had only just recently become Divine and taken to piracy to survive.

'Or is it that…?' Elita hurried to dismiss the budding thought. She was affording too much consideration to these scrubs. The haggard and weary look of them should have already told her all there was to know.

"I'll blast them with the ship's—" Uyuniya began, when Kintar waved a hand.

"Don't you dare," said the Unlimited Star. "Like I said, these idiots have their uses."

…

On top of the catfish Fiend, the stone woman was shaking her head and crying out, "STOP IT! IT'S CLEARLY NOT WORKING!"

Mongul looked at her, his three faces ripe with frustration. He stopped channeling Amras into the Fiend.

"That's a powerful ship. How did a couple of mortals and a Divine get their hands on that? Is it a Realm rank tool?" said the stone woman.

The eyeball rolled and grunted in annoyance. "They are called Treasures. A Realm rank Treasure. And no, it's not, Kiek. It's far stronger, otherwise, we would have been able to make it budge at least. By the Stellars, why did I have to get stuck with you two, out of everyone?"

"Right back at you, Pell!" Kiek, the stone woman shouted. "I would rather have stayed with everyone else, trapped and deathly afraid. At least I wouldn't be one everyone was placing their hopes on. Let's hurry on and get that vessel already. There has to be a way around that barrier, right?"

Pell the eyeball rolled again. "If only it were that simple for beginner Divines to fight high-ranking Treasures. Why don't you try ramming your fat, hard head against the barrier, hmm? That ought to shatter even the heavens themselves!"

"Pell!" Mongul broke the tension with a voice like a bark. His three heads pointed forward, at the vessel.

Instead of only the three women from before, now dozens more mortals had appeared. All of them dressed in a distinct suit of armour, but strangely, they had other articles of protection or offense. Treasures.

"How? Did I mistake their standing? Are they actually from one of the Stellars?" Pell said, shuddering.

"No way," said Kiek. "You saw their faces. They didn't have a clue who Thyrgga is." She lunged forth along the catfish Fiend's head, and a Treasure appeared in her hand, a basic-looking double-edged sword. "We're getting that vessel, Pell!"

The eyeball groaned. "Not with empty-headed tactics we're not!"

…But he turned to Mongul and signalled for him to follow after Kiek. The werewolf-shaped Divine raced along and leaped into the great void as well. It was hard maneuvering in that darkness, but for Divines, it was manageable. Amras reinforcement made it much easier.

"Look at that!" said Kiek after taking a glance behind her for Mongul. She grinned at the sight before her. "They went and turned their brains off!"

A tide of mortals was leaping from the wooden city carved on top of Amanas, through the Gradient Cage, and into the great void, brandishing their Treasures bravely. They were serious. Instead of the Divine being, Kiek and Mongul would be facing down a bunch of mortals who, as soon as they left the protection of the cubical barrier surrounding their vessel, were almost completely stripped of their momentum by the density and coarseness of the great void.

Some of them looked startled, some immediately began sweating bullets, blood veins throbbing on their foreheads and temples as they strained to move.

Kiek and Mongul bled bloodlust.

It was going to be a slaughter.

'And I thought we were the idiots!' thought the stone woman, and her grip on her World rank Prime Treasure, Dwain Bust, firmed up. Her World Affluent Amras saturated her body, and with a rush of excitement, she unleashed it against the formation of pathetic enemies.

Bottom-of-the-barrel quality as it might have been, even World Affluent Amras was too rich for mortals. In a wide, harsh wave, it blasted the Stark Troops, threatening to kill in one shot or, at the very least, maim grimly.

It did both. The effect on such a wide scale made Kiek feel strong and capable. She hadn't felt like that at all since her recent ascendance into Divinity, not to mention…

"Kill them all!" she cried, urging Mongul.

Brandishing Dwain Bust, she set to cleave the few who resisted dying instantly.

…But then the reality of the situation struck her in the face.