FLASH!
Lightning cracked.
BOOM!
Thunder roared.
A lone ship sailed across the raging storm of the sea. It wavered as the strong waves smashed its hull.
Its deck was drenched by the falling rain.
Numerous moving figures could be discerned across the deck of the ship, it seemed every person on the deck was giving their all to ensure that the ship survives the storm.
The captain barked.
"Hold your forts my men."
Beneath the deck, in the darkness that dwelled inside of the ship, was a scene of inhumanity, a scene of slavery.
Children of different ages sat within the ship's interior, all of who were chained to the floor by the metallic collar imprisoning their necks.
Some were naked, some wore ragged clothes, some cuddled in hopelessness, some slept in loneliness, some whimpered in despair, some prayed in hope.
Amongst these children was a figure of a seated boy, the boy was naked as he hugged his feet for warmth.
Unlike the other children in the room, the boy gave off a different feeling, a different...presence.
A sense of emptiness, of nothingness enveloped the boy.
The flowing black hairs, the lifeless gray eyes, the unnatural pale skin, the skinny build that made the boy's bones standout.
The boy seemed to be around sixteen years old.
RAAM!
The ship shuddered.
This made the boy fall on his side. He then picked himself and reassumed his sitting posture. The action did not seem to be voluntary instead it appeared to be on instinct.
On the ship's deck the sound of footsteps grew more chaotic.
The captain, a man in his early fifties wearing a dark frock coat, a waist coat and black trousers stood on the quarterdeck with a brave stance.
The captain gazed at the raging sea with a solemn gaze as droplets of rain flowed on his face.
He then gritted his teeth.
"Do not despair my men, the Brigade has survived many treacherous trials. And I am sure this ti–"
The captain froze as he saw something, something heading right for his ship.
"What in the bloody hells?"
The captain could not make out what the thing was for it was still a distance away but there was no mistake the thing was moving towards them.
The captain narrowed his eyes.
"Turn! Brace the yards."
CROCK!
The Brigade struggled in changing its course, it groaned as it adapted a new path and continued to sail across the raging sea.
The captain sighed, he then threw a glance at the thing that was earlier sailing towards his ship.
That was when the captain paled. The thing, whatever it truly was, it had adjusted its path and was still sailing towards them just from a different angle.
The captain shouted at his men.
"Turn! Full Speed!"
While the captain might not be able to identify the thing sailing towards them, his instincts, the instincts horned from years of sailing across the sea were screaming at him, screaming that he should stay as far away as possible from the thing heading towards them.
The captain breathed in heavily.
'Is that a phantasm?'
Phantasm, a term used to refer to entities that haunted not only the sea but also the land.
What was a phantasm? No one really knew. Just as how no one truly knew the answer to the question, who was an Asterborn?
What was known to the public was that the former were bizarre existences that could not be described by mere words and as for the later, they were a small group of humans who wielded supernatural powers.
The only other thing known about Asterborns was that they were bound to the authority of a given church.
The captain balled his hands into fists.
'I really hope it's not.'
There were no good outcomes when one crosses paths with a phantasm, at least none that were popular amongst the public.
The raging sea, the Selivian sea was not a place that was new to the emergence of phantasms, it just happened that he, the captain had never encountered any of them in his years on the sea.
Despite the captain's effort, the thing that sailed on the sea seemed determined to reach his ship.
The captain gritted his teeth.
"Curses!"
By now the crew on the deck had already noticed the irregularity.
Everyone tensed on the ship as they awaited for whatever horror that was nearing them to reach their ship.
The captain was the first to identify the thing nearing their ship.
It was a lone ship, both ruined and lifeless.
The condition was so poor that it made one question just how it was even able to sail across the sea instead of being plunged into its depth.
The most distinguishable feature of the ship was the presence it gave off.
It felt like it stood amongst the certainties and yet it was favored by the probabilities.
It felt like it was a truth and yet it could pass as a false.
It felt like it was one with the reality and yet it sailed across the illusory.
It felt like a dream and yet the captain could not shake of the feeling that it was....a nightmare.
The already tense atmosphere became heavier as the ruined ship was sail straight towards the right side of the Brigade.
Despair filled everyone as an inevitable fate locked onto their beings.
Then it came.
BOOOM!
The ruined ship hit the side of the Brigade with such a force that everyone on the deck was knocked off their feet.
The situation inside the Brigade was not any better for chaos had descended within the ship.
CRACK!
The people on the deck watched in terror as the Brigade was easily split in half by the ruined ship.
CRAAACK!
It didn't take long for the two parts of the Brigade to start sinking, those who could swim tried their lack with the raging sea and those who could not swim accepted their fated death with open arms.
The children inside the sinking Brigade had no such luxury.
Some cried for help but it went unheard, some tried to break their chains but it was a worthless endeavor and some like the odd boy accepted their end without struggle.