For two weeks I sail with my ship across the sea to the north and see neither the Giants nor any land, safe let the chunks of floating ice aside. And when the dawn comes, another day will be added to that period. I am amazed that those bluish glowing cages haven´t extinguished, though I have done nothing for their maintenance. I´d like to ensure that they continue to shine in the future, however, this is a spell I don´t know anything about. Although that magic has similarities with the lost magic of Olaphis, the light itself is completely different than any of those spells. That's why I don't want to take the risk of accidently shorten the lifespan of those spells by trying the complete opposite, their light has already become dim enough. At least I can see more than 300m, thanks to the light emitted from the moon and the stars. Since the sea is pretty stormy today, I am grateful for this sky. I am also grateful that my ship isn't breaking apart, despite being hit by such strong waves, considering the interior was flooded previously. It probably would have sunken down if I hadn't evaporated the water with my Pyromancy. However, it has taken a while, as I did not want to accidentally set the ship ablaze. I have disposed of the ballast, except for some items of from my side and several arms holders. These are now occupied by armours, which have convinced me through their particularly high protection against specific threats. In addition I nailed the arms holders to the wall, so that the armours won't scatter all across the room when the waves become especially violent. Controlling the ship didn´t go smooth in the beginning. It´s not enough just to turn a steering wheel, you have to adjust the sails to the wind direction, which makes it pretty clear that this ship was not designed to be controlled by only one man. Nevertheless, with some effort I was able to ensure that my craft didn´t do a 180 degree turn downwards within the first hour of lifting the anchor.

So I stand in front of the steering wheel fighting the waves when they suddenly stop after some time. From one moment to the next, the sea has become completely calm, not even the tiniest of waves in sight. The light that shines on my ship has become brighter than usual, too. As I look up into the sky, my suspicion has not been confirmed: The moon isn´t coloured in blood-red. I look at the ocean: No sign of a swirl. I remember to the day where the moon took on such a color. At that time, a whirlpool appeared on the sea which was more or less the gateway to Drangeleic. This is not the case today, but unfortunately, there was no wind for the sails either; not even a breeze. Then I hear the cry of an eagle behind me, so I turn around looking into the sky. He´s still coming back after all those defeats at my hand? If he continues on like that he´ll turn into a hollow, if he hasn´t already become one. As expected the Giant Eagle carried a person in its claws. However, I did not expect that the person is not my most intrusive tracker, but someone wearing a brown habit. What´s even worse is that this person once asked me to kill other Undead that hadn´t gone hollow yet, even though they didn´t do anything to warrant such a drastic step and he was supposed to still be in the prison build for him by his "vessel". I immediately got into a combat stance, with my left hand I grabbed the curved sword Eleum Loyce, a gift from Alsanna, a child of the dark. With my right hand I grabbed the hilt of the enhanced Katana, I found together with the Armor of the previous owner in the tower at the Centre of the Kingdom of Alken. Shortly afterwards he hit the deck only a few meters in front of me at the edge of the ship in a flexed posture without showing any signs of injury from the fall. Slowly righting, he looks into my eyes. "Why are you here?" His eyes never leave mine as he stands back up: "You sent your minions after me with the intention to kill me. So i thought I simply kill you before that happens." As the moonlight hits his face, its `Vessel`´s lineage from the Fenitos is revealed.

"You work for somebody." "Nonsense. I simply do what the gods granted me to do." "Somebody has released you from that barrier. It´s unlikely that you got free by yourself" He grins at me: "That´s true. It was a hollow. Despite her broken mind, she somehow managed to operate the lever." Her? She? A woman! "Her face was interesting as well. One half had already started to rot while the other half was still normal." He was talking about Lucatiel, no, rather what was left of her. "What did you do to her?" "The same what you do with your victims: I claimed her souls for me."

I should be angry that this parasite killed one of my comrades, no, one of my friends. But since she was already a hollow I feel rather relieved that she doesn´t have to suffer anymore. "You have my thanks for releasing a former comrade from her suffering as a Hollow. But that doesn´t means that I am not going to kill you, now that I have the chance." "Try it, human!" After speaking those words he moves into a combat stance and our fight begins.

Thanks to his deeper voice, I figured out that it wasn´t the "Vessel" that stands before me. I remember our first meeting. I was exploring a mansion, which belonged to Aldia as I found out later. There I found him, sitting on a chair behind a barrier. He covered his eyes with his hands and had very little freedom of movement in his little room. When he saw me, it was the "Vessel" that spoke to me. He begged me to go away and never come back. Shortly thereafter the other personality took over. He told me how he ended up in this situation and how he was created. He then asked me if I am plagued by guilt and memories and if I'm looking for more. I asked him what he meant and why I should help someone who kills people just to demonstrate his power. He asked back, how people like me presume to define what´s good or evil, since he only used what the gods gave him. Finally, he asked me if I intended to kill people in his stead, otherwise he would do it himself and kill even more people. Back then I thought he was just shouting empty threats, because if he could leave his prison, he would have done it so in the first place, so I simply left him to his fate. Shortly after my return from the Throne of Want, I decided to end him before he gets the chance to cause any trouble. But when I arrived at his prison, the barrier was deactivated and he was gone. Since there was no trace of him and I have more pressing matters to attend to, all I could do was to warn every non-hollow that I knew about the lurking threat. After that I returned to my mission, even if the chances of success were less than slim: Tricking the cycle to lift the curse once and for all.

I see him readying his first move, as black ooze starts to form in his hands. Can he conjure magic without any equipment? This is bad. At this moment a large wave hits the ship and lets it sway. I was able to find my balance quickly; he however had to stop his channelling of whatever magic he was going to use. Now! I sheath the sword in my right hand and grab the blade on my chest while I use this opportunity and dash to my enemy as fast as I can. I pull the sword from the scabbard I made. The moonlight shines on this blue-green blade, the size of a long dagger and similarly shaped. It was once part of something bigger, but it shattered into pieces last fight… along with its previous owner. As I´m just 2 steps away from him, he managed to regain his balance. I swing my sword … and thrust it between his eyes. Skin, flesh and bones are separated, as my blade pierces through his skull straight into his brain and damages it heavily. His face contorts into a pained grimace and he lets out a short cry before he falls silent. Now he should collapse like any normal being and lay dead on the ground. Unfortunately, it appears he is anything but a normal being. Although I have pierced his head, neither does he drop to the ground nor does he writhe like a dying man should. Instead a large grin appears on his face. On the edge of my vision I see how he produces dark matter in his right hand. I take a huge step backwards, just in time to be out of reach of his dark blast.

I am preparing to attack him again when I notice something strange on the ground. While on the ground itself is nothing, it seems to glow under reddish light. Reddish light!? I turn my head slightly upwards and to the right so as to observe both the sky and my adversary. There I see the source of the red light: the moon. "What is it lad? Are you speechless because your little knife didn´t help you?" I ignore his mockery, because something strange caught my eye: the sea became calm. Not even a small wave can be seen under the dim light of the lanterns. A foreshadowing feeling grows in me, my opponent however seems to be completely unaware of what´s going on. "Where was I again? Oh yes!" he says to himself before starting to, yet again, manifesting dark energy in his hands. With my left hand I reach for the crossbow on my back and aim at his head. Suddenly the ground disappears beneath my feet and I fall. My opponent isn´t fairing much better, with difference being that I can see what the source of our problem is: the ship toppled. How can that be? There is not a single wave … My thoughts are interrupted when I saw the reason for all this: we were in the middle of a whirlpool. It doesn´t take me long to connect the dots. It begins again. Where will it take me this time? I look up, just to see something frightening: the ship has turned itself upside-down and is just a few meters above us. If the ship travels with us, we will be crushed. Hopefully I regain my consciousness quickly enough so that I´m able to dodge. Will there be enough space for that on the other side? That does not matter at the moment. I check the position of my ship more precisely and realise what the first thing I need to do, on the other side is: I have to dodge to the …

Edit: Here is a tip for what stuff might happen in the next chapter: The protagonist finds himself in knee-high, warm water