Chapter 25: The Gladius Divinum

"That's the Gladius Divinum?"

"She doesn't look like much."

"Neither do you. Do not underestimate her."

Matt, Creighton, and Izzy were all standing on the side of the ship, looking out through the wind and rain towards a wrecked ship. They had found this ship in the midst of the Bermuda Triangle, as indicated somehow on a map that Auntie Margareta had placed in Matt's quarters. It appeared to be very old and heavily damaged, having been split right down the middle. Clearly this ship, whether it was in fact the Gladius Divinum or not, was hardly a threat to them.

"So you want us to board the ship and take the key?" Creighton asked.

"That's the plan," Matt replied.

"I suppose that the general idea, then, is if we should run into anyone, we take them out?" Izzy asked incredulously.

"I like that," Matt remarked. "Simple, easy to remember!"

"Your chariot awaits!" mocked one of the crew members from a nearby lifeboat. Creighton and Izzy turned to look over at the dingy, a crudely constructed boat that no sane person would use even if their life depended on it. They looked at each other with concern before looking back at Matt.

"Well come on, then, we haven't got all night," he pressed, scooting the two along over to the boat and shoving them into it before quickly retreating back onto a safe part of the ship. The other crew members lowered the boat into the water and had it cast off from the ship towards the wreckage. With no other choice, Creighton and Izzy each grabbed an oar on the boat and began rowing it towards the Gladius Divinum.

"Oi! And if you do run into trouble, just tell them Captain Matt Zero sent you over to settle his debt! Might save your life!" shouted out Matt as the boat continued to get further and further from the ship. About halfway across, Creighton looked back to the ship to see the lights onboard going out one by one.

"Remind me again why Matt isn't joining us on this heroic quest?" Creighton asked.

"Considering the man he's dealing with, something tells me Matt doesn't want to get caught," Izzy murmured, continuing to row.

Upon arriving, the two boarded the floating ruins of the ship, a dismal sight amidst them. Izzy quickly lit a lamp as Creighton picked up a sword off the deck. There was evidence of a struggle, several planks of wood had been decimated and charred from some kind of fire.

"Maybe something exploded?" Creighton asked. A sudden squeaking sounded, catching the duo's attention to a lowly sailor pulling away at a rope. Izzy walked up to the man and looked up the rope, seeing that it was attached to a set of sails but had no real effect on them.

"Must pick up the sails, must pick up on speed..." the sailor mumbled to himself repetitively.

"It's no use, sir," Izzy pointed out, looking back at the man. "You've run ashore."

The sailor gave Izzy a forlorn gaze. "No," he said gravely. "Beneath us...a burning flash..."

SPLASH

Creighton and Izzy looked behind them towards what once was the center of the ship, catching sight of the ripples in the ocean's maw. A hand reached out, dragging up a body that crawled up on deck and laid still face-down. Creighton cautiously approached the body, turned it over, and instantly recoiled away from it again with a shudder, staring into the suckered face of the body. Not an eye or nose or mouth remained on that face.

And with a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, the waves parted open, and up from the depths of the sea emerged a tremendous and grandiose bireme. Water poured off of its deck and out from the holes where several oars rowed from as its grand sail furled out into the storm. The ship of the line sailed towards the wreckage, the lightning revealing its frightful appearance of decaying black wood carved and constructed to resemble the jaws of a sea serpent.

Without warning, the wreckage was swarmed by all manner of monstrous humanoids, some composed of what may have been sea creatures while others formed of skeletal remains. One even had a pair of slime-coated bat wings opening wide as it dove down upon the terrified sailors that remained. The humanoids began gathering these remaining sailors and bringing them to what had once been the stern of the wreckage.

"We're surrounded!" Creighton yelped, tensely brandishing the sword he had picked up to attempt to ward off the monsters approaching him and Izzy, who had taken to waving the lamp she was carrying to keep them back that way. Quickly their defenses were overwhelmed, their weapons disarmed, and the duo forced to the join the rest of the misfortunate ones at the back of the ship.

The oceanic bireme finally docked next to the wreckage and weighed an iron anchor into the depths from which it came. Creighton and Izzy looked over towards the ship while the other sailors simply shivered of cold and fear. The two sought out some form of life from the vessel, but it appeared that the bireme had somehow moved all on its own.

And then a heavy thud echoed across the deck. Creighton and Izzy looked over as the thuds got louder and its creator closer. The peg-legged man crept over, his piratical long coat flapping behind him in the wind. Of all the crew members aboard the ship, he appeared to be the most human, the only discrepancy being his discolored skin making him appear to have been drowned. His gaunt face gave a ghastly glance over the survivors of the wreckage as he pulled out a curious elongated smoking pipe. He walked over to one of the frightened sailors and knelt down to get a good look, took a draft of the pipe, and breathed out the smoke again, a heavy stench of death pervading it.

"Life's not fair, is it?" he asked the sailor. "How could it be, to have brought you down all the way here? To my doorstep?"

The sailor avoided making eye contact, but he nodded his head shyly in response to the man's questions.

"What impoverished lifestyle must you have led to wind up here? One of desperation? One of torment? One of necessity?" the man's questions were followed by the sailor nodding his head even more so, willingly agreeing with the truth these questions pressed at.

"I know what you seek."

The sailor looked up into the wicked eyes of the man, a curled smile brightening their blackened gleam as they looked back into those desperate blue eyes. "I can see it all. The life of everlasting pursuit of your goals, goals you could never attain," the man spoke softly, almost comforting. "I know what's that like. And I know what can be done to give you all that you want and more."

"Don't listen to 'im!"

The man slowly turned with a scowl towards the one who had spoken out. The outspoken one turned away quickly, trembling as a quiet mumble escaped his lips. The man walked over with all the brisk pace of tortoise, each step thudding against the ship, echoing off its hollow metal shell. As he stopped in front of the spoken one, he reached down and slowly grabbed his neck, unfazed as he hoisted him up into the air. The strangled man choked as the gaunt man looked him over, almost more curiously as though inspecting a diamond or watching a centipede crawling over his fingers.

"Are you not afraid of death?" the man asked curiously.

"I'll...take my...chances..." the strangled one coughed out, still attempting to escape the man's grasp.

The man released the poor fellow from his grip, who managed to land on his feet. At that moment, the man's arm twitched and unsheathed a cruel blade from his sleeve.

"To the depths," he remarked, slashing the fellow's throat and spraying warm blood across the others to mix in with the briny water and the freezing winds. The creatures laughed maniacally as the misfortunate one was tossed overboard and the man withdrew the blade back into his arm, taking a draft from his smoldering pipe.

"You fiend!" one of the sailors cried out, rising to his feet in an outrage. "How dare you-"

SQUELCH

The outraged sailor fell down into a puddle of rain and blood, his own now spilling into it and mixing with the briny sea. The menacing man now towered above him, looking down at him without much care in the world as he slowly steadily pressed his sword down into the dying man, squeezing out every last bit of life he could in agonizing pain.

"Life is a cruel affair," he breathed. "Death can be crueler still."

The man twisted his arm, causing the torn one to squeal in pain from the blade stirring.

"Death can take away a wise man or an unborn child," the man continued. "It can snuff out a bright light without warning. But worst of all, it can creep slowly and torture its victim. Death waits for no man, but death will wait for the inevitable."

The man finally tore through the man's side with his blade and withdrew it as the man lay still upon the deck, dead. Izzy looked down horrorstricken as Creighton became nauseated and forced himself to look away.

"Death is indeed a cruel affair," the man continued with his speech, "but it can be bargained with."

He knelt down before the same sailor he had been dealing with prior to the outbursts. The sailor looked up into the man's eyes once more, a blue forlorn hope looking into the depths of two abyssal pools.

"Join my crew aboard the Gladius Divinum," the man offered. "Hold off on Death's cold embrace and become one with the immortal ship. Be free of fear, free of desire, free of sorrow and misery, free right unto the very end of forever."

The sailor's eyes brightened with this statement but then slowly dulled into a monotonous gray.

"Will ye serve?"

"I will serve."

And the gray eyes dissipated into a milky white before a blackened fog overtook them. The man smiled as he placed his hand on the man's head, infusing a dark aura upon him. The sailor cried out in pain as his body became transfigured by the aura into a more monstrous form like the other humanoids, who celebrated their new comrade in arms. The reborn sailor stood tall, examining his new form as the man now turned to Creighton and Izzy with some curiosity. He tilted his head as he looked the two over.

"Your desperation is not palpable," he remarked, glancing over at one of his own crew members who bowed humbly before the man. Turning back to the duo, the man asked, "You're not part the crew of this ship, so you must have some inane reason to seek me out."

"Captain Matt Zero sent us over to pay off his debt," Izzy replied, not daring to even look up.

The man grimaced and bent down lower to Izzy and Creighton. "What is your purpose?" he asked again.

"Captain Matt Zero sent us over to pay off his debt," Izzy repeated, now visibly shaking while staring firmly at the deck.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Did he now?" He stood up again, smoking his pipe. "Then perhaps we should pay him a visit then?"


From the decks of the Poseidon, Matt kept watch over the events occurring at the wreckage via telescope, a safe distance away from the action. He watched as Izzy and Creighton wandered the ship and investigated the crew, the rising of the real Gladius Divinum from the depths of the ocean, the appearance of its grisly crew, and of course its captain's ritual for repentance and cruel display of death. He knew he'd be safe back on his own ship, away from all that nasty business.

That is, until he took the telescope away from his eye to find the wicked captain now in front of him with Izzy and Creighton at his sides. The rest of the crew was taken aback by this sudden appearance just as the rest of the monstrous crew came aboard out of nowhere.

Matt looked about with some surprise. "I'll be honest, I forgot you could do that."

"You have a debt to pay," Rommel spoke sternly. "I raised the Poseidon from the depths for you so you could retrieve the medallion for me, not so you could go running about with your head cut off."

"As I explained to Bonesman," Matt quickly explained, "I went to El Dorado as we promised, and I did retrieve the medallion-"

"Then you wouldn't have a moment's hesitation in handing it over to me now, would you?" Rommel interrupted pointedly. He paced the deck for a moment as he asked loudly, "Or have you been lying to me and wish to instead offer up collateral for my lost prize?"

A great laughter roared from Rommel's crew as Matt winced. "I kept it in a safe place," Matt answered back. "I just need a little bit of time to grab it and bring it back to you."

"You've wasted my time enough in waiting," Rommel retorted, stepping closer to Matt's face. "How much longer must I wait?"

Matt hesitated for a moment. "Maybe we could work it out to a week?"

Rommel scoffed. "A week? I ought to just kill ye now and save the trouble."

"Look, you've already had to wait for a few centuries, what's another few days to you?" Matt suggested with a shrug.

Rommel gave him a curious look. "A few days against the weight of eternity, you dare ask of me what it means?"

"Just how much longer are you willing to wait?"

Rommel narrowed his gaze. Matt could feel the cold blackness of his eyes penetrating through his skull, as though peering deeper and deeper into his mind. Eventually, Rommel broke off the gaze and scowled.

"Three days," Rommel said. "Either you bring me that medallion, or your soul is forfeit."

"Great," Matt replied and headed over to Creighton and Izzy. "I'll just take my friends back, and we'll get started right away-"

"I'll keep the boy, a good faith payment," Rommel intervened, grabbing the back of Creighton's shirt in the process. "That'll leave you some incentive in case you don't come back to save him."

Another chuckle spread through Rommel's crew. On the other hand, Matt appeared confused.

"Well at that point, why not just take both of them?" Matt asked. "You sure you just want the one?"

Rommel chuckled as he hoisted Creighton to his feet. "I think you've lost one friend already," he remarked with a cruel smile. "You need not lose another. After all, you'll need all the luck you can get."

The entirety of Rommel's crew roared with laughter at that point as they disappeared off the ship. Meanwhile Rommel lifted Creighton up with one hand and turned to Matt.

"And before I forget..."

He then lifted his free hand up and fired a firebolt at Matt's hand, causing it to burn with pain as the Mark faded away from it.

"Three days," Rommel sternly stated, and he disappeared with a screaming Creighton. Izzy ran to try and catch Creighton but just missed them as they vanished.

As though to check to make sure it was truly gone, Matt inspected his hand where the Mark of Rommel had been and found no trace of it anywhere. True to his word, Rommel had removed the Mark, at least for now. Izzy walked up to Matt, a stern teary look in her eyes.

"Now what do we do? He has Creighton!" she yelled at Matt, startling his inspection. "And as far as we know, Shannon's still with Montalban! We've lost two of our friends already, and both of them are your fault!"

She grasped Matt by the scruff of his jacket and hoisted him into the air. "What are we supposed to do now?" she demanded. "Who's going to be the next friend you sacrifice for this mission of yours?!"

A stunned silence befell the crew aboard the Poseidon as Matt simply looked back at Izzy, tears starting to stream down her face. Finally, she put Matt down and fell to her knees.

"I saw what Rommel did," she cried through her tears. "He doesn't care if Creighton lives or dies. He's-"

"-a heartless wretch of a man. I know."

Izzy looked up at Matt as he looked off grimly towards the Gladius Divinum sailing away into the haze of the storm.

"Dealing with Rommel was my business, just as dealing with Montalban was," Matt continued. "I had it on good faith that you had agreed to help me if you got involved."

"But we never prepared for this!" Izzy yelled out. "How could we prepare for something like this?"

"To your credit, nothing could have prepared you for this journey," Matt answered. "I'm sorry that this is causing you such grief, but you must understand that these are necessary steps to take in order to reach the ultimate goal."

"Sacrificing your friends in order to reach a goal - especially to inhuman things like him - should never have been part of the plan!" Izzy screamed.

Matt knelt down to Izzy's level and spoke firmly, "We talked about this before we arrived. You and I both know that Creighton knows what he needs to do at this point. And by giving him to Rommel, he has helped give us exactly what we need: time."

"Time to do what?" Izzy asked quietly, choking on her sobs.

Matt raised his brows in a knowing fashion. Izzy looked into that face, the face of a man whose plan was fully in motion. A man who knew everything was going exactly according to that plan. She swallowed the lump in her throat as Matt gave a firm nod. He got up and walked towards his cabin, calling out to the crew:

"Willaby, it's time to go to Tortuga."


AUTHOR'S NOTE

Would you be surprised if I said Adolf Rommel was the Davy Jones of this fanfic? No? Probably because that's his basic character form.

Like Montalban before him, Adolf had a history and a takeover segment, but the man is far more than what he was originally. Much of his background's covered in the previous chapter while his personality I think is shown well in this chapter. Adolf Rommel is a cruel and fiendish man, if you can even call him that, who's been for millenia pursuing the Trinity's ultimate source of power. He's raided cities, plundered continents, destroyed mountains and oceans - he sacrificed an entire army of followers in order to create the unholy abomination that is the Dark Leviathan (but you'll hear more about that in a later chapter I'm sure). That's just the kind of man he is: he'll do anything to get what he wants. And unfortunately right now what he wants is Matt's head on a silver platter.

Next time: it's a duel! Finally!