Belfast looked up at the water, the figure of a siren blocking the sun as Belfast slowly sank further and further the light level steadily going down. She was still trying to comprehend what just happened, why as a siren so close to base? Wouldn't their defenses have seen it? She weakly shook her head, it didn't matter anymore, it was too late for her. As she felt herself finally hit the bottom of the ocean, with a smile she closed her eyes, trying to enjoy her last moments in the mortal realm.
This was until what she thought was the ocean floor started rising, lifting her out of the water. When he surfaced her eyes widened, everything she saw was the purest white that she had ever seen. The ground she was on kept shifting until she was looking at a golden creature that looked like a human, but with no features. "Rest child," it whispered, "I have picked you and your friends solely for the purpose of assisting my children. Your friends will join you soon."
The ground suddenly disappeared and she started to fall, but slowly her wounds began to heal. When she hit the water in the snow white void she quickly surfaced the turning sky into a beautiful cloudless day, when it had been partly cloudy when she was sinking, not even two minutes ago.
She looked back and forth for any sign of land, she found none, but she did notice a note on one of her guns. "Tap your thigh twice to make your rigging disappear." She read outloud, cocking her head she tapped her thigh twice as the note said. With a pop her rigging disappeared, dropping her into the water, surprised she tapped her thigh again, her rigging reappearing, letting her stand on the water.
After standing still for a few minutes deep in thought she dispelled her rigging, letting its take its ship form. Literally hopping off of nothing and landing on the ships deck she decided the best place to go was north. Either she'd hit India, Africa or some northern country. It didn't matter though, she needed to find her way back to base and the best way was to ask for directions. As she traveled she noticed something, her fuel levels weren't going down. She didn't question it, maybe it had to do with that strange entity.
It was hours before she saw anything, what she was was a snowed over dock in the distance, leading to a destroyed town. She stopped his ship just within jumping distance of the nearest dock, "What happened?" She asked herself as she gently landed on the docks, she had her ships guns pointing at the town, it was a little worrying that this town was destroyed, and it looked freshly destroyed too. She nearly instantly found a dead body, dried blood pooled around the place where their head used to be. "Rest in peace." She said with a slight dip of her head for a moment of silence, she then went back to searching the rubble.
She found body after body after body after body, all horribly murdered. One ripped in half, another with horrible claw marks covering them, another with a huge deep bite mark across their stomach. Yet she marched past them, she had to keep a professional air, she was a maid after all.
As she walked she heard a silent whimper coming from the runes of a house. Instantly she rushed over, easily throwing the rubble aside with the strength of a battleship.
Once Belfast moved the last piece of rubble she revealed the cowering forms of two little girls, one with auber hair and soft amber eyes, her pail skin not really complimenting the tattered yellow and blue dress she was wearing. The other had short black hair that only reached her shoulders, she looked maybe six, a year older than the other. She was wearing a similar dress, and there was a large gash across her eyes, which were sealed shut due to the drying blood. They screamed hearing the last of the rubble being removed, burying each others head into their shoulders.
"Don't worry," She said softly, opening her arms to let them into her embrace, "I'm not going to hurt you." Hearing the kind words the two girls nearly instantly fell into her arms, starting to cry even harder than they had been before. "Shhhhh, it's okay, I'm here to help. Now before we go on, where is the nearest library?"
Through her sniffles one of the little girls muttered, "I-In the s-square." She said as Bismark picked the girls up.
"Keep your eyes closed little ones, there are things here you should not see at your age." She ordered, though she was already sure they saw the death of many friends and family, they just didn't need to get anymore traumatized. Afterwards she silently walked through the rubble, the only noises being her feet on pavement and the crackling of flames. She soon found her way to the square, it wasn't hard to miss. A large pine tree was growing in the middle of town, small berry bushes growing around its trunk. She easily found the library, they always had a welcoming feel no matter where you were.
She smiled walking in, instantly going to the section that should have atlas'. Strangely enough though this library did use the dewey decimal system, instead it was just Alphabetical. So she went to the W section and easily found a world atlas, knowing she'd need to find out where she was. With a content smile she then went to the children's section, picking out some books for the children.
Once she had grabbed the books she left the library, walking down the street she came from, until a howl pierced the sky. Pausing for a moment when the children screamed hearing the howl, she just shrugged, just assuming a wolf was the cause of the howl. So she kept walking calmly until a creature as black as the void walked from around a corner, holding a body in its mouth. It looked like a mix between a human and a wolf and was about as tall as her on all fours. It had what looked like bone covering parts of its body like armor.
It dropped the body to howl at her, an act of intimidation. Still keeping her calming armor the maid turned around, a few seconds later of rawr of her guns could be hear, after a second a sareen silence she could hear the shell hit behind her, sending shrapnel and rubble everywhere, all of which bounced off of her.
Before she turned back around she heard more howls, sighing she adjusted her guns, now running down towards the docks. Now firing her guns on the small town knowing it would take too long to hunt each of the beasts individually, so she decided to fire upon the whole town, in the meantime destroying the entire beasts.
Doing this she noticed another strange thing, some of the shells she fired had special effects. Some exploded with more force, others into ice, some acting like volatile concussive blasts knocking over nearby buildings. Once she jumped onto the ship she stopped, deciding she did enough damage to the town to have dispatched all the beasts. She put down the two children, "I will be back soon, I am just getting first aid," She patted them on the head before disappearing into the ship.
Soon she came back with first aid kit, she kneeled down in front of the child with black hair, "Look up please," they obliged, smiling the maid put her hand on the forming scab over their eyes, "This will hurt, but I have the clean the wound, is that okay?" The blind child nervously nodded, not expecting what can next. Belfast ripped off the scab, causing the child to scream. "You're being so brave," Belfast reassured, "Now I'm going to clean it, this will sting, but I need you to open your eyes."
"O-okay," the child said, opening her eyes, which were cut. Belfast smiled softly, pouring alcohol on a cotton ball.
"Okay, in three," She moved the cotton ball closer to the girls eyes, "Two… One." On one she started to dab the cut with the cotton ball, the scream chanting "Ow" in response. When she was done Belfast started to wrap gauze around the girls head, covering the large cut. "You were so brave," She said in a calming tone rubbing the girls head.
"T-thank you," The girl said faintly. The other girl hugging her with glee.
"You're gonna be all better soon!" She said happily.
"Sadly, no." Belfast said, "She's going to be blind for the rest of her life."
"W-what?!" The younger girl explained, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Don't worry, being blind is no hindrance, it might take time to get used to but eventually she'll be able to do everything the same as everyone else." Belfast said, patting the girls head, "Oh, forgive me, I didn't introduce myself. I am Belfast."
"I'm Russet," The younger one said, patting her friends should, "And this is Olive."
"Beautiful names, now do you know where the closest city is?" She asked standing up. The little girls doing the same.
"Ummmm…" Russet thought for a moment, facing herself as if she was looking at the ocean from the docks, "I don't remember." She said with an innocent smile, which surprised Belfast. Even after seeing so much bloodshed this child could keep a smile.
"How about the name of your town?"
"Oh, I know that! Snowport!" This got a slight chuckle from Belfast, a fitting name. But she opened the World Atlas, flipping through it she found a map with the name Snowport on it. It wasn't near any city but was to the East of Fort Maxim, so she set off West following the coast. She was surprised by the strange map but easily hid it, deciding to investigate it later. What ever happened to her brought her to a another world. She never really believed in religion but whatever that being was that brought her to a new world had some kind of god-like abilities. Were those beasts this world's versions of sirens?
Whatever it is she started it sail toward Fort Maxim, unbenounced to her a faceless figure of a dark purple was screaming at his brother. "You said we wouldn't interfere!" He yelled in the white void that was their home.
"I know my brother, but it is too late. The connection has already been set." The golden figure said calmly, "How about you interfere in your own way?"
Thinking the dark figure nodded, "Thank you for the idea brother." The figure snapped, a few seconds later the golden brother nodded.
"So be it."
The ruins of Snowport started to glow, then was swallowed by a dark sphere, which soon dissipated. In the ruins of the town the bodies changed, all bite and claw marks were changed to cuts, slashes, gunshot wounds and for the ones miss heads, smashed. In blood at the center of the town's square a message was written, FEAR AZUR LANE.