BlueRyuu- Still my favoritest reviewer evUR. Mwahaha! XD

Anyway. Yes, Shasta be dead. But that's not the only news today; if I said anything, though, it would spoil the terrible surprise. More will be explained of Argyle's past, but right now... Mortal combat, Gargoyle style. And no, he is definitely NOT the last of the Sea Devil armies left alive; remember that clause I emplaced previously? He destroyed all those that had not left already? Muahaha.

And then there're the Sea Gods, the Sea Titans and the new Sea Devils... Woof. And maybe... Mortality? o.O

We shall see in future episodes, my dearies. For now, a short note...

P.S. Copyright infringement? They're doing it all; I haven't seen past Ep. 241. Mwahaha.

-Le'kras del nortem-

As Shasta's body tumbled down to the deck, Aliza's and Nicone's screams still fresh in my ears, I roared and flashed forward, slamming a fist into the Siren's side and sending her plowing into the sea; her three companions flashed away as I turned on them, my fists creating a ripple of air that briefly counteracted the breeze that had been pushing us onward.

"You're far more emotional now than you once were, commander." Nazar's voice was mocking, bitter; turning, I could see the four of them standing on the water below, the sea slowly fleeing their presence and creating a crater around them. "You should know better than ta take on other demons with that sort of attitude."

She was right. Inhaling deeply, I slowly exhaled before turning to face them completely and reaching up, loosening my blindfold and lowering it as my eyes remained closed.

"You are correct, as you usually are, Nazar." She blinked, then I flashed down to the deck and let my coat fall down, where it covered Shasta's lifeless body and face. Reaching up with my other hand, I undid the fasteners of my weaponry and let them fall to the ground before drawing Yamakaze. As a gale sprang to life around us, I walked to the side and hopped over it, standing facing them as my own crater in the ocean began forming. "However, you are not as correct this time as you should be. I am not the only one who has changed in the years since I wiped out the armies of the Sea Devils."

The usually silent Diamondcutter looked up, his gray-green skin glistening in the spray generated by the retreating ocean. "You betrayed the Sea Devil you served and betrayed those you fought with; what is she wrong about?"

Bringing Yamakaze back, I lowered myself into a fighting stance and smiled thinly. "You should have known better than to take me on, whether or not I've weakened any; by Yamakaze's edge did our former comrades die, and by its edge will you perish; beyond that, you killed a friend of mine, making you my mortal enemies."

Nazar shrugged; halfway through, Lif'sara the Wind Dancer flashed forward, her scythe-shaped sword, Kagedo, lancing toward me, dark shadows reaching for me. Nazar followed her, her own weapon, Hayamado the war hammer, flashing toward me, while Diamondcutter dove into the ocean, creating a tunnel under the water before slicing toward me with his dual-bladed sword, Kazebushi. Lyss'arna, on the other hand, simply drew her massive broadsword and began spinning it, the tip of Raikaze beginning to glow as she spun it faster and faster through her fingers before stabbing it toward me and unleashing a bolt of lightning that was massive enough to rip a furrow in the ocean itself as it shot toward me.

As the four attacks converged on me, I opened my eyes and swung Yamakaze, screaming a war cry.

A gale blasted Lif'sara back, blowing her blade's attack away and sending her skidding across the water; the same gale smashed Hayamado back, almost knocking it from Nazar's hands as she struggled to fight back against the wind with her Gorgon Stare. At the same time, a mountain erupted from beneath my feet, pushing the ship away from me as it slammed into Diamondcutter and sent the merman flying away from me, the same mountain absorbing the lightning assault as easily as a sponge absorbs water.

As I drew Yamakaze back into a ready position and the mountain receded back into the water, I smiled carnivorously at the four wary fighters in front of me.

"If that's the best you can do, you had better leave now before I begin fighting for real."

Lyss'arna growled and the four of them flashed forward, moving at speeds that almost matched my own. Smirking, I let their attacks come within an inch of me before I moved to the side, sidestepping, ducking, jumping over their attacks as easily as a fly avoids the spider that attempts to grab him from the air without a web.

Then I felt something grab at me and turned to see Nazar's eyes focused intently on me; smirking at the challenge, I stopped moving entirely and instead focused my gaze on the area around us.

The ocean seemed to shriek as geysers erupted all around me, some freezing in place as my opponents approached them, forcing them to move from their path lest they be frozen as well, while others burst into steam that I then sent whirling around me. The air around Nazar abruptly began pulling back, slowly sucking the oxygen from her lungs as she furiously attempted to fight back. Before she could do anything, however, I had already beaten her to the punch and had removed what she had to use, from air to atoms to ice shards. As the seconds ticked by and her teammates, still oblivious to her dying moments, still attempted to close with me, I smiled sadly at her suffocating form.

"And so dies another of my comrades."

Lyss'arna finally seemed to realize what was happening to Nazar and barked an order; in response, Lif'sara flashed straight at me, her blade spinning in front of her to deflect any possible attack I might conjure up and fire at her. Instead of her, however, the target of my next strike after Nazar stopped her death throes was the merman. As he leaped over a wave and brought his sword down at me, I simply raised my hand and caught his blade in my grip. The shock of the impact caused the ocean to erupt around us, sending geysers skyward as he continued struggling and attempting to cut me. Lif'sara struck me then, as well, while Lyss'arna, after checking Nazar's body for any sign of life, came raging in at me, her own blade cutting into my vest.

All three of them stared in shock as my body refused to be cut; smiling toothily, I drew Yamakaze back.

"My turn."

Slashing forward faster than they could react, I cut Diamondcutter's body in half, snapping his blades in two and sending his corpse tumbling back as another mountain erupted from the ocean and consumed him and Nazar.

Lyss'arna and Lif'sara backpedaled rapidly, slowly circling me as I kept my eyes staring straight forward while watching them both simultaneously.

"I serve in a pirate crew now, Sirens; you would have been better advised to strike me while I was distracted by a pillaging."

The two of them sank into low stances, their weapons held over their heads in mirror grips.

"Zhak'el nor de'ye!"

As their simultaneous shouts, their bodies rippled, then exploded into their combat forms; Lyss'arna's wings turned black and her limbs became like those of a cat's, long claws replacing the fingers as she hissed at me through a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Lif'sara burst into the air, massive, leathery wings exploding from her back and scales sliding out of her skin as her face lengthened into that of a dragon's. Smiling, I brandished Yamakaze at them.

"Lyss'arna of the Sphinx and Lif'sara the Wind Dancer, it is an honor for you to grace me with your true forms." Holding Yamakaze straight out in front of me, the shaft horizontal with the waves, I let my smile reveal some of the predator within. "How sad that it shall be the last time either of you do so."

They howled and shot forward, their blows tripled in strength and in speed; unfortunately for them, I was now warmed up.

I spun Yamakaze around, deflecting their blows easily until Lyss'arna flashed around behind me and tried to stab me from the rear; digging in my heels, I flashed away with so much speed that the ocean didn't erupt from the shockwave until a full second after I materialized away from the pair, ripping a furrow from my previous location to my current one and drawing the attention of the pair as my afterimage faded. Spinning, they lunged at me again, then I leaped straight up and rotated until my feet dug into the air above me, slowing me down so I could smile at the pair as they came after me.

"Sea Devil Technique: One Thousand Demons."

I held my hand in front of me, focusing the energy around me radiating from the terror-stricken ocean into the air and causing a second form to materialize, a shadowy copy of me. That form held both hands out to the side and two more forms appeared on either side, then they all held their hands out to the front and rear as I applied pressure to the air and somersaulted away from them, watching as the duo that had been charging me brought their feet around in front of them and extended their wings, coming to an abrupt halt just as the thousandth demon was formed. Two thousand fists were formed and one thousand mouths roared, then every one of the shadow figures shot toward the pair, forcing them to stop watching me as they fought off the thousand figures.

Each figure had one-tenth the power of the original, so it was relatively easy to kill each individual one; it was the effect of one thousand of the things that wore my opponents' defenses down until they had killed the last one. Just as Lif'sara drew her blade back from striking down the last one, I drove Yamakaze's head deep into her, causing her to slacken before dropping into the ocean, where the water consumed her corpse as violently as it had fled her living body.

Lyss'arna spun to face me, snarling as she saw my fist raised above my head. Looking up at her, I pinned her in place with my stare as I drew back my fist.

"Sea Devil Technique: Gorgon Fist!"

She screamed in mixed fear and rage, then I leaped at her, my fist shooting toward her with my body trailing behind; with the fury of a shooting star, my attack struck her, lighting up the night sky as if day had come early and causing her body to evaporate as the bolt of energy continued on toward the far horizon, where it would continue going until it either struck land or the sea sucked all energy from it.

At least, that's what would have happened had I been the old me; the new me focused my eyes on it and caused it to abruptly dissipate into a thousand flares that shot into the sky and exploded spectacularly, creating a fireworks display not seen for years.

As the light show dissipated, I turned back toward the ship and slowly descended toward the craft, setting down on the deck to a gaping Nicone and a strangely silent Aliza, Yamakaze resting on one shoulder as I slowly approached my captain and the body she was kneeling beside. As I neared her, she looked up and I was shocked at the look in them, as if she had aged a thousand years. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and drew a sleeve across her eyes.

"The Pirates of Doom are done."