Chapter 28: Crystal

Franklin's View

Before we started to freely lounge around the ship, we decided to take a look around the ship for assassins or spies. What would have been a full scale search just ended up in our ship AI announcing the Sitch.

"Franklin and Amelia, according to my thermal, x-ray, and microscopic vision around the ship, there's no other entities in here,"

That's what she told us. She also showed us that this ship's rooms include a workout/training room, a large room with a pool, hot tub, and sauna, a few cabins for soldiers, special cabins for commanders and high ranking officers, a mess hall with food and drinks supplied, the weapon storage, and finally the Mainframe: a room where she controlled and observed the ship. Engine Rooms and Boiler Rooms? Nila already handles everything in the ship, though the cyborg aspect of her is quite... disturbing. A human being implanted into a giant ship.

Here I am, on the control center, looking at the radar with a bored face. I don't know why I'm just looking at it when I could probably be spending quality time with Amelia. Am I just being too cautious that I forgot that Nila can take care of it?

"Hey Franklin, are you just gonna stare at the radar all day? Nila will inform us if there's trouble," Amelia said.

Even if I knew that, I still felt anxious. If it's paranoia, please get me out. I still suspect some sort of secret order in Nila's head.

"Okay, I'll not be gawking around the radar..." I said reluctantly.

I walked past her and decided to go to the training room. Nila's robotic voice ringed out.

"Hello, Franklin. Are you training today?"

Of course, I know already. With a simple nod, she seemed to understand.

"Would you prefer your normal weapon, or would you like to loan one?"

"Is this how most of those soldiers train?" I asked the cyborg's voice.

"Yes, the AZRAEL Soldiers are supplied with weaponry transported to me by HQ."

HQ, huh? Maybe I might have to abuse that in case Shen forgot to break its ties. But I also have a hunch that Shen is smart enough to break ties.

"I'm guessing Shen destroyed links to the base before I inherited Invidia?" I said.

"You are correct. Shen commented that your journey shouldn't be what he calls a 'faceroll'."

With my eye twitching, I realized that my greatest enemies still have a bit of humorous humanity. And this is why I find it hard to kill people.

"Okay, okay, what weapons do you have available aside from guns?" I asked.

A few holographic images of swords appeared. Let's see. Katana, zweihander, tonfa blade, bat'leth, gunblade, sai, hammer, axe, scythe, scimitar, claymore, dirk... wow, they have a bunch of swords in their storage. I selected the katana, mostly because it looked the coolest out of all of them. Sorry gunblade, but I prefer a normal sword over guns infused within your steel. The hologram floated in my hands and materialized into an actual katana, complete with the sheath. I slowly drew it out of its scabbard and dropped the sheath as soon as its lustrous steel was in full view.

"Wait a minute, who's going to be my training partner?" I asked the voice.

"I will."

Wait, what?

A blue hologram revealed itself and materialized into a girl around my height. Her hair is brown and tied in a bun. She wears some sort of Japanese styled armor: some sort of blue haori with a purple short skirt. If I looked closely, she wore short black spats. A red scarf is wrapped around her neck. Most of her legs were covered in black stockings *licks lips* with a hybrid of boots and those socked sandals. A katana with a dark purple blade is her weapon with what looked like a bladed sheath by her left hip.

"Is there anything wrong? I sense massive blood pressure underneath your pants despite your Zombie status."

"Sense again, I'm only half ATM." I had a visible shade of pink on my face. I mean, why does she have to be in a form so... revealing.

"Oops, hee hee. I guess my coordinates are wrong. Now let's go!"

Did I see a blush?

She sheathed her sword and charged toward me with frightening speed. I quickly clashed my katana with hers. I'm not so sure about how to really wield a katana, but I'm going to have to do what I can. I noticed that I'm using two hands and she's only using her main hand; her right hand. Her scabbard had some sort of little handle above the bladed sheathe. When she swung it, I quickly registered the preparatory motion of the swing and leaned backward while using my foot to kick her left hand, causing her to let go of her scabbard. I quickly did a back flip and entered a battoujutsu stance or something like that; that stance that generic quick draw samurais do. When she charged toward me, she instantly disappeared and appeared behind me. I couldn't sense her Magoi, being pure data or something, but I can still hear the "digital" noise of her forming behind me. I quickly turned to her and her image disappeared. Once she was floating in the air, but now she was on the ground. I quickly switched my hand, using my left hand to unsheathe it and using my right hand to hold the sheathe. I swung upward with my sword. but I was bludgeoned by the back end of her scabbard. I was hoping to slice her left arm, but I left myself open.

"Attempts at using off hand to swing your sword..." she noted.

Despite her strike and its force being strong enough to push me backwards, my feet are still rooted to the ground. I've already been through much stronger blows, especially Roh'Roh's strikes. Suddenly she appeared before me and quickly did a spinning hop whilst sending out three crescent slashes. I managed to guard the swings. While most aerial strikes like that leave them to be punished, she quickly dashed in the form of a blue blur toward the ground and to my right. I managed to quickly go into a battojutsu stance before she appeared to my right. When she was about to strike, I drew my sword and spun around 360 degrees with a Magoi infused blade. The hologram disappeared as heard from the data "scramble" noise.

"An interesting usage of Magoi Manipulation,"

"I really hope you're not gathering data for AZRAEL or Shen," I commented.

"Negative. Shen has disconnected links to HQ, thus-"

"Look you, I'm in the middle of a war between Al-Thamen and now AZRAEL. Since you're technically part of AZRAEL and you're a robot that obediently listens to your masters, Shen MUST have done some freaky spy shit on this ship, and he probably told you to lie about this, pretending to be my master now that he left."

I breathed heavily from my rant. She spoke when my breath has returned to normal, this time with a more human voice.

"Do you want to fight Al-Thamen because someone told you to?"

Sinbad told me to because I had the ability to assist him. I've been training so much that I forgot my main goal: to stop my brother from being tyrannical with his Magi powers. My naivety had caused me to be sucked into a world-wide war.

"If so, then do you have other reasons to fight?"

Great, now I'm in one of those situations about why we fight. Why do I fight? Do I want to save the world? Am I doing it for my friends? Am I just fighting for someone's ideals instead of my own? What are my ideals? Combat and constant training has caused me to forget what I was fighting for. Seeing this, Nila started speaking.

"I shall cease training, Franklin."

The hologram disappeared and I dropped my katana into the ground, disappearing into data as it touched the floor. Having a reason to fight from others just felt like I was a slave to their ideals. I'm in the conflict between choosing others or myself. I fight for myself, I'll just end up growing lonely and abrasive to anyone. I fight for others, I feel like I'm a slave to their ideals and sometimes it feels like I'm fighting to boost their selfish wishes rather than fighting for the greater good. Why do I fight? What do I grow stronger for?

I decided I should go to the Mainframe room; meet Nila Braxton face-to-face. Following the directions in the hallway, I managed to reach it in a short time. The door was locked.

"Nila, can you open the Mainframe door?" I asked the inanimate door.

"N..no!"

She's starting to sound more... feminine. She usually had a robotic tone. Instead of being a pest, I decided to leave. She could probably unload a massive security system on me, so I decided not to risk that.

I walked toward the pool area, calm my nerves. Even if I'm bad at swimming, I just somewhat like swimming pools. Too bad I don't have swimming trun- Sweet mother of Mercy. I saw a lady swimming in the pool. It's Amelia, and for some reason, she found a fitting black and green bikini. Her toned and curvy body from her criminal past is in full view, with the obvious covering of her obscene parts. My eyes widened and the left one twitched from the mere beauty of Amelia.

"Oh, someone's attracted~" Amelia said with a smirk.

"How did you find your own swim suit?"

"I-"

"Let me guess, Nila?" I said as I crossed my arms.

"Well duh, she said that this was once intended to be worn for female soldiers. Ask Nila for one," she said as she rested her arms behind her head.

Imagine all of the soldiers having a little pool party. Is the leader trying to tempt an orgy?

"Okay then. Nila, can you get me black and green swim trunks?"

"Affirmative."

Swimming trunks materialized in my hands. I grabbed them and went to the changing rooms. The lockers were high tech and had a hand print scanner as a lock. One was unlocked, so I put my outside clothes in there and changed into my trunks. I looked in the mirror.

My skin has paled significantly, but only to the point of Caucasian white. My eyes still remain bright green, and my hair is spiky and a bit shorter due to the haircut I got in Artemyra a month ago. Due to two years of training, my physique has changed quite drastically. I had a bit of a belly in the past, but it has now become lean muscle, showing a bit of a six-pack. My arms have slightly grew bulky thanks to working out during my training. My skin was slightly rough, mostly because I'm half human at the moment. Because of that, my left pectoral has a diamond shaped gem lodged into it. Overall, I have a slightly slim yet muscular body.

I came out of the dressing room, with an awestruck Amelia. I'm guessing that she's gawking at my muscles. I couldn't help but blush a little from embarrassment. When I saw her, she seemed both conscious and proud of her body.

"What's that thing on your left pec?" she asked.

"This is my Humanizing Gem. It uses Life Magic to basically recover half of my human functions. That way, I can recover my Magoi through normal human sustenance at the cost of half of my zombie perks."

Amelia smiled and nodded.

"If you stayed a zombie, I guess you wouldn't have time to get in shape," she commented with a suggestive tone.

We both swam around the swimming pool. We splashed each other, threw balls at each other, as well as breath holding contests (with me the winner of course). After an hour or so of splashing, we decided to rest by the hot tub. I looked outside and realized it was nightfall.

"You know, I kinda don't get how I became your Household so easily," Amelia said to me, "We just met for like a few hours and then BAM! Household Member."

I contemplated for a few seconds. From what I learned from both Sinbad and Mira, Household members are people who help the King Vessel conquer a dungeon. It's good for a Household to have a strong connection with the king, but Amelia proved to be a great helper by guiding us through the dungeon. Wait a minute, shouldn't she be Ami's Household? But then I was the one who actually showed compassion to her despite her snake tail. I encouraged her to keep on living despite her snake tail. I was the one that would soon help her become a part of a society (Artemyrans).

"I don't know, perhaps I was the only one who accepted how you looked?"

I secretly have a fetish for monster girls. I found Lamias cute, but I also wished that there were slime girls, or even freaking mermaids.

"Do you have some sort of fetish for lamias or gorgons?" Amelia said with a furrowed brow.

"Er... Umm?"

She was already close to me. Her slightly scaly face close to mine; red from her blushing. Dammit, I've wanted to be manhandled by pretty ladies, but this just seems... uncomfortable. It's like Stockholm Syndrome for some reason, or... a butler falling in love with its master. I don't think our love is meant to be. Think of an excuse. My eyes widened suddenly from a new idea.

"Amelia, have you ever wondered about Nila being a voyeur?"

"Voyeur? What's that?"

"It's like a person who likes to watch live sex or something."

She instantly backed away, redder from more embarrassment.

"I..It's not because I like you,"

Damn Tsunderes. Sometimes your cute, but sometimes, I just want to have a caring and mother-like girl by my side. Amelia is probably lusting after my toned musculature. According to my self-made Guide to getting Women, the first step is to have the looks. My hair, though messy, is quite good looking with its mysteriously layered spikes... or just due to the help of the barber in Artemyra. Damn, if I'm starting to talk in some forms of sonnets or something, maybe I should write a book about my adventures; only needs a good title. Open Sesame? Abra Cadabra Alakazam? Cadabra... Abra Cad-

"Nila, turn off surveillance of the Swimming Pool Room!" Amelia shouted to the ceiling.

"Yes, ma'am. Enjoy your private time~"

I swear, if I find out that Nila looks like CRIS (Cybernetic Ruler and Intelligence System) from Gates, I wished I could just sue whoever is writing this.

"Um... Frank, are you okay?" Amelia said with a concerned look.

"Don't try doing the nice girl act. I'm saving myself for the person I truly love."

Please don't cry, please don't cry, aaaaaaaaaand she did. That sniffle, those hands covering her face. Yep, she's crying. I'm such a bad person. We've been together for a year and I never knew or expected her to have feelings for me. I've never experienced this kind of thing before and whenever I think I do, I'm just abandoned. What is Love? I don't feel like head bopping or telling her to not hurt me, no more.

"I-I've never been loved like this before, Frank," she said as she wept, "Ever since you saved me from that Dungeon, I've started to feel whole being with you. You showed me kindness, compassion, and loyalty. You never minded my reptilian parts, even showing attraction to it..."

"Amelia... I can't believe the tables have turned but I like you as a friend. I'm glad that you have feelings for me, but I just can't be with you nor could I be with anyone," Oh flob, I'm crying too.

"Why? What's holding you back?"

"Myself. It's because all I have is a heart, and I have little in the fields of money, property, and status. A heart can't take care of everything..." I sighed, "I don't think a poor person like me would end up with rich people like you."

I was slapped in the face by her. What's going on with her? This is why no one truly had romantic feelings for me. Did I have loads of cash? No. Was I born from high lineage? No. When I try to be myself, no one cares. No one cares who people truly are, but does she care? What am I... feeling?

"We've been this far, and yet you never had feelings for me? I don't care if you don't have status, money, or property. I've had my times lacking those too, so don't be so selfish and stop pitying yourself so much."

"Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert!"

Invidia's Deck

We went to the deck of the ship and realized that all of the guns of the ships were firing to the left. We looked to our left and realized that an impossibly large Southern Creature. It looked somewhat mutated, as if it was anthropomorphic or antrho; a mixture of a megalodon shark and an extremely muscly human. The heavy artillery barely made it budge as it slowly walked toward our ship. It let out a mighty roar, which was silenced by the sound barrier of the Invidia. The largest cannon on the deck was fully charged and aimed at the giant shark man. The cannon gathered energy and aimed at the shark. A dark blue orb of lightning was formed at the end of the nozzle which immediately shrunk as soon as it was ready. A surprisingly large laser fired at the shark, immediately shredding its chest. The shark man trembled and soon fell into the water, dead. Damn that gun is powerful as hell. Even Amelia and I had surprised looks on our face.

Suddenly, three more giant man sharks rose out of the water and roared. The closest one attempted to punch the ship with its gargantuan hand, but was repelled by a barrier.

"Barrier Energy: 80%. Gigas Cannon Recharging. Current %: 5"

Shit. If they keep punching the barrier, soon, my ship will sink. I looked at Amelia and nodded.

"Amelia, let's do it."

"Nope, I got this."

Amelia's View

These people are about the size of Household Vessels that have grown large. I've done it once during my training with Fayleene, but she warned me of great consequences if I were to overuse it. It was thanks to its consecration that it transformed my tail back into legs, though my legs still had some scales. I spun my knife casually and gripped it tightly.

"I consecrate my body to you."

I leapt off of the ship and dove into the water. When my whole body was in the ocean, My scales started to harden and expand. My fangs started to get sharper and my body started to grow larger. My forearms started to gain monstrous spikes. Luckily, my clothes grew along with me, so I didn't have to worry about any perverse comments. With my grown body, I rose out from the water and faced the three muscular sharks. I clenched my left hand and threw a powerful fist at the one approaching me. The Man Shark immediately dropped into the sea. I saw the other two sharks charging at me. I did a quick turn and kicked both of them with a lightning charged roundhouse kick. They were thrown way farther than the other shark. Suddenly, even more sharks came out of the water, but someone floating on a magic carpet suddenly appeared.

"Who the hell are you?"

I charged electricity into my right hand, forming a lightning lance. I grabbed it with both hands and did a quick spin, slashing the surrounding giant sharks. How the hell are these Southern Creatures?

Someone landed on my shoulder. It was Franklin, but why does he have such a stern face? It's as if he was familiar with this character.

"Crystal..."

"Oh, Franklin, hello~" she said.

Franklin's View

Those Ray Bans, that Hime hairstyle, her ever present bubbly smile. I'm suspecting that Crystal might be a Metal Vessel user or probably a Household Member. She wears what looked like an Artemyran blouse, complete with that split in the middle. She seems to be wearing spats and a pair of heeled sandals.

Her friend, Kristina, seemed to be some sort of ringleader of her little circle of friends. What's she doing in this world?

"Oh, hi Frankykins~, it has been so long ever since I saw you," she had a sultry look, possibly due to her gawking at my seasoned body, "I never knew you were in athletics; I thought you were a nerd."

"Look you, if I'm in some sort of harem fanfic with all genders going for me, I swear I'll clear you as soon as possible!" I twitched from all of this lovey dovey bullshit. I'm pretty pissed, but not to the point of depravity.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm just complementing you, Franky,"

"Okay then. Well how are you controlling them, and why are you here?"

She giggled playfully and held what looked like a flute.

"It's this Magic Tool, I use it to control these Man-Sharks created by AZRAEL, Hee hee~, as for the reason..."

She tore off her shirt, revealing that she has some sort of pink scaled armour underneath her dress that seemed to look like it's biologically connected to her. A heavy looking necklace hung around her neck and shone with a violet light.

"Come Household born from Amy, I consecrate my body to you. Become one with me!"

She leapt off of her magic carpet and suddenly grew to Amelia's height. Her hair has now become pink and her eyes violet. She now wore a purple breastplate and her arms gained gauntlets made of white and pink material.

"I've come here to kill you, under Kristina's orders,"

"Kill me?! Why would she want to kill me?" I shouted to her.

"She has everything in her life: good social life, great job, good boyfriend, great grades, a Freaking Djinn for crying out loud. This ISN'T the Kristina I saw on Facebook!"

"What do you know about her?" she charged at me while energizing her fist in flames, "Have you ever talked to her in the past 5 years?!"

As soon as she was about to reach me, Amelia caught her flaming fist. Her hand doused out the flame.

"Get away, how did Franklin even get a Household?"

"I'm his friend you know, I don't care if he makes some sort of biased judgement on your friend."

She put aside Crystal's fist and threw a devastating knee to her gut, causing the pink giant to crouch.

"But the only thing I can't let you do is..." her fist charged with electricity, "Hurt my FRIEND!"

Amelia dunked Crystal into the water, electrifying the ocean as well as those foolish enough to swim in them. The giant man-sharks were immediately fried and Amelia was the only one left. I tethered myself by using my Djinn Weapon to tether to her earring that she gained during consecration. Like me, she too was unaffected by electricity.

"Your not getting in my WAY!"

Crystal rose out from the waters and grappled Amelia. Crystal carried Amelia over her head and tossed her into the distance. I let go of my grip, but still had my weapon. I saw her running toward where she threw Amelia. I have a bad feeling about this. Believing that serious shit's gonna happen, I pulsated Orobas's electricity into my body. I may not have feelings for her, but I sure as hell care for her.

"Dwell in my body, Orobas!"

A/N

I was planning to make this longer, but I want to put a bit of cliffhangers in the equation. I know that my story is pretty damn long, causing people to be confused about the plot, so I'll be taking a two week break or probably three, considering that my Spring Break starts in the next two weeks. Who knows? Maybe I might add two-three chapters if possible. Another OC... a strong King Vessel needs Household Vessels too. I'm not sure who Amihiha's Household will be, but Ramses already has a Household. Will Team CNTMP have Households? Maybe. Next chapter, I'll reveal why some of the dead characters come back. (Fun Fact: Kassim isn't one of them. His Rukh has already been fused with Alibaba.)

Review if you wish, maybe if I get one or two more reviews, I might release it a bit early.