"Captain Ulpianus?!" Sonatina shouted with a jerk, though Ulpianus' grip didn't allow her to accidentally fall out of his arms.
"Sona, it's good that I found you." The captain's stoic tone was there as usual, gently he lowered her to allow her to stand. "Any questions you have will have to be answered at a later time, this area's too dangerous to stay in."
Sonatina quickly glanced around and quickly noticed many things. Her body felt lighter, she could feel the brush of a gentle breeze against her skin, and the most important part was that they were on the surface instead of underwater.
"We… we're on the surface?" She questioned, dumbfounded at the thought of leaving Ægir.
"Hurry up, we don't have time to dawdle." Ulpianus was already walking away from her, heading towards a large stone cliff that towered above them. Realizing this Sona sprinted after the third company's commander.
Once they reached the bottom of the cliff Ulpianus squatted down with his weapon ready and leaped high into the air, jumping at least fifteen feet before swinging his anchor and impaling it into the stone before using it as a stepping stone to launch himself further and reach the top of the cliff. He did a quick scan once above the cliff before turning around to check on Sonatina. Only to frown when the young hunter hadn't moved an inch after reaching the base.
"Sona." His words managed to jolt Sonatina out of her thoughts and shivered at his cold tone before quickly following his actions, leaping high into the air and using his anchor as a platform before finally landing next to him.
"We have a lot of ground to cover before we make it somewhere safe, stay close to me and do not talk to anybody." His orders were received with Sonatina nodding her head with a serious face. The two began their sprint away from the beaches of Iberia after he retrieved his weapon and towards a nearby mobile city.
While making their way to town Sonatina spotted something in the corner of her eye, when she turned to get a better look there was nothing there, just a far away church sitting atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. But she swore she saw something, be it a person or something else. Returning her attention in front of her they were rapidly beginning to approach the town.
The town was situated on a hill with a church at the very top and the homes underneath it. It seemed like most of the business was conducted near the edges of town as the two Abyssal Hunters slowed their pace and began to walk amongst the townsfolk who were predominantly Liberi and Ægir, which surprised Sonatina. She never expected to see so many Ægirians while on the surface, she thought all of them were under the ocean.
Their walk came to an end as Ulpainus stopped and knocked on a wooden door, there was no response for a minute. Just when she was beginning to get anxious about them being in the wrong place the door creaked open, revealing an Ægirian with white hair and red eyes in civilian clothing, another Abyssal Hunter?
"Captain? Come in, quickly." The man ushered them inside, revealing the building to be a bar of some kind with numerous tables and chairs evenly placed and a counter opposite of the door filled with various bottles, glasses, and mugs. He led them into the back room where the man's Abyssal Hunter equipment was laid out on a table with a metal spear against it.
"Laxius, report. What's the church's current situation?" Ulpainus ordered, getting Laxius to stand at attention and begin his report.
"Sir, The Church of the Deep has been anticipating our attack against Ishar'mla. They were hoping we would lose and achieve "immortality" by becoming one with the Seaborn. Since you're here I can only assume the Leviathan is dead. In any case, the church has been trying to figure out ways to get Abyssal Hunters out of Ægir's depths and onto the surface to perform experiments on them, be it Originium or trying to reverse engineer the Abyssal Hunter process. So far I can confirm that many from the fourth and sixth companies have been kidnapped while defending the city of Atlan. Though I was unable to track their exact whereabouts, I know that they've been divided between many of the head bishops and scattered across the country." Ulpianus placed a hand under his chin, thinking about their next move.
"Continue to monitor the Church, if you see an opportunity to free other Abyssal Hunters, do it. Sona and I shall travel further north while you and whoever you free will continue south. We'll reconvene in half a year's time." Laxius gave a sir in affirmation before tending to his equipment.
Ulpianus turns to Sonatina, "If you have any questions, ask now. We won't be staying long."
Seeing no better time to ask questions, Sonatina spoke. "Captain, what's the Church of the Deep? Why are they trying to kidnap Abyssal Hunters and what do they want? How many of us are up here?"
Despite wearing a mask Sonatina could make out the frown of disgust that Ulpianus made, "The Church is a fanatical cult that worships the Seaborn as humanity's one true savior. They more than likely want us because of our intimate connection to the Seaborn and conduct their research on how to utilize it. Their ultimate goal is the evolution of humanity and believe assimilation with the Seaborn is the only way. I can't answer your last question, for I myself do not know how many of our kind are on the surface. It could be the half of the fourth and sixth company, or it could be hundreds of traitors and spies who managed to infiltrate Ægir."
"Traitors? Spies? Why would anyone want to betray us for those… those monsters–freaks?! How long have you known these things were happening in Ægir's depths?!" Sona's voice became heated, drawing Laxius' attention and making Ulpian sigh.
"Sona, not even I can answer those questions. But if we do find them I don't intend to show them any mercy, they betrayed our home for surface dwellers and spit in the faces of the Abyssal Hunters, the many who sacrificed their lives to keep the Seaborn at bay. And I've known for a long time now, that's why Laxius and a few other Abyssal Hunters were sent to the surface to keep an eye on the Church." Ulpianus left no room for further questions as he made his way back to the front of the bar and threw his anchor out the window, crashing into a man on the other side and pinning them to the stone wall of another building.
"Captain! What are you do-"
"We've been found." Was the captain's firm response, causing Laxius to rush towards the front and send his spear through the door, tearing it in half and piercing another man through the chest.
"Wha-?" Before Sona could question anything that was happening an arrow flew through the window and forced her to dodge out of its way. Now realizing there was a threat she drew her twin swords, as well as realizing her left glove was now gone, but that was something that could be fixed later.
Numerous cloaked men rushed into the bar, they ran at the three Abyssal Hunters but were pushed back with ease, even with two of them being unarmed, their superior strength enabled them to overpower the vastly superior numbers the church had.
Ulpianus swung his arm, crushing the skull of one of the cloaked figures and sending them crashing into their companions. He grabbed another who tried to sneak up on him and swung him around as a replacement for his anchor, immediately killing the cultist after the first swing into another cloaked figure and proceeding to throw the useless corpse into the crowd of seemingly never ending opponents.
Laxius had disarmed two others, using their weapons as his own and easily cut down anyone who stood in his path. The Abyssal Hunter briefly glanced at his captain and he received a glance back. The two nodded before Laxius rushed out the door, grabbing his spear and throwing Ulpianus' anchor back through the window, killing another three cultists. Ulpianus grabbed his weapon and turned to inform Sona of their plan of action.
Sona was in the middle of her dance. Though this dance was noticeably sloppier and much more unrefined when compared to her past ones, a few slip ups with her footing, lunging too far, and not focusing on her surroundings have caused her to gain small cuts on her clothes and skin. Sona grit her teeth in frustration, the reveal that her countrymen would have the audacity to betray them for monsters her fellow Abyssal Hunters had died to fight off and that a cult on the surface had somehow infiltrated her home was clouding her thoughts. She couldn't sense the cultist behind her until their sword had already swung. In her haste to defend herself she tripped while turning to try and parry the attack, the mismanagement of her footing caused them to get stuck on loose debris and she fell to the wooden floor, horror in her eyes that her mistake might be the cause of her death.
Until an anchor slammed into the cultist, sending him flying into the counter. Ulpianus stared down at Sona with disappointment before grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and throwing her over his shoulder and rushing out of the bar with his anchor in tow.
By the time Sona had recovered from her shock they were already miles away from the Iberian town. Now she laid against a tree with Ulpianus nowhere to be seen, though a small campfire had been lit in front of her.
She was alone for now, so her mind wandered to the explanation Ulpianus had given her in the bar. How–why? Traitors and spies in Ægir? It didn't make sense to her, for years she and her fellow hunters had fought and died to push back the Seaborn. Not only that, but a whole fanatical cult that worshiped those monsters… But worst of all, each and every Abyssal Hunter that had perished in the battle Sona had known personally, or at the very least friends with. She didn't know how many had truly died, but from what she could overhear and guess, around six hundred had died. That was over half of the total nine hundred Abyssal Hunters.
And now she was stuck on the surface with no way home. Swimming down was not an option, she knew nothing of the surface's geography and had no way to find where the nearest Ægirian city would be. Not to mention with the Church of the Deep posing a threat to her nation, she would have to stay here with Ulpianus to weed them out until it was safe to go back. She would have no time to grieve.
"Sonatina." Ulpianus' voice called out to her, breaking her from her thoughts as she turned to look up at the company commander.
"We have a lot to do, it's best not to get hung up on these revelations. We have quite a ways to travel before reaching the next city. Get some sleep, I'll keep watch." His voice is as cold as ever, and just before Sona agreed to rest she realized something.
"Captain Ulpianus, I think you should rest first. You were one of the many who fought against Ishar'lma and survived, you couldn't have come out of that battle unharmed. We were barely given a chance to rest while meeting with Laxius and I'm barely injured, so I'll take tonight's watch." She tried to reason with the captain, realizing that he would be pushing his body too far, even with the augmentations being an Abyssal Hunter gave.
Ulpianus simply narrowed his eyes at Sona, the tricorn hat and approaching night allowing his red eyes to seemingly glow. She would've been scared if she didn't know Ulpianus, but years of being around the other hunters kept her stance firm. The two stared at each other for what felt like hours. In the end Ulpianus relented, sighing and laying against another tree, placing his anchor on the ground nearby and tilted his head down.
Sona sighed in relief, she knew how stubborn the third commander could be when on mission, so seeing that he relented this time meant that his wounds were bad. She would have to take extra care not to wake him up and allow him to heal.
Looking out towards the setting sun Sona was left awestruck at the beauty of it. In all her life she had never left Ægir's depths and was only now leaving home, even if not by choice. But before she could become too enamored with the view, Sona's features steeled as she scanned the surrounding area, a small group of trees were surrounding her with large hills off in the distance. She could faintly smell the ocean further behind the hills which meant they were traveling inland, but once again she felt like she saw something in the distance. She didn't know if she was hallucinating but she swore she saw features that only a sea terror could have. In the end she decided to largely ignore it, there was no way a Seaborn could be on the surface as well, could there?
Her watch would go by with no disruptions, just the silence of the cackling fire and rustling leaves.
Sona was gently awoken by the rising sun that gently gleamed into her closed eyes, the fire that once burned now dead and Ulpinaus was still laying asleep against his tree. She stood up and stretched before walking over to Ulpianus and gently shaking his shoulder. The captain raised his head and opened his eyes, meeting hers.
"Captain, the sun is now rising." Ulpianus simply nodded his head before standing up and reaching for his anchor. They wasted no time and began their trek north, traveling from sunrise to sunset.
She almost saw us…
She was so close…
Our kin almost accepted us…
Why did she not accept us…?
Isn't she one of us…?
Perhaps the surface will show her…
That's a wrap for this chapter of From the Ocean to New Land, I hope you enjoyed this.
Honestly, I've slowly been losing motivation to continue writing, so updates are going to take weeks or months to produce.
Though after going through my recommendations and finding the "I Believe In Us" song that global got for Under Tides, which definitely helped me finish this chapter, even if they're only 2k words each.
CC11 came out as well, what's the highest you've completed? I've only gotten to contingency level 8, though I've been trying to get 13 recently.