Chapter 4 - Holy Admonition

Author's Note

- Padre Sebastião communicated with Lara in broken English.

- Alferes Alexander communicated with Lara in broken Hollandic Dutch.

- Onna-musha Samantha communicated with Lara in fluent Ecclesiastical Latin.

- Other Portuguese and Japanese Catholics communicated with Lara through simultaneous interpreters (Padre Sebastião, Alexander and Samantha).

29-7-1581

Northern Philippine Sea - "Dragon's Triangle"

São Nicolau de Mira left the prosperous trading port city of Portuguese Nagasaki on 25-7-1581 and Lara enjoyed every moment on board ever since. Capitão Cristóvão Oliveira understandably paired her with Alferes Alexander Wyss on every assignment. The duo worked together with excellent chemistry and grew so close to become practically inseparable. Lara started to amiably call the Alferes simply as "Alex" and found him to be a carefree technician genius. He was close and friendly with everyone but some old farts seemed to be irritated by his constant jokes and sarcasms.

Lara also found her roomate/squadmate onna-musha Justina 'Samantha' Nishimura Yuno to be an excellent companion. She was not only a passionate Portuguese language-teacher but also a fervent fashionista, constantly half-forcing Lara to try on different Japanese clothes, accessories and hairstyles. They even had close quarters pillow fights, girly talks regarding their (non-existing) past romance experience and future ideal husbands. Furthermore, Samantha was deeply invested into Japanese folklore and yōkai and constantly spook Lara with various horror stories before sleep. The young Countess had to admit that Japanese horror was insanely terrifying. Their highly detailed art depictions just made them so much more disturbing and made all European paranormal entities look like child's play.

Currently, Lara and Samantha stood together at the bow of the ship, admiring the peaceful view of the infinite blue sea and afternoon sky while busy discussing the yōkai of "Umibōzu". Lara wore a white linen shirt with loose sleeves, a pair of tight black breeches and dark brown knee-high leather cavalier boots. Her brown ponytail was tied with a huge white bow scrunchie.

Meanwhile, Samantha wore a red yukata with various flower patterns. She explained to Lara excitedly, "The Umibōzu is a huge black bald bōzu with blue eyes and stands several metres high! Despite having no clear facial details, its usual appearance at sea during storms and nights marked the impending disaster. He will appear in front of the fishing vessel's bow, just where we are now. He then blocks the ship and demands fish. If the fishermen refuse or provide insufficient quantity, Umibōzu will spit out mucus or flip over the ship, killing everyone onboard!"

"Umm… Very interesting… Bōzu is a monk, right? The only resembling European creature that I can think of is the so-called "bishop-fish". I read it from Conrad Gesner's famous Historiae Animalium when I was still a teenager. It is in the 4th volume and says that the creature was captured in Germany in 1531. Yet, there are no disasters and the whole narration is just completely anti-climatic. The bishop-fish just refused to eat and died in 3 days. I also heard a legend about it being captured in Poland, met local Catholic Bishops, was released and made the sign of the cross before disappearing into the sea. It is just very bizarre."

"I asked Padre Sebastião about his opinion about Umibōzu. He thought the creature was an exaggerated metaphor for pirates."

"Did he say anything about your interest in yōkai? Like trying to stop you from researching them."

"Not really. He is completely cool as long as I only take them as fictional entertainment. In fact, he actually encourages me to study more so that I can better enlighten my fellow countrymen from their absurd fallacies. Ya know, know your enemy so that you can destroy them from within."

"Very interesting… I am always curious… What is the Catholic Church's official stance about paranormal creatures and monsters?"

"Recognition is rare as they have a very complex and academic process of investigation. There is no outright superstition but not relentless scepticism. That's why His Holiness, Pope Gregory XIII sent us to investigate Yamatai and exorcise it if needed-"

A sudden exploding thunder and drenching rain cut off the conversation. Before the duo could respond, a blazing lightning struck starboard the port of São Nicolau de Mira. Within a mere second, the blue sky abruptly turned as dark as midnight, sunny weather became violent thunderstorms and the peaceful sea transformed into raging surges. Countless lightlings bombarded the ocean, splattered water all over like explosives; sea waves became as tall as hills; gigantic vortexes were spotted; the storm was so strong that it caused rain drops to hit like slaps.

The duo could barely stand in the sudden violent typhoon-like weather. Samantha exclaimed in shock and horror as she grabbed a railing, "What the fuck?! Where are all these storms coming from!? Please tell me it ain't Umibōzu!"

"Umibōzu or not, this shit is definitely paranormal! Weather doesn't work this way! We need to get back inside the ship, now!", Lara shouted in response.

As the duo went inside the deck door,a huge lightning strike launched from the sky and precisely hit the São Nicolau de Mira like orbital bombardment. It impacted the middle deck and instantly exploded a huge hole. Although no one was killed, at least 40 crews suffered from various fragmentation cuts and concussions. It also exposed the gun deck and utterly crippled the main hull.

Everything was in chaos, sea water was leaking everywhere and all the crews were in absolute panic. Another lighting strike like that would instantly disintegrate the ship into oblivion. Without a single word, Lara and Samantha immediately joined Alex to perform emergency repair. Just after they grabbed the equipment and materials, a huge 300 m tall tsunami-wave appeared out of nowhere at the port side of São Nicolau de Mira and was about to impact in a minute. The entire crew was so terrified and stunned that they just froze and looked at the imminent doom. There was no way in hell the crew or the vessel could survive that.

Alex lightly put his right arm on Lara's shoulder and pulled her close. She did not resist and automatically leaned against his masculine body frame. The young officer said calmly and affectionately, "Hey, Lara. We all know what is going to happen next, right?"

"Of course."

"Before that happens… I want you to know that… I… I really like you…"

"I know.", Lara answered and turned to Alex. She put her hands on his chest and continued, "Me too."

Lara then closed her eyes and kissed the officer on the lip. It was her first kiss in life and was going to be her last in a few seconds. She would make her final moment count with no regret. Lara thus sloppily locked her soft lip against Alex's mouth and sucked it with all her might. She refused to let go and enjoyed every sensation of flesh and saliva.

Strangely, death never came and Lara only felt warmth surrounding her. The lovebirds' affectionate lips-interlocking/sucking session was only stopped when Samantha abruptly slapped their backs harshly and hissed, "I hate to interrupt but… you two really need to stop and see this."

Lara and Alex opened their eyes and were shocked to the core by the scenery. Flames of fire fully covered the ship and protected it from incoming gigantic tsunami-wave and the subsequent lightning strikes. The situation was identical to Acts of the Apostles' Chapter 2 and the crews automatically knew that the flames were the Holy Spirit. Led by Padre Sebastião and his 2 Jesuit Deacons, the entire crew knelt in tears of joy and praised God in various Catholic prayers. The God blessed Black Ship continued to sail under the protective flames, ignoring every vicious attack from the outside. There was no longer any sea water leak, the ship became dry and very comfortable. Everyone was filled with a divine sense of warmth, courage and devotion.

Suddenly, a strong light appeared at the ship's bow and an old Christian Bishop appeared out of nowhere. He wore Late Roman era Eastern Imperial vestments with grey hair and a long beard. The Holy Bishop had a Cross necklace, Bible in the left hand and crosier in the right. Every accessory was beautifully decorated with silver, gold and various jewellery. A huge radiant and saintly halo was flowing over his head. He slowly descended to the broken deck and healed every wounded crew with a single touch to the forehead. The Saint then repaired all the ship's damage with a single swing of his crosier. He introduced himself in Late Greek but everyone on board was able to understand with the help of the Holy Spirit, "Greetings my children, I am Saint Nicholas of Myra - Defender of the Faith, Wonderworker, Holy Hierarch, Bishop of Myra and the Patron Saint of this vessel."

Everyone gasped in disbelief and frantically praised God for sending the blessed Bishop to assist them. Even Lara was spiritually enlightened by the miracle, instantly rediscovered and embraced the one true Roman Catholic faith. Saint Nicholas smiled kindly and continued, "Relax, my children. I am merely here by the will of God to give you admonitions for the upcoming journey. Your ship just entered the Yamatai's sphere of influence. It is a unique intersectional dimension between physical Reality and spiritual Hell. Apart from the paranormal climate, there are numerous uncanny cultists and possessed humans. My children, you are Crusaders to cleanse this unholy land. You can trust no one on Yamatai. Only a swift death from your weapons can grant absolution to Yamatai's foul inhabitants."

The entire expedition choked in absolute horror and doubted their strength. São Nicolau de Mira only had 234 hastily trained troops. They were definitely not equipped or mentally prepared to face a horde of insane cultist and demonic possessed enemies. Saint Nicholas comforted them with a sincere smile and explained passionately, "Do not be afraid. Your weapons, clothes and armour are all blessed by God Himself. They will deliver maximum Holy damage and defence against any fiends that you come across. Your body is also filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning you will know no fear and temptation. Although some of you may fall in the upcoming campaign, your Souls are all protected by Lord Jesus Christ and He is waiting for you to join him in Heaven. Go forth, my children! With righteous fury and zeal, show evil no mercy, no remorse and no respite. Deus Vult! Amen."

With that said, Saint Nicholas of Myra and flames of the Holy Spirit all vanished into thin air. The troops looked outside and found that while the violent rainstorm was still raging on, São Nicolau de Mira had already sailed to a safe bay of Yamatai. A small abandoned fishing hamlet was also not far away. Religious zeal immediately erupted and literally everyone was eager for crusading in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. However, veteran officers like Capitão Cristóvão and Alferes Alexander quickly calmed down. Years of combat experience taught them that impulsive actions would only lead to catastrophic disasters. They thus immediately called an emergency plenary assembly regarding future plans. After some simple persuasions, even the most fanatical battle brothers quieted down because of 3 obvious disadvantages.

First of all, the expedition already lost the initiative. The demonic entity of Himiko clearly noticed their presence by constantly trying to sink the ship. It was only logical for her horde of possessed soldiers and cultists to know as well.

Secondly, the entire island was uncharted. Without a proper exploration for precise cartography, it would be extremely easy to get lost or fall into ambushes. Since the expedition no longer had the initiative, the original plan of having various individual squads to mass venture into the island would be suicidal. The enemy could just easily encircle and slaughter each squad one by one.

Thirdly, there were insufficient soldiers. Although the entire expedition was blessed by God, the 234 soldiers were not invincible and had to face a whole island of cultists and possessed enemies. Worst of all, hostile numbers, tactics, fortifications and equipment were all completely unknown.

After some heated discussion, the expedition unanimously agreed that they were on the defensive. Their priority was to build a stronghold at the galleon's docking bay and create a sufficient surrounding supply network. The terço would be vital for defending the fort since it was unbeatable up front as long as it did not venture into rough terrain or had the troops foolishly break formation. São Nicolau de Mira would be the mobile artillery platform for defending the stronghold both from land and sea. Its 20 barrels of doom would demolish anything it came across.

After some detailed planning, the troops retired to their quarters for the night and were all eager for tomorrow's start of operation. Alex escorted Lara to her room and both were awkwardly silent for the entire time. They stopped at the door and Lara finally broke the silence, "I must say… that's the most sacred way to confess our feelings…"

"The Holy Spirit is literally our witness… So, what are we to each other now?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend of course! You dummy! What else can it be?"

"Oh, I just want to make sure. Don't wanna make a fool of myself.", Alex chuckled in embarrassment. Lara immediately and passionately kissed him on the lip to assure him that it was not a dream. She said girly, "See you tomorrow, love~"

Lara then entered her room and closed the door, only to see Samantha smugly grinning at her.

"What's so funny?"

"When will I expect a child?"

Lara blushed and playfully threw a pillow at Samantha's face, "Not now, lassie!"

30-7-1581

Yamatai - Bay & Fishing Hamlet

Despite still existing in the distance, the rainstorm generally stopped and warm sunlight spread across the small Yamatai bay. After a sincere morning prayer to thank God and venerate Saint Nicholas of Myra, the galleon docked at an ancient wharf and the troops disembarked. They quickly occupied the small abandoned fishing hamlet. It was ancient and dilapidated. The well was dry, stone bases were covered with moss and wooden architecture was in moist decay. However, the hamlet was strategically crucial for long term military operations due to its vast resources base. The bay's water was deep and full of fish, perfect for making a fishery for a stable food supply. The left hill had a waterfall and river to provide sufficient fresh water. The right hill had a small abandoned mine which still had some mineral reserves. They could be extracted to repair equipment, craft new weapons and replenish ammunition. Due to the rough hill terrains, simple fortifications would make them impassable for any attackers. Since the small fishing hamlet was in the middle of 2 defensible mountains, its flanks were secured and essentially became a chokepoint for any enemy attack. It neutralised the islanders' numerical advantage, forcing them to charge into the expedition's stronghold and terço like slaughterhouse sheeps.

After a whole morning of geographical investigation, the troops started to renew and fortify the hamlet as a Portuguese military stronghold by deforesting the surrounding bay. They gathered wood to make barricades, spike traps, sharpened stakes, javelins and mantlets.

1-8-1581

Yamatai - Bay & Surrounding Areas

The absolute majority of troops were busy fortifying the hamlet, guarding the mountain passes and gathering supplies. Segundo Squad was assigned to do short-range reconnaissance into the surrounding regions. Unfortunately, Alex and Padre Sebastião had to stay in the fishing helmet to supervise the fortifications. Segundo was further divided into 7 pairs of 2 to increase efficiency and avoid islanders' detection. The fast friends of Lara and Samantha were of course assigned as a tag team. Currently, the duo investigated along the shores of Yamatai, about 2 hours away from the fortifying fishing hamlet.

Lara dressed like a typical musketeer of the London Trained Bands. She wore a black capotain with a huge white feather on the left side, a livid linen shirt with loose sleeves, a pair of tight khaki breeches and dark brown knee-high leather cavalier boots. Her brown ponytail was tied with a huge light grey bow scrunchie. Lara had no body armour but was fully armed with a rapier on her left waist, a parrying dagger on the right and the dual wheellock pistols in her twin-shoulder holsters. Samantha wore her full samurai equipment of Nanban dō gusoku and kabuto, with light blue clothing underneath. To reduce weight, she stored her huge Ferrum Praevaricator back in the hamlet, only equipped with an uchigatana and a wakizashi on her left waist for the duration of the coastal scouting mission.

There were a vast amount of shipwrecks along the shorelines. They included Chinese junks and treasure ships, Korean panokseon and turtle ships, Japanese kobaya and atakebune, Dutch and English galleons. Under the morning sun and distant rainstorm, the scenery was uncanny but stunningly beautiful. Although there may be other shipwreck survivors, Saint Nicholas of Myra warned the expedition to trust no one and purge the cursed demonic island. It heavily implied that the survivors were either killed by the islanders or went insane to join the evil. While some shipwrecks were centuries old, some were very recent and only about 1 or 2 years old. They directly hinted that the islanders may have access to modern gunpowder weaponry. The horrific realisation sent chills down to the duo's spines.

The duo eventually discovered a suspiciously huge cove-cave and decided to investigate. Samantha went first with a torch in her left hand and wakizashi in the right due to the confined den. Lara closely followed behind with dual wheellock pistols ready in her hands. The den was definitely inhabited by an intelligible caveman. It had crude building structures and furniture made from various shipwreck's wood planks. Lit torches, candles and lanterns provided surprisingly good illumination. The vast amount of scavenged materials included barrels, weapons, armour, repairing and domestic tools.

However, the deeper the duo ventured into the uncanny cave, the more horrifying it became. Countless human bones, skeleton decorations and demonic wall paintings were all over the place. There were numerous skull altars with candles and dry corpses hanging up-side-down in wrapped cocoon-sacks. A poor rotten female corpse was even hung up like a "Y" crucifix.

While Lara and Samantha were no strangers of witnessing cruel public executions, the absurd amount of human skeleton remains and ritualistic torture-killings in the den were just insane. All these scenes were just absolutely horrific and gruesome even by contemporary standards. The entire cove-cave literally screamed madness and death. The duo was definitely going to have nightmares in the upcoming days.

"Lara, I think we should leave-", Samantha turned around to address Lara but abruptly stopped and shouted, "GET DOWN!"

Lara immediately ducked down on her knees as Samantha threw her wakizashi right over the young Countess's black capotain, striking a crude pry axe wielding feral scavenger with half of the sharp blade lodged deep into his right eye socket and brain. The psychopathic wild man fell dead like a heavy sinking stone hitting the rock bottom. Lara pulled the wakizashi out with force, shed the excessive blood and brain fluid away with an elegant sword spin and cleaned the remaining gore by rubbing the blade on the corpse's pants. She gave the wakizashi back to Samantha and thanked sincerely, "Bloody hell… That's too close. I own you one."

"Yea, a second delay and we would both be royally screwed! That bastard nearly spiked his pry axe into your skull!"

"Again, thanks for the save… Speaking of the bastard…", Lara replied as she investigated the corpse for a few seconds before concluding in surprise, "Gosh! He is European!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Don't let his filthy and long facial hair fool you. This caveman is definitely European - either a shipwreck survivor or their descendant."

"Jeez… this forsaken island must turn him insane. Seems our hypothesis regarding 'survivors-turning-cultists' are correct."

"And there will only be more of them… Come on, let's return to the hamlet."

When the Lara-Samantha tag team reported their uncanny findings and caveman-scavenger incident, the expedition high-command immediately dispatched troops to secure the huge cove-cave. Padre Sebastião and his 2 Jesuit Deacons cleaned the place with Holy Water and prayers. They recorded and analysed the demonic paintings, ritual decorations, gruesome altars and the feral scavenger's corpse. The logistic crews collected all salvageable materials and loaded them all on horse carts. A demolition team then placed explosives in key supporting cave-arches and ignited the fuses after evacuating everyone out. With a huge explosion, the huge cove-cave was demolished and completely collapsed, leaving no future potential hideout for the enemy and forever burying the blasphemous den underground.