Re-Stack

The reflection of the moon’s visage trembled slightly across the surface of the ocean. For Pax, It felt calming to look at. The reflection of the moon’s visage would waver at times, but anyone could tell that, in the end, it was still reflecting the moon. It even seemed pretty, as if the moon were dancing to the beat of an unknown song.

“You know who else was pretty? Raya, at least before she died.”

Pax’s eyes narrowed at the woman who voiced his intrusive thoughts.

How long would this keep going on?

For how long would he be tortured by the dancing shadows of a long dead woman?

“You loved her, didn’t you…”

A soft voice echoed from the shadows of the ship.

Pax turned around, disappointed in the fact that he hadn't detected Derrick before he had gotten so close. Derrick had also strangely guessed what Pax had been thinking about, further deepening Pax’s scowl. Ignoring Pax’s hostile gaze, Derrick continued:

“It’s nights like these, when you can’t help but reminisce upon the past.”

“Hmph, it’s just that there’s nothing better to do on this stupid ship other than stare into the distance…”

“Maybe if you made some friends, that wouldn’t be the case.”

This fucking guy…

Derrick had the uncanny ability to annoy Pax. It was as if he could see Pax for who he was, past his purposely standoffish demeanor and childish antics. Pax didn’t know when it happened, but at some point during the six months he spent under the effects of rapid aging, Derrick had warmed up to Pax.

And so, for some reason, Pax decided to be more genuine than he normally would be. Perhaps it was partly due to the strange atmosphere that moongazing created.

“I’m assuming you also lost someone you once loved.”

“...Yes, I don’t think that there is a single person in this strike team who hasn’t suffered some tragic love story –No, perhaps Sakura hasn’t, but her reasons for that are all the more saddening.”

Derrick had put effort into getting close to the other members of the team, while Pax had done the complete opposite. Pax didn’t really know any of his team members, and he didn’t regret this fact, but sometimes it made him feel just a little bit lonely. Though, he had known that this would be the case before even meeting the team.

“How did you… move on?”

Staring out into the distance, Pax cast out that question into the depths of the night with a whisper, not fully expecting to get an answer. Of course, he knew that the man standing nearby had incredibly sensitive hearing so he didn’t doubt that his question had been heard. Doing it this way made it so that Derrick could choose whether or not he wanted to answer –It was a very personal (and somewhat insensitive) question after all. If it were Pax being asked, he wouldn’t have answered the question. After all, they they barely knew one another.

“For me at least, it's wasn’t a question of how, but of whether or not you should.”

Pax turned around, surprised in the fact that Derrick considered himself close enough to talk to about this, but Derrick continued:

“Nobody wants to move one. Nobody wants to lose what they love… But time keeps moving Pax, and we can’t do anything to change it. Over time, I found myself thinking about her less and less. And then, I found that I had already moved on.”

“So that’s it? All that love, all those feelings… just washed away by time!?” Pax shouted in anger, but he didn’t know what he was angry at or why he felt the way he did.

Derrick frowned, finally shedding a fragment of the mask of stoicism that he forced himself to wear. He looked away from Pax’s piercing gaze, towards the wooden ground. He would have cried if his tears hadn’t dried out long ago.

“...That’s just how it is Pax. You’ll move on whether you like it or not.”

- - - - - - -

“And yet, here we are again, breaking every law of this world.”

Pax had braced himself against the eclipse, instantly turning on his countermeasures. But somehow he found himself back on the ship, before it had been attacked by the sea monster and been destroyed.

Eris was defending the ship from fireballs… clearly still alive. How?

Pax knew he wasn’t hallucinating. He knew that what he had seen couldn’t have been a dream, so… How?

Then the mists surrounding the fleet of ships changed subtly, losing their effect of obscuring the attacking ships.

“So that’s how it is…” Pax smiled as he raced towards the bow of the ship.

Bones began sprouting from his spine as he did so, but he barely even registered the pain. Without hesitation, he dove into the waters. Vincent saw this, confused, but didn’t make any attempts to stop him.

Beneath the surface of the sea, things appeared to be more calm than the situation above. Even with augmented eyes, Pax’s vision couldn’t pierce more than a few dozen feet in front of him. However, he knew the monster would be showing itself any moment now.

Surely Pax, who had entered its domain, would be its first target.

He didn’t have to wait long before getting pierced through the gut by the same tentacle that had caught Eris last time. It hurt. A normal person would have died just then. Still, Pax grabbed the tentacle and severed it with one of the eight appendages that were growing out of his back.

Blood from both Pax and the monster dyed the surrounding waters crimson. The ocean itself seemed to tremble, as if frustrated that its prey hadn’t been felled. Pax swam in the direction that the tentacle had come from, into even deeper waters. He wasn’t particularly worried about drowning here because he had recently learned to create oxygen from carbon dioxide in his lungs just for this kind of battle. This method wouldn’t let him survive forever, but it would be more than enough for this battle.

Probably.

Several large tentacles lunged at him, but none were as fast as the thin tentacle from earlier. Pax wasn’t sure if the monster only had one of those, or if it were simply conserving them for an opportune moment. Either way, Pax cut up any tentacles that approached him, slowly making his way towards where they had come from.

The eight appendages coming from his back worked tirelessly and independently to cut tentacles. They would also stab into the tentacles and propel Pax further downward. These weren’t normal appendages like arms or legs, but instead consisted of a bone exoskeleton that used blood as its muscles. They were much longer than Pax’s normal arms and had proved their usefulness many times during the campaign, eventually earning him the name of Bloodweeping Spider.

Why?

A particularly large grouping of tentacles hit Pax’s side. Four of his spider legs were crushed to lessen the impact, but he still let out some air accidentally. He reformed these legs and continued downward.

But why?

His brain screamed at him to get some air, not understanding that oxygen was being created using magic directly in his lungs. It was hard to ignore. Still, he pushed deeper.

What are you doing?

He didn’t know how long he had been fighting for, but the tentacles were still just as endless as ever. Blood clouded the water so thick that he could barely see. The water pressure was rising, pressing on him with great force.

Aren’t you contradicting yourself?

“Enough!” shouted Pax. Since he was underwater, the sound was muffled and many air bubbled escaped towards the surface.

Pax latched himself onto the largest tentacle he could find, stabbing all eight spider legs into the tentacle. He formed half the blood in his body into a ball of blood and expanded it by several times. As expected, the pressure difference shot the ball of blood upwards with intense speed. Pax, who had attached himself to this ball shot upwards as well, bringing the tentacle with him. After a few feet though, the tentacle tensed up and stopped the ascent. The monster wasn’t going to let Pax pull it to the surface.

Unfortunately for it, Pax was much stronger than he looked. The ball of blood ballooned to a 100 foot diameter. The force of buoyancy was so great that Pax had to create an internal structure of bones to support the balloon, but it worked. The monster was being pulled up against its will, but was still doing everything it could to resist.

The monster stabbed Pax with another thin tentacle, but Pax simply ignored it. It slapped Pax several times with its larger tentacles, but by now the water was rushing past them so fast that there wasn’t much the monster could do. Pax kept increasing the size of the balloon to generate more force. Looking up, he could now see the light of the surface.

The depressurization didn’t come without its side effects. His eardrums popped and his lungs were torn apart while nitrogen formed bubbles in his blood and joints, causing extreme pain. He also felt extreme dizziness and could barely see. Luckily, the monster didn’t seem immune to depressurization either.

As soon as he hit the surface, he healed himself and surveyed the situation. The fleet was still intact, though it had taken heavy losses. Below him, tentacles were writhing in pain aimlessly. In a moment, the monster would probably try to run back into deep waters. Pax couldn’t let it do that.

Compressing all of the blood that he had used to make the balloon, Pax shot a single laser into the depths. Dozens of tentacles were severed in an instant, once again dying the blood crimson. When he finally fell back into the water, he could finally see the origin of all the tentacles.

It appeared to be a giant spirally shaped shell about double the size of the ship that Pax had been traveling on to get here. Clearly still reeling from the effects of decompression, the monster couldn’t stop Pax from coming close to its shell. He used blood like a rope and pulled himself towards the shell. As soon as Pax was close enough to touch the shell, it let out a terrible screech.

Pax smiled as he pulled back his fist.

A colossal explosion of blood shot into the sky and a disgusting creature floated back up to the surface. Standing upon its shattered shell was a single boy. He took a deep breath and looked west, where the spire still towered above the fog.