Crimes of transmigration

The explosion produced a beautiful melody of destruction, Hali was shocked by my actions and I, thinking about how many of those creatures would find their end in my fire was smiling like a saint.

The irony of this entire situation was beautiful on its own, just yesterday I was praising the fire for its ability to preserve life and create new opportunities and now here I was exploiting its most fundamental attribute to the fullest.

Chaos was ensuing on the cruise, alarms sounding everywhere. Men in suits arrived on the deck from everywhere and assembled in front of the tower in clear distress. I could see everything despite the distance thanks to my enhanced senses from the salamander spirit formula; Hali was also able to see, clearly aura had a big influence on the body.

Mhh I need to investigate the differences between aura an mana…

"Sir Dimitris, their captain is coming out, what should we do?"

"We wait, also drop the sir? I'm just 23."

Silence descended on us again and we waited for further developments.

The men finally started to disperse and a team of 5, including their assumed captain, made their way inside the cruise. Possibly trying to investigate what was going on.

Turning to Hali I decided it was time to take action.

"Do you have any stealth skills or abilities?"

"Stealth is for the cowardly and weak."

This girl needs to reevaluate her priorities.

"Listen, I'm not going to argue since I'm indeed week. But I'm also a master of stealth, so keep your petty thoughts to yourself. Here's what we are going to do…"

______________________

"Captain Roberts… this is clearly no accident."

Pointing at the bodies clearly killed by a cold weapon, my admiral was starting to get nervous, never had I thought we'd be so easily ambushed.

"Those fools must have been to violent with the hostage and unwillingly killed her… we have a new intruder. Procede to check every nook and cranny of the cruise. Be always weary. They might be expert at stealth to not be noticed by nobody."

"Yes Captain!"

As I proceeded to the boiler room to check on the situation and possible damage, my admirals dispersed. Everything was ablaze, no residual bodies could be found and the sheer destruction indicated a precise knowledge of the nature of the machines down here. We weren't against a hilly billy, and certainly we weren't in ancient times.

Has time slipped again? We need to reach the fissure.

Although the fire was expanding continuously, I was a fire mage myself, these little tricks couldn't do much to me. I extinguished the flames and made my way inside the room to repair the damage.

It took sometime, but after managing to get everything back together, bad news reached me once again.

"Captain… we didn't find the intruder, but they left a message in the cafeteria. I think you should come."

Rushing to the cafeteria upstairs, my mind was filled with worries and theories. How could they possibly go about undetected? What was it that they wanted? How strong were they?

Upon our arrival, what awaited us, was a gruesome sight like none I'd ever expected.

One of my admirals was tied to a table. His genitalia cut and stuffed inside his mouth and eye socket. The worst thing was that he was still alive. Anti-aura cuffs locked him preventing self healing. But even if that wasn't the case those amputated parts wouldn't be able to regrow, we didn't have sufficiently strong elixirs after all.

Around my admirals, red lilies were levitating, but as soon as I approached they started moving forming words one at a time.

"What flies without wings?"

"Time… THE FRAGMENT!"

As soon as those words left my mouth the lilies exploded engulfing the entire cafeteria in flames, of course I was able to protect myself, but the men near me got severely injured.

"THIS MOTHERFUCKER IS AFTER THE FRAGMENT! TO THE VAULT AT ONCE!"

Everyone run towards the underground vault with all their might. If our enemy was able to act this way and still remain unseen. We were in it for a tougher fight then ever.

I was ready.

We were ready.

Whatever expected us in the vault would not get to run away.

But what really expected us in the vault was nothing.

Nobody was inside nor anything went missing. The fragment was still in its case, our treasure still in place, even the sword of that woman was still here.

"What… what is going on?"

"Captain everything is in place, the fragment is secured, our treasures are all here as well… is this a trap?"

"Doesn't matter. At this point it's better for me to keep the fragment. From this moment on don't move unless in a group of 5, they might be stealthy, but seeing how they behave, they probably aren't that strong."

_______________________

-Dimitris' POV-

After the explosion in the cafeteria I made my way to the control tower, there was no need for me to tail them anymore. The captain will probably take possession of the fragment at this point, maybe believing infiltration was a joke to me -he wasn't exactly wrong, I just didn't need to follow anymore- and now I would probably be unable to find easy targets. It was time to reunite with Hali.

Reaching the tower undiscovered, I blinked my way to the top appearing before a scared Hali.

"How do you do that?! I can see you but at the same time I can't?!"

"Why would you care? Stealth is for the weak."

Yes, I was still mad, and I was that petty.

It still is my family technique, I poured sweat tears and blood to achieve my level.

"Ok ok, I'm sorry. Fuck you are petty."

"…"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry! So what now?"

"What now what? I've done my job. Now it's your turn. Did you find something valuable?"

"How would I know? These artefacts come from another time! Who would understand their use?!"

I sighed and moved to take a look around. There really wasn't much to look at, every thing was embedded in the control panel. A radar, a compass, buttons I had no clue about their use. But I did find some interesting chains.

"Those chains have mana circuits, I don't know what's their use, but I can't exactly use them, you know aura and stuff. Mortals can't use both."

"What's this shit about mortals? It kinda pisses me off."

"You're kidding right?"

"Why would I?"

Hali thought for a while, but when her eye landed on the panel in front of her -I assumed- clarity returned to her.

"Ahhh, mortals are mana and aura users up to rank A, they can only use one of these essences; above that is unknown territory. Then there are the demigods, they are product of the union between a constellation and a human, they also start regularly like everyone else, but once their divine parent recognises them and they complete a quest, they are granted the trait: Demi-god, and are able to use both aura and mana, most of them continue their path with only one of those though."

"Oh it was that stupid of a thing."

"Yes. Smartass."

Oh, hell no.

"Well miss Hali. Let's watch if you can rob a robber without my help shall we? I'm going to hide now."

"You really are just letting me fight a fire mage alone?"

"What do you want me to babysit you till the end? Do you expect your patron will be happy with me, a weakling, doing your job? Get going girl. If you need help just shout my name. But till then, I'm hiding and resting."

I put the chains into my inventory and found a nice place to hide and rest.

This bitch is beyond ungrateful.

"I swear mr. Tides, if it wasn't because she probably has trauma holding her brains I would have let that girl alone. You need to raise your champion better for fuck sake."

I went in hiding and started resting, all my antics, although successful, drained every bit of energy from me. I didn't care about how bewildered Hali was, nor why for all that matters. I did my job, now it was her time to shine.

I started my breathing, but didn't dare to cast any spell. Of course the situation was tense, and even though I was one of those who'd prefer to get the job done themselves, it was impossible for me to beat both the captain and enemy troupes alone. All the schemes in the world wouldn't bring me that far.

As soon as I felt my mana was steadily recuperating, I ate some of the fruits we've been growing in the ship from Eëä.

I must say, that island truly was a treasure trove, not only these strawberry-like fruits increase one's mana sensitivity, they are also full of nutrients.

Just as my mind was about to drift into future planning and possible alchemy, the door to the command room opened.

"YOU BITCH! IT WAS YOU!"

Hali, clearly unable to understand a word the captain said, just laughed maniacally, took out the daggers I gave her before and launched at her enemy.

Mana was swirling violently around her enemy and soon a flaming lance was thrown toward her.

The mana sensitivity my new circuits grant me is kinda scary. With enough focus I could even predict the trajectory of the spell…

The lance was cleanly sliced by aura coated daggers and the young champion continued her rush to get into close quarters combat. Fire spells were flying everywhere hitting their target, getting sliced and destroyed, some even came my way, luckily enough the battle was so fierce that nobody noticed how I was moving around to avoid getting killed randomly.

Is there a spell or maybe a skill that cancels mana? That could be interesting.

The game continued and soon enough Hali was able to reach a comfortable distance to engage in fighting with daggers.

Coating her enitre body with aura the atmosphere changed drastically, she was faster, stronger, deadlier. But at that moment her enemy smiled. As the daggers descended on him, he teleported to an ignited flame at Hali's side and threw a fire lance at her.

Unable to avoid, Hali flew to the other side of the room and started to spit blood still holding her menacing gaze.

"You think, just because you were lucky enough to free yourself and got to kill some of my men you could go against me?! Crazy bitch. You have no idea what we are going to do to you."

The captain then took out a dark cube and dangled it in front of Hali.

"Is this what you wanted? Poor bitch, you thought you could steal the fragment from me? HAHAHAHAHA!"

Hali's eyes burned with hatred, she wanted to kill this bastard more then anything else. That was the man responsible for all her suffering. All those nights being abused. Unable to retort. Unable to understand.

Why had her patron given her such a difficult quest to awaken her divine blood? Had all Demi-gods passed such hardships? Was it even possible to succeed in such extermination alone?

Everything was going blank, the pain from the enemy spell was enough to make her interrupt her aura circulation, she lowered her head in defeat and there she saw it, a small, beautiful flower was facing her. It seemed to peer into her own soul begging her to ask for help. This flower… this flower became her strength. The man who, as rude as he was, did everything in his power to help her. The man who said she needed to prove herself and didn't want to help, but at the same time was frowning in worry with sweat and clear signs of exhaustion that went to rest unwillingly listening to his own body.

He was here and was just waiting for her to ask for help, he knew better than to jump in action and dishonour her fight, but with that little flower his message was clear.

Call my name. Now.

The enemy was still laughing and preparing a big spell to extract vengeance on her, but suddenly she called.

"Dimitris."

Garden of illusory flowers.

Only heal Hali.

Beautiful flowers bloomed everywhere covering the entire room.

Flowery disperse.

The cube holding the fragment disappeared from the captain's clutches and landed in my hands. I didn't wait for a second and put it in my internal space taking them out my spear.

"Well that's my call."

"WHO???"

"I must say, this is quite confusing."

The captain turned my way and his eyes shot open. Another man in Greek attire, speaking perfect English. Every sense of logic was shattered.

"WHERE YOU THE ONE? YOU BASTARD I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD!"

"I'm afraid that's not possible Barthy."

"HOW?!"

"Oh poor thing, the illustrious pirate didn't notice I was tailing him from the shadows the whole entire time."

A flaming lance came flying my way, but was met with my fire lilies. I took advantage of the explosion to move Hali behind me.

"Young lady, as soon as you've healed try and extinguish all flames, we need to limit his movement."

I left Hali to recuperate and faced captain Roberts again.

"Shall we dance?"