The Arcadia System

The ship rocked under the influence of the large wave.

A door leading to the lower floor smashed open and an old woman with a cat in her arms walked out without care for the raging wave.

She listened to the panicking screams of the crew and sighed, "Reve, this is why my first choice was the English navy. At Least, they don't scream before they die."

Her body movements suggested she was talking to the cat in her arms.

The crew-mates began to notice her.

They hid their unpleasant wails and acted pridefully.

It was certainly funny how they changed instantly, but Reve and Myrna's attention weren't on them. They were looking at the waves that finally descended on the ship.

*Splash!*

"Grab hold onto something!" a voice shouted just before the wave hit them.

Myrna was one step ahead of the crew. She hugged the mast close to her, with Reve in her arms. Right now, they had no time to worry about breaking a few bones.

The ship tilted halfway under the pressure of the wave. Some of the crew-mates got thrown away into the borderless sea. It was evident that they would die.

After the wave subsided, the pirate captain, who had survived, hollered, "It's real. It's bloody real. The Devil's Triangle. When we get back, we are gonna bathe in coins."

However, his men were not feeling it.

They cursed at him behind his back. Not to talk of getting back, even surviving was already a colossal issue already.

Myrna and Reve were disinterested in their squabbles though. Once again, they were the only ones that saw the bigger picture.

All of a sudden, rain began to pour. The tiny raindrops bit on the already broken ship. If things continued, they wouldn't have a ship anymore.

"The sky…," she murmured with her saggy voice.

As she looked up, the intensely blue sky crackled with lightning. It seemed to be accumulating for something….wait, something!

Immediately she figured it out, she shouted out loud, "Lightning! Lay down."

Following her words, she grabbed Reve and plastered her body flat on the ship floor.

Lightning bolts smashed through the entire ship. Some unlucky fellas turned to crisp roast. The sound of thunder rumbled as the lightning bolts increased their pace.

Gradually, to the few alive, the sound felt more like the prophesied trumpet one would hear on judgement day.

It cleared their minds as they realized how foolish they were to embark on this journey.

Yet, the apathetic lightning bolts didn't care about their enlightenment. They became the horsemen of the apocalypse, thundering around, causing ruins to anything they touched.

The rickety ship broke into two as one of the lightning bolts touched an important part of the ship.

The pirate captain spat, "Oh, bloody mary! We are gonna die. Is god punishing me for all the kidnappings I have been doing? Oh, bloody f*ck, I am an atheist. I don't go by religion. I follow the money code."

Faced against the horrors of nature, the pirate captain remembered his reasons for embarking on this journey.

He glanced at the old lady at the other half of the bridge and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Hey, before I die, give me my f*cking coins! I would like to die with it."

As he kept barking, he caught the unamused stare of the old lady. With a cat in her arm, she unfolded her backpack and threw the pirate's reward at him.

Whether the idiot wanted to die due to the weight of the bags wasn't of her concern.

True to her thoughts, the pirate's half of the ship began to sink faster. It was probably a coincidence, but it was a comfortable coincidence.

The scream of the crewmates at the other half of the ship filled her ears as she tried to focus.

Even the crackling thunder wasn't as despairing as the wails of the big bad pirates.

However, the main thing she was worried about was the overall situation.

Perhaps the other might not notice it, but the ship was constantly moving in a linear fashion.

It moved towards where could be considered the eye of the storm….where the lightning bolts furiously struck and where a tornado was currently forming!

"This is interesting. Is this the true nature of the world? No wonder nothing could ever escape the region. We will have the same fate. However,...," Myrna put her brain to good use.

Far from what others might expect, she didn't consider success to be getting out alive.

She was old. Death was already around the corner. Rather than wasting her time in her home and growing temperamental. She preferred to go out with a bang.

Discovering the secrets of the famed devil's triangle fit her description of going out with a bang. She would like to see what was the true appearance of the devil's triangle.

After checking Reve was okay, Myrna brought out two small objects from her backpack and placed them in her and Reve's mouth.

It was an artifact she had found in an underwater ruin. It would allow the duo to breathe underwater for about thirty minutes. Hence, it did not have a lasting effect.

As soon as the tornado revealed its appearance, a huge whirlpool was unveiled directly beneath it.

If Myrna was to guess, with the pulling strength of the whirlpool, the whirlpool probably directly touched the seafloor.

Although the tornado had yet to move, the raging air current turned over the two halves of the ship and the humans were submerged deep into seawater.

"Oh, mother! We are going to die here!"

"I just want to see my wife again"

Screams like that continued for a while.

Meanwhile, Myrna was attracted to a black shadow that was moving around.

It twirled around one of the crewmates, who still hadn't noticed it yet.

As she kept observing, she got a clue of what it was, "Is that a--"

She could not complete her words as a large mouth with barbed teeth came out of the water and swallowed a handful of the crewmates.

It was a shark and judging by its size, a very large one.

In fact, the horn on its head made it clear that it was one the world hasn't recorded yet.

"Ahhh!!" the crew screamed.

It was not just one weird shark. It was a school of sharks swimming unbridled in the naked waters.

They caused a rampage as every one of their violent actions stained the waters red.

Meanwhile, Myrna had already predicted this occurrence.

Using the pulling strength from the whirlpool, she surrounded herself with it and simply flowed to its center.

To her, dying to it was better than being torn apart by the sharks.

Yet, despite her plannings, she found herself not still faster than the sharks that had already noticed her.

They were gaining on her every second and in a minute, they would gobble her and Reve up.

Suddenly, adrenaline rushed into her and she regained the vigour of youth.

She managed to extend the chase by two minutes.

Closer….closer, she was getting closer to the center of the whirlpool.

She had already denoted that the tornado was created by the movement of the whirlpool and was stagnant.

Just a little bit more and she would get to it. She would see what was the cause of this natural disaster.

As if helping them, lightning bolts struck on some of the sharks, but they weren't enough. There were still many other schools of sharks aiming at the grand prize.

It was all futile.

She couldn't get there on time.

The distance between her and the shark shrank. It was now merely a meter long.

Half a meter long.

Two feet.

One foot.

Three inches…..!

The sharks opened their mouths in preparation. It was time to savour the rewards of their chase.

*HHOOOOO!*

Before they could take a bite at the duo, a rather large mouth appeared beneath them and gobbled the schools of sharks up.

Yes, the mouth was big enough to swallow the big sharks.

It brought forward waves that pushed the duo into the center of the whirlpool.

However, before it left, it revealed its big eyes, as big as an average lake, and scrutinized the duo.

Then, it left, sparing the duo.

However, that did not mean the duo were safe. In the center of the whirlpool, the water pressure gushed at them and the weakness of humans began to show.

Blood rushed out of Myrna's eyes but she still strained her neck to see what was beneath the whirlpool.

Her skull was cracking, her bones were softening. Yet, she had to see it!

She had already placed Reve in her backpack, which could mitigate a bit of the pressure for the cat.

Now, it was time for her to be selfish. She had accepted death, she just needed to see the face of her killer!

Rolling to the bottom of the whirlpool, her limbs tore apart and she lost her body functions.

Just before her brain could shut down, she saw glowing mesmerizing lines on the seafloor.

Her last thoughts were, 'I see.'