"What? Where am I?" said the pirate as he woke up and looked upon the rugged muscular devil in front of him.

"You"re still on Garden Isle. Now tell me everything you know about this island and that chasm down there. I believe you had an encounter with my ghost last night, so don"t skip on the details or you are going straight back to him," I said.

The pirate shuddered upon hearing about his "encounter with my ghost". His encounter with Jax must have been frightening. I could only imagine the horrors that Jax subjected him to, from the look that painted his face upon me mentioning it.

"No not that, never again." said the pirate as he struggled to get out of his bindings.

"I will never have that happen again, I must get free. No, no, no. Never again. The horrors. How could a ghost be so filthy and perverted to do that do another man! I"ve never even met a demon that deranged," thought the pirate.

I channeled my fire essence around the pirate as he struggled fruitlessly. This created a giant blanket of flame which covered his entire body. I then turned up the heat.

"Stupid demon, I don"t have all day to deal with your theatrics, tell me what you know or I will burn your body to a crisp and search your soul," I said as I increased the temperature every second.

"Yes, yes sir," said the pirate as he stopped struggling when he felt the heat. He understood his position quickly.

"The ghost wasn"t the most deranged individual here. Whoever commanded such a ghost must be a true pervert! The ghost liked em wet and squirmy and this pervert liked his meals hot. How did I even get in this situation?" thought the pirate.

"The captain had found a map of Garden Isle listing a great treasure some time ago. We came to this island laying claim to it while the captain dealt in secret to uncover the treasure. But the captain didn"t properly understand the dangers that laid waiting inside of that cavern," said the demon, hoping he could get out of whatever the pervert in front of him planned to do.

"The first day we made an entry that giant monster came out and swallowed half the crew. While the captain and the stronger officers descended into the cavern, the rest of the crew became worm food."

"I didn"t skip a single detail, hopefully, for my honesty, this pervert leaves me alone," thought the pirate.

"The booty is mine, it belongs to me. You can not take my booty!" thought the pirate as he began crying.

"What kind of treasure is it for your captain to make so many plans?" I said wondering just how the pirate could be overcome by such emotion to cry after thinking about his captain abandoned him.

"Yes, sir. He wouldn"t tell us. Only the officers knew a bit about it," said the pirate as he continued to cry.

"So have you told me everything?" I said.

"Yes sir, everything you have asked about I"ve informed you to the best of my ability. Can I be free now? Please, sir, I"m only skin and bones. Of no use to such a strapping muscular fellow as yourself," said the demon as he bawled his eyes out.

"Ok, you"ll be part of Jax"s brigade from now on. Don"t let him down," I said, walking away from the pirate.

It seemed this guy had a fetish for men too. That must be common among pirates. Better leave him with Jax, to satisfy his urges.

"Wait, wait, sir! I have more information. Don"t leave!" said the pirate as he struggles in his bindings.

What a pervert, he thinks, I can be b.u.t.tered up by a man. How disgusting. I ignored him. He was too low level to know anything important.

It wasn"t even worth my effort to search his soul. Giving him to Jax to manage was the correct choice. Maybe that d.a.m.ned ghost will listen better if he has his own crew.

Summer Flash could be managed by one person, but having a full crew would serve me well in the high seas. What better crewmen than these defeated pirates? I hoped some stronger ones were still alive below; I was itching to wield Judgment again.

I felt over my injured arm; it was still very sore and hard to move. I estimated it would be back in shape given another day. I would use today for planning my next moves while my arm recovered.

"Sybil, why couldn"t you heal my arm fully?" I said bringing the pixie out before me.

"Listen, that wound was corrosive and you"ve grown much stronger. The stronger you get, the more difficult it is to heal your wounds. I"m not a miracle-worker! Be glad you were healed instantly. Focus on repairing the Codex and my skills will improve," said Sybil as she fluttered around upset.

I guess I had hit a nerve by talking down on her healing skills. No matter, this young lord will just have to be more careful down the line. Descending into the cavern below would be tricky business.

I was having a bit of cold feet after being hurt so badly by the tremor worm. Fighting on the front lines was not this young lord"s specialty. This was grueling work, but it had to be done. Only by reaching the Apex could I have true freedom.

I thought over my fight with the tremor worm and what I could have done better. It had ambushed me. That never should have happened in the first place. I have u003cSoul Eyesu003e not surveying the surrounding grounds with my u003cSoul Eyesu003e was a careless mistake I should never repeat.

I should always double or triple over any new unknown lands with my u003cSoul Eyesu003e to be ready for any traps that lay in wait. Not doing that was beyond carelessness. It was reckless to the extreme!

I scolded myself for being so negligent and being blinded by wanting to store such worthless treasures. The most precious treasure in all the world was this young lord"s life. How could anything even come close to that!

The second thing was I actually got hit by an attack, I need to work on maintaining a cover of essence around myself during combat so simple area effect attacks can not be so debilitating.

One little spit barrage from that worm and my strongest arm had become unusable in combat. If it was a bit stronger, that would have been my death. If I had a layer of essence over my body that corrosive acid could have never drilled into my arm.

u003cHollow Aurau003e is not enough. I need a technique for protection more than anything. I"ve worked so hard creating all theses distinct ways to kill things and had forgotten the most important thing in combat is to guard my life.

I sat down cross-legged and brought forth my essences around me. There was Fire Essence; hot, burning, and destructive. Electric Essence; free-flowing and unenc.u.mbered. Soul Essence; ethereal but impermeable. Curse Essence; ethereal yet malicious.

These were the four essences I could use to fuel my techniques. I needed to mold them into a s.h.i.+eld to protect my life. After thinking it over, I forged a s.h.i.+eld of Soul u0026 Curse. They were ethereal and hard to see at a glance. I attack mostly with Fire u0026 Lightning. No one would think I had a Soul and Curse s.h.i.+eld when they started fighting me.

I spent all day tweaking with my Soul and Curse Essence to form a new technique. In the end, I settled on u003cSoul Mortisu003e. It was an interesting cursed soul technique. By channeling curse and soul essence through my body, I created an extra dermal layer of skin as hard and callous as that of the dead.

Using just curse essence to cast u003cRigor Mortisu003e would make my movement be affected by the hardening. However, this technique combined Soul Essence with the Cursed Essence, taking away the drawback. With this technique, I felt ready to face what lay below.

u003cSoul Mortisu003e increased my durability by many times. I tried cutting myself with Lokkar while I had u003cSoul Mortisu003e activated to no avail. Anything that made it through my new turtle sh.e.l.l was a fearsome opponent I had no right facing.

The day had quickly turned to night from my experimenting. So I settled in, letting Jax patrol the island for another night. Maybe he will come back with even more treasure?

I slept soundly. The next morning I woke up refreshed, my arm healed fully. Sadly, there was no new treasure waiting for me.

But I was ready for my descent into the cavern. Everything below would feed Judgment or kneel before this young lord"s feet.

I looked into the large chasm with much curiosity and a hint of fear. I felt ready for what lay below. Any more preparation would be foolish, I needed to exterminate those pirates before they got their hands on whatever treasure lay down there.

u003cRide the Lightningu003e

Turning into a lightning bolt, I dived headfirst into the chasm!