[Daedalus’s Offering:]

[You receive: powers related to confusion and misdirection]

[You lose: the ability to comprehend direction.]

Dawn would have laughed if her consciousness had been able to.

[Lose all sense of direction? That sounds terrible. I’m going to have to refuse.]

The voice didn’t respond for what felt like a minute. Dawn was simply left there, drifting through nothingness.

Then, it finally spoke.

[So be it.]

The darkness faded away, and colour returned to the world as she found herself lying on her back below deck.

Immediately, her senses became overloaded. She heard a mixture of cannon fire, shouting, and violent waves coming from all directions.

As she hurriedly sat up, she saw Lavender sitting over her, hands clasped together in prayer. When the woman sensed the First Mate had woken up, she opened her eyes and sighed.

"Dawn... Are you okay?"

Rather than answering, Dawn drew her blade and stood up.

"What’s going on? Have the Templars attacked us?"

Lavender nodded her head and remained solemn.

"No, not the Templars. In fact, we are fighting alongside them. Something else is attacking us. Lionheart said that this is a common occurrence when the sea god who created the maze sea is angered."

Dawn suddenly had trouble swallowing.

"Did he say who this god was?" she asked, with a feeling that she already knew the answer.

The pious woman responded.

"Yes, he said that its name was Daedalus."

...

Dawn emerged onto the upper deck and found the world in chaos. The scene looked just as it sounded.

Her crew members were all on deck with their weapons drawn and their various skills activated, but it was hard to determine what danger they were fighting against.

Only when her eyes adjusted to the darkness did she finally see.

Aboard their ship, she was seeing two of each person. Roseus was fighting against Kruger, whilst another version of Kruger was fighting against Petyr. An entirely separate version of Petyr was fighting against Silius, whilst a separate version of Silius was fighting against Jackson.

What in the world is going on?

Dawn’s head started to hurt as she tried to understand what was happening. Then, pain rang through her head even harder as a round of cannon fire was loosed from the Templar ship.

She looked over the railing towards where the cannon fire had landed. There, floating atop the water, was a green crystalline ball the size of a small ship. Every now and then, the ball vibrated, letting out a ray of green energy that encompassed the surrounding sea. It had a crack running through it from the cannon fire. From the crack leaked green liquid into the sea.

She quickly realised what was happening.

That ball is creating these doubles of our crew members, and as long as it exists, we will be forced to fight against them... From the looks of it, the Templars are facing this same problem. I can hear battle on their ship.

This ball feels familiar, like the presence I felt in that strange world. Is this the anger of Daedalus because I rejected his offer?

The mere thought filled Dawn with guilt and anger. Before she could bask in these feelings, she suddenly felt something.

She had a strange premonition that she would suffer a fatal wound at any second.

This was due to her skill, Wound Prediction, which allowed her to predict the damage that an incoming strike would do to her.

Dawn dove to the side instinctively, just barely managing to dodge a blade that crashed into the railing, causing a sharp sound.

When she turned towards her attacker, she saw Roseus standing there with his Greycloud Longsword in his hand.

He didn’t look normal. His body seemed illusory and see-through, and so did his weapon.

It felt weird being attacked by her captain and childhood friend, but she could tell that he wasn’t real. Most importantly, it seemed that the sword was behaving as a regular sword rather than an Epic Treasure.

Dawn smiled as she lifted her cutlass.

"Rose, don’t worry, that isn’t me! You can attack!"

Roseus, the real one, called out to her from the ship’s helm, where he was fighting Kruger. The captain was currently using his father’s cutlass to dance around the double with agility, whilst his greatsword rested on his back.

Dawn’s smile grew wider.

"I know that already. This fake version of you is a lot uglier!"

Afterwards, Dawn attacked.

She used Ember Scratch, allowing the blade of her cutlass to burn hot as though it had been dipped in lava. Then, she swung downwards diagonally.

The double tried to step backwards out of the way, but it had none of Roseus’s true agility, and the Greycloud Longsword in its hand slowed it down.

Ember Scratch caught the double in its torso, creating a giant sizzling gash from shoulder to waist. It let out a silent cry as it stumbled backwards. Its body started to fade away, but it didn’t completely disappear, as though it was holding onto something.

Then, the green crystalline ball tried to hum again, its radiant light providing extra strength to those around it.

Unfortunately for the ball, this was soon stopped, as Dawn looked up at the Templar ship. A man was standing on the railing with a cannonball in his hand.

As she looked closer, she saw that it was Captain Lionheart. His seemingly insignificant body was hoisting a cannonball above his head as though he were merely holding a playing ball.

Then, with great strength, he launched it forward. The cannonball moved slowly, not like it had been fired from a cannon. However, as it fell towards the crystalline ball, it gradually started to pick up speed and became surrounded by a golden light that seemed to amplify it with some elemental effect.

When the cannonball crashed into the crystalline ball, the crystalline ball shattered, letting out a great noise of shattering glass that echoed through the seas. Deep in the depths of the ocean, something let out a wail of pain.

The doubles left on the ships still remained, but it became clear now that there was nothing that could be done to bring them back once they were defeated.

Dawn raised her weapon and charged at the Roseus in front of her again.