The man giving the speech in the last chapter continued.
His voice was a thunder across the water, his words cutting through the storm, his conviction igniting the hearts of his men. He was fat, weak, unworthy by the standards of warriors. But his words carried weight.
"If I could do that for my nation..." He spread his arms wide. "...then I expect nothing less from everyone that is here!"
He raised his blade.
"Let us give our lives!" His voice hardened. "We would not even die from a man like that!"
As the right-hand man of Davina Jones heard this, he immediately thought to himself, his inner voice sharp and calculating.
I must flee here. He shifted his grip on his captain's body. Even if it means borrowing time from death, it's sure that I would die.
He took a step.
But at least let my death have some meaning. He looked at Davina unconscious, limp, broken in his arms. It's no use if I sacrifice myself saving you, princess of the sea... and then you could not live to know what I did.
Because he could not see, he began to perceive everything on a different level not by sight, but by feeling. As he released intent, it was like releasing sound waves. But this was more detailed. It painted a very clear picture in his head the shapes of ships, the positions of men, the presence of monsters lurking beneath the waves.
He did not take any liberty.
He jumped down from a great height his body launching from the deck, soaring through the air, crashing into a vessel below. He slammed into the dead bodies of monsters, the impact shaking his broken frame, the pain blazing through his nerves.
He tore off the clothes of some of the bodies of two dead pirates. His fingers worked quickly, ripping fabric, wrapping it around Davina, covering her, hiding her among the corpses.
He dropped Davina Jones among those corpses.
Her body fell softly, nestled among the dead, concealed from the eyes of the enemy.
And he took a small corpse of a monster and ran immediately from there.
Before he could get far, a navy ship that was near him opened fire.
BOOM!
Cannonballs shot through the air screaming toward him, smashing into his body. He could not react as he could not see. The sound was like thunder, but he could not dodge.
As fast as the sound of thunder, one of the cannonballs blasted through him.
It created another hole in his body a gaping wound that sprayed blood, that shattered bone, that devastated what remained of his strength.
Another blasted through his right hand.
His fingers flew through the air, clattering against the deck, lost in the chaos.
Another blasted through his leg.
His knee shattered. His foot separated. His body twisted.
He fell into a destroyed part of the ship he was on.
A wooden spike tore through his neck.
He fell like that impaled, broken, dying. He could feel the life leaving his body, the warmth draining from his flesh, the darkness closing around him.
He could not even speak at this time.
But he moved his lips.
And he believed he could speak.
The reason being that he could not hear the sound of the cannonballs. At such close range, the explosions had already destroyed his eardrums. And so he became a man who could not hear anything, a man who could not see anything, and a man who was dying.
His last words were for her.
"Hey, princess." His voice was a whisper barely audible, barely real. "Please don't feel alone in this world."
He paused.
"You have always been so alone." A tear traced down his cheek. "That's why you try to do everything to take away that loneliness."
He smiled.
"I tried to be there for you."
His voice dropped.
"But now..." He coughed blood spraying from his lips. "...it's certain that I am not strong enough."
He looked at her though he could not see her, he felt her presence, her warmth, her life.
"Daughter of the sea..." His voice was barely a whisper. "...my love."
He paused.
"I pray that you..."
His eyes closed.
"...may be able to do well on this sea."
in the space between the confession and the silence, between the pirate's final words and the sea that swallowed them.
Davina lay among the corpses.
Her right-hand man was dead.
And the battle raged on.