Ocean Of Broken Dreams

A small, compared to the endless space around, body was drifting in an unknown direction. Green tongues of fire mixed with some space energy was protecting it from the deadly exposure to the cosmic void.

Alexanders' mind was completely blank at the moment.

No family.

No friends.

No name.

But the moment when he acquired everything was too short.

'All gone…captain…James…all dead…'

As he was drowning in apathy and emptiness left in his soul, he felt something from the boundless map.

'Hmmm? The ring?'

The boy felt that the ring and the 'map' were fusing together. It was difficult to measure time in the cosmic space with random worlds and celestial bodies being the only references around you, but it felt like several hours had passed before the two artifacts finally have finally fused together.

'So, its name is Ring of Boundless Sorrow…' The information just appeared in his brain. He moved some energy towards the artifact. 'Hopefully, it's not broken…'

"What…where am I?" – Muttered Alex. – "I can talk here. I am no longer in the space?" – He looked up but couldn't see the top floor.

Right in the middle, in front of Alex, there was a slightly elevated platform.

He decided to step on it.

"You are finally here, Alexander." – A familiar voice ringed in his head. The boy opened his eyes wide. – "C…captain? But I saw you…" – He couldn't finish the sentence.

"Die, right? I am just a portion of Captains' Blake will, left here to explain a few things to you. The original "me" is definitely dead right now."

A misty silhouette materialized in front of Alex. – "Right now, your body is drifting through the space outside the world, while your mind is here, in the Ring of Thousand sorrows…no, it changed the name, right?"

Alexander nodded. – "Boundless Sorrow."

The figure nodded. – "Even better. Anyway, let's start with the most important stuff. Right now, you are the captain of the Sorrow of the Black Sea."

Alex trembled and made a few steps back. – "What…how?" .

"There was no choice. Due to you being particularly weak, you were the only one who could be sent away from that world and survive…And there are other things that my main body placed his hope on. Your bloodline for example."

"This space inside the ring, connected to the brands that every crew member has. Here their last will is preserved. This is the legacy of the Lord of Broken Ocean." – Blakes' will pointed towards the platform. – "With this platform, you can teleport in front of every door. In your room, my true body left the technique that Ocean Lords use to grow stronger."

Alex was overwhelmed. – "Stop! Just tell me…WHY? I don't want this legacy of the dead"

The silhouette sighed. – "I know. If there was some other solution to survive and preserve the legacy, my main body would have done it…"

He paused. – "You know what? If you don't want it, it's ok. But at very least don't you want to help James, or Doctor, to accomplish what they can no longer do? Their final wills and dėsɨrės are behind some of these doors."

Alexander frowned. 'That's manipulation, you as*hole. A very effective one.'

"Fine…I could try…"

The shadow nodded, satisfied with this conclusion. – "Yeah, you are obviously very weak right now, and the space-drifting won't make this situation better."

"It's not like you can do anything about it, so in the meanwhile, you can read what my body left for you."

The silhouette stopped speaking for a moment and became blurrier. – "I guess my time is up…I don't know what you will decide to do, but I implore you, not to let the legacy be destroyed. Please."

As the silhuette's knees touched the ground it vanished completely leaving Alexander alone.

[…]

It was a very plain room. Behind the window, Alex only saw a wall of thick white fog. 'I guess it's just s decoration…'

On the black wooden desk, he found an old book.

The moment he touched the cover it crumbled into a mound of black crystalline sand. The boys' surprise was short-lasting since a bunch of new information just appeared inside his brain.

"What the hell…I need to know how to build a ship?"

The technique was named [Deepwater Inscription]. It had 12 levels separated into 3 big sections.

The First 4 levels consisted of changing the users' bodies and accumulating energy. 'It's slightly similar to the [Black Sea Roulette] that captain gave me back then…Maybe captain used both of these techniques…'

The second and third sections were blurry. – "Guess I will have to finish the first levels before being able to access them."

The part that immediately gave Alexander some headache was that to practice it one must have a vessel, a "ship".

'So…a lot of energy but…' Alexander immediately noticed the main problem. '…no offensive moves? Pretty useless. Probably that is the main reason to use the [Black Sea Roulette].'

'And I also have my bloodline.'

Suddenly he trembled and a spike of pain transmitted from his physical body made him remember his current situation.

With a thought, he exited the ring and returned to his cosmic-drifting body.

The green flames diminished significantly, and the efficiency of the healing was less than half of the original.

'It should be something like [Life II] or even worse.' He thought regretfully. 'At least I am alive…but for how much longer…'

Being helpless was new and a very uncomfortable feeling.

Alexander couldn't even move.

The next five seconds Alex would later describe as "the worst experience of his life". First arrived the impact with something.

Then arrived the burning sensation. It started from his head and after a second his whole figure was on fire.

Only at that point, that green flame of life has weakened enough to let Alex just lose consciousness from the pain.

[…]

"Aa…ah…arrgh…" – Some unintelligible grunts escaped Alexander scarred and dry throat. 'What…happened…' He recollected what happened before he passed out. 'Have I entered a new world?'

He saw a membrane of a world being shattered once so given his circumstances his first guess was that maybe he hit one and the impact reduced his body to his current state.

'Right…what is the state of my body.'

He tried to open his eyes but unsuccessfully. Trying to move also didn't bear any results. Blind and paralyzed he activated the boundless energy to scan the surroundings and himself.

'HOLY…'

It was even difficult to recognize him as a human being. 'More like a piece of charcoal with human outline…'

'What can I do…'

'[Life]…[Life I]'

A minuscule wisp of green energy followed Alexanders' will and went towards his right arm.

"ARGHHH." – And with life pain also returned. With his ability downgraded power, the healing was horrifyingly slow. The green flame consumed dead tissues to create new ones since Alexander was lacking energy right now.

The process wasn't 1:1 ratio but more like 5:1 so after a few hours of this unprecedented torture, the boy was forced to consume matter from his other limbs only to repair one hand.

He lost consciousness several times.

Suddenly his perception noticed a creature approaching him. 'A dog? Or something quite similar…wolf maybe…'

From the constant pain his perception, which required concentration, was blurry.

The creature was initially careful but after observing the body for a while and not noticing any kind of movement it boldly jumped towards Alex and bit his ċhėst ripping off a significant chunk of burned meat.

'[Burn]'

A flash of purple light and the creature bellowed with pain.

'[Burn]'

The animal ran a few circles around Alex's body before falling right next to him. It was dead. A bit of foam mixed with smoke escaped from its maw.

'This will save some time… if I manage to regain mobility of my hand.'

More hours passed and the charcoal man moved his right hand. The movement was very slow but, in the end, Alex managed to grab the animal. It was heavy so the boy had to move his own body closer to the creature.

'Come one…come on…move…'

After struggling for some time, he finally managed to position himself at the bite distance from the creatures' body. At first, his teeth didn't manage to pierce the thick animal hide but after tens of bites, Alex finally felt some sticky liquid flow in his throat. Blood.

The green flame of life began healing his throat and mouth as he continued to bite his prey.