Chapter 776: Laz’s Chance to Speak

Laz stood on the balcony of his room, looking out at the open ocean. The ship had gotten underway the day after Laz’s fight, after making sure that the iced over water had damaged the hull and after getting back into contact with the shore. A coast guard cutter had come into view later the same day that Laz had returned and they had requested his presence to answer questions. He said what he could while hiding what wasn’t important for them to know. He even ended up revealing who he was, scaring the shit out of everyone present. Seeing them pull guns on him though just made him laugh. Previously he had just mention that he was on the infected most wanted list, but this time as he had met everyone in person, he revealed a bit more about himself, just so that there was little doubt about who he actually was.

...

The captain of the coast guard ship sat across from him, his face a mixture of worry and discomfort.

"There are a lot of people looking for you right now," the gruff man said, not really sure what he should say. The men who had pulled their guns were unable to pull the trigger, no matter how hard they tried. And with a wave of his hand, they all put their guns down like the man had just performed some kind of jedi mind trick.

"I’m aware. Why do you think I took a cruise in the middle of no where?" Laz replied, taking a sip of his whiskey. The alcohol didn’t affect him, but he found the taste to his liking anyway.

"A couple’s cruise?"

"Yeah. What better place to hide?" Laz asked, straight face.

"Uh."

"Look. Just ask what you want to ask captain. I’m sure there are reports to be done and superiors to shut up so feel free to ask what you need to."

"What happened out here?" The captain finally asked, the recording equipment on the table capturing everything that needed to be captured. The captain was sitting across from him along with another man who was also taking notes as they had encountered problems with electrical equipment around infected before.

Laz gave them a breakdown about the fish empire, the prince and princess, the fight that ensued along with the summoning of the elder spirit. He ended the story with the strange man asking the spirits to continue on their journey along with ordering the fish people to return to their kingdom, saying that they would be contacted. Everything that happened after that was left out for obvious reasons.

"So you’re claiming there is a race of humanoids living in the depths of the ocean and they form a massive empire?" The captain asked, not sure he believed a word of it. If it wasn’t for the recordings on the ship of the people and their beasts, he wouldn’t even be entertaining the idea of this, instead thinking it was some sort of mass hysteria about pirates.

"The way they spoke, they were from the strongest empire and it sounded like there were other kingdoms... er countries? They referred to themselves as an Empire with an emperor, but as for the other nations? No clue," Laz said, thinking back on their conversation.

"Ok... And... You’re... you, right?" The captain felt weird asking this question, but after contacting HQ, they had wanted him to verify Laz’s identity without question.

"I’m me? If by me you mean Lazarus Crow, then yes. That’s me. Why? Scared captain?" Laz asked with an amused smile on his face. This entire experience was new for him, being in a position of obvious power with people who openly feared him yet being unable to do anything to him. While he wasn’t sure why, it did make him want to toy with them a little if for no other reason that because he knew that no matter what he said, they wouldn’t change their minds about him. They were told he was the enemy so he was the enemy. That was just the way politics and the military worked all over the world.

It looked like the captain struggled with what he wanted to ask next, but Laz didn’t push him. It was up to the man to decide how this conversation was going to go. There were too many things happening that regular people needed to know about and at least this way, some information could be passed along. As for if they believed it or not, that wasn’t Laz’s problem.

’Why did you save this ship?" The man finally asked. He didn’t want to question it, afraid of angering what he still viewed as an insane maniac, but he had his orders.

"Why wouldn’t I?" Time for the play to commence.

"Well... you... you’re...." The man struggled. He had killed before, had almost died before. But right now he felt like he was having a conversation with a beast wearing human skin and it made him nervous, deep down inside.

"A monster, captain? I’m a monster, right? Why would a monster help innocent humans? I’m assuming that’s your question?" Laz said, taking another drink before refilling his cup.

’The top shelf stuff really does taste different. Much smoother,’ Laz thought.

"Yes. That is my question," the captain admitted, resigning himself.

"Have you ever seen a real monster, captain? Perhaps you’ve seen men who’ve become monsters, those who were twisted and corrupted into things barely qualifying as humans no matter how they looked on the outside. And there is a good argument to call these people monsters, I give you that. But real monsters captain... They are something else. They are... beings of power so great that it makes you feel like some sort of insignificant spec of dust in the universe. Things that could kill you with a thought, if you were to even catch their eye. Have you ever counted the number of bugs you’ve stepped on? The number of bugs that have been smashed by your windshield when you drive? You notice them and they annoy you, but you don’t bother to count. Nor do you remember. To some of those beings, we don’t even count as bugs. And because of this, they don’t even notice when we encounter them. To you, I am a monster. To them, I am a bug. What would that make you? You ask me why I would save this ship? Because even if you’re told otherwise, I am still human... even if it’s just a small part of me. Just another bug really, just a slightly bigger one," Laz said, his speech finally done. He had sent out a few mental images of ancient gods and chaos gods, things that even he still feared, just to make his message a bit more relevant, but he had filtered their power. Just the image of these beings alone would have been enough to kill the captain, his assistant and all the others watching remotely.

"The infected..." The captain said, not having meant to use that word, but having been shaken as much as he had, his mind was all over the place as sweat covered his face.

"Infected... a word used to describe us by those whose words you trust. We are no more infected than any of you. It’s called a bloodline power, my dear captain. Different from the ones you call chosen, yes, but still more similar than you might be aware. Did you know captain? Within you, and you, dear assistant and everyone watching right now, all of you have within you either a bloodline power or a mental evolution that could allow you to be either a chosen or an ’infected?’ Why aren’t you? It’s simply a matter of the strength of the bloodline or the process of the evolution. If it’s not strong enough, you won’t awaken. But in the end, every person on this planet has been cursed with one or the other thanks to a cosmic event that happened thousands upon thousands of years ago, before men even walked upright. In the end, you are me and I am you. That’s all there is to it. Everything you’ve been fed to the contrary... well... it’s been pretty effective to control you, hasn’t it?" Laz said with a laugh, like it had nothing to do with him.

"BULLSHIT!" The assistant shouted, suddenly very angry as he threw his writing materials down on the ground and stood up, pointing at Laz. The man was young, probably the same age as Laz, but still retained some of his baby fat and had obviously not seen much of life, even though he was part of the coast guard.

"So mister chosen has decided to make himself known, hmm? I was wondering when you would drop the normal human facade." Laz had noticed the man as soon as he walked in the room, he just didn’t care.

"We were chosen by god himself to inherit his will and his strength and destroy you demons wearing human skin. How dare you compare us to you beasts," the young man said, obviously mad.

"No. You are just the descendants of a race of beings whose strength lay in a crystal in your heads as opposed to your bloodlines. Once that crystal grows with energy, you gain your abilities. From the looks of it though, most of you don’t know that with the stronger you get, the more important it is that the crystal emerge from your head. If it stays inside, that’s when you all start going a little... you know... mentally unstable... so to speak." Laz had learned a lot from the memories of the ancient Asura, including information about the race of mentalists that channeled their power through crystals on their foreheads. It was only recently that he connected that race to the chosen like the one before him.

Not that he thought they would believe him. Still, at least when others heard about this, maybe a few of them would choose the right path forward and not go crazy. Of course, they would no longer look human exactly once they went this path.

The man looked pissed and in no way wanted to accept what he was being told and Laz didn’t say anything else about it.

Laz turned back to the captain.

"Any more questions, captain?"