Chapter 240 - Dark Waters

“You took a swim in a sea full of monsters?” Ele hugged one of his pillows with a horrified expression.

“Well, I didn’t know that at the time. And the other options sounded worse.” Kai shrugged. He had skipped over the most gruesome and dangerous details in his retelling, but there was no way to make his first year on the island sound cheery. “We can stop here, you don’t have to listen to more.”

“No, you must finish the story.” Flynn leaned forward in his chair. “What did you see in the water? Did you find what you were looking for? How did you survive?”

Ele chewed her lip. “I’d feel better knowing how it ends. If you don’t mind continuing.”

“Of course, you don’t have to tell us if you’re not ready.” Flynn bobbed his head, watching with a pleading expression that said the exact opposite.

Kai fiddled with his silver ring, gaze lost in the grain of the floorboards. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I’m over it.”

His sister rested her hand on his back. “You made it out in one piece in the end, right?”

“Not exactly.”

~ ~ ~

The isle stood about two miles off the coast. Ivory structures covered in algae and vines rose from the dark frothing sea, staunchly buffering the waves.

Occasional ospreys and cormorants landed on the ruins. There were no flashes to indicate the presence of defensive wards—at least on the outside. Despite the millennia of abandonment, the other site Kai visited on his way here had incinerated a winged serpent. The ruins on the archipelago were only bare of enchantments because the mana density had fallen too low to sustain them.

“Waiting any longer won’t help.” He had observed the target for a full day-and-night cycle—three days on the outside. There were no low or high tides, the deep waters shifted between rough and rougher, though that made little difference. If he pushed his skills, he could cross the distance in minutes while sustaining a cloak of Shadow.

“Mrow.” Hobbes pushed his head against his leg, always keeping Kai between him and the water. The little guy had no problem finding him each night, though his blinking range didn’t reach that far.

Kai bent and scratched his ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back sooner than you know. Ow! What was that for?”

The kitten had pawed his hand and mistrustingly watched the turbulent waves. “Meew!”

“I have to go. It’s either this or crossing the island for a place that might be even more dangerous.” Kai licked the blood off his hand and applied a balm to close the scratch.

This was one of three sites that held an Astral Harmonizer, and it might be the only ruin not protected by active wards. Without the artifact, the gateway would shred him to pieces, Zervathi had been pretty clear on that.

I can’t wait for seven years, I need to leave this place.

“It’ll be alright,” Kai spoke in a soothing tone as he stroked Hobbes’ back, away from the claws.

Hallowed Intuition murmured of danger below the waves, but that was hardly news. Even on shore, in one of the lowest mana areas he had found, the skill never stayed silent. There were threats in the greenery to his left, threats circling the sky, and even threats buried underneath the sand. Of course, the sea would be no exception.

On a more positive note, the essence density didn’t increase as far as his senses could reach. He shouldn’t encounter anything higher than low-yellow. “C’mon, I can do this.”

Kai stripped off any clothes that would slow him down and strapped two knives to his legs. The sea serpent sword, ready to be drawn lay in his ring. His mana reserves were full with an abundance of Water and Shadow.

“I’ll be back in a jiffy.” He cheerfully booped Hobbes. The cat watched him from the cover of a palm with pale blue eyes.

In and out. I can be done in under an hour.

He checked the whispers for any looming danger and crept forward. His feet dug into the cold sand pointing toward the closest point to the isle. The deafening roar of the waves erased his memories of the crystal calm of the Shallow Sea.

Just a little swim.

When the next wave retreated, Kai leaped into the frigid waters and swam under the surface to escape the waves pulling him to shore. Blessed Swimmer told him how to slip through the currents, though the feeling of peace he expected didn’t come.

He had no time to dawdle, the faster he reached his target the sooner he could get to safety. The murky waters hardly contained any life, only the dark green kelp swaying in the currents and playful white fishes trying to take a bite out of him.

Hmm, that’s better than I imagined.

Kai limited Mana Observer’s range to half its maximum radius. Powerful beasts could be alerted to his skill, but from that distance, they would notice him anyway. He channeled his mana into Empower and Blessed Swimmer to skim through the sea with minimal resistance.

The seabed disappeared into an unnatural darkness with scattered fields of anemic kelps poking through. A whisper of warning prompted Kai to take a hard left.

Right.

Left.

Lay still.

Kai strengthened his cloak of Shadow and retracted his senses, floating just below the surface. He disregarded the instinct to run, trusting the skill that had kept him alive thus far.

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The kelp jerked away as some big fish headed toward him. A pale emaciated fin poked through the inky blackness below. Murky waters stirred as frenetic whispers filled his mind. Death was approaching, and moving would bring it faster.

Not—.

A ghastly presence washed over him, freezing his blood. Terror gripped his soul. Kai was about to run for his life when the swaying kelp trailed away. The beast having missed him or uninterested in such a stringy meal.

Damn fish. You made me lose a decade of my life.

Kai stole a breath of oxygen and raced toward the isle as soon as Hallowed Intuition allowed. The seafloor only grew more desolate, devoid of plant or animal life, just him above a dark abyss.

He leaped out of the sea onto a slick ivory slab. His body shivered uncontrollably, but not from the cold. The ruin loomed over him like a cluster of towers half sunk into the sea.

“I’ve done it.” He dried himself with a spell and took out a pelt to fend off the gust of winds.

~ ~ ~

“Most of the entrances had been sealed millennia ago. And a ward protected the only open passage I found that couldn’t be seen from the shore. It was just a force shield that rebuffed anything trying to cross, but I had no way to break through.”

Flynn furrowed his brows. “Couldn’t you cut through the rock with your echo skill?”

“I almost got fried trying.” Kai shook his head. “The enchantments protected the entire structure from magical tampering.”

“So you crossed the dead sea for nothing?” Ele grimaced, now squeezing a pillow in each arm. “Did you manage at least to safely go back and look for another ruin?”

Perhaps I should have.

“Not exactly.” Kai scowled. They couldn’t understand his level of desperation, he would have done anything to escape. “I had noticed the structure had sunk, so I thought there might be an entrance underwater. And I was right…”

~ ~ ~

A dark breach in the stone two dozen meters below the surface led deeper into the ruin. Hallowed Intuition alerted him of danger lurking inside.

Not any worse than a day spent in the Sanctuary.

He had taken a huge risk to reach the isle, he couldn’t leave empty-handed. The Astral Harmonizer was the hardest piece to recover. He could fulfill most of the other requirements with enough time and practice, but this artifact wasn’t optional.

I have to at least try.

Filling his lungs with a mouthful of oxygen, Kai dove toward the passage. The breach welcomed him like a dark maw. He wrapped a crystal with a cloth to soften the light, just enough to illuminate the way.

The rift cracked the ivory stone through three different chambers. Kai squeezed into the upper layer since it had the smaller entrance—and hopefully, the lowest chance of being occupied. The ivory room was vaguely familiar, though larger and with fragments of broken runes etched in the walls.

Zervathi had only given precise directions to the location of the site, and not a mote more.

Kai avoided the enchantments still pulsing with mana and swam into an empty corridor. The passage led into a maze of chambers, enough to wander for hours. From the glyphs he could decipher, the site was some kind of research facility or place of study.

He committed the writings to memory. The language he had found around the Sanctuary was much more specific than the one in the archipelago, with more technical elements and less religious undertones. He’d need hours of study to be certain of their meaning. Given his limited air supply, he couldn’t afford to dally.

Active wards and collapsed passages forced him to loop back around when he tried to enter the upper chambers. He was about to return to the surface when he popped out into a room that still held air.

Finally a little luck.

The chamber smelled of mold and death, with a single entrance and blackened runes circling the walls. Whatever their purpose, they allowed algae to cover them, so he felt daring enough to send out a filament of mana. Receiving no reaction, he cast a Nature spell to wither the algae off the stone.

“Hmm… this is more like it,” Kai observed the results of his efforts with a silly grin. A network of circles and lines pulsed in a blue light. Once he made sense of the perspective, he easily matched his memories with what was depicted. He had found a map of the ruin.

It was high time my Favor paid off.

A myriad of delicate runes wove inside the wall and around the map, likely hiding more uses. “Some kind of control room maybe?” Kai decided not to push his luck by messing with millennia-old enchantments. “It’s clear enough already.”

If you wanted to store something important or precious, you’d probably choose a room with fewer entrances, close to the center of the facility. Six chambers fulfilled the criteria, set in a spiral, each on a different layer. The geometry was far too precise to be a coincidence.

With a mix of excitement and apprehension, Kai plunged back into the dark waters. Feeling safer the closer he was to the surface, he headed to the top room first. More chambers contained breathable air, but every passage to the upper levels was barred by wards, buzzing with mana.

I should have known.

Swimming in a convoluted loop past the defenses, Kai managed to reach the chamber below. An array of flowing runes on the entrance flickered without triggering. Rows of immaculate shelves stood arranged in a circle inside, but whatever they had contained must have turned to dust long ago.

Without letting himself get demoralized, Kai dove toward the lower levels. The waters grew colder together with the whispers of danger—still within an acceptable degree. The third chamber was empty while the fourth contained a hexagonal altar brimming with a strange mana. An affinity he didn’t possess.

Hallowed Intuition advised him to go back like it always did.

I’ll check just one more.

He might have missed a chamber, but his instincts told him he was following the right track. The whispers reluctantly provided another winding path downward. There were hardly any runes active at this depth, or an enchantment that wasn’t broken.

Or shattered by something… I better hurry.

Kai released one extra breath he had saved in his ring and used the last specialization of Blessed Swimmer to refill his Water mana reserves. He was so close. Pushing against one corner, he dashed into the fifth chamber.

Yes!

Six artifacts rested on a circle of plinths and failing runes. Each shone with multiple layers of runes, but a silver pyramid caught all his attention. The shape and iridescent motes blinking over the surface fit the description Zervathi had provided. The first piece to bring him home.

Kai stored the Astral Harmonizer in his ring when the whispers suddenly turned into frantic screams, deafening his thoughts. By the time he turned around, inky darkness was already flooding the chamber like smoke in water.

Fuck.

He froze a barrier and wielded the sea serpent sword, but the approaching darkness swallowed his shield as if it wasn’t even there. He was thrown into the pitch-black nothingness, losing his sense of sight and hearing. Only dread remained. Pain exploded from his right leg as a series of curved hooks cut into his flesh and dragged him down, toward the depths of the facility.

Kai desperately channeled every element into his sword and swung. His strike was rebuffed without the slightest give. More hooks dug into his arm, wringing the blade from his hands. He screamed into the inky darkness when an aura far beyond any peak-yellow beast silenced him.

His mind went blank. Only the certainty that he was about to die remained. He had made a bet and lost, been too confident that Hallowed Intuition would warn him in time to escape. His magic wouldn’t be enough to save him even if he were the luckiest man in the world. He wouldn’t be seeing his family, or anybody else again.

Please, help me.

Piercing pain shot up his chest as if his ribcage was being pulled apart, digging toward his heart.

~As you wish, elfoid monkey child.~ The haughty voice of the god shrilled. ~Get your odd-shaped tentacles off my property.~

A flash of prismatic colors banished the darkness. The next thing he knew, Kai could feel rough sand pressing against his face and his sword fell beside him. He pushed himself up, spluttering and wheezing for air. The ivory isle stood across the sea, miles away.

What—

His hands searched his body for injuries, but there was no blood. Even the scratch Hobbes had given him was gone.

~I chose to interpret your request charitably and stitched your fleshy body up.~

“Thank you,” Kai muttered, hugging his body in shock.

~You’re very much welcome. You’re lucky I was bored enough to watch your idiocy. Though this still counts as your second wish. You only have one remaining.~

“I—” He was about to die, then he was not. He had gotten away with the artifact and his life, though he had lost his only protection. There would be no second chances the next time he ran into trouble. Not if he wanted to leave this realm.

Kai closed his hands to stop them from shaking, though he couldn’t stop his teeth from clattering. A cold dread was rooted into his bones. “What was that thing?”

~Just some misshapen horror that snuck into my Sanctuary while I was away. The fauna of my Sanctuary has evolved in peculiar ways without my supervision. To think sapient creatures would dare attack someone blessed by me. Truly scandalous. I shall add a culling to my list of chores…~ Zervathi rambled on about his grandiose plans to regain his glory.

~ ~ ~

Ele wrapped him in a hug. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“You don’t have to apologize, I told you I’m fine.”

“You had a literal divinity fish you up from the jaws of a sea monster.” Flynn watched him gobsmacked, leaning on the rim of his chair. “Stop saying you are fine.”

“You didn’t go back into the sea, did you?” Ele probed him.

“I’m not that stupid. That was the first and last time I willingly took a swim.”