“Alright Tize, I’ll need your help with this one,” Phon called out aboard the deck of The Salvation, serving as its acting captain. “I’ve never tried to move something of this size with this many people before, but I should be able to manage with your help. It’s this or let Valen drain me dry to make a portal big enough.”

“Of course,” the veteran gave a brief reply before dissolving into orange light. His particles then drifted over to The Vixen’s face where he formed into a mask that covered her eyes. 『Synchronization Rate: 8%』 “Oh would you look at that, the number’s gone up!” Phon sounded genuinely pleased by the news. “I guess you’re coming around to me, Tize…or working with us has started to corrupt you.”

“Well no matter, it’s time everyone. We’ll be on unstable footing as soon as we teleport. So grab hold of something, and get your puke bags ready!” The scenery around the ship changed instantly. They went from the calm lawn at the Fiends For Hire compound to suddenly bobbing in the rocking ocean almost exactly on the other side of the world.

Phon had teleported them as close to The Drain as she could without being caught in its current—an exceedingly sizable range—but the water was still far from calm. Coupled with the overcast and cloudy sky, it would be a rough day to be out on the sea. Where they were going, though, it was nothing they needed to worry about, but the worst perils of the ocean were still yet to come. “Take us up, Mallea!”

The butler pulled a lever and hover mechanism activated, launching the ship into the air. They didn’t ascend too high, just out of the reach of the highest waves. Ultimately, their goal wasn’t up, but rather deep down, farther than any vessel had ever voyaged before. They made the short flight to their destination, and as it started to come into their view, the mood aboard the ship started to sour slightly.

“Are we seriously going down into that thing?!” Kada couldn’t help but begin to doubt the plausibility of their mission as she stared down at that raging vortex beneath them as they hovered right above the center. “Will the ship hold together? And should we really be on deck? Wouldn’t it be better to head into the hold at least?”

“Don’t doubt Assistant!” Ahvra chimed in with more aggression than usual, more than ever, really. “If he says it will work, it will work!”

“Right, take us down, Mallea!” Phon gave the command, and the helmsman dove the ship straight into the center of the massive whirlpool. But there was no convenient gap where they could fly to the bottom, only a wall of water. They felt a staggering jolt as they submerged, and nearly everyone onboard lost their footing. But that was the end of the rockiness, the ships defenses and stabilizers kicking in, but it was also essentially the end of their control.

The Drain’s force was so powerful that even with the strongest engines in the world, The Salvation couldn’t fully fight against the current that now held them captive. “I can barely move this thing!” Mallea reported from the wheel. “Best I can do is slight course adjustments.”

“That’s fine. It’s what we expected,” Phon hollered back, holding on tight to the rail since their footing was still slightly unstable, constantly being pushed in one direction or another. “Just make sure we stay inside of it. If we get chucked out, then we’ll have to start again from the top!”

Unlike many other smaller whirlpools that were one long funnel, it was more like The Drain consisted of several layers, a tower of spinning discs that got smaller as they descended. The only way to enter the next one was from above, each disc pulling the ship down to the next. They’d tested it briefly before in a scouting expedition, confirming that it was impossible to enter near the bottom, shoved away from the overbearing surge of water.

So the Fiends were in it for the long haul, forced to ride out the unpleasant voyage. But it wasn’t all bad. Though the water was dark, the ship shined light in all directions, illuminating all that was around them. It wasn’t long before they were pushed down to where the ocean became nearly black, but they were able to light it up as bright as day.

And the vortex naturally pushed them near the edges as it flowed. So while the ship was constantly swarmed with splashing water, trapping them in a perpetually swirling bubble caused by the protective shield, there were still some lovely views to spot. Since Mallea could do little in the way of steering, she took to controlling some of The Salvation’s spotlights to find points of interest that would keep her passengers occupied—a crude form of in-whirlpool entertainment.

Most of what they saw were fish and other undersea life. They were generally hard to make out since they couldn’t get too close to The Drain, but even at a distance they were interesting to observe since many were creatures that never swam near the surface, making them rare sights for any who lived on land.

The group made a game of it, discussing if any knew what each lifeform could be, coming up with names if they couldn’t, hoping to beat Laurim to the punch and her terrible naming conventions. Some of the fish had reflective scales as well, making them stand out more than the rest, and others had luminescent properties that would react to the ship’s lights, making them glow with unique patterns. It was an unexpected but fun and welcomed dive into marine biology that kept the Fiends’ minds off where they were and what was to come.

And the squid girl, Ten, showed more enthusiasm than any of them. She ran all around the deck, from railing to railing, glaring at every fish she could see, her stomach growling more with each one. But fortunately, she had her snack bracelet on one of her tentacles to keep herself satiated.

But as they descended, the interesting sights changed. Oddly, there’d been a bit of a gap, where all sea life seemed to suddenly disappear. They’d become once more left with nothing but eerie emptiness around them, truly making it feel like they were being swallowed down into a void that led only to death. At least that was the atmosphere until they got their very first glimpses of the ocean floor.

“What is all that?” Ipucco couldn’t hold back his inquisitive ways, the historian in him rising to the surface. The gentleman twisted his cane into a rifle and stared down the scope, examining every inch he could make out.

“Looks like a bunch of ruins to me,” Xard made his best guess with what he could see. “Rubble of countless old buildings. They look unusual too.”

“And it goes on for some time,” the headmaster confirmed, tracing his gaze as far as his vision would take him. “The structures continue well beyond the distance I can see. It must be an entire society!”

“The old world, it has to be!” Roque rushed forward to the railing, giddy like a kid on a field trip. “I always knew it was real, and there’s your Cosdamned proof! Hmm, I wonder how much salvaging rights for all this would cost.”

“Over your life, Personson!” Rishaki joined eccentricities. “There must be countless invaluable relics and artifacts down there! If my phone was working right now, you best bet I’d be staking my claim. You better hope you make it out of here alive, or this will be all mine!”

“Well I’d appreciate if some of it can find its way to a museum,” Ipucco grumbled. “Anywhere is better than in either of your greedy hands.”

Before the argument of ownership could continue, the ship’s crew got a bit of a scare, making them all jump back just a step. Right where they were all looking, a particularly interesting set of rubble that had maintained a bit of its shape and color, the pile suddenly vanished.

A massive maw surged by, swallowing the ruins whole as it inched forward a league at a time. The unwieldy behemoth was the largest creature that any of them had ever seen, even putting monsters like the Wowl and Mammoth to puny shame. “Just what the heck is that thing?!” Niloy screamed, revolted by the beast that could easily swallow them whole.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’s totally not cute at all,” Alk quickly lost interest unlike the rest of the group and began looking to find something more interesting.

“Hmm, it’s huge like a whale,” Tize attempted to figure out the sum of its parts. “But the way it’s moving, it kind of reminds me of a caterpillar, especially with all of its long segmented lumps.”

“Caterwhale!” Laurim jumped in with her new brilliant name that sounded a bit soft for something so titanic and wretched.

“I didn’t think it’d be here!” Ten ran over to get a better look, both dazzled and terrified by the creatures overbearing existence.

“Do you know what that is, Ten?” Xard inquired, hoping to get some more insight.

“Yeah, uhm. Let me think about what we’d call it in human language,” the girl sought out the right words. “Ocean… Devourer?”

“A grand moniker,” Gatrim found it fitting. “Something like that could eat the entire world. Perhaps it is Rathe’s guardian to keep her safe, the final challenge we must overcome to prove we’re worthy to see her!”

“Erm, probably not,” Ten didn’t think so. “I’ve run into it a few other places, but never around here before. I think it’s just here cus there’s so much stuff on the ground. It travels all over, eating up all the trash on the ocean floor, and there’s a lot of it here, so it’s probably just really hungry.”

“Ah, so it’s like a big Pox!” Kada clasped her hands together, immediately more endeared by the creature.

“Don’t tell me it’s looking at us like we’re a trashy snack right now,” Egawo didn’t share them same feelings of kinship. While they’d been discussing the monster, the topic of conversation had noticed the ship and taken interest. Now it was moving closer towards them, completely undeterred and unaffected by the otherwise obliterating current of The Drain.

“It better not think I’m trash! I wore my best makeup today!” Niloy complained. “And if it tries to eat us, it might get ruined before I can even present myself to the demigod! We can’t let that happen.”

“I see your priorities are in order as always,” Kaizu rolled her eyes. “For me, I’d prefer not to get eaten. I’d rather my honeymoon not be in the belly of a monster.”

“Are you sure? Escaping such a harrowing situation together would really suit you two, and it sounds awfully romantic,” Valen presented another perspective.

“Maybe I should try to kill it,” Dicatta suddenly offered. “I’d be able to cut it from here, but at that size, well I’d definitely need Tize’s help at the very least.”

“Even if we could kill it, I’d suggest holding off, Dice,” Dr. Farian offered his professional opinion. “If it is in charge of cleaning the ocean, then I’d say it’s a very integral part of the ecosystem. Killing it needlessly could have unexpected and permanent consequences.”

“Yes, would need to study it much more before suggesting its removal,” Ahvra backed him up.

“A shame,” Nachi sighed. “Now that thing would make for a great warm-up opponent.”

“Hmm, maybe I can make it leave with a hallucination,” Rezin presented his alternative idea. “I could have it see something far more tasty than us off in the distance. But with all this ‘food’ around, I don’t know if it’d take the bait.”

“Perhaps I can boost it,” Victori tried to help. “If it has enough intelligence, I could make it hear a rumor of the most delicious thing in the world and couple it with your forgery.”

“Whatever we do, it should be soon,” an older Feyj encouraged them to make up their minds. “Though it may not appear so, the beast is actually moving towards us at a rather rapid pace.”

“I’ll take care of it!” Ten insisted. “I don’t think it’s all that bright enough to go for whatever you guys are saying, but I can get it away from here! Once I have its attention, I’ll keep making it more and more allergic to the stuff around so that it has to flee. Say hi to the demigod for me, and ask her to make the oceans a little warmer!”

The squid girl hopped up onto the railing full of resolve, but suddenly wavered. “Urp, could we get a bit closer to the edge? I’m not confident that even I’m a strong enough swimmer to break out of the whirlpool’s pull.”

“Let me help ya!” Itsy suddenly hoisted Ten up into the air by the monster’s scruff and then held the girl up high above her own head. “I’ll get you out of here!” the giantess then chucked Ten with all of her might, busting her out of the vortex’s whirl and then sending her tumbling away out to the open sea.

One of the girl’s bracelets lit up, and she exploded in size, becoming her original massive Squordfish self. Though compared to the Caterwhale, she was barely more than a buzzing insect. But still, that didn’t phase her, and she swam after it to begin her new mission.

“Throw this as well, if you would, please, Itsy,” Chorus had approached her holding out an orb. “It’s a shame to lose one of my cameras so early on, but this can’t go unwitnessed. Ten Tackles vs. The Ocean Devourer will be the next big monster mash movie!”

With the unexpected threat quelled, steadily inching away out of sight, and the team already a member down, they finally neared the bottom of The Drain. “Keep your eyes peeled everyone!” Phon ordered them. “I’ve already been blinded by Rathe’s aura, so it’s hard for me to see anything down here. All I can make out is that there’s a gap in it somewhere, and that’ll be our entrance.”

The entire crew began scouting, in all of their best interest to cooperate, since if they missed the opportunity, they’d have to take the long and unfun ride all over again. “There!” Ipucco found the hole with his deadeye sight. “A cavern at the edge of the whirlpool!”

Indeed, in the massive torrent of water they finally found speck of anything that could be called solid. Mallea desperately steered the ship towards the cave entrance, gracefully sliding into the rocky maw at what felt like the very last possible second. And as soon as they entered the tunnel, the rush of water that had been propelling them thus far came to a grinding halt.

Though there was still a comparative trickle, just enough beneath them to make a lazy river that slowly carried them forward down the rocky path. The rest had drained away, giving them open air to breathe, somehow clean and refreshing so far beneath the surface of the ocean.

“Babuu!” Drimini flew off the ship over to the cavern walls, where she began picking off the moist moss and dangling kelp that had laid dormant there for who knew how long. The girl devoured it like they were the most delicious plant in the world. Perhaps it was, enhanced by divine influence by being so close to the presence of a demigod.

“I don’t think we can go much further,” Mallea called from the helm. “We’re about to run out of water. Though we could start hovering again, but the rate at which this place is narrowing, we’d be better off going on foot.”

“Aye,” acting captain Phon agreed, getting a bit too into her role. “Let’s lay anchor and begin this expedition properly.”

The Salvation slowed on its own thanks to the slowing current, so the helmsman didn’t need to do much else. A few stuck around to help moor the ship, but most hopped off and congregated near where the light from their vessel ended, staring at the dark path forward, wondering how much farther it would lead them.

Phon had been planning to disembark last, making sure everyone else got off safely. And she stood around testing her Curse, making certain that it functioned as she thought it would. After a few quick tests, she determined that, yes, she could teleport herself and all the others but now only within the confines of their current area. The rest of the world was now completely shrouded from her vision, unable to see past the walls.

But the captain eventually got tired of waiting for her last crewman and hopped off to join the others. Perhaps Mallea was being a bit too thorough, but like always she took her current assignment very seriously. And there was one last task to complete before she could move on, and that was to update the ship’s manifest to remove Ten’s name, scratching it off just like the other two that had left already.

‘Crew and Passengers of The Salvation:’

‘Rezin Anish, Ipucco Chrostorio, Victori Darquees, Drim Drazah, Phon Drazah, Drimini, Mallea Dulip, Egawo of Fiendish, Gatrim Foilepe, Kaizu Foilepe, Farian Graf, Itsy Humdiddy, Alkahest Khemmy, Jaid Luciri, Laurim Marasa, Chorus Mistrion, Roque Personson, Xard Randex, Tize Scound, Niloy Spatzel, Feyjrusa Sulatrieve, Kada Susten, Ten Tackles, Nachi Tommach, Dicatta Tritatta, Savs Valen, Ahvra Metissa Zalksin, Rishaki of Zjiksa’