Jemna was coming. The herald of the sea was coming for Wali. Wali would have to rely on others for protection. The plan was working. The bay's waters were draining down a good thirty meters from where they had begun. Wali watched as the enormous beast sped its way toward him.

Jemna was a colossal creature and had grown in size over the past hours. Thousands of sea creatures were now stuck to its shell, and each was now a part of the herald. More were coming but in a trickle instead of a tide. The nautilus shell sped through the water, jetting along.

Wali stood at the top edge of the swirling whirlpool.

Jemna twisted the water flow, creating a calm water path directly toward Wali. As the water parted and all four of the enormous squid-like tentacles emerged, Sas’cha was there in a moment. She had run across the water and shifted into her huge cat form.

As one of the tentacles tried to bash Wali, she was there slashing at it. Black and blue ichor sprayed from the rubbery flesh of the tentacle. It swirled away into the whirlpool in a moment. Another tentacle reached up from below Wali. He stumbled away as Sas’cha intercepted it. He struggled to hold the circles and concentrate.

As the waters dropped, he had been forced to move inward with the walls of the caldera. He had a long way to go if he wanted to keep the herald from escaping into the ocean. The ice wall was another twenty meters deep, and he needed to keep the tentacles from reaching the ice.

Wali ran across the tops of the waves, keeping Sas’cha between himself and the herald. The tentacles battled the black panther now. She was slashing and biting, and it tried to grab and bash her. The biting mouths on the ends of the tentacles dug chunks of flesh out of her. She carved long slashes through the tentacles. She got wrapped up more than once but shifted form to escape. She shifted back quickly and kept up the attack.

Wali escaped to the other side of the whirlpool. The black orb below continued to suck in water. Sea creatures that could cross over the seawall now were being sucked into the Void Sphere. They had tried to close with the body of Jemna but were now being sucked into the Void by the rushing waters.

Jemna easily avoided going into the sphere by manipulating the waters around it. The swirling whirlpool currents were nothing for a master of the sea. Wali was forced to dodge and retreat further. Sas’cha could not hold the herald by herself. Wali pushed the orb deeper, now a hundred meters below. He felt it press against the boundaries of the second circle he had made.

Both circles were high above him now. They acted as columns that the sphere could move within. Wali was forced to retreat. At this distance, he would not be able to control the circles fully, but Jemna was far too dangerous. He called to Sas’cha, and she too retreated. Breaking away from the herald in the opposite direction than Wali. They both ran for the seawall. It was indeed a wall of seaweed, sludge, and stone. The waters had receded, revealing sunken boats, corals, and slick green algae.

Wali perched on an outcropping of coral, careful not to cut himself on the sharp calcium deposits. He breathed and waited.

Jemna circled the sphere, trying to find a way to destroy the magic that held it in place or created the hole in reality. It tried swirling around to force the whirlpool not to spin. The watery tornado sucked at the beasts held to the monster’s shell. It sucked away the small critters climbing over the seawall to get at the herald.

Another pulsating call went out from the herald. A demand for help, an urgent cry for assistance. To no avail. The dam of ice, stone, and broken ship held.

Reiki had returned to the dam and was again working to reinforce it. The ice was temporary, held there by pressure and the stone walls of the inlet. A mass of bodies on the far side was now three hundred meters deep. Those closest had been killed by the pressure of the creatures pushing on them from behind. Where their bodies were frozen in the ice were weak spots in the wall.

Yacob was still recovering from his exhaustion and would be out of the fight. The water continued to drain away. The city was a wreckage now. Some of it still clung via rope to the rocks of the cliffs. People stood atop the seawall watching the catastrophe happen. Many of them were scared at the absolute destruction of their town and the draining of the bay. Pieces of the wreckage flowed down into the waves. Pulled in by the powerful currents and whisked away into the Void. Absolute destruction awaited anyone who dared venture into the waters.

Jemna turned to the seawall now. It sped toward the seawall and Wali, sensing his link to the magics destroying the bay. It felt the trap now. It sped toward Wali, filing all four tentacles at him. He flickered and disappeared. Fifty meters up the wall on a round slippery coral. He started to slide off but flashed away again to the top.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He saw the malevolent eyes of the beast track him as he went. He was drained and breathed heavily as he watched the kilometer-wide whirlpool continue. He sat on the top of the seawall and focused his will. He sent Tag out to fly around the circles. His connection to the circles was paramount to the success of this plan. The spirit of Tag circled the magical process that allowed for this. He felt the bonds of the containment beginning to fray.

Carefully, he began dismantling the power circle that drew on the movement aspected mana of the whirlpool. If he did it wrong, then the Void Sphere would lose control, and Jemna would be a minor problem in comparison.

Jemna approached the icy wall. Only ten meters of water remained to cover the bottom of the dammed inlet. The creature jetted toward the wall and first tried grabbing the wall and tearing it loose with its tentacles. The dam was too well anchored by that point. It tried backing off and ramming into the wall. The impact shook the seawall and caused cracks to form along the face of the dam, but it held.

Jarred back to awareness, Yacob reached down and created long spikes of rock in the water at the base of the wall. Jemna bashed through them, but they slowed the sea monster enough. Mounds of crabs and fish that encrusted Jemna’s shell floated around at the bottom of the wall—crushed by their master’s actions. Yacob’s eyes rolled up, and he slumped to the side. Vinny caught him and let him down gently.

Reiki worked to repair the cracked dam. Using the water splashing around from the thrashing Jemna to fill the cracks and freeze into place. Jemna ripped up stones and threw them at the wall, knocking chunks out.

Vinny had an idea and drew his bow. He knocked one of the Vampiric Bramble arrows from the elven king. He fired the first at the shell of Jemna. It sunk into the side of a porpoise, causing it to squeal in agony. Vinny fed the arrow a touch of Life-imbued mana, and the brambles burst from the arrow. The brambles covered the porpoise and spread quickly around the herald. Each thorn that found the soft flesh of a jellyfish or octopus caused more brambles to spread. Vinny fired three more of the arrows in swift succession. The side of the herald was covered in twisting thorny brambles now. The tentacles of the herald tried to pull the weeds away. As it did so, they pulled the corpses of many of the protective fish from its shell.

The brambles floated in the water, adding a layer of protection to the wall as the water receded from the base. Jemna threw more boulders and chunks of ripped-up coral at the dam. These attacks had little effect.

As the water receded from the base of the icy dam, the connection between Jemna and the animals outside the wall was broken. Suddenly millions of sea creatures were free of Jemna’s spell. Outside the seawall, where once there had been a tide of animals pushing against the wall, there was chaos. Predator and prey were packed fin to belly. Each and every one of them began to fight and thrash and try to flee. Those on the outskirts turned tail and fled. The ocean side of the seawall frothed red as the animals began to fight and die to get free from the crushing bodies.

Inside the seawall, Wali broke the last bond between the Void Sphere and the whirlpool that powered it. In a moment, the Void Sphere began to shrink. The hole in space slowly repaired itself. Wali lay back; his soul felt scoured. The binding circle flashed out of existence as the hole finally closed. The twisting currents of the whirlpool continued for some time after with the inertia of the water.

Wali lay there panting as Vinny, Sas’cha and Reiki walked over to him,

“Now that you’ve got it trapped, what is your plan?” Reiki asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t do that hole-in-space trick again here. The barrier between the here and the Void is fragile now.” Wali replied, struggling to sit up and look down on the much-reduced bay.

The night was descending around them. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people had been displaced to the top of the kilometers-long seawall and cliff face. The air was warm enough that none would freeze, and the volume of dead sea creatures floating against the ocean side of the seawall would feed them. Getting them to safety and possibly rebuilding their lives would be another challenge for the following day.

Down below, Jemna circled its new enclosure. It would drag up stones and fling them at the wall of ice. It would take days of battering to break through the ice.

They saw some fires burning across the ring off the seawall as night fell. Reiki’s crew moved among the townsfolk. The people of Guilfort were tough folk. The sea was a harsh and fickle mistress. Storms and stray waves would claim lives often enough. Errant sea monsters were a common threat too. This was a whole new level of destruction for them, however. The sounds of their laments echoed across the basin of the caldera they once called home.

Hours later, a longboat bumped against the oceanside of the seawall. Reiki greeted the man that climbed out. He was a selkie, a seal beastkin that Reiki knew well.

“Captain Horvath! It is good to see you survived.” She greeted him.

“Captain Reiki, you were the cause of all of this?” He asked dourly.

“Yes and no.” She pointed down into the waters below where Jemna was attempting to climb the seawall. Its massive tentacles were not strong enough to both grip the walls and pull its body free of the water. Folks above the monster threw down chunks of wood and whatever they had at hand. Some mage among them had cast a light spell above the beast to illuminate it.

“Oh, what is that?” Horvath asked.

“A monster of old,” Reiki said as she watched Jemna slide back down into the waves.

“Well then. I guess I can help start evacuating these refugees. That monster is beyond me.” Horvath said, his voice filled with a deep-seated aversion to the monster.

“That would be good; signal any other ships in the area for help.” She said. They turned away to make plans for the rescue efforts.

Wali looked down into the bay that was once a floating city and wondered what to do.