There was barely any light. The only source of illumination was the ray that beamed in from the tiny hole she entered from. The floor was slippery, still wet with ocean. The puddle soaked her feet and the chamber smelled of what she thought deep sea would smell of - fish and seaweed.

"Wow..." Adelle said aloud, her voice echoing off the walls dozens of times.

Her eyes adjusted slowly, and again she was thankful for being an elf with enhanced eyesight. Even with the little amount of light there was, she could slowly make out her surroundings. Humans were not granted such helpful abilities.

The walls were made of stone. The top half that was above the hole was rough, as if they had been dug and installed the day before. The bottom had been smoothened out, a notable concave curve away. It seemed the room flooded every time Leviathan returned to the sea, and over time, the bottom half of the room was eroded by the tides.

In the middle of everything, a single pedestal stood. Unlike its surrounding, it was made of titanium and placed on a titanium podium, the entire stage shining in the dark. The raw metal value of the podium alone on the black market would be enough to purchase a mansion. Titanium, after all, was the rarest metal on the planet.

But she was not interested in monetary value. She had not needed them before she joined up with the Titan Rangers, and she had not needed it after. Instead, what drove her to take another step forward was a curiosity, which was odd. Because like the value of money, she never really had any before. She was a survivor, finding the best way to stay alive. But something drew her forward the same way she was drawn to enter the chamber, trapped within a giant, surrounded by stone with no way of escape, about to return into the water that will likely drawn her. Whatever drew her curiosity was strong enough to override her survival instincts. Or perhaps it was her instincts themselves that drew her in.

Before she knew it, her hand was on the pedestal. For a moment, nothing happened. And for another second, she thought nothing would. Then, lines of light grew from the pedestal, spreading out like a circuit of roots, running down the titanium podium and into the stone floor.

She tried to pull her hand away. "What?"

It was stuck.

A cylinder of hard light beamed down from the ceiling, surrounding her. The glowing circuits spread further, this time into the ground and outward like a pandemic. It reached the walls and climbed the sides, vines that coiled up and around. The light provided more than enough luminosity for her to watch as the bottom half of the stone walls - smoothened by eons in the water - began repairing itself, growing in thickness and roughness. The ground did the same around her and she could visibly see the smooth stone crawling as the grind returned.

"Shit!" Adelle cursed as she continued trying to pull her hand away. "Let me go!"

Mono Leviathan dotorohoo .

"What? Who said that?" It was a genderless and monotone voice that echoed in her mind.

She was not sure what 'dotorohoo' meant, but she heard Leviathan.

"You're the Titan?" she said aloud, feeling silly as she did so. After all, there were no real voice aside from hers. "What are you doing? Are you trapping me here?"

Aegai lof kosai. Dotorohoo i'xalader.

It was speaking the ancient language. Words which meanings were lost long ago. She could make out one or two of the words - a "guardian elf" - though nothing else got through to her.

The room shook and she stumbled, hand still stuck on the pedestal. There was a constant rumble and her gut sank the same way one does when falling from height. Then, she was flung back from where she stood by a force that slipped her off her feet. She felt Leviathan turn and her body was pulled aside by the gravitational force, but her hand held-stuck on.

Dotorohoo xalader oran sika.

Her free hand grabbed onto the pedestal and she pulled herself up. At that moment, she wished she had not left her axes outside as she could really do with the tools to smash the titanium apart.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Teleport. She could teleport herself out. Turning around, she was stunned to see water gushing out of the hole that had been her entrance and exit. Leviathan had started returning into the water, and she needed to see where she was going, otherwise her teleportation could kill her.

One step at a time. She decided to just teleport out of the hard light barrier first - which was holding the water back. She focused and prepared to teleport. Isntead, pain shot up her arm and she felt drained. Energy left her body and she fell to her feet, arms shaking as if an electric current had ran through her body.

"FUCK!" she cursed.

It was bad. She was not able to teleport. Something within the Titan held her in place. She needed to come up with another idea, and that was not a situation she liked being in. Ideas were never her thing. Luce had ideas. Josh had ideas. The Watcher and Nadier had ideas. She was more of a 'shoot first ask questions later' kind of girl.

Dotorohoo xalader uria garo.

Could she talk to Leviathan? She tried to remember what few ancient words Nadier had tried to teach her. But that was half a century ago and obviously, she had not been listening to him even then.

"Aegai! Galadul! Zetta!" she shouted randomly, hoping something will trigger. "Rae!"

The room got brighter. Light glowed stronger from the magic circuits in the eight corners of the room, brightening the area. 'Rae' translated roughly to 'light'. Did that meant the creature was listening to what she said? Could she command it? Even if she could, she did not know enough words to do so. Perhaps she could get it to release her.

But she did not know the word for 'release'. Instead, she tried the next best thing.

"Kalen!"

Exit.

A force pulled at her from the inside. She was teleporting, though she had never done so without wanting to. It felt as if she was being dragged backwards, her body slamming hard against sheer gravity itself. And for a split second, she saw a room. Circular, with glowing blood flowing across the ground. She smelt rust. Metal, burning and decomposing. The scent of a blacksmith's forge on fire. Her skin prickled in heat.

And suddenly, it was cold.

Water rushed in and she was crushed against the pressure of being underwater. She was still being pulled, though not by the force of her teleportation, but by the current generated from Leviathan walking back into the water, and her being caught in its wake.

The sea was churning with the Titan's movements and Adelle had not taken a breath before being thrown into the rolling water. Alongside the crushing pressure, she found her lungs quickly fighting to burst out of her chest. It was disorientating, being dragged and struggling for air at the same time. She looked to where she thought was up and saw the Twins shining down through the water's surface.

She imagined the world outside and held onto that mental imagine in her head. With what was left in her lungs, she breathed out and reappeared above the water.

For a split second, she gasped for air. She was falling towards the water. At that height, at that speed, it would be like hitting dirt.

Using her momentum, she teleported again, redirecting her tumble, launching her into the sky. At the zenith of her fall upwards, she slowed to a negligible speed. And with one final push, she teleported herself right above the water and gently plopped down into it.

She was not out of the waters yet, literally. Turning around, she watched as Leviathan continued its walk back into the water, each step dragging a large swath of wave with it. And each wave pulled at her as if a rope was still tethered to her waist.

A gulp of water found its salty way down her throat and she choked. Short on breath, lungs filled with water, and body in shock, she began paddling, swimming as hard and fast as she could to prevent herself from being dragged under.

Her muscles stretched, calling for her to stop, to rest. She had not spent such a large burst of energy and physical strength in such a short period in a long time. She was getting rusty.

The currents began to slow as Leviathan's head began to dip underneath the waves. Finally the water calmed as the Titan returned to the depth.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she let her body rest, floating back first on the water with her face soaking in the heat of the Twins, muscles weak.

Her mind however, wandered to her experience and she began to question, things which she hoped Luce could answer when she gets back to dry land.

Before long, she heard the sound of steam engines chugging. She simply laid there, unmoving and tired.

A young voice said, "Is she alive?"

An older, more familiar male replied, "She's too stupid to die."

The boat came close to her and splashed a wave of water and she spat as it entered her nose. Struggling, she floated back up straight and stared at the man on the boat sternly.

"You did that on purpose."

Joashden 'Josh' Stalewaver was no longer a young man, though not elderly either. But he did look the part of a sage, albeit a fit one. At 54 of age, he kept himself healthy with constant walks. His rugged face crinkled the same way his thin brown buzzcut did. Wearing a plain white singlet and pants, he had dressed lightly to be part of a retrieval team, keeping active despite his continued insistence at retirement.

"Yeah," he replied. "Well, I have this strange feeling that what happened was your fault."

"You can't prove that!"

He raised questioning brow.

She stammered. "B-but you're probably right."