Peering out from the side of the hole to the surface, the rays of sunlight no longer gave her confidence, instead they lit up a torn and broken looking carriage.

Looking at the scene ahead, she could tell the wood that had once been gleaming with power was now brittle and destroyed, one of the two horses pulling the carriage was hanging limp on the seafloor.

The mask that held the front of the carriage revealed two limp figures, one of the had a large hole in his chest, with the rest of his body looking as if acid had been poured onto it. While the female had her armour pierced, her skin shone pale with a slight redness to it, but other than that there were no visible injuries.

Did they fight the Reaper in there? Or does the inky mass actually an acid that can be controlled? But that doesn’t explain...

Sera saw a clear-cut in one of the doors, as if someone had cut into something or had tried to cut the door off. Maybe they did fight it and something else in the dark waters.

Sera stopped as she realised something was missing. Wait, the inside of the carriage is empty except for the woman laying limp, were they transporting supplies or-

Hearing a flick, Sera barely turned a muscle before she felt a sharp orifice on her throat and froze.

“Don’t move.” A deep and resentful voice resounded as Sera shivered at the recognised threat.

Slowly she heard movement behind her as the blade was carefully kept beneath her throat as her capto-one of her captors kept the blade coming from his wrist directly at her throat.

The other one watched dispassionately before he swam back to the carriage. Crap, they must’ve jumped out when the chariot left the black mass.

She felt something get pulled out from her back before being thrown away with extreme force.

Sera could only watch as the figure got smaller in the distance and checked on the female and the male before returning, his face emotionless as he spoke. “Fance is dead. But Vera’s still breathing, I found glass around her gills, I think Fance saved her before he…”

The speaker gave the man holding her still a look that was reciprocated before they both turned to her.

“Let’s start with who you are and why you were waiting for us near the Whisper’s border.” The bladed man spoke, and Sera took a moment to gather her thoughts as she looked at the two.

The man with the blade to her neck had scars visible on his hands, but his body was hidden by grey scales with a red insignia of a spear on his chest, while his face only have a small scar above his ear.

The other man had armour looking more akin to clothing from her previous world, except it seemed modified in some way-

The blade suddenly dug deeper into her throat. “Stop stalling and answer the question.”

Hearing the growl of the beast of a man behind her, Sera help back a squeak as she smelt her blood flow in the water. “I-I’m from the academy, my name is-”

Her thoughts burst out as she tried to decide whether to use her real name, or her previous body’s name.

“Keira,” Taking a small peek at their faces and seeing no reaction and continued. “I-wasn’t waiting for you, I heard the Rea-the scream of the monster in the distance and swam here.”

Looking around, Sera remembered the crater was where the weapon was used on the campsite. “Back to the old camp before it was destroyed.”

Sera was about to say more, but she felt the sharp edge back away from her throat as a new figure showed itself. “Keirian! I found Fance on the floor, he won’t wake and-”

Sera saw her captors leg move, noticing a long gnash on the side of it, before focusing on the woman staring daggers at her.

The woman looked pointedly at Sera, before her face went through a mix of emotions and ending rigidly on a repressed glare. “Who is she?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Vera, calm down. Let’s move back for a moment.” The man with the clear voice and fabric-like clothing said before turning around and swimming further away.

As they did, Sera felt the blade come back to rest on her gullet. “The academy, you say?” His voice sounded calmer than before. “Without the insignia, the princess and not even wearing academy gear. I wonder whether there’s any point keeping you alive?”

Sera froze as she realised he was right.

She had no way to prove who she was as her gear was back at her camp and worse she was the only survivor of the caravan not trapped inside the temple.

“I… I can’t. Not here. My academy gear is back at my D-c-camp. I can lead you-”

Sera heard what sounded like a small coughing noise, before she realised it was the man trying to hold back laughing.

“You don’t actually think we’re going to let you go, do you?”

The laughter came again, Sera blinked as she tried to desperately think of how to get away from the crazy man.

“Here’s what actually happened.” He cleared his voice before continuing.

“First, the Depth kingdom killed everyone in the caravan, likely even Loretta. Then-”

Wait the princess!

Sera tried to speak, but before she was able the blade was thrust closer, now into her gullet, Sera whimpered as it cut dangerously close to bone. “Don’t. I won’t listen to excuses.”

Why is this happening?

Another click came from his other hand as a cold shiver ran up her, spine. “Then they tried to remove all traces of the execution, using the weapon stolen from the academy to blast any remnant of them to ash.” His tone lowered.

I’m going to die.

“Finally, they left a Screech Wrangler here to make sure from Aquo survives making it past the Whisper’s border.” Sera heard a blade tone out.

He doesn’t trust me and won’t listen-no one does.

“So if you think we’re going to let you move more than an inch to rain hell down on us. Think again.”

I have to escape.

His leg stepped forward again and the long gnash bared itself next to her arm as she acted on reflex. Her hands acted like a grate and grabbed into the flesh and tore downwards. Sera felt the blade pull back, and with it, she tried to follow as a pained scream roar from behind.

“You-” As he spoke, the words were knocked out of his mouth as a red blur entered her sight and his blade was freed from her neck. Pushing off the ground, Sera felt every muscle in her body react as she was freed.

Her hands acted quickly, siphoning through the water, the seal’s small body quickly joined under her as she saw the two in the distance beeline their way to her.

Her body acted on reflex, imitating Keira’s swimming style, she spun and changed her direction almost 180 mid-stroke. Diving downwards into the cave, she saw her scythe falling slowly through the water.

Grabbing it, Sera turned back and saw her captor was red-faced and literally cleaving through the water to get to her, but with his leg injured she should be able to make i-

Cutting into her skin, she barely missed her end with the second blade ringing in the air as it ricocheted off the crater's entrance, gasping Sera pulled towards the deep,

Aligning her legs on the ceiling, she burst off again, noticing Iva falling behind, Sera tried to call out, but her voice wouldn’t come.

He did this on purpose!

The moment she thought of him, a large bang hit the rock ceiling as she hurried past the bulbs, using their sheer numbers to blind her escape path. When she first encountered them, they hid the way ahead, now they would hide her way out!

Her legs and arms began to burn as she felt the itching on her neck begin to numb. Salt water at least stops the bleeding, if it were any deeper, I would’ve lost too much blood.

Despite her instincts telling her not to, Sera couldn’t help but turn back towards the glowing bulbs. But she couldn’t see any red.

Iva, did they-No. She’s a smart fish, she probably just took another way forward, probably near the bulb's hanging vines.

Hearing an angered scream in the distance, Sera stopped dawdling and focused on swimming.

By the time she made it out, her face was red, and her limbs ached, looking back one last time she hurried back to the base.

But found it gone.

In its place was four dents where Sera had previously moved the Dwelling.

What.

Doing an angry twirl on the spot, she quickly looked around on the spot but found no sign of her large white half-oval Dwelling. Where the hell did it go?

Swinging her Scythe on the spot, Sera did find her junk pile where she left it. It seemed whoever took her Dwelling decided the pile of junk wasn’t worth the effort.

Those assholes!

Her arms trembling, Sera turned the Scythe upside down and stabbed it into the seafloor. How many of them are there!

Gripping the Scythe, she tried pulling it out, but her strength left her as the last of the adrenaline in her body began to flee.

Like a droplet falling, she felt her spirits flee as Sera weakly looked up and tried to see if Iva was back yet. Iva… I need you now, please?

But her red companion never showed.

As the minutes passed, the feeling of emptiness grew as Sera realised what happened.

More moments passed as she felt tired, exhausted by everything, looking down she saw herself chewing on the kelp salad she had made earlier. Before turning back to the pile of junk.

Dropping the food, she sought out something forgotten in the pile, pulling it out with ease once it was found.

Sera stared at it before she began taking off her clothes.

Her light armour fell to the floor as the academy gear was equipped, it was cold, almost freezing to be wearing just the gear, but she didn’t care. Putting the light armour in her pack, Sera was about to leave the Scythe, but pulled it out just as she was preparing to leave.

Just in case something found her before she found them.

The swim was uneventful, long strokes consisted of ice-numbing movement, how the light armour was able to warm her up so much despite being lighter than her academy wear was a mystery.

As she got closer to her destination, she noticed it had changed visibly.

Whereas before The Temple was overall dark and cloudy, the middle section now glowed an emerald green her eyes lit up, but she noticed the front was still blocked.

Swimming closer, Sera saw a figure by the side, almost embedded into the building itself.

The drone… it must have succeeded. And this… This must’ve been why it asked for only one section to fix. A sigh escaped her lips as she realised there was only one way she was going to fix this situation.

I hope Iva’s still alive.