"Stare at the dark too long, and you will eventually see what isn't there." -Cameron Jace
After falling for some time, I finally landed on what seemed to be a pitch-black realm, with the hole on top of me as the only source of light, which itself was slowly fading away as the hole started to grow smaller and smaller. From my bag, I quickly pulled out a portable torch that I received from the Fire God Jaka. But before I could ignite it, a huge gust of wind passed by me... along with it, the screams of hundreds of women, men, and children... which leaves thousands of echoes behind. When I ignited my torch, the light revealed.. nothing. I proceed to walk around to find some passage that could lead me to these... creatures.
There are many theories about the origins of the creatures that dwell in this place, some say they are the surviving remains of ancient gods who were killed in the battle of Bleeding Sea during the Third Pantheon War which took place almost three thousand years ago, some said they are the devils who managed to escape from the Nether realm but were caught and drowned by the storm cast by the gods about two thousand years ago, while fantasy lover tends to romanticize them, saying that they are the inhabitants of a lost city who evolved to live underwater in the last few centuries. I doubt the last one though... But the truth is... none of them are true...
The Drowned Ones have existed even before the First Pantheon War... and even then... not even the gods fully know what they are...
I entered what seemed to be a small circular dark tunnel... there was a small stream of water flowing in the tunnel on ankle height. I kept on walking and yet... for some reason... it was getting harder and harder to walked through it. The tunnel seemed to have no end... I kept struggling until I realized the water level had risen slowly and the stream was getting stronger... sensing that this was definitely a trap... I have no choice but to quickly keep pushing forward... The other part of the tunnel was inclined upward.. I placed my torch on my back and hurriedly started to climb as the incline got sharper as the passing time. The cold stream of water started full on hitting me in the face as it kept on pouring down on me and was starting to fill up the entire tunnel. The water put out my torch, leaving me in complete darkness as I kept on climbing upward until I finally reached the exit of the tunnel. I punched out of the stream of water and tried to get a hold of anything to pull me out of the tunnel's hole.
I dragged my body out of there and in a flash, my head was cut off by a shining sword and my limbs were chained by an invisible force. I quickly recreated my head to see none other than the glowing lady ghost before me. I guess she managed to fix her sword and her chest.
"Hello there... nice to.." The lady thrust the shining sword through my head and into my body from above. The sword destroyed my vocal chord and if not removed, I wouldn't be able to recreate it. Needless to say... I am screwed... literally... The lady moved back into the darkness and another glowing figure appeared from it...
It's... a giant shrimp?
The shrimp approached me with empty black eyes... I can't really tell what emotion the shrimp was displaying for... obvious reason... The shrimp put its claw around my hip and slowly closed it... crushing the middle section of my body ever so slowly. I don't really know what is going on behind that head but it seemed like it was observing me to see if I could feel it... if I could feel my body being crushed in the most diabolical way. It continued until my body was completely cut in half. For a few minutes, the shrimp didn't move... I guess it was waiting for me to recreate my body... but to be completely honest, I can do that whenever I want so no rush for me. It is, however.. advantageous for me if the shrimp assumed I died.
The shrimp then swiftly cut my body vertically, cutting me from two pieces to four pieces, and proceeded to throw pieces of my body to the ground as if they were pieces of trash. The shrimp then turned around and walked back into the darkness. I immediately recreated my body and pulled out the Orb of Light from my bag, but before I could ignite it, a gigantic tentacle came out of the darkness and punched me in the face, making me drop the orb. I quickly tried to recover the orb.. but the gigantic tentacle quickly took it and completely covered it, leaving me in complete darkness once more. The tentacles continued their relentless assault, throwing a dozen jabs until finally grabbed me and proceeded to crush me... It was over for me.... that is if the orb actually needed physical touch to ignite.
"When the light of the heavens can not reach you, let the hopes and dreams of those you have saved... bring you the light to cleanse away the darkness.. Ignite!"
The Orb of Light unleashed an all-consuming light energy, disintegrating the giant tentacles and completely obliterating the entire place, and broke open the dark ceiling as the sea water began to burst in... I quickly recreated myself and recovered the orb before getting hit and dragged by the incoming seawater. The entire realm seemed to be in danger of collapsing because of the crater on the ceiling. The crater cracked even bigger with the passing of time as the seawater destroyed everything in its path.
I struggled to put the orb back in my bag. I then pulled out the Mirror Blade which allows me to move to any reflective surface in the world. I activated the blade and was teleported out of one of the golden artifacts on Darren's ship. I immediately get on my feet about to warn Darren about what just happened. But before I could do all of that... I was shot with a canon ball and was flung out of the ship and back to the ocean. The ball tore my body to shreds and forced me to recreate it once more. I looked back to see who shot me but it was none other than Darren himself...
He proceed to chant some sort of spell and all of a sudden,.. the golden spear on my back began to enlarge and started to pull me down. I struggled to keep myself floating but the spear kept getting bigger and heavier until it completely dragged me down towards the bottom of the sea, where the Drowned One's realm exists.. I tried to untie the spear from my back but the spell on the artifact prohibited me from releasing it. As I was trying to find a way, I saw a gigantic shadow of a hand break through the already broken ceiling of the Drowned Ones Realm, reaching out to me. I couldn't dodge the thing as the hand grabbed me and started pulling me back into the realm.
Okay... it is probably time to retreat to the previous checkpoint... but before that.. I have to get rid of this spear...
"My body burns with the will to perish along with my enemies... Let the fire of Jaka consumed me and all that is around me."
My skin became red and my veins started to be filled with lava, my body began to emit insane heat and burned the giant hand. Hundreds of thousands of bubbles of water started to form as my body lit up the dark ocean with blazing red fire. My body turned to ashes... freeing me from the spear. I recreated myself and immediately activated a rune I implanted at a secluded area at the port. I was teleported away from there, narrowly escaping the entire thing.
Not leaving me time to think, the song of the Drowned Ones could be heard from afar. Thousands of dark wrecked ships filled with monstrous dark creatures began to rise from the sea. Darren's ship was in front of all those ships and was leading them towards the port. I pulled out my telescope and saw that the lady ghost was there on the ship along with Darren who was steering the ship.
Well... that is not good at all.
The sailors at the port saw the whole thing and began to panic. Honestly I would like them to help out as well but I don't think they stood a chance against these creatures. Besides... if my assumptions are correct, this whole thing is a scheme by the Drowned Ones to capture me. I have a trick that normally will be useless because of the potential catastrophe it could bring to innocent bystanders. But since there is no other ships on the ocean right now beside the enemy's, I get to use one of the treasures King Jahad gave me. I ran to the edge of the shore and pulled out a trident from my bag.
I then recited the spell, "From the north to the south, from the west to the east, all obeyed the will of King Jahad the Ninth, all of those who defied him shall be the ocean's feast!" I stabbed the trident to the ground which sent shockwaves throughout the entire sky and ocean.
Within seconds, the sky screamed and the ocean began to rage as biblical storms began to form from all directions. The waves began to rise as high as mountains, engulfing thousands of the dark ships. It was as if the ocean itself let loose on everything that is on it. The dark ships were torn apart by the raging storms, completely destroying their formation. Strong winds cut through their ships with ease like an axe chopping a piece of wood. Lightning struck and burned hundreds of their ships down. Huge whirlpools began to form, destroying and drowning the remaining ships. However, there were a few ships that managed to steer away from all of them, and one of them was none other than Darren's ship.
The ships charged at full speed towards me. As the ships was about to hit me, I pulled out the trident from the ground.. and pointed it towards the ships. "Let the enemy of King Jahad the Ninth perished by the hand of the ocean." The waves behind the ships began to rise and form a giant hand before crashing down on the ships, sinking the remaining fleet. Unfortunately, it was far from over... as a giant metal anchor was thrown right at my face. I swiftly dodged it before getting stabbed in the back once more with the shining sword by the lady ghost. Okay... Enough is enough... I broke the sword for the last time and proceeded to decapitate her head with it.
I drew a small sigil underneath her body using the trident and immediately activated it... "By the mercy and kindness of this world, I pray so that you may be released from this place to rest in the afterlife." The lady ghost's body began to burn with blue flames, reducing it into nothing but ashes, leaving her no chance to regenerate from it. I felt sorry for her, looking at her, she may have had a rough ending to her life and ended up selling her own soul to these creatures for vengeance, but it is best for everyone, for me to put her to rest.
As I was feeling a bit sentimental, my head was blown off as it was hit by an exploding bullet...Darren...
I recreated my head for hopefully the last time in this chapter. But then, I was greeted by an unexpected view. Darren's body was rotting away. His skin was starting to fall off from his body. His eyes were no longer that of a human... but empty black eyes. Ah... I see...
"Darren was long dead wasn't he?" I asked.
"When he made that deal with you all... he managed to escape Jahad but not you guys... You killed him and played around with his body, using it to trick me."
I continued, "Did you perhaps plan all of this when I trespassed into your realm and killed a bunch of you a century ago?"
Darren's corpse smiled at my question as black blood began to pour out of its mouth.
"So is that what all of this is about? Revenge?"
The corpse smiled even more as hundreds of all kinds of dark shadowy creatures began to rise from the waters. All of them started sprinting towards me like cockroaches which startled me a bit. I put back the trident into my bag and pulled out a silver halberd called "The Wind Tiger". Needless to say, I started throwing some wind. I cut through them like butter, swinging my halberd non-stop, and just shred them to pieces. Although, I kept getting shot by Darren's corpse who was hiding behind the creatures, which was annoying but proved to be insignificant.
They planned to overwhelm me with sheer number but the Wind Tiger won't let them. Every time one of them got close, the halberd created an all-direction wind slash, cutting everything nearby, which occasionally cut me too, but I can take a hit or two, I just can't have these creatures incapacitated me by straight up holding me in place. I advanced towards Darren's corpse by absolutely demolishing the incoming horde of creatures. Darren's corpse's smile began to fade as it realized that I was not only immortal, but straight up have infinite stamina.
The corpse started to run away in fear but I managed to chase it down, swinging my halberd down on it, bursting its head open. The other creatures began to tremble in fear as they started to retreat back to the ocean. Once more, I drew a sigil underneath the corpse and activated it, burning his corpse in blue flames, and turning it into ashes.
"Rest well... Darren Cornelio."
I looked back at the ocean.. and there it was... The Shrimp.
The Shrimp was just standing there... menacingly. If my instinct is right, The Shrimp is one of the creatures that has some power in its realm, perhaps some kind of leader of sort. I know for sure that The Shrimp can't stay here for long and has to attend to the damage I have done to its realm. The whole ghost ship fleet thing was a last-ditch effort to catch me but even that failed.
"You would be wise to leave me alone, shrimp. You couldn't beat me at sea, you couldn't beat me at land, and you couldn't even beat me in your realm... Not that anyone could really.. After all, I am the champion of fate... There are very few that could challenge such a force... Most of those who could are wise enough to just go along with it..."
The Shrimp's emotions are... well I really can't tell what is going through its head right now.. I mean how could I? What to look for in the first place? It's a giant shrimp for goodness sake. The Shrimp was silent... I don't know why.. but the entire interaction feels... pitiful. I thought The Shrimp was going to keep on fighting me or at least throw some threat or something but it turned around and proceed to walk back into the ocean.
As I was pondering about what just happened, I was hit by a ray of light from the rising sun. Along with it, the sound of a very familiar horn from a distance, as hundreds of mystical blue ships with golden flags appeared, led by a giant golden ship in front of them, sailing right towards the port. Help has arrived!... a bit too late to be completely honest. Crowds began to form as the golden ship reached the shore and from it, a young tall man with a golden crown made his grand entrance. He was the man, the myth, the legend... King Jahad the Ninth... and oh boy he was pissed.
"Where is that son of a devil? JACK HOLLOW! You better carry your ass here before I curse you!" The king yelled so loud that the entire crowd was shaken by it. I reluctantly stepped forward.
"Hello there your majesty, to what wind do I owe the honors of meeting you here?"
The king was furious as hell.. his veins looked like they were about to pop any second, "You better have a good reason for using that trident! Your act has provoked the other ocean lords into thinking that I was declaring a war and now they demand an explanation!"
"Ah... well.. about that. I have three words for you... The... Drowned.... Ones."
Upon hearing that, the king's rage suddenly stopped. "The Drowned Ones... You met them?"
"Not only that, I fought them too. Surely you would understand how serious the situation was that I needed to use the trident. If you wish, I would gladly give you a complete report of what just happened."
A few minutes later, the king was caught up. "Ah I see, forgive me for my previous misunderstanding, and thank you for your help in dealing with this.. ghost," the king coughed in embarrassment.
He continued, "About The Drowned Ones, I will consult with the other ocean lords about how to properly handle them. For the moment, I will have my fleet patrol around the area to ensure the people's safety and the continuation of their travels. But all of this comes as a great surprise to me... to think that The Drowned Ones were willing to go to such length to capture you... For what reason?"
"Revenge perhaps? I asked them about it and they just smiled in response."
"No... I don't think so... They are not the kind of creatures who have that level of compassion towards one another. They wouldn't care if their own kind were massacred."
"Hmm... Well, I guess it will be another mystery waiting to be solved in the future. I am afraid fate will not wait for me to figure it out."
"Hahaha.. I suppose not. But perhaps this incident has something to do with that."
Confused by his words, I asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Fate, by nature, is always moving, is it not? Perhaps they were wondering if it could be stopped."
His words stunned me for a moment.
"That is... Well, considering the nature of these creatures... anything is possible really.. but that is a very interesting way to look at it."
"Indeed..." he said while stroking his imaginary beard.
"Well then, I suppose we better get moving."
I chuckled, "Oh.. Do you wish to escort me? I am deeply flattered."
"Save your sarcasm, this is the least I could do."
I smiled at him and said, "Then I shall accept it with gratitude. Set sail to Arkindo!" And with that, I continued my journey.
Novel Bin 