by David Burke
Kyle almost laughed when one struck as fast as an arrow into the back of Skrug’s fist but couldn’t manage to break the skin. The troll’s skin apparently did more than just look like rock now. The attempted bite must have angered the big guy though, because he dropped his weapon and leapt forward, grabbing the offending sea serpent in a bear hug.
Lash and Gilthan came running down the hallway.
Kyle yelled, “Be careful and watch out for their bite. Pull Kierra back for healing.”
They immediately obeyed his commands. Gilthan’s hands crackled with lighting to keep the beasts at bay while Lash’s whip managed somehow to gently fly out and loop around Kierra’s foot, pulling her out of the serpent’s range. When it tried to strike at the now unconscious lycan once more, Kyle intervened.
He forced it back with a net of steel woven by his naginata. He could get to like this weapon. Its range was a real advantage in a situation like this. Seeing that Skrug had finished his opponent, Kyle shouted, “Follow and protect Nyda while she heals Kierra. I will finish off the last one.”
As soon as Kyle’s attention focused back on the final serpent, it tried to zig zag backwards, moving away from him. He was amazed by how quickly it could move across the ground while still keeping its head upright and hissing at him. After a hundred feet, he noticed that the tunnel was no longer made of stone but instead looked more like the plexiglass he’d seen at aquariums he had visited as a boy.
He could see the sea outside. The water was crystal clear and marine life swam all around him. It was rather spectacular, but he couldn’t afford to focus on it because he still had a serpent to pursue. Eventually, he grew tired of the game.
With a simple exercise of his will, he reshaped the naginata into a four bladed shuriken that was eighteen inches across. Kyle smiled as he bent his arm back and then snapped it out, whipping his wrist as he threw the weapon. It was guided, as had been the naginata, by his mastery of every weapon, but more so by his power. War essence covered the blades, making it sharper than any mortal weapon. Perfectly balanced, the weapon streaked through the air.
The creature attempted to weave its body to the side, but the blade simply compensated and corrected its course to cut it in two. Monster Tier beasts were not much of a challenge for Kyle anymore. It was more about figuring out what made each creature dangerous and then exploiting a weakness while avoiding its strengths.
Kyle looked around. The clear tunnel attached to another closed stone door about thirty feet in front of him. He could sense the rest of his team behind him and it seemed Kierra was doing better, so hopefully that meant Nyda’s healing was working. He didn’t even want to think about what he’d do if she were truly hurt. As beautiful as the scenery was, it was time for him to return to his team.
When he turned toward them, he heard rather than saw water rush in as the clear tunnel peeled back from the stone. Water filled in from the floor to the ceiling at the door he’d come through before creeping towards him, rather than rushing into fill the empty tunnel. It was almost as though it was intentional. Whatever intelligence controlled this dungeon was far beyond some simple pirate, but it still was mistaken if it thought a hundred feet of water was going to stop him.
When he dove into the water, Kyle realized it was freezing, far colder than it should have been. The weather outside had been sunny and they were in a subtropical climate. Still, the water got even colder. It started turning to slush around him. Kyle flexed and shattered the first layer of ice that collected around him, but he didn’t want to be buried under a hundred feet of frozen sea water.
Worse, the part of him that was constantly scanning the surrounding area realized the tunnel he was standing in had started moving. It was pulling away from the shore and sinking into the depths. How it was happening was beyond Kyle. There simply wasn’t technology like that here, and he didn’t believe that a mortal mage was powerful enough to do something like this.
Certainly not without it being a large, collective effort.
Sometimes a tactical retreat wasn’t a viable option, so Kyle began working his way forward again. When he reached the stone door at the end of the tunnel, he stopped. Placing his hand on the door, he realized it wasn’t stone at all. It was a composite of the ground shells of various marine animals. He’d only just realized that when the door slid open.
A female voice called out, “Come in.”
He looked into the room, but it was poorly lit and his extra senses could only tell him that there was no immediate danger. It didn’t sit well with him, having to walk in blind.
Even though he couldn’t sense anyone, the voice called out again. “Hurry, before the tunnel collapses.”
This time there was something familiar about the voice, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was sultry and inviting, and for some reason it conjured up images of ships crashing to their doom upon the rocks.
Still, whoever was there was right. The tunnel was nearly full of ice now. With a grunt of irritation, he stepped through the doorway.
Chapter 2 - Bargain of the Sea
Kyle could only vaguely sense his team. Actually, the only ones he could sense at all were the ones carrying his divine splinters. Nyda, Gilthan, Kierra and Hilde all showed up like nightlights in a dark room. Their presence was diffuse. Lash was there too, but much fainter. He could only barely make her out. Skrug, however, felt almost cut off to him.
As he thought about it for a second, he wondered why Hilde was showing up so strongly. He hadn’t given her a splinter. Maybe it was because of the time she had spent inside his mantle? Or more likely, it was related to whatever it was she was afraid to tell him.
He sighed. Secrets were going to be the death of him. But for now, he needed to focus on the secret of whoever was apparently abducting him.
He began spinning his essence wheel faster. It expanded his senses further, and he knew he was essentially in a tube being dragged to the ocean’s bottom. Not just any part of the ocean’s bottom, though. He was being pulled down into a trench that extended a mile deeper than the ocean’s floor. The pressure down here would be immense.
Even though he’d gained more access to the raw essence he took from his mantle, he found it strangely difficult to pull in essence from the surrounding area. The ambient essence here felt odd, like it was too well organized to be purely random. It flitted about and moved much like the waves of the ocean, though there was a pattern to the chaos.
If he hadn’t known who had spoken to him before, this was a dead giveaway. He cried out, using his power to expand the reach of his voice. “Hav, show yourself!”
The sense of movement continued. They were sinking deeper into the depths. There was no obvious answer, but he felt a subtle ripple in the sea essence around him. He was almost certain now who had whisked him away from his team. Hav was one of the elemental gods. At least that was what many of the mortals called her, along with Himmel and Jordan.
None of them had extra-dimensional planes they ruled over. Their domain was that of their namesake essence: the sea, the air, or the earth. The others all had domains of varying sizes. Even Krig had a domain—one he’d called ‘the fields of battle’. It was an endless training ground, where living and dead mortals alike fought forever and then reveled in their victories, only to fight again.
It was strange that Kyle hadn’t once thought about going there. Maybe because that was the first place the other gods would have looked for him. But now, he needed to keep his mind focused on what was happening. He was being sucked to the very deepest part of the ocean, far from his bonded.
Only a god or, in this case a goddess, could do this.
He searched the limited portion of Krig’s memories that he still retained. Hav had always been the most distant of the gods. Krig had considered her to be the one true neutral, like Switzerland, of this world. The sea and water brought life to all, but it could be equally harsh. Krig had respected Hav for her commitment t
o a principle, as well as for her raw power.
Normally, he wouldn’t have worried about being dragged down to see her. He would have simply stepped through the dimensions to escape, but there were still many aspects of Krig’s powers that Kyle couldn’t control. And if this meeting came to a fight, he was hardly as powerful as he once had been.
Finally, the motion stopped. The chamber around him expanded, and he found himself under a clear dome more than a mile beneath the waves. The bitterly cold water and pressure were held back by this clear barrier, but it was so dark that he couldn’t see, at least not in a normal fashion. His divine senses told him that a presence was approaching.
It was a powerful presence, but not Hav.
He spun his essence wheel even faster and felt himself flooded with power. It would look like a signal flare going off if any deity were looking, even remotely, at this part of Verden. But Kyle had to assume that was part of why Hav had brought him this deep. It was her domain, and he assumed she could keep out prying eyes.
Also, why would any deity look for him beneath the waves?
Lights sprung up all around him. Kyle smiled as he saw they were all different types of glowing fish. The presence that was upon him became obvious. It was now in sight and closing fast. He wanted to call it a shark, but calling this being a shark was like calling a tadpole a frog.
It was a megalodon, one of the few of its kind which still existed, possibly the last of them. But that wasn’t all. It was also a demi-god. The thought of what Hav must have done to create such an offspring creeped Kyle out, but he managed to repress the shudder.
Different strokes for different folks, he had always said.
The massive shark floated to within just a few feet of Kyle. Either he, or Hav, was displaying their power, keeping the dome around Kyle while allowing water to flow into it around Storhai. At least, that was what Kyle thought this demi-god’s name was. Working with Krig’s memories was tricky at the best of times. Sometimes he recalled things in great detail, while other times it was just a flash of insight.
“Greetings, War God,” the massive shark said in a voice befitting its terrifying stature.” The enormous head dipped in what must have been a shallow bow.
Taking a risk on Krig’s memory, Kyle said, “Well met, Storhai Havson.”
That drew a large, toothy grin. People used that expression sometimes, but Kyle thought few had ever seen a grin quite this toothy.
“Mother was unsure how much you would remember. What you are is quite an oddity. I can call you Krig or Krigson, but from what she tells me, neither of those are truly accurate. I trust that greeting you as ‘War God’ was appropriate, as I was instructed neither to upset you or to try and eat you, though such a thing goes against my nature.”
Kyle unpacked those words. Storhai was playing a game with him and he didn’t particularly like it. “You can call me Kyle, but I expect better manners from my nephew. I may not be who you remember, but trust me, I am the War God. It is in your best interest not to anger me.”
“See? Now I know you aren’t Krig. He would have struck first and only spoken afterwards.”
That overly toothy smile was starting to infuriate Kyle. A demi-god was no laughing matter, but he had grown since his battle with Barak. He was confident this fight could only go one way. But he was equally sure he wasn’t ready to face Hav, not in her own domain—not yet.
“Consider me the new and improved version, but even I have limits to my patience. Take me to your mother. I assume she wants to speak to me.”
“No, she decided she wanted to gather more information for now. Surely you can understand that Krig was not always the safest to be around. She has a question for you,” Storhai replied.
“Hav is the only god or goddess who I don’t have a bone to pick with. She stayed out of the fight when the others betrayed me. Unless I’m missing something, there is no reason for me to be angry with her.”
“Be that as it may, you are an unknown. I am expendable. My mother is not. Consider the problems the injuries given to Himmel, Dod, and Jordan have caused. For three years now, the world has been in chaos. Creatures of the air have gone insane. Freak storms scour the land. Quakes have shaken the entire continent and ancient horrors have broken free from the depths of the earth. Beyond that, the dead are trapped in limbo because Dod can’t harvest all of them and the undead have become a plague.”
Kyle didn’t feel like playing this game, so he just stood there waiting for Storhai to reveal what was going on. He knew that Krig’s actions had caused those problems but felt no guilt for any of it. He hadn’t been the one who’d stirred up so much trouble and, even if he had, allowances had to be made when one was fighting for one’s life.
Eventually, the demi-god must have realized that Kyle wasn’t going to rise to his bait, so he said, “My mother wants to know the answer to a very simple question.”
“It’s good, even for gods, to want things,” Kyle responded.
The giant shark’s jaws snapped closed. Any pretense of a smile was gone. He paused as though he were reining in his temper.
“Fine, if it must be like this…” the megalodon grumbled. “She wants to know how you have learned to master other types of essence.”
“Who says that I have?” Kyle arched an eyebrow at the massive shark. “But even if I had, why would I share that information with Hav?”
“Certainly, we could come to an agreement. Mother can’t be the only one to have noticed you. By now, some of the other gods must have an inkling of where you are. She could offer you refuge, perhaps even an alliance, if what you have to offer is sufficient,” Storhai said.
“Vague promises aren’t going to get her anywhere. When she is ready to talk to me, then I will be ready to respond.”
The surrounding dome rumbled. Kyle got the sense that the demi-god was carrying on a separate, private conversation, presumably with the goddess of the sea. Eventually, a tendril of water extended from the dome down to Kyle.
It stopped inches from his face. He was confused by what he saw. It appeared to be a miniature conch shell with a little string of water attached to it.
He was reminded for a moment of the magic conch shell and almost started quoting SpongeBob. It was a stupid cartoon, but he had seen far too many episodes of it in the clubhouse. Some of his teammates had been little better than overgrown children.
But as Kyle looked at the offering more closely, it appeared to be a pendant of sorts. Without touching it, he examined the item, searching for traps.
Pendant of Sea’s Aura: +5 Sea Essence and +1/10 sec regeneration.
This item will cause the wearer to give off an aura similar to Hav, goddess of the sea. This will help to confuse anyone looking for the wearer’s natural aura.
Storhai said, “She offers this to you as a gesture of goodwill. Think about it. Soon she will send another emissary to you. If you let her emissary join your party, then mother can evaluate whether or not meeting with you in person is worth the risk.” His overly toothsome grin was back. “The sea is tumultuous, but powerful. Never forget that.”
“And who is this emissary?”
“You will know them when they come.”
When Kyle said nothing further, Storhai’s big, toothy grin grew even larger. “I hope you can swim.”
An instant later, the pendant dropped into his hand and the dome started to collapse. He attached the pendant around his neck and then pushed with his power. For a moment he thought about stepping through the void, but decided that with what he knew about the threat there, it would be best to limit his travel through that place.
Besides, he looked forward to the challenge of pitting his strength against the weight of the ocean.
The water crashed down onto him. It was cold, dark, and the pressure collapsing around him was immense, but with his essence wheel spinning as fast as it was, he had access to a great deal more power. He thought about sending a sp
ear of war essence upward to pierce the two miles of ocean above him, but just before he did so, another idea occurred to him.
Kyle’s own grin grew. In the inky blackness, no one could see his face, but that didn’t change his smile. This was an opportunity he was going to seize. He crossed his legs and sat down.
Chapter 3 - Cultivating Under Pressure
Over him, there was a veritable mountain of water.
Any mortal creature not evolved for this specific environment would be crushed by the pressure. Over ten thousand pounds of pressure was being exerted against every square inch of his body. But he was resisting it. More than resisting it, he was relishing the challenge.
This was his divine will against the natural world, a world he meant to make his own. The sea might storm on the surface, but down here it was completely peaceful. Deadly, but peaceful.
