Chapter 156: The Primordial I

They moved through the dark water toward the Verdant Hollow, their familiar route guiding them past the pale stone ridges and the glowing moss fields. Gray led the way, his blade-tentacles sweeping the currents, while Cindy drifted close beside him, her silver glow steady.

But when they reached the hollow, they stopped.

The grotto was gone.

The entrance was buried under a mountain of shattered rock. The coral spires that had framed the opening were reduced to splinters. The glowing moss that had lined the walls was scattered across the seafloor, its light dim and dying. The Spirit Moss Ferns, the shelter, the alcove where Cindy had eaten and slept and healed, all of it was gone, crushed beneath tons of collapsed stone.

Cindy stared at the devastation, her frills rigid, her silver eyes wide.

"...Our home," she whispered. "How could our home become like this...?"

Gray drifted forward, his senses sweeping the wreckage. The rock was fractured in patterns that suggested massive force.

’This looks like the work of something incredibly strong,’ he said quietly. ’Strong enough to destroy this place until nothing is left...’

Cindy’s frills trembled.

"What kind of creature could do this?"

Before Gray could answer, a vibration rippled through the water.

Cindy turned toward the source of the vibration, her silver eyes narrowing.

"That direction..." she said. "That’s where the orb was sleeping."

Gray felt a cold thread settle through his core.

’Has that orb started moving its body...?’

Cindy’s voice dropped to a whisper, trembling with a fear Gray had rarely heard from her.

"Gray... this is bad. If that thing is really awake, we don’t stand a chance..... every instinct I have is screaming at me to get as far away from here as possible."

Another vibration rolled through the water, stronger this time. And then a sound, a deep, resonant roar that shook the seafloor and rattled Gray’s carapace.

GROOOUUMMMM!!

They turned toward the source.

And they saw it.

The Sun Eater descended from the dark above, its wing-like fins spread wide, its depthless eyes burning with cold, ancient light. Its mouth was open, and from its throat, a beam of pure, concentrated energy was building, crackling with power that made the water itself tremble.

The beam fired.

A lance of blinding light shot through the abyss, carving through rock and stone like paper. The shockwave slammed into Gray and Cindy, sending them tumbling through the water.

[-64 HP]

[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 1316 / 1380]

’Cindy!’

"I’m here!" she shouted, righting herself. "Gray, we need to move!"

The Sun Eater fired again, another beam of devastating energy tearing through the seafloor. The vibrations were immense, the water churning, the darkness lit by flashes of lethal light.

The Sun Eater seemed to be targeting something that had made it furious.

Then Gray saw it.

The laser was deflected.

A figure intercepted the beam, its white form cutting through the dark water like a blade of light. Its body was covered in sleek, pale armor that shimmered with an inner radiance, and two curved horns swept back from its head like a crown. Its limbs were long and powerful, built for both land and water, and behind it, a pair of translucent fins flared like a cape. Its eyes burned with a cold, righteous fire.

A weapon gleamed in its hands, a spear of pure white energy that hummed with power.

The system flickered, and the analysis materialized.

[??? PRIMORDIALS ????]

Level: ???

HP: ??? / ???

MP: ??? / ???

Threat Level: BEYOND MEASUREMENT

« Analysis »

A member of the ??????, one of the primary races of the world. The ???? Primordials are beings of justice, tasked with hunting down threats that endanger the balance of the world. They possess immense power and are relentless in their missions.

Current Mission: Destroy the Seed of Calamity.

WARNING: Target level far exceeds current identification threshold.

Gray stared at the analysis, his mind racing.

’Seed of Calamity...? What is that? Is it the Sun Eater? Or is it the orb?’

The Sun Eater roared, its massive body coiling through the water. It fired another beam of concentrated energy at the Primordial, but the white figure deflected it again with a sweep of its spear, the beam scattering into harmless light.

The shockwave from the deflection rippled through the water, slamming into Gray and Cindy with devastating force.

[-88 HP]

[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 1228 / 1380]

They were hurled through the water, tumbling helplessly as the battle between the two titans raged above them.

The Primordial moved with blinding speed, its spear carving through the water as it closed in on the Sun Eater. The Sun Eater responded with a beam that split into a dozen smaller lances, each one aimed at the Primordial from a different angle.

The Primordial didn’t dodge. It raised its spear, and a dome of white energy formed around it, the lances shattering against the barrier like rain on stone.

Gray watched the battle unfold, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.

’Level unknown,’ he thought. ’And the Sun Eater is still beyond measurement. These two... they’re fighting on a level I can’t even comprehend.’

He grabbed Cindy with two blade-tentacles and activated Current Dash, dissolving into the water and reforming a hundred meters away, behind a massive rock formation. The shockwaves still rattled his carapace, but the rock provided some cover.

But the shockwave demolished the rocks in an instant, and Gray was forced to dart away and find new cover.

Cindy’s voice trembled as she clung to Gray’s bell.

"This is a nightmare... So life in the ocean isn’t as peaceful as I thought."

Gray kept moving, his blade-tentacles cutting through the water as he searched for cover.

’This isn’t a picnic, idiot,’ he said. ’The ocean has always been like this.’

Another shockwave tore through the water before Cindy could respond. The force of it slammed into them like a physical wall, sending them tumbling through the dark. Gray’s carapace cracked, and Cindy’s small body spun away from his grip.

[-72 HP]

[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 1156 / 1380]

’Cindy!’

"I’m fine!" she shouted. "Just keep moving!"

But before they could flee, the water around them changed. The pressure shifted, the current twisted, and from the darkness below, something massive began to rise.

It was a tentacle.

Thick as a tree trunk, mottled grey and lined with suckers the size of Gray’s entire bell. It rose from the abyss like a living tower, coiling through the water with slow, terrible purpose.

More tentacles followed each one massive enough to crush stone. They wrapped around the Sun Eater’s body, coiling tight, dragging the colossal creature downward. The Sun Eater roared, its beams firing wildly, but the tentacles held firm, their suckers clamping onto its hide.

Then the tentacles turned toward the Primordial.

The white figure tried to dodge, its spear flashing as it severed one tentacle, then another. But there were too many. A tentacle caught its leg, another wrapped around its arm, and within seconds, the Primordial was trapped, its body bound by the crushing grip of the abyssal horror.

Gray stared at the scene, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.

"Gray... what is that thing?"

’I don’t know,’ he said. ’But I think it’s the mother of the octopuses. The one that dragged me down here in the first place.’

The tentacles pulled, and the Sun Eater and the Primordial were dragged deeper into the abyss.

’Shit...’ he said quietly. ’We’re trapped in the middle of a war between gods.’