Chapter 40
Diving into the sea, I took a moment to fully appreciate the feeling of breathing in the ocean water. Imagine a cool breeze caressing your skin on a hot summer day, now couple that sensation with taking a long swig from an ice-cold drink. That is how I felt with each breath I took.
The problem? The breeze was carrying bundles of tiny needles that pierce your flesh. That drink has been drawn from a mouldy old puddle in a filthy sidewalk, and the relieving sense of coolness is cut short as your lungs struggle to draw in enough oxygen.
Was this how it was meant to feel? No, Kipper’s soul confirmed this was unusual. So was it my fault? Did I mess up our fusion and break our lungs somehow? Unlikely.
No, I had a good idea of what was happening. This must be how all the sea life in Farrowgate was breathing, thanks to the unknown corruption in the water. Being right over ground zero probably only intensified the feeling.
I clutched the box Meztili gave me tightly in one hand and began using my legs to swim deeper down. My heart nearly came out of my throat when a huge shadow blindsided me. If not for Kipper’s superior spatial awareness, I would have collided with the ominous shape.
As it passed me by, I got a better look at it. It was a shark. More accurately, it to be a shark. Now, with its peeling flesh and vacant eyes, it was little more than a soulless husk.
I felt that anger rising in me once more. An affront to nature existed before me, yet I could do nothing to correct it. As far as I could tell, there was no way to reverse… whatever this was. Even if I could locate the soul and reunite it with the body, without a sufficiently powerful ego, it would simply implode once it saw its decaying body.
I reached for my axe, which had shifted to match my form once again. It now resembled a tiny trident, but elongated the moment I drew it from my waist.
Positioned at the underbelly of the once ferocious predator of the sea, I thrust clean through the stomach.
Nothing. No reaction to pain, no acknowledgement of a threat being nearby, the creature simply continued to swim, despite the fatal wound I had given it.
Again and again, I pierced it in different areas, trying to end this abomination before it could spread its taint any further.
Was it just incredibly durable? Did I hit the right spot, or did it finally die from a thousand cuts? Whatever the case, the movements finally came to a halt. Right up until the end, it never reacted as a living creature should. Somehow, this made me feel even more repulsed.
The body slowly began to sink, and a lightbulb went off in my head. I got back under the shark’s corpse and worked my fingers into the holes made by my prior attacks. The flesh was weak, far too brittle for shark skin, which made it easy for me to tear it open.
There was no explosion of viscera and spray of blood. The organs had already shrivelled into tiny, indistinct grey blobs, and the blood had turned into a black, tar-like substance that clung to the inner walls of the body.
With my lithe, flexible form, it was no issue for me to open up a hole and worm my way inside. I didn’t need to pilot the corpse, just use it to shield my form from view.
With my legs kept outside, I continued kicking my way towards the shipwreck, using a trident wound in the head as makeshift eyeholes for me to see where to go.
It wasn’t pleasant, but hopefully the familiars wouldn’t recognise an intruder hiding within this drifting corpse.
My approach was slow and careful, but before long, I had reached my destination. A ship broken into two halves and largely swallowed by the sand. There was scarcely any wood visible anymore due to the thick film of algae covering the frame. Corals, crustacean life, and schools of baitfish could be seen even from a distance, littered around the hotbed of biodiversity that had formed around this man-made construct.
Under normal circumstances, I would remark on the persistence of nature. However, I knew better than to trust what only a cursory glance would reveal. And as I grew closer, I was proved to be right.
The algae were grey and lifeless. The coral crumbled into powder at a light touch. The fish and crustaceans around me all bore the same cursed presence as the corpse I hid within. Even the water felt different as I crossed the threshold of the ship walls, it was as if the temperature dropped like an anvil onto my head. The pain that accompanied my every breath intensified to the point it felt like I was swallowing molten lava, and my eyes burned such that I had to squint behind my mask.
As if all of this wasn’t enough to tell me what I needed to know, I kept catching glimpses of long black shadows darting in and out of various nooks and crannies. The familiars were here.
They immediately noticed my approach, but only briefly glanced at the shark’s body before resuming their patrol routes. A scattering of various other dead creatures littered the ground below, indicating that this was a common sight for the creatures.
They paid me no mind as I swam into the broken hull of the ship, yet the knowledge that I could be swarmed at a moment's notice kept me suitably alert.
What was I looking for? It was a question that didn’t even need to be asked anymore, because sitting at the bottom of this wreck was something that screamed
A mass of writhing black flesh in the shape of a pulsating orb sat there. It was a formation of black eel familiars grouped together, the occasional scout breaking free to check the perimeter before burrowing back into the nest.
But these were just corpse-puppets piloted by familiars, right? They should have no reason to form a nest like this. So then, what was this?
I settled on a risky play to satisfy my curiosity. A light push and the shark’s corpse slowly drifted towards the mass of flesh, and with a quick burst from my water jets, I hid myself among the other bodies left on the sea floor.
Slowly, gradually, the shark moved to collide with my target while I watched in silence, pulling a mass of algae over my body like a sheet.
It was a soft, harmless impact, and yet the mass reacted in an overly violent manner. The orb vibrated with intense hatred, then opened up and engulfed the corpse, tearing it to shreds that were thrown in every direction.
The retaliation to a perceived threat ironically revealed to me what they were so desperate to protect. A black box, not dissimilar to the one I was carrying. Only this one was longer and flatter.
As soon as the similarities struck me, my own box began rattling violently as if it were trying to escape my grasp. I tightened my grip and pushed it into the ground to keep it stable. Being underwater may mute the noise, but I still wasn’t eager to risk becoming the next meal.
The box continued to struggle against me, but as the orb of eels reformed, it settled once more.
As relative peace returned to my surroundings, I analysed the situation and my options going forward.
The other box was sitting upon a pedestal like a holy artifact—or unholy, considering the circumstances. The familiars reacted with such aggression that I could assume their current orders were to destroy anything that came too close to the object. Whether this was always the setup, or if it was a consequence of me alerting their master last night, I could not know.
I ran through some mental simulations on how to retrieve the item. My jets don’t make for good ranged weapons underwater; they only serve to propel me. I could push something else to distract the nest, then propel myself to snatch the box and escape, but then what?
They would just follow me back to Meztili, then the boat would be torn to pieces. That was assuming I could even outswim them to begin with.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Kill them all? Maybe if I had no time constraints, I could go around rallying various predators to attack with me, but alone, I had no hope.
Kipper’s soul told me he had already assessed our ability as a hunter, and we would not survive a fight here…
…But that was based on his knowledge of what he can do. There was something I could utilise. A different way to use Kipper’s skills that his mind wouldn’t think of.
I looked at the ship’s hull surrounding me and the nest. It was probably placed here because it was both concealed and shielded from predators from all but one angle. That same protection was going to be their undoing.
Creeping along the floor, I pulled myself back in the direction I came from. From above, I would look like nothing more than drifting algae skirting along the ground.
I made my way to the outer side of the wreck and positioned myself above where the nest would be. I used my tail to wrap the box Meztili gave, and pointed all ten fingers right up against the wood.
With a great exertion of force, my muscles tensed, and I released all the water I had stored in my body through my fingertips. The resulting explosive force naturally sent me flying backward, but it also shattered the ship’s frame and pushed the debris violently into the nest.
I was sent too far to see what happened, but the fountain of splintering wood that burst through the hole I made signalled success. I quickly took more water and used my jets to enter the wreck from my original entry point.
The eels were in chaos. They spread to attack every last piece of debris that disturbed them, and the box they were so zealously guarding was left exposed. I dashed straight for it and snatched it up with one hand, then, wasting no time, I fired all jets to escape through the hole above me.
I covered a good amount of distance while the eels continued attacking inanimate objects, but it wasn’t enough.
There were still plenty of the things scouting the area, and they all saw me break through the chaos and rise from the wreckage.
They were on me like flies to sugar, and I had expended the last of my reserves, preventing an expeditious retreat. Their jaws unhinged to reveal rows upon rows of razor-sharp blades. Not teeth, Tiny fragments of metal had been stitched into the flesh to shred through any prey, and right now, that prey was me.
I managed to turn and pierce a couple with my trident, but with no magical energy behind it, I couldn’t affect the familiars within. Thus, all I was doing was piercing dead flesh to no effect.
My mistake should have been punished, but right before a pair of jaws could wrap around my throat, they exploded into fragments.
A weak tug at my tail was the only thing that allowed me to identify where my saviour had come from.
A black skull with shiny golden accents had broken free of Meztili’s box, its eye sockets contained two deep violet gems that shone with intense magical fury.
“Ack! The girlie finally lets me out, but she dumps me in the ocean? Explosive fishing is outlawed, damnit!”
Somehow, the skull’s voice could be heard even underwater.
“Yer the drood, yeah? Better get swimming before ye get bit.”
Its eyes shone again, and a spell circle formed in front of it. Soon after, a beam of black and violet energy shot out and collided with another approaching eel.
Shot after shot was fired in rapid succession, and each one eliminated another of my pursuers.
I had no time to question the bizarre scene playing out in front of me, so I gripped the back of the skull with my foot and resumed my escape. With the skull facing behind me, it continued firing backward at anything that entered its range.
“Ha! This reminds me of the time in 792 A.F when I was but a wee lad fleeing the Mazzario family’s hounds, did the girlie ever tell you that one, drood? Oi! Listen when your elders speak to ye, boyo!”
…
“Uh oh. Better brace yourself, boyo!”
I looked back to see what had spooked him.
The eels had given up their race to catch me, and instead, had begun to converge into a singular massive serpent. That serpent lacked the speed of the smaller version, but my speed had also dropped due to the awkwardness of holding two cumbersome containers and a talking skull.
It was catching up, and the magical attacks that struck the serpent were bouncing off the thick hide to no effect.
“Yer gonna hafta open up a hole for me, boyo! I can’t get through that hide on me own.”
The maw of the serpent unhinged and moved to swallow me whole. I only briefly considered allowing it to happen so I could attack from within, but the thought left my mind the moment I saw that nearly every inch was covered in more metal blades.
I pulled in more water and fired my jets to circle around the side. The jaws clamped shut in the spot I had been floating just a second ago, and I saw something that brought a grin to my face.
The serpent turned towards me and prepared to lunge for me again. There was a sizable hole in its cheek that was not there a moment earlier.
“Eh? How’d you do that, boyo?”
I ignored the skull—not like I could speak underwater anyway—and moved the skull to my left hand, clutching it tightly.
“You got a plan? Oi, if you’re ‘bout ta die, just chuck me to safety, yeah? I don’t wanna spend years stuck in the belly of some kinda squirmy corpse snake.”
I waited for the last moment before firing my jets once more, intentionally flying wide before coming back to its flank, my reserves exhausted.
With my right hand, I aimed the holes in my fingers a few inches from the serpent’s body, then I drew in as much water as I could hold while simultaneously kicking myself back.
A small pocket of air formed from my sudden water intake, and this pocket overlapped with the serpent’s body. A heartbeat later, water rushed to fill in the gap, causing a miniature implosion that ripped apart the flesh to create a sizable opening. An underwater implosion, it's not something Kipper would know about, but I had read about them in my past life, and my earlier last-minute escape demonstrated it could be recreated with my current body.
I swam forward and thrust the skull in front of me, directing it to the wound I had created.
“Haha! What spell was that? Ye gotta teach me that one, boyo!”
The skull rapidly materialised three spell circles at once that moved to overlap one another.
“I’ll reward ye for that one, boyo. This here’s a single-circle spell reinforced with two more single-circle spells. Who needs fancy high-rank magic when you’ve got brains!”
A bolt of purple energy shot out from the first circle, then suddenly grew to triple the size after colliding with the second, and finally became as fast as a bullet upon reaching the third circle.
The end result was a spectacular release of magic that burst through the serpent and out the other side. The water boiled upon impact, and the monstrosity simply went limp before sinking slowly to the bottom of the sea.
“Ha! Never thought I’d be harpoonin’ sea beasts at my age.”
The skull wriggled free from my grip and turned to face me.
“Looks like that’s all of ‘em. Lucky for you, seein’ as i’m all tapped out of mana. Keep my house safe, yeah?”
With that, it flew back into the empty box it came from, and the lid snapped shut firmly.
The sea was quiet once more, and there were no remaining threats coming for me. My ascent to the surface was uneventful from that moment.
***
The boat wasn’t hard to find my way back to, it was the only one out there after all, what with fishing being a lost cause for the people of Farrowgate.
I thought it would be funny to climb onto the boat in my current form and mess with Boris some more, but Kipper already felt weak from overexposure to the waters here.
I disengaged our fusion while treading water just beneath the boat, and motioned for Kipper to go where he wished. He circled me a few times, then darted off far out of sight.
He was free now, and while I might regret losing his assistance going forward, I couldn't risk his soul by keeping him any longer.
With our non-verbal goodbyes said, I broke the water’s surface for air and pulled myself onto the boat. Meztili caught sight of me first and quickly closed the tome she was reading before speaking up.
“Good work, do you still have both boxes?”
I placed them onto the deck and took a seat to catch my breath.
Meztili put her own box back within her cloak and hesitantly peeked inside the other. As she did so, Boris came forward with wide eyes.
“Well? Have the gods—er, Lord Poggy—delivered us from evil? Where’d that fish man go? The girl said you left to witness ‘is miracle.”
I stifled a laugh and waved my hand.
“Yeah, yeah, we made progress. Just wait and see… can you take us back to port now?”
“Yes, Sir!”
He gave a clumsy salute and began steering us back.
“Tilly, what is it?”
I gestured to the box I retrieved.
“What I feared. Esmee procured a piece of Anubis, his spine to be exact.”
“What? Anubis?”
I knew of the Egyptian tales, of course, but that was from my past life. Did the same mythology exist here?
“Yes. Anubis XVII to be exact. My grandfather, and the one who helped you escape the serpents.”
“...Huh?”
I know I sounded stupid, but I couldn’t help it. Was this a failure on my end? Should I know what she meant by that?
“Ah, sorry. I forget the Nekrotic teachings are not so widespread in this corner of the empire.”
Luckily for me, my ignorance seemed to be the appropriate reaction.
“Anubis is the title bestowed upon the high priests of Nekrotica. My grandfather was the previous Anubis. He made himself undead and scattered his body among the faithful. I inherited the skull, which also contains his ego. The spine was stolen decades ago by a traitor to our order.”
“And that would be Esmee Waters?”
Meztili nodded.
“So is that… piece of Anubis the cause of everything here?”
“No. It is being used as a catalyst due to the immense magic within. There’s something else wrapped around the spine that seems to be the source of Farrowgate's problems.”
She only slightly popped the lid as she turned it to me. I could see a spine of black bones, and just like the skull from before, parts of it looked to be made from gold. And, just as Meztili suggested, there was a leathery substance wrapped over it.
She snapped it shut again after only a couple of seconds.
“The container is built to ward off magical detection. Esmee would be able to find it easily if left open too long.”
“Understood. What’s that stuff draped over the spine?”
“I don’t know, it’s going to require closer inspection, but removing it properly would take time. We should wait until we’ve regrouped with the others.”
She pulled out the sending stone, and the rune for ‘en route’ glowed softly.
“Sounds good. Tiara and Vek are probably getting hungry back at base.”
“What about Kipper? I don’t see hi—”
Meztili suddenly stood at attention and looked at her sending stone again. A message must have been received telepathically.
“Boris! Get us back as soon as possible!”
“Eh? Ah, this is just a fishin’ vessel, ma’am. I ain’t got any fancy doodads to speed it up.”
“What’s going on, Tilly?”
“Lily’s group keeps sending ‘danger’ messages… they won’t stop.”
We were at least 50 minutes from town. And without Kipper, I had no way to rush ahead.
We finished things far faster than expected. How could the scouting group already be in danger?
