“We’re too late.”

A wall of Fog, black as basalt stood firmly in their way.

His two bodyguards stood stoic as usual behind the prince, but the sight of the black pores swimming through the water made their gills contract.

“Not necessarily Reeve.” Keirian spoke as he left the safety of the carriage, swimming closer to the black water he activated his left bracer, the long bone-like blade jutted out.

Close enough to touch, he carefully put his weapon in the grasp of the pores in the water and watched.

Like flies, the pores began flooding to the long blade but stopped within a radius, a small circle of the small creatures formed around the weapon, but they weren’t getting closer.

A smile began to etch his jawline as he whipped the weapon back and turned to the prince. “We have time. They didn’t pounce on the bone of a Ciercies, which means the Demon Whisper is still waiting for it's prey to arrive.”

Keirian paused. “Waiting for more of its prey, that won’t happen to include us, will it?”

Noticing the look on his friend’s face, Reeve dodged the question. “It’s dangerous, and it’s where the expedition went missing, which could explain their deaths. Perhaps it’s already hunted and is waiting for bigger prey?”

A short silence took the conversation as the two debated whether to take a massive and perhaps unnecessary risk.

“I’m going to be honest Reeve,” His body slowed his strokes as he slowly descended, his face turned to a look that Reeve had come to identify as bitter acceptance.

“Most of what we know about the Demon Whisper is its prey. They’re not known for hunting Nerieads, what we do know is that they’re greedy and intelligent. They hunt bigger prey, but that doesn’t mean there’s no ri-”

“Then what’s stopping us from quickly searching for the expedition?” A higher pitched voice interrupted the two.

Almost comically, the two turned to the voice, a young woman with fierce looking eyes was pointedly ignoring her companion guard standing next to her.

“Vice captain Vera, despite the circumstances, you must address the prince by his title, does your ignorance know no bounds woman?” His tone instantly snapped Vera out of her stupor as her shoulders tensed and her back clattered against the carriage.

“Surely I’ve personally told you the stories of the Whispering menace, it’s sweet whispers a guise to impregnate any female nearby to serve it along with their offspring?” His tone almost turning cruel with a mix of sarcasm within, everyone and their daughters especially had heard of the monsters of legend.

“B-but the Whisper wasn’t found, it was nev-”

“Not officially, no.” The prince gently cut in to the conversation, noticing the captain silently discipline his daughter using just his eyes.

“Unofficially,” Keirian spoke up. “The Whisper has been kept away from the kingdom for years because of it’s terrifying ability.” He absently began flicking his thumbnail over the edge of the blade.

“The ‘black’ waters around us aren’t from magic, their fish, bugs and even plants that the demon’s children had bred with over generations. It’s gotten to such a point where some have claimed illness over being near the Whisper.” He snapped the blade back inside his bracer.

“It is dangerous and If it were up to me, I would turn around, despite the small chance that the disappearance of the expedition isn’t random.”

“But it isn’t up to you.” Reeve spoke fondly to the broad shouldered neriead, who was already walking back to the carriage, his head shaking slightly.

“Don’t worry friend, I’m sure with our small squad the demon won’t even notice us.”

The waters were darker today.

It was one of the things she had started to notice, especially when their new vegetarian diet meant they had to go far and wide scanning necessary plants.

Sera looked back at the scanner in her hand, it had begun to felt like an extension of herself and with the added benefit it didn’t need the PID nearby to work.

Glimmers of sunshine occasionally passed as Sera noticed a small glimpse of something hide behind one of the cliffs nearby. They’re still here, I don’t understand why, all that's out here is me and Iva, but they still wait.

Sera held back a shudder as she remembered the long jaw and dangerous teeth.

Well, at least it’s not the Oculi, having to put up with the noises and the searching eyeballs wasn’t an experience I needed. Sera idly thought as she picked up a piece of lead that she had left earlier on in the morning.

It had gotten into a routine now, wake up, look for food, smash any outcrops that contained useful ore, find scaly kelp that tasted like a mix of seaweed and peppers and then come back later to pick up the ore left behind.

It was a bit weird not having to worry about everything, with the drone back a day and the Dwelling preparing to overhaul the module she installed into it, things should be going up.

“So why do I have this bad feeling, Iva?”

Swimming past the cliffs, Sera had made it back to her base and was prepared to start on the long to-do list she was certain the PID had been preparing.

Or that was the plan, until she heard a faint scream echo in the distance.

Despite the distance, Sera still felt the vibrations on her skin.

Only one monster was capable of having that effect on someone, but what was the Reaper doing near the dungeon?

“Iva, something’s felt off today and I think we’ve found it. Let’s go take a look, carefully this time.” She tried to give Iva a ‘look’ but the fish was already swimming ahead, Sera assumed her red friend was beginning to learn the words for each area.

Catching up was easy, her pack was light, with only the few pieces of ore she collected earlier slowing her down.

The two made their way to one of the tallest cliffs with a bit of playful swimming but mostly staring upwards towards the open waters, neither had forgotten their previous encounter with the Reaper.

Which was why when Sera made her way to the dungeon, she quickly delved into the cave and path found around the glowing bulbs-but not before quickly scanning one and feeling her face light up.

Scanner Results

Mana Infused Adapted Bulb

A rare subspecies of the cave bulb that is capable of supplying a resounding amount of essence despite the heart of the bulb being tiny.

A quick swipe of the knife was all she needed to grab the heart of the bulb, it's appearance that of a bright glowing fruit.

Sera looked at the other floating bulbs, but ultimately decided to come back later, after the source of the disturbance was found.

Reaching the large opening to the surface, Sera swam out watching the waters surface but couldn’t see any signs of the Reaper nearby, slowly she searched downwards and noticed the murky waters seemed closer.

Not only closer, but, did it just move?

Rippling forward, the water quickly worked to their power as they dove back into the black mist, they couldn’t see anything except for thousands of black dots that quickly smothered any light that was outside the carriage!

“Put more mana into the lights! If there’s no light, the beasts won’t move!” A hoarse voice barely made out, the captain was gripping onto the carriage for dear life.

The front of the carriage was shielded in case of an attack, but the size and the sheer number of the demon spawn made the carriage’s shield irrelevant. Even worse, was the noise of the creatures being crushed, which made the darkness even more menacing.

The whole carriage shuddered as the swarm began trying to make their way through and into the main body, how the beasts were holding up despite the pressure, was a miracle.

“Damn it-VERA,” The carriage shuddered again as the light ahead of them sputtered. “WE’RE GOING UP.” The metallic reins winced as the carriage was brought back up towards the surface of the water.

Everyone was thrown backwards as the carriage was pushed to its limits, reaching for the sky again it began to rocket past the screams and hisses of the crushed spawn.

“CAPTAIN! What about the Screecher!” Fance heard his daughter splutter, as she kept her hands on the orb for dear life.

Breaking past the final layer of the Whisper’s spawn, the carriage breached the black waters as the swarm tried following them out, the thousands of specs all working together to form a hand shadowed and wicked.

The beasts began losing momentum, and they started dipping, the hand catching up to them before falling as they did back to the inky waters, Fance barely had a moment to clear his eyes and check their path.

“Just ahead, push through their last layer, and we should-” The water pushed them past, and the light suddenly went out, Fance barely had a moment to see that the orb was flying in the cabin with Vera knocked out.

Like a floodlight the spawn quickly flooded the cabin as a screech went off close by, Fance fumbled but could only grasp and crush the insidious spawn.

Black quickly took the cavern as their movement came to a halt, without the water pressure keeping them at bay the black specs quickly pushed up against his skin trying to make their way through any opening.

His eyes shut, as did his mouth as he grasped the waters helplessly. Dammit Vera, at least hold onto the orb properly!

Two strong knocks came from behind him, and he barely found the strength to knock back once. They’ll breach in seconds, I need to hur-

Like a ship being rammed, the carriage was suddenly impacted by a backbreaking force, his body thrown across the cabin, his gills burst open as oxygen bubbles escaped.

The carriage spun and Fance distantly recognised his daughter next to him, on instinct he grasped a flask under his cloak and broke it on her gills, the stench of the healing potion geared his mind into motion as he weakly grasped for the orb.

Finding a smooth round surface, he felt his body weaken as he put the rest of his mana into it, light flooded ahead of them as the carriage was pulled forward.

He could only weakly watch as his body was shoved back to the wall with a start, the water pressure peeling away the layers of the spawn clinging to his flesh.

Numbly he could make out the shape of Vera, unconscious, but he couldn’t smell any of her blood in the water, looking towards the light Fance felt his body begin to shut down.

Gods, I hope this is the right direction.

Sera watched amazed as she saw the Reaper disappear into the black waters, which she noticed looked less fluid and more like the ash that fell from the burnt ship.

Hearing the Screech, it was like the mass froze as the vibrations flew through the water, stunning the ash-like presence for a moment as the sound of a piece of wood breaking resounded through the vast emptiness.

Sera watched as the black mass seemed to concentrate in the area, the surrounding zones becoming thinner as she realised that the waters were a massive predator.

Every edge of an area had the black waters, something she assumed to be harmless was waiting right beyond the gap. How long would it be until it came closer, close enough to trap her?

Her thoughts were interrupted as the mass flexed, like a piece of slime or mucous the concentrated mass began thinning trying to keep whatever was inside trapped.

Just as it was reaching its limit’s she saw the spark of blue light pierce through the layer as what looked like a corroded chariot burst through, violently the black mass tried to follow it.

But unlike when it was in the inky waters, it moved unimpeded quickly dashing away from the mass and down, towards the hole, towards her!

Sera quickly moved on reflex deeper into the hole, as she reached the bulbs she looked out and saw the chariot for a brisk second before an impact resounded on the sand above the cavern.

She watched in disbelief as the black mass in the distance stopped following the chariot and formed back into the black waters, but not before another scream resounded.

Her eyes could barely perceive the black shadow as it made distance from the waters and chariot, whatever happened Sera hadn’t seen anything before able to scare away the Reaper.

But that wasn’t all, whoever was in the chariot had landed almost on top of her, and she needed to meet them… or steal their chariot, so she could finally leave The Ancient zone.