Pulsing spiritual energy inevitably led Tirto to the leviathan, though its location was also closely tracked by a coalition of clans in the Shimmering Islands. Tirto wasn’t quite sure why he was here, except that he had the feeling the leviathan was important. Beyond its obvious destructive capabilities, that is.

He kept a careful distance from it. Despite the affinity he’d developed, it would only take a single moment of the creature deciding he was food for everything to be over. There wasn’t a clan or sect in the whole of the Shimmering Islands that could stop this thing now that it was active once more. It ate what it wanted, and nobody could stop it. Fortunately, it held short of ecological devastation. At least, usually.

Recently, the creature’s already vast appetites had increased. There was serious concern that it would affect the ability of the northern islands to fish, one of the main forms of sustenance throughout all of the Shimmering Islands.

Tirto wondered- very briefly- if it was worth his mother’s life to save this thing. The thought quickly passed because it had to. He couldn’t accept that she died for nothing. That their family was wounded like this for no purpose at all. And he had logical reasons to disregard it as well. Anything that empowered their enemies was a detriment to the region, and the Molten Sea had proven themselves more than simply unpleasant neighbors. At least those under the banner of Gesine caused more than their fair share of trouble in a few short years.

Thoughts like that swam through Tirto’s head as he observed the leviathan. He focused on his eyes to pierce the gloom of the waters, struggling to take in the vast size of the creature. What could be causing the change in its behavior? Or perhaps this was how it was supposed to be, and it was simply sluggish upon first waking up. But if it continued to eat as it was, it might consume everything in the whole of the Shimmering Islands. Though it was not as rapidly approaching a threat as it might seem.

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For the last month, Tirto had been dealing with clan affairs while out at sea. In some ways it was more work. Despite having access to the best cabin on the ship, his office was still smaller and harder to work in. For social engagements it often required meeting groups on deck, though for the people of the Shimmering Islands they didn’t necessarily mind such a thing.

And since a good part of the business involved the leviathan they were tracking, some things were actually easier. It also allowed Tirto to ignore other distractions, and while he knew he would have to deal with such matters eventually he was going to take advantage of his time to think.

The leviathan’s power was growing slowly. That much was clear, and led directly into talks of hunting down the creature. Of course, defeating it from the outside would be massively difficult… and with it conscious, attacking internally would be little better. But if it was necessary for the sake of the Shimmering Islands, it would have to be done. But nobody was going to rush into that option. After all, the first to sign onto the plan would also have to be among the first to fight and risk themselves.

It wasn’t quite to the point where Tirto thought people were ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. They were still balancing risk versus reward. Because while the leviathan did eat large swaths of fish as it traveled- it didn’t have just a single mouth but instead could draw in water all along its ‘front’- it also improved the quality of spiritual energy in the areas it passed through. So while food was less available, beasts could survive in part off of the increased water element available. It wasn’t enough to just accept it and move on, and they still had to monitor it for disaster.

It swept around the northern end of the Shimmering Islands from east to west, and was currently headed south. If it reached the southern third of the sea, it would have more open water to swim through. Though it had already covered most of the sea, so it should be aware of such details.

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The leviathan had approached shallow waters near a series of islands. Instead of swimming around them, it was dragging itself along, barely half submerged in water. It was most likely wreaking havoc on the local tides, overwhelming them with waves and higher water from its sheer bulk. More than that, it was creating a deep gouge in the sand. It was almost as if it had beached itself, but it continued to move along at a consistent pace, propelling itself mostly through the power of its spiritual energy.

Curious as to what could cause its behavior, Tirto resolved to take a closer look. Comparing it to other sea creatures, it shared only some similarities with beached whales. Whales beaching was almost always unintentional due to sickness or injury, with the waves pushing a creature ashore. For a creature the size of the leviathan, ocean waves were less relevant- but it could be sick and off track. It wasn’t exactly nimble, so if it had misjudged the depths of the waters ahead of it, there might be no choice but to push through until it reached somewhere deeper.

Diving behind the leviathan was generally the safest, as long as he didn’t get too close. For the moment he was staying a good kilometer back, focusing his attention on the detritus it left behind. Local fishes that had been fortunate not to be sucked into its maws were also quite interested in the partially digested remains of fish and plant matter. By now, Tirto was quite familiar with what it left behind, and it didn’t look any different. If it was sick, it didn’t have any effect there.

As he followed along the gouge deep into the sand of the ocean floor, he saw churned up hunks of rock, along with something else he almost missed because it didn’t stand out against the overwhelming aura of the leviathan. It was like a single leaf in a forest. But in the same manner as that analogy, it was also something he latched onto because it was like a leaf floating down a river.

Sand soon covered it, but he dove down and used waves of water to uncover it. It was a chunk of the shell of the leviathan, a wide shard several meters across and a single meter thick.. Was it so fragile that it was falling apart? No, it shouldn’t even be able to break itself on solid rock. Strangely, he felt a pulse of life within it- though it shouldn’t have any. His energy sunk into the hunk of rock and… he was pretty quickly able to puzzle out what was going on. This was an egg, though it didn’t look like any egg he’d ever encountered.

Carefully, he returned the sand to the top of it. If this was an egg, it certainly deserved its own chance to live. He was cautious about the idea of multiple leviathans running around, but the egg was multiple orders of magnitude smaller than the current creature. Comparing an island sized mass to a modest boulder was quite different. And he had to admit some curiosity. If the thing hatched, he could see what it would look like all at once instead of in pieces. The adult leviathan didn’t really fit the logic of any animal forms he knew of.

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Over the course of the next few months, several things became clear. As the leviathan circled around to the west and back to the south its physical state became visible for everyone to see. With each egg it left behind, there was a permanent chunk of its outer shell missing. The creature gradually lost some of its size, though it remained massive. Along with that, however, its overall health was clearly in decline.

Its spiritual energy weakened even as it continued to consume vast quantities of food. It also became clear that it intentionally sought out ‘shallow’ water, scraping hunks off of itself as it did so. Tirto had hoped that it would approach Pualani, as the connected islands might benefit from its passage. Then again, he was glad when it showed no intent to move towards the center of the sea, as it could instead cause significant damage.

Perhaps the last three and a half years had been planned out in advance. Tirto was uncertain about that, but the leviathan returned to its former home… where it dove into the depths.

Over the course of several weeks, Tirto watched it die, its spiritual energy pouring out from it like blood from an open wound. This spiritual energy attracted countless beasts, all of which were happy to begin devouring the flesh of the leviathan as it slowly died. The outer layers gone, something more akin to normal flesh was revealed beneath the built up armor of stone.

As soon as it was clear what was happening and he deemed it survivable, Tirto took with him the best among the Brandle clan, venturing inside the creature once more. While he had not been inside during the conflict with the Molten Sea, Livna and Yonit knew the route to its heart. It was clear the structure of the beast was collapsing, but without the strange creature living inside of it- either wiped out in the war or because of the beast being close to death- it was easier to traverse.

Rather than a slog of battle, it was more of a race with other clans to see who could find something of value. The entirety of the leviathan was valuable in some manner, but Tirto was focused on the heart. In some places, they found crystallized water element. They did not leave it behind, but they wouldn’t go far out of their way searching for it.

The most important part was its heart, and they reached it first. At least, Tirto saw no signs of others. All that was left was a very weak pulse of energy, but with the guidance of the clan he found the location of the final battle. There, they tore into the already damaged stony flesh of the creature to reveal an orb some two meters in diameter. It was pure water element, with the outside being a crystallized frozen shell. Then there was liquid water… and if Tirto’s eyes did not deceive him, a core of steam bouncing around in a sphere inside.

The outer shell had some visible cracks, but it was still generally intact.

It just barely fit into Tirto’s storage bag, the best the clan had. As it was, he had to hand off some of what he had stored and shift things around. Then there was the matter of fitting it in the mouth of the bag, intended to expand and stretch- but with limits.

Having secured something of clear value without conflict, Tirto led his clan back out of the creature. It was well and truly dead, now. Perhaps it would once more serve as a home for corals and barnacles to live on, before eventually truly becoming part of the deep sea.

He had already assigned some people to watch over some of the eggs- Tirto didn’t want to risk damage to them if they were moved. With that, the saga of the leviathan was finished… at least for this generation.

Tirto was relieved that things had turned out as they did. The ecosystem would recover from its wide range devouring. Its offspring might have the potential to reach such a massive size, but if so that would be centuries away and they would have plenty of time to respond to such growth. And ultimately, its power returned to the sea- with a good chunk of it going to the Brandle clan.

When Tirto returned home, he was almost ready to deal with the other matters awaiting him. Though he wasn’t expecting to see his father there. That was a bit of a surprise, though he had received word from Melanthina that he was returning to something like his old self. Tirto hoped that was true.