Chapter 379 - Underwater Palace
Arthur jumped off the descending root and rolled on the ground below. The rift was closing after it had allowed the island, and he witnessed the site from the land below.
After everything settled, the eerie silence of the surrounding struck Arthur harder than he expected. It seems he was alone again after meeting an old friend and a bizarre spirit.
As for what Adrian told him before he left, Arthur could only make out a few things. First, a being, a human, or a spirit had tasked Adrian with building a city for the people to survive when the end arrives.
As for the end itself, it was no other than what Jizo said will happen if humans kept going beyond the gate. Then, the split will undo itself, and the calamity gates will open. At that time, neither Alka nor Earth will survive.
As for what he knew about the calamities, it wasn't a lot. There were The Enders, Vampires Overlord Kar, and Lord of Giants, Lorth. Kar was the one infiltrating the royal court, and Lorth was the one who killed Jizo's family.
'Where am I?'
Finding himself alone and purposeless again, Arthur couldn't help but feel a sense of realignment with reality. He didn't want to face it so quickly, but he might need to kill Gala now.
She was in this world, after all.
Arthur looked at the surrounding. He was on a sandy beach, and his feet dug into the cold ground. The waves crashed to the shore, covering his feet with water.
"Are you also a spirit?" Arthur asked the water, and he heard the hum of a distant being. Then, with a smile, he sat down on the sand.
After closing his eyes, Arthur sent his chains in all eight directions around him. They traveled far and wide, covering the area around him in an instant. He combed for spirits or anything that would guide him to the bookkeeper.
His chains covered the land, generating new chains until they resembled a branchy tree with Arthur in its center. They also spread over the sea.
'How far can they stretch?' Arthur wondered to himself as he pushed to test his limit. 'But can I test what doesn't exist?'
He didn't feel like there was a limit to his chains, as if they were one with this realm. They endlessly stretched until something touched them in the middle of the sea. Arthur snapped his eyes open and turned in that direction as his chains began to retreat into his body.
"Is it a spirit?" Arthur wondered as he stood up. His chains were like measure tapes that rolled back into his body, retreating at unprecedented speed. "Can you hold me up, dearest sea?" Arthur asked, and the sea gave a hum in reply.
Without hesitation, Arthur ran on top of the water. True to its words, the sea held him floating above the water as he ran on top of it. The location of the spirit was far from the shore, so Arthur had run for a while.
He ran for an hour before he met another being. Arthur found a raft in the middle of the sea, and there was another Seeker on top of it.
The seeker was like a flame, and their aura was wild and flickering. They stood on top of the raft proudly. As Arthur ran past them, he could tell how speechless they were by his actions.
"Hello, friend." Arthur stopped running in front of the raft, standing firmly on top of the waves. The seeker looked at him, then at his legs, then back at him.
"Oh, great spirit!" With a feminine voice, the girl said in Alvan Language. "Are you the ruler of this sea? This humble one wishes to contract you."
"Uh, what? No..."
"Please don't be hasty to reject!" The seeker went on one knee as if she was proposing. She clapped her hands together as if she was praying. "I promise you as much fish you want if you accept to contract me!"
"Fish?" Arthur was taken aback. He was no spirit, but he didn't think they could eat. "No. As I was saying, I'm not the deity of this sea or whatever."
"Ah?" The woman tilted her head. "If you are not, how can you walk on water?"
"I just asked it."
"You... asked it?" The woman seemed confused. She looked at the raging sea and how Arthur rose and dropped with the waves. "This must be a test to see if I can judge correctly. I know that you are the Deity of Seas, Rider of Waves!"
"Bro, I'm not," Arthur said casually. "All I want is to ask you about a spirit around here. I sensed its existence, so did you see anything?"
"I have not, great spirit." The woman shook her head. "I took the sea three days ago, and your esteemed self is the only one I met."
'Damn, this woman is a kiss-ass.' Arthur thought to himself, but maybe that was how ordinary people contracted spirits. Furthermore, she kept referring to him as a spirit even though he said he was not.
"I see. Well, thank you." Arthur nodded and sprinted away from the raft. However, the woman called after him to wait and began following after him.
"Please wait, great one! If you don't wish to contract me, please guide me to your palace so that I can contract one of your subordinates!"
"As I said, I'm not a spirit!" Arthur turned and shouted toward the raft woman, who used her spiritual energy to propel her forward. "Wait, what do you mean by a palace?"
"Ah, I heard that you have an underwater palace." The woman said. "If you can allow me entry, then I can convince a different spirit to..."
"Underwater?" Arthur looked down. "Well, I guess that it was indeed foolish of me to expect a spirit above water in the open sea. The being I sensed must have been underwater."
Before the woman could plead again, Arthur threw his chains underwater. They dived downward and impaled themselves to the bottom of the sea before they pulled Arthur down.
With a splashing sound, Arthur dived underwater under the eyes of the woman. The salty water should have made him drown, but Arthur didn't need air in his current form.
'It feels as if I'm floating in space.' Arthur realized as he opened his eyes. The light from the sky lit up the upper regions of the sea, but the bottom looked like an abyss.
He commanded his chains to pull him downward, but he realized that his unhindered diving didn't come for free. A portion of his spiritual energy was absorbed by the sea every minute he stayed underwater.
Arthur felt a presence above him and looked up to find the woman diving after him, her blue flame aura protecting her from the sea. It seems that even if you didn't need oxygen, the sea was one giant entity that could devour you alive if it tried.
"Guide me, great spirit!"
'Guide you, my ass. I don't know where to go as well.'
Arthur commanded his chains to pull him down as he ignored the woman. If she wanted to follow him into the abyss, then he would simply let her do that.
He only tried to find a spirit that knew the bookkeeper's location. After all, he couldn't wander in the Skyey World to find Gala. That would take months, if not years.
Arthur dived deeper into the sea until the light from above grew faint. The sea clouded his senses, which was a spirit on its own. That's why it was late before he realized that the abyss below contained a gigantic being.
The powerful underwater currents were enough for him to realize that something was moving. He squinted his eyes as he tried to make out the figure, but there was nothing but darkness in front of him.
Arthur turned to look around and finally made out the edge of the creature. The distance its body covered sent chills down the spine he currently lacked.
'Wait... is this a whale?'
Arthur realized with horror as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The giant spirit, whose size made Arthur look like an ant next to it, opened its mouth to let out a deep growl. The moment its mouth opened, a powerful suction force pulled Arthur and the woman into the whale's mouth.
'I'm not letting this happen again,'
Arthur threw his chains toward the bottom of the ocean and the whale's body. They impaled themselves securely and kept Arthur from drifting underground.
The woman didn't have something as handy as his chains, so she simply drifted toward the whale's mouth. Unfortunately, it seems she was late to realize the existence of the giant spirit, and she screamed once she did.
'I can't let her die,' Arthur inwardly sighed as she sent a chain that wrapped itself around her body, pulling her closer to him.