The fishing village of Lumeria was supposed to be a peaceful exile, a tiny cluster of wooden houses perched over docks, smelling of sea salt and drying nets. However, the moment our carriage halted at the village gate, constructed from the bones of a giant fish, my instincts—honed over 89 iterations—screamed: Something is wrong.
The sun was beginning to set, bleeding a deep crimson across the surface of the sea. The water was still. Too still. No seagulls cried. No children laughed. There was only the sound of waves lapping against the dock pilings with a monotonous rhythm, like the heartbeat of a sleeping monster.
"This place... it reeks," Elara remarked, covering her nose with a silk handkerchief embroidered with her family crest. She stepped down from the carriage with an elegance that felt entirely out of place in these slums. Her sharp eyes scanned the rows of villagers standing by the roadside, bowing in eerie silence.
"Perhaps it's just the smell of fish, Lady Elara," Clarisse added as she followed. She gripped her holy staff tightly, the white mana radiating from her body flickering slightly. "But... I feel the mana circulation in the air here is very... heavy. Like an invisible layer of mist is pressing down on us."
I climbed out last, hoisting a large rucksack containing our gear. I intentionally suppressed my mana to zero, playing the role of "Alex the Extra," the unremarkable background character. Yet, the gaze of the villagers made the skin on my neck crawl.
They weren't looking at the beautiful Elara or the glowing Clarisse. Their clouded, pale eyes—almost entirely devoid of pupils—were all fixed on me.
"Welcome, messengers from the academy," an old man with a long white beard and skin that flaked like fish scales stepped forward. This was the Village Head, Elder Silas. "We have prepared your lodgings. Please rest before the dock clearing task begins tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, Elder," I replied flatly. "But why is the village so quiet at dinner time?"
Silas paused. The corners of his lips trembled into a forced smile. "The sea is unkind, boy. In Lumeria, we have a saying: When the sun sinks, let the land belong to man, and let the water belong to 'Him'."
Elara scoffed, wrapping her arm possessively around mine, causing several villagers to flinch back as if they had seen something horrific. "Who is 'He'? If it's just a low-level sea monster, my assistant can crush it with one hand."
"Elara, don't be arrogant," I whispered.
Silas didn't answer. He simply gestured for us to follow him toward the inn. Along the way, I noticed something chilling. Every door in the village bore symbols drawn in dried chicken blood—ancient exorcism sigils that hadn't been used for centuries. Stranger still, every window was nailed shut with wooden crosses.
The Loyal Gull Inn was the largest two-story building in the area. Inside, the air was stifling. As we entered the room we had discussed—the one with two large beds—Elara immediately dropped her bag on the floor.
"I hate this place. Alex, prepare a bath for me. Now," she commanded, though her tone sounded more like a spoiled plea than a master's order.
"Use your own water magic, Elara. I'm busy checking the perimeter," I replied, standing by the window and trying to peer at the bay through the cracks in the nailed planks.
Suddenly, Clarisse approached. She stood very close to me, the scent of lilies from her body fighting the briny stench seeping through the walls. "Alex... do you feel it? The mark on your neck... it's glowing."
Startled, I looked into a small mirror hanging on the wall. It was true. The claim mark Elara had left on my neck was emitting a faint purple light.
"The mark is reacting to black mana," Clarisse whispered, her face inches from mine, her eyes full of anxiety. "There is something beneath this bay calling to you, Alex. Something massive... and very hungry."
"Get away from him, Clarisse!" Elara appeared between us, shoving Clarisse so hard she nearly fell onto the bed. Elara grabbed my jaw, staring at the mark on my neck with a gaze that bordered on madness. "My mark is reacting? That means you're in danger. And the only way to protect you..."
Elara suddenly pinned me against the wall, locking my body with hers. She didn't care that Clarisse was right there. She bit her lower lip, then leaned her face toward my neck, right over the mark.
"I have to deepen the seal," she hissed.
"Elara, stop! This isn't the time for—"
SREET!
Suddenly, the sound of something large dragging itself erupted from beneath the inn's floorboards. It wasn't rats. It sounded like something slimy and heavy crawling between the support pillars over the water.
Then, a song began to play.
It wasn't a human song. The voice was melodious—so beautiful it made my consciousness waver for a second. The sound felt like thousands of fine needles piercing my brain, whispering promises of eternal peace at the bottom of the sea.
"Arrgh!" Clarisse fell to her knees, covering her ears with trembling hands. Her holy light faded slowly. "This voice... it's the song of death..."
Elara froze. Her usually dominant eyes widened in terror. She wasn't afraid of the voice, but she was terrified as she looked at me. "Alex... your eyes..."
I looked in the mirror. My eyes were no longer black. My pupils had elongated vertically, resembling the eyes of a reptile or a prehistoric fish. An overwhelming thirst began to burn in my throat—not for water, but for dense mana.
KRAAAK!
The wooden floor in the center of the room shattered. A long, pale blue tentacle, covered in tiny mouths with razor-sharp teeth, shot out from the hole.
The tentacle didn't attack Elara. It didn't attack Clarisse.
It wrapped around my waist with a speed that even my glitch-reflexes couldn't dodge.
"ALEX!" Elara screamed, her hands responding with a burst of ice, attempting to sever the tentacle.
But the tentacle exploded into toxic black smoke upon contact with her ice, blinding the room instantly. In the darkness and poisonous mist, I felt my body being yanked downward, through the floor, falling straight into the ice-cold seawater beneath the inn.
SPLASH!
Saltwater flooded my mouth. I tried to use Mana Compression to blast away whatever was coiling around me, but the singing grew louder underwater. I looked down into the depths of the bay that should have been pitch black.
There, amidst the ruins of ancient ships, thousands of glowing yellow eyes opened at once. And in the center of it all, a woman with the lower body of a giant eel waited for me with open arms.
"Finally... the Forbidden Prince returns home..."
The voice resonated directly within my soul.
My consciousness began to fade as water entered my lungs. However, just before I blacked out, I felt a warm hand grip mine from above the surface—a hand radiating ice mana that froze everything around it.
"Alex! If you dare die here, I will freeze this entire ocean just to retrieve your corpse!"
It was Elara's voice. But it sounded so distant, while the pull from the seafloor grew stronger, dragging me into a secret that hadn't even been recorded in my past 89 iterations.