Chapter 85: Sinking Sensation (2/2)
[Is this the Great Wyrm Tempestus? No wonder such a large lake formed when it crashed. This thing is the size of a small city.]
Mike suddenly caught the distant strains of some kind of music. It was ethereal, almost unworldly, but heartrendingly beautiful all the same. The subtle tones almost seemed to be telling a story, one of loss and grief. But as he kept listening, he felt a slight shift, as the music grew warmer, more hopeful.
He noticed a soft, blue light deep below him, and as he approached it the music seemed to grow louder, and more joyful. Soon he was close enough to see the source of the light, or rather the absence of it.
The flickering globe of sapphire luminescence floated above a small bundle resting in the center of a massive skeletal hand. Once Mike was on the same level as the light, it seemed to bob in his direction, before vanishing like the flame from a candle. The music ceased soon afterwards, silence once again reigning over the scene.
Certain that something of great importance was in that bundle, Mike began fighting in earnest against the entangling tentacle. Having little luck with physical efforts, he decided to try using his newly acquired Light Magic.
Concentrating a large quantity of mana into his hand, he forcefully compressed and willed it into a beam of radiance. With some time and effort, he was able to direct it to severing a piece of the tentacle, just enough to allow him to slip free.
He floated there for a second, apparently neutrally buoyant for some reason, watching as the Kraken sunk into the depths of the lake.
[Seriously. How deep does this thing go?]
Right before the body of the beast sunk out of the range of his light, he caught a glimpse of furious motion. Something....multiple somethings were tearing the Kraken apart.
Heart rate spiking, Mike decided that he'd had quite enough of his underwater adventures, and hurriedly swum back to the bundle. As he was doing so, he kept seeing flashes of pale white things moving in the corner of his vision.
The bundle turned out to be a roundish object wrapped in a piece of black colored leather. Not really wanting to take the time to investigate, he scooped it up, and started heading back to the surface.
Evidently something about this act attracted the attention of the things that were following him, because he became surrounded by increasing amounts of furious motion. Whatever they were, they were remaining just outside the radius of his light. With a sudden burst of impatience he quickly dumped a large amount of mana into his spell creating a brilliant glow that shone for hundreds of meters in every direction.
The light revealed that he was surrounded by hundreds of pale skinned, vaguely humanoid creatures that looked like a cross between a human and a piranha. Their limbs ended in webbed appendages tipped with wicked looking claws. Long pointed teeth were visible in their gaping angler-fish mouths. However, the most horrible aspect of these creatures was the featureless expanse of skin that covered the area where their eyes should be.
[Nope. I'm done.]
Once again drawing deeply from his mana, Mike created a powerful jet of water, pushing himself towards the sky like a torpedo. After a few minutes of slightly unpleasant travel, he broke through the surface, firing up almost a hundred meters into the sky.
The storm had almost subsided, and streams of sunlight were breaking through the cloud cover. Spinning while still in the air, Mike caught sight of the ship. It was a few kilometers away, so he threw himself toward it with a blast of Air Magic to generate forward momentum. Repeating this process every time he got close to the water's surface, he quickly traveled across the intervening distance.
Soon enough he was landing on the deck, amid the astonished murmurings of the crew and passengers.
”Mike? You're alive?” Brenden asked from his position near the gun whale. It was a little hard to tell because of how rained soaked they all were, but he looked like he'd seen a ghost.
”Yeah, sorry about that. Got tangled up in something on the way back.” He said with a lighthearted laugh, hoping to defuse the tension he felt.
There was a soft impact against his side as the silver-haired Oracle wrapped her arms around him in a relieved hug. Before he had a chance to return it, or even react, she broke the contact. After punching him in the stomach with much anger, but little effect, she stormed off. The effect was largely ruined however, when she turned green and had to run over to the side of the boat again.
”She was worried. Needed faith.” Tal said walking up with that enigmatic, almost-smile on her face.
Mike sighed. ”I really am sorry. I never meant to stay down there that long, but I ran into some interesting things while I did.” He held up the bundle.
”What's that?” Brenden asked having approached as well. Mike pretended not to notice the redness of his eyes.
”Something I found underwater, I'll tell you more about it later. First, I want to get a look at it.”
Pulling of the strangely heavy black leather, he revealed a round gemstone-like object about 30 cm in diameter. It was a opaque, misty blue, and virtually glowed in the post-storm sun, reflecting the light into a number scintillating rainbow patterns.
The three of them gasped when they laid eyes on it. A gem that size would be worth a fortune, but something bother Mike about the shape of the stone.
It wasn't perfectly round, and the surface, although smooth, lacked the polished finish he'd expected from a cut gem.
For some reason, it looked an awfully lot like an egg to him.