Chapter 1269: Deep Waters, Shallow Shadows
At the same moment, in the wreckage zone of the Antavien, within the water elemental realm corresponding to the material world’s space—
Endless rain fell over the boundless sea, filling the space between two layers of ocean. Above the boundless sea, an inverted ocean hung suspended in the air, its surface rippling with overlapping waves. Within those waves, water elementals darted back and forth, endlessly cycling through growth, fusion, conflict, and reformation. Deep beneath the boundless sea, faint but vast streams of blue light stretched across the depths, connecting to an immense aquatic system on the far side of this ocean.
This surreal scene—impossible to witness in the material world and defying all natural laws—was the norm in the water elemental domain. Pure elemental forces intertwined with the world’s magical energies here, forming a unique “cycle” system. Yet for the sea witches, themselves elemental beings, this environment offered no sense of home. It was merely a space that resembled their native world but was not quite the same. The vast boundless sea here was not the ocean they remembered from their homeland.
Still, sea witches were quick to adapt.
A watch station stood firmly amid the rolling waves of the boundless sea. Shaped like a slightly opened shell, its streamlined exterior gleamed with a silvery metallic sheen, accented by pale blue paint that traced totemic patterns reminiscent of deep-sea creatures’ limbs—distinctly sea witch in style. Through the gap of the opened shell, a radiant energy barrier shimmered, enclosing living quarters, weapon stations, communication arrays, and decorative sculptures of tentacles and seaweed. A dozen or so sea witches bustled busily among the station’s facilities.
At the base of the station, several “anchoring” devices emitted blue halos, collectively stabilizing this structure from the material world, preventing it from drifting in this oceanic realm.
On the crescent-shaped duty platform at the station’s edge, two sea witch sentinels kept watch over the boundless sea. Both had serpentine lower bodies like sea serpents, their long tails coiled into stable shapes. Each held a trident-shaped weapon, its silvery tip shimmering with rippling light—an effect caused by charged particle streams continuously refreshing along the blade’s edge.
“Yawn… I feel like I’ve been standing here for a century,” said one sea witch with long sea-blue hair, yawning as her tail curled beneath her. The tip of her tail peeked out, swaying left and right. “This endless rain is making me drowsy…”
“Stop whining. You’d be sleepy even without the rain,” her companion with pale purple hair shot a sideways glance. “You’re just lazy. You snap right out of it the moment you’re off duty.”
“Don’t say that, Caroline,” the blue-haired witch waved her trident. “I’m serious—mainly because what we’re watching is so boring. Just a few streams of ‘water’ with zero change…”
Caroline said nothing in response, instead lowering her gaze to the heavy waters below. As a water elemental herself, she could see far through the dark depths. The pale blue streams running through the boundless sea looked like beautiful “currents.” She stared for several seconds, then suddenly looked up.
“What do you think this thing actually is? It looks like water but isn’t. It just bubbles up from the seabed out of nowhere, then flows off somewhere unknown. And Her Majesty the Queen is so serious about us watching it, telling us to report any changes… What the hell is it?”
“Didn’t you hear what High Witch Hestia said? It’s called the ‘Deep Blue Conduit.’ It’s the planet’s ‘power system,’ kind of like ocean currents or atmospheric circulation, but it flows with magic instead of water or air. And unlike currents or winds, which only exist in the material world, this flows through all the planet’s ‘domains’—the material plane, the Shadow Realm, the Umbral Realm—like a web cycling through them all.”
The blue-haired witch sounded knowledgeable, clearly having paid attention to the scholars’ lessons. But Caroline, her purple-haired companion, was clearly not one to take things seriously. Halfway through the explanation, she shook her head with a smug “I totally get it” expression and muttered, “Power system, ocean currents… okay, I think I get it.”
She glanced back down at the blue streams beneath the waves, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “So, what do you think would happen if I just dove right in? Where would I end up?”
“You didn’t understand a thing!” The blue-haired witch’s face went pale with alarm. “That’s not water, I’m telling you! If you dive in, you might die down there. We’ve barely managed to keep the peace with the local water elementals all these years. What if you die and we can’t explain it? We’d be at war again!”
Her companion’s wild idea clearly terrified her. She rattled off a rapid-fire warning, trying to dissuade her action-prone sister. Caroline half-listened, then finally gave up on her creative plan—but her eyes still lingered on the blue streams, her mischief barely contained.
“Then… do you think anything can actually travel through these ‘rivers’? Since they’re a kind of ‘conduit’…”
“Ask me? Ask who? Maybe High Witch Hestia or Her Majesty the Queen know?” The blue-haired witch thought for a moment, her tail flicking rapidly. “After all, it’s only recently that we’ve even been able to sense and understand the planet’s magic. Even the High Witch only knows half the story. Everything we know about magic and the Deep Blue Conduit comes from our land allies—and the differences between their races and ours are huge.”
“Right,” Caroline said, twirling her trident with her tail and tapping her fists together, wearing a “now I get it” look. “Our land allies are so different from us. They’d die if they jumped into the Deep Blue Conduit, but maybe we wouldn’t. So… maybe I really could just dive in…”
Before she finished, the blue-haired witch’s tail shot out and wrapped tightly around Caroline’s, instantly tying them into an unbreakable knot.
“I have to stop you from killing yourself,” she said helplessly. “I heard you ‘ended’ yourself and regenerated years ago, and your brain hasn’t been right since. Now I see it for myself. Our job is just to monitor the energy flows here. Please, don’t make trouble… Ugh, now I’m wide awake.”
“Fine, fine, I was just joking,” Caroline raised her hands in surrender, abandoning her plan to dive in. But her eyes flicked once more toward the blue streams below. “After shift change, I’m heading to the monitoring room. See if the sisters there have spotted anything interesting. Then I’m treating myself to some dried squid.”
Before she finished speaking, a swift shadow flashed through the blue streams deep beneath the boundless sea. The two sentinels on duty instantly widened their eyes.
Though they’d been chatting nonstop, their attention never wavered from their watch. That fleeting shadow had not escaped their notice.
“Did you see that?” Caroline quickly drew her trident, eyes scanning the currents for any other movement. “I didn’t catch what it was, but something definitely just zipped by…”
“I saw it… It was fast, couldn’t make it out. But maybe the monitoring room caught a clearer image!” The blue-haired witch snapped into action, calling for the other sentinels on standby to come relieve them. “This definitely meets Her Majesty’s ‘reporting standards.’ I’ll check the monitors, you contact the Antavien! Let’s split up!”
“Got it!”
The two sea witches dashed toward different parts of the station. Their tails, still knotted, snapped taut and then straightened as they hurried—trained soldiers, after all, a little awkwardness wouldn’t stop them. Both raised their tridents and without hesitation severed their tangled tails, wincing and shouting, “If I’d known you’d cut me, I wouldn’t have cut you!” as they rushed off toward the monitoring room and communication station.
…
In New Agondor, inside the Council Headquarters rebuilt from abandoned facilities, Andal stood by a holographic projection table, his brow deeply furrowed. This ancient dragon had witnessed nearly two million years of dragonkind’s history, the arrival of the ancient voyagers, and the modern “coming of age” of the world. Now, his expression was tense, as if facing a dire threat. His face was grimmer than ever.
“A rift… running through the entire Inverse Tide Tower, its scale possibly extending all the way to the western coast… And who knows how long it’s been there?!” he said.
Above the rune-inscribed projection table, the image of Hragor, the dragon leader, appeared. His expression was even darker than Andal’s.
“No theory can explain this. That rift eluded everyone’s sight—not just ours, but even the gods’. According to clues found on-site by Gawain Cecil, there seems to be a ‘veil’ at work—a miracle-level force that continued functioning even after losing its power source, only dissolving when the Shadow Dust invaded.
“As for the rift outside the tower, it was discovered by two wyrmlings tainted by the Deep Blue magic… I suspect all wyrmlings affected by the Deep Blue magic can see or sense these rifts.”
Andal nodded grimly, his voice low. “That rift has probably been affecting our dragon eggs for many years. But Talrond was protected by the gods, so the impact was blocked—until now, with the gods gone, the wyrmlings’ symptoms have surfaced. The Deep Blue Conduit isn’t a recent problem; it’s been malfunctioning for years…”
“These things don’t matter anymore, old friend. They’re all secondary—” Helagor cut Andar off sharply, his expression unusually grave. “What matters most now is the ‘Inverse Tide’ inside that tower… Based on the clues High Elf Gawain Cecil has uncovered, if things really go in the worst possible direction, then the Inverse Tide… may have already broken free, perhaps even centuries ago.”
“Andar, all this time our vigilance and surveillance over that tower have been a joke. Tal’Rond is in deep trouble.”
“It’s not just Tal’Rond in trouble,” Andar breathed out softly, “the whole world is facing a crisis. An out-of-control ‘God of Chaos’ is wandering beyond the sight of mortal civilization—we’ve finally unleashed a wildfire that’s been smoldering since a million years ago.”
The two leaders fell silent simultaneously, the weight of the moment pressing down on the room. Then, from the projection table, a new light screen flickered to life. After a brief interference, Gawain’s figure appeared beside Helagor’s hologram.
“I don’t mean to intrude, but I felt it necessary to contact you directly,” Gawain said, the vast white interior behind him stark and sterile. “Leaders of Tal’Rond, you should already be aware of the situation on my end.”
“Yes, we received the report forwarded by Noretta,” Helagor quickly composed himself, his tone calm and steady. “The situation is dire… I have nothing to hide from you. This is worse than the worst-case scenarios Andar and I had anticipated.”
Indeed, it was worse than their worst fears. Previously, their darkest speculation about the Inverse Tide Tower was that it was on the verge of total collapse. Who could have imagined the tower had already leaked six centuries ago…
Helagor pressed on, “Are you still inside the tower?”
“Yes, I’m still here. We’ve confirmed there’s no trace of divine corruption left inside. It’s ironic—the tower that everyone feared like a ticking bomb is now completely safe. It’s just an ancient relic that won’t move,” Gawain said with a bitter smile. “I’m organizing teams to expand the investigation here. I don’t expect to find the escaped entity this way, but at least we’ll understand the relic better.”
He sighed, helpless. “I never thought the team sent to handle the crisis would end up doing this, but at least it’s not a wasted trip.”
Helagor’s face tightened, and after a long pause, he sighed deeply. “Tal’Rond must take responsibility for all this.”
“A hundred and ten million years of mess—assigning blame won’t be easy,” Gawain interrupted. “Right now, we have more pressing matters—the escaped ‘Inverse Tide God.’ I want to hear your thoughts.”
The escaped Inverse Tide God… Where could it be now?
Helagor’s expression darkened like still water. The question was difficult to answer, but deep down, he felt he might already have some idea.
(Recommendation time: This is the same series I mentioned last time, The Otherworld Conquest Manual. Even after all this time, it’s still going strong and growing steadily. It’s about to be released soon, so I thought I’d recommend it again. If you enjoy stories about exploring and developing new worlds, it’s definitely worth a look.)
(End of chapter)