Seawater burst in a jagged column, catastrophic waves roiling outwards into tsunamis that rushed toward the shore with a deafening rumble.
Bloodied face and breathing laboriously, Adam’s lips quivered inside the pit. A colossal life force, more than what he had ever felt in a being, burned like an eternal brazier in his perception. Powerlessness clawed at his heart, dread making his every hair bristle over his creeping skin.
If he could, he didn’t want to see what it was. But he had to.
He strained his battered body into sitting, breath catching in his throat as he saw a head that engulfed half the blessed in its shadow emerge. Rugged horns and serrated fins ending in flailing, mucus-slick tentacles crowned its skull in a nightmare of bioluminescent scars. Its mouth, the very image of aberration, seared into his mind like a brand.
Three rows of fangs glistened with sharpness equal to the demonic cleaver. They weren’t teeth... Each was a weapon of the highest tier—just as its smooth scales were unbreachable armor.
And it was grinning at him.
A scream, not his own, tore through his mind. It was the Aamon’s cleaver.
’Why? HOW? It can’t happen!’ Horror fractured its voice into a dozen shrieking echoes.
Adam would have been curious about what could terrify the arrogant weapon at any other time. But not now. Not when the surreal life force was merely the outer layer of the beast’s powers, a drop in the bucket resulting from its vitality—not qi.
His mind buckled under the sheer weight of what he sensed. There was more, so much more than what he had stolen from Luna to conduct Kwame’s ritual.
So much more that his unlimited mana heart felt like a dying ember beside a supernova. And suddenly, the mysteries about how the mages had flourished in the cultivation realm for fifteen millennia found an answer.
Who could defeat their guardian?
He clawed at the earth, muscles screaming as he forced himself up—just as the beast’s voice thundered. Gales howled into typhoons, and whirlwinds raged in the sea from its sheer power.
"An unexpected visitor has graced me with his presence. And he bears news that kindles my enthusiasm."
It brought its face closer, its sky-blue eyes locked with Adam’s. But he knew it wasn’t gazing at his body, but peering at his soul, which throbbed under its weight.
"Tell me how you met that troublemaker and what you’ve done to infuriate him."
Adam’s pupils constricted, his mind swimming in confusion. Which troublemaker? He shook his head. It didn’t matter. He had to clarify the object of his visit by showing Allistair’s dream affinity, then ask it to smuggle him inside the archipelago. Questions could wait—not safety.
He started, but the beast cut him off.
"It’s not what I’ve asked, is it?" Its grin broadened. "Let me help you remember."
A tentacle flailed at him. He trembled at its whistle, his hands shooting up in a guard.
The tentacle kissed his left side. He snapped his eyes shut, bracing himself for an agony that did not come. Slowly, he opened his gaze to the writhing, inky mark of a kraken. It hovered, dragged out from the depths of his soul. And it terrified him. He was no more than a toy to be dismantled at the whims of that beast. Painlessly... Powerlessly.
"Time flows, but that son of mine doesn’t change." A sigh, too human for such a creature, escaped its maws. Then, its voice grew mellow. "A magus cursing an apprentice. Hahaha. How amusing—how familiar."
Its laugh thundered, eerily beautiful. Then, it flailed another tentacle at him with the same gentleness.
Necrosed cells instantly turned from gangrenous dark to a healthy beige as Yuehua Ji’s frost was expelled from his body in tendrils of swirling vapor. Ancient mana clung to his burning heart, lulling its painful throbs until he sighed, hating himself for the relief flooding his veins.
As his wounds faded, the beast nodded. "Now, tell me what he has been up to. Is he still courting the mermaid kingdom’s princess, dreaming of adventures in seas far beyond our world?"
Freed from the pain, Adam’s eyes narrowed, his mind racing. That mark... He had forgotten about it... And the one who had cursed him.
His eyes widened, his voice cracking. "Wait! The Kraken that always bickers with Marina is your son?" His breath caught in his throat, his voice dying.
It meant that the beast came from the magical world he knew about—that the foreign world Allistair wrote about in his grimoire, the mages’ origin, was the very same one he had come from—and the beast’s grin told him it knew exactly what he’d just realised.
It all made sense! He had seen a decoration of that beast coiling around the armrests of a throne, snaking to the back, its head held high above it as if to protect the sunken city of Kumari Kandam. And he had muttered that he never wanted to meet it if it truly existed back then.
Yet, now he did. He needed its help. To survive the dao ancestors’ pursuits. To claim magic even the magus had forgotten.
A steely glint flashed in his eyes. Her question came first.
"I’ve barely talked with your son," he started, his voice growing more confident with each word. They were not enemies. "The last thing I saw him do was protect Kumari Kandam. He cursed me as insurance..."
Remembering the deal forced upon him by the kraken, he rolled his eyes. "I had to kill an archmage who established quarters in the city as an apprentice. If I succeeded, he promised to erase it and reward me. If I didn’t... I’d either be dead or would be the moment I approached the sea. Quite unfair, but he was stronger." He nodded briefly. "By the way, my name is Adam."
The beast’s eyes widened slightly at first, then she smiled. "I’m glad he didn’t wallow in grief after we left. But guarding a sunken city? Worrisome..." Her words turned into a murmur.
Then, she shook her head, the curse vanishing like shadows. "I’m satisfied by the news you’ve shared, and as one of my children, a reward seems in order."
"Children?" Adam knitted his brows. Since when?
"Oh. Did I forget to introduce myself, Adam?" Her voice reverberated across the sky, as if echoing through a broad room. " I’m the progenitor of magic 1 , the first guardian beast, the calamity of the depth. I’ve taught the humans from your world how to tame mana, and other beasts trembled at my name, especially that bronze dragon. I’m the leviathan, and all the descendants of those I taught are my children."
She grinned, her voice growing affectionate. "But you can call me aunt. Now, ask away, child. Why did you seek me—what do you need?"
AN: Yes, I planned this since he met the kraken :D