Chapter 277: Deep-Sea Investigation!
The wind rolled low across the cliffside, carrying the scent of brine and something older—something metallic beneath the salt.
"How would I know," Albedo finished calmly, eyes still fixed on the dark horizon. "We need to find out together."
Silence followed his words, but not uncertainty. Resolve had already formed between them. Behind him, golden light intensified.
Elektra inhaled deeply once more, this time not to stabilize, but to finish. The glow beneath her skin sharpened into defined lines, tribal markings blazing brighter as Titan regeneration completed its final cycle. Her musculature condensed further, compact power settling into her smaller frame with quiet finality.
The faint ache in her aura vanished and she stood up, the rock beneath her feet cracked as she had regained most of her strength.
"Ninety-five percent," she corrected flatly. "Close enough to full."
Mera stepped forward as well.
The moonlight shimmered across her skin as residual water-mana condensed into her core. The faint fatigue in her eyes cleared. When she lifted her chin this time, the aura around her was no longer dimmed.
It was sovereign. The ocean responded subtly to her presence.
"Full," she said softly.
Albedo nodded once.
"Good."
The clouds above the trench thickened.
Abyssal pressure was no longer subtle. It pressed upward in slow, patient waves—like something exhaling from the depths.
Elektra walked toward the edge and looked down at the black water crashing against jagged stone.
"Midnight Trench is approximately eight thousand meters at its deepest known point," she said. "The first three thousand are natural gradient. After that, it drops near vertical."
Mera nodded.
"There are side caverns carved into the walls. Ancient Titan construction remains in some sections."
Albedo’s gaze shifted slightly.
"Your people built down there?"
"Long ago," Elektra replied, "Observation posts. Resource extraction. Eventually abandoned when abyssal currents began increasing ages back."
"Convenient," Albedo murmured.
Mera turned toward him.
"Before we descend," she said gently, "you’ll need this."
She extended her palm.
Resting there was a pearl unlike any ordinary ocean gem.
It was luminous and but deep. Layers of shifting light moved within its surface like slow galaxies trapped in a sphere. Threads of mana pulsed rhythmically from it, perfectly synchronized with the ocean’s baseline harmonic.
Albedo studied it, recognizing it from the Novel.
"A Royal Tide Pearl," Mera explained, "Bound to my Royal mana signature. It will attune you to the surrounding currents and allow you to breathe and function underwater without restriction."
Albedo took the Pearl, and the moment it touched his skin, the pearl dissolved into liquid light and flowed into his chest.
For half a second, Albedo could feel his senses distort. Sound flattened, and his heartbeat synchronized with the tide.
Then, he felt stability. He inhaled and the air felt heavier. As if already submerged, yet fully breathable.
He exhaled slowly.
"Efficient," he said.
Elektra rolled her shoulders, "Then let’s stop staring at it and start killing whatever’s down there."
Albedo stepped to the cliff’s edge.
Below them, waves churned black against stone. The trench lay beyond.
"Formation," he said calmly.
"Mera center," Elektra replied immediately. "I’ll take left flank."
"I’ll take forward vector," Albedo said.
No further discussion. They moved. Albedo stepped off the cliff first. He leaned forward and let gravity take him.
Wind tore past his ears.
The sea rushed upward and swallowed him whole. Cold enveloped his body instantly.
But there was no suffocation or disorientation. The pearl’s effect activated fully. Water parted around him as if recognizing his presence. Pressure settled evenly across his skin instead of crushing downward.
Above, two silhouettes followed him.
Mera entered the ocean with fluid grace, water embracing her instantly. Her legs dissolved back into a silver-blue tail mid-descent, scales shimmering brighter beneath the moonlight filtering through the surface.
Elektra hit the water harder, but cleanly. Her Titan physiology adjusted immediately, golden veins stabilizing pressure as she descended beside them.
The world changed and the sound around them instead became muted vibrations. Light fractured into wavering ribbons. Bioluminescent plankton glowed in faint blue currents as they passed.
Albedo rotated mid-water and stabilized his descent, staring as he trench mouth loomed ahead. From the surface, it appeared as nothing more than a darker patch of ocean.
But as they approached, the water’s energy around them thinned. Mana density warped near the edge, spiraling downward in unnatural patterns.
Mera slowed slightly.
"This is where patrols reported unease."
Elektra scanned left and right.
"No immediate hostiles."
Albedo extended a thin thread of mana downward again.
This time, the severing came faster and that caused his eyes to sharpen, "It knows we’re here."
"Good," Elektra muttered.
They crossed the threshold. The Midnight Trench swallowed them. The descent steepened rapidly.
Walls of black stone fell away into abyssal dark.
Bioluminescent flora clung to vertical surfaces, casting faint turquoise glows across jagged ridges. Schools of small translucent fish darted away as the trio passed.
At one thousand meters, the surface light faded significantly. At two thousand, the ocean above became a dim ceiling.
At three thousand, darkness became dominant.
Mera raised her hand.
Soft pink light radiated outward from her palm, illuminating a wide radius around them. The glow harmonized with the ocean currents, pushing back the oppressive black.
Elektra’s golden aura flared slightly in response, reinforcing the light field.
Albedo remained forward, eyes scanning constantly.
No large predators or abyssal scouts. Instead it was just quiet, far too quiet, and that felt very wrong.
"They’re not guarding the entrance," he said quietly through mana-linked communication.
Mera’s voice echoed within their shared channel.
"Which means?"
"They’re deeper."
The water temperature dropped.
Pressure increased, but stabilized by the pearl and Titan reinforcement.
At four thousand meters, the trench narrowed. Stone walls became smoother in sections.
Titan architecture.
Elektra brushed her fingers along one wall as they passed.
"Old," she murmured. "Very old."
Cracks spidered across the carved surface. In some areas, black residue had seeped into the stone like veins.
Abyssal contamination.
Mera’s tail flicked uneasily.
"Albedo..."
"I see it."
Ahead, a massive circular cavity opened in the trench wall. Black growth pulsed along its interior like living scar tissue. Mana currents spiraled inward toward the opening, being harvested.
Albedo slowed down as he saw it, "This is it."
The pulses from below intensified and Elektra’s fists tightened as she noticed that, "Feels like it’s breathing."
"It is," Albedo replied.
Mera’s glow brightened slightly.
"I don’t sense any mermaid auras nearby..."
That was worse. If none were alive nearby, then the entity was efficient.
Albedo moved forward slowly toward the cavity entrance.
The moment they crossed into its shadow, the water pressure changed abruptly, now being concentrated.
Like stepping into the lungs of something colossal. The interior chamber expanded into a vast spherical void carved into the trench wall.
And at its center, something moved. It was not fully visible.
Its body seemed partially fused with the surrounding stone and abyssal growth. Tendrils extended outward, embedded into the chamber walls like feeding tubes.
At the core, a pulsating translucent mass.
Within it, faint silhouettes floated.
Humanoid and still.
Still.
Mera’s breath hitched inside the mana channel.
"...Those are—"
"Yes," Albedo said coldly.
Mermaids. Suspended within the core mass.
Not dead but also not fully alive. Their mana signatures flickered weakly, siphoned slowly into the surrounding abyssal network.
Elektra’s aura ignited brighter.
"It’s farming them."
The entity shifted very slowly. A massive lid peeled back within the core. An eye opened, huge and vertical, with Diamond Rank Pressure detonating outward.
The entire chamber trembled. Albedo’s cloak whipped violently in the underwater current as mana surged around him.
Havoc and Ruin materialized instantly into his hands. Infernal crimson flared in one. Graviton distortion spiraled in the other.
The eye focused directly on Mera, its pulsations intensifying.
Albedo stepped forward.
Placing himself between the eye and the princess.
"Not this time."
