Chapter 104: The King and His Advisor
One by one, the orbs peeled open, their fleshy petals unfurling like pale mouths gasping in the dark. Tendrils shot out from every side, some thin as threads, others thick as ropes. All reaching, grasping, moving with that same unnerving speed Gray had barely dodged before.
Gray tore through the water, body low, Flow State bending the current around him as he pushed his speed to its limits. His bell burned with effort, every pulse propelling him faster.
"Faster, Gray!" Cindy shouted in his mind, her voice cracking. "They’re right behind you!"
’I’m already going as fast as I can!’
He swerved left, then right, cutting through narrow gaps between stone pillars. A tendril lashed past his side, close enough that he felt the faint numbness of its cilia through the water. Another shot up from below, and Gray pulsed upward, tucking his tentacles tight.
"Don’t go up!" Cindy warned. "They’re dropping from above too!"
Gray looked up. Two Loricati were floating down from a ledge, their bodies fully extended, tendrils spread like netting. They moved slowly, but they didn’t need speed. They just needed to make the path impossible.
’Tch!’
He dived back down, skimming the seafloor. The pale stone was covered in broken shells and old tendril scars, evidence that others had tried this same escape.
A tendril caught the tip of his left tentacle.
Pain flared through his body, sharp and numbing at once.
[-16 HP]
[PARALYSIS RESISTED]
Gray ripped free and spun, firing Riptide Slash behind him. The crescent blade sliced through the grasping tendril, severing it cleanly.
"Keep moving!" Cindy urged.
The valley narrowed into a ravine, and Gray dove into it. The walls were close, too close for some of the larger Loricati to follow. The smaller ones, though — they slipped through after him like pale eels, their bodies twisting through the dark.
’How many are there?!’
"Too many!"
He fired Cavitation Pulse into the wall beside him. The blast shattered the stone, sending debris raining down behind him, forcing the pursuing Loricati to veer. One was crushed by a falling boulder. The rest kept coming.
’There’s no end to them...’
The ravine bent sharply, and Gray swung around the corner, then flattened himself into a crevice and cut off Hollow Cloak.
But the Loricati were still coming.
Gray felt them through the water, dozens of thin, searching tendrils sweeping the dark like threads of living static. They were blind, but not deaf. Even the faintest pulse of his bell would betray him.
’They’re not stopping,’ he thought.
Cindy’s voice was barely a whisper in his mind. "Gray... they’re slowing down. They know we’re still here."
He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached inward, activating the skill that had saved him more times than he could count.
[EMP SHROUD — ACTIVATED]
The electromagnetic pulse radiated outward, silent and invisible. Gray’s presence vanished and for the next several seconds, he simply did not exist to the creatures’ senses.
The Loricati streamed past, their tendrils sweeping the water blindly.
And then the water grew still again.
Slowly, the purple glow faded as the creatures drifted back toward the valley, their pods resealing, the tendrils withdrawing one by one. The ravine became quiet.
Cindy let out a long, shaky breath.
"...You’re crazy."
’You’re welcome.’
"Who said thank you?!"
Gray let out a weak pulse of amusement and squeezed out of the crevice.
’But it was fun, right?’ he said, his mental voice still carrying a faint trace of breathless excitement.
"Fun?!" Cindy’s voice rose with disbelief. "We almost died back there! If I still had a heart, it would’ve exploded by now you idiot!"
Gray tilted slightly, as if shrugging.
’Then it’s a good thing you don’t have one, since it keeps you calm.’
"Calm? You think I’m calm? I’m one locket away from fainting and I don’t even have a body!"
It was a strange thing to hear from Cindy, and it made Gray laugh quietly in his thoughts. Then Gray said, ’So... you’re saying you want a body so you can faint dramatically?’
"I’m saying when I do get a body, I’ll make sure it’s far away from you and your death wish."
Gray chuckled softly, the sound vibrating through the water more than through his thoughts.
’Noted. I’ll find you something fast, that way you can run away properly next time.’
"Next time?! Gray, there won’t be a next time!"
’Uh-huh.’
’At least listen to me, stupid Gray,’ Cindy muttered.
Gray swam on through the open water, the ravine was far behind now, and the sea around them had opened into a wide, silent plain of dark stone and drifting particles.
’I do listen to you,’ he said.
"Liar."
’I’m serious about every word, although I don’t always obey.’
"That’s the same as not listening!"
’No. Listening and obeying are different. A king listens to his advisors and still does what he wants.’
Cindy let out an exasperated sound.
"Oh, so now you’re a king?"
’King of the abyss,’ Gray said smoothly. ’You’re my royal locket.’
Cindy sputtered.
"R-Royal locket?! I am a genius mage! And you’re a floating jellyfish with no sense of self-preservation!"
’I do have self-preservation,’ Gray said, gliding over a field of dark stone. ’We’re just a little unlucky, that’s all.’
Cindy let out a tired breath.
"Yeah... next time, please don’t just wander into random places."
’But when there’s a new place, aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to explore it?’
"Not when we’re in the most lethal place in the world!"
Gray was about to answer, but Cindy cut him off.
"And you! You have that detection skill of yours! Shouldn’t you have realized those things were monsters?"
’Of course not. Those things were shaped like objects. My detection couldn’t read them.’
"See? That’s exactly why you can’t just swim into unknown places like that!"
’It’s not my fault they mimic stones.’
"It’s not about fault! It’s about being careful!"
’I was careful. I just wasn’t lucky.’
"Unlucky? You rushed in and killed one!"
’Because it moved first.’
"Ugh... whatever."
’It’s fine. Don’t think about it too much,’ Gray said quietly. ’Maybe I was reckless because I knew you’d protect me.’
Cindy froze for a moment, caught off guard by what Gray had just said. Then, with a small, proud huff, she said, "Well... yes. I am quite reliable, aren’t I?"
Gray passed over a crab that was busy tearing into the remains of a fish.
’Yeah, yeah,’ he said. ’So keep protecting me from now on, okay?’
Cindy’s voice softened, just a little.
"...I will. But you have to promise to be more careful too."
’I promise, Cindy,’ Gray said.
Hearing those words made Cindy feel at ease, then she said softly.
"Alright..."
Gray felt a faint wave of relief. Cindy could be difficult to read sometimes, her pride, her quick temper, the way her mood changed so quickly. But in moments like this, she was simple to understand.