Chapter 112: Before She Fades
Gray’s tentacles curled tighter around the locket, his mind racing.
’Cindy? Cindy, answer me! What’s happening?!’
But there was no answer from Cindy. It was as if she no longer had the strength to reply.
He shook the chain, desperation creeping into his movements.
’Is it the mana? Did you use too much? Cindy!’
Her voice still didn’t come, and Gray’s composure unraveled further.
’Cindy...’ His thoughts spiraled. ’Is this my fault? Answer me!’
He tried to feel through the locket, searching for the faint pulse of her presence, the familiar warmth that had been with him since the Sunken Hollow. But there was nothing. Just heat, erratic and wrong, like a fever burning through the metal.
Then the system flickered.
[External entity has begun absorbing the bound soul.]
[If not released within the allotted window, the soul will be fully consumed. Permanent dissolution will result.]
Gray’s blood ran cold.
’What do you mean, absorbed?! What entity?! Who is doing this?!’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 56% REMAINING]
Gray’s bell convulsed. His tentacles clenched around the chain until the silver links bit into his flesh.
’...Is this because of that orb? That egg?’
The realization hit him like a pressure wave.
’Shit. Shit! Now isn’t the time to think about that. I need to find her a body. Before she’s gone completely.’
Cindy’s voice came once more, faint and broken.
"...Gray..."
’I’m here!’ He clutched the locket. ’I’m here, Cindy. Just hold on!’
"...don’t... let me disappear..."
’I won’t.’ His voice was steel. ’I promise. Just hold on.’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 52% REMAINING]
Gray swam hard, his bell cutting through the water with desperate speed. The locket pressed against his armor, hot and erratic, a failing heartbeat he could feel against his own flesh.
’I won’t let you go, Cindy,’ he said, his mental voice tight with fear. ’You owe me. You tried to possess me, remember? You don’t get to disappear before you pay that back.’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 48% REMAINING]
’Damn it...’
His thoughts spiraled as he swam. What kind of body would even work for her? A fish? A squid? Something with mana? Something that could cast spells? She’d said she wanted something beautiful, something magical but none of that mattered now. She just needed something that could hold a soul.
’What am I supposed to do? I don’t even know how soul transfer works!’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 45% REMAINING]
Then a shape moved in the water ahead.
A Mirage Squid smaller than the ones he’d just killed. Its chromatophores flickered in slow waves of pale blue and deep violet as it drifted between two rock spires, its arms curling lazily behind it.
Gray didn’t have time for this.
He wanted to use his EMP Shroud to avoid that creature to vanish from its senses, slip past its reaching arms, and disappear into the dark before it could trap him. Cindy’s soul was burning out inside the locket, and every second counted.
But before he could trigger the pulse, Predator’s Instinct snapped.
Gray twisted mid-pulse, his serrated bell carving through the water as a shape lunged past him another Mirage Squid, smaller than the others, its chromatophores blazing with furious color. Its arms snapped shut on empty water where his bell had been a heartbeat before.
’Another one?!’
Without hesitation, the creature attacked like it had already decided he was going to die.
Its arms snapped out, and the water around Gray twisted into a tightening vise. The pressure clamped down on his bell, squeezing hard enough to crack the edges of his armor.
[-32 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 908 / 1040]
He pulsed sideways, but the squid tracked him. Its arms wove a second spiral, and this time the water inside collapsed inward like a closing fist.
[-38 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 870 / 1040]
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 38% REMAINING]
’Damn it! I don’t have time for this!’
He fired Riptide Slash. The crescent blade sliced through the water but the squid’s chromatophores flashed, and a dozen false images bloomed around it. The blade carved through an illusion and hit nothing.
’You two make me sick.’
The squid lunged through its own decoys, arms spread wide. Gray met it with Abyssal Lance, driving his crystalline barbs into its mantle. The impact was solid.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[ABYSSAL LANCE — 158 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 342 / 500]
[STUN — 3 SECONDS]
But the stun barely held.
The squid convulsed once and broke free, its arms snapping around Gray’s bell before he could pull away. Its suckers bit into his armor, serrated edges grinding against the cracks. It was trying to crush him from the inside out.
[-44 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 826 / 1040]
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 35% REMAINING]
’Let GO DAMMIT!’
Gray fired Cavitation Pulse point-blank. The superheated jet tore through the squid’s arms and into its mantle, and the creature screamed.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 116 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 226 / 500]
It lunged again, arms coiling, the water already compressing for another crushing attack. Gray could feel the pressure building, could feel the water turning solid around him.
He fired Overcharge.
[OVERCHARGE — 154 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 72 / 500]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
The squid froze, its body rigid, its colors flickering wildly. Gray drove his serrated bell into its mantle and carved it open.
[BELL MARGIN SLASH — 46 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 26 / 500]
’Die!’
[CAVITATION PULSE — 118 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID DEFEATED — 1100 EXP]
Gray didn’t pause to breathe. He turned, already searching for the next threat.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 32% REMAINING]
’Cindy... just a little longer...’
Then he felt a surge of pressure from his blind spot. He twisted, but the second Mirage Squid was already there, arms snapping shut around his trailing tentacles.
[-36 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 790 / 1040]
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 29% REMAINING]
’No!’
This one was bigger. Its arms were thicker, its grip stronger. It yanked him backward through the water, dragging him toward its beak. Gray could feel the serrated suckers biting into his flesh, the cold pressure of the water compressing around him.
[-28 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 762 / 1040]
He fired Riptide Slash directly into its face. The blade carved across its mantle, but the squid only tightened its grip, its arms coiling higher around Gray’s bell.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 26% REMAINING]
The number burned in his mind. Cindy was fading. He could feel her presence growing thinner, like a voice heard through deepening water.
’FUCK!’
Something inside him broke loose.
Gray could no longer think clearly, and he began attacking blindly.
Abyssal Lance activated, and he drove himself forward, straight into the squid’s body. The crystalline barbs tore through its arms, its mantle, its flesh, anything in his path. The squid shrieked, its grip faltering, and Gray tore himself free.
[ABYSSAL LANCE — 156 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 344 / 500]
He fired Cavitation Pulse into the wound, then Overcharge before it could recover.
[CAVITATION PULSE — 114 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 230 / 500]
[OVERCHARGE — 158 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 72 / 500]
[STUN — 5 SECONDS]
Gray wrapped his tentacles around its mantle and squeezed with everything he had.
[GRIP JAW — 48 DAMAGE]
[GRIP JAW — 46 DAMAGE]
[MIRAGE SQUID — HP: 0 / 500]
[MIRAGE SQUID DEFEATED — 1100 EXP]
The squid went limp. Gray released it and hovered there, breathing hard, his bell slick with gore and his own leaking fluids.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 22% REMAINING]
’Cindy...’
He clutched the locket against his bell. It was so hot now it almost burned.
’Cindy, answer me!’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 19% REMAINING]
’Somewhere. There has to be something somewhere.’
He tore through the dark water, his serrated bell cutting a desperate arc through the current. His senses swept every rock, every crevice, every shadow. Gray searched the fish with single-minded focus, analyzing them one by one, looking for one with high mana affinity.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 17% REMAINING]
A shape moved ahead, a Razorwing Ray, its reflective body shimmering as it drifted between two spires. It turned toward him, fins flaring.
He deployed Neurotoxic Drift in a wide, dense cloud, flooding the water between them. The Ray hesitated, its instincts screaming danger. It veered away, vanishing into the dark.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 15% REMAINING]
’I don’t have time to fight everything!’
Then something lunged at him from the dark.
A Synthwing Serpent, its bladed tail already mid-swing. Gray twisted, the crescent of displaced water carving past his bell by inches.
[-42 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 720 / 1040]
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 8% REMAINING]
’NOT NOW!’
He didn’t fight. He deployed Neurotoxic Drift at maximum concentration, flooding the water around him with venom. The serpent recoiled, its senses overwhelmed, and Gray shot past it without a backward glance.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 7% REMAINING]
And after checking the fish one by one, he finally found a candidate with a high affinity for mana.
It was tucked beneath a shelf of pale stone, half-hidden in a crevice lined with frost-moss, was a creature. Its body was slender and soft, maybe two feet long, with delicate frills running along its flanks and a long, paddle-like tail. Its skin was a pale, luminous blue, glowing faintly in the dark. External gills branched from its head like feathered crowns, swaying gently in the current.
It looked like an axolotl but not quite right. Its frills pulsed with a soft, internal light, and its eyes were large and dark, almost human in their depth. It was beautiful in a way nothing else in the abyss had been.
[GLACIAL AXOLOTL — Level 15]
HP: 120 / 120
Threat Level: LOW
« Analysis »
A rare, gentle creature found in the coldest regions of the Abyssal Veil. The Glacial Axolotl’s body is saturated with ambient mana, allowing it to survive in extreme environments. Its regenerative capabilities are exceptional, and its mana channels are highly conductive.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 4% REMAINING]
He lunged, wrapping his tentacles around the creature before it could flee. It squirmed, its frills flaring with alarm, but it was slow, fragile, no match for him.
’I’m sorry,’ he thought. ’But I need you.’
He pulled the locket from around his bell and pressed it against the axolotl’s body. The silver chain wrapped around its slender form, the locket settling against its glowing skin.
’Cindy... I hope this works.’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 3% REMAINING]
[SOUL TRANSFER — INITIATED]
The locket flared. Silver light erupted from it, so bright it painted the entire crevice in white. The axolotl convulsed, its body going rigid, its frills splaying wide. The light poured into it, flooding its mana channels, filling every cell.
Gray held on, his tentacles wrapped around the creature, keeping it still.
’Come on... come on...’
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 2% REMAINING]
The axolotl’s eyes snapped open.
They were no longer dark. They glowed with a faint, familiar silver light.
[SOUL INTEGRITY: 1% REMAINING]
[SOUL TRANSFER — COMPLETE]
[SOUL INTEGRITY: STABILIZED]
The light faded. The locket went dark, its silver surface dull and empty. The axolotl lay still in Gray’s grip, its body limp, its frills drooping.
Then the axolotl’s frills twitched. Its body shuddered. Its eyes blinked.
And a voice echoed in Gray’s mind.
"...Gray...?"