The water around Landara trembled.
From the edge of the reef, where glowing
Coral turned to jagged black stone, a shadow surged forward — immense and slow moving, like a continent with teeth.
Astraeus started out from the temple ruins
beside Joga, the Oracle's sigil still glowing on his arm.
"What is that?"he asked.
Joga's face darkened. "That… is the
Leviathan. One of the seven Abyss beasts,
born in the first wars between realms. I hoped it was dead. I hoped wrong."
The ocean rumbled, groaning like a dying
god.
—Mouring Queen:
Below the surface, the Leviathan's approach stirred ancient currents. It wasn't just big — it was unnatural. Its body was serpentine, coiled and armored in sunken ruins and shipwrecks, like it had devoured history itself.
At its head sat a crown of barnacles and horns. Its eyes burned with green voidlight .
And clinging to its back, riding it like a throne,
was a figure cloaked in bone-white seaweed
— the Mourning Queen, ruler of the Drowned Clans.
She raised a trident formed of shark teeth and old Magic.
"All of Landara shall bow," she whispered,
her voice amplified by waves and mind-
speech. "Bring me the Flameborn."
Joga grabbed Astraeus and pulled him down a tunnel of kelp and coral.
"You're not strong enough to fight her yet,"
Joga said.
Astraeus protested. "I passed the Oracle's Trial—"
" Doesn't mean you can take on Leviathan and a god-witch in one breath!" Joga
snapped. "Come on. There's one last place in Landara that might prepare you. But we
need to go through the Coral Graveyard."
They swam deep into the reef trenches,
Where broken pillars of coral marked the bones of fallen warriors. The water grew
colder, thinner. Astraeus noticed his own flame pulsing more tightly around him, as though the realm were testing his balance.
—Trident and graveyard:
As they reached the edge of the graveyard, Astraeus stopped.
Do you feel that?" he asked.
Joga's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. It's here."
The water shimmered. The Leviathan had found them.
But this time, it wasn't the full beast — it was a piece of its power, a serpent-like tendril it could spawn from any part of its body. It burst from the dark rock, jaws open, fangs larger than spears.
Astraeus didn't hesitate. His flame ignited under the pressure of the ocean, reacting
with his new sigil — fire shaped by water.
He moved like a tidal blade.
He dodged, turned, and redirected the
Serpent's own momentum, wrapping heated current around it and driving it into a jagged
Coral spire. The creature wailed, its body unraveling into ink.
Joga was stunned. "Okay…you're improving."
"Not fast enough," Astraeus said, panting. "If that was just one tendril…"
Joga nodded. "Then we better hurry. The Leviathan is just a warning. The Mourning
Queen is here for something worse."
They finally reached the Sunken Archive, a vault carved into the body of an ancient sea god. It was a resting place for Knowledge —
and weapons — of the past.
Astraeus placed his hand on the sigil-stone.
The vault opened.
Inside were floating tablets, glowing scripts, and at the center: a spear forged from fire coral and a core of crystallized pressure.
"The Trident of seabrand," Joga whispered.
"It belonged to the first hero of the realm war."
Astraeus approached it.
The spear pulsed with both Fire and Water.
He reached out.
It burned.
But he didn't pull away.
Instead, the sigil on his arm expanded, reaching across his chest, binding to the spear. It accepted him.
The spear transformed — adapting to his aura, becoming a staff-like weapon that could Channel currents and ignite them.
Joga grinned. "You might just be the one to unite the realms."
Astraeus turned, now fully armed. "Then it's time to bring the fight to the Mourning
Queen."
—Battle Beneath:
The sky above Landara dimmed.
Not because of nightfall — there was no true night in this realm of endless tides — but because the Mourning Queen had raised the Abyss Dome.
A giant ring of voidwater now hovered above the underwater realm like a cursed halo, slowly blocking out the luminous glow from the coral reefs below. It pulsed with death magic, tightening like a net.
Inside the ring, thousands of armored water spirits gathered — soldiers of the drowned legions, born of drowned warriors and forgotten monsters.
The war had begun.
Astraeus stood at the edge of the Sunken Archive, the Trident of Seabrand crackling in his hand. The weapon pulsed with a heat that didn't burn — it forged.
"Joga," he said, looking over the coral ridges.
"How many of the living still remain?"
Joga tapped a runestone and a map shimmered to life in the water. "Four free cities. Less than 10,000 civilians scattered among them. But only two military forces are left: the Shellbound Guardians of Shala Reef, and the Crust Knights of Coral keep."
"Then we rally both," Astraeus said. "And we strike before the Dome closes fully. If it does… she'll have total dominion."
"And if they won't join you?" Joga asked.
Astraeus looked ahead. "Then l'll fight without them."
The journey to Shala Reef was not quite.
The Mourning Queen had already begun sending horrors through the trenches — eel- blooded wraiths with drowned eyes and
Twisted jaws. Astraeus fought them in small groups, igniting underwater currents with his fire aura, bending heat into pressure bursts that disoriented the enemies long enough to spear them clean through.
He began to notice something else — every time he fought in Landara, his body
adapted. The flame no longer hissed in water— it sang. The trident extended his reach,and his very steps created trails of heat that attracted plankton-like Spirit energy to him.
The realm was recognizing him.
By the time they reached Shala Reef, the Shellbound Guardians were already under siege.
And Astraeus didn't wait.
He burst through a coral wall, diving into a battlefield of whirling currents and torn armor. The Guardians were being overrun by sea-ghasts — transparent sharks twisted by dark chants.
Joga flanked him with a blade of bone-steel, slicing through the ghasts, but Astraeus went further.
He spun the trident and slammed it into the ocean floor.
(BOOM)
A sonic wave of flame-infused water rippled outward, evaporating dozens of monsters in a burning spiral. The Guardians gasped, watching the fire surge harmlessly past them but scorch every enemy in its path.
Their leader, a massive sea-turtle like humanoid with a spiral shield, approached. "Who are you?"
"I'm Astraeus," he said. "Flameborn. Oracle-bound. I need your allegiance. The Dome must fall."
The leader blinked. "Then let me lead my warriors beside you. The Shellbound ride."
Two days later, they reached Coral keep, where the Crust Knights had sealed
Themselves inside. Their queen, a war matron with a helmet of living clams, refused at first — until the sky blackened further and
Leviathan's roar echoed through every Reef.
The queen stepped aside.
"The Crust bows to no one. But today, we bleed with the flame."
Astraeus nodded.
The alliance was formed.
The armies gathered at the Trenchgate, the only passage deep enough to reach the heart of the Abyss Dome. Above them, the sky shimmered like black oil.
Astraeus stood at front.
His trident burned.
"I am not your King," he shouted, his voice echoing through mind and current. "I am not your god. But I am the one who chooses to stand when no one else does."
The warriors roared.
Joga stepped beside him. "She Knows you're coming."
"I hope so," Astraeus whispered. "Because I want her to be afraid."
As the Dome began its final descent, Astraeus led the charge, armies behind him and fire surrounding him — burning brighter than ever in deepest parts of the sea.
The first stage of war of Landara has kicked off.
To be continued…..