Tom drifted deeper into the dark mass of the Endless Black Ocean. His grip tightened on the glowing Soul Mantis Flower, its light trembling against his palm as though it shared his fear. Behind, shadows moved. Gigantic, terrifying creatures followed him not rushing, not attacking, but floating at a distance like an army awaiting its commander.
Why me? He could not understand. Their silent eyes glimmered faintly in the black water, watching his every movement. Some had fins sharp as blades, others skeleton-like bodies, their bones showing through pale, stretched skin. One massive leviathan turned slowly, its teeth longer than Tom's height, yet it remained calm as if obeying some unspoken order.
Then his menu screen flickered before him, glowing even brighter than the flower. A new option blinked at the bottom,
[ Lore Archive ]
Tom froze, chills running down his spine. The words pulsed like a heartbeat. The same strange notification from before… Lore. What did it mean? His breath resounded unnaturally inside the water, and the thought crept in, Is this why they're bowing?
Tom's trembling finger hovered, then pressed the glowing option.
[ Lore Archive ]
The menu flared, and a larger screen unfolded before his eyes. Its surface rippled like water, lines of text forming slowly, as though dragged from the depths of time.
At the very top sat a single entry.
Numbered simply "1"
[ The Ocean that bestowed light ]
His heart pounded. The creatures behind him stirred, their massive bodies rolling in the water as if sensing what he was about to do. A heavy silence pressed on his chest.
He tapped it.
The moment his fingertip touched the screen, the light burst like lightning across his vision. His body stiffened. His mind screamed. Then darkness came.
Tom collapsed, his flower drifting against his palm. The ocean around him vanished as if swallowed whole.
When his eyes opened again, he was not drowning. He was breathing air. His hands touched cobblestone, smooth and cold beneath his fingers.
He sat up slowly, blinking.
He was in an alley.
But not like the ruins he had walked through before. This place was alive. Beautiful. Blossoms hung overhead, falling like soft snowflakes. The air smelled of spring, sweet and strange.
Stone houses rose on either side, painted with banners of deep red and gold. The faint chatter of people hung somewhere beyond the alley, but he could not see them.
Tom's breath caught. The clothes on his body were the same but the world around him was not.
It was like he had been thrown back in time. Early Medieval… no, something even older.
His hand brushed his temple. "What is this place?"
The screen was gone. The flower still in his palm glowed faintly, but weaker, as though drained.
Tom stood, heart pounding. Blossoms fell into his hair. He took a slow step forward.
Somewhere in the distance, a bell tolled.
Tom realized this wasn't just a vision or any hallucination. He was inside the Lore itself.
Tom walked slowly, his steps echoing against the narrow stones. Blossoms still drifted from somewhere above, piling gently around his boots.
The alley opened wider with each step, the walls giving way to brightness ahead.
He stopped.
Before him stretched an ocean. Vast, blue, and impossibly clean. The water shimmered like polished glass, reflecting the sky so perfectly it almost hurt to look at. No ruins, no darkness, no monsters. Just stillness.
Tom's lips parted. His mind scrambled. What… is this place?
Then, without his touch, the System itself appeared. The screen floated calmly in front of him, its light softer than usual, almost… reverent.
Lines began to write themselves, word by word.
[ This sea was once a massive Empire. ]
[ A kingdom that ruled with brilliance, knowledge, and endless light. ]
Tom took another step closer. The waves made no sound. They only gleamed back at him, as though hiding something beneath.
The words continued.
[ But corruption seeped into its heart. ]
[ Its rulers lost themselves. Its people drowned in hunger for more. ]
[ What was once eternal… collapsed into nothingness. ]
Tom felt his chest tighten. His eyes flicked between the silent, beautiful water and the words unfurling in front of him.
[ The Empire became the Abyss of Undead ]
[ The Ocean remembers ]
Tom's throat was dry. He did not understand but he could feel the weight of something enormous pressing down on his soul. The blossoms stopped falling.
Tom sat on the shore, his legs folded beneath him. The blossoms had already vanished, leaving only the vast, blue expanse of the ocean in front of him. The waves looked too calm, as though hiding something colossal beneath their glittering skin.
The System's screen unfolded without his touch. Its glow was softer than usual, not commanding but mournful.
[ You are now reading: The Lore of Shombhasa. ]
Tom's chest tightened. He leaned forward unconsciously, as if afraid he might miss a single word.
[ Once, beneath these waters, thrived the Empire of Shombhasa. ]
[ Ruled by Emperor Wactj, his wife Empress Ghira, and their son, Wirth. ]
Images painted themselves in the air above the screen where shadows and echoes clashed, not full visions, but enough to stir his mind. Tom saw faint outlines of mermaids gliding through dark-blue waters, their tails shimmering faintly in the deep.
The narration slowed, as if savoring memory.
[ It was a time of peace. The people were content, the rulers beloved. ]
Emperor Wactj stood tall in the shadowy image, his crown a simple coral wreath, his eyes calm yet commanding. His wife, Ghira, leaned close beside him, her hands brushing the hair of their son. She was laughing, though the vision had no sound. Wirth was small then, but his expression was already curious. His eyes wide with questions.
[ The people of Shombhasa did not know land. Their world was the ocean. ]
[ Sea horses, sting rays, and blue whales carried them across their vast kingdom. ]
Tom watched as shapes of living vehicles shimmered across the projected water. A whale with armor of shells, a seahorse longer than a ship, sting rays carrying groups across the currents.
[ It was forbidden for the Mermaids to rise above water. The world itself had declared it so. ]
[ They obeyed. To break the barrier was to invite ruin—economics, culture, and greed would tear both worlds apart. ]
The screen dimmed, and for a moment Tom felt the weight of their silence. A civilization forced to remain hidden, denied the sun, denied light.
[ Yet the people were happy. ]
[ Their Emperor was neutral, uninterested in conquest, except to defend his home. ]
The screen lingered on Wactj, now armored, holding a trident scarred with battle. He looked weary, though his eyes never wavered.
[ He loved only one thing more than his Empire.... his family. ]
[ Countless wars he fought, not to expand, but to protect his people and his son. ]
The image showed Empress Ghira kissing her husband's scarred cheek before he swam off to battle. It flickered, showing her waiting at the gates of their coral palace, clutching her son's small hand.
Tom's throat tightened. These weren't just rulers. They were human in every sense.
[ The Empire lacked one thing. ]
[ Light. ]
The words hung heavy on the screen.
Tom tilted his head. Light?
[ Beneath the ocean, no flame could burn, no sun could pierce. ]
[ The Mermaids were born with sight to navigate the abyss. Yet even they longed for warmth, for radiance. ]
Tom's heart sank. He could almost picture it now, the endless black, broken only by glowing plants or the faint shimmer of scales. A kingdom trapped in eternal night.
[ Emperor Wactj dreamed of light. ]
[ It did not take long to Emperor to understand Mermaids were just slaves, being used. ]
[ He fought nearly half of the known world to obtain it. ]
The vision shifted. Lands clashed against Oceans. Armies of scaled warriors tore through invading forces of other legions. Ships burned, sinking into the waves. And always, Wactj was at the front with his piercing trident, his body torn with wounds, his expression grim.
Tom leaned forward. His knuckles tightened against the sand.
[ The object he sought was the "Mother Soul Mantis." ]
[ A divine bloom said to bring illumination to the darkest depths. ]
The screen trembled faintly, as if the memory itself resisted being told.
[ And then… brutality. ]
The shift came sudden, violent. The blossoms in Tom's mind shattered. The blue ocean on the projection darkened to pitch.
[ Wactj obtained the Flower. ]
[ But in reaching for light, he ignited shadow. ]
The scenes turned monstrous. His armies marched endlessly, draining the seas of life. Sting rays bled in the waters. Sea horses collapsed from exhaustion. Blue whales fell like mountains, gutted for fuel.
Tom's stomach twisted. He felt sick.
[ He brought the Flower into Shombhasa. ]
[ For a moment, there was Light. ]
The vision flickered. The coral palace glowing for the first time, children laughing in rays of false sunlight, Ghira crying in awe as she held her son beneath it.
[ But with the Light came hunger. ]
[ Greed spread. Power divided. ]
Images burned across the screen, mermaids clawing at each other for fragments of glow. Priests demanding sacrifices for more illumination. Soldiers abandoning their posts to hoard fragments.
[ The Emperor realized too late. ]
[ His Empire was collapsing from within. ]
The screen blurred. Tom's chest felt heavy.
[ In regret, in rage, in despair.... he set fire to his own Empire. ]
Tom's eyes widened. "He… destroyed it himself?" His voice trembled in disbelief.
The projection confirmed.
[ He burned Shombhasa, turning his proud kingdom into ashes beneath the sea. ]
[ In his final moments, he held his son, Wirth, and whispered a name that was never recorded. ]
Tom froze. He could almost see it—the Emperor, kneeling in ruins, his wife gone, his son cradled, the glow of the Soul Mantis devouring the waters around him.
[ And then he vanished. ]
[ No one knows if he died, or if he still wanders. ]
[ Later, The Remainings of the Empire was destroyed with a venomous nuke which rot the Ocean decades by decades. ]
[ That was more than 8000 years ago. ]
[ What remained of Shombhasa became an undead ocean. ]
The waters in the vision turned black, corpses of sea beasts drifting through. Skeleton whales, eyeless sharks, mermaids with hollow sockets, an entire civilization reduced to a graveyard.
[ The world above declared it unworthy to remain upon earth. ]
[ The ocean itself was lifted into the skies, to drift endlessly, cursed to never touch land again. ]
Tom's breath shook. He imagined the Endless Black Ocean, floating unnaturally against the void. It was no longer just an ocean. It was a tomb.
The screen dimmed. The narration ended. Tom remained sitting on the shore, staring blankly. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.
Mermaids… an entire empire… gone because of light. A father destroying what he swore to protect. Four thousand years ago, and still it bleeds into this world…
Tom's body shaked in some kind of fear or trauma.
There had been love in Wactj's heart. That much was clear. Love for his family, his people and yet, one desire.... one longing.... had corrupted everything.
Tom bowed his head. "So this… is what they've thrown us into. The shadow of the mistakes of the past."
He got his his consciousness back at the Endless Black Ocean.
He stared at the faint new tab in his menu. [ Lore Archive ]. The first entry glowed faintly, like a wound that refused to close.
"The Ocean that bestowed light"
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Tom muttered to himself. "Why does the System want me to know about a dead Empire?"
The thought clawed at him, what if the Lores were not just for learning, but for shaping? What if those who gathered them could twist them, inherit them, or prevent their mistakes? Well, he needs to find the whole lore.... cause it seems like what system expressed was just a fragment or summary type of deep sh!t
He shook his head, uneasy. "If someone like Azmaik gets their hands on these… they'll turn the world into hell."
Tom closed the menu and glanced up at the Endless Black Ocean, its black water churning silently in the sky. The sight made his stomach knot tighter. Was this Empire's curse meant as a warning to us? Or a chance?
He tightened his grip on the glowing Soul Mantis Flower still in his hand. It pulsed faintly, as though answering his thoughts.
Tom sighed deeply and forced himself to move.
Dwelling too long on questions with no answers wouldn't help him survive. He brushed the sand from his clothes, fixed his dagger belt, and began walking along the shore that stretched endlessly beneath the floating sea.
The silence pressed in again. No birds, no wind. Just his own footsteps and the faint shimmer of black water rippling above.
His mind, though, refused to rest. "So… Lores are pieces of truth. About this place. About the past. Maybe about why we're even here. If I can gather them all…" He trailed off, lips tightening.
Maybe I can find the way home.