[ Location: Frostwell Residence - Vivan's Bedroom ][ Date: March 22nd, 1986 - Saturday Morning, 9:00 AM ]
I woke up feeling great.
Ten hours of sleep and my automatic [ Passive Ability: Aether Respiration ] meant my Aether pool was completely full.
I checked the Proximity Wards I had placed around my friends' houses.
They were dead quiet.
The Mind Flayer was locked out, the vampires ran away, and Hawkins was safe.
I grabbed my towel and headed to my bathroom for a hot shower and planned to eat a huge stack of pancakes and enjoy a normal weekend.
I turned the shower handle.
Gurgle. Sputter.
Instead of clean water, thick, black sludge sputtered out and hit the tiles.
The bathroom instantly smelled like rotting fish.
I gagged and covered my nose with my towel.
"What the hell?" I coughed, turning the water off.
I looked at the black slime.
It was glowing faintly and reeked of dark energy.
My good mood vanished.
Jane the vampire's warning echoed in my head: You shattered the stealth barrier and the Abyss is always listening.
"This is an dangerous issue," I whispered. "It's a monster for sure."
I sat on the bathroom floor and closed my eyes.
'Remote Viewing. Max Range.'
[ Ability Active: Remote Viewing. ]
My mind zoomed out of my body and sent my vision down the drain, following the black slime through the town's pipes.
I flew fast, tracing the dark water to its source.
I burst out of the main pipe and hovered in the open air.
[ Location: Hawkins - Lovers' Lake ]
My vision floated above the lake and it was disgusting.
Lovers' Lake wasn't blue anymore, rather it was pitch black and bubbling with green foam and the trees around the edge were dead and rotting.
But the scariest part was the people.
About twenty teenagers stood waist-deep in the freezing, black lake.
I recognized Tommy H. and Carol from high school.
They were staring blankly at the center of the lake like zombies.
I floated closer to Tommy.
He didn't look human anymore.
His skin was turning grey and dry patches fell off his neck, revealing dark green fish scales. He was mutating.
The teenagers swayed, chanting in a wet, bubbly language.
I realized, feeling sick. 'This thing is actually changing their DNA.'
I pushed my vision deeper and dove straight to the bottom of the freezing lake.
And there it was.
It was the size of a three-story house.
A massive, fat monster with green scales and giant webbed claws and it had a face like a deep-sea fish and crazy, glowing yellow eyes.
It was burrowing into the mud near the town's water intake, laying hundreds of glowing green eggs.
[ SYSTEM CRITICAL ALERT ][ Entity Detected: Abyssal Leviathan (Spawn of Dagon). ]
[ Threat Level: City-Wiping. ][ Status: Corrupting the local water supply to breed its army. ]
"You have got to be kidding me" I whispered in the real world.
I snapped my vision back to my body and opened my eyes.
I was furious.
This giant fish-monster hadn't just invaded my town but it had also ruined my morning shower.
"I don't care what kind of god you belong to" I growled, grabbing my denim jacket. "Nobody messes with me."
I opened the System Shop.
I needed an underwater breathing upgrade to fight it and didn't want to waste my Aether keeping a breathing spell going when I needed it for combat.
'Search: Underwater Breathing.'
[ Item Found: Gillyweed (Harry Potter World). ][ Description: Grants the user gills and webbed hands for exactly one hour. ]
[ Cost: 100 Points. ]
'Buy it.'
[ Transaction Complete. Remaining Balance: 24,582 Points. ]
A slimy bundle of weed dropped into my hand.
I shoved it in my pocket and grabbed my Void Blade, letting the dark metal hum with angry purple Aether energy.
"Time to go fishing," I said.
[ Ability Active: Portal Manipulation (MAX). ]
I slashed my hand through the air.
A green portal tore open, leading directly to Lovers' Lake.
I stepped through and the portal snapped shut.
[ Location: Lovers' Lake - Shoreline ]
My boots hit the wet, black mud.
The teenagers in the water stopped chanting and turned to look at me with pitch-black eyes.
Tommy waded toward me and his scaly neck twitched.
"Who interrupts the baptism?" Tommy hissed. He sounded like he was gargling mud. "The Great Dreamer calls us to the deep."
"It's me, Tommy," I said casually, resting my sword on my shoulder. "Vivan and nice scales, So are you using a new moisturizer, or is that just raw radiation?"
Carol waded up next to him and her skin was peeling off in grey chunks. "The water is beautiful, Vivan, Please join us."
"Hard pass, Carol," I smirked in disgust. "I already tried to take a shower today and your new god clogged my pipes with toxic sludge. So I'm here to hand him the repair bill."
Tommy bared jagged, shark-like teeth. "We will drag you down!"
He lunged, reaching for my throat with webbed hands.
I didn't even need to draw my sword for him.
'Telekinesis: Swat.'
[ Ability Active: Telekinesis. ]
I flicked my hand like I was swatting a fly and an invisible wave of heavy gravity slammed into Tommy's chest.
Splash.
He flew backward twenty feet, skipping across the black water before sinking.
The rest of the cultists hissed and stepped back in pure fear.
"Listen carefully, fish-brains," I commanded.
[ Ability Active: Fear Aura. ]
I let my scary, freezing presence leak out just enough to make them tremble and back away. "Stay out of my way."
I pulled the Gillyweed from my pocket and shoved it into my mouth and it tasted like rotten fish , so I had to chewed fast and swallowed.
'Disgusting'
My neck burned and three sharp slits opened on my throat, thick webbing formed between my fingers.
I gripped my glowing purple Void Blade, ran two steps forward, and dove headfirst into the freezing, black lake.
It was time to kill a Leviathan.
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