Location: The Coast of Silence – The Ice Cliff
The wind on the cliff edge had died down, replaced by a heavy, oppressive stillness.
Aris stood back, wiping grease from his hands with a rag made of shadow-weave. In front of him sat his creation.
It didn't look like a boat. It looked like a tick.
The vessel was a sphere of matte-black Titan-Iron, scavenged from the destroyed golems of the Iron-Thunder Empire. It had no windows—glass would shatter instantly under the pressure of the Spirit-Mercury sea. Instead, the hull was studded with hundreds of tiny sensory arrays carved from Necrotic Bone. Four articulated "legs" folded against the sides, equipped with magnetic clamps.
[Item Created: The Void-Shell (Mark I)]
[Class: Deep-Sea Submersible]
[Integrity: 50,000 / 50,000]
[Pressure Rating: Can withstand 5,000 Atmospheres.]
[Stealth System: Active (Sonic Dampening Coating).]
"It's ugly," Aris admitted, patting the cold metal flank. "But it will keep our insides on the inside."
"Nox," Aris signaled.
The Eclipse Hound approached the open hatch warily. He sniffed the interior, which smelled of ozone and recycled air. He looked at the black ocean below, then back at the ship. He clearly preferred the ship. With a resigned whine, Nox shrank down to the size of a terrier and hopped inside.
Aris climbed in after him.
The Launch
The interior was cramped. It was lit by the soft blue glow of the Pristine Frost Sacs, which were rigged into the cooling system to prevent the engine from overheating.
Aris sat in the pilot's chair—a salvaged command seat from a War-Ark. He placed his hands on the control sphere.
"System. Interface with Void-Shell."
[Connection Established.]
[Booting Sensory Array...]
Suddenly, the walls of the ship seemed to vanish. The System projected a 360-degree holographic view of the outside world directly into Aris's brain. It was perfect visibility without the structural weakness of windows.
"Seal the hatch."
CLANG. HISS.
The airlock engaged. The sound of the wind outside vanished, replaced by the low hum of the Spirit-Core reactor.
"Release clamps."
The Void-Shell dropped.
They fell fifty meters.
THUD.
They didn't splash. Hitting the Heavy Spirit-Mercury was like hitting wet concrete. The ship shuddered violently, submerging slowly beneath the oily, black surface.
The Descent: Zone 1 (The Black Shallows)
[Depth: 100 Meters]
[External Pressure: 50 Atmospheres]
The world turned absolute black. The Spirit-Mercury was too dense for light to penetrate more than a few feet.
"Engage Sonar," Aris commanded.
A pulse of silent Abyssal energy rippled out from the ship. The holographic display painted a wireframe map of their surroundings.
It was a wasteland. The "sea floor" here was actually a suspended shelf of ice and rock. Strange, twisted formations jutted up like grasping fingers.
"Descending at 10 meters per second," Aris noted. "Ballast tanks holding."
Nox was curled up under the pilot's seat, trembling. The vibration of the hull was unpleasant to his sensitive senses.
[Warning: Sonic Anomaly Detected.]
[The 'Hum' is increasing.]
Aris looked at the audio visualizer. A low-frequency wave was constantly battering the ship.
Whhh... oommm...
"That's the Black Tortoise snoring," Aris murmured. "If we were outside, our blood would be boiling right now. The Titan-Iron is vibrating, diffusing the frequency."
They sank deeper.
[Depth: 1,000 Meters]
The wireframe map changed. The jagged rocks disappeared. They were now in open water—or rather, open mercury.
Suddenly, a blip appeared on the radar.
Then another.
Then fifty.
[Contact Detected.]
[Entity: Mercury-Eels.]
[Level: 35 (School Pack).]
[Behavior: Aggressive / Attracted to Vibration.]
"They hear the engine," Aris realized. "Nox, hold on. It's going to get bumpy."
On the holographic screen, Aris saw them. They were three meters long, metallic, and eyeless. They swam by undulating their razor-sharp bodies. They didn't bite; they rammed.
BANG.
The ship shook.
BANG. BANG.
"Shield integrity dropping to 98%," Aris read. "Annoying."
He didn't fire a torpedo. Torpedoes would be crushed by the pressure before they reached the target.
"Activate Hull Defense: Voltage Discharge."
He routed power from the Iron-Thunder cores into the outer shell.
ZAP.
A sphere of violet lightning exploded from the ship.
Because the "water" was actually liquid metal (Mercury), it was highly conductive. The electricity traveled instantly, frying the entire school of eels in a microsecond.
The radar cleared.
The Descent: Zone 2 (The Twilight Garden)
[Depth: 3,000 Meters]
[Pressure: 800 Atmospheres]
The eels were gone. The "water" began to glow faintly.
They entered a layer of bioluminescence. But it wasn't life; it was Spirit-Radiation.
Massive, floating structures appeared in the dark. They looked like jellyfish the size of houses, but they were made of translucent crystal.
[Entity: Crystal-Jellies.]
[Status: Passive.]
[Note: Do not touch. They are condensed pockets of explosive gas.]
Aris steered the Void-Shell carefully through the minefield of floating crystals.
"This ecosystem is insane," Aris whispered, fascinated despite himself. "The Black Tortoise's aura has mutated everything down here into inorganic lifeforms."
Suddenly, the floor dropped out.
The continental shelf ended. Ahead of them lay a drop-off so deep the sonar couldn't find the bottom.
[Location Reached: The Trench of Silence.]
"This is it," Aris said. "The main dungeon."
He piloted the ship over the edge.
As they descended into the abyss, the temperature inside the ship began to drop. The Frost Sacs were working overtime to combat the unnatural cold radiating from below.
[Warning: Massive Entity Detected.]
[Size: Colossal.]
[Distance: 500 Meters below.]
Aris looked at the wireframe. Something was moving down there. Something serpentine.
It wasn't the Tortoise. It was the Tortoise's pet.
A massive shape rose from the deep to meet them. It looked like a prehistoric Mosasaur, but its skin was plated with black obsidian armor, and its eyes were glowing searchlights.
[Boss Encounter: The Trench Warden]
[Level: 58 (Nascent Soul - Late Stage)]
[Species: Deep-Abyssal Leviathan.]
The Leviathan opened its mouth. It didn't have teeth. It had a sonic cannon.
"ROOOOOAR."
A concentrated beam of sound hit the Void-Shell.
[Alert: Hull Integrity Critical.]
[Shields: Offline.]
[Damage: 25% Structural Failure.]
The ship spun violently, tumbling through the dark. Sparks rained down from the ceiling. Nox yelped, sliding across the floor.
"Stabilizers failing!" Aris shouted, fighting the controls. "It shattered the dampeners!"
The Leviathan circled back for a second strike. It was faster than them. Stronger than them. And in its element.
"I can't fight it in a ship," Aris realized. "It's like fighting a shark in a cardboard box."
He looked at the depth gauge. 4,500 Meters.
The pressure outside would crush a human instantly. But Aris wasn't human anymore. He was a Nascent Soul entity with the Abyssal Sovereign Body.
"System," Aris calculated rapidly. "Can I survive the pressure?"
[Calculated Probability: 90%.]
[Condition: Continuous expenditure of Qi to reinforce skin density.]
[Duration Limit: 10 Minutes before Qi exhaustion.]
"Ten minutes is enough to fillet a fish."
Aris stood up from the pilot's chair.
"Nox! Take the helm! Keep the ship steady!"
Nox scrambled into the chair, putting his paws on the control sphere, his eyes wide with panic.
Aris walked to the airlock.
"Time to go for a swim."
He grabbed the handle.
[Warning: Opening airlock at this depth is suicide.]
"Override."
Aris turned the wheel.
WHOOSH.
The heavy mercury rushed in. It hit him like a solid wall of ice.
But Aris didn't collapse. His skin turned jet black, hardening into Abyssal Diamond. His Void-Walker's Mantle wrapped around him, phasing him partially out of reality to reduce the drag.
He shot out of the airlock like a torpedo, propelling himself with a blast of violet Qi.
The Leviathan saw the tiny speck emerge from the ship. It roared, opening its sonic maw again.
Aris didn't dodge. He swam straight down the throat of the beast.
"Skill: Reverse Refinement - Internal."
He entered the monster.
[Target: The Trench Warden.]
[Location: Inside Esophagus.]
[Action: DISMANTLE.]
From the outside, the massive Leviathan suddenly went rigid. Violet light began to crack through the obsidian plates of its neck. It thrashed, trying to vomit up the parasite, but it was too late.
Aris was already in the engine room.