The three Tide Crystals hummed in Nathan's grip, their surfaces vibrating with a pale, fierce blue light that physically pushed back the suffocating green corruption saturating the sea.
Coral navigated their battered skiff toward the Leviathan's monolithic bulk—steering for a specific coordinate where the abyssal water ran clearer and the necrotic rot felt marginally thinner. The god-beast's flank rose out of the ocean before them like a sheer cliff face of ancient, barnacled flesh and calcified coral. Its skin was deeply scarred, weeping sickly green sap where the Shepherd's parasitic seed had violently taken root.
"This is the fracture," Coral said quietly, her webbed hands tight on the rudder. "The corruption is weakest here. The crystals should be able to pry the wound open."
