Descending deeper into the dark, bottomless ocean, Silas felt his entire existence being tugged at, pulled at every angle. His consciousness faded in and out until a peculiar sensation washed over him, he could no longer feel his arms or legs. His body felt as if it were breaking apart and elongating, growing larger and sturdier. The darkness did not last for long, as Silas felt his body starting to react, trying to move. Out of instinct, he thrashed around violently until he heard cracking. As light began to fill his eyes, he realised where he was - in an egg.
Slamming his head against the egg's cracked shell, he shattered it open, allowing him a view of the new world outside. It was unlike anything he had seen in his previous life. He had gazed upon the land atop treacherous mountains, seen breathtaking fields of all mystical colours, and bore witness to a fabled aurora borealis, but this view he saw was unlike any of them. In those, he bore witness to nature's beauty, its bounty, but here? He bore witness to nature's horror.
His birthplace was on the side of what seemed to be a mountainous rock and reef structure, yet in every direction he gazed, it was either an unrelenting black or a deep blue. The depths of the sea stretched on forever, as if it knew no end, and the sky expanded into eternity, threatening to overtake it. Nothing seemed to be anywhere, as if he were locked away from the rest of creation.
Despite the shocking view, Silas did not let his resolve waver. He had heard stories from his previous life of how treacherous and dangerous the waters were. It was nothing like the land above. Even your own family was not your friend here. For this, he felt slightly relieved, though he was admittedly worried about what he could eat.
Exiting the shell he had been confined in, he took a long look at his own body. Long, slender, and fishscales all round. Unable to gaze upon his own face, he had to guess what he was. Out of nowhere, a thought was forced into his mind, as if he was meant to know this. He is a Sea Serpent, a carnivore and cannibal, known to be antisocial creatures. He lay at the middle of the food chain, but only when fully grown; until then, he was prey to many.
Anxiety setting in, Silas decided to move. Wherever he was, this was too exposed. He needs to worry only about one or two directions, not everything on the X, Y, and Z axes. Looking around, he decided to head upwards. Trying to remember anything about the ocean, the only thing he could recall was that the real terrors lurked in the deep and many prey lurked above. Thus, he decided to go up. Perhaps he shall find something there.
Swimming upwards for a small while, he eventually came to the peak of the underwater cliff. Gazing upon the rocky, plant-infested land before him, he felt a tinge of relief. Small fish swam around, either eating each other or eating the plants below. Swimming forward, he decided to test something - Just how well does his evolutionary ability work? He must find some fish to consume.
Finding some prey, Silas attempted to approach and consume them, but they saw him from a mile away and swam off into the distance. Realising going in for the attack wouldn't work, he had to strategise. Swimming downwards towards the reef, he hid among the rocks and plants until an unsuspecting goldfish swam by. Lunging towards the fish, its reaction time seemed incredible, however, it appeared Silas was too fast for it to do anything.
Swallowing the fish whole, he couldn't taste it as it was dragged towards his stomach almost immediately, though he was more interested in his reaction time and speed. Was this the benefit of possibly being an ambush predator? Or was he meant to hunt in some other way? Either way, this method seemed to work for now. Just then, a slight feeling came from his stomach, spreading throughout his body, as if in response to the fish he had eaten.
He felt... safer, for lack of better words. An intrusive thought blasted into his mind as he reeled from the shock, informing him of what evolutionary trait he may obtain from the goldfish. He felt he had progressed only a little in his evolutionary ability. Still, he had now begun to develop the trait of environmental tolerance, allowing him to survive a range of water conditions, including oxygen deprivation. It was far from complete and was likely useless as of now, but if he were to eat more goldfish? Just how much would it improve? Can it surpass theirs if enough is consumed?
There was still much that Silas had to learn, but all he knew was that this trait was not complex to evolve, so it might not be as good as he hoped. Regardless of the situation, he had to eat to survive and grow. Evolution is the least of his concerns, for now, unless he finds crabs. The idea of a shell-like body does grant some excitement.
Spending the entire day ambushing random fish, he found not all would provide an evolutionary trait. It made Silas a bit anxious, as it could mean many things, the most dangerous being that he can evolve only one thing at a time. As the waters began to darken, Silas felt his body tiring and needing to rest soon, but he couldn't. He had to find a smaller predator fish. Preferably something that has an evolutionary trait he can exploit.
Waiting until the waters had gone black, Silas could barely see, but it seemed another sense of his began to improve. He couldn't explain what it was, but he could feel the water's movement to gauge whether something was approaching him. Leaving the small plant he hid beneath, he decided to take a risk. Things that would find him as prey were lurking now, and he could lose his life, but he needed to find a particular fish.
In his previous life, he had heard of a fish called the Nocturnal Blowdart. This was a small fish that only comes out at night, whose tongue evolved to contain an almost microscopic dart, which it could shoot to paralyse its prey. He used this fish often to both eat and harvest its tongue for the dart so he could place it on the tip of broadhead arrows.
In all honesty, he had no idea whether the fish was native to these waters, but they could survive in any condition, to the point of being considered highly invasive creatures. He doesn't know if there are any other evolutionary traits he may obtain aside from the two, but that didn't matter. This was a game of chance, if he got the wrong evolution, he could only give up.
As soon as he thought that, a weird question floated into his mind. How many times could he evolve from the same species? Is it one and done? Can he obtain multiple traits? Feeling as if he was pushing too far ahead, Silas shook his head. He needs to focus. Right now, he needs to find the Nocturnal Blowdart.
Slowly swimming amidst the reef, he saw many fish overhead, some small, others so large he could not even estimate their size. As the hours passed, the darkness swallowing the area became so dense that even his moderate night vision was almost rendered useless. That was when he spotted it - the Nocturnal Blowdart.
In reality, he wasn't sure if it was it, but it had thousands of distant relatives that all had the same evolutionary ability. The only difference between them was their colours, the potency of their poisonous dart, and the type of poison they used.
Slowly creeping below the hovering fish, Silas waited for a moment to see if it would move or not. Gazing around, he honestly couldn't tell if anything else was lurking, awaiting, but now he had to act. If something saw him, the most he could do was escape into the reef and pray they lost track or got stuck.
Lunging at the fish, the Nocturnal Blowdart seemed to notice him and shot its tongue out, causing much alarm to Silas. He quickly steered his body as the poison dart hit its scale, unable to pierce it. Feeling himself not going paralysed, he quickly regained his momentum and thrusted himself towards it as it tried to escape.
Going as fast as possible, Silas caught up and bit down on the fish, swallowing it whole before bolting towards the reef. Feeling something following him from behind, Silas felt immensely tense. Feeling it approaching, a voice appeared in his mind.
'Switch directions to either right or left. The one chasing you cannot turn when it is lunging.'
Despite not knowing who or what it was, Silas listened to the voice. Usually, he'd question what it was or be confused, but thanks to his previous occupation when he was human, he's long since learned to heed orders in the middle of chaos quickly.
Darting to the right, Silas felt the unknown fish barely scrape by his body, descending into the reefs. Taking advantage of the situation, Silas swam away, towards another section of the reef where he hoped he wouldn't be found.
Hiding within a small coral cave, Silas calmed himself before asking,
"Who are you? And why did you help me?"
As he asked this question, a small light illuminated the tiny cave. It slowly died down as a peculiar entity floated before him. It was a small orb of lightning circled by a ring with closed eyes all around.
"I harbour no name, but we are most often called... Angels."