Adam took a breath, and jumped.
The water swallowed him whole.
It was thick, grimy, and foul, clinging to his body as if it were alive, trying to crawl into every wrong place. The sensation was instantly unpleasant.
How can anyone live here?
Then it clicked.
Of course… They're monsters.
Once he adjusted to the suffocating filth, Adam began to swim downward. To obtain the soul pearls, he had to reach the very bottom of the stagnant body of water. There was no shortcut.
He kept swimming.
And swimming.
At some point, he realized just how deep the pool actually was, it was far deeper than he'd assumed from the surface.
The darkness thickened around him, pressure building steadily against his body.
Still, there were no monsters.
All the Sirens inhabiting this pool had all rushed to the surface earlier, only to be butchered by him before they could ever retreat back to their domain.
As he descended further, a stray thought surfaced.
