Morning came without sunlight.
The sky above Saltwind Port was layered in heavy mist, thick and low, turning the ocean into a sheet of muted steel. The harbor repairs had already begun—hunters hauling beams, beasts reinforcing structures, water-elementals reshaping broken piers. No panic.
No chaos.
Just preparation.
Jeather stood near Dock Three with Kael beside him, hands tucked into his coat pockets as if they were about to attend a sightseeing cruise instead of hunting something that had swallowed a Gold-tier siege beast whole.
Saltwind Tidal Academy students were assembling in formation.
Blue coats.
Silver insignias.
Sea-beasts manifesting one by one.
A pair of Wavecrest Manticores hovered above the water's surface, wings translucent like sails. A Reefback Crocolith lumbered forward, coral protrusions sharpening along its spine. Three Current Wisps floated like sentient bubbles, humming with mana.
Jeather watched quietly.
Some of the students were watching him too.
Whispers started.
"That's him."
"He was at the Leviathan last night."
"He didn't summon during the attack."
"Exactly."
One boy with short sea-green hair stepped forward, eyes sharp.
"You're the outsider."
Jeather glanced at him lazily. "I'm many things."
"This is an academy operation," the boy continued. "You're not registered. We don't need deadweight."
Several students nodded subtly.
Others looked uncertain.
Lysara—the academy lead from yesterday—arrived then, her boots barely making sound against the damp dock.
"He's joining."
The sea-green boy frowned. "Captain—"
"He sensed the second presence before any of you did."
Silence.
Jeather said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Another student crossed her arms. "Or he's reckless. If he dies, that's on us."
Kael spoke gently from behind.
"My young masters and ladies… if he dies, I assure you it will not inconvenience you."
Jeather coughed lightly. "Kael. Confidence. Lower it."
The tension cracked slightly.
But suspicion remained.
Deadweight.
Jeather stored the word.
He liked proving words wrong.
Descent
The dive formation consisted of twelve academy students, Lysara at the front, and Jeather walking calmly as if he had been invited to tea.
They moved onto reinforced platforms extending into deeper harbor waters.
The sea was unnaturally still.
Lysara raised her hand.
Summoning circles flared.
One by one, aquatic beasts manifested.
The Azure Tide Golem reformed, towering and fluid.
Stormfin Raptors hovered above the surface.
Deepcurrent Serpents coiled in anticipation.
Jeather stepped forward.
And did not summon.
More whispers.
"See?"
"He's bluffing."
"Deadweight."
Jeather inhaled slowly.
Then—
He extended his hand.
Not outward.
Inward.
The Beast Realm shifted.
Velkaria's silver presence enveloped his body.
Water parted around him instinctively.
Mana pressure stabilized in a sphere roughly ten meters wide.
A contained domain.
Gasps rippled through the students.
"That's…"
"Domain stabilization without a full summon?"
Even Lysara's eyes narrowed.
Jeather stepped into the ocean.
And did not sink.
The water held him like solid glass.
He looked back casually.
"Are we diving or debating?"
The sea-green boy flushed red.
Lysara nodded.
"Formation descent!"
The team submerged.
Beneath the Harbor
Light dissolved quickly.
Within twenty meters, the world became muted blue shadow.
Broken dock fragments rested on the seafloor like scattered bones.
Further down—
The pressure shifted.
Velkaria whispered within him.
"Mana distortion increasing. The Abyss Maw is near."
Astrael's tone layered beneath.
"And something else."
Jeather's gaze sharpened.
The academy formation tightened.
Suddenly—
A student screamed.
From the left flank, a violent current spiral formed without warning, dragging one of the Wavecrest Manticores downward.
Not natural.
Controlled.
The Abyss Maw's presence surged.
A massive shape moved through the dark water, faster than something that size should be.
Teeth flashed.
The manticore vanished in a cloud of blood.
The formation fractured.
"Hold!" Lysara shouted mentally through mana-link.
Too late.
The Maw struck again.
A Deepcurrent Serpent coiled to intercept—
CRUNCH.
Gone.
The Abyss Maw finally emerged fully.
It was larger underwater than it had appeared from above.
Forty meters long.
Body armored in ridged plates like abyssal stone.
Its head was angular, crowned with backward-swept fins resembling blades.
But its most terrifying feature—
Its mouth did not close normally.
The jaws spiraled inward, rows of rotating teeth creating a grinding vortex within.
Velkaria's voice sharpened.
"Platinum confirmed."
Students began retreat maneuvers.
The sea-green boy's Reefback Crocolith slammed into the Maw's flank, buying space.
The creature barely noticed.
It turned.
And focused on Jeather.
Ah.
So it could sense him.
Good.
The Abyss Maw lunged.
Jeather did not move.
Velkaria's domain expanded instantly, compressing water density around the creature's head.
For half a second—
It slowed.
Just enough.
Astrael surged fo.rward, bronze demonic wings cutting through the current. His claw carved across one ocular ridge.
Golden-black ichor dispersed.
The Maw roared underwater, pressure exploding outward.
Three students were thrown violently against coral ruins.
The sea-green boy barely stabilized himself.
He stared at Jeather in disbelief.
"He's fighting it alone—"
"Focus!" Lysara commanded.
Her Tide Golem expanded, wrapping around one of the Maw's fins to restrict turning radius.
The Stormfin Raptors dove, lightning crackling underwater in jagged arcs.
The creature thrashed.
But it wasn't mindless.
It twisted mid-water, dragging the Golem into a spiral spin that nearly shattered its cohesion.
Jeather felt it then—
The pull.
Beneath.
The true disturbance.
A pulsing mana core embedded within a submerged ruin further below.
The Abyss Maw wasn't attacking randomly.
It was guarding.
Or feeding.
He smiled slightly.
"Found you."
Jeather dove.
Not downward physically.
But through Velkaria's domain, phasing through compressed currents while the Maw remained engaged.
The students saw him descend past the battle zone.
"Where is he going?!"
"Is he insane?!"
Lysara's eyes widened.
"He found something."
Below the combat layer, the ocean floor opened into a collapsed amphitheater of ancient stone.
Pillars broken.
Statues eroded.
And at the center—
A structure half-buried in sediment.
A gate.
Carved with symbols similar to those Jeather had seen in the Root Core chamber in Ardent.
His pulse slowed.
The system stirred faintly within him.
Origin resonance.
So.
The ocean had one too.
Before he could approach—
The water above trembled violently.
The Abyss Maw tore free from the academy formation and descended like a falling mountain.
It knew.
This was its territory.
Its source.
Jeather exhaled.
"Fine."
Platinum-Class Engagement
This time—
He summoned fully.
The ocean darkened around him as Velkaria manifested in radiant silver form, her body composed of flowing liquid metal-like mana.
Astrael materialized beside her, bronze wings extending wide despite the crushing depths.
Above, the academy students felt the mana shift.
"That's not Gold-tier…"
The sea-green boy whispered.
"That's Platinum…"
The Abyss Maw lunged.
Velkaria intercepted directly, her blade-arm forming from compressed tidal currents and striking the Maw's spiraling jaws.
The collision detonated a shockwave that fractured nearby ruins.
Astrael dove beneath, claws tearing into softer ventral membranes.
The Maw retaliated instantly.
Its rotating teeth expanded, creating a suction vortex that dragged Astrael toward its core.
Jeather stepped forward calmly.
And raised his hand.
"Seal."
A circular array unfolded beneath the Maw's body.
Platinum-tier sealing.
The water ignited with runic light.
The creature roared, thrashing violently.
But sealing Platinum was not like sealing Gold.
The array cracked.
Twice.
Jeather's veins burned.
Mana channels strained.
Velkaria reinforced the circle.
Astrael slammed his body into the Maw's jaw hinge, disrupting its vortex alignment.
The academy team watched from above in stunned silence.
"Is he trying to tame it?"
"No…"
"He's sealing it."
The Maw's eye locked onto Jeather one final time.
Rage.
Ancient hunger.
Then—
The array completed.
Light imploded inward.
The forty-meter abyss predator compressed violently—
And vanished.
Silence returned to the water.
Only drifting sediment remained.
Jeather stood alone before the ruin gate.
Breathing steady.
Behind him, the academy descended cautiously.
Lysara's voice was tight.
"You sealed a Platinum-tier Abyss Maw."
He glanced back casually.
"Was that impressive?"
The sea-green boy said nothing.
Deadweight.
Right.
The Deeper Awakening
But it wasn't over.
The moment the Maw disappeared—
The ruin gate pulsed.
The mana core beneath activated fully.
The ocean floor trembled.
A deeper presence stirred.
Colder.
Older.
Velkaria's voice lowered.
"We have removed the guardian."
Astrael added quietly:
"And awakened what it was guarding against."
From the darkness within the gate—
A colossal eye opened.
Not beast.
Not entirely.
Something ancient.
Something that did not belong to the natural mana hierarchy.
The academy students felt it immediately.
Several nearly blacked out from pressure alone.
Jeather's smile faded slightly.
"Well."
He cracked his neck.
"This got interesting."