Chapter 182: Deep Ones
The forest shook.
Nathan felt the vibration through the ground first—a low, constant rumble that made the roots shift and the leaves tremble. He activated [Hunter’s Insight] and scanned the darkness between the trees. The mana signature was massive. Green and twisted. It was coming toward them fast.
"Brace yourselves!" Nathan called. The party scattered into defensive positions. Mirko shifted to humanoid form, Dragon’s Fang blazing. Shiro’s golden eyes flared. Garrett planted Volcan. Dillon’s katana crackled. Elise raised Aurora’s Heart. Smithy’s Void Eel coiled.
The trees exploded.
A creature burst through the canopy, its body crashing through trunks and branches like a tidal wave. It was serpentine, its scaled body thick as a building. Barnacles crusted its hide. Vines grew out of its flesh, pulsing with green light. Coral growths covered its spine. Its head was broad and flat, studded with too many eyes—each one moving independently, each one glowing with the Shepherd’s corruption. Its mouth was a horror of jagged teeth and writhing tendrils.
A deep one, a sea creature that had crawled inland. And it was looking directly at Nathan.
"Scatter!" Nathan shouted. The party broke formation just as the creature lunged. Its massive head slammed into the ground where they’d been standing, and the impact sent shockwaves through the earth. Trees toppled. Roots snapped. The Deep One’s tendrils lashed out, grabbing at anything that moved.
Nathan rolled backward, [Nimble Feet] carrying him clear. He came up firing. Three [Mana Arrows] in rapid succession—THWIP-THWIP-THWIP—each one aimed at the creature’s many eyes. The arrows struck home. Two eyes burst. The third ricocheted off a scale plate. The Deep One screamed—a sound like metal grinding on stone—and turned its massive head toward him.
"Mirko! Shiro! Flanking positions!" Nathan called. "Garrett, Red—left side! Dillon, Cloudy—aerial! Elise—freeze the tendrils!"
The party moved. Mirko activated [Impenetrable Fortress] and charged the creature’s right flank, Dragon’s Fang carving through a cluster of vines. Shiro’s [Dragon King’s Ascension] carried her into the air, her [Tyrant Dragon Fist] detonating against the creature’s side. Garrett and Red anchored the left, Volcan erupting against the scaled hide. Dillon and Cloudy dove from the canopy, lightning arcing across the creature’s back. Elise’s [Glacial Lance] punched into a mass of tendrils, freezing them solid. Kuro materialized on the creature’s head, her daggers flashing into the remaining eyes.
But the Deep One was tough. Its scales were thick. Its corruption was deep. The wounds the party inflicted began to seal—vines growing over the cuts, coral hardening over the burns. It was regenerating faster than they could damage it.
"It’s regenerating!" Garrett shouted. "We need to hit it harder!"
Nathan’s mind raced. [Hunter’s Insight] was tracking the creature’s movements, its weak points, its mana flow. He could see the corruption pulsing through its body—green energy that flowed from the vines and coral and tendrils. The corruption was the source of its regeneration. If they could disrupt the flow, they could slow it down.
He activated [Multi-Shadow Clones]. Three identical Nathan Crosses appeared beside him, each one indistinguishable from the original. The Deep One’s remaining eyes swiveled, tracking the clones with confusion. It snapped at one—its jaws closed on empty air. It lunged at another—the illusion dissolved. The creature’s attention was divided.
Nathan used the opening. He activated [Death’s Homing Compass], marking the creature’s gill slits—the vulnerable spots Shiro had identified. He fired. The arrow curved through the air, weaving between tendrils, and struck home. The Deep One convulsed. Nathan fired again. Again. Each arrow found its mark, and each impact disrupted the corruption’s flow.
"The gills!" Nathan called. "Focus on the gills!"
The party adjusted. Mirko’s Dragon’s Fang carved into the gill slits. Shiro’s [Tyrant Dragon Fist] detonated against them. Garrett’s Volcan erupted into the wounds. Dillon’s [Thunder Edge] sent lightning coursing through the exposed flesh. Elise’s [Glacial Lance] froze the surrounding scales, making them brittle. Kuro’s daggers drove deep, the Imoogi Scale’s paralytic energy slowing the creature’s movements.
Nathan charged [Focus Shot]. The arrowhead blazed with silver light as he poured mana into it. Thirty seconds. Forty. The Deep One was weakening, its regeneration slowing. Fifty. The creature’s many eyes found Nathan among the clones—or thought they did. It lunged. The illusion dissolved. Nathan was already moving, [Nimble Feet] carrying him to a new position.
Sixty seconds. He released.
The arrow tore through the air like a falling star, piercing through the Deep One’s skull and out the other side. The creature froze. Its many eyes went dark. Its body convulsed, then collapsed, crashing through the trees.
For a moment, there was silence. Then the Deep One made a sound.
It was not a death rattle. It was a call. A long, low sound, like a whale song played through a broken instrument. The sound echoed through the forest, rolling over the trees and out toward the distant sea.
Smithy’s face went pale. "It’s calling for help. More Deep Ones are coming."
Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] flared. He could feel them now—dozens of mana signatures moving through the forest, all of them huge, all of them corrupted. The call had been heard.
"Run," Nathan said. "Now."
---
The party fled through the forest, the sounds of crashing trees growing louder behind them. Nathan led the way, [Nimble Feet] carrying him over roots and under branches. The others followed as best they could. The forest was a blur of green and shadow.
They emerged at the edge of a vast inland sea. The water was green and still, stretching to the horizon. In the distance, Nathan could see floating islands—chunks of earth that hovered above the water, covered in trees and structures. The Tidecallers’ territory, maybe. But between the party and the islands, the water was churning.
Hundreds of shapes moved beneath the surface. Deep Ones. All of them corrupted. All of them moving toward the shore.
And in the center of the sea, rising from the depths like a mountain made of flesh and coral, was something massive. It was so large that it blocked out the green sky. Its body was covered in vines and barnacles and the bones of ancient creatures. Its many eyes—dozens of them, hundreds of them—glowed with the Shepherd’s green light.
Nathan stared at it. [Hunter’s Insight] told him everything he needed to know. This was the source. The heart of the corruption. The Clear Condition of the Verdant Depths.
"That’s what we have to face," he said quietly.
The party stood at the water’s edge. Behind them, the forest was full of corrupted creatures. Ahead of them, the sea was full of Deep Ones. And in the center, the source of it all was waiting.
Garrett broke the silence. "We’re going to need a bigger plan."
Nathan didn’t answer. He was already thinking. The Tidecallers were out there somewhere—on those floating islands, maybe. They knew this World. They knew the corruption. They might know how to stop it.
But first, they had to survive the next few minutes.
The party formed up as the sounds behind them grew louder. The shapes in the water grew closer. And the massive creature in the center of the sea let out a deep rumbling call that shook the very air.