Chapter 618 - 617- Snapped
Three days had passed. Adrian was no longer searching with any real direction. He simply floated through the darkness, moving from one stretch of the depths to another in the hope that something would eventually reveal itself.
For the past three days, his sole objective had been finding the cell where Nytharos was being held.
The crushing depth of the ocean no longer hindered him as severely as it had on the first day. His body had gradually adapted to the sensation of existing so far beneath the surface, allowing him to move through the water with considerably less strain.
What puzzled him was that he still hadn’t been ambushed.
He had wandered dangerously close to the territory of the creature that had shown interest in him initially, yet nothing had happened. Stranger still, that presence had suddenly become completely passive, as though it had lost all interest in him.
There had been a few attempts by sea monsters and those mermen to intercept him, but they shared one glaring weakness.
Their intent.
They never intended to kill him. They were merely trying to drive him away, constantly forcing him back toward the surface as though his very presence in these depths was something they could no longer tolerate.
On one occasion, after hours of aimless wandering had left him frustrated enough to stop and rest, Adrian had closed his eyes for a moment.
That was when something enormous and gelatinous had wrapped itself around him.
A massive jellyfish had caught him within its soft, translucent body, its tentacles gently curling around him without causing the slightest harm. Rather than attacking, it had simply begun carrying him upward.
Adrian had nearly lost his temper.
Even the creatures of the sea were apparently more interested in getting rid of him than fighting him.
’System, you’ve been awfully quiet lately.’ Adrian’s eyes narrowed. ’I have a feeling you know something, but you don’t want to tell me.’
The system had shown no reaction to the strange behavior of the sea creatures or the unnatural silence surrounding the Sentinel of the Sea.
That alone was suspicious.
The system had always pushed him to make use of every available moment, whether it was spending time in the workshop, entering the Time Chamber, studying runesmithing, or pursuing any other means of increasing his strength.
And yet, Adrian had now wasted nearly four days beneath the ocean, and another four days searching for this place.
Under normal circumstances, the system would have forcibly pushed him into the Time Chamber by now.
Instead, it had remained unnaturally silent.
[The host is imagining things. The system is just as astounded as the host by the lack of drastic measures from the Sentinel of the Sea.]
"..."
Adrian stared at the screen for several seconds before finally muttering, "You’re lying, and I can feel it."
His gaze hardened.
"Are you really asking me to spend the rest of my life down here? Or are you just waiting for me to wear myself down so I can eventually be hunted by that thing?"
[The system would never hope for such a thing!]
The response came almost instantly.
For the first time, Adrian could distinctly sense something resembling annoyance in the system’s reply.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Then tell me what exactly is going on with this thing. Why isn’t it showing itself? Is it really finding me unworthy of its presence?"
That was the only conclusion he could reach.
But if the Sentinel truly controlled everything within these waters, why were the creatures merely trying to drive him away? If his presence was truly a hindrance, they could have simply killed him.
[The host... needs to be patient.]
Adrian clicked his tongue.
"For how long?"
His patience had finally run out.
"I’m done with this."
The annoyance in his voice hardened into something colder as he suddenly turned toward the darkness behind him.
Mana began gathering around his body.
The surrounding water trembled as the pressure of his mana spread through the depths, disturbing the silence that had persisted for days. Adrian stared into the endless darkness, his eyes narrowing as two armaments materialized in his hands.
Both weapons had been tuned to their optimal state.
He tightened his grip.
"I’ll give you one last chance."
His voice carried through the water, low and unmistakably threatening.
"Come out now..."
His gaze swept across the darkness.
"...or the price will be paid by many."
There was no response. Alright.
If that thing wanted to test how far he could be pushed, then so be it.
He had been considering testing his limits for some time anyway.
Now, he finally had the perfect opportunity.
Both armaments began to glow at once.
One after another, the runes etched across their surfaces ignited, flooding the surrounding water with intricate patterns of light. Mana coursed through every inscription, carrying Adrian’s will and intent into the weapons as they responded to him at their full capacity.
[Host? This... You cannot possibly be thinking of dual chanting. Such a feat goes against the established laws of runes and sorcery in the broader sense.]
Dual chanting was exactly what its name implied, yet accomplishing it was anything but simple.
It required a sorcerer to align the runes of two separate armaments and command both simultaneously, maintaining two distinct streams of information without allowing either to interfere with the other.
There were simply too many variables involved, which was precisely why no one had ever seriously attempted it before.
The frequency of mana flowing through each armament had to remain perfectly synchronized. The information transmitted by the sorcerer had to reach both sets of runes without distortion. Even the slightest discrepancy in frequency could disrupt the entire sequence. His thoughts couldn’t wander for even a moment, while his emotions needed to remain controlled enough that they didn’t interfere with the commands being transmitted.
One mistake could cause the spell structure to collapse before completion.
And Adrian wasn’t attempting this with ordinary weapons.
Both armaments were fifth tier.
The amount of mana being channeled through them alone made the attempt absurdly dangerous. If the runic sequences fell out of alignment while operating at this output, Adrian wouldn’t merely lose control of the spells. The backlash could tear through the armaments and reach him before he had any chance to sever the connection.
Adrian merely snickered.
"Who knows?" His fingers tightened around both armaments as the light spilling from their runes intensified. "Maybe something that’s never happened before will happen today."
Mana surged.
The first pulse rolled outward like an invisible wave, followed immediately by another far stronger than the first.
The water around Adrian began to tremble.
Then it started to boil.
Countless bubbles erupted around him as the temperature climbed, while the crushing darkness of the ocean was steadily driven back. Light poured from his armaments in increasingly violent waves until the entire section of the depths was illuminated by Adrian’s presence alone.
Yet his smile only widened.
Everything was proceeding exactly as he wanted.
The frequencies were holding.
The runes were responding.
Even the two separate streams of information remained stable within his mind, running alongside each other without collapsing or interfering.
The system had called it impossible.
Adrian was beginning to think otherwise.
At this rate, the resulting output would be quite the spectacle to...
"Stop, please!"
The voice struck directly through his consciousness.
Adrian’s smile vanished.
His concentration nearly broke as his head snapped toward the source.
There, emerging from the darkness behind him, were those enormous red eyes.
The same crimson eyes that had watched him from the depths before.
Adrian froze for a moment, his armaments still blazing in his hands as the water continued boiling around him.
That voice...
There was no mistaking it.
It belonged to the creature.
"About time." He turned, ready to launch the attack, when...
"Please...stop, father."
"..."