The calm was not a blessing.
It was the kind of silence that precedes something ancient and terrible.
Beneath the slowly pulsing lights of Atlantica, Queen Athena hovered at the edge of the grand coral ridge that overlooked the city's western trench. Scouts, soldiers, and healers swam back and forth in measured rhythms. The evacuation was progressing. With roughly seventy percent of the citizens secured in upper ridges, refugee caves, or escorted beyond the kelp fields, the queen had begun to feel—if not relief—then the beginnings of it.
Helios swam silently beside her, his black and midnight-blue eel tail flowing like a slow shadow. Kurai loitered at the edge of a broken statue, arms crossed, expression cold and neutral as always.
"Thalen is staying with Ariel who has regained full consciousness," Helios said quietly. "He says she's still asking for you again."
Athena's eyes didn't move from the distant shadows of the deep sea. "I cannot. Not yet. The king is still recuperating and the royal family cannot be seen as weak, especially at these trying times."
Helios said nothing more.
Athena's heart burned, but her mind was fixed. She had made the choice already—her daughter had lived, and would live, because Athena would do what had to be done.
And then, the water changed.
The first sensation was a stillness in the currents—as if the ocean itself had forgotten to breathe.
Helios looked up. "Do you feel that?"
Kurai was already moving before he finished speaking. "Too late to run. Looks like they're here."
A sudden deep tremor rippled across the ocean floor. Pebbles rose, hovered, then dropped like falling stars. A soundless pulse roared through the seabed. Faint at first, then louder—a guttural, vibrating call that shook bone and memory.
From the lowest depths of the western trench, it rose.
Like a leviathan sculpted from nightmares, the Bukavac emerged, its colossal, scaly form illuminated only by the blood-red glow of its spiraling horns and eyes like burning furnaces. As it surfaced, the trench around it fractured, collapsing coral shelves in its wake.
Gasps and screams echoed from the soldiers and scouts around them.
"It's huge," one merman whispered. "What is that thing!?"
Helios' voice was cold and immediate. "I'm guessing a sea monster. Probably a myth... until now. Definitely Ursula's doing."
The creature opened its mouth, revealing a spiraling maw of jagged teeth. It bellowed, and the ocean convulsed. Currents twisted into cyclones. Massive debris shot through the water like spears. Entire buildings buckled from the shock.
The nearest coral ward, where hundreds of citizens had been staged for evacuation, shattered under the assault. Bodies scattered. Panic erupted.
Athena turned sharply. "Mobilize the emergency convoys! Get them out now!"
A flash of golden light streaked across the sky—a trident.
Triton descended from above, flanked by his reformed guard, his face grim and bruised but unbowed.
"I heard it from the high caves," he said. "I came as fast as I could."
"We don't have time," Helios snapped. "That thing will destroy the city if we don't stop it now."
"I'm going in," Triton declared, gripping his weapon. "With or without you."
Kurai smirked faintly. "How regal of you. Useless but regal nonetheless."
Helios pointed toward the beast's underbelly, where its horned limbs pulsed with unnatural light. "Strike under the jaw or behind the legs. Everywhere else, seems armored."
Triton gave one nod. "Let's give it something to regret."
The three of them surged forward, water tearing past them as they charged.
Chaos.
Every inch of ocean became a war zone. Civilians screamed as they fled through emergency tunnels and kelp corridors. Guards fought to hold protective wards steady against debris. The Bukavac raged across the seabed, each step triggering violent tremors. It released a deep, echoing roar—and a spiral of sound-based magic fired outward in rings, disorienting and wounding any within range.
Helios cast a Reflect barrier to shield several soldiers, then launched a Thundaga spell directly at the creature's eyes. The electricity sizzled across the beast's black scales, but it barely flinched.
Kurai, now behind the monster, lashed out with dark blades formed from condensed shadow. One lodged between two of its scales, forcing it to screech and flail—but the wound was superficial.
Triton charged from the front, unleashing a cascade of pressure-blasts from a trident that split the water like lightning. It seemed like an enchanted weapon but not to the same level as the one Ursula stole. He slammed the trident into the Bukavac's shoulder joint, and this time the creature howled—angry and in pain.
The Bukavac retaliated.
It surged forward with unnatural speed, its horns glowing brighter as it barreled toward the second coral ward. Entire buildings cracked under the force of its passage.
Helios called out, "Fall back! That district is already compromised—cut off its path before it reaches the upper district!"
Dozens of soldiers, barely holding together after Ursula's previous assault, rushed in to assist—but they were vastly outmatched. The Bukavac smashed through their ranks like a ship tearing through foam.
Helios swam into the creature's path, breathing hard, blood still seeping from his last wound. He focused, raising both hands. Forcing the instability in his heart into alignment, he conjured a spell he had not fully mastered—Waterza, trying his best to mix it with his own darkness. Luckily he managed to succeed this time.
A surge of pressure exploded outward, encasing the Bukavac briefly in a whirlpool of pitch-black water. It slowed the beast for a heartbeat.
But only a heartbeat.
The creature roared and shattered the vortex, sending Helios tumbling. Blood trailed from his back as he slammed into a broken archway.
"Damn! Helios!" Kurai shouted as she swam in his direction.
"I'm fine!" he called back, lying through clenched teeth. "Buy me ten seconds!"
Kurai turned, lunged upward, and struck one of the Bukavac's horns with a condensed Dark Firaga burst. The explosion cracked it, and the beast reeled—but this time, it responded differently.
Its eyes focused on Kurai the strongest here and the one who caused it the most damage.
It roared again—and the currents shifted.
"Something's wrong," Kurai muttered. "The water…"
The creature slammed its six legs into the seabed. A massive tremor rippled outward, and the entire trench floor began to collapse. Earthquake. No a seaquake.
"The city's foundations—!" Triton shouted.
In the distance, Athena's voice rang out from a magic-boosted shell:
"Protect the ridge! Get everyone up!"
Helios forced himself upright, blood floating from his lips.
The battle wasn't going to be won here.
Not without help.
And as if in response, the first of the banners appeared in the distant gloom.
Blue flames. Silver crests. A cavalry had arrived.