Chapter Text
One would be surprised how little difference fighting deep beneath the waves would be to the world above, given enough conviction and sea legs. The brine of the depths, the bubbles rising from the abyss to the sunlight above, the occasional brush of seaweed, the damp sand under ones' feet.
The cultist couldn’t even get out another cry for Crassian help before the shining flail of Alcana Theresus descended, falling to the seafloor much like the others left in their trio’s wake. A hand cupped around her ear, there was the satisfying hum of the barriers Madame Shih rigged falling once again.
“I’m sensing something bigger up ahead. Brace yourselves,” the paladin informed, as Zorial and Silvarius both advanced into the abyssal cove of a shipwreck. The water seemed too still, like the calm before the storm, as the wight stepped in last.
The eyes of the serpentine abomination noticed, and were noticed by Alcana first. There wasn’t the same obvious mess of tentacles, claws, and pattern of carapace that marked the rest of them...but it instantly registered as Crassian nonetheless in the detailings of its aberrant flesh. Though, if the last horror of this sort inhabiting a shipwreck was any indication, this was only a small peek at its true monstrosity.
But, as they approached, it was the sudden appearance of another that drew the eyes of the trio upward, their very quarry seemed to appear from the void, unhindered by typical conceptions of space and time.
“So, you are the ones sent to kill me”, the Ambassador mused, the deep voice echoing across the depths with an otherworldly tenor, limbs like the fins of twisted whales extending out as it spoke. “With all your clamor, I was expecting something more...special.”
“Someone like you who threatens to bring ruin on this world doesn’t deserve ‘special treatment’,” Alcana interjected, staring down its alien eyes and mandibles with a tightened grip on her weapon, holding it high in front of her. “I am sworn to defend it for the order and peace of the lives within!”
“This is known,” it replied, folding in its ‘arms’ again. “As are other things. And against such things, you are found wanting.”
She grit her teeth, her own eyes glancing between the one one known as ‘Kranon’ and the serpentine Crassian seemingly waiting for whatever given word to strike.
“As if I’d care for the judgment of an abomination like you...but very well, humor me. Just what in your twisted scales finds me ‘lacking’?”
“You, yourself. But not as you stand before me now...this you.” The twisted Dragonkin’s eyes seemed to regard her indeed...they also seemed to be looking across untold distances, into voids infinity, things beyond. “We hear of others...another, of far greater potential.”
“...And just why should that matter for what’s right here and now? All I see is you stalling for time,” The front foot of her stance held strong...the back foot slipped ever so slightly.
“Don’t let him get in your head,” Silvarius advised with creased brows, a set of shadowy shots conjured along his spindly spidery bow for any moment.
“You’re our friend, and we’ve fought back this darkness together so far!” Zorial smiled, the hum of light extending along Sunspear’s refined length.
“Another you...another world…” Kranon’s arms sweeped wide over the serpentine aberration, the skitterings of the other crustacean horrors beyond the barriers heard scuttling in the distance. “A world where you stand over these ones...as Queen.”
“I’m sorry, WHAT!?” Alcana exclaimed without thinking, just barely catching herself from falling as her back foot pressed deeper into the sand. She glanced at the faces of Zorial and Silvarius; the former’s face as dumbstruck as her own, the latter’s an admonition. She gazed back at the Ambassador again, reasserting her clenched brow and teeth.
“I did not misspeak. Indeed...it was no accident, but your own willing salvation, and a glorious one at that.” She glanced about, at the eyes of the many undulating faces, at the one gilded in some false eldritch glory before her, before settling singly on the mutated Dragonkin once again.
“Was?!...You’re mad! If you were going to tell a lie to psych me out, at least don’t insult me and tell me one that’s somewhat believable!” She stomped forward, the chain of the flail tinkling with her tightened fist, glowing ever so slightly with holy energy.
“She’s stood through things that would make most people lose their minds and come out all the better. You’re speaking nonsense!” Zorial echoed, the ringing song of crystal from her voice now filling the depths in opposition. She glanced over to Silvarius, his face twisted in subtle consternation.
“...Never underestimate what mortals are capable of in their desperation. That being said...your words indeed mean nothing for the here and now, Kranon.” Now the shadow settled around Silvarius like an aura of onyx and white flame.
“If you shall not hear my words...then it seems you would do best to play with my pet,” he proclaimed, the heads hissing and seeming to steam with some kind of ungodly venom. “It would be better for you to not be in the world we are creating.”
The flail’s chain tinkled, and bloomed with holy light. Her shield, strong at her side with Edgeville’s emblem. Now disregarding the Ambassador, Alcana rushed forward to the Leviathan’s main head, and brought the weapon’s head high as it reared up. One swipe down. An abyssal screech, as a fang fell to the seafloor, smoking with radiant energy.
Alcana scoffed. “You’re assuming we’ll ever let you get that far.”