Year 11079
Two Years Before the Fall of Kolga
The ocean had become familiar to Thalor.
Not merely the water.
The currents.
The mana tides.
The pulse of World Energy moving through Mogar itself.
For two years, he had traveled from one forgotten Atlantean installation to another.
Across the Verendi Continent.
Beneath the Great Oceans.
Through hidden trenches and forgotten caverns.
Restoring.
Learning.
Growing.
Atlantis was no longer alone.
Facility after facility had rejoined the network.
Ancient Warp Nexus gates awakened.
Mana banks synchronized.
Knowledge once thought lost returned.
Each restored node strengthened Atlantis.
Each facility increased Arcadia's capabilities.
Each discovery brought the hidden kingdom one step closer to rebirth.
And Thalor had changed with it.
The broken slave who stumbled into Atlantis at sixteen was gone.
In his place stood an Awakened mage whose abilities would have shocked most academies on Mogar.
His mana core had reached Bright Cyan.
The Worldborne Sigils now covered much of his body.
Silver-blue markings stretched across his shoulders.
Wrapped around his chest.
Extended down both arms.
Additional sigils adorned his back and legs.
Each acted as a relay.
A reservoir.
A conduit.
His connection to World Energy had become extraordinary.
He was fluent in all six elements.
Water.
Earth.
Light.
Fire.
Air.
Darkness.
Though his true mastery remained with his primary affinities.
Water.
Earth.
Light.
He had also become proficient in:
Spirit Magic Fusion Magic Warden Magic Dimensional Magic Forgemastery Runesmithing
Every restored facility provided another piece of Atlantis.
Another lesson.
Another fragment of lost knowledge.
Yet despite everything...
Some facilities refused to awaken peacefully.
Facility 5-B was one of them.
The warning came three days before arrival.
Arcadia's projection appeared beside him while he swam through a deep ocean trench.
"Anomaly detected."
Thalor sighed.
"Why is it never good news?"
"Because good news is statistically less exciting."
"You're spending too much time around me."
Arcadia ignored him.
As usual.
A map appeared.
A region of ocean nearly four hundred miles ahead.
Several mana readings flashed violently.
The Trident vibrated.
Then Tethys' voice echoed through the communication network.
Emergency Alert.
Facility 5-B Under Assault.
Thalor frowned.
"Assault?"
The projection expanded.
The image that appeared made him stop swimming.
Even Arcadia grew silent.
A colossal creature drifted through the darkness.
Massive tentacles.
Corrupted flesh.
Countless glowing eyes.
An abomination.
A Kraken Abomination.
The creature measured nearly four hundred meters across.
Its mana signature was horrifying.
An unstable mass of stolen energies.
Consumed magical beasts.
Consumed mana.
Consumed life.
Everything merged into one monstrous existence.
Arcadia immediately began calculations.
"Threat assessment?"
"Extreme."
"Odds of victory?"
"Unsatisfactory."
"Helpful."
"I strive for accuracy."
The facility lay directly in the creature's path.
And the Kraken had noticed it.
More specifically...
It had noticed the mana fluctuations caused by the awakening of the Atlantean network.
To a creature driven entirely by hunger...
Facility 5-B appeared to be a feast.
And it intended to devour it.
Three days later...
The battle began.
The ocean exploded.
A tentacle larger than a fortress crashed into Facility 5-B's outer barrier.
Ancient runes shattered.
Shockwaves spread for miles.
The Kraken roared.
Then attacked again.
The facility groaned.
Its defenses wouldn't survive much longer.
Thalor arrived moments later.
The creature noticed him instantly.
One enormous eye shifted toward him.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The Kraken attacked.
A wall of flesh and destruction surged forward.
Fusion Magic flooded Thalor's body.
His muscles strengthened.
His reflexes sharpened.
His mana circulation accelerated.
The Worldborne Sigils ignited.
The ocean became clear.
Every current.
Every fluctuation.
Every mana movement.
Visible.
The battle lasted hours.
Water spells.
Earth spells.
Light constructs.
Darkness attacks.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Nothing worked.
The creature regenerated endlessly.
Every wound closed.
Every severed tentacle returned.
Every injury disappeared.
Eventually, Thalor retreated.
Blood stained the water around him.
His mana reserves had fallen below forty percent.
The Kraken remained largely unharmed.
Arcadia appeared.
"The facility will not survive another hour."
Thalor stared at the monster.
Then closed his eyes.
He remembered his lessons.
Not power.
Understanding.
That was Atlantis's way.
The Worldborne Sigils brightened.
Spirit Magic expanded outward.
For the first time, he stopped looking at the creature's body.
And began examining its mana.
The answer appeared immediately.
The Abomination wasn't stable.
It had never been.
Its mana core was a disaster.
Countless foreign energies.
Conflicting affinities.
Stolen power.
Forced together through sheer consumption.
Then he saw something else.
Darkness.
The creature feared Darkness.
Not because it hurt.
Because it exposed weakness.
Because Abominations produced no Light of their own.
Because Darkness amplified the contradictions, keeping them alive.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
The spell he'd been developing for months.
The spell Arcadia kept criticizing.
The spell he wasn't certain would work.
Was exactly what he needed.
The Trident rose.
Mana flooded the battlefield.
Water.
Earth.
Darkness.
Gravity.
Four powers moved as one.
Not layered.
Not sequential.
Integrated.
A true composite spell.
Arcadia's eyes widened.
Even she hadn't seen the completed design.
The ocean darkened.
Currents stopped.
Water obeyed.
Gravity distorted.
The seabed trembled.
Darkness spread across the battlefield.
The Kraken finally hesitated.
For the first time.
It felt fear.
Thalor spoke.
The ocean answered.
"Abyssal King's Decree."
The sea became his domain.
Water compressed around the Kraken.
Gravity intensified.
Not crushing.
Restricting.
The monster's own mass turned against it.
Every movement became slower.
Heavier.
More difficult.
Earth Mana stabilized the entire structure of the spell.
Acting as a foundation.
Preventing the immense forces from collapsing.
Then Darkness arrived.
Not as destruction.
As judgment.
The darkness flowed through the Kraken.
Searching.
Finding.
Every contradiction.
Every flaw.
Every instability.
The Abomination screamed.
Its regeneration faltered.
Mana pathways collapsed.
Stolen energies turned against one another.
And through it all...
Thalor finally saw the target.
The mana core.
A monstrous sphere is buried deep within the creature.
Cracked.
Malformed.
Unstable.
The true source of its power.
And its greatest weakness.
The gravity field collapsed inward.
The entire spell focused upon a single point.
The mana core.
Cracks spread.
One.
Two.
Hundreds.
The core began breaking apart.
Arcadia's voice echoed.
"Now."
Thalor moved.
Fusion Magic surged.
The Trident flashed.
One strike.
Directly through the largest fracture.
Silence.
The ocean became still.
The Kraken froze.
Then its mana core shattered.
Not explosively.
Catastrophically.
The energies sustaining the Abomination lost their anchor.
Its body began unraveling.
Tentacles dissolved.
Flesh disintegrated.
Corrupted mana dispersed into the sea.
The giant collapsed.
Then vanished.
Nothing remained.
Only silence.
An exhausted Atlantean floating before a saved facility.
For several moments, neither Thalor nor Arcadia spoke.
Finally—
"Congratulations."
Thalor blinked.
"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said."
Arcadia looked away.
"I am expanding my social protocols."
Thalor laughed.
For the first time in hours.
Far behind him...
Facility 5-B continued glowing.
Safe.
Another node preserved.
Another piece of Atlantis was saved.
And though he didn't realize it then...
The Battle of Facility 5-B would become one of the first legends of New Atlantis.
The day a Bright Cyan Awakened stood alone against a Kraken Abomination and won.
Not through greater power.
But through greater understanding.
Exactly as Atlantis had always intended.