(Approximately 20 minutes before Asahi's Awakening)
Explosions painted the water orange; Purple missiles screamed as they took their last descent through the sea.
The water was as clear as it was dirty, foggy, and filled with floating smoke.
It had only been ten minutes since Asahi fell asleep; now both he and Primrose were caught in a vortex made by a silhouette approaching swiftly.
Its helmet shone and glowed, emitting an ethereal lavender hum into the deep. He wore black gloves and fairly advanced scuba gear, with visors and air jets that propelled him farther through the currents.
With each footstep, he grew closer and closer. Boots rooted into the sea floor. Two of the mermaids, Brooke and Coral, quickly grasped Asahi's cold hand and swam away from the piercing missiles coming from the strange nautical cyclops.
(FLEW)
A blonde-haired mermaid, sharing features of fins and humanoid faces, clutched and grasped onto Asahi's cold body, carrying as they swam away from several missiles screaming from their launcher.
"We need to get this boy to safety now." She said, breathing heavily.
"Where is the girl?" Brooke asked as she moved side to side.
"I…don't know. The girl's too heavy!" Coral said with exasperated breaths, shrugging and watching as the nautical cyclops unleashed yet another barrage of missiles.
As enticing as the walking scuba diver was, it still moved slowly, steadily across the ocean floor. Perhaps it was because of the weight of his suit that he was as deep as he was now. Upon Primrose's disappearance, Brooke screamed.
"I thought YOU had her,"
Silence fluctuated amid their awakening. It had come to a solid predicament.
Rescuing both partners was impossible; it had become a trade of fate.
Brooke's heart ached as she clutched Asahi's hand, her mind racing. She turned her head forward, only seeing the pink hair submerging through the depths of the treacherous waters.
But just as they reached the sea floor, she clutched Primrose's hand. Before they reached the cliff leading downward to an inner pit, they had a choice. Either they leave Primrose and let Asahi die at the hands of the Nautical Cyclops. Or they save Asahi and save Primrose later.
The mermaids had to be taken into consideration. What would the scuba diver do if it had taken Primrose instead of Asahi?
After careful thinking,
"Let's save the boy," Brooke said to her sister as they released their grasp of Primrose.
Slowly, the blonde-haired mermaid nodded her head, and soon, Primrose's body drifted away into the watery abyss.
Before the cyclops moved, it stopped, then grasped her by the legs and carried her on its back.
While the mermaids watched as the nautical cyclops scuba diver clenched hold of Primrose, they quickly caught an undercurrent and jetted through the blue sea, fleeing and seeing a ring of submerged mountains and coral formations eating away at the sea floor…
Swiftly, Asahi's body was caught in the current, too, jetting him and casting him straight into warmer waters.
After the three swam away, the nautical cyclops stared at the pink-haired girl and slowly walked over far from the current, into the ruined remains of a submerged city overwhelmed by the watery ribbons of the ocean. Slowly, it disappeared into the shadows and walked to the top of...
. . .
(Present time.)
"So… yeah… that is what happened." The mermaid expressed with a raised eyebrow.
It was baffling enough to hear about it. But seeing it was on a new type of spectrum. Asahi was at a loss for words despite that.
Yes, the 'eye' helped him imagine, but there was a thought that struck far in him. "If the mermaid could save me, why can't Primrose be saved?"
Another thought grasped him.
(Could it be the armor he wore made carrying both too heavy?) Asahi thought.
(Or maybe there's some power?)
Before Brooke and Coral answered questions, Asahi felt a pulling force grapple onto his mind. A driving force that beckons secrets to be known.
A tall silhouette, wearing a nautical scuba helmet and a purple glow emblazoned across his suit, had haunted his soul. But no matter, it wasn't real, just a phantom of its former self.
But that's when he noticed… this wasn't reality, it was a dream—moreover, a fragment of the past.
Bubbles flew upward, with the pink-haired girl cradled softly in his gloves.
"That weird guy in that fancy scuba gear stole Primrose from us." The shorter mermaid said as the sunlight pierced through the warm water, waking Asahi from his trance.
As he was daydreaming, he caught on to the nightmarish vision of the past of Tear's helmet, melting into an equally terrifying juncture. Then the robots he met during the Battle for Linuxinia. It was the same style, the same color, and look.
After that rippling image flickered through his eyes, Asahi took two steps back and mumbled.
"Why? I don't understand. Why does that… thing want Primrose?"
After Asahi's yelp, he received the complete picture of the cyclops in his mind from Paxon's shining eye.
From head to toe, this man was covered in a bleak black scuba suit, with purple shining from his visor, piercing through the darkness of the depths. He had three full air tanks, each covered, so he could breathe for as long as he needed.
Judging by his appearance alone, he was more of the experimental type than a full-rights soldier.
Despite not hearing him once, the diver revealed one thing to Asahi and the twin mermaids before they were caught in the flowing current. Before memories could eat away at reality.
("Deem me as, The Collector… Wraileza's final analyst on all things ocean.")
His voice was soft but deep. Warm but cold. A reverberating catalyst in the midst. A voice that belongs to a parent more than anything.
After receiving these full visions of what to expect from The Collector, Wraileza's Final Analyst, Asahi rushed to the door, prepared to save and rescue Primrose. However, before he could utterly think of saving Primrose… before he could breach through the watery wall,
A ring of mountains had scraped the rippling watery surface, paving downwards into several cities.
Numerous merfolk obstructed his way. Unlike the icy waters near Astait, there was warmth here. And his suspicions suggested that he was neither in the ice remains of Astait's waters nor the warm current. He was situated in the watery Abyss' middle-ground—the sunken city of… something.
(Did I ride a current to get here?) Asahi thought hard, almost confusing himself with the vivid motion. (Or… have I been teleported again?)
He had come to realize that this was one of the several coral cities residing over the giant Atlantis-like city.
The environment was pretty warm. Fish swam by, all with varying colors; A strategic haven for the merfolk and fish alike. Coral protruded over the natural spires of rock, some of it forming houses and edifices alike. Temples sprouted forth up the waters in the distance. Remnants of society were bursting in every corner.
With just enough warmth, the merfolk could create living, breathing abodes. The intricate currents and varying temperatures provided hidden pathways and unexpected challenges, making it a place of both refuge and peril.
In such a different, narrow, and aquatic world, an exhibition of toil and tears, Asahi had lost track of where he was and fell into an equally indifferent rabbit hole.
As seconds passed by, Asahi felt the extreme weight of his armor slipping off. This drove him to question. Have the merfolk stripped off his armor?
Time could only tell.
Not long after Brooke and Coral swam out of the door, they examined the colorful vista before them.
With which anything, Asahi felt gravity spare him. He could flail his arms and legs, and he would get propelled.
He saw broad sunken ships taking refuge by the merfolk, underwater volcanoes to breathe, and even magma from the world's circular crust.
It was because of the underwater volcanoes wedged into the earth that heat could reach this depth beneath the blue ceiling, and the merfolk alike would be comfortable.
Asahi was at a loss for words. He could feel himself sinking and floating in the warmer, expansive waters. Though his ears were clogged up, he could still hear the beautiful voices of the merfolk singing a song to him.
(Where am I?)
Asahi asked as the chorus sang into the distant blue. After swimming from house to house, trying to find his armor, Coral introduced a group of merfolk over to Asahi. From there, they gave relatively uninterested glares, swimming away while Coral beckoned them to oblige.
"Come on! Please help us!'
Yet no one answered.
"Instead of forcing it down everyone's bellies, why don't we find your partner ourselves?" Coral said, pushing her blonde hair with a 'tsk'.
Asahi liked the idea. But after remembering the so-called weeping sirens, Asahi decided to avoid going by himself as much as possible.
On the other end, Asahi had the right to ask.
"What did you do to my armor?"
Everyone's mouths had silenced. Asahi asked again
"What did you do to my armor?"
After careful examination, Asahi realized.
"Y…You sold it, didn't you?"