Cold.
The first sensation that greeted Caspian was cold water pressing against every inch of his body.
It wrapped around him like a tightening embrace — heavy, suffocating, endless.
For a fleeting, disoriented moment, his mind returned to another body of water. A tyrant's corpse being moved by the current.
The river of his first nightmare.
Before he fully understood where he was, instinct took over him.
He moved.
His arms cut through the water in powerful strokes, legs kicking with desperate precision. Muscles that had been tempered through relentless preparation responded without hesitation. He surged upward.
Up.
Up.
His head broke the surface.
He inhaled sharply the cold air.
And froze when looking up.
There was no sky.
Or rather—
There was a sky.
But it was empty.
No moon.
No stars.
No distant shimmer of constellations.
No guiding celestial body of any sort.
Nothing but an oppressive, infinite darkness stretching in every direction.
The surface of the dark water rippled endlessly around him, reflecting nothing.
He floated there for a heartbeat.
Then another.
His [Night Blessing] stirred within him, reacting to the overwhelming darkness. Power seeped into his limbs. His senses sharpened. His body felt lighter, faster, more attuned to the shadows.
This was his element.
And yet—
A faint discomfort crawled under his skin.
Without a moon above him, something felt incomplete.
Wrong.
The night empowered him.
But the moon anchored him.
Without it, the darkness felt wild.
Untamed.
Alone in an endless ocean beneath a hollow sky, Caspian slowly turned in place, scanning the horizon.
There had to be land.
There had to be something.
He refused to believe the Spell had thrown him into a boundless sea with no direction.
Then—
Far in the distance—
A shape.
Dark against darker.
It rose slightly above the waterline.
A deep red stone.
Massive, jagged, large enough to hold him.
It would be enough.
Without hesitation, Caspian began swimming toward it.
His strokes were measured. Efficient. The cold water no longer bit at him as much as it did — his empowered body adapted quickly.
Each movement was precise and controlled.
But then—
He heard it.
Behind him.
At first, it was faint.
A vibration beneath the surface.
Then clearer.
Heartbeats.
In plural.
All of them powerful, fierce and predatory
His body stiffened mid-stroke.
Slowly—
He turned his head.
The surface of the water shifted.
Bulged.
Split.
Monstrous shapes cut through the sea like blades.
They resembled sharks.
And flying fish.
But grotesquely fused together.
Massive fins extended from their sides like torn wings. Their bodies were elongated, streamlined for speed, easily fifteen meters long each. Rows of jagged teeth lined their maws.
Dozens of them.
Their eyes locked onto him.
And they accelerated.
Caspian's heart pounded.
No time.
No distance.
He could not outswim creatures built for this domain.
His body and mind moved faster than his fear.
He didn't think he would need that trick so soon.
But the Spell rarely granted preparation time.
As one of the monstrous fish breached the surface a thousand meters of him, Caspian thrust his hands downward into the water.
He focused and femt the flow of the water, and used his aspect ability.
The water around his palms solidified instantly.
Like gripping the edge of a pool.
He pushed.
His body shot upward.
He landed awkwardly atop the water's surface—
And immediately sank halfway through.
Too slow.
Again.
He adjusted his position.
The moment his foot touched the water, he hardened it.
Then the next step.
Then the next.
At first, he stumbled.
But within seconds, his control sharpened.
The water solidified just fast enough beneath each step to serve as temporary ground.
He began running.
Across the ocean.
Behind him, the monstrous fishes erupted from the surface in pursuit, gliding above the water with terrifying speed before diving again.
They were closing the distance.
He could hear their heartbeats now — violent, hungry rhythms pounding through the sea itself.
Closer and closer
Then—
Another heartbeat.
It came from below.
Deep, too deep, yet it reached him like it was just meters below him.
The strongest heartbeat he had ever heard.
Each pulse was like a war drum echoing through the abyss.
The pursuing monsters accelerated, the beat of their hearts wasn't hate or anything like that, it was fear.
For a fraction of a second—
The ocean beneath them seemed to inhale.
Caspian didn't dare look down.
He ran faster.
His Aspect flared, solidifying water at breakneck pace beneath his feet.
The red stone grew nearer.
A hundred and twenty meters.
A hundred and ten meters.
A hundred meters.
The monstrous fishws were only meters behind him now, their jaws opening wide enough to swallow him whole.
Then—
The ocean exploded.
A colossal mouth burst from the depths.
It was so vast it eclipsed everything else.
Rows upon rows of teeth like cathedral spires.
In a single, horrifying motion—
The mouth swallowed the entire school of monstrous fish.
Gone.
Erased.
Silence fell for one suspended heartbeat.
Caspian kept running.
He didn't need to see it.
He didn't want to see it.
But something inside him — some fatal instinct — forced him to glance back.
And in that moment—
He felt true dread.
A titanic whale.
If it could be called that.
Three colossal eyes stared at him from the visible side of its body. Each eye was larger than a house, glowing faintly in the starless dark.
Its body stretched a vast distance— at least three hundred meters from snout to tail.
Almost all of it was out of the water.
It towered above the ocean like a living island.
Its heartbeat thundered through the sea itself.
Compared to it—
The Tyrant he had slain in his Nightmare felt small.
Insignificant.
The massive creature began to descend.
Gravity reclaimed it.
Its titanic body crashed back into the dark sea.
And the world shattered in a colossal splash.
A wall of water rose behind Caspian.
A wave.
Not a simple swell—
A mountain.
He turned forward.
The red stone was closer.
He was fast.
But the wave was faster.
The ocean roared.
The impact hit him like a wrecking ball.
He lost footing.
Lost breath.
Lost direction.
Water swallowed him whole.
He tumbled violently through the churning abyss, battered by currents he could not control. His Aspect flared uselessly — too much chaos, too much force.
Up.
Where was up? He wasn't able to tell.
He saw the red stone flash in and out of sight through spiraling water.
Closer—
Closer—
The wave hurled him forward like discarded prey.
He burst from the water—
And slammed into the stone.
Pain exploded across his body.
His vision went dark.
Instinct alone saved him.
His fingers dug into jagged rock.
He clung.
Even as darkness crept in at the edges of his mind.
The ocean continued to rage below.
The colossal heartbeat receded into the depths.
The wave passed.
And the silence returned.
Caspian's grip tightened weakly against the red stone.
His consciousness slipped.
The last thing he felt—
Was cold rock beneath his palms.
Then—
Darkness claimed him.