Chapter 1338: The Red Silence Below

Deep in the ocean, a palace lay sunken in the dim seafloor gloom.

All around it, Thalvyr’s power had always been everywhere—woven through pillars, doorframes, even the moving seawater itself. But in the same instant, that presence drew inward...

and vanished completely, like it had never existed.

Thalvyr rose to his feet.

He brushed a sleeve as if dusting off something that wasn’t there, then opened his palm. A miniature Voruun floated above it, translucent in that unmistakable soul-state, a few half-transparent tentacles hanging limp.

Thalvyr studied him for a while and sighed.

"How are you this careless? I told you to take people with you. You go out and don’t come back... honestly."

His dragon tail flicked lightly across the doorframe.

The water near the entrance obediently changed course, and an enormous octopus—shaped just like Voruun—was carried out by the current, drifting forward until it hovered in front of Thalvyr.

The soul-Voruun above his palm was pulled by an unseen tug and drifted toward that body. The moment spirit touched flesh, the ghostly tentacles merged first, then the head, then the torso. A few seconds later, the octopus’ skin regained its sheen, and the tentacles lifted one by one.

A freshly restored Voruun appeared in the palace.

Voruun blinked, dazed for a beat. When he recognized who stood before him, he immediately tried to kneel.

Except... he clearly hadn’t adapted to this body yet. His tentacles curled inward—

and his whole weight collapsed. He flopped onto the floor like a dropped cloth.

At the same time, down on the battlefield—beside a reef at the seafloor—another figure lay quietly in wait.

A hidden gunner.

He looked a lot like a mantis shrimp, except his shell was a heavy, blood-soaked red. One arm was braced firmly on the reef, using the stone to stabilize his posture. The other—an oversized claw—was already drawn tight, the "muzzle" locked on Namyanna up in the air.

A chill crawled up Namyanna’s spine.

She didn’t turn right away. Instead, she lifted a ring of water around herself. The water loop spun faster, compressing into a tight water-shield clinging to her body like a second skin. Her trident reappeared in her hand. She gripped the shaft and closed her eyes.

The sound of water was cut off outside the shield.

The next moment, she caught it—

a straight, lethal line rushing in.

The shot.

The blood-red claw snapped forward. Fine sand on the reef blasted outward from the recoil. The attack tore through the seawater, creating a circular vacuum zone ahead of it. Water was forced aside, leaving what looked like an empty hole in the sea.

But it wasn’t truly empty.

At the center of that vacuum ring was a ball of air compressed to the extreme.

It rocketed up along the pre-aimed path, breaking the surface. Freed from the drag of seawater, it accelerated again, the circular edge stretching into a sharp arc as it screamed straight for Namyanna’s head.

Boom!

The high-speed air mass slammed into her water-shield head-on.

The spinning layer bowed inward. The impact point turned clear—then punched through, leaving a perfect round hole. Water droplets burst backward. The compressed air shot through the breach and skimmed past Namyanna’s face.

Her water-shield lost structure, sliding down and dispersing along her body.

And then—

Namyanna vanished from where she’d been.

Before the air trail had even fully faded, she was already racing along it in reverse—skimming over the sea, plunging back into the water, and driving straight to the source.

The blood-red gunner had just started to rise from behind the reef when Namyanna appeared above him.

She hurled her trident.

The prongs split the water, firing straight toward the reef. At the same time, ice-blue energy surged from Namyanna’s fingertips, pooling fast in her palm.

The mantis-shrimp gunner was still twitching on the rock, short legs tapping a frantic rhythm against stone. His hiding spot was exposed now, and Namyanna’s trident was already cutting in—water peeling away on both sides in thin white lines.

A small shark slid in close along the seafloor, silent as a shadow. It lowered its body, passed beneath the gunner, and lifted him onto its back. Its tail fin snapped hard as it tried to bolt away from the reef.

Too late.

The trident had entered range.

The tip slammed into the reef. The first impact carved a deep crater, then the force spread through the rock like a shockwave. Spiderweb cracks raced across the entire formation. Chunks of stone broke free and jumped off the seabed—

and before they could even start to sink, the trident released a fierce suction.

All the nearby seawater got dragged toward it.

Currents whipped around the trident at high speed. Sand, broken rock, shredded sea grass—everything got pulled in. The vortex climbed higher and higher, its base anchored to the reef while its top expanded upward into open water.

In seconds, a seafloor tornado formed.

Namyanna opened her eyes.

The cold she’d been building was ready. Ice-blue light leaked between her fingers, making the water around her sparkle with tiny crystalline points. She rotated her wrist, aimed at the tornado’s core, and shoved her palm forward.

The stored freezing power became a straight beam of light, firing into the spinning water column.

It struck the outer layer first—freezing the debris caught in the flow—then spread inward along the rotation. Ice crystals spiraled upward with the current, and with every revolution, another layer of white frost wrapped around the tornado’s surface.

The small shark had already carried the mantis shrimp away, but it still couldn’t shake the pull. Its tail fin beat like crazy, yet its body slid backward, being dragged in.

The mantis shrimp on its back, though, didn’t panic.

He flattened himself lower, extended the gun again, and aimed over the shark’s head at Namyanna.

Boom!

A second compressed air mass fired out, forcing the surrounding water aside and creating a transparent cavity ahead of the shot. Compared to the first one, this attack was weaker—the water didn’t get torn open as far, and the path was clear enough to follow with the naked eye.

Even so, Namyanna raised her hand.

A layer of water rippled outward from her as the center. Wherever the wave passed, drifting sand stopped mid-water. Broken reef fragments halted their descent. Even the ice flecks spinning at the tornado’s edge froze in place, suspended like glitter caught in glass.

The fast-approaching air mass hit that wave and immediately slowed.

It still pushed toward Namyanna, but it was like the surrounding sea had hooked onto it and refused to let go. For every inch it advanced, the circular cavity tightened a fraction.

The pause lasted only one second.

But one second was enough.

Namyanna shifted sideways, slipping off her original line.

When the wave resumed normal flow, the air mass accelerated again, scraping past her ear. The rush of displaced water whipped her hair, then the shot kept going and slammed into a reef in the distance.

A low thud rolled through the seafloor.

A round crater appeared in the rock, cracked stone tumbling away.

Seeing the counter fail, the mantis shrimp immediately tapped the shark beneath him. The small shark snapped around and charged straight into the freezing waterspout. The moment they entered the rotating current, both bodies were dragged upward—

and the spreading cold chased them from all sides.

The tornado was turning into a massive ice pillar.

The shark didn’t stop fighting. Before the ice could fully seal, it shook hard left and right. The mantis shrimp lay flat on its back, tapping with his claw to adjust the shark’s angle in tiny, precise corrections.

When the gun finally lined up with the thickening ice ahead, the mantis shrimp pulled the trigger again.

Boom!

The air mass shot out just over the shark’s head and struck the inner wall of the ice pillar head-on.

A white dot appeared at the contact point. Fine cracks spread outward instantly.

Then a second surge erupted from the center of that dot.

The heavy ice punched through, leaving a hole just big enough for the shark to squeeze through.