Chapter 162: Seed of Destruction

Gray watched the Primordial’s corpse dissolve. The divine light that had once burned so brightly now scattered into the surrounding water, its essence unraveling thread by thread, merging with the ambient mana of the abyss. The body itself crumbled, piece by piece, until nothing remained but faint motes of light drifting upward like scattered stars.

He turned away.

Cindy was slumped against the shattered rock, her small body trembling, her silver glow so faint it was barely visible. Her left side was a ruin, the arm gone, the wound cauterized but still raw, the flesh around it dark and cracked. Her frills drooped, twitching weakly with each labored breath.

Gray drifted closer, his senses sweeping over her wounds. The tissue was trying to regenerate, he could feel the faint pulse of healing mana struggling to knit the damage together but there wasn’t enough. Her mana channels were depleted, scraped hollow by the Frozen Domain and the backlash that followed. She had nothing left to give.

’She needs mana,’ Gray thought. ’A lot of it. More than the ambient currents can provide.’

His mind raced through their options. The Verdant Hollow was gone. The Azure Coral Grotto was too far. And then he remembered.

The Seed of Destruction.

The place where it slept was saturated with mana. If he could get Cindy there, she might recover.

Gray scooped Cindy up with his tentacles, cradling her small body against his bell. She stirred weakly, her silver eyes flickering open.

"Gray...?"

’Don’t talk,’ he said. ’Just hold on.’

He shot through the dark water, his carapace still cracked, his HP dangerously low, but none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was getting her to the mana.

The journey was a blur. He wove through familiar ridges and unfamiliar ravines, his senses locked on the distant pulse of concentrated mana.

When he finally reached the basin, he stopped.

The place was unrecognizable.

The Violet Stillness, the field of floating orbs, the basin where the Seed of Destruction had slept was gone. The terrain had been shattered, the seafloor carved open by the Primordial’s attacks. Craters dotted the basin like open wounds, their edges glassed smooth by divine light. The dark plants that had once covered the seafloor were ash. The coral spires were rubble.

And at the center of it all, nestled in a crater of its own, was the orb.

It was much smaller now. Where it had once been the size of a small ship, it was now barely larger than Gray’s bell. Its surface still pulsed with that faint violet light, its veins still throbbing weakly, but the presence that had once radiated from it was gone.

The Primordial’s attacks had wounded it. Maybe even crippled it.

Gray stared at the orb for a long moment, his blade-tentacles curling tight. Part of him wanted to destroy it. To end the threat before it could grow again but Cindy came first.

He drifted past the orb without a second glance and found a patch of seafloor nearby where the mana was thickest, a shallow depression where the ambient energy pooled like water in a basin. The air there shimmered with power, the currents heavy and warm.

He set Cindy down gently, her small body settling into the dense mana. The effect was immediate. Her frills twitched, her glow steadied, and the wound at her shoulder began to pulse with renewed healing energy.

Gray settled beside Cindy, his blade-tentacles curled protectively around her small body.

’Thank goodness she’s still alive,’ he thought. ’That was too close.’

He let out a slow pulse, his carapace aching, his HP still dangerously low. The fight with the Primordial replayed in his mind, he’d won but it had been chaos. Pure, unadulterated chaos.

And he understood, with a clarity that settled into his core like cold stone, that he had been lucky.

The abyss was full of creatures stronger than him. He’d survived them all, but not because he was stronger. Because he was lucky.

’I need to be stronger than I am now,’ he thought. ’Much stronger or the next time, luck won’t be enough.’

The thought was still forming when the orb moved.

It was subtle at first, a faint pulse of violet light, a tremor in the water. Gray’s senses flickered toward it, and he saw the orb lift from its crater, drifting slowly, deliberately, toward the patch of seafloor where Cindy lay.

’Hey. What are you doing?’

It just kept drifting, its veins pulsing brighter with each passing second.

Gray’s blade-tentacles snapped taut.

’Hey! What are you doing?!’

He activated Current Dash and dissolved into the water, reforming directly in front of the orb. His tentacles wrapped around it, crushing it against his carapace.

’Got you!’

But the orb didn’t resist. It just pulsed once, bright and violent, and released a surge of violet energy that shot past Gray and struck Cindy dead in the chest.

’CINDY!’

Gray reacted on instinct. He activated Overcharge, the electricity surging through his blade-tentacles and into the orb, point-blank, with everything he had.

[OVERCHARGE — 0 DAMAGE]

[ATTACK NULLIFIED]

The orb absorbed the lightning without even a flicker. Its surface rippled, drinking in the electricity like water. It just pulsed again, brighter, and continued to pour its energy into Cindy.

’What are you doing to her?!’

Gray thrashed, wrapping every tentacle around the orb, trying to crush it, to tear it apart, to stop it. But it was like trying to squeeze a shadow. His barbs passed through it without resistance.

Then he saw a mark appeared on Cindy’s forehead. A black tattoo, intricate and terrible, curling into the shape of two horns that spiraled inward like a labyrinth. It pulsed once, dark and cold, and Cindy’s small body convulsed.

’Stop it!’

Gray abandoned the orb and lunged toward Cindy, his tentacles reaching for her, trying to pull her away, trying to break the connection.

But it was too late.

The mark blazed bright, and Cindy’s silver glow flickered violently, her frills splaying wide, her mouth opening in a silent scream.

’CINDY!’

Gray grabbed her, pulling her against his bell, holding her tight. The orb drifted back, its violet light dimming, its work apparently done. It settled onto the seafloor nearby, pulsing softly, as if satisfied.

And Cindy went still in his arms.

Her eyes were open but they weren’t silver anymore.

They were black and the mark on her forehead burned like a brand.