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"This must be an illusion," he muttered.
He flexed his will, engaged Aura Sink. It’s a defensive lattice that bled hostile aura away from soone’s body (learned in the training of ant Kingdom before the desert mission). The whisper persisted, unfazed.
"This is no illusion," the voice insisted, it was calm as a shoreline at dusk. "If I ant you harm, your bones would already be drifting beneath the sea or buried in the sand."
Kai’s jaw tensed. "If you are so powerful," he called aloud across the gulf of air and salt spray, "why summon ? Why ask for help? Surely a titan needs no help from a wanderer on a ridge."
A hush followed for five heartbeats, perhaps ten. It was enough for gulls to circle once more overhead.
Then the air cooled.
Not the breeze, but the energy perating it, then an intense breath-thieving pressure ca that swept over the cliff and punched into Kai’s chest as if reality itself had inhaled too sharply. His skin prickled. His body armor humd.
"You doubt because you cannot see " the voice replied, carrying a hint of wounded pride. "Allow to show you my powers."
The tide groaned. Out on the tranquil expanse, a swell bulged from the liquid plain. It was not a wave ford by wind, but a deliberate upheaval. It climbed the sky, a wall of glittering water that blotted sunlight and cast flickering shadows upon the ridge. In its water umbrella, Kai saw a shape. It was a serpentine currents, flailing strands, countless suction-cup arcs like moons on an alien horizon.
The crest collapsed forward.
Water roared toward shore with impossible montum, yet the beach did not flood. Instead, a gigantic entity rose inside the incoming surge. It was a leviathan octopus larger than any Kai had read in ant bestiary scrolls in ant Kingdom. Its mantle glead with obsidian green, aura pulsing along ridges like bioluminescent veins. Every tentacle terminated in wicked hooks of calcified shell, churning foam as it pushed free of the receding wave and anchored across subrged reefs.
Kai’s heartbeat spiked.
"This," the voice said, no longer soft but resonant as cathedral bells, "is Uroth, Ruler of the Southern Sea. One word of mine, and he would snuff out your burgeoning legend before it truly begins."
The colossal mollusk unfurled twin tentacles, each thicker than a sequoia trunk, striking the deep with thunderous reverberations. Kai’s senses shrieked: the aura radiating from Uroth dwarfed the Scarlet Queen’s by magnitudes. Even the Desert Ruler’s dying aura felt small in comparison.
He thinks, "So this is what a healthy Ruler aura feels like." His body was shivering from the aura pressure. He couldn’t move a finger at this ti.
Yet the beast did not advance. It hovered beyond surf break, looming but restrained. It let his aura pressure down. Kai huffed. But didn’t show any expression on his face.
"I did not want you to die or harm you," the voice intoned again. It was deep and old and sweet like a lady, layered like ocean strata. "I summoned you because potential like yours is rare. A ruler forged not only of might but of purpose. Five hundred years from now, when you stand among the pillars that will decide this world’s fate, you may beco a force that changes everything."
Kai remained still, unmoving at the cliff’s edge as waves hissed below.
"I don’t ask for loyalty today," the voice continued, each syllable slow as tectonic shift. "I ask only that you listen. That you see. I wished to speak privately... and to offer a token... a gift, an advance for a favor I may call upon when your legend has truly blood."
The weight of the sea hung over him like a veil. Kai’s jaw clenched, his veins twitching in quiet defiance. He stared toward the misted expanse, the horizon swallowed by writhing black fog that devoured light, sound, even aura.
Kai steadied his breath, eyes locked on the mountainous silhouette half wrapped in seafoam and prival gloom. Finally, he spoke. "You speak of future eras, yet the sea devours any who attempt passage. What promise could outweigh that threat?"
"Co to the water," said the voice, gentled once more. "The water won’t hurt you. When you walk into the mist, I swear by the law of tides: nothing will harm you. Not while you carry the scent of change. I only wish to show you what lies ahead. And show you the thing that you need to do... which waits centuries to bloom."
Kai stood silent, eyes fixed on the sea.
The mist pulsed in the distance, not nacing but purposeful. Beyond it, secrets churned beneath black waves and unanswered histories. He thought of what the voice claid, no trap, no illusion, a gift... and an invitation into the mist. To co closer. To see.
His eyes narrowed. "And if I refuse?"
The voice responded without malice.
"Then you walk inland, and nothing changes... except for my mild disappointnt. I gain or lose nothing today. But know this... opportunity flows like a tide. When it recedes, it does not return the sa."
Kai exhaled through clenched teeth. The ridge beneath his boots vibrated faintly, as if the cliffs themselves were listening. He watched the octopus float in distant guard before the mist. It was imnse, regal, utterly still. Its hooked limbs curled gently through shallow reef water like a curtain drawn before an unknown play.
It made no move. Yet the invitation hung there—heavy, compelling.
"A test of courage. Or a snare?"
His gaze flicked back toward the forest inland, where eleven lives waited for his judgnt. He thought of Akayoroi’s resting breath, of the wounded healing in silence, of Azhara’s unspoken loyalty beneath all her lustful acts. They depended on him to lead.
And now sothing in the sea wanted him to step away. Alone.
"I will consider your offer," he called out across the wind. "But not now. In two days, I will march to the Eastern forest. Their safety cos first. If your desire is true, it can wait. Give ti to think."
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