Adam was dragged under. The bathwater swallowed him whole, but it didn’t feel like a bathtub anymore.
It expanded.
No, it beca sothing else.
The water stretched endlessly in every direction, cold and crushing, as if he were being hauled down into an ocean trench. Pressure wrapped around his body from all sides, imnse and unrelenting. For an ordinary person, panic would have co instantly.
But Adam remained calm.
The deeper he was pulled, the clearer he felt.
Not his mind, but his soul.
Each passing mont, the soul pearls dissolved further, their essence flooding into him in violent excess.
This wasn’t normal absorption. This was an overdose. The kind that should have shattered a person’s soul, the way too much of a hard drug would rip apart the body, but instead of euphoria, Adam was dragged toward an abyss.
Water forced its way into his lungs. His mouth opened, filling without resistance. His body should have scread for air, but it didn’t.
The woman pulling him changed the deeper they went.The illusion of humanity peeled away layer by layer. Her body remained female in shape, but sothing about her presence warped, as it beca heavier, older, and more deliberate. Her smile widened, carrying a promise that whispered directly to the soul.
Rest.
Surrender.
Let go.
This was no ordinary siren.
This one was crafted, its seduction refined, its presence overwhelming. Any other being would have dissolved in that smile alone, convinced that drowning in its embrace was the greatest bliss imaginable.
The descent finally stopped, as they hit solid ground. The seabed, or what passed for it, cracked slightly beneath the impact, silt rising in slow, dreamlike plus. The siren still clung to Adam, arms wrapped tight, smile unbroken.
Adam looked at her.
Then he spoke.
"So this is as far as you can go."
The smile froze.
The siren’s eyes widened, not in fear, but disbelief.
Adam shook his head slowly. Water stread from his hair and face, yet his expression was clear, focused and almost disappointed.
The pressure didn’t bother him.
Because he knew from the beginning.
This wasn’t real water.
It was an illusion, an internal sea ford by excess soul energy, shaped by the overdose of soul pearls.
Adam had allowed it to deepen without resistance because that was the only way to fully draw out their effect.
But now.
There was nowhere left to sink.
The siren reacted instantly.
Her mouth split open unnaturally, jaw widened far beyond human limits. Rows of jagged teeth unfolded as her skull distorted, the innocent facade collapsing into sothing monstrous. She lunged, attempting to bite straight through Adam’s neck.
But she failed.
Because Adam had never been trapped.
He was the one holding back.
His hand snapped up, fingers locking around her throat with absolute precision. In the next instant, he twisted his body, using her montum against her. The world spun.
WHOOOSH!
Adam pivoted sharply and drove the siren into the ground beneath them. The impact sent a shock through the seabed, silt and fractured stone bursting upward even through the water.
He didn’t let go, as he drew his fist back and struck.
BOOM!
The sound rippled through the abyss, a muted thunder that spread through the illusion itself as his blow crashed into her face.
Adam didn’t stop.
His left hand stayed clamped around the siren’s throat like a vice, fingers digging deep as if welded there. With his right hand, he pumled her face again and again, using her skull like a striking post.
There was no hesitation.
No wasted motion.
No restraint.
Each punch was delivered with cold efficiency, calculated and absolute. Adam wasn’t venting anger, he was simply executing a process.
Her head snapped back and forth under the impacts. Bone cracked. Teeth shattered and scattered into the water like broken glass. Her nose caved in, cartilage collapsed inward, while her eyes swelled grotesquely, one bursting under the relentless pounding.
Adam didn’t slow.
He found a rhythm.
A perfect tempo.
His strikes accelerated, blurring together as the distance between blows vanished.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The sound echoed through the seabed, dull and thunderous, reverberating through the illusion like shockwaves.
The siren couldn’t scream, her throat was locked shut, her jaw ruined, her body reduced to nothing more than a vessel reacting to punishnt.
She shuddered violently with each impact, muscles spasming uncontrollably as her form deteriorated under Adam’s fists.
Then ca the final blow.
Adam drew back his bloodied fist just a fraction more than before, and struck.
BOOM.
Her face caved in completely.
Blood burst outward, staining the water and splattering across Adam’s body in a violent bloom of red. He released her throat without ceremony, letting the siren’s ruined body float upward, limp and lifeless, drifting toward the surface like discarded debris.
And in that exact mont.
The illusion shattered.
The vast ocean collapsed inward, the crushing pressure vanished, and the endless seabed dissolved into nothingness as reality snapped back into place.
Adam shot upright out of the bathtub.
Water exploded outward as his upper body broke the surface, his lungs spasming violently. He coughed hard, retching as bathwater and bile splashed onto the tiled floor beside the tub.
His hands gripped the edges tightly while his body shuddered once... twice... before he finally sucked in a deep breath.
After a few seconds, he slumped back down into the bathtub, the water sloshing around him.
Despite everything, he smiled.
It was a cruel realization, no matter how vivid the illusion had been, no matter how deep that false ocean felt, his physical body had been subrged the entire ti. If he had truly lost himself in it, he might have drowned in a bathtub.
Yet.
"Everything still turned out good in the end."
Adam wasn’t worried about overdosing on the soul pearls for one simple reason.
His star power.
Adam’s current star power was far beyond what a normal unranked martial artist should possess.
That overwhelming difference allowed him to shrug off the backlash of the soul pearls, a common grade resource, while still absorbing their full benefits.
What would have destroyed another martial artist had instead been reduced to a violent but manageable process for him.
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