‘What are they doing here?’
Lazarus’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the two people ahead. [Lament of lies] was still active, and as such, the two people up ahead were still unaware that what they were seeing was fake.
…Yet.
Lazarus could keenly tell that the two people in front of him were strong enough to see through the illusion if they tried hard enough.
It was for that reason that he focused entirely on making the illusion as believable as possible, slowly making the head of the ‘monster’ turn away from them as a sign of disinterest.
‘I hope this works.’
He wanted to interact with them, but at the same time, he understood that there was a very good chance that they wouldn’t be on his side.
He had to tread carefully.
The two people before him were too strong for him to take any risks.
Thankfully, it looked like the two of them bought his illusion and slowly turned their heads away from them. It could be because the light he was holding was real, or because they had other things they were more worried about, but the two swiftly moved away shortly after.
It was only then that Lazarus felt his body relax.
‘That was closer than expected.’
He was already aware that Sylas was strong. Even so, he wasn’t scared of him. Lazarus might not be able to beat him, but he had ways to take him on and run away.
The issue lay with the woman.
Lazarus was wholly unaware of who she was.
‘No, actually, I might have an idea…’
It didn’t take a genius to figure out her identity.
One of the seven lords, Anne “Esmerald-Eyes” O’Malley. He judged this to be her when taking into account her eye color.
There were only two female captains within the seven lords category, it was her and Madame Zheng Shih. Taking in the description for the Madame who was described to have long and lustrous black hair, it was rather easy to determine the identity of the one before him.
But that begged the question.
‘Why is she here? …And with the captain of the Crimson Wraiths?’
As far as Lazarus knew, the relationship between the seven lords wasn’t exactly the greatest. They were all at odds with each other to gain ground within the Crimson Sea. There was only so much water they could cover that wasn’t within the great primordial one’s range.
The more water they covered, the richer they became.
This was why their relationship wasn’t great. It also made the situation look all the more suspicious.
‘Could they be involved in this matter? Could they be the ones responsible for the red tide…’
Feeling a certain tug and seeing An’as’s expression, Lazarus could see he also seemed to think that way.
But Lazarus shook his head.
It was still too early to tell. They could also be here just like them, trying to investigate the situation.
It wouldn’t be strange for others to notice the same abnormality as they did.
But was this really the reason why they were here?
Lazarus closed his eyes and looked away.
He didn’t move just yet. He activated [Mana Sense] and stared at their distant silhouettes. It was only once they were far away that he stopped channeling his mana into the lamp, allowing for the darkness to swallow them.
At the same time, he tugged in An’as’s direction, telling him to move.
An’as followed obediently as Lazarus alleviated the gravity around them, and they started to move up, slowly moving in the direction of where the two lords had gone.
The silence around them felt defeating, while the darkness felt isolating.
Swimming within the cold waters with no light in sight, Lazarus felt completely alone. And that was in spite of knowing that An’as was right behind him.
Something about the waters felt extremely eerie.
In order to distract himself from such thoughts, he maintained his focus on the two figures in the distance.
Everything was proceeding smoothly, but that wasn’t for long.
Flick!
“….!?”
As if a light switch had been flipped, a pale red glow suddenly flickered to life, casting long, distorted shadows as the city slowly started to come to life.
Lazarus immediately stopped the moment he noticed the changes, his entire body growing tense as An’as similarly stopped.
The two stood in shock as the corals and seaweed began to pulse with an eerie, lifelike rhythm. Tendrils slithered outward, growing longer, thicker, and coiling like serpents around the ruined buildings.
With each pulse, the grip tightened, stone groaning under the pressure. Cracks spiderwebbed across the structures, and from deep within, a faint red glow began to throb
It was as if the broken and forgotten city had suddenly pulsed with life.
But as if that wasn’t enough, the statues lying dormant on the seabed began to stir, eyes flickering to life, bodies creaking as they started to move.
Lazarus looked at the scene in surprise, the lamp in his hand flickering faintly.
Then—
Slowly but surely, the statues turned their heads in their direction, eyes wide and mouths open, stuck in their mid-scream position.
One, two, three… He soon began to lose count. But by that point, it no longer mattered.
Adding an extra one to a large number didn’t make things worse since the situation was already really bad.
Lazarus closed his eyes before opening them again.
‘That’s not good…’
***
At the same time, not far away.
Two figures zoomed through the water, their movements smooth and almost effortless. In spite of the darkness that was now slowly being replaced by a faint red light, the two of them were able to see without a problem.
Not only that.
They were also able to breathe and talk smoothly underwater.
This was the most basic of skills for two of the seven lords of the Crimson Sea.
“Hur, hur… How do you think they’ll fare?
“I don’t know, nor do I care.”
Anne replied, looking completely disinterested. She had one goal in coming down to the depths of the water, and that was to figure out the ones responsible for stirring the great primordial one and causing a red tide.
She couldn’t care less about the people above, but it was in her best interest for her to figure out the source of the problem and quickly quell it.
It was for this reason that she teamed up with Sylas.
“…You’re as cold as ever, but fair enough. I wanted to do something for them, but there’s no point. The city will take care of them.”
Anne raised her brow, but didn’t reply.
It wasn’t hard for her to see through the illusion skill used by the two people from before. Perhaps she would’ve struggled on land, but beneath the water, where her eyes could see through everything, the illusion was child’s play.
She also judged them to be investigators from the temple of the Goddess of Light.
It wasn’t within her interest to dispose of them.
…And even if she did want to get rid of them, the city would do that for her.
Like clockwork, the city stirred to life every twelve hours. With eerie timing, seaweed, coral, and strange sea creatures would rise from the depths of the city, slithering through the ruins with one purpose…. Consumption.
Anything in their path, from scattered stones to living flesh, was devoured without hesitation, their bodies slowly calcifying, turning everything into stone.
The statues beneath were the remains of the people who weren’t able to escape from the dread that lived within the submerged city that was once part of Virith-Anash, but had been swallowed by a red tide thousands of years ago.
“Where did you say you felt the presence? “
Coming to a stop, Anna scanned her surroundings, her gaze sweeping past the numerous broken buildings.
Looking down, she saw the statues slowly turn their heads in her direction, their hollow eyes and open mouths fixed on her.
Her face remained unmoved at the sight of her as she flicked her finger in the water, a long trail following shortly after as the head of the statue exploded.
“Hm?”
Sylas noticed her actions and raised his brow.
He soon shook his head while chuckling.
“And here I thought I was the hot-tempered one.”
“Shut up.”
“Hahaha.”
Sylas let out a sharp, mirthless laugh that rang through the gloom, the sound oddly out of place in the suffocating silence.
His eyes swept the ruined landscape with a strange calm until they settled on a certain landscape.
“Ah, there it is…”
Towering in the distance was a colossal pyramid, forged from black stone that seemed to drink in the light. Coral had infested its surface, growing in sharp, unnatural spires that jutted upward like the teeth of some ancient beast.
Their razor tips glinted faintly, pulsing with a dull red glow… almost like a heartbeat.
The corners of Sylas’s eyes curled at the sight of the gigantic pyramid in the distance as he nudged his head in Anne’s direction.
“Do you see it?”
“…I do, now.”
Anne pushed her body forward and moved towards the gigantic structure in the distance, her expression extremely serious.
Eventually coming to a stop before the structure, she looked up, her face slightly tense. Despite her strength, the place gave her an unsettling feeling.
This structure… It used to be the main temple that hosted the goddess of light.
In the aftermath of the red tide that engulfed half the city, the temple was gradually forgotten, its once-sacred halls left to decay in silence. Over time, it came to be known as the Temple of the Dying Light, a somber title that mirrored the severed link between the sanctuary and the goddess it once revered.
“You say it’s here?”
“…Yes.”
Sylas replied, his gaze falling onto the entrance of the structure.
Even with his eyes, he could hardly see more than a couple of meters ahead, the darkness within the temple swallowing everything that entered.
“Okay.”
Anne nodded, taking a step forward and entering the temple.
As she entered, the water around her chilled, and her expression turned even more serious. Within moments, the darkness enveloped her, swallowing every inch of her being, until there was nothing left but shadows.
Sylas traced her back with his eyes before eventually following from behind.
As he did, he smiled ambiguously, his gaze looking back.
The darkness eventually swallowed him, too.