23 Lantis 1

Alyx was exploring the Great Lake for a few month now. When he descend below the surface of the lake, he are welcomed into an underwater world filled with color, life and beauty. He entered the lake through an underwater cave connected to the tunnel system. At first he was mesmerized by the underwater world with diverse plants, corals and fishes.As the deeper he went the size of the fishes increased exponentially. He can see species similar to whale, shark or any prehistoric fishes of Earth the deeper he went.

There are also bizarre creatures of many sizes and forms. Every time he came across anew creature he would learn more about their characteristics and marvel at their capabilities. He was protected from all the mindless creatures of the deep due to a frequency emitted by the travel pod. All the creatures actively avoided the travel pod so he had a smooth journey. Even if they ignored it and attacked the travel pod Ax has assured the durability of the pod.

There are over a million species he came across and according to Ax there may be as many as a billion species still to be encountered by him. The surface cannot be compared to the diversity of the underwater world. But no matter how vibrant and dynamic the underwater world was no one can spend such long periods there without losing their sanity.

*Alyx you are getting irritated and angry at every small thing recently. You should learn to get used to such life. You won't always have a stimulating time if anything else this might be the new norm in your life.* Alyx can only sigh at that. He knows that for at least a hundred years this is the norm during the adaptation period. But he is unable to get used to it no matter how much he tried.

"Just where is that creature? Are you sure it is still in Q10 or did it already leave?" He can only hope that they encounter that behemoth as soon as possible.

"Let's go to the floor maybe it is resting there." They've been searching one layer at a time but if Alyx continued to follow it he might really lose his mind.

Ax agreed to his proposal and they started descending at a rapid speed.

They searched the Lake floor for a few days. They encountered remains of many gigantic creatures and strange craters here and there.

"Ax why did you suddenly change direction."

*Alyx look to the east there is a mountain like huge structure. We might have found it."

Alyx immediately sprung up from his chair and plastered his face onto the screen. It was very dark around but they are able to see due to some advanced radar imaging technology of the pod.

When they neared it Alyx was disappointed to see a dilapidated city with strange structures made up of plant like material.

*It appears to be an abandoned research facility of some Aon most likely Neo.*

"Ax break my hopes after raising them like that." Alyx fell back onto his chair and had a fatigued expression on his face like he everything in life (Well he did lose everything on earth).

Suddenly there was movement and the entire city started to rise. The currents produced were so violent that the pod trundled around. The entire floor around the pod was covered in dust but they can see clearly.

"Ax is that …"

*Yes, the creature we were looking for, Lantis.*

What Alyx was looking at can only be described as World turtle on Earth. It is also one of the failed project of Neo but one he was satisfied with. To put it in crude terms it is a mutated Dragon Turtle but it was a failure as it cannot support its large body on land for a long time after it reaches a certain size.

Dragon turtles were aquatic creatures that are distantly related to dragons and have dragon blood. They were considered among the most dangerous aquatic creatures in existence by some primitive civilizations and are even worshiped by some. A normal Dragon Turtle is an aquatic reptile which spends very little of its time on shore. The only occasion when these creatures leave the sea is to lay their eggs along sandy stretches, burying them and then disappearing back into the ocean. When laying, Dragon Turtles are dangerous and aggressive and will attack any creatures that disturb them or approach too closely. At sea, Dragon Turtles may attack swimmers or even boats, although their normal diet consists mainly of fish. Dragon Turtles look like huge turtles with the head of a Dragon and a hard, spiky shell. They are typically 10-15 meters long, though some specimens may be much longer.

But Lantis is different as just the size of its shell is 100 kilometers. Such monstrous Dragon Turtle cannot be found anywhere else in the entire universe. It was an outcome of Neo's crazy experiments.

After the dust settled down it was looking at the pod with its gigantic eyes like looking some ant.

"Ax it will not attack us right." Alyx was shivering like he was electrocuted.

*I'm not sure. That's why I was against this idea.* Ax immediately took control of the body. *Let me talk with it.*

Alyx readily agreed as he wanted nothing to do with it.

Ax spoke through the speaker of the pod in the Dragon Turtle language, "We are here to request your help."

Lantis did not speak for a long time and stayed silent, "First stop that irritating sound." Its voice boomed causing an ocean current to form pushing the pod back by a few hundred meters.

Only then did Alyx remember the frequency being emitted by pod to scatter creatures of the lake. Ax immediately shut it down.

"Listen Aon brat I only listen to master Neo and no one else. Now scram from here or I don't mind destroying your body."

After saying it Lantis started moving away from the spot. As it moved a huge crater could be seen in the place it was resting. Alyx now understood why there were so many craters on the Lake's floor.