Chapter 103: Escaping the Ocean Floor

Ty, trapped at the ocean's dark and crushing depths, felt the relentless pressure threatening to tear him apart. The barrier encasing him refused to yield, its unbreakable nature amplifying his sense of desperation.

But in the suffocating darkness, a sudden burst of light cut through the gloom. A golden aura blade, the same Kama blade he had acquired at the Cathedral, jetted towards him with blinding speed, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound.

In a moment of intense relief and surprise, the blade struck the barrier, shattering it into countless fragments that drifted away into the abyss.

Now free but still deep under the ocean, Ty struggled to maintain the integrity of his body. The immense pressure continued to bear down on him, causing his flesh to break down and his bones to ache under the strain.

He cursed, his mind racing to comprehend the rapidly changing situation. Fear, once rooted in the dark abyss around him, was momentarily replaced by an urgent need to survive and understand how the Kama blade had become his unexpected savior in such a critical moment.

As Ty lay submerged in the depths, a faint voice pierced the silence, beckoning him with an urgent whisper, "Hurry up and grab me." With great effort, he raised his hand, now a grisly sight of torn flesh and exposed blackened skeleton.

His movements were slow; each inch forward was a battle against the relentless pressure of the deep. Finally, with a trembling, skeletal hand, he reached out and grasped the metal blade.

The moment his skin made contact with the blade, his mind was assaulted by a deluge of horrific visions.

He saw planets being obliterated in a spree of destruction, and more disturbingly, he witnessed Erebos in a brutal rampage, mercilessly slaughtering everyone he cared about.

From Todd and Nana to his loved ones back on Earth, no one was spared in these gruesome scenes.

Top of Form

As moments passed, the man leisurely smoking his cigarette, levitating some 40-50 feet in the air, gazed off into the distance. A sense of surprise tinged his voice as he remarked, "Wow, I didn't expect to lose so many of our men, but who is that orange guy? I can't say I recall seeing him before?" His casual demeanor belied the underlying concern about the unfamiliar presence on the battlefield.

Pondering the situation, he mused aloud, "Will I need to seal someone else?" But his contemplation was abruptly interrupted. Ty burst from the water's surface, now in his pure black skeleton form. The moonlight cast a shimmering glow on Ty's darkened bones, creating an eerie, almost spectral appearance.

Ty, driven by a fierce determination, launched himself towards the floating man, his skeletal form cutting through the night air.

He threw punches and kicks with all the force he could muster, but the man effortlessly glided away, evading each attack. To Ty's frustration, some strikes seemed to phase right through the man's body, dissipating into short puffs of cloud that were barely visible in the darkness.

The man, unfazed by Ty's assault, taunted him. "Try what you want; nothing you have can hurt me," he said, just before landing a sharp upward strike to Ty's skeletal jaw. The impact sent shivers of excruciating pain throughout Ty's form.

Unrelenting, the man continued his onslaught, delivering blow after blow to Ty, each hit fueling his mocking tirade. "So what if you have a strong body that can regenerate? What good does it do when you can't even fight back?"

As the man dived in and out of Ty's counterattacks, the frustration and anger within Ty mounted. The man's blows kept coming, relentless and precise, each one chipping away at Ty's resilience. Gradually, the green hue in Ty's eyes began to fade, giving way to an intensifying orange glow.

In the midst of this brutal exchange, a voice penetrated Ty's mind, clear and focused, urging him, "Grab me." Almost simultaneously, a second, more unhinged voice whispered, "Let yourself go to me."

These conflicting voices echoed in Ty's mind, each offering a different path forward. Ty, amidst the pain and chaos, found himself at a crossroads, the voices symbolizing the choices that lay before him: to grasp at control or to surrender to an unknown, possibly darker force.