We all brace ourselves, pulling our limbs in tight as the ocean around us transforms into a pressure cooker.
Even though we are tucked safely inside the massive, impenetrable fortress of Lady Bestie's coiled body, my heart is hammering so loudly against my ribs I can hear it over the roaring current.
I can't see a single thing past the towering walls of her armored scales.
But whatever is coming is so monstrously powerful that now even I can sense it—a mortal with no deep-sea tracking abilities. The water isn't just moving; it is violently vibrating, humming with a frequency that makes my teeth rattle and my bones ache despite the massive shield protecting us.
And then, breaking through the muffled static of the crushing deep-sea pressure, a sound rips through the water. It's a manly, frantically panicked, and desperately rough voice raw with agonizing fear:
"SERELYTH!!"
Huh? Serelyth?!
