Chapter 25

The black waters of the Deep Sea District are colder than any void and older than any star. Shizuku, in his full dragon form—sleek, divine, and wrapped in bioluminescent scales—descends through liquid pressure thick enough to crush entire worlds. The abyss groans.

A low, reverberating call echoes from below. It doesn’t speak in words—it never has. But its roar feels like a question.

Who disturbs the eternal?

SHIZUKU (echoing telepathically):
I’m here for Eaura’s fragment.

She said I had to speak with you.
Shinkai Dragon Whale.

The trench floor glows with phosphorescent glyphs. From the depths, an impossibly large shape emerges. The Shinkai Dragon Whale, its eyes the size of cathedrals, its fins trailing ancient algae and stars forgotten by time, rises in silence. The water itself churns under its psychic pulse.

Another roar. Another unspoken message.

Prove your purpose. Prove your self. Prove your weight in waves.

SHIZUKU:
I am the Universal Emperor.
My breath has calmed typhoons. My tears have made seas.
But I don’t come to rule you.
I come to honor the current that flows through Meeresboden.
So test me.
If you must.

The Shinkai Dragon Whale’s maw opens slowly, revealing a core of ancient sigil-light, spinning like a maelstrom. The trench around them darkens completely. Even bioluminescence disappears. Shizuku is alone in total sensory deprivation.

Until—

—he is hurled into an illusion.

A vast, drowning ocean. His wings are gone. His voice muted. The water crushes his lungs, pulling his memories apart—Alto's laugh, Lily’s smile, Berwick's sarcasm—all ripped away in pieces.

SHIZUKU (thinking):
So this is your test.
Isolation. Ego-death.
You think I’ll drown in who I’m not.

He floats in the dark. But something glows within his chest—pale blue and steady. Memory. No, conviction.

The moment Alto held his hand under the moonlight of Minamo. The moment Lily was born. The battle where Berwick stood behind him without fear. His coronation. His first flight. The scars. The victories.

SHIZUKU (roaring):
I do not need my memories to know who I am.
I am Shizuku Mizuyari.
And you will NOT wash me away.

The darkness cracks. The illusion shatters. The trench becomes light once more.

The Shinkai Dragon Whale circles him, slower this time, ancient eyes blinking in silent acknowledgment. From the spiral on its back, a piece of water-solid crystal detaches and floats toward Shizuku. The Sigil Fragment of the Waves.

SHIZUKU (quietly):
Thank you.

The whale does not speak. It simply turns and sinks again, into the abyss from which it came. As it fades, the pressure lifts. The trench feels less heavy now.

SHIZUKU (to himself):
One more piece.
One more god.
One more step.

He ascends, fragment in hand, the ocean parting before him like it remembers him now.