Happy Fields

The ship lifted off from the scarecrow world in silence, the fields shrinking into a patchwork of gold and black beneath them. Tanuki sat in the pilot’s chair, his hands still tight on the controls, the memory of stitched grins and rustling straw lingering in his mind. The fragment of black twine pulsed faintly in his inventory, a reminder that whatever they had fought wasn’t truly gone. Atlas leaned back with a heavy sigh, his hammer resting across his knees. “That planet was cursed. I don’t care what the quest board says, we’re not going back.” NV brushed straw from her cloak, her expression sharp. “It wasn’t cursed. It was controlled. Someone built those things, and someone wanted us to find that seal.” Tanuki didn’t respond. He stared out at the stars, the unease in his chest refusing to fade.

The star map flickered, highlighting their next destination: a planet called Thalyss, marked as a high‑risk exploration zone. The description was sparse: Oceanic world. Submerged ruins. Unknown hostiles. Atlas raised an eyebrow. “Water planet. Hope you can swim.” NV smirked. “Or drown. Either way, it’ll be entertaining.”

The ship descended into Thalyss’s atmosphere, the viewport filling with endless waves that shimmered under a pale blue sun. There were no continents, only scattered islands of jagged stone and the ruins of structures half‑submerged in the sea. They landed on one such island, the ground slick with salt and seaweed, the air heavy with the roar of waves.

Tanuki stepped out, the spray of saltwater stinging his face. The ruins stretched before them, arches of coral‑encrusted stone, stairways that led down into the depths, carvings worn smooth by centuries of tide. The HUD marked faint quest signals below the surface. Atlas adjusted his armor, grinning. “Guess we’re going diving.” NV activated her gauntlet, its glow illuminating the water. “Let’s see what’s hiding under the waves.”

They descended into the ruins, the water cold and heavy around them. Strange shapes moved in the depths, figures that looked human at first, but their limbs were too long, their eyes glowing faintly in the dark. As they swam closer, the creatures turned, revealing faces carved from coral, their mouths opening in silent screams. The ocean around them vibrated with a low hum, as though the ruins themselves were alive.

Tanuki drew a Tarot, his daggers transforming into tridents that glowed with pale light. The first creature lunged, its coral claws scraping against his armor, and he struck back, the water swirling with shards of light. Atlas swung his hammer in slow, powerful arcs, the force of each blow sending shockwaves through the sea. NV darted between them, her gauntlet pulsing with bursts of starlight that cut through the murk.

The battle was disorienting, every movement slowed by the water, every strike muffled. But when the last creature dissolved into fragments of coral, the ruins grew still again. Tanuki floated in the silence, his chest heaving, the pale light of his tridents fading. He looked deeper into the ruins, where a massive archway loomed, its carvings glowing faintly with runes. Something waited beyond it, something older than the scarecrows, older than the guardians of Veyra or Eryndor.

Atlas swam up beside him, his expression grim. “That’s not just a ruin. That’s a door.” NV’s eyes narrowed. “And doors are meant to be opened.”

Tanuki stared at the archway, the weight of the ocean pressing down on him. He thought of Celeste’s warnings, of the storm she said was coming, and for the first time he wondered if every planet they visited wasn’t just a quest, but a piece of something larger. Something pulling him toward a truth he wasn’t ready to face.

The ruins of Thalyss stretched beneath the waves like the bones of a drowned civilization. Columns encrusted with coral rose from the seabed, arches half‑collapsed under centuries of tide, and stairways spiraled downward into darkness. The water was cold and heavy, pressing against their armor as Tanuki, Atlas, and NV swam deeper, their HUDs flickering with faint quest markers.

The silence was oppressive, broken only by the sound of their own movements. Strange fish darted through the ruins, their scales glowing faintly, but they scattered whenever the trio drew near. The deeper they went, the more the ruins seemed to hum with a low vibration, as though the stone itself remembered voices long gone.

Atlas pointed toward a collapsed temple, its entrance framed by statues of humanoid figures with elongated limbs and coral crowns. “That’s where the signal’s strongest,” he said, his voice muffled through the comms.

They pushed inside, the water thick with silt. The temple’s interior was vast, its walls covered in carvings of waves swallowing cities, of creatures with too many eyes rising from the depths. At the center of the chamber was an altar, and upon it lay a crystalline shard that pulsed with a deep, oceanic glow.

Tanuki swam closer, his daggers drawn instinctively. The shard seemed to call to him, its light refracting across the water like a heartbeat. His HUD identified it: Abyssal Core Fragment. Rare material. Properties unknown.

NV’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not just loot. That’s a trigger.”

Atlas frowned. “Trigger for what?”

Before anyone could answer, Tanuki reached out and touched the shard. The moment his fingers brushed its surface, the ruins shuddered violently. The carvings on the walls lit up with pale blue light, and the low hum became a roar. The water around them vibrated, and from the depths beyond the temple, something stirred.

The ground split, sending clouds of silt into the water. A shadow moved in the distance, vast and slow, its outline impossible to comprehend. Then an eye opened—an eye larger than the temple itself, glowing with ancient fury. The leviathan rose, its body coiling through the ruins, scales like jagged cliffs, fins that stretched like sails. Its maw opened, revealing rows of teeth the size of ships, and the water itself seemed to recoil from its presence.

“Move!” Atlas shouted, grabbing Tanuki’s arm. The leviathan surged forward, the current from its movement slamming them against the temple walls. NV fired bursts of starlight from her gauntlet, the beams striking its scales but leaving only faint scorch marks. Tanuki drew a Tarot, his daggers transforming into harpoons that glowed with the shard’s energy. He hurled one, the weapon piercing the leviathan’s hide, but the creature barely flinched.

The ruins collapsed around them as the leviathan thrashed, its body tearing through stone like paper. They swam desperately, dodging falling debris, the water filled with the sound of grinding stone and the leviathan’s deafening roar. Tanuki discarded another card, drawing one that mirrored Atlas’s strength. His harpoons flared brighter, and when he struck again, the leviathan recoiled slightly, its eye narrowing.

“It feels that,” Tanuki gasped.

“Not enough,” NV snapped, dodging a sweep of the creature’s tail that shattered an entire column.

The leviathan circled them, its massive body blotting out what little light filtered from above. Tanuki clutched the shard tighter, its glow searing against his palm. He realized it wasn’t just a material; it was a key, a fragment of whatever bound the leviathan to these ruins. By taking it, he had broken the seal.

The creature lunged again, its jaws snapping shut just short of them, the current dragging them backward. Atlas swung his hammer with all his strength, striking the leviathan’s snout, while NV unleashed a concentrated blast of starlight into its eye. The leviathan roared, the sound vibrating through their bones, and for a moment it retreated into the depths, its massive form vanishing into the dark.

The ruins were collapsing, the temple crumbling into rubble. Tanuki clutched the shard, his chest heaving. “We need to get out. Now.”

They swam upward, the water churning violently as the leviathan’s shadow followed beneath them. The surface shimmered faintly above, but the distance felt endless. The leviathan surged again, its body coiling upward, and Tanuki felt its gaze lock onto him, as though it knew he was the one who had awakened it.

They broke the surface at last, gasping for air as they scrambled onto the jagged rocks of the island. The sea erupted behind them, the leviathan’s massive head rising from the waves, water cascading from its scales. Its roar shook the sky, and then it sank back into the depths, leaving only ripples that spread endlessly across the ocean.

Atlas collapsed onto the rocks, his armor dripping. “That… was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.”

NV sat beside him, her expression grim. “And it’s not dead. It’s awake now. Whatever seal was holding it is gone.”

Tanuki stared at the shard in his hand, its glow dimmer now but still pulsing faintly. He felt the weight of it pressing down on him, heavier than any weapon. Celeste’s warnings echoed in his mind: Some places bleed into something else. Be careful where you step.

He closed his fist around the shard, the sound of the leviathan’s roar still ringing in his ears. For the first time, he wondered if their journey wasn’t just about quests and loot, but about waking things that were never meant to be disturbed.