All Hail the Primitive Sea Monarch

One would think no one would dare to venture to the deepest, darkest, deadliest pits of the seven seas, but alas, like the winged pests they were, the gods always had to prove me wrong.

At first, I had assumed the faint rumble was a natural earthquake.

But it happened again… and again… and again… each time louder than the last.

I twitched a finger but still allowed it to slide. Perhaps it was some mere racket from those leviathans around here. They did tend to make quite a commotion once every few centuries.

No matter. A simple noise should scare them away.

A quiet sigh escaped me. 

The sound slithered through my entangled veins and spread out in my flooded, pitch-black chamber. Luminescent green spots dotting my skin rose and fell into a rhythm as the sound traveled, crumbling my walls and chipping away some stone fragments into the watery space.

Another rumble ensued. It was from me this time.

It wasn’t long until the peaceful silence returned, and I gradually started drifting away once more…

…Hm?

Hold on.

My veins had returned a new signal: there was another light across the hall. A golden light, accompanied by a strong presence of a few individuals.

How curious. Something was refusing to be washed by the tides, it seemed.

I redirected my web vessels toward the glowing threshold with the slight tap of my index finger.

The next moment came as a blur.

Before I knew it… I winced? Hm?

My vessels… had been burned off? By the light? What?

For the first time in eons, something stirred a physical reaction out of me.

This blinding, burning, irritating light… It felt… familiar. Where did I see this before again?

…Oh, right… Now I remembered. It was—

My door crashed open. The door separating me from the outside world, the door no one could possibly open… had been reduced to a pile of rocks and joined the floating debris among the rest. Just like that?

My veins violently pulsated and twitched around, delivering a scorching, sizzling pain back to me. I had to pull them back as more and more of that invading light continued to pour into my halls until it completely drove away the darkness that had comforted me for so, so long.

I hissed and clenched onto the edge of my nest.

“Greetings, Empress Ophea.”

I scrunched up my face and ever so slowly opened my eyes.

Oh? Well, if it wasn’t free food. Three of them, in fact: a human, another human with wings, and a red, scaly humanoid with a lizard head. They ever so boldly swam toward me with an interesting gleam in their eyes.

Except for the winged one. That one trembled the moment his blue eyes met mine.

Still hopelessly groggy, baring my teeth was all I could do at this moment, hoping these intruders got the idea of my current mood.

The utter audacity to wake me up, break into my den, and act as if they knew me. Someone was going to die today.

My gills flicked open, and I straightened my back until my horns grazed the ceiling. I stretched out my claws and opened my mouth wide.

“Eager to be devoured, aren’t you?” I sneered, my voice booming through the hall. “Very well. I shall make it quick.”

My nest began to crack under my grip. I hunched over and sprouted dark green tentacles, lined with sharp suction cups, out of my back with a loud snap.

“Wait, wait, waaaiiit! We come in peace!” shouted the food with wings, throwing his hands up.

I wasted no time slamming my limbs straight at them, but they all quickly swam away in time. How irritating.

“I thought you said the monarch is calm and rational?!” the winged food cried. “What part of this is ‘calm and rational?!’”

The other wingless food, the one with scaly skin, opened a small book and frantically flipped some pages. “I-I swear it’s true!” he stammered. “The book said so right here! They haven’t let us down so far!”

“Then explain this?!”

The third food rubbed her chin and whistled, simply standing there in awe. “Wow, she really is pretty huge,” she said, looking up and down at my head. “What a sight!”

“Now’s not the damn time to admire monsters!”

The scaly food cursed under his breath and put his book away. “J-Just focus, you two!” he shouted. “Caelo, do the thing!”

“R-Right!” The winged food whipped out a golden staff and raised it high over his head, casting a blinding light. It was the same power that burned me a moment ago.

That frustratingly familiar light once again knocked back my tentacles with barely any effort at all.

…There was only one type of magic that could pull this off.

Holy magic, huh? This trembling little thing waving his fancy stick couldn’t be a god. They wouldn’t be bothered to leave their thrones to aid the landwalkers, let alone dive so deep underwater just to annoy me.

A priest perhaps? No, they wouldn’t have wings and wear a silver crown shaped like leaves.

…Oh, right. Angels existed. The fog inside my head began to clear up.

At this point, I gripped the edges of my nest so hard it shattered under my palms, releasing another loud rumble through my den.

“You, of all the hundreds of species out there, dare to invade my final resting place?” I snarled. “I thought I’d made my surrender clear.”

“Well, y-y-yeah, but… th-that was, well, centuries ago… I-I mean, the Three Tides War is already long over, and… uh…” The angel lowered his voice and kept mumbling incoherently.

…Was this wimp really a servant of god?

“Speak up,” I demanded.

“Eek!” The angel jolted and gripped his staff tighter.

The scaly food swam forward and raised an arm in front of him. “We offer you our sincerest apologies for disturbing your slumber, Your Majesty.”

He bowed deeply before kneeling before me. “My name is Aestus Vragnolith, and my companions and I come bearing a warning from the outside world: the Eldran is preparing to invade your territory.”

I squinted. “The… Eldran?”

The food cleared his throat. “They’re an alien lifeform that has been devouring, mutating, and killing every living being in its path and spreading rapidly. They… they’ve already claimed several continents of Luvallis, and it’s only a matter of time until they come after you.”

…Huh, was that true?

Now that I thought about it, I did happen to notice that recently, some strange mold had been trying to eat up my veins out there. I’d brushed them off as merely some disposed alchemist’s experiment.

Nevertheless…

“Why should I concern myself with it?” I asked, opening my jaw. “They are still no match for me.”

“We acknowledge your might, Your Majesty,” said the scaly food. “But the Eldran you may have encountered so far was but merely a small fraction of their full power. Eventually, they may return with an even stronger creature to attack you.”

“And what makes them any different from you insolent pests?” I slammed a claw down, rupturing the floor. “You landwalkers are the ones to break in and awaken me. You appear more of a nuisance than they are!”

“We are aware, and we once again express our regrets for doing so. We will leave immediately as you wish, but, Your Majesty…” He lifted his chin and stared directly into my eyes. “There is one extremely crucial difference between us landwalkers and the Eldran.”

“What is that?”

“That unlike us, they shall show you no respect.”

As if on perfect cue, a screeching howl echoed through the halls. The three food glanced over their shoulders, and I raised my head to catch a glimpse of a purple light zooming outside the darkness beyond the entrance.

At the corners of the entrance’s threshold, glowing purple mold began to creep in, coating the threshold in its wake.

Barely seconds later, a massive leviathan crashed through, covered in the same mold and infested with mutant leeches.

It roared and slammed its tail through my columns, destroying even more than what the landwalkers did, and sped toward me without another moment’s hesitation.