(Written while listening to: "What Lies Beneath - Underwater horror ambience" by Robert Austin on YouTube)
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It appeared suddenly in Laito's scope of vision very suddenly.
From Laito's perspective it is a gigantic bulbous object surrounded by a veil of uncountable tentacles. It moved leisurely through the overbearing, dark water abyss.
The light from the Eternal City didn't reach there anymore and that was also the case for any illumination that could come from the surface.
At first Laito steeled himself for an encounter, slowing his ascent to recover more of his essence, but after a minute it appeared it wasn't necessary.
The creature was just passing. Its course goes sideways from the sole's light orb position.
Either it couldn't sense him, or it just didn't sense him YET. Laito in turn got interested in taking a closer look.
The constant feeling of disgust towards his environment didn't leave the round shaped teenager, but he now confirmed that this feeling was somehow less pronounced when targeted towards living beings.
He already noted this phenomenon when observing Flesh of Kanakht, but it could always be a fluke.
Now Laito had a comparison.
A big comparison.
Although it wasn't headed towards Laito's direct position, the abomination was still getting closer.
It was to judge its size, because of the distance but it was definitely big, big.
An underwater creature tended to be much bigger on average than its land counterparts.
The bulbous head and the swarm of tentacles that followed it made Laito have a reasonable suspicion that it was an octopus-type abomination… maybe a relative of Old Tom? A Nightmare Creature that harassed Sunny's adventure towards the Eternal City, only to die before even getting there.
But no. Old Tom was a clam-like being, with shells and stuff.
And whatever was there had no shell…
But as Laito was analyzing things in his mind, he noticed something different about it…
The creature had a humanoid body!
A gigantic humanoid body, at least a kilometre tall, maybe even taller, with only its head being an octopus.
'What in the heck of an oversized Davy Jones is that?' Laito asked himself shocked.
But then as its contours became even more discernible another revelation shook Laito to his core(which is not that deep since a core is all he is).
'It's a fatty!' It wasn't really a "fatty". But the abomination's humanoid part certainly wasn't athletic.
What Laito in fact realized is that its bodily proportions were that of an infant.
With short, stubby limbs, round body and skewed head-body size ratio with the octopus-like head being on the larger side.
'Have I found a baby monster?...' Laito asked himself a question.
'A chance!' Laito dashed towards the creature that would soon pass him by, with the realization that he might not be necessarily a prey in this scenario.
But a hunter.
The now giddy lightbulb remembered that typically a juvenile version of Nightmare Creatures had a much lower rank then its adult forms.
The most glaring example of that was Mountain King and its relation to Puppeteer Moth. The former was an Awakened Tyrant and the latter was a Cursed Tyrant.
The former was left behind by the latter also.
And it was weaker!
The logic was simple: if an abomination was too powerful… try attacking its spawn first.
The other examples were relations between Tyrants and their minions.
For Laito, a seemingly defenseless Nightmare Creature was a potential treasure trove!
The Soul Shards and a chance for a Memory!
Laito desperately needed those if he ever planned to make more Avatars… and he definitely did.
He wanted a proper human Avatar. And just imagining that he could increase its potential Aspect rank up to Divane made Laito salivate(figuratively cause no mouth).
At that height the gravity was no longer as powerful as it was before, so following the creature wasn't so difficult, since water offered Laito no resistance in movement.
He got closer… the fouled squidward-baby still didn't notice him.
Laito took it as a "go" sign.
The Dreamer-orb phased under the monster's skin.
As soon as he did that the world went dark for him. It made things slightly more difficult to navigate, but he still tried to head towards where he thought some important organs could be placed.
Like a heart, or brain for example… one of these would be perfect in hindsight.
But the place where Laito ended up emerging was…
A stomach.
And the insides of that stomach made Laito freeze in shock for a split second.
For the past day Laito's own body was the only source of light he experienced, but now, inside the belly of the beast:
There was another source of light.
And not only that…
There was also a human there.
A living one.
And as soon as Laito emerged from the stomach's membranous wall and focused his attention on the unsuspected human…
The human in question instantly turned from the fire he was tending to and looked straight at supposedly invisible Laito.
His eyes bloodshot, wide-open with a maddened glint to them.
He shouted with delirious fervor right in Laito's direction:
"AHH! PRAISE BE TO THE OLD GODS! MY TIME HAS COME AT LAST!!!" He declared as his spit flew in droplets out of his mouth only to get lost in his long, dirty beard.
'... Oh! He's talking! So maybe it's not a monster…' Laito hesitated from unleashing his attacks at the stranger.
"I am most definitely not a monster! Oh Old One! Praise be!" The deranged man replied.
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'Wait! You can hear my thoughts?!?' Laito thought, appaled at the notion.
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[16 months left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
My tipping jar: [email protected]/marasis (change "@" into "a")
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Author 's notes:
I damned myself into a plothole loop.
For that reason I am forced to retcon Steve's seal placing ability so it won't have a target rank restriction anymore.
By deleting a single word from a past chapter, MC's first avatar can now put his seals even on deities if he survives long enough to do that.
I also had to add an entire event to chapter 63; "Filthy Sea-bottom".
For reasons.
Basically: before escaping Eternal City, MC had a close encounter with a single flying infected part of Flesh of Kanakht and discovered by happy accident that he can use abilities of his Avatars in his main form.
I am ashamed that I have cornered myself into retconning the previous chapters, but I'd rather fix it as soon as possible, then try to work around it later while forcing things.
Sorry for the complications and see ya soon!