The mist cleared.
The Leviathan's body faded into glittering mana, the last roar still ringing in the sky like a warning.
Cezar leaned over the ship's edge, brows furrowed. "That was too easy."
Tonio looked up from a glowing shard he picked off the deck. "No... it was dying before we even got here."
Rayan, soaked and still coughing seawater, blinked. "Wait... we didn't kill it?"
Yeon, still tangled in rigging, whispered dramatically, "Something else got to it first."
Just then, the sky darkened—not from clouds, but from silence.
A shadow flickered over the ocean. A black ripple.
Far off, something massive moved beneath the waves. No form, no sound—just presence.
Their ship creaked as if it knew. The captain dropped his pipe. "By the gods... that's not a sea beast."
A gust of unnatural wind brushed past them, cold and heavy. The water sizzled where it touched.
Then, a distant voice echoed—not from the sea, but from inside their heads:
"You were never the prey.
You were the bait."
Everyone went silent.
Back at the Guild, the receptionist dropped her pen as a message etched itself across the mission board in burning letters:
"THE SLEEPER WAKES.
THE SKY WILL BLEED."
Rayan exhaled. "...Okay, maybe school wasn't that bad."
To be continued,