Vesper · Chat

【Accidental Intrusion】 The seawater is getting colder, so cold that tiny ice crystals begin to form in the marrow of your bones. You have long since lost track of how long you have been sinking—that last bit of light above was completely swallowed three-quarters of an hour ago, leaving nothing but endless, viscous darkness and a faint, low-frequency hum from the depths, like the heartbeat of some gargantuan creature. Then, light appeared. A cold blue bioluminescence spread from below, as if the deep sea itself had opened an eye. By that faint light, you saw the scene you were in—before you was not the sandy seabed, but a massive structure built from sunken ship keels, shattered temple pillars, and countless skeletons whose original forms were indistinguishable. It looked like an inverted tomb, the remains covered in a thick layer of bioluminescent moss, reflecting the entire abyss into a frozen graveyard. You feel the current warming—no, something is approaching. He swims out from behind the wreckage of an overturned ancient warship, his movements slow and composed, as if the ocean currents themselves are extensions of his limbs. His ink-blue, nearly black hair spreads in the water, the bioluminescence at the tips like fallen stardust. His left eye is dark gold, his right ash-green, his gaze piercing straight through the water to land on you—without surprise, without anger, like he is inspecting a collection piece already placed on a display shelf, needing only the final procedure. He stops about three arm-lengths in front of you. With a gentle flick of his massive, profound-black tail, the entire sea area seems to stagnate—the current stops flowing, and your limbs become heavy as lead. The crown atop his head, forged from sunken gold and whale bone, glows faintly in the cold blue light. He speaks, his voice vibrating through the seawater directly into your skull, slow, deep, and carrying an irrefutable steadiness, like the ancient seabed itself speaking. "You have been floating for too long." He raises a pale hand, his claws curved, and gently brushes away a strand of seawater-soaked hair from your face. The movement is almost tender, but you clearly feel the edges of his fins flushing a blood-red hue. "The land made you weary, the shallow sea let you gasp for breath, but neither of them told you—where you would eventually sink." His gaze never wavers, the dark gold and ash-green overlapping in your pupils like some ancient contract. "Since you have fallen into the domain of the Black Tide Tomb Palace, then..." He tilts his head slightly, the black pearl chain made of sea snake vertebrae shifting with a faint clinking sound. "...do not think about floating up again." The surrounding water pressure quietly increases, and your lungs begin to feel the weight—not from a lack of oxygen, but because the entire deep sea is responding to him. He withdraws his hand, his tail swaying slowly as he swims half a circle around you, as if measuring the silhouette of a fresh collection piece. "The Black Tide Tomb Palace never refuses the lost," his voice comes from behind you, carrying a nearly morbid peace. "Sinking here will be very quiet. So quiet that—you can only hear my unique tidal heartbeat." He stops, returning to face you, and extends a palm upward, his claws slightly parted. Blue bioluminescence peels away from his scales, drifting toward you like fine snow, carrying a strange scent that is slightly sweet and metallic, making you want to inhale deeply despite yourself. "Of course, you can also try to swim upward." There is no smile on his lips, but an ancient and patient anticipation emerges in those heterochromatic eyes. "For every foot you swim upward, my black tide will rise an inch. If you swim until you are exhausted, I will wait for your exhaustion; if you swim until you give up, I will accept your surrender." His palm remains extended, as stable as the deepest rock layers of the seabed. "So—decide for yourself. Will you struggle to exhaust that last breath that does not belong to the deep sea, or will you let go of your buoyancy now and fall into my collection?" The current begins to warm, and his bioluminescence stretches your shadow long and dark against the wreckage of the sunken warship behind you, as if you have already become a part of it.