“So let’s go over what we know,” I said, once Aerion had maneuvered the sub away from the tentacles, turning it right side up in the process. We were currently floating somewhere inside the whale’s vast belly. Having swallowed us, the whale was no longer thrashing around, and we figured it was safer in here than out there, where the thing would no doubt attack us again.

  Rogar was stable, having consumed more miracle water and was currently resting.

  “And what do we know?” Richard asked.

  “For one? This is a whale,” I replied. “Or something close enough to a whale that we can probably assume it shares similar anatomy. Sure, it’s about a hundred times larger than any natural whale, but it’s got the same basic shape. It’s got fins, the same sort of mouth and jaw, eyes on its sides, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I saw a blowhole on the top when it passed us by.”

  “That’s all well and good,” Richard said. He sat with his knees up to his chest on the ground in a corner. With this many people on board, there was barely a square inch of free space anywhere. “But what can we do with it?”

  “Well, if all the other parts are in the same place—barring stomach tentacles—it stands to reason its vitals are in the same spot, too, right?”

  Richard shook his head. “Been searching for a heart to burst, mate. Haven’t spotted a thing. Either we’re looking in the wrong place, or it’s out of my range. Either way, doubt I’ll have much success bursting something as strong as this beast.”

  I smiled. “Oh, I wasn’t talking about the heart. I was talking about its brain. And we know exactly where a whale’s brain is.”

  Lightbulbs went off in my friends’ eyes one by one, with Aerion being the first to grasp the full nature of my plan.

  “This will be quite dangerous,” Aerion said. “We’ll have to deal with significant currents if its mouth is open, all while being over the weight limit of our craft.”

  “I know,” I said. “But it’s a risk we’ll have to take. This is our best shot at taking this fucker down, and we’re in the perfect place.”

  “Er, someone mind elaborating?” Philip asked. “I admit, this is all a bit outside my area of expertise.”

  Richard jabbed a thumb at me. “Basically, this nutter wants us to fly the sub up the whale’s throat, then angle the sub up and punch through the roof of its mouth until we hit the whale’s brain. Er, its skull,” I added when Philip frowned.

  For the first time, I realized not everyone in this world had the same sort of knowledge modern science had given humans. For the longest time, people thought the heart was where the ‘soul’ resided, and where we got our consciousness from.

  Axius was more modern than medieval Europe in that regard—probably thanks to the knowledge past Champions brought with them—but even then, magic had stunted the development of a lot of what I’d have taken for granted in any developing society. Still, people knew things died when you struck them in the head. Not an especially difficult thing to figure out.

  “Not to alarm anyone, but I recommend we do whatever we’re about to do fast,” Aerion said with a concerned frown.

  I moved closer to her seat. “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “The submersible’s control levers are acting sluggish,” she said. “I’m worried something may have been damaged. It is difficult to say whether they’ll get any worse, but we should get to the surface as quickly as possible… Just in case.”

  “You heard her,” I said, turning to the others. “Any objections to this plan?”

  There was only silence.

  “Alright, then. Full power to the mouth! Let’s brain this motherfucker.”

  The way forward was pretty easy—dark, but easy—until the damn thing decided to open its colossal mouth. That upset the water, creating a strong current and an immense amount of turbulence, especially near the creature’s outer walls.

  That forced Aerion to keep the sub in the very center, and while that was hard enough on its own, the sluggish responses only made it harder.

  “It’s getting worse,” Aerion said, her fingers dancing between the levers to keep the sub oriented properly. If she failed, best case, we lost our progress and had to start over. Worst case, we hit a wall and took more damage. We couldn’t afford either.

  “Just stabilize the sub,” I said. “Don’t worry about—watch out!”

  From out of the blackness, an enormous object came flying at us at incredible speed.

  With godlike reflexes, Aerion flipped the controls, sending the sub careening end over end—and barely missing the massive fish or whatever it was.

  Then it was gone, traveling deeper into the whale’s belly, while Aerion corrected our sub’s orientation, getting us back on course.

  “Too close,” Aerion said, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead.

  “Tell me about it. Let’s just pray that one was the last.”

  The simpler the threat, the harder it tended to be to defend against, and massive objects hurtling at us were about as simple as threats got.

  Cosmo must have smiled upon us that day, because the whale shut its massive maw soon after gobbling its meal, and the current disappeared, allowing Aerion to dial back the sub’s power.

  We arrived at the entrance soon after.

  “If it opens its mouth again, I won’t be able to keep us in position,” Aerion said. “We need to point upward to shoot the torpedoes. The sub only has a propellor on the rear, so we’ll be swept away.”

  “Noted,” I said, glancing at the loaded torpedo tubes.

  “Chances are good our attack causes the whale to writhe,” Philip said. “I’d bet good it’ll open its mouth the moment we do.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I was thinking the same,” I replied. “Which is why, Aerion? I want you to send us full speed ahead the moment the torpedoes impact. We all know how much damage those things cause—even if it doesn’t punch all the way through the skull, it’ll make an opening. One we can hide in. This way, even if the current does push us, we’ll be pushed against that small hole, which we can then widen. We’ll use the same hole to fly out once we’ve finished the job. Can you do that?”

  Aerion nodded. “Assuming we can get inside before the current surges, yes.”

  “Then we’ll just have to time this perfectly,” I said, placing a hand on the 1st Aural Siege Bolt and Initializing it. At 8 Essence a pop and my Essence at 398/410 prior to Initialization, I didn’t actually have enough to Initialize both, but that was fine. These things were devastating enough on their own. Giving it a bit of extra oomph should be all we needed to punch a big first hole.

  “Everyone ready?”

  “As we’ll ever be,” Richard muttered. “I’ll be on the lookout for any squishy bits I can burst on our way in.”

  “Appreciated,” I said with a nod. “Alright then. Aerion? Mind doing the—actually, hold up. Think it might be better if Philip launched the torps. Y’know, to get the credit.” I glanced down at Rogar, but the blacksmith wasn’t getting up any time soon. I somehow doubted it would count if we put Rogar’s hand on it and pulled the lever for him. These Trials seemed to be pretty good about guarding against cheats and shortcuts that weren’t explicitly intended to be there.

  “Then, with your permission…” Philip said, glancing at Aerion sitting in the pilot’s seat beside him, who nodded back.

  “Fire the left one first,” she said. “Then wait about five seconds before firing the other.

  “Firing!” Philip announced, before pulling the lever. The torpedo whooshed out of its tube, followed soon after by the other.

  There was nothing but silence for a moment as the slow-moving projectiles penetrated the inky blackness.

  Then the sound hit us. Dulled by distance and changed by water, the sound of destruction came through loud and clear, and the System Messages I’d been looking out for appeared.

  Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon] has leveled up from Foundation - 0 to Foundation - 2!

  Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon] has been destroyed. 8 Essence reclaimed.

  “Now!” I muttered, fist clenched against Aerion’s chair, but I shouldn’t have bothered. As always, Aerion was one step ahead, having already pushed the thrust lever full forward. The sub lurched toward what we hoped was a brand new hole in the whale’s side.

  We couldn’t know until we got closer, but the cloud of blood was definitely a good sign. Well, not so much for Aerion, who had to navigate blind right into that using nothing more than where she thought the hole might be.

  “Richard! Philip! You’re up!”

  The two men worked as quickly as they could in the cramped space, loading another set of torpedoes, of which I Initialized one.

  Turned out Aerion’s instincts were damn near perfect, because we sailed right into the fresh hole our torpedoes had made. If she’d been even slightly off, we’d have slammed right into the whale’s walls, and while anything made of flesh didn’t sound too hard, this thing might as well have been made of concrete. I doubted our glass canopy would’ve survived the collision.

  A great bellowing roar sounded from all around us. It was louder and more strained than last time, and not just because we were closer to the source.

  “Think we hit it where it hurts,” I said. “Everyone brace against something. This won’t be pretty.”

  Sure enough, the whale’s maw opened, sending a torrent of water through its gullet. The current affected us, too, but as I’d hoped, it only served to press us against the wound we’d just opened. And, thanks to it being a new wound, the flesh here was actually soft, cushioning our impact.

  The whale’s wails continued, seemingly without end.

  “It’s not stopping!” Philip cried after a full thirty seconds had passed.

  “We must be getting close!” I shouted. “Philip, fire the left torpedo. One or two more and I think we’ll have it!”

  “It’s too dangerous!” Richard cried. “You sure we’ve got the distance to make this safe?”

  With the right half of our sub buried against the whale’s flesh, only the left tube was safe to fire. Even that was a bit close for comfort, but we’d shot a bunch of these things by now—I was familiar with their range.

  “Aerion?” I asked.

  “It is our only hope,” she said with a nod. “Do it.”

  Philip pulled the lever, but the whoosh was masked by the whale’s cries. I almost felt bad for the thing. Unlike Cyrus, who attacked us for his own personal reasons, this thing was just going about its life. I doubted it was sapient or harbored any ill will against us.

  Still, it was its life against ours, and this was a battle for survival. We heard the torpedo impact, but this time, it was accompanied by the abrupt and immediate cessation of another sound. It took us a moment to realize what had just happened.

  Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon] has leveled up from Foundation - 0 to Foundation - 2!

  Aural Siege Bolt [Uncommon] has been destroyed. 8 Essence reclaimed.

  “The whale’s cries,” Richard muttered. “They’ve stopped!”

  Sure enough, a stream of minimized messages flew past my HUD, and when Aerion brought the sub forward, we didn’t find the usual red mist we’d been surrounded in. That was still there, of course, but bits of something occasionally smacked into the canopy, leaving red marks. It didn’t take us long to figure out what.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Richard said, suddenly looking very ill. To be honest, so did I.

  “Keep it in you,” I said, turning away from the gruesome sight. “At least until we get topside. Aerion? Mind getting us out of this?”

  Aerion’s face had drained of all color, and she looked stricken as she stared at the bits of brain matter that floated by.

  Seeing her in that state had the weird effect of calming me down.

  I was about to call her name to snap her out of it, but stopped. That’s what I would’ve done before. Instead, I put a gentle hand on her shoulder from behind and squeezed, resting my forehead on the back of her head.

  “You okay?” I asked softly.

  Aerion jolted at the contact, but didn’t wiggle away. She nodded imperceptibly. “I am now,” she said before turning and giving me a smile. “Thank you.”

  I just nodded back awkwardly before clearing my throat. I was really going to have to get used to this new dynamic between us.

  “Why, uh, why won’t we try firing another torpedo?” I asked. “Think one or two more ought to punch us through.”

  “Right,” Aerion said. “Philip? If you wouldn’t mind?”

  “On it,” Philip replied, but was interrupted by another voice.

  “Forgotten about old me, have you?”

  We all turned to see Rogar sitting up, massaging his head.

  “You’re back!” Richard said.

  Rogar scowled. “I was never gone, you dolt! Now, somebody help me up. Got a bomb to load.”

  I was about to tell the blacksmith to get some rest, but I knew he’d ignore me.

  And so this time, Rogar loaded both tubes and fired, thus earning his keep. Hopefully.

  Twin impacts sounded out, and this time, a whoosh of current carried us forward. Aerion let it, sending us out of the hole we’d just blasted through the whale’s skull.

  In just moments, we were out, sailing through the inky black ocean.

  “Aerion?” I said, squeezing her shoulder. “Take us up.”

  I’d had enough diving for a lifetime. Or ten. Yet when I peeked at those System messages, I found it all but impossible to wipe stupid grin off my face.

  Congratulations! [Initializer] (Epic) has leveled up from Divergence - 1 to Divergence - 2!

  Congratulations! [Initializer] (Epic) has leveled up from Divergence - 2 to Divergence - 3!

  Maybe deep, dark abysses weren’t so bad, after all.