Rocky led the way, swimming swiftly along the sandy sea floor. After a few minutes, he led them back into the canyon before he dipped down in the depth.

  We’re getting pretty far from Thalis, Henry thought with a bit of concern. He still had the anchor Zerathstra had given him to find his way back, but bit by bit, the way back was becoming harder and harder to recall. On his own, that was. Thankfully, Henry wasn’t on his own; he just needed to focus on the way back to perfectly recall it, all thanks to his navigator-Octomind.

  They dove deeper and deeper, while Maurice excitedly tapped his claws on Henry’s head. A hundred meters. Then five hundred, and around the eight-hundred mark, Henry saw the first flash of blue light. At first, they were like blinking lights, here and there. Some were blue, some were yellow, and some even looked pinkish. As they continued down, the walls around them pushed away, and the chamber below came into view.

  Henry slowed, then completely stopped, arms hanging limply around him. From Maurice, he sensed just as much wonder, if not more. But he doubted Maurice had the background to realize what they were looking at.

  “[That’s…]”

  The canyon opened up in what—at first—looked like a massive network of oddly organized caves, but it barely took Henry a few moments to realize that this space had not been formed naturally. There were giant, broken, pillar-like stalactites at the four corners of the chamber, and only one seemed intact. It had a crackling, giant crystal-like structure at the top, while the remaining three had fallen on the oddly-patterned floor. An organized pattern that was very reminiscent of satellite images of cities.

  Beyond the space immediately below him, he saw two identical openings dug into the wall of stone, connecting this space to other areas. If he were to approximate the size of the opening, he’d say it was at least two hundred meters across.

  Something civilized lived here… This is a ruin. Of a whole city.

  Henry’s musings were cut short from the increasing sense of annoyance behind him. Rocky was not very happy with them acting like tourists. The kraken waved his arms urgently, tone warning, so Henry wrenched his eyes away from the little world under him and pulled away from the entrance and to the side. Then, just like Rocky, he matched the colors of the carved stone walls and looked back down.

  The place was crawling with life, and much like many of the species Henry had encountered in this world, the creatures here strongly adapted to their surroundings. Not all, of course, but there were quite a few beings with glowing patterns and crackling light. There were small tunas swimming in glowing schools that reminded Henry of drone light shows, darting away from any predator that tried to take a bite out of them. Closer to the crackling crystal, Henry saw an electric eel peek out from under a mound of angular rocks. A building that must have collapsed in on itself god knows how long ago.

  Of course, not everything was adapted to electricity. While it seemed that some really embraced the element, some appeared to have decided to completely counter it, like Rocky. There were a few crabs that had an oddly metallic sheen to them, hanging around the round-roofed buildings that managed to survive the decades or centuries since this place had last been inhabited by its creators.

  Many species found a home in this area. Some of which were most certainly krakens. He could sense their presence through his navigator. After all, Sense Foe was part of Trickster’s Pathfinding, which in turn was directly connected to the Octomind and everything it knew and sensed. Still, Rocky’s wariness was putting him on edge.

  Henry tapped the kraken’s arm, and the large yellow eyes swiveled to him. “[Is there an A-rank in this area, Rocky?]”

  The kraken’s thoughts were not what Henry wanted to sense. Rocky seemed to think for a moment, and then he pulled his arms under him and went still for a few seconds. Through his thoughts, he communicated the sensation of tiredness.

  “[It’s sleeping?]” Henry asked, and when Rocky confirmed, Henry was ready to book it out of this place. Still, before making any decision, he thought it’d be worth it to confirm a few things first. “[Since when? What is it?]”

  For the first question, the kraken didn’t know. But for the second, he was quick to answer, and his response was to point at Maurice, then gently tap one of the crab’s claws.

  “[Is it like Maurice? A hermit crab? No? A crab, then? A lobster? Oh, my bad. Let me show you what a lobster is.]”

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  With a quick flex of his illusory skill, Henry summoned the image of a lobster, and Rocky instantly grew agitated, nodding its head vigorously.

  Teaching him that trick has been really worth it, Henry thought.

  “[Can we go see it?]” Maurice asked, and this time, both Rocky and Henry were on the same page. That sounded like a horrible idea. The thing might be asleep, but it was not worth waking up, even if it happened to be peaceful. Considering how lively the area was, it didn’t seem to be that much of a menace, but who knew. Maybe it just happened to be asleep for years. Zerathstra had said that quite a few powerful beings were hidden, content to stay asleep until the Current grew agitated again.

  Still, it was a bad idea to go there in person. But Henry didn’t have to go in person. Technically.

  “[We won’t approach it, but I’ll send a few clones looking if it’s within range. Do you know which direction it might be in, Rocky?]”

  The kraken pointed at the first tunnel, then at the second, the back at the first.

  Henry sighed. “[It moves around? Alright, then. In that case, I’ll check out both, and yes, I’m looking for a kraken nest in the meantime, Maurice. Anything else we should be aware of?]”

  The kraken shook its head for a moment, then stilled once more, camouflaged against the rock wall.

  Henry set out his clones in all directions, pulling most of those he’d left behind, and sent them through the tunnels. He reserved a couple to go down and look at the buildings from up-close, but otherwise, he didn’t feel too comfortable really going down there with his main body. It felt safer to hang on the wall, near the ceiling like some sort of 8-armed bat, and considering the size of this place, his size wasn’t obvious either. It just looked like a particularly large rock was protruding out of the wall.

  Jumping to one of his low-to-the-ground clones, Henry took control and, as he maintained his invisibility, slipped into one of the buildings. To his surprise, he discovered that the half-spherical structure was only the tip of the iceberg. Almost literally. In fact, it was practically an antechamber of some sorts. In the center, there was a well that led down. Still, before he went down there, he glanced around, then approached one of the walls.

  Running his arm against it, Henry quickly noticed how perfectly shaped it was. True, everything was covered with plant matter, barnacles, and even some coral, but under all of that, he could sense and see the stone that made this structure. Glancing around, he saw nothing else and so, he dove into the well and came on the first sub-floor, where he found four chambers. One in each cardinal direction. There wasn’t a door or anything like it, just a round entrance from which the people of this place used to swim through. Diving further down, he found one more set of four chambers, and finally, a single entrance that led into a wider space in which a bunch of baby eels swam away, hiding behind clumps of overgrown stalks of red algae.

  No sunlight here. As usual, the energy of the Current is somehow sustaining the plant-life.

  Henry gazed around for a few seconds, unwilling to switch his consciousness to his other clone, but he had to. This was extremely interesting, and he intended on checking out this forgotten city more, but one of his clones had found the A-rank.

  With a flex, Henry’s consciousness left the clone, leaving his Octomind to take control while he moved to another blood clone, and instantly, he could tell they were deeper. A quick look around told him he was in some sort of open space that made him think of a giant garage. A wide opening led out onto the familiar sandy dunes, which made Henry pause. Hadn’t they swam down for a while after leaving the sandy stretches earlier?

  Unless the dunes wrap around the stone formation, and all of this lead somewhere deeper still.

  The idea made him shiver. They were already so deep, and the thought of exploring further down unnerved him.

  Looking away from the exit, Henry peered around. There was life here as well. Plant matter, curious fish, crabs. The usual, really, and all around him, large alcoves lined the wall, some of which had cracked and even collapsed. But a couple were still standing, and one of those was occupied by a surprisingly small blue lobster. Well, small for A-ranks, he supposed. It was still almost as large as he was, and right now, Henry was massive. The creature was hidden in the alcove, but it was impossible to miss due its glowing blue chitin.

  [Stormclaw Bruiser (?) - ?]

  As soon as the text appeared in his vision, something happened. The creature’s antennas twitched and the air buzzed. It reminded Henry of standing in the living room, and knowing when the TV had been turned on. Like there was some static in the air.

  The lobster lifted itself higher on its legs, and Henry could feel its black eyes stare at him, even though his clone was invisible. And then, to his horror, the creature, ever so slowly, twisted its head and looked upward, antennas waving in the air, until it was looking in the direction of his main body.

  Crap.

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