The silence pressed down harder than the weight of the ocean. Kael's chest tightened as his mind raced. He had been prepared for everything—dangerous zones, malfunctioning tech, even the chance of discovering something ancient. But this? This was beyond any expectation.
The female—unlike the others, glowing with unnatural light—moved closer. Her movements were fluid, deliberate, as though the water itself bent to her will. She was different. Not just in appearance, but in the way she carried herself. Her presence didn't demand fear. It invited something deeper, something that felt more like curiosity than hostility.
Her eyes locked onto his, her gaze unwavering. There was an ancient weight in them, the kind of look someone gets when they've seen the start and end of too many lives. It was the same look Kael had seen in the eyes of old soldiers, the ones who knew too much, had done too much. He opened his mouth to speak, but the pressure in his head made his words heavy, sluggish.
"You should not be here, human," she said, her voice soft but filled with an undercurrent of power.
"Then send me back," Kael shot back, his voice hoarse. The words tasted like salt, like the ocean itself had taken residence in his throat. "You have to—"
A sudden surge of cold washed over him, the pressure inside his head intensifying. A vision rippled across his mind, jagged and distorted. He saw images—blurs of a world not his own. Destruction. A city on fire. People, creatures... too many, all at once, faces he couldn't recognize. And in the middle of it all, a shadow.
The vision faded as quickly as it came, leaving Kael gasping for air, his body twitching involuntarily.
"Stay with us, Kael," the female's voice came again, but this time there was something else. A faint trace of understanding. "The waters are not the same as the surface. Time here is not linear. You have seen a future, but it is not the future you know."
Kael shook his head, trying to focus. "What do you mean?"
Her face softened—just barely—but her eyes remained cold. "You think you're alone, but you're not. You carry something with you. Something that broke the seal. We've been watching the surface for years. And now… now it's too late."
A ripple of movement passed through the others behind her, their glowing eyes now fixed on him, their thoughts moving in a silent hum. The tension in the room thickened. They were waiting for something. But what? His mind buzzed, trying to make sense of the chaos around him.
Before he could respond, the female stepped forward, her voice lowering to a whisper. "You are a breach, Kael. Not just in this place, but in the world above. What you've discovered, what you've broken open—there are forces at play that you cannot understand. Forces that will make your surface world's wars seem like children's games."
Kael opened his mouth to speak, but she raised a hand, silencing him.
"We've been watching you for years, Kael. You, and others like you. You are not the first to push past the threshold. But you might be the last."
Kael's head spun. This was beyond any salvage operation, any routine dive into uncharted zones. There were things down here—beings—who had been observing, waiting for something to unfold.
"What do you want from me?" Kael asked, his voice barely a whisper. The realization hit him hard, like a weight dropping into his stomach.
"We want answers," she said. "We want to understand the surface again. What it has become. And most importantly, why it's starting to bleed into our world."
"Why me?" Kael demanded, his anger rising, but the pressure inside his skull pushed back, making his words sharp. "What makes me different from the rest of them?"
The female paused. Her expression darkened. "You were the one who breached the seal. You and your kind… you're too curious for your own good. But that curiosity has led you here. And now you are a question."
"I'm not—"
"You're not a guest," she interrupted again, stepping closer, her fingers trailing lightly across the semi-organic skin of the suit that clung to him. "You are something else entirely. Something we need to understand. And maybe… something that can save us. Or destroy us."
Kael's breath caught in his chest. He didn't know what to say. Everything he thought he understood about his place in the world had been shattered the moment his suit malfunctioned and pulled him into this unknown. But now, he couldn't deny the gravity of what the female was saying.
"Do you understand now?" she asked, her voice laced with a strange mixture of empathy and something else. "If you found the breach, others will follow. And your kind—your kind brings destruction. It always has. The surface world has been a ticking time bomb for centuries. And now, it's starting to bleed into ours."
Kael froze. The weight of her words pressed down on him. The others around them stirred, their glowing eyes narrowing. They were all thinking the same thing.
"You are the catalyst," the female said, her voice softer now. "The one who's broken the boundary. If more follow… if they push further… then we will have no choice but to protect what's left. Even if that means... erasing you."
Kael swallowed hard, the implications of her words sinking deep into his chest. "What do you mean by 'erasing' me?"
Her gaze hardened. "If the surface world keeps reaching for what it cannot understand… it will destroy everything."
Kael's mind raced as the enormity of it all settled over him. He wasn't just a visitor. He was a threat. And now, it was up to him to figure out how to survive it.