The Immortals of Notoriouslandia
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Secrets Beneath the Braguny Sea
The Toast and the Transmission
Morning sunlight poured into the hotel windows, cutting across the quiet serenity of the city. Descentedrain was already up, surprisingly domestic for a galactic-tier warrior.
In the kitchenette, he flipped toast expertly into the air—each slice perfectly golden, lightly buttered, with subtle streaks of fire-baked crispiness courtesy of Rubabranas heat control.
Four plates were laid out:
Mr. Shonk's with mango jam, spicy sugar crunch, and caramelized kelp.
Kukranchunlikryting's with extra black pepper and acid-glazed slices.
Sapphire's with crystal-berry jelly and shimmer-dust flakes.
His own, simple and black-coffee paired.
Then—
BZZT.A ping echoed from his crystal-band.
A priority message. A distress report.
📡 URGENT: Unidentified Sea Creature Attacking Cargo Vessel.Location: Braguny SeaRequesting: "ANYONE WITH POWERS OR MILITARY BACKGROUND."Attachment: [IMAGE]
Descentedrain pulled up the photo.
And froze.
It showed a nightmare of biology: a massive sea creature mid-leap, tentacles whipping the air, a grotesque fusion of shark, hammerhead, sea horse, pufferfish, and jellyfish—with a tail like a prehistoric beast and a circular jaw glowing with faint blue light.
"Uh," Mr. Shonk said behind him, eyes locked on the image."That's… not real."
Descentedrain turned.
"You recognize it?"
Shonk nodded, slowly.
"It's called a Shrantyehamhor. I logged it in my Bestiary a long time ago… but this one's wrong."
He tapped the image.
"That glow. That's Bontaine energy."
Sapphire looked up sharply.
"Your energy."
"Yeah. And the only people with access to it… are me, my army, and the Bontaine government."
A beat passed.
Then Descentedrain said what they were all thinking.
"How the hell did a sea monster get it?"
The Braguny Sea – The Battle Begins
They arrived by hovercraft over the Braguny Sea, the surface calm at first glance—but humming with underwater tremors.
Suddenly—
A geyser exploded upward, and the Shrantyehamhor rose in full, a heaving titan of flesh and tentacle, O-shaped mouth roaring with unnatural Bontaine-enhanced fury.
Its skin shifted colors. Its tentacles extended like intelligent whips. Its spiked tail cracked across the sky like thunder.
The Unbound Team launched.
Sapphire blinked across the air, crystal javelins targeting the joints where tentacles met body.
Kukranchunlikryting poisoned the sea around it, unleashing acidic mist that fizzled on the surface but couldn't breach its armored skin.
Mr. Shonk charged midair, slamming the beast with trident-powered punches—it recoiled, but only barely.
Descentedrain took to the skies and launched a gravity-surge slash straight through its tentacles, slicing two—but they regrew.
"It's got regenerative Bontaine output, somehow," Mr. Shonk growled.
"We shut it down at the source," Descentedrain said.
Into the Beast
Sapphire teleported through an open wound, followed by Descentedrain and Kukranchunlikryting.
Inside the beast's chest cavity—they found it:
A glass organ suspended in webbed flesh, glowing like a sunken reactor.
Inside: a swirling core of Bontaine energy—not just leaked, but stored in a perfectly preserved containment jar bearing military seal marks.
Mr. Shonk stared at it from the outside.
"That's classified government energy tech. No one outside the military has this."
"Then someone," Descentedrain said, "leaked it."
Sapphire blinked beside the core and drove her blade into it.
The beast screamed.
Its regeneration faltered. Its limbs spasmed.
Outside, Mr. Shonk charged one last time and drove his trident through the creature's head.
It dropped. Dead. Finally.
The Island Retreat
After sending the military the remains for inspection, the team floated toward a nearby island—a serene place untouched by the storm.
They set up camp near a coral cliff, surrounded by bioluminescent flowers and soft sand.
Two huts. Same roommates.
A fire crackled between them.
Campfire Rewards
Descentedrain once again passed around their enhanced meals:
Mr. Shonk got a deep-fried mango graham melt stuffed with volcanic caramel and topped with salt-dust chips.
"Peak culinary enlightenment," he whispered.
Kukranchunlikryting received a toxic cocoa marshmallow pop that boiled its own cup with every dip.
"This might explode," he grinned. "Perfect."
Sapphire was handed a plated crystal-berry crepe, topped with glitter-honey drizzle and freeze-shaved shimmerfruit.She didn't even comment—just gave him a look that said "you're doing it again".
He smiled, looking into the fire.
"We'll rest tonight. Tomorrow... we find out who's leaking Bontaine energy."
The sea was quiet again.
But far across the water…
Someone was already watching.
Descent to Brytotanic
The team dove deep beneath the ocean, their armor and breath enchanted with crystal seals and Descentedrain's gravity shielding.
Down through layers of glowing plankton.
Past ancient ruins.
And finally into the heart of the deep.
They arrived at the gates of Brytotanic, Mr. Shonk's home—a glistening underwater kingdom of coral towers, aquaglass domes, and living sea-sculptures that pulsed with gentle bioluminescence.
But today, it wasn't peaceful.
Today, it was a battlefield.
A Kingdom in Chaos
The gates were shattered. Energy cannons fired from guard-towers. Crystal soldiers rode currents with tideblades drawn. Explosions bubbled like underwater thunder.
And swarming around the kingdom were dozens of monstrous intruders, each more horrific than the last:
1) Panhetrelyingronthroyvabenter
A dolphin twisted with jellyfish tentacles, glowing psychic eyes, and a translucent body that swam in curved, unnatural paths.It launched telekinetic pulses, smashing barriers and hurling defenders aside without ever touching them.
2) Rehainmantroplay
A giant octopus, fused with nuclear reactors, its skin glowing with unstable energy.Every strike released a mini shockwave, warping currents and melting weapons that came too close.
3) The Shrantyehamhor – again
Revived. Enhanced. Raging harder than before.Its regenerated tentacles now armored, mouth pulsing with stronger Bontaine cores.
But all three had something in common:
Bontaine energy.
The same signature as Mr. Shonk.
"They're not just monsters," he muttered, knuckles white."They're weapons. Someone's building a Bontaine beast army."
Joining the Defense
Without hesitation, the Unbound Team plunged into the fray.
Kukranchunlikryting released underwater venom clouds that corrupted the neural pathways of the Panhetrelyingronthroyvabenter, forcing it into a mind loop.
Sapphire blinked through the water in arcs of refracted light, slicing tentacles from the Shrantyehamhor, then detonating their regrown ends with heat-tracked crystal mines.
Mr. Shonk met the Rehainmantroplay head-on, charging with an electric punch straight into its fusion core, absorbing its energy with a surge of Bontaine sync.
Descentedrain used his psychic field to still the current itself, locking enemies in frozen waves before launching blasts of solar-gravity from his palms.
One by one, the monsters fell—though not easily.
Not without scars.
The Bontaine Storage Facility
Once the tide turned, Mr. Shonk led the team to the kingdom's Bontaine Energy Storage Facility, buried in a trench canyon below the throne reef.
There, inside the reactor vault—
They found him.
The old sage.
Grandalfert.
Again.
This time cloaked in kelp and barnacles, leaning on a staff that seemed part coral, part bone.
"You always find me," he said with a crooked smile."But not in time."
Descentedrain stepped forward.
"You've been leaking energy. Creating monsters. Why?"
Grandalfert only laughed.
And then—
He vanished.
Leaving behind a scroll floating in a glowing bubble.
Another Message
Sapphire plucked it from the water and read aloud:
"If you seek truth and not just victory, climb the spines of the world.Go to the Heabary Mountains, and we shall see—once and for all—if you are heroes…or just children playing at gods."
Peace Among Ruins
By nightfall, the battle had ceased.
Brytotanic still stood.
Scarred, but not broken.
The team found a quiet underwater garden above the coral ridges. Bioluminescent orbs floated around them, pulsing like heartbeat stars. No tents this time—just floating hammocks.
Descentedrain passed around the reward meals:
Shonk's was a triple-fused deep-sea mango kelp bar, baked in coral fire.
Kukranchunlikryting's was a glowing sludge with molten core marsh bombs.
Sapphire's was a soft crystal mousse, frozen at exactly her favorite chill.
She took it, smiled, and gave him that look again.
He pretended not to notice.
She leaned a little closer anyway.
They all exhaled.
Tomorrow… they'd climb the Heabary Mountains.