Ascension of the Dark Seraph-Chapter 345: The Primordial Sea

Lucivar was excited to see what Tamtu had—what kind of power she’d give him.

But he was wrong to be excited, at least initially.

In this realm beyond mortal comprehension, the world is an endless black sea.

A sea so black that it could absorb the light.

So still that it looked like solid ground from above.

So bleak that any living creature would lose its mind if it lingered too long.

Lucivar plummeted into the Primordial Sea of Tamtu.

All that could be heard in this realm is the sound of currents, waves moving erratically against the wind, and also the thunderous churn from the giant whirlpools. Ones that aren’t formed through nature, but magic instead.

From above, the sea was akin to one big onyx stone that had no end in sight.

It stretched to the horizon and beyond.

A boundless, storm-lashed expanse suspended between time and breath.

A place where reality twisted in spirals of impossible proportions.

Seven great whirlpools lined up vertically to the north churned in its depths, each a gate unto its own madness, each one spinning with the will of the Mother of Monsters. One would think that no creatures can survive in this sea, but lives exist here in unfathomable forms.

The water didn’t reflect the sky, the storm above—it glowed from within.

It pulsed in an unnatural rhythm with bright grey-colored hues.

But only one whirlpool glowed; the other was suspended in black and white and absolute silence.

Not a single sound from the other six whirlpools could be heard.

It was almost only the first whirlpool that was active.

Unlike the rest, the first vortex spun violently, deliberately, its color a haunting neutral grey.

Neither dead nor alive.

Neither light nor shadow.

Due to its vibrance and ruckus, this one drew the eye.

And it wasn’t empty.

Shapes moved within its center—shadows, writhing and shifting beneath the surface.

As if there was chaos underneath the surface, one that the Primordial Sea allowed to continue to build.

Around it, the waves whispered without voice—carrying no wind yet pressing against the uneven small rocks scattered around with unrelenting pressure. It grew stronger by the second, until finally, another rock blasted out of its center.

Compared to the other rocks, this one was bigger, a boulder that was at least the size of a house.

One that was so heavy that it remained at the center, unmoved by the waves.

Splash!

Lucivar burst from the water and landed on the boulder.

His body was drenched with the acid sea, prickling his skin, exposing his golden bones underneath.

Severe wounds marred his body, blood trickling down torn flesh in angry rivulets, and his hand gripped a brutal, curving weapon without a handle—just a gleaming shard of bone, honed to a vicious edge like the vertebra of some ancient and powerful beast.

He had no time to catch his breath as dozens of monstrous creatures burst forth from the whirlpool.

Each of them has its maws opened, lined with shark-like teeth, shrieking with hunger.

In the next second was a frenzy of snapping maws and thrashing limbs.

From their appearances, these creatures are of the same shape or type.

It was as big as a shark, had no eyes, a mouth that could swallow—a human whole, a body shaped like a leech, and could slither like a snake. And like piranhas, these creatures fight in packs, but Lucivar knew better that this was only the cause of one monster.

Lucivar was now locked in combat with the only advantage being the boulder underneath him.

He moved fluidly and fast, almost as if he could predict these creatures’ movements.

At this moment, he didn’t know how long it had been since he plummeted from the sky.

Frankly, he didn’t have the time to think about that since these monsters were relentless.

As soon as he fell into the black sea, the whirlpool started and thrashed him around as he gasped for air, until he ended up here—in the first whirlpool. After that, Sirrush approached him, happily swimming around Lucivar as he explained.

Based on his explanation, the purple sphere Lucivar absorbed unlocked a monster mutation in him.

He could inherit the power of the monsters in the Primordial Sea through it.

Of course, he could only inherit the power of the monsters that were within this first whirlpool.

And to do that, he’d need to defeat the monster, and the monster must choose him.

Lucivar understood defeating the monster, but the latter part was odd.

Choose him? How does that even be a requirement?

Tamtu should’ve been able to force her children to help him, at least that’s what Lucivar thought.

But he forgot that Tamtu was basically a mother.

So, what mother would want to force a child to do something they don’t want to do?

However, if that were the case, then he wouldn’t be able to gain the power of any monster here.

It was a scam.

Especially knowing that Lucivar would know a monster chose him when it attacked him.

"Hergh!"

Slash!

His bone blade gleamed as it came down in a savage arc, hacking clean through the first creature.

No blood was sprayed like when he did his usual killing, and that annoyed him.

Instead, these creatures dissipated like a phantom.

"Hergh!!"

Stopping at nothing, Lucivar twisted and whipped the blade sideways, shattering the next monster’s fanged snout. Bone cracked, teeth burst free like shattered glass—and before its scream could leave its throat, Lucivar’s blade carved upward, splitting its place in two.

"Raagh!"

Another came at him from behind.

He spun.

The weapon came down like the devil’s smite, crushing through its skull with a sickening crunch.

Brains and bone spattered the air, and still he moved.

Forward, up, back, down—each strike a violent punctuation, each movement so fast it blurred the line between slaughter and dance. He was relentless, and with every kill he did, the corner of his lips curled more and more.

Lucivar found solace in killing these creatures, or perhaps, in killing only.

He had been accustomed to killing so much that it saddened him that these creatures had no blood.

A dozen monsters fell in two heartbeats, torn apart by his erratic, relentless momentum.

Limbs flew, maws splintered, torsos crumpled under the weight of his merciless moves.

Lucivara didn’t fight with precision; he fought with overwhelming savagery.

He kept going.

He kept swinging his arms erratically, hacking every single creature that came at him brutally.

God knows how long he had been here, and there was no end to them.

Almost as if every kill he made was futile.

"Now that I’m on land, you’re nothing to me!!"

Lucivar roared, smiling with murderous delight as not one of the creatures was able to touch him.

Earlier, when he was fighting in the black sea, he couldn’t land a single hit.

All of them moved too fast in the water.

So, he came up with an idea when he was slammed into the ocean floor and saw a boulder there.

He carried the boulder up to the surface, and through painstaking effort, he now had solid ground.

And it proved to be effective as he didn’t even suffer a single attack ever since.

But it was then that the attack abruptly stopped.

"Hmm? Where are you guys? Did you lose interest already?"

Lucivar walked to the edge and looked into the black sea as if he could see what was happening down there. He frowned as this wasn’t what he was expecting, "Did I go too far for bringing this boulder to the surface? No, that can’t be. But what if it did? Arrghh~!"

Frustrated, he clutched his head with both hands, regretting his decision to involve the boulder.

Then, he remembered something.

"Hmm, wait a minute... Sirrush told me that I can basically inherit the monsters’ abilities, one monster for now—since that’s all Tamtu’s blood in mind can endure. I’ve been busy killing them that I forgot to determine what their powers are."

"Did I screw up?"

Gritting his teeth, Lucivar crouched down and faced the black sea directly.

"Guys, come back! Are you all such a wuss that you don’t even dare fight me on land?!"

He screamed into the void, expecting something to answer.

Lucivar was about to lie down, exhausted and frustrated, but his periphery caught something.

He looked back at the black sea for a second look and noticed tiny bulbs of light flickering beneath the surface. They were faint, barely noticeable against the void-dark water—yet somehow visible, pulsing, and growing larger by the second.

For a second there, Lucivar narrowed his eyes.

Confusion clouded his thoughts.

But then, clarity struck.

"Shit! How in the hell did I not see that coming?!"

Instinct roared through him as he spun and launched himself toward the center of the boulder.

Right on time, an immense force erupted from beneath, slamming into the rock.

It was so hard that it flipped the entire slab and threw Lucivar skyward.

Lucivar thought that the creatures from earlier had lost interest, but it was quite the opposite; they became angrier that they couldn’t touch him. So, they made a collective retreat to the bottom of the ocean and swam up in a swarm to throw him off the boulder.

"Fuck you guys!"

A scream came out of Lucivar’s mouth as he desperately climbed the flipping boulder.

He stabbed the bone blade into the boulder and climbed around it frantically.

If he let go, he’d fall into the black sea, swept by the whirlpool, and lose his advantage.

If he didn’t let go, he’d have to climb around the boulder or risk being slammed into the sea with the massive boulder right on top of him. Even though both sounded bad, he opted for the second choice as that would at least give him a chance to keep his advantage.

Splash!

Once again, the boulder slammed back to where it was.

Fortunately, Lucivar was able to go around it and held on, albeit barely.

He crawled forward, getting his feet out of the water, and lay there for a good second.

"Damn you guys, fight me here if you dare..."

Lucivar whispered tiredly.

Thud!

It was then that his eyes widened.

He heard a deep thud, and the boulder beneath him gave a subtle, ominous tilt.

Lucivar looked up and saw a clearly aquatic creature in front of him, but it was standing on two legs. He locked eyes with the creature, who seemed to be the same one as earlier, but different at the same time.

Of course, the ones earlier could slither like a snake, not stand on two feet like this.

Slowly, Lucivar climbed back to his feet, keeping his eyes locked on it.

Once he got a full view of the creature, he tilted his head.

"What in the fuck am I looking at...?"

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