Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 259: Lighthouse

Time soon passed on the raft, and the silence was heavier than the water.

They drifted on a giant, rotting lily pad, a patch of organic green in an endless sea of black.

Above them, the ceiling of the cavern was so high it was lost in darkness. Below them, the water stretched down for miles.

The only light came from the Sunken Stars, millions of bioluminescent abyss jellyfish floating in the air and drifting in the deep.

They pulsed with soft, rhythmic lights: neon blue, toxicity green, and deep violet. It was a breathtaking, terrifying galaxy trapped in a bottle.

"Unstable," Damien muttered, shifting his weight.

The lily pad dipped dangerously. It was spongy and slick with algae. If a wave hit them, they would be tossed into the freezing abyss.

"Isabelle, grab that driftwood," Damien ordered, pointing to a large, twisted root drifting nearby.

"Elian, center your weight."

Damien raised his arms.

RATTLE.

The Scourge of the Rat King shot out from his sleeves.

The Abyss Iron chains didn’t strike to kill this time; they with a different intent

The serrated blades bit deep into the driftwood and another nearby lily pad.

Damien retracted the chains, dragging the debris together with the grinding sound of metal on wood.

"Secure."

He lashed the logs and pads together, weaving the chains through the roots to create a makeshift, stable raft about twenty feet wide.

"It’s not a yacht or private boat," Damien dusted off his hands as the raft settled.

"But it will keep us dry."

Isabelle sat in the center, hugging her knees. Her arms wrapped tightly around her leg. She looked at the black water with wide, annoyed eyes.

"I hate this place," she whispered. "The fire... it feels small here."

Elian sat near the edge, staring into the depths. He looked more terrified here than he had in the jungle.

"Layer 3 isn’t an ordinary lake," Elian said, his voice barely rising above the lap of the waves.

"It acts as a moat."

He pointed to the endless dark horizon.

"Below us are the Noble Realms, Layers 4 through 6. To get there, you must cross this water.

"But the Deep Ones... they don’t like visitors."

"Deep Ones?" Damien asked,

"Aquatic Demons," Elian explained.

"Mutated Leviathans. Abyss Krakens. And worse... the Siren Queen. They guard the passage downward."

"Back then I was able to pass with my overwhelming strength and the help of a few others"

"but right now.. heh I wonder if I’ll even survive their gaze"

He shivered, pulling his ragged robes tighter.

"In the jungle, you can run. In the Ash Wastes, you can hide. But here? On the open water? You are just a speck of food on a dinner plate."

Damien walked to the edge of the raft. He looked down.

The water was crystal clear, yet painfully dark. He could see schools of glowing fish darting through the depths like shooting stars.

"A moat," Damien mused. "we’ll it just means we have to fight more in the future"

Suddenly, the water beneath them began to glow.

Unlike before It wasn’t the soft pulse of a jellyfish. It was a massive, rising luminescence.

A deep, oceanic blue light that was getting brighter. And bigger.

"Master!" Isabelle scrambled back, her claws digging into the wood.

"Don’t move," Damien ordered, his voice tense.

A shape rose from the deep.

It was colossal.

A massive, serpentine body glided silently beneath their raft.

It was easily five hundred feet long, longer than a city block. Its scales were like plates of obsidian armor, each one the size of a shield.

It passed directly under them. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The raft rocked gently in its wake.

Damien looked down. Through the water, he saw a single, golden eye open on the creature’s flank. The eye was bigger than their entire raft.

It stared at them.

[Analysis: Ancient Abyss Serpent (Tier 7)]

[Status: Passive]

[Threat Level: unknown]

Damien held his breath. His hand hovered over the Pantheon Sword.

If this thing attacked, they were dead. Tier 7 in the water? He couldn’t fight that. Not here.

The giant eye blinked slowly.

Then, it closed.

The creature didn’t attack. To a Tier 7 Leviathan, three small humanoids on a pile of wood weren’t food even enough to be called food for it. They were plankton. Insignificant.

The light faded as the serpent dove back into the crushing darkness, its tail creating a whirlpool that spun their raft around.

"It ignored us," Elian let out a breath he had been holding for a full minute.

"luckily for our size we are too small."

Damien stood there, his heart hammering against his ribs.

"Tier 7," Damien whispered.

He clenched his fist, he was sure he could defeat it if push came to shove, but he wasn’t sure of protecting Elian and Isabelle at the same time.

This feeling of uncertainty annoyed him.

"I hate being small."

"Where do we go?" Isabelle asked just as he was lost in thought, eager to leave the area where the monster had just been.

"There is no land."

Elian stood up and pointed a trembling finger toward the far horizon.

Through the gloom, a single, steady beam of white light cut through the darkness. It rotated slowly, like a beacon in a storm.

"There," Elian said. "The Lighthouse of the Damned."

"A lighthouse?" Damien zoomed in with his mask.

Miles away, rising from the water like a jagged tooth, was a massive spire of rock. Atop it sat a crumbling fortress with a beaming light.

"It is the only dry land in Layer 3," Elian explained. "It marks the entrance to the Great Whirlpool, the drain that leads to Layer 4."

"A drain," Damien sighed. "Of course."

He looked at the distance. It was at least ten miles.

"However, er can’t just drift there," Damien said. "We need speed."

He turned to the back of the raft.

He didn’t have a sail. But he had magic.

"Isabelle. Anchor yourself."

Damien extended his hands behind the raft.

"[Wind Art: Gale Blast]."

Although not his natural element, and it consumed more mana, this was his only choice; luckily, as a child of the Voss mansion, he had learnt some basic spells of other attributes

WHOOSH.

A concentrated jet of wind erupted from his palms. It hit the water, creating thrust.

The raft surged forward, cutting through the black waves.

"Next stop, the Lighthouse," Damien commanded, his coat flapping in the magical wind.

"Let’s hope the locals are friendly."