Evil

Aqua Tira

'Anything?' Charlie shook her head.

'Lake. Something weird. I've haven't the foggiest what though.'

'Shall we check it out?'

I nodded. 'I suppose flying is easier. Hug me tightly.'

Without hesitation, my waist was coiled around by two hands, a head snuggling into the crook of my neck. I rolled my eyes as I took to the skies once more. In an instant, we arrived at the lakeside.

The water was a deep orange. Not ordinary water colour, even by this world's standards. I took a small rock and tagged it before softly silently lowering it into the lake.

Yet, ten minutes later, the rock was still sinking deeper and deeper. I frowned softly, staring at the lake trying to find out its secrets.

'How deep is it?'

'At least a thousand metres I'd wager. What do you think, should we head down or nah?'

'How do we even get down?'

'I think I can do it. You just need to make sure to conjure a bubble of air for us to breathe.'

'Then, I say we go for it.'

Switching to 10,000kgs, the ground below me depressed a little with each step. Hugging each other tightly, Charlie conjured an air bubble and we jumped in.

"Oh that's fucking cold!" I hissed in shock as we descended further.

Right now, we were practically sitting ducks. If something caught us here, death was basically the only option.

Just then, a thought passed my mind. A thought I really wish I thought of before we jumped in,"Hey Charlie."

"Hm?"

"How the hell are we going to get out?"

"The medallions should work?"

"Hopefully."

"You're scaring me now-Woah woah WOAH!" A large current suddenly crashed into us, sending us careening deeper into the lake at a higher speed.

"Oh fuck! I not this again! All into defence! Amplify!" I heard a crack sound. My anklet had broken.

Then, I remembered Julius' words. The anklet only worked safely for rank 3s and below. I had amplified it my rank 4 power a few times already and this had continually put stress on it and this-It broke.

But now wasn't a particularly good time since I had a flashback to dying from falling back in Ypogeios.

I switched my position with Charlie purely on protective instinct and almost clairvoyantly-

BAM!

"Urrgh!" My spine cracked as a cold voice called out.

999 lives remaining.

"ARTEMIS!"

The phantom pain racked me as I rubbed my sore back,"I'm fine, I'm fine." I wiped off the blood from my lips, wincing a little.

"Why did you-"

"Magisters have shit defence. This is a fatal flaw of yours even with trinkets. No point wasting a life-saving treasure when I can take the hit. Just a little back pain is all."

"A little back pain? Your spine-Impossible!"

I patted her shoulder,"Like I said, just a little back pain. Lil' old me can handle some pain."

"But I clearly heard-"

"Must've been hallucinations or something. I'm fine," I reassured as I stood up having conjured the water from my clothes away,"But this place..."