In the depths of the ocean, a man slowly regains consciousness, his senses awakening to the surreal reality of being submerged in water. As his eyes flutter open, he is immediately met with a disorienting sight of swirling blue hues and distorted light filtering through the water above him. Panic sets in as he realizes that he is not in his familiar surroundings but trapped beneath the surface.
" Is this what death feels like?.
" Wait how did Mazuki kill me?.
" Why does it feels like underwater?.
The shock of waking up underwater is overwhelming. His heart races, pounding against his chest as adrenaline surges through his veins. The initial confusion gives way to a primal instinct for survival, urging him to fight against the suffocating pressure that surrounds him.
Gasping for air, Jack frantically tries to orient himself, but the disorientation only intensifies. The weightlessness of the water makes it difficult for him to discern which way is up or down. Panic threatens to consume him as he struggles to find his bearings in this alien environment.
With each passing moment, the realization of his dire situation becomes more apparent. He is completely submerged, cut off from the world above. The need for oxygen becomes an urgent demand, and desperation fuels his determination to escape this watery prison.
Summoning every ounce of strength within him, he begins to swim upward, propelling himself through the water with powerful strokes. But his progress is slow and arduous. The resistance of the water seems insurmountable, pushing against him with relentless force.
As he ascends, the pressure on his body increases exponentially. His ears ache from the change in depth, and his lungs scream for air. The struggle becomes a battle against both physical limitations and psychological barriers. Doubt creeps into his mind, whispering that escape may be impossible.
Yet, fueled by sheer willpower and an unyielding determination to survive, he presses on. His muscles burn with exertion as he fights against the current that threatens to drag him back down. The fear of drowning looms over him, but he refuses to succumb to its grip.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, he breaks through the surface of the water. Gasping for breath, he fills his lungs with precious air, savoring the taste of freedom. His body trembles with exhaustion and relief as he clings to a piece of driftwood, grateful for the solid ground beneath him.
'Breathe, breathe. You're still alive!'
After sucking in enough air to soothe his burning lungs and compose himself to a certain degree, Jack carefully spun in the water, trying to take in his surroundings.
What met him was an endless, blue expanse of undulating waves. Above them was a red sky. Thirteen moons, no stars, just a dark vastness of repressive mist. Jack blinked a few times, cold dread taking hold of his heart.
'Is this a dream?'
'It feels.... so real'
'This is… a sea? An ocean? Why I'm I in the middle of an ocean?'
No, it couldn't be. There had to be solid ground somewhere nearby!
As he was gripped by a momentary panic, a remote sound suddenly drew his attention. Jack turned around and saw a tear in the ocean like a dark portal, about the size of a city moving in his direction. Luckily, it was still hundreds and hundreds of meters away.
'Despite being submerged in water, Jack still felt like there was suddenly cold sweat all other his body. With eyes full of horror, Jack spun again, desperately trying to find something — anything! — to save him. And there, a short distance away, he finally noticed a red mass protruding slightly above the water.
Not wasting even a second on thinking, he started to swing his arms and legs, swimming in the direction of the black mass with a considerable speed. However, no matter how fast he swam, the giant portal was closing the distance between them much faster.
Just seconds before the dark portal got to him, Jack reached the red mass, and pulled himself out of the water. He rolled away from the edge, scratching his skin on the uneven rocks, he ran a little distance away from the edge before turning around.
' Nothing '
' I'm I seeing things now?'
***********************
'Ninety six'
'Ninety seven'
'ARGHHHH'
Jack threw the stick in his right hand into the ocean. he has lost count of how many '100' he counted or how how many times he tried to go back to sleep so he could wake up in the master's Academy, he even tried checking his system but not working for some unknown reason.
few minutes later, Jack was pretty sure that nothing was going to devour him, at least apart from that strange portal he hasn't seen any sign of life in this strange place. With that certainty, he was finally in a state of mind to stop trembling and explore his surroundings a little.
The red mass he climbed onto turned out to be a single stone platform of around fifteen meters in diameter. Its surface was mostly flat and smooth, covered with grooves, and somewhat dry. Due to the regular shape of its edges, it seemed more like something man-made than a natural formation.
The platform wasn't connected to anything, existing as a tiny island. There wasn't anything else above the water for as far as Jack was able to see.
Not yet desperate enough to leave the platform and try to swim away in search of land, Jack decided to wait and see. Maybe something was going to change as time went by.
Jack lay down, using his hands as a pillow. thinking about how he ended up in this strange place, Why he was naked. What was the purpose.... Did the Master's Academy find out and throw him into a special prison.
' That's unlike the Master's Academy, he would be expelled with a black mark on his name making it impossible to work with any fraction including the government.'
he stared into the black sky and waited. The sound of the undulating waves was, actually, quite relaxing.
After a while, he closed his eyes and listened. Minutes merged together, growing into hours.
… Suddenly, Jack caught a slight change in the atmosphere. It was as though something was shifting. He opened his eyes and noticed that the sky was slowly turning into gold while the moons turned red, it looked like the moons were devouring the red from the sky, a glimpse of a pale white sun could be seen rising above the horizon.
'A new day'
And with it, the sea suddenly surged. The blue water suddenly surged and seethed, as though a living creature desperately trying to avoid the pale light of the coming dawn. Jack slowly rose and, after some thought, carefully approached the edge of the platform.
Looking down, he blinked and then kneeled to make sure that what he saw wasn't an illusion.
The sea was turning to sand and receding. it only took a moment and all that was left of the ocean was almost gone. Soon, Jack found himself standing on the edge of a tall cliff, with a hundred-meter drop separating him from the churning waters. Beneath him, the metal formation broadened and changed shape. However, from his vantage point, it was hard to determine what that shape was, exactly.
Half an hour later, utterly shocked, Jack stared down and realized that the sea was completely gone. If not for the black seaweed left hanging on wet rocks, he would even doubt if it was ever there.
His small circular island had turned into the peak of a strange, towering, irregularly shaped spaceship. Looking down, he felt his head spinning.
By then, the night had already fully retreated, letting morning finally take its place.
'What witchcraft is this?' Jack thought, pinching himself.
Jack didn't do anything but watch, he was going to just leave his safe spot cause the sea turned to land.
' If the sea can leave surely it would come back'
Just as Jack expected, as soon as the sun touched the horizon, a deafening rumble could be heard coming from somewhere below.
A few minutes later, the sand turned into blue waters. Their volume quickly grew, and soon an apocalyptic flood devoured everything around. The sea was returning with the approach of the night.
Jack stared at this unimaginable process, thoughts churning in his head.
In an hour, the circular platform was the only thing above the waters once again.
" Maybe this is my prison.'