The cold water was numbing. His vision blurred. His body, heavy with injury, began to feel like lead. He couldn't keep fighting. He was losing. Slowly, reluctantly, he allowed himself to sink deeper into the water, letting the current carry him down.
For a moment, there was nothing but the dark, cold embrace of the river. He didn't fight it. He didn't need to. He let go. His mind began to fade, his consciousness slipping further away.
Azrael's body felt like everything was dissolving into the water. The pain, the exhaustion, all of it was fading. But just as the last remnants of his consciousness began to slip away, something strange stirred within him—a faint light, glowing through the dark depths.
It beckoned. Azrael's instincts jolted awake, a surge of life coursing through him. He forced his limbs to move, swimming toward the glow, his body a mere shadow against the vastness of the water.
The light grew brighter, more defined, and ahead, he saw it—something impossible. A building. Not a shipwreck or some forgotten ruin, but an actual structure, standing tall and untouched beneath the water's surface. His breath caught in his throat. An underwater house?
Azrael was drawn to it, the mysterious light beckoning him closer. His head broke the surface of the water, and with trembling limbs, he pulled himself up onto the edge of the structure. The cool stone of the building felt oddly solid beneath his hands.
He moved cautiously, his senses heightened. The air here was colder than the water, the chill penetrating deeper than his skin. It was not a normal cold. It felt wrong. Familiar. Dangerous.
The hallways inside were dimly lit, the eerie green glow of the water reflecting through the windows. But there was something else—a heavy, oppressive atmosphere, as though the air itself was thick with something unnatural. Azrael felt a creeping sensation run down his spine, an instinctual warning. He shouldn't be here.
He limped further inside, his footsteps echoing in the hollow space. His breath came faster now, his mind racing, but he couldn't turn back. Not yet.
And then, he saw it.
In the center of the room, a massive crystalline structure stood, its facets shimmering with an ethereal light. The crystal pulsed, the glow shifting between blue and green, casting eerie shadows on the walls. The air vibrated with an otherworldly hum, as if the crystal itself was alive. Azrael's heartbeat quickened. He could feel it now, a pressure building in the room, a sensation of something ancient, ancient and powerful.
His body moved on its own, as if the crystal was pulling him closer, drawing him in with an irresistible force. He tried to resist, but his legs moved without his will. His vision blurred as the hum intensified, the air around him warping.
He tried to pull away, but his feet were rooted to the spot. The world around him began to dissolve, the light from the crystal flooding his vision. Everything turned white, and in that moment, Azrael felt himself pulled into the light, unable to resist.