“So…this is where the beast is supposed to be?”

Rache asked as he and Rote sat atop a small floating structure Cast that the Fisher family gatherers typically use when needing a break at sea. The waves were calm at this time of the night even this far away from shore, and the moon above was so bright that it seemed to have illuminated everything around them.

Including Rote’s ridiculously handsome face, as Rache had eventually come to acknowledge.

“Not up here.” Rote shook his head, “Obviously. Our information was that a strange monster hides on the other side of an undersea current, beyond everything here, where an air pocket resides in an other-worldly domain. And every month when the water's calmer than a mirror, bubbles rise up through the sea like the breathe of the earth itself.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Rache shook his head, “Where do you even get these crazy rumors?”

"Oh! It's about time!" Rote said excitedly as he glanced up at the stars.

"Time for what?" Rache threw his hands up when suddenly, a stream of small bubbles popped around them, "Nah! That's bullshit!"

POP!

"Let's just say PORA has its...connections to people in high places, for what goes on in the deep places~” Rote smirked before leaning back and falling into the water with his body covered in a layer of shields. The buoy under them shook before Rache cursed, dispelled the cast, and followed after him.

“You have to guide me in the waters,” Rache said, his voice muffled by the water in between them before he waved his hand and created a small communication Cast that directly imprinted through Rote’s skin-thick shields, and now, he can hear way too much of Rote’s breathing.

It’s as if he’s standing behind him with his body pressed tightly against his, and his arms wrapped around his waist…

God damn it Rache, focus! But how the hell is he supposed to focus in this situation? Why is he here in the first place? Doesn't he still have a job to do tomorrow? Why isn't he sleeping back at home?

"But where are we even going?"

"Down!" Rache replied in addition to a gesture, "A current will take us there!"

"Ok...?" Rote tilted his head as Rache chuckled, and somehow, Rache felt pressure puffing against the back of his head and stirred up his blue hair.

Rache shook the thoughts away before focusing on the task at hand. By extending his reach outwards and reading the flow of Waves within the ocean, he quickly came to sense what felt like a sinking flow an invisible ocean current dived straight down towards the bottom of the ocean from not too far away from him.

Rache approached the sinking flow carefully as Rote followed after him, and they slowly hovered around the hidden current before Rache gave Rote a thumbs up.

"Stay here." Rache instructed, "The slower flow will take us straight down."

With a small light Cast tattoo over his left chest, Rache lit up the waters around them as he spun around. As they approached the greater depth with Rache needing more concentration to hold the bubble of air around his body, Rote seemed to handle that no problem.

They reoreinted their bodies as the beam of light swept down, and It appeared that the current was sucking up water straight through a gap in between sets of bedrocks. Then, a bubble sprung from within and rocketed straight past them.

“What do you feel in its Wave?” Rote asked, “See? It’s legit, isn’t it?”

“It’s very fishy…Seems like your connections are just trying to kill you” Rache said, turning around when he spot a shadow looming behind Rote. Then, the dark shadow became whiter and clearer as the mouths of a shark opened up wide and bit into Rote’s body. It was swimming so fast and carried a Wave signature so subtle that Rache couldn’t have sensed it against the backdrop of the ocean even if he tried, “ROTE!”

“Shit! It bit through the shields!” Rote’s fist glowed as he held the mouth of the fish open and pinched into its teeth, shattering a few on impact, but it’s momentum pushed him straight into the flow of the hidden current as they were suddenly accelerated downward straight into the hole between the rocks.

Rache’s eyes widened, and he kicked back, propelling himself into the hidden current after Rote without hesitation.

His body felt like it was pressed in from all sides, and the waters shoved him through the tunnel. The smooth surfaces of the walls around him changed in color and material as they rushed past his fast-moving body, and he groaned before pouring everything he had in the Wave to maintain his shields. That tattoo light Cast was no more, as the extra Wave was reused to keep hold of the shield.

If the shield breaks, his life will be forfeit. And so he held still in the darkness, waiting for either his death or his emergence to the other side.

Then, after what felt like an eternity as his arms started to tremble and fingers started to turn white, he was ejected out of the surface of the water before crashing down again. He struggled to the surface and caught a well-earned fresh breath before noticing that the darkness around was replaced by a blue luminescence on the other side of the water.

With that light, he noticed trails of blood in the water around him as the predator fish’s body floated past him.

“Rote? Rote! Shit! You dead?” Rache shouted and spun around before spoting the floating body of his companion. He swam over as his feet touched the bottom of the water and submerged into soft sand. With a single stroke, he stood up and picked Rote’s still warm body before rushing to the sandy beach nearby and laying Rote gently onto the sand.

Rote had a couple of wound over his trunk that's leaking blood, and he was not moving or breathing. Rache probed into his Wave, and it felt like a forest fire within him.

"What do I do...what do I do..." Rache repeated nervously before he turned Rote to the side facing him and glanced between his chest and his lips. He licked his very own and clenched his fist before slapping Rote in the back as the latter vomited out water and started coughing.

“Ow ow ow…” Rote struggled as Rache placed his hand over his bite wound and casted a small healing Cast to stop the bleeding, “Aren’t you a handy one.”

“We were not allowed to go into the sea without mastering all of the survival Casts.” Rache explained quickly before scanning around, “Are you wounded anywhere else?”

“My pride.” Rote sighed, “After all these years, I was nearly killed by a fish.”

“We were taugth to respect the ocean, always.” Rache said, “Those creatures rely on the Wave as much as we do, if not more.”

“No kidding…” Rote said, his eyes glowing under the gentle luminescence of the special plants over their heads, "I knew you would come after me.”

“That doesn't excuse your recklessness!” Rache slapped Rote on the shoulder with a decent force that made him jump a little, “You would have been dead five times over!”

"But we found it though, haven't we?" Rote smiled, rolling back down to the sand, "Look."

This place was far more magical than either of them could have described.

It was as if someone had picked off the stars from the night sky and used it to paint on a dark canvas on the ceiling of the massive cave that they are in, and underneath it all, the column of water continually poured out like an expensive fountain decoration. With a closer glance, it became clear that the light came from not the rocks, but layers of plants upon it.

There were some lizards crawling in between the leaves of the luminescent plants, gently rustling the leaves occasionally. Glow bugs flew from one flower petal to the next, creating an illusion that more of the starlights above are moving in small circular arcs.

“I…this doesn’t seem like a place suitable for a legendary beast…How I'd imagine it anyway.” Rache murmured when suddenly, the air around them suddenly started to feel heavier and heavier, and an undeniable Wave signature overloaded the sensory systems of both of them simultaneously.

They both turned and glanced towards the corner of the cave as a pair of glowing red eyes opened up. Rote felt the hair on his back shot up as he immediately covered his entire body with the armor of Wave as the owner of those red eyes emerged from the darkness.

“Is that...?” Rache asked, standing up beside him and pulling out a short blade. Then, all of a sudden, that heaviness in the air vanished from around them.

Rache and Rote shared a glance of confusion, and they slowly moved forward as Rache lit up the area around them once again with his tattoo cast. Then, they saw a three-headed hound with black clampshells covering its entire body entangled in bewteen nestings of seaweeds. As they approached, it raised the middle of its three heads and let out a series of clicking sounds.

A wave of nausea swept over Rache as he stumbled back, but the same attack didn’t even sway Rote as he brushed aside its influence of the Wave.

“Maintain yourself by creating the same Wave layer you have in the water.” Rote said quickly as Rache nodded and a semi-transparent blue film covered his body, "But more, and concentrate around the head."

Standing up once again, Rache instinctively reached out with his Wave sensing abilities, tracing the flow of the Wave in the room and feeling for its directionalities. However, something felt off to him.

“Why are your humans here…?” An earth-rumbling voice echoed through the interior of the cave, though for some reason, it sounded as if the middle head was speaking directly within the head of Rache.

“We have come to take your power, Cerberus” Rote said, marching forward as his fist glowed with red, “We have come to take your Wave. Rote! Get ready!”

“Hah!” Cerberus laughed, “What are you expecting from me? That Wave you felt was all I have.”

“Wait…” Rache said, stepping forward as Rote halted his footsteps ever so slightly, “There’s something off…”

“The power to your vengeance is right here!” Rote emphasized, “I was nearly fed to a shark for this. Now that we found where's it's hiding, it's time to take what you want!”

“This…this entire cave is draining Wave from his body.” Rache said, hurrying to Rote’s side until he ran past him and lowered down right beside the beast, “You are not hiding here…you are trapped here…”

“Nice to see at least one of the human isn’t totall blind to the Wave, or their own ego.” Cerberus said before tilting its middle head to the right head which had dark purple vines looped around its neck and had completely shriveled up.

“How?” Rache asked, looking into the eyes of the beast as Rote stood to watch closely, preparing to intervene whenever Cerberus showed any signs of aggression, “Aren’t you supposed to be a legendary beast? How could you get trapped by mere vines?”

“I was hunted down by the humans and sea elves to the end of the ocean, and before I fully got away, I was sucked up by the hidden current and brought here…” Cerberus recalled slowly as the red glow in his skin pulsed slowly at the pace of a steady breath.

“You were wounded..." Rache continued.

“I rested by the puddles, utterly unaware that the Wave emenating from my body was attracting the local plants, bugs, and fauna.” The middle head continued as Rache looked up at the vines around it's neck, “They latched onto me, and they leeched away my powers while I slept and recovered. I…”

“I suppose you also didn’t respect the power of the ocean…” Rache sighed, “If I were to free you, may I borrow your power?”

“Me, at the current state, are essentially powerless.” Cerberus shook its head before the eyes on the left head woke up and glared at the middle one, “The right had been asleep since long ago, the left stopped listening me. I am the only one left.”

“But what if I let you leech my power, the same way that the ocean leeched away yours?” Rache said, “What if you become my Manifest?”

Cerberus opened its eyes wide, and he laughed, “You will die. My body would have devoured your puny little Wave in an instant!”

“Not if I open myself up to the ocean.” Rache answered quickly, “The people of the House of Fisher had been able to siphon Wave from the ocean for when their Wave storage is depleted.”

“What if I like it here? What if I refuse?”

“Then my friend here is probably going to go for the alternative. RIght?" Rache asked, turning his head around to Rote who smiled and clashed his fist together.

"Yes, kill you on the spot and absorb what Wave you have before turning your body into armor and weapons." Rote said as his body started to glow.

Then, Rache spun the blade in his hand and approached the vines binding onto the right head, “So? Would you prefer to deal with me, or him?”