POV Narrator:

"Ah, the cold ocean water feels great, much better than that hellish place on the surface," the Colossus says happily. "The other continent should only be about a hundred kilometres away, this will be easy," he reassures himself. The deeper he walks, the darker his surroundings become. There is no life or sound beneath the ocean currents. Only the sounds of his rhythmic steps can be heard in the eery waters.

As his feet impact the soft ocean floor, clouds of sediment rise and envelope him. Surrounded, he panics, "What!? I hate this, the dust is getting everywhere.". He wildly swinging his enormous arms, a naive attempt to drive the dust away. Up, on the surface, mountain size waves crash onto the beach, a completely unnatural phenomenon.

Like the slope of a mountain, the ocean floor arches down. Now at well over two hundred meters below the surface, the darkness around him intensifies. A hundred meters in front of the Colossus, an endless cliff looms. Blinded by the swelling storm of dust and a lack of light, he walks forward aimlessly. Overcome with boredom from the complete lack of sensory information, his mind wanders. "What happened? Everything here has been so... small. Where are the others, why haven't I seen any of them and their towering figures yet?" deep feelings loneliness bubble up in his heart, bringing back old memories that he'd rather keep buried.

As his foot comes down, it fails to find any ground beneath. He awakens from his daze by a sudden sense of falling. Beneath his feet, an endless abyss spreads out. Behind him, a giant cliff face seems to rise at a frightening speed. In complete freefall, concern flashes in his granite eyes. Darkness fills his vision as he disappears into the depths below.

Down, on the abyss floor, two mermen, covered in coral blue armour, float side by side. Their eyes remain fixed on a giant glowing portal next to them, a grim expression etched on each of their scaled faces. The light generated by the portal illuminates the depths for several kilometres around it. "Keep calm, this is what we've been trained for," one of the mermen says in a commanding tone, the fear in his eyes betray his confident words.

From the glowing portal, a giant octopus, mutated beyond recognition, gradually crawls out. "Merrick, we have to flee! This portal is supposed to be dormant, we won't stand a chance against the demons coming out of it!" the other merman cries in panic, his hands tightening around his trident. With each passing second, the octopus emerges further out of the portal.

"I know we were originally only meant to observe this portal, but we have little choice left but to stay and fight. The portal after this is next to the city and it will be destroyed if we don't stop this demon," Merrick grimly states. He knows that the two of them aren't enough, but countless lives we're lost constructing salvation city, the last bastion of the mermen. "If we manage to wound and slow it down, it might give the others enough time to prepare the defences," he continues.

Merrick has never seen such an enormous demon before, easily towering over fifty meters in height, this demon will surely wreak havoc on the city if it reaches it. Few soldiers remain after the city portal was conquered and their numbers are spread thin between the numerous portals covering the abyss floor. The best soldiers are stationed at the active portals and only some weak scouts were left at the inactive ones.

Usually, the scouts would be strong enough to fight off any stray demons wandering about. Unfortunately, one of the portals has become active and its awakening will herald untold destruction if it's not stopped. That's why they have to fight. The emergency signal has already been sent, but they need to buy the defenders time. This bleak reality weighs heavy on the two doomed scouts. A sombre feeling grips the two mermen as they impatiently observe the almost completely emerged monstrosity.

In less than ten seconds, the mutated octopus manages to completely break free from the portal. Its tentacles stretch outward, a menacing aura radiating in every direction. It stares at the frozen mermen, eyeing its delicious prey. Readying a menacing attack, the demon takes its sweet time, savouring the fear of its prey. A tentacle strikes the duo, wounding both of them. In the water, a trail of air can briefly be seen in the wake of the demon's attack, caused by the absurd speed and power of its strike.

Both mermen are knocked back over a hundred meters, unable to retaliate. Before the demon could prepare its final attack, it frantically stares up. Merrick's body is riddled with wounds, his armour completely shattered from the attack. Next to him, the other merman is in a similar condition. They were naive to think they could stand against this calamity and now they could only wait for the demon's final strike to finish them off.

Strangely, as they await their deaths, this strike never comes. Both mermen helplessly stare at the octopus floating next to the portal, but its attention is completely drawn upwards. Following its gaze, the duo stares at the darkness above, barely managing to see the outline of an enormous object in the water far above them.

The mutated octopus remains locked in place, the aura from the descending object somehow suppressing its movements. The object descends at meteoric speed, rapidly nearing the abyss floor. Merrick's eyes widen as he discerns a humanoid shape from the descending object. Before he could make any further assumption, the object impacts the abyss floor.

A horrifying sounding crunch and loud explosion nearly burst their eardrums. The ground shakes from the enormous impact and a large cloud of sediment rises and obscures the impact location. From Merrick's view, a gigantic figure can barely be seen in the dust cloud wildly 'attacking' the bright portal. Another loud explosion rocks the surrounding as the magnificent portal suddenly collapses, an unprecedented event. The surroundings become bathed in darkness as the only source of light disappears.

The mermen quickly take out their emergency lights, aiming it at the dust cloud. As the dust slowly settles, they observe more details of the motionless, towering figure. "what is that thing?" the other merman asks as he tends to their wounds. Merrick's eyes lock onto the squashed demon at the figure's feet and replies, "I have no idea, but we have to be cautious. This 'stone monster' seems much more dangerous than that demon.".

Suddenly, his eyes lock with the 'stone monster's' eyes. Fear grips his heart as it turns to face him. Readying his trident for a last desperate charge, a deep voice suddenly calls, "Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break the light source, I was only trying to fight off the horrid dust cloud.". Completely bewildered, the two mermen stare at the apologising 'stone monster'.

Before Merrick can respond, another shout is heard from the 'stone monster', "Sorry, small water elemental! I'll quickly get off of you and let you continue sleeping.". Beneath the Colossus, the octopus demon remains motionless, completely dead, but the naive Colossus remains blissfully unaware of this fact. Looking over at the other two, even smaller 'water elementals', the Colossus prepares to go over and introduce himself to apologise for breaking their 'light'.