City Of The Deep

Axiolypito braced himself for a fight but even though he should currently be within sight of many of the knights, none took action, seemingly not perceiving him asa threat or intruder.

'Maybe they can't tell that I am not from around here due to my current looks?' he did look like a nearly, fully aquatic creature, he probably looked a great deal like them now, minus the tail and the fact that he still looked like a midget compared to them.

"We haven't had visitors in so long, not ever since that seeker of the dark came to our king..." suddenly, a drowned voice came from behind the wretch, the owner having been left unnoticed up until they revealed themselves.

Axio immediately turned around and rather than being met with something similar to the knights or at least something that could be expected to live in water, like some mermaid, he was just faced with a small fish.

Looking no bigger than thirty centimeters and somewhat grey in color, it spoke in an unfitting, deep male voice, sporting a large frown and looking at Axio with a forlorn expression in its fish eyes.

Even Axiolypito was quite taken aback by this, of all the sort of horrors he had been imagining finding at the bottom of this place, a talking blobfish with an imposing voice and venerable way of just, floating there was beyond his wildest thoughts.

"An old man with a scar on his face?" asked Axio, sounding much better when speaking underwater.

"Who? No, no, a young man in armor, he came here with a peculiar item, brought it to our grieving king and was never seen again, just like our lord..." the blobfish swam closer to Axio.

"You have a particular shine in your eyes, monster, the shine of special beings, I would say" the fish had a glint ignite in his eyes as he hummed for a few moments.

"Mmmmmmh, mmmmmmmh... You wish to leave, do you not? You are not like us, you do not wish to perish to the rot, this isn't your ancestral home, so surely, you wouldn't mind me guiding you to the way out of here?" the blobfish didn't seem suspicious at all, he swam into a building covered in corals and seaweed.

The wretch followed from a distance, soon seeing the fish floating right next to what appeared to be a lever.

"Be mindful of the brightness" advised the blobfish before slightly pushing the old lever, which surprisingly moved as if brand new, despite being covered in layers of various things, breaking them with its movement.

Axio didn't have time as just as he finished his sentence, the entire city brightened up, no, nearly the entirety of the underground ocean was drowned with light, revealing its true form to Axio.

"Aah, fuck, I am in this shit?" he couldn't help but blurt out, as he suspected, the ocean was far from crystal clear, the light shone through the mud-like water, it really looked like he was just in a very deep swamp.

The strange thing however, was that the city and it's surroundings weren't affected, the water still felt muddy and such, but didn't share the sickly appearance as the rest, appearing like a dome was protecting it from the filth.

"Ever since our king lost his peace of mind, his dear lady, many things changed" the blobfish swam next to Axio, glancing at the rest of the ocean.

"There is no traditional exit out of here, keen-eyed monster, the ocean is closed off from everything else" explained the blobfish, Axiolypito frowned for a moment, understanding why this place was in the state it was, the water was stagnating!

No wonder it was so sickly and stagnating, it must be filled with corpses and feces that never went away as well! How long has it even existed? Why would anyone build a city here and how could they still be alive?

As if reading his mind, the blobfish spoke up:

"Our glorious king was the first ruler of Lordlorn they say, well before anyone else set foot on this continent, he had already since long established his kingdom of the deep, away from anyone that could threaten him and his people, we've lived happily for long but we have been decaying for even longer" there was something ominous in his voice, his curious appearance not longer mitigating the weight of his words at all, this one blobfish had been there for years, much longer than measly decades from the sound of it.

"The water is stagnating but our king was a brilliant mage, his hadal sorceries and spells allowing him to stir up the waters and purify them everlastingly" 

"However, after tragedy struck him, he became vulnerable to any hope and the thing that greeted him was the oozing dark blue, he went and never came back, then that visitor brought something, supposed to help the king in his researches, or so I heard..."

"All that I know for certain is that ever since then, we have been protected from the stagnating waters and the creatures mutated from it by the king's friend" the blobfish looked in the distance, appearing resignated.

Axio didn't care much about how sad he was or how this place had come to crumble down, it may be interesting and he was certainly somewhat curious but what he truly wanted to know was how to leave.

He had no business here, he had no business hanging out in water in the first place, he was a earthbound creature first and foremost, was he not, he would have already gained wings from his mithridate and soared to the skies.

It was already miraculous that he could gain adaptations for water.

"Could that friend point the way out?" he asked and th blobfish simply looked straight up, Axiolypito mimicked the movement and fell instantly silent.

Swimming outside the dome of pure water, a gigantic serpent could be seen absolutely slaughtering a shark that was large enough to look down on a big megalodon.

Slaughtering wasn't the right word however, the beast was swallowed in a single go, the serpent could have easily swallowed many more of those alongside this one in this single bite.

A creature of great might and still majestic in spite of the damage on its body, bones would be seen stricking out, most of its glorious scales peeled off and its flesh pale and mostly dried of blood, it seemed bloated, as if in the process of decaying, giving it a much less linear appearrance than one of its kind should have.

Appearing covered in bumps and malformations.

"The king's closest friend, the Hadal Serpent, Nartak, guardian beast and a worshipped living deity of the people" spoke the blobfish with great reverence.

"There are no exits to be frank, I simply wished to warn you, Nartak doesn't let anyone from the outside leave, if they aren't caught while going in"

"I also meant to ask you, please, end his sufferings and find our king" the blobfish swam away, his tone and expression turning sad as he took in the decaying form of Nartak, who was rotting alive for their sakes.