The History of the World

Tristan collapsed against the cave walls with his heart beating out of his chest gills opening and closing rapidly as bubbles exited his throat.

Muscles aching in pain from having been through strenuous activities in short order, Tristan gasped for air as his gills tried to solve the oxygen debt his muscles had been put through.

Not that his broken arm now covered in a layer of binding tar helped.

At the least he found Firefly on the way to this cave as Lighthouse was now stuck to his hand in a way that could only be likened to a prosthetic.

A very violent prosthetic as it had wrapped itself around Lighthouse making his left arms end become a gun.

Like the weapon of his imaginations although he never imagined that it would occur like this.

But since news always comes in pairs, the bad news was that Tristan completely underestimated the stickiness of the binding tar although its name already hinted at that fact, Tristan never imagined it to be so sticky.

Heck, even as he had laid against the cave wall, to make sure his body didn't get stuck on the wall and he couldn't escape he had unwillingly covered his arm with bits of sediment and ship wood he had rolled over.

In addition to Lighthouse that looked like it had just gone through several hundred wars and lost ninety nine of them and Firefly that looked as if someone had dumped it into a brazier, Tristan looked a lot more worse for wear when he was literally dying from blood loss.

Not that the dark sea was helping it in the slightest as Tristan felt a painful pressure press down on his lungs now that he could actually pay attention to something else as he looked like a wet cat.

Punching his chest to rid the suffocating sensation that was akin to choking, sadly enough, the pressure didn't disappear.

It would actually be stranger if it did work though.

'Oh my head is spinning.'

Uncomfortably shaking his head as the deep sea pressure finally made its way into his head, fortunately enough, this new body seemed to adapt particularly well to the deep sea conditions.

Tristan knew for a fact that the average human body would've been crushed like a can at these depths, just look at oceangate.

Hand balancing himself on the wall, he unconsciously looked around the cave expecting to see only more cave only to be surprised when he instead saw incredibly detailed carvings on the wall.

"What in the..."

Scanning the cave carving, a vague definition of whale with an open mouth spilling out a sea of water could be seen.

|I can't believe it.|

Tristan glanced at Era whom had just been lingering behind him looking at the caves entrance.

"What can't you believe?"

|It's an ancient ruin from the lost era...|

"What?"

Turning to look at the cave painting that was nothing more than a stick figure with four arms, two blue and two red, Tristan wondered where on earth did it depict anything that screamed ruins.

Cause he sure as hell couldn't see it.

|...Go over there.|

Pointing deeper into the black cave, Tristan took in a deep gulp of sea water with all the intentions in the world to never go in there as several thoughts barraged his mind.

Those thoughts were many things but not limited to 'This sea water is salty' 'Oh God that looks terrifying.' 'I'm not afraid of being alone in the dark, I'm afraid of not being alone in the dark.' And the tried and true 'Oh hell no, I've watched to many horror movies to know that's a bad idea.'

|What are you waiting for?|

"Just hyping myself up before my death."

Patting his chest, Tristan forced his limbs to move forwards despite the fear if only to satiate his curiosity.

It's not for nothing that the saying curiosity killed the cat existed.

But a lesser known saying that was supposed to be paired with the first one And satisfaction brought it back could be used in the situation that Tristan somehow miraculously made it back alive.

Forcing his feet to move despite the warning bells screaming in his brain, Tristan mulled over how stupid he currently was.

But his thoughts of stupidity quickly were replaced by thoughts of acceptance as blue lights embedded in the wall suddenly lit up, casting the cave in front of him in a soft blue glow.

'Ah curses...'

In other words, this was a popular set up to either introduce Tristan to ghosts or history, and with the way that things had been going, it might be the first one although Tristan dearly hoped it was the second one.

Hopefully.

"Ah God damn it."

Roughly scratching his head of messy hair with his right arm, Tristan unwillingly stepped forwards as he kept Firefly pointed at the hallway, quickly forming a 

This had the downside of tensing his mind, but then again, he was already hella tense in the current situation.

Not that the abject fear of the unknown was helping him.

"Why am I doing this again?"

|Because I asked you.|

"And why the hell am I listening to you?"

|Because I revived you.|

"And why did you do that again?"

|Because you forced a deal with me you damn thing!|

"Oh yeah..."

Tristan cursed his past self that had made the deal without knowing anything much of the current situation.

'Why on earth did I ever make that deal.'

If Tristan knew that he would be dealing with monsters he might not have chosen to make the deal as it was just a whim of his and an instinct to rip off as much as possible written into his very DNA by his parents.

But he really couldn't deny that in a corner of his heart, Tristan thought that this place was way more interesting than that of his previous one

Call him masochistic, but he kinda enjoyed the pain and the threat to his life.

'...I really should get moving before I feel even weirder.'

Subtly speeding his movements as he felt incredibly weird inside now, Tristan ignored the dull pain in the entirety of his left arm while moving forwards

And eventually his dedication to just go forwards was met with it's rewards as the entrance suddenly expanded into a large natural basin lined with buildings that seemed as if a mountain had suddenly been erected before him

'Holy hell...'

|It's actually an ancient city...|

'What the hell constitutes ancient in this world???'

Sweat beading on his forehead before dissipating into the sea, he scanned the so called ancient city.

Eyes roaming the network of buildings that were so close together that there were no alleyways between them, signs of decay showed itself no matter where he looked.

Streets littered with cracks and fragmented stone pieces, the buildings besides them were slightly better off as they retained a semblance of intactness although they were missing a decent chunk of themselves.

These streets spread like a spider web across the entire city, forming an inescapable maze that had ended near the middle as a straight line of destruction had carved itself onto the very city itself heading towards the top.

And at the top a destroyed temple had built itself on top of the hill of buildings, the remains of which had lost its previous grandeur as it had collapsed in on itself.

Eyeing the buildings that were the first things to come to his vision, Tristan moved his eyes downwards where a grand city wall erected itself before him.

Like the buildings from before, these walls were also lined with cracks and missing pieces as if someone had stolen the last pieces of a puzzle and refused to give them back unless they were given a nuclear noogie.

But unlike the puzzle, this city wall was missing several pieces alongside the very important border pieces as several holes appeared on the walls like honeycomb, making several entryways to the city

Large metal installments lining the walls, some intact, some broken and some even buried amongst the rubble, pointing out of it alongside several broken corpses, the bones intermingled with pointed weapons as large weapons of war were surrounded by a field of corpses.

Gigantic humanoid statues with carvings etched onto their very bodies stood, in the process of striking something as frozen amongst the decayed bodies, eyes powered down as cracks ran through their crystal core embedded into their chest.

Collapsed onto the ground unmoving, exploded into several bits, split in half or otherwise, no matter the way that they died, these gigantic humanoids faced away from the mountain like city like immortal warriors, guarding the city even in death.

Accompanying these several humanoid constructs of rusted metal and decayed stone, large quadriplegic bodies of wood and steel lay on their sides revealing their insides as if they had been broken from the outside.

Some of these large quadriplegic bodies were filled to the brim with dead corpses that were piled up on each other, with even more of them emptied out.

No doubt these things were a sort of transport vehicle meant to move troops in and out of the field although they seemed to have been shot down.

And even this blend of magic and science wasn't the most impactful scene for Tristan.

Because the entire city, was flipped on an angle.

Eyes widening as the brain struggled to accept this piece of information, Tristan could vaguely what could pass off as jets at the sides of the city where the bottom of it peaked out.

'These guys had literal flying cities.'

Spying the closest portion of the walls that had been torn down by these unknown invaders, Tristan slowly swam towards it as Era excitedly chattered in his mind.

|We're looking at history here Tristan! Real, History!|

|These are the buildings that the ancients had built and the weapons they fought with!|

|Oh Atraxia! Just imagine the threading techniques that they have in their libraries!|

"Are we even sure that the libraries would even exist at this point." Murmuring to himself, Tristan slowly got closer to the statues and marvelled at how insanely large that these guys were.

Near triple his already tall height, these statues stared blankly down as they wielded stone spears and swords that have broken apart, guarding the city at their backs.

Not that it mattered since it looked like many had sacrificed themselves at the holes in the wall if the numerous broken statues had anything to say about it.

"And also Era, why are we here again?"

|Because behind you is a place filled with death and very predatory fish that would delight at everything to eat you alive without any seasonings?|

"...You know what, fair point."

|I also know that if you don't find a way to survive down here, you'll die very quickly, so shelter and supplies are a good start.|

"Yeah..."

Tristan looked at the incredibly tall city walls that were five times the size of the already tall statues.

"...Are we sure that this place is still safe?"

|Safer than what's outside, I know for a fact that you're untrained body would die in seconds if you encountered one of the predators of the deep.|

|And that's without all of the hunger.|

"...So I'm trapped here until then?"

|Yes, you are trapped here for the foreseeable future until you get strong enough to escape the depths.|

'..." Tristan turned to the gap in the walls and peeked into the barren city that had been devoid of life for quite some time now.

|And what better way to start than to take ancient relics of the ancient people?|

"Well... I guess if the internet and movies have taught me anything, it's that ancient people are inexplicably more advanced than the modern people."

|See!| Era's headless body clapped it's hands |Just loot the city of what's left behind! And don't worry about the important stuff, chances are, with your strength you wouldn't even be able to use them if you somehow got your hands on them.|

|And that's without these unknown invaders taking it.|

"...That's a harsh statement."

|But is it wrong?|

"No..."

|Then get looting!|

'I guess...'

Letting out a sigh, Tristan cracked his neck before swimming amongst the rubble.

It seemed he would have to somehow survive in the end of this city, if it was even survivable in the first place.

+++

The world is filled with oysters, some with pearls and some without, just keep on trying to find your pearl

Tree