Strange Sea

Noctis felt his body assaulted by the ice cold water as his body kept going down due to his inability to move his body in any directions.

Even his hands felt sluggish for some reason. The force against his body by the water made him feel as if he had landed in Mercury instead.

As his body kept going down he looked up at the bright point shining above the water.

The owl kept flapping her wings above the surface seemingly trying to get into the water but failing no matter how hard she tried.

The cold water quickly shocked his senses as his heart sped fast and hands and feet started going a little numb.

As minutes passed since his fall, Noctis felt himself getting disoriented as his consciousness started getting affected.

He knew as more and more time passed in the water, he would start getting affected by hyperthermia and eventually die. But no matter how hard he tried to access the energy it still was inaccessible to him.

Fortunately he had taken a breath and his superior physique allowed him some time underwater but if he didn't get out soon, it too would start running out.

'Is this the end afterall?'

Just as despondency started knocking at his psyche, he suddenly noticed something above the water.

A little distance away from their position a large shadow the shape of an elliptical cloud moved making their way at the place of the bridge from where he had fallen off of.

Thinking it of some sort of way to escape, grasping at straws at this point, Noctis forced himself once again to try and move somehow.

Initially failing but relenting he found that as soon as the shadow reached near his position, hiding the moon for just a moment he actually succeeded.

Noctis' eyes opened wide as he finally felt full control of his body after what felt like an eternity.

Immediately moving his body towards the surface of the water, Noctis once again felt the strangely high viscosity of this supposed sea. Paired with the numbness, it hurt to even move his body at this point.

Even so, persevering through the intense pain he reached to the top of the sea level.

As he started feeling some relief as he reached and subsequently tried to move out of the water, his hopes were dashed again as he felt his head hitting a wall, adding to his already hurting body.

He pulled himself down looking up at the surface once again.

'What the hell was that?'

He saw the owl pecking at the surface but not once did her beak break the surface of the water.

Noctis once again moved towards the surface again only to be met with the same results.

He tried to punch the surface, bruising his hands in the process.

Due to the viscosity of the water he couldn't muster much force and yet it felt as if he had hit the surface with extraordinary force as the reactionary force reddened his hands.

Met with another roadblock as the water kept assaulting his body, and he started running out of his breath, no matter how enhanced from normal humans, Noctis started punching and pushing at the surface in desperation.

His knuckles started getting bloodied as red streaks of water started flowing out from his position.

At this time he suddenly felt his body stiffening once again as the earlier feeling started creeping back into him.

Panicked, Noctis looked around himself for the reason of sudden change.

He got the answer fairly quickly as he looked above him, the shadow slowly moving ahead, making the full moon visible little by little.

Understanding something, Noctis abandoned the effort to escape and started making his way similarly in the direction of the way that the shadow moved.

His suspicions were proven true when he felt the stiffening going away soon as he was shielded by the shadow.

But the issue of his breath and body remained as he started losing some feeling in his hands.

'Think. I need to- I need to think before.. before I lose all my body. Why can't I leave? How did I get in in the first place? What was different then? What.. what… fall- ughhh.. I fell in, so was it the position? No no that's not… fall.. speed? Speed… yes that- aaaaargh… let's quickly try… haah..'

As Noctis moved ahead Noctis started moving a little faster as well as making his way down at the same time.

Forcing his body through intense pain Noctis got down making some distance from the surface.

After getting to some depth, with all his strength Noctis paddled his way mustering as much speed as he could and tried to move out of the sea when his head crashed into the surface.

The intense pain caused him to open his mouth and nose a little as some water went into it. Coughing violently and holding his head, Noctis felt his eyes most from the intense pain.

However, knowing the situation he was in, Noctis immediately went down to try once again. It was his only solution that seemed viable right now.

Crouching his body he lunges up trying to gain as much momentum in the dense water as he could before reaching the surface.

Just as he had reached the surface his thoughts went back to the intense pain as his body involuntarily paused for a fraction of a second before crashing into the surface once again.

Another violent cough combined with a repressed shout sounded in the water, only making Noctis' situation worse.

Water droplets fell from his eyes as a little trail of blood leaked from his head.

Checking his hands right only to feel his declining dexterity Noctis felt weak and powerless in the face of his situation.

'Aaaaargh!!! Just kill me already!'

Krrrrr~

Noctis heard this and looked up toward the owl still pounding at the surface. Looking closely Noctis could see a faint trace of red at the pure white coat.