Angel Monarch

Sarah raised an air bubble around all four of them, then at its edge, Vicky concentrated on the coordinates and tore open reality. The Realm Gate opened, revealing an endless light blue ocean.

Will jumped through and instantly changed into his sea monster form. His body elongated and widened until a three kilometer long gigantic beast swam near the Gateway.

A large whale-like tail and hundreds of long tentacles propelled him forward. Around his massive body, lots of giant cylindrical openings shot out air, making his movements much more refined and faster.

Hundreds of dark blue eyes provided him with 360-degree vision, and as he turned quickly, a multi-layered maw with a circular throat full of teeth, opened to devour the Realm Gate.

He stopped there and waited until everyone had crossed into the Realm of Eternal Depth. Sarah kept her air bubble going, so no water leaked through the Gate.

They crossed through without issue, and Vicky forcefully closed the Realm Gate. Will read Henry's mind and began moving downward, ignoring the currents trying to counteract his enormous body.

The light blue water looked clear, with no visible waves in sight, yet Will felt their effect all across his massive body. They weren't strong enough to restrict his movements.

Through the clear water, he also paid attention to the surroundings. Unlike on Earth, where the curvature prevented him from seeing farther than a few kilometers, here nothing blocked his vision.

For hundreds of kilometers, he could see everything. However, at some point, the light saturation over the light blue water caused disturbances.

He saw no living creatures nearby, nor any objects at all. It was a truly strange feeling, being so deep yet seeing nothing other than water.

The Fractured Waves contained no smaller light forms like plankton, small fish, or even larger beasts.

Only enormous sea monsters, similar to Will in size, could fight against the constant upward current. If an unfortunate smaller lifeform got too close to the Fractured Waves, it would get sucked up instantly.

While moving downward, the eyes on Will's back glanced up towards the Bright Sky layer. However, the light blue water fractured the light, so the top layer stayed hidden. Chaptersource:MyVirtualLibraryEmpire(M|V|L4EMPYR).

Will's sea monster body moved at a few hundred meters a second, so they reached the Kind Expanse in under a minute.

The water gradually darkened until the world opened into a beautiful deep blue expanse. Creatures swam about; some were a few hundred meters, others smaller, nothing close to Will's size.

'We reached the Kind Expanse. Where should go next?'

Will didn't speak. Instead, he used his mind manipulation and transferred his words straight into everyone's minds.

'Understood. Head downward and in the direction of that hundred-meter shark-like creature.'

They felt the Will's body change directions, and while moving towards the shark, his voice echoed in their heads again.

'Should I stop at that shark? Also, how do you know there's a shark?'

The answer soon came, right after an annoyed sigh.

'Vicky's partial perception detected it. And no, don't kill the shark! I just used him as a directional tool. Follow the path you're currently on and ignore any creatures. Only retaliate when they attack you!'

Everything became silent again until Will's mocking voice arrived in their minds.

'Aye, aye, captain! Full speed ahead!'

Henry sighed while shaking his head, while both Sarah and Vicky chuckled. His unserious words helped diffuse their stress, which had been rising since arriving in this Realm.

For the next few minutes, nothing important happened. Will travelled at full speed, reaching at least a thousand meters a second. However, they haven't even made it to the Kind Expanse's half waypoint.

They travelled for ten minutes, which meant they travelled over six hundred kilometers, which was about ten percent of the way through the middle layer.

This way, it would take hours before reaching the Twilight Zone's lower part, and they still needed to find the exact ruin!

'Will, could Sarah provide you with a constant current and airflow? That would increase your speed drastically!'

While speeding on, Will transmitted the Prince's message to everyone travelling inside him.

'I don't know. Let's try it. Otherwise, we'll never make it back in time!'

Sarah nodded without hesitation. She closed her eyes and concentrated on Will's outside. She created thousands of small air bubbles, which flowed downward.

The small bubbles were a few meters across, but compared to Will's enormous body, they looked tiny. Their speed was much faster than Will's, and Sarah made sure they wouldn't burst.

Will stared at the bubbles for a moment, then propelled forward using his massive tail and tentacles. The bubbles helped him move faster, and when he shot air from the cylindrical holes, the bubbles further increased his velocity.

His speed nearly tripled, which cut their journey down significantly. It took another ten minutes to reach the half waypoint of the Kind Expanse.

Here, Will began seeing large floating cities surrounded by spheres of air. However, the spheres of air only covered their top halves, giving the expression of a city floating in the sea.

Somehow, they stayed anchored even when larger sea creatures moved past, sending waves crashing into them.

They even had harbors with piers, where the waves crashed. This meant that whoever built these structures had ships, which could traverse these infinite waters.

The cities also had unique designs. The houses and general structures had spherical roofs, with small rods sticking out of them. Their walls had strange curves, which Will couldn't make sense of. They also loved arches and seemingly hated straight uninterrupted lines.

Whoever built and lived in these cities was no longer here. They abandoned them long ago, leaving only ruins behind.

However, a few sea creatures moved into these places. Weird larger crabs and other amphibians lived in the abandoned structures. They developed both lungs and gills, giving them freedom to choose their habitat.

These cities provided them safety from the larger sea predators that roamed the area. They needed to leave only for food, which they could access from the harbors.

The ecosystem of this Realm was truly unlike anything Will had seen before. The most interesting was the lack of plantlife. Only animals lived in this Realm, creating a strange food chain where everything has a predator and everything is a predator.

There were smaller ruins too. Structures that broke away from the main cities, or standalone buildings, like places of worship or something mysterious and unknown.

Explorers investigated dozens of them, but most items got eroded over time, leaving them with little understanding of their structures.

Some scientists believe they've relevance other than spiritual. They believed these temples were the reason for the lack of monsters in this Realm. However, they found no evidence of anything, so eventually people stopped caring about them.

Either way, Will found them eerie and fascinating. He always loved ruins, but also feared them since they carry the sad memories of the dead and forgotten.

The ruins moved past them, leaving a strange sadness in Will's enormous heart. Whatever happened to the people of this Realm, they deserved better than being forgotten forever.

Many believed that nobody truly dies until someone alive still remembers them. But there's nobody left to remember these people, which means they're truly dead.

Minutes went by as they moved lower. The dark blue began carrying light pink hues as Will approached the Twilight Zone's edge.

However, before passing through onto the second-lowest layer, he stopped dead in his tracks.

'We have a problem. There's a giant sea creature right below us. We need to change routes drastically to avoid it!'

Henry glanced at his fiancée, who just shook her head.

'My spatial perception can't reach however far the creature is. Will, how big is the beast?'

Vicky's words were followed by a few seconds long, tense silence, but soon Will's words arrived in everyone's head, carrying the bad news.

'I would say it's at least a few hundred kilometers long and another hundred in width. It looks like a giant manta ray with thousands of long tentacles. It can probably swallow me whole!'

The information about the creature's size was disturbing to hear. However, the question in everyone's mind was the same… 'What the fuck is a manta ray?'

Unlike Will, the three mouth travellers had very little knowledge about sea creatures. Other than whales, sharks, squids, crabs and fish in general, they had no clue about anything else.

Will really wanted to sigh upon hearing their thoughts, but since that would only propel them out of his mouth, he instead sent a picture of the creature.

They thought about the picture for a few moments, before Henry finally spoke, revealing a plan, which Will would hate.

'I'm sorry Will. We've no time to evade the creature. It's not too fast, and unlike monsters, creatures of this Realm don't have as much defense. Their skin is much weaker and you can easily penetrate it.'

An annoyed and anxious throaty sound filled Will's mouth.

'I don't like where you're heading… Do I really need to? Is there no other way? A less disguting one perhaps?'

Sarah and Vicky both looked at Henry in confusion. Unlike WIll, they didn't catch the meaning behind his words, so he explained it further.

'The fastest way is if we carve a way through the giant ray thingy. We're in a hurry after all!'

Another throathy sound echoed, which they realized was similar to a human groan.

'Fine, I'll go… Dammit, I'm really starting to regret evolving into a Leviathan!'