Kaelen was dragged into the gaping hole in the rock wall by the serpent-like beast. A suffocating, deathly aura immediately engulfed him.
Captured by a beast — there were only two endings: death by being devoured, or death by being torn apart. In short — death.
Terror flared in Kaelen's heart. At this critical life-and-death moment, he struggled fiercely. Muscles bulged, veins twisted grotesquely under his skin, and bones groaned under the strain as he exploded with every shred of strength, desperate to escape the tightening coils.
But it was useless. The creature's body was cloaked in abyssal scales, each one like a slab of black iron, absorbing his blows without the slightest mark. The grip around him only grew tighter, crushing the breath from his lungs.
The serpent dragged him deeper into the abyss, and Kaelen, despite the mortal peril, forced himself to calm his mind. He realized they were descending at a terrifying speed — the pressure of the surrounding water grew heavier, as if invisible mountains pressed down from all directions.
The glacial currents of the Azure Frost Pool invaded his body, forcing their way into his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. No matter how he struggled, Kaelen swallowed mouthfuls of the freezing water, each gulp scraping down his throat like shards of broken glass.
The deeper they went, the more the cold turned monstrous, gnawing at his flesh and soul. His limbs numbed, his fingers and toes stiffened, and an unbearable ache stabbed into his chest, as if a shard of ice had pierced straight through his heart.
Breathing became agony. Thought itself slowed, as if his mind too was being frozen solid.
Dragged mercilessly toward the abyss, Kaelen lost all sense of direction. The crushing darkness, the devouring pressure — it felt like being swallowed by the bowels of some ancient, vengeful god.
Just as he felt his body begin to crack and splinter under the force, the serpent abruptly changed course, coiling upward with a burst of brutal power.
Then — splash! — Kaelen broke through the surface, gasping and coughing violently. In the next instant, he was flung like a ragdoll through the air, crashing hard onto something brittle and jagged. A sickening sound of snapping echoed around him.
A thick, rotten stench assaulted his senses. Dazed, Kaelen reached out instinctively — his hand landed on something slimy, sticky, and disturbingly uneven.
Forcing himself upright, he turned and glimpsed the massive black serpent slipping back into the nearby pool, its monstrous body vanishing beneath the surface without a ripple.
Kaelen's heart quivered with a deep, gnawing fear. Since when did a nightmare like that lurk beneath the Azure Frost Pool? His thoughts twisted to Darian — the man who had driven him to this damnable fate.
"Such treachery..." Kaelen whispered, his voice hoarse with hatred.
Originally, Darian had drawn the task of catching an Emeraldfin Carp, but he had swapped it onto Kaelen by stealing his jade token — all under the guise of camaraderie.
If Darian had known about this horror and deliberately set him up, then he was nothing less than a mortal enemy.
And there was only one rule for enemies: strike first, strike fatally.
Although anger festered within him, Kaelen was, against all odds, still alive. The serpent, perhaps bloated from a fresh kill, had flung him onto a pile of bones rather than devouring him.
Rubbing his battered body, Kaelen checked for fatal wounds. Aside from deep bruises and an aching spine, he remained intact — a cruel miracle.
Only then did he realize what he had landed on — a mound of bleached, shattered bones. His fall had splintered many of them, filling the cavern with the soft crackle of crumbling remains.
This was the serpent's lair — a den of death.
Scanning the area, Kaelen spotted a massive bloodstained spine, surrounded by tattered emerald-green scales, each the size of a man's palm, glistening faintly like cursed jade.
"An Emeraldfin Carp... and a colossal one at that," Kaelen murmured, his voice barely a breath.
He had seen Emeraldfin Carps before — graceful, mystical beings — but never anything remotely near this monstrous size.
Now it was clear why the carps had all but vanished from the Azure Frost Pool — they had been hunted to extinction by the beast that reigned here.
Likely because the serpent was still sated, it showed no interest in him — for now.
Looking around, Kaelen carefully examined his surroundings. The cavern stretched endlessly, hundreds of meters wide, its ceiling lost in shadowy heights. Pools of dark water clung to the walls and ceiling, yet not a single drop fell, as if cursed to remain forever suspended.
The entire cavern was cloaked in shades of darkness, but it was not blind blackness — a dim, cold radiance hung in the air, seeping from somewhere deeper within.
Drawn by the unnatural light, Kaelen moved forward with slow, wary steps.
At the center of the cavern sprawled a colossal skeleton — its serpentine frame coiling like a slumbering god of death.
At first, Kaelen did not recognize it. The skeletal remains, coated in layers of black stone and shadow, blended into the cavern like scars into old flesh.
But as he drew closer, awe and dread rooted him in place.
Could this be... the ancient Demonic Serpent spoken of in the sect's forbidden histories?
The Mystic Dawn Pavallion had whispered legends of a beast that once ruled the Azure Frost Pool — slain only after countless sacrifices by a master of the primeval era.
And now Kaelen stood at the tomb of that ancient terror.
Circling around a jagged boulder, he stumbled to a halt, breath caught in his throat.
A tall, middle-aged man stood atop a weathered stone platform ahead — or rather, what remained of him. His form was frozen in death, yet so lifelike that it seemed he might, at any moment, open his eyes and condemn the living.
Long black hair hung over his broad, skeletal shoulders. His features, once heroic, now bore the mark of eternal suffering. His chest was torn open, a bloody, gaping wound where life had fled.
Yet even in death, the man radiated a monstrous might — the kind that could bend the heavens and silence the earth. This was no ordinary warrior. This was a king among monsters.
Why would a being of this caliber die here, alone in the darkness beneath the world?
At his feet lay the shattered remains of a black, twisted skeleton — its bones still exuding an ancient, poisonous malice.
Kaelen's gaze brushed the fragments of the demon beast's skull, and his soul shivered uncontrollably. He dared not linger.
The man stood, proud even in death, his face turned toward a massive, jagged boulder as if defying the heavens themselves.
Behind him sprawled the mangled remains of the demon he had slain.
And from the immortal body that stood atop the stone — from his broken yet unyielding form — radiated the cold light that filled this cursed cavern...