Darkness surrounded him.
Thalor drifted through an endless abyss.
Above him, the storm-tossed surface had long since disappeared. The lanterns of the slavers were gone. The shouts of the guards had faded into silence.
For the first time in eight years, nobody was chasing him.
It should have felt comforting.
Instead, it felt strange.
His lungs burned.
His body screamed for air.
Yet the deeper he sank, the less the pressure seemed to bother him.
Perhaps it was his merfolk blood.
Perhaps he was already dying.
At the moment, he didn't particularly care.
He was free.
That alone made everything worth it.
Then he saw the light.
A faint blue glow pierced the darkness below.
Thalor frowned.
The ocean floor shouldn't glow.
The light pulsed once.
Then again.
Then dozens more answered.
Like stars awakening beneath the sea.
Curiosity stirred within him.
As the current carried him lower, shapes began to emerge from the darkness.
Stone.
Roads.
Buildings.
Ruins.
His eyes widened.
An entire valley stretched across the ocean floor.
Not a city.
The remains of one.
Broken towers jutted from the seabed like shattered bones.
Massive avenues disappeared beneath centuries of sediment.
Statues taller than castles lay toppled and broken.
Everywhere he looked, destruction surrounded him.
Whatever this place had once been, it had died long ago.
Yet something about it felt...
Familiar.
Thalor couldn't explain why.
The sensation unsettled him.
The valley stretched for miles.
Far larger than any settlement he had ever seen.
Even in ruin, it radiated an impossible grandeur.
A civilization had once lived here.
A powerful one.
And somehow the ocean itself seemed reluctant to forget.
A sudden pulse of light erupted from somewhere near the center of the valley.
Thalor turned.
There.
Unlike the surrounding ruins, one structure remained standing.
Barely.
The building looked ancient.
Its silver-white walls were cracked.
Entire sections had collapsed.
One wing lay buried beneath fallen stone.
Yet some unseen force continued protecting it from the relentless passage of time.
The current pulled him toward it.
Toward the lone survivor of a dead civilization.
The entrance stood open.
Massive doors rested broken upon the seabed.
As Thalor crossed the threshold, something happened.
The water vanished.
One moment, he was submerged.
Next, he stumbled onto solid stone.
Air rushed into his lungs.
He collapsed to his knees, coughing violently.
Water splashed across polished floors.
For several moments, he simply breathed.
Alive.
Somehow.
When his breathing finally steadied, he looked around.
The chamber was enormous.
Ancient pillars supported a ceiling lost in darkness.
Faded runes covered every surface.
Most no longer glowed.
Many appeared damaged beyond repair.
The entire structure felt exhausted.
Like an old warrior refusing to fall.
Thalor rose slowly.
His footsteps echoed throughout the empty halls.
No guards.
No chains.
No masters.
Only silence.
He liked silence.
Silence meant safety.
The further he walked, the stronger the strange feeling became.
Something was watching him.
Not with hostility.
With anticipation.
As though it had been waiting.
For him.
The thought was ridiculous.
Nobody waited for slaves.
Eventually, he entered a circular chamber.
And stopped.
A silver trident floated in the center of the room.
Three crystal prongs glowed faintly with blue light.
Countless runes covered its surface.
Some were dark.
Others flickered weakly.
Like a dying heartbeat.
The moment Thalor stepped forward—
The entire chamber awakened.
Blue light erupted across the walls.
Ancient machinery groaned to life.
Runes ignited throughout the chamber.
A voice echoed from everywhere at once.
Cold.
Precise.
Ancient.
"Compatibility scan initiated."
Thalor immediately took a step backward.
"What?"
The voice ignored him.
"Human lineage detected."
The trident rotated slowly.
"Merfolk lineage detected."
More runes illuminated.
"Genetic anomaly identified."
Silence followed.
Then—
"Atlantean lineage detected."
Thalor blinked.
"Atlantean what?"
The room shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
The trident's crystals brightened.
Ancient power surged through the chamber.
The voice continued.
"Primary Directive Omega activated."
"Successor candidate identified."
"Evaluating."
A long pause followed.
Then:
"Combat qualifications acceptable."
"Survival aptitude acceptable."
"Educational qualifications unacceptable."
Thalor frowned.
"Excuse me?"
"Political qualifications nonexistent."
"Leadership qualifications unverified."
"Royal qualifications nonexistent."
The silence that followed felt strangely awkward.
Then the voice spoke again.
"Standards adjusted."
Thalor stared.
"What does that mean?"
"Successor approved."
The trident shot forward.
Before Thalor could react, silver light engulfed the room.
Pain exploded through his body.
He cried out.
Ancient knowledge flooded his mind.
Countless images flashed before his eyes.
A city.
No.
A civilization.
The ruined valley disappeared.
In its place stood something magnificent.
Towering crystal spires pierced the ocean.
Mana flowed through vast canals like rivers of liquid starlight.
Leviathans swam peacefully above glowing districts.
Humans.
Merfolk.
Beastkin.
Dozens of races walked the same streets.
No chains.
No slaves.
No fear.
Children laughed together in massive academies.
Scholars debated magical theory in open plazas.
Artisans crafted wonders beyond imagination.
The city pulsed with life.
With hope.
With possibility.
Atlantis.
The word appeared instinctively within his mind.
This was Atlantis.
The greatest civilization Mogar had ever known.
Thalor watched as the city flourished.
Years passed in moments.
Discoveries reshaped the world.
Knowledge spread.
Dreams became reality.
For the first time in his life, he witnessed a society where people were free.
Then everything changed.
The vision darkened.
The streets emptied.
Academies closed.
Arguments became conflicts.
Conflicts became wars.
The ocean trembled.
Entire districts vanished beneath unimaginable spells.
Towering structures collapsed.
Fire and destruction consumed paradise.
The beautiful city began tearing itself apart.
Atlantis wasn't conquered.
Atlantis destroyed itself.
The vision accelerated.
Buildings fell.
People died.
The ocean swallowed everything.
The glorious city faded.
Its brilliance extinguished.
And suddenly—
Thalor stood once more within the ruined valley.
Only now he understood what he was seeing.
Every broken road.
Every shattered tower.
Every collapsed district.
He had witnessed their deaths.
The trident had shown him.
The valley wasn't merely ruins.
It was a graveyard.
A tomb for an entire civilization.
A voice echoed through the vision.
An old man.
A king.
"Civilizations are not measured by the towers they build..."
The ruined city flickered.
For a moment, Atlantis returned.
Whole.
Beautiful.
Alive.
Then vanished once more.
"...but by the ideals they leave behind."
The vision shattered.
Thalor gasped.
The chamber returned.
The trident floated before him.
The bond had formed.
A strange connection now linked them together.
Thoughts.
Emotions.
Instincts.
Desperation.
So much desperation.
A single message appeared within his mind.
Find mana.
Thalor frowned.
"What?"
Find mana.
The message repeated.
Find mana immediately.
Critical reserves exhausted.
The entire structure trembled.
For the first time, Thalor noticed just how damaged everything was.
Cracked walls.
Failing runes.
Darkened systems.
This wasn't Atlantis.
This was merely its corpse.
Running on borrowed time.
Another presence stirred nearby.
Ancient.
Dormant.
Sleeping.
Yet slowly awakening.
Before Thalor could investigate, another thought entered his mind.
Restore Atlantis.
He stared at the trident.
Then laughed.
A tired, disbelieving laugh.
He gestured toward the ruins outside.
"Restore Atlantis?"
The trident pulsed once.
Affirmative.
Thalor pointed toward himself.
"You waited ninety-eight thousand years for me?"
Another pulse.
Affirmative.
He laughed harder.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was insane.
When he finally calmed down, he shook his head.
"Then Atlantis is desperate."
The trident flashed brightly.
As if reluctantly agreeing.
Outside the chamber, somewhere deep within the forgotten ruins of Atlantis...
A woman woven from water and light slowly opened her eyes.