The silver leviathan circled the dome.
Every movement it made sent ripples through Kuro's domain. The current bent under its mass; the light from the volcanic vents danced off its scales like fractured mirrors.
It was beautiful.
And utterly lethal.
Kuro extended his senses through the water, the domain responding instinctively to his will. Every motion of the intruder was mapped in vibration, each heartbeat a sonar pulse reverberating through the black.
> [Target Identified: Abyssal Predator – Class E (Mature).]
[Threat Level: Severe.]
The System's whisper was clinical. Detached. It didn't warn him to run. It simply observed.
> Then I'll observe too.
Kuro flexed his mantle and dissolved the outer wall of his nest, releasing a torrent of heated water into the current. The sudden surge twisted the nearby flow — a distraction, not an attack.
The leviathan lunged.
Its maw opened like a rift, revealing rows of translucent teeth that gleamed with internal light. Kuro darted upward, pressure folding around him. He released a pulse — Hydro Jet Boost — propelling him through the dark like a spear.
The beast snapped at his wake, missing by inches. The current vibrated violently.
> Fast. Strong. But predictable.
He shot behind a cluster of rocks, releasing another ink cloud, this one laced with faint bioluminescence. The ink spread like a living fog, mimicking the shimmer of his own glow.
A decoy.
The predator bit into it, its jaws crunching down on nothing.
Kuro struck from above.
Tentacles lashed, wrapping around the leviathan's dorsal plates. He used Pressure Vein, compressing water between them — the sound of cracking shell filled the trench like thunder. The creature thrashed, its tail whipping with enough force to send shockwaves through the domain.
The impact shattered Kuro's lower limbs.
> Pain.
The nerves screamed — a surge of primal panic he couldn't suppress.
Good. Pain meant he was still alive. Still adapting.
He detached, retreating into the current, limbs regenerating slowly under the influence of mana. The leviathan turned, eyes burning hotter now — no longer curious, but furious.
> [Abyssal Cognition: Active. Analyzing enemy mana structure.]
He saw it — the pattern of the creature's mana organs. Four cores along the spine, cycling pressure energy through its muscles. One weak point — the central node, right behind the skull.
But it was armored.
He couldn't pierce it from outside.
> Then I'll evolve around it.
He dove toward the vent beneath them. The heat scalded, flesh hissing as it began to char — and mutate. His cells responded instantly, absorbing the ambient mana.
> [Environmental Adaptation Detected.]
[Mutation Trigger: Heat Resistance + Density Control Fusion.]
[New Skill Acquired: Thermal Jet Surge.]
Steam boiled around him. His tentacles darkened, skin thickening to obsidian. He burst from the vent — a streak of molten blue — and rammed directly into the leviathan's side.
The Thermal Jet erupted on impact.
Water superheated, pressure multiplied, and the leviathan's armor cracked open like shattered ice. Kuro's beak struck true, piercing the flesh around the mana node. He dug in, consuming, devouring its energy and memory in a torrent of heat and instinct.
> [Predatory Assimilation Complete.]
[Skill Acquired: Abyssal Carapace.]
[Evolution Progress: 22.84%]
The leviathan convulsed once, twice — and went still. Its glow faded, leaving only the slow churn of dark currents.
Kuro hovered above its corpse, body trembling. Not from weakness — from change.
His carapace had begun to harden, forming sleek ridges across his mantle. His body grew larger, his limbs longer, heavier. He could feel the water bending around his new mass, his Domain adjusting to his altered gravity.
He was no longer just surviving.
He was shaping the abyss.
> "This... is power. Not given. Not inherited. Taken."
The whisper of the System followed like a chorus beneath thought:
> [Apex Evolution Approaching.]
[Next Path: Abyssal Cuttle Form.]
He looked down at the remains of his enemy — its armor, its strength, its dignity — now silent and still.
For a long moment, he didn't feel triumph.
Only hunger.
And somewhere deep beyond the trench, far below even his sonar's reach, the Abyss itself murmured.
A thousand voices at once.
Approving.