I swam through the sea, pushing against the current that never let up, moving upstream through waves that stretched into infinity. The storm, thick with mana, beat down on me, and the dense fog pushed back against my direction.0

I had long since lost all sense of time. I moved only by instinct, enduring whatever I could. Waterspouts howled as they tore upward, waves leapt like great whales breaching, then slammed down to shatter the ocean’s surface, and lightning tore across a world stripped of color.0

However, at that moment, in the false calm of the sea, I sensed a presence—a gaze from somewhere unknown. Then came the roar of the ocean,...0