While Ash was infusing the comprehension of the Rune of Harmony within his Will Orb, his body outside, which was deeply exhausted just moments ago, slowly started to regain its energy.
His pale skin gradually returned to a healthier tone, and the fatigue that had built up from the earlier process began to fade away, as if something unseen was restoring him from within. This was very abnormal, because normally something like this never happens, but Ash had no idea about it, as he was in a deep flow state where his surroundings did not matter to him at all.
At this time, Ash had no awareness of the sky, the ocean, or even the stillness th at had begun to form around him. Invisible waves of currents escaped his body as they started to travel through the endless ocean, with him at the center of it all.
The waves which were once crashing onto the shore of the island where Ash was began to change, slowly reversing their motion, forming waves that seemed to rise from the island itself before spreading outward toward the unknown in every direction.
The wind that once swept across the open waters grew calm. It did not disappear, but it lost its wild nature and moved in a steady direction, brushing across the surface of the sea in long, even strokes that carried no chaos.
Clouds drifted across the sky, yet they no longer scattered without purpose. They spread out evenly in concentric circles, forming soft and endless layers above, neither gathering into storms nor fading away into nothingness.
The light of the sun passed through them in a gentle glow, casting no harsh shadows, only a smooth and quiet brightness that spread evenly across everything.
All of this happened very slowly, so slowly that it would go unnoticed unless someone observed it carefully, and the concealment runes did not detect those invisible waves escaping Ash’s body at intervals, nor did those waves create any visible disturbance that could trigger them.
And what made it more troublesome was that those runes were meant only to conceal, not to stop something.
More like creating a illusion that there is nothing on the island, but Ash never would have thought that his body would start releasing unknown waves of energy creating such a change around him. Although, the change was not intense, but this was only the start and the Seal was not even formed.
Meanwhile, Oblivious to everything Ash continued to infuse more and more of his comprehension into the Will Orb, because the knowledge contained within the Runes was vast and deep, making the process long and steady, with no room for haste.
Time continued to pass, and the invisible changes that began around Ash did not remain unnoticed for long.
**
In the mid depths of the ocean, where light still faintly reached, a group of Merfolk were swimming together, their movements smooth and steady, but as they continued, one of them suddenly slowed down.
Her expression changed slightly as she raised her hand, signaling the others to stop, while her attention focused on the water around them.
"Wait...something is wrong with the waves and the winds, they are not flowing naturally," she said, her voice calm but carrying a hint of confusion.
The others also stopped and began to observe the currents around them, and soon they noticed it as well.
The water was not moving as it should.
Instead of following its usual path, it felt like it was being pushed, as if something far away was sending waves outward, disturbing the natural flow.
"It feels like something is forcing the ocean to shift...like the waves are being pushed from somewhere," one of them said, her brows slightly furrowed as she tried to make sense of it.
The leading figure closed her eyes briefly, extending her senses deeper into the ocean, and after a moment, she opened them again, her gaze turning serious.
"It is not random...the disturbance is spreading outward, which means there is a source," she said slowly, her voice carrying certainty now.
A brief silence followed before another one spoke, her tone now filled with curiosity.
"If there is a source, then something must be there...this kind of change does not happen without a reason, it could be a treasure or some kind of awakening..."
The leading figure did not dismiss the thought, but she remained cautious.
"Whatever it is, it is affecting the ocean itself, which means it is not something ordinary, inform the Royal Guards and send word back to the Kingdom, we need to investigate this immediately," she said, her tone firm.
She paused for a moment before continuing.
"But this could also be a treasure and if we can sense it, others also can. There is no time, we will move toward the source, but stay alert, this could be an opportunity...or something dangerous."
With that, she turned and began to swim in the direction from where the disturbance was spreading, and the others followed closely behind her.
**
In a cold and dim region of the ocean, a massive creature drifted slowly, its body covered in thick scales, its presence alone enough to make smaller beings avoid that area completely, and yet even it slowed down as it also sensed the change in the water currents and the wind.
After all, to navigate in the ocean, one need to observe the winds and the waves to navigate along with many other things, but right now it was like, everyone was being lead towards a singular direction.
The Leviathan opened its eyes slightly.
The waves are not moving in the right...direction...
It did not move immediately, instead it let its senses spread outward, feeling the pattern of the disturbance, and soon it realized that this was not a random change.
The waves were being forced outward.
Something was at the center.
It did not rush toward it, because creatures like it did not act without reason, instead it remained still for a moment longer, observing, as if trying to judge whether this was worth its attention or not.
But, If this continues...others will notice too...and might move...
Hmm....let’s wait and see, if those guys move.....I will move too....
A low rumble passed through its body, as it slowly adjusted its position, turning slightly toward the direction of the disturbance, though it did not move yet.
It was watching.
Waiting.
**
Closer to the upper layers of the ocean, a group of Shark kin moved through the waters, their bodies sharp and built for speed, their eyes always alert as they hunted in packs.
One of them suddenly clicked his tongue as he felt the water shift against his body in a strange way.
"You guys feel that...the waves are acting weird," he said, his voice carrying a casual tone, though his eyes were scanning the surroundings carefully.
Another one slowed down slightly, moving his hand through the water as if testing it.
"It feels like something pushed the water from somewhere...like the current got disturbed all of a sudden," he replied, frowning slightly.
A third one laughed lightly, though there was a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"Could be some big beast moving around, or maybe some idiot caused trouble somewhere far away, either way it is not our problem unless it comes to us."
The first one did not respond immediately, instead looking toward the direction from where the waves seemed to be spreading.
"It is spreading outward...which means something is at the center of it, and whatever it is, it is not small if it can affect the ocean like this," he said, his tone now slightly more serious.
There was a brief silence among them before one of them shrugged.
"Then let the big shots deal with it, I am not in the mood to get dragged into something unknown. But let’s inform them about this change though, it might be some treasure may be."
A few of them nodded in agreement, while some still looked in that direction with curiosity, but none of them rushed forward blindly.
**
Similar scenes could be seen playing out across a vast stretch of the ocean, because the change that Ash was causing, although it was not very strong at the start, slowly began to build as those waves started to follow a peculiar rhythm, and like a chain reaction that refused to stop once it began, they continued to move outward toward the far ends of the ocean.
Some noticed it early if they were near Ash, where the disturbance felt clearer and harder to ignore, while some noticed it very late if they were far away, where it appeared subtle at first before becoming more evident with time, but through all of this, Ash remained completely unaware of everything happening outside.
But at this moment, he had finally fused all of his 6% comprehension of the Rune of Harmony into his Will Orb, or rather the nebula like form that had replaced his Will Orb.
After the concept or any attribute is fused into the Will Orb, the orb loses its original shape as that particular attribute begins to take over its nature, turning it into something fluid and constantly moving instead of something fixed.
Its appearance was like a nebula, with the tiny runes shimmering like distant stars and the raw Will acting like the flowing gases that held everything together, slowly moving while maintaining a delicate balance.
The compression and infusion process was there to give one’s will a particular nature, to define what it would become, and now came the main step, the fourth step, where one needed to shape that continuously moving nebula, which had just found its balance, into a petal like form that could act as a foundation.
And when Ash started that process, an utterly insane phenomenon appeared in the outside world, not subtle like before, but something far more noticeable and intense, spreading out and making its presence known, attracting the attention of every single being.
****