Chapter 657: Sea monster
A colossal creature larger than imagination stood in front of him. Its two squid-like eyes made the dark blue ocean glow with a tint of red. Multiple skyscraper-sized tentacles squirmed around its mouth, seemingly searching for its next prey to consume.
Attached on its back were a pair of bat-like wings, which looked like it could help the creature move at tremendously fast speeds despite its size.
He looked down and saw that its body extended down into the dark abyss. What he was looking at was merely the top of its head. He couldn’t even see its shoulders.
"Cthulhu," Juniper muttered with fear. "We’re lucky that it’s just a representation of its body or else we’ll have already been dead meat."
He mirrored her apprehension. He felt like he was the size of an ant, looking up at a planet gazing down at him.
"Why would Nixie have the most terrifying sea creature in the world in her subconscious?" he asked her.
Juniper stayed silent for a second. "I don’t know. But it’s irregular. We’ll have to investigate closer to find out more."
Thankfully, Cthulhu was just standing there, doing nothing. It made it easier for them to approach this legendary creature without having to worry about whether it would devour them or not.
"Now what? Where would we find Nixie?"
Juniper stared at Cthulhu, peering through the giant tentacles and into its mouth. "She’s inside there."
"She’s inside Chtulhu?!"
"Yes. That’s where we’ll find her subconscious."
Upon closer inspection, he could feel Aubility Power emanating from Cthulhu’s mouth. Juniper was right. Nixie’s subconscious was hiding inside Cthulhu itself.
They both swarm forward, and as they got closer, Michael was able to comprehend the sheer size and magnitude of the creature in front of him. Just the tentacles themselves were bigger and taller than the skyscrapers in his world!
As they got closer, they saw mountain-like teeth around Cthulhu’s jaws, with its edge pointed straight towards them.
"Just don’t wander off," Juniper warned him.
Of course, he had no intention of having a stroll around Cthulhu’s mouth. Entering its body was already adventurous enough.
And as they got closer to the mouth of the beast, they suddenly felt the water in front of them rush forward like a river.
Both him and Juniper were swept inside Cthulhu’s mouth, giving them no time to think about backing out.
With just pure darkness around him, he found comfort in the batteries on his heart.
Eventually, they saw a tinge of light in the distance.
His eyes widened as he saw an entirely new world populated with biofluorescent creatures swimming around them! Fishes glowing with rainbow colors swarm in schools, squid-like creatures with pulsating lights curiously swam up towards them, and even the corals decorated around them were glowing with neon colors!
He thought that this was an amazing sight that was a great contrast to Cthulhu’s terrifying presence.
However, it wasn’t long before they felt a rumbling around them.
"What was that?"
The colorful fishes, which used to be so energetic, suddenly swam away in fear. The squids squirted out black ink before dashing away in a flash.
Every single biofluorescent creature fled for their lives.
Michael and Juniper turned around, and in the darkness, they could see the walls of Cthulhu’s body trembling.
Then, they saw an outline of a large snake creature with black and white scales. Its face bore a close resemblance to dragons, while its body was that of an eel.
It had its jaws unclenched, ready to devour everything in its sight.
It swam towards them, bumping into the fleshy walls of Cthulhu’s body in a hurry.
"The Leviathan?!" Juniper exclaimed.
It seemed that another colossal sea creature had manifested into Nixie’s subconscious void. Unfortunately, unlike Cthulhu, this one looked alive enough to be hungry.
"We have to go!" Juniper said, swimming as fast as she could away from the Leviathan.
He quickly followed behind her.
Thankfully, the flow of water worked in their direction, pushing them away from the Leviathan and neglecting the speed difference in water between them.
However, this seemed to have worked for the Leviathan as well.
It started gaining on them, inching closer and closer to their feet. With its jaws wide open, it was ready to devour them whole.
"There!" Juniper said, seeing a small diversion to the side, just enough for them to pass through.
Without thinking about it, they pushed their bodies to the right, fitting perfectly into the small hole just in time as Leviathan’s jaws clenched shut towards them.
The whole chamber trembled as Leviathan tried to enter the hole. It thrashed around, angry, but was not able to destroy the fleshy linings of Cthulhu’s body.
For now, they were safe.
"That was close," he muttered.
But just then, they suddenly felt the current start to pick up with more and more intensity, pushing them around into a circle.
And at the center of this current was a whirlpool that seemed to go down straight into a dark abyss.
"Swim against it!" Juniper said, trying to get out of the whirlpool that trapped them.
He swam with her, using all of his might to thrash the water around and free himself from the flow of the current.
Eventually, they found themselves in the still part of the water. The whirlpool didn’t have any flow of current here, making them safe.
But just as they were about to get their bearings, the entire chamber shook once again as the Leviathan seemed to have finally broken through the flesh walls of Cthulhu’s body.
It roared, sending a shockwave throughout the water.
Then, it turned towards them, with its red eyes keen on finally catching its prey.
"We’re trapped," Juniper said as she looked forward and saw nothing but a dead end. They had nowhere else to go. They had been cornered by the Leviathan.
"We have to go into the whirlpool!" he said to her.
He noticed that the whirlpool wasn’t just a place where it drew water in. It was also the place where all the surge of Aubility Power was coming from! They would no doubt find Nixie there on the other side.
Juniper looked at Michael and nodded. Even though they’d only just met today, she was already trusting his decisions. He had already proven himself multiple times before.
"Okay, but we have to go now!" she said.
They jumped back into the whirlpool at the same time, dodging the Leviathan’s lunge. It collided into the wall, disorienting it for a brief second.
And while Michael and Juniper rotated around the whirlpool, the Leviathan finally got its bearings. And without hesitation, it swam towards them and into the whirlpool.
"Swim to the center!" he said to Juniper.
They both began swimming directly into the eye of the whirlpool, speeding up their descent into the hole.
It wasn’t long before they plunged into the dark abyss, with Michael dodging the Leviathan’s sharp teeth by a hair’ width.
It angrily thrashed around, angry that it couldn’t capture it prey. This time, it had finally given up.
Meanwhile, Michael and Juniper both fell into the abyss, with the stream of water pushing them down like a waterfall.
Eventually, they landed on the bottom of the abyss, where the waters were as calm and serene as could be.
And right in front of them, they saw Nixie, sitting inside a giant clam shell.