The salty breeze brushed against their faces as Allen scanned the horizon. The point marked on the map was nothing more than a small, rocky outcrop jutting into the ocean. The tide lapped gently at the jagged edges, the clear blue water offering no imdiate hints of hidden secrets beneath the waves.
"So..." Allen said, rubbing his chin. "This is it?"
Fina’s ears twitched, her arms crossed. "Looks like it. I told you the map was probably a dead end."
Rinni leaned over the edge, peering into the water with wide eyes. "I don’t see anything shiny down there. What if it’s, like... a fake map? Or worse, what if it’s cursed?"
Allen smirked, stretching his arms above his head. "Only one way to find out."
"What are you thinking?" Fina asked warily, already backing away as Allen turned toward the water.
"We go in."
"No," Fina said flatly, her tail puffing up. "Absolutely not."
"Why not?" Allen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Saltwater." Fina spat the word like it was poison. "It gets in my ears, it stings, and it’s impossible to wash out properly. Do you know how much grooming it takes to fix that? Hours. Days, even."
Allen turned to Rinni. "What about you, Rin?"
She gave him a sheepish smile, her hands clasped behind her back. "Umm... yeah, about that. I don’t exactly... know how to swim?"
"You don’t—" Allen blinked at her, his lips twitching. "You’re a bunny. You hop everywhere. How do you not know how to swim?"
"I don’t hop in water!" Rinni huffed, crossing her arms defensively. "What do you want to do, flail around until I drown?"
Allen sighed, shaking his head. "So, it’s just and Luna then."
At the ntion of her na, Luna, the mischievous little spirit, bounced out from her perch on Allen’s shoulder. Her translucent form shimred in the sunlight as she chirped eagerly, already diving into the air like she was mimicking a swim stroke.
"I guess she’s excited," Allen muttered.
Fina stepped forward, gripping his arm. "You’re serious about this? We don’t know what’s down there. What if it’s dangerous?"
"Then it’ll be dangerous whether we’re up here or down there," Allen said with a reassuring smile. "Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Besides, Luna’s coming with . Right, girl?"
Luna made a series of chirping noises that Allen decided to interpret as agreent.
Fina sighed, her tail flicking. "Fine. But if you drown, I’m not fishing your body out."
"And I’ll—um—I’ll make you snacks when you get back!" Rinni added, earning a smirk from Allen.
"I’ll hold you to that," he said.
With a final glance at the reluctant duo, Allen stripped down to his boxers and waded into the surf. The water was surprisingly cool against his skin, the salt stinging slightly where it touched old scratches and cuts.
Luna zipped ahead, hovering over the surface before plunging into the water with a faint splash. Her glow illuminated the depths, casting an eerie, shifting light beneath the waves.
Allen took a deep breath, steeling himself before diving in after her.
Allen kicked through the water, following Luna’s soft, pale glow deeper into the subrged ruins. It wasn’t a coral reef or a sunken ship or even the glittering rmaid palace he’d imagined in the back of his mind.
It was a ghost town.
Smooth, shell-colored stone huts stood eerily quiet beneath the waves, clustered together like a village abandoned in haste. A few doors hung ajar, and ornantal wind chis of pearl and bone drifted gently with the current, whispering nothing. Sand coated everything, and aquatic plants crawled over the rooftops like moss devouring gravestones.
No bodies. No signs of life.
Allen swam through the silence, bubbles trailing behind him. His eyes scanned the buildings, expecting movent. A glint. A face. A tail.
Nothing.
He drifted closer to one of the huts and peered inside through the warped, jellyfish-like curtain covering the doorway. Just an empty room. A table knocked over. Scattered dishes.
They left in a hurry.
Luna darted around him, sending out tiny pulses of light in all directions. Her energy helped, pushing back the gloom—but it also made Allen more aware of how alone they really were down here.
Then sothing caught his eye.
A small glint.
Wedged between a coral-streaked boulder and a clump of waving seaweed, just near the base of a sloping underwater hill, sothing tallic shimred in the murk. Allen swam toward it, careful not to stir the sedint.
It was a tag.
About the size of his palm, flat and worn, with strange etchings around the edges—strange symbols burned into the surface like they’d been seared there by fire instead of forged.
He didn’t recognize it. But it felt... wrong. Cold, even through the water.
Allen narrowed his eyes and tucked the tag into his waistband, motioning for Luna to follow as he kicked upward toward the surface—
Then the water shifted.
A presence.
He didn’t hear it. Didn’t see it at first. But the pressure changed. The water vibrated like a bassline had suddenly dropped.
Then he saw it.
Sothing massive.
Slick and sinuous, it glided through the gloom beyond the huts. A serpent, easily the length of five houses, its body dark and covered in faint glowing lines—like tattoos that pulsed with sickly green magic.
Allen sucked in a gasp—instinctively—and instantly regretted it. Water surged into his mouth, and he coughed, eyes going wide as panic shot through him.
He ducked behind a nearby boulder, clutching it with trembling fingers as the serpent slid by just ters away, its long body undulating slowly, deliberately.
Don’t move. Don’t breathe.
Except he couldn’t breathe. His lungs scread for air, chest tightening. He looked around, frantic, but the creature was still there, circling the ruins.
His vision started to blur. Darkness crept at the edges.
Then—fwump.
Luna saw him falter. She rushed him, her glow flaring bright, and in one smooth motion, she engulfed his head.
At first, Allen flailed. Then—air. Or sothing like air. It wasn’t the sa as breathing, but it worked. His lungs expanded. Oxygen flowed in. Luna had created a bubble around his head, a shimring barrier that let him breathe as if he were above the surface.
Allen sagged in relief, gripping the rock as the serpent’s massive form finally vanished into the blue.
Too close.
He patted Luna’s side, a quiet thank you, and then kicked upward again. This ti, no more distractions. No more sightseeing. Just get the hell out.
He breached the surface with a splash, gasping again—not for air this ti, but from the adrenaline crashing through his system.
Fina and Rinni were imdiately at the shore, ears perked.
"You’re okay!" Rinni shouted, hopping up and down. "You were down there forever!"
"What did you see?" Fina asked sharply. "Are they down there?"
Allen waded ashore and held out the tag. "No rmaids. Just empty hos. Like they all left... or were forced out. But I found this."
Fina took the tag from him, and the mont her eyes hit it, her ears flattened. Her face paled.
Allen frowned. "You recognize it?"
She nodded slowly, tracing the etched markings with a trembling claw. "Yeah... I do. This is a Demon Corps tag."
Allen’s brows furrowed. "You an—"
"They’ve been here," Fina said, voice low. "The ones who hunt magical creatures and they are as worst and humans, elves and dwarves. They don’t leave these behind unless they want to send a ssage."
Rinni clutched Allen’s arm. "What kind of ssage?"
Fina’s tail lashed. "They were here. And they took sothing. Or soone."
Allen’s eyes turned back toward the ocean, the calm surface now feeling far more ominous.
"Then it’s not just about finding the rmaids anymore," he said. "It’s about finding out what the hell the Demon Corps is doing down here."
Fina stared at the tag in her hand like it might burn her. Her voice was tight, low, bitter.
"You know what’s worse than finding a Demon Corps tag?" she muttered.
Allen shook the water from his hair, brows furrowed. "You tell ."
"They’re not just so rogue group. They’re sanctioned. Supported. Demons, humans, elves, dwarves..." Her lip curled. "They may hate each other in public, but when it cos to tornting beastkin? Magical creatures? That’s the one thing they’ve always agreed on."
Rinni’s ears drooped. "But... demons used to be enemies of the humans, right? At least that’s what we were taught."
Fina let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, they were. Then they figured out that we—beastkin, dryads, rmaids, all of us—were easier to chain than each other. Easier to hurt. The Demon Corps is their playground. Their little alliance of cruelty." She looked back at the calm sea, her tail flicking nervously. "And demons... they’re the worst. They don’t just capture. They break you."
Allen’s jaw clenched. "You’re saying this wasn’t just a raid."
"No." Fina turned back to him, her eyes hard and wet with fury. "If the Demon Corps ca here... I can’t even imagine what’s happening to the rmaids right now. What they’re doing to them."
For a mont, none of them spoke. The breeze felt colder sohow, even in the sun. The distant cry of a gull rang out, almost mocking in the silence.
Allen looked down at the tag again, then at his own hands. Saltwater dripped from his fingers, but they trembled—not from cold, but from sothing else.
Resolve.
He didn’t know the rmaids. Didn’t even know what kind of people they were. But he knew what it was like to be hunted. To be humiliated. To be seen as sothing less.
"They’re not gonna get away with it," he said quietly.
Fina blinked. "What?"
Allen looked up, eyes sharp as blades. "I said, they’re not gonna get away with it."
Rinni stepped closer, her voice soft. "But... what can we do? We don’t even know where they went. Or why they took them."
"We’ll find out," Allen said. "We’ve got a tag. That ans a trail. And we’ve got Luna—" he nodded toward the spirit, who hovered protectively near his shoulder, "—who can scout ahead without being seen. We’re not blind."
He turned to Fina. "And you? You’ve seen this before. You know what they do. Which ans you’ll help stop it."
Fina hesitated, then nodded slowly. "If we go after them, there’s no turning back. We’re not just poking the beast anymore—we’re spitting in its eye."
Allen cracked his neck, the smallest smirk tugging at his lips. "Good. I like when they look in the eye before I crush their balls."
Rinni giggled nervously. "You really an that literally, don’t you?"
"Every. Single. Ti."
Fina let out a breath—half a sigh, half a growl. "Alright. Then let’s move. Before the trail goes cold."
Allen turned back to the ocean one last ti, eyes scanning the still water like it might give up a secret.
Hang on, he thought. Whoever you are. Wherever they took you. We’re coming.
And they were.
Because Allen wasn’t just so wandering pervert with a god-tier dick anymore.
He was a threat.
And now?
He was angry.
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