Reunion

That strange sense kept pointing him in a general direction.

But it seemed... to indicate only the direction.

Theus only knew the strange fish was below him. As for how to get there, he had no idea.

He tried exploring his newfound abilities. Aside from sensing the water, he also seemed able to roughly discern the composition of materials, though only those he touched.

He walked through the house in soft-soled slippers, moving lightly and quietly. At the corners of the halls, he carefully peeked around to make sure no one was there before continuing.

Since he usually had little interest in making trouble for the servants, no one generally kept watch inside the house at night. There were people patrolling outside, though.

Theus counted the lights. Only the ones at the hallway corners and by the stairs were on.

With no particular direction to follow, he could only focus on checking suspicious areas. Thanks to the sensory enhancement from the Symbiosis Ritual, though, he soon noticed something strange in the study.

"There's a lot of metal inside this wall... It must be some kind of mechanism."

Theus raised an eyebrow as he looked at the wall before him.

He'd actually found something! There really were secrets hidden in this estate!

He glanced around the dark room. His night vision meant the darkness didn't bother him at all. After a moment's thought, he began searching the other metal objects in the room.

If the mechanism inside the wall was mechanical, then there had to be connected machinery running all the way to it. That made things much easier...

Theus began sensing his way along every inch of the room's walls.

Soon, he found that metal inside the wall connected to the fireplace. On closer inspection, there really was a blackened section deep inside it. It looked like a rock, but inside it were springs and gears.

"About this far in..." Theus looked around, then took a long-handled axe from the display stand above the fireplace. Its tip came to a point, and it was just long enough to reach the mechanism deep inside.

Theus pressed the axe tip against the stone and pushed gently.

After a low grinding of interlocking gears, part of the fireplace flue swung backward, revealing a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Theus curled his fingers, licked his tongue, then reached into the opening.

"The air's circulating. There's another exit below."

Theus looked delighted.

He didn't rush in. Instead, he went to the study door and watched for a while, making sure the noise from opening the passage hadn't disturbed anyone. Only then did he turn and walk back to the fireplace.

He didn't bring a lantern. His night vision was more than enough. After tightening his cuffs and the hem of his clothes, he took a deep breath and entered the opening.

Once inside the secret passage, Theus didn't hurry forward. He felt along the walls and soon found two metal rings nearby, one high and one low. He tried pulling the higher one, and the wall behind him slowly closed.

Moss covered the passage, giving off a faint glow in the dark. Theus nudged the stone steps with his foot; they were a little slippery. He tried taking a breath, and the air was thick with the scent of the tide.

It was obvious where the passage led.

Theus walked downward, observing his surroundings as he went.

The passage didn't seem to have been entirely carved by human hands. After only a few steps, it opened into a space like a cavern, with a small stream running downhill beside the path.

Theus went to the stream, scooped up some water, and took a sip.

"It's fresh water."

With a water source, he could stockpile some food here and survive for a long time.

Theus put his hand into the water and activated his Transcendence senses again.

His previously hazy sense of the water was now crystal clear. It was as though he had become a fish, swimming downstream along the stream. The sea lay just ahead.

The familiar presence seemed to sense what he was doing. It excitedly circled through the sea a few times, then slowly came ashore and walked toward him.

Theus instinctively reached for his pistol, but his hand found nothing. Only then did he remember that he hadn't brought a weapon with him.

"Never mind. If it wanted to hurt me, it would've done it at the docks. I might as well go meet it."

He withdrew his senses and followed the stream downstream.

The water burbled softly, and the distant sound of waves lapping against the shore gave Theus an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

He hadn't gone far before the familiar, ugly figure appeared before him.

Unlike its near-death state at the docks, the monster looked entirely different now.

It was still a swollen mass of flesh, but there was no sign of weakness or decay. Several limbs extended from its body, supporting it as it crawled in an extremely strange, awkward posture.

Scales were faintly visible among the swollen flesh.

The creature before him looked more like a bloated corpse than a living thing, yet its vitality was obvious. It was indescribably eerie.

Theus's eye twitched. Even in his previous life, a creature with this appearance would have belonged in a horror movie.

Seeing such a shocking sight should have terrified him, or at least startled him. But all he felt was... a sense of familiarity.

He could tell it was ugly, and knew its appearance was repulsive, yet the feeling didn't seem all that real.

It was hard to explain. It was like encountering a disgusting monster in a game in his previous life: no matter how bizarre it looked, there was still a screen between them.

So, despite looking at the monster in front of him, Theus found that it didn't seem so bad.

Was it the effect of the Symbiotic Pact?

The swollen creature before him, however, seemed terribly uncomfortable. It acted as though it were ashamed of its ugly appearance, trying hard to curl up and hide its swollen limbs. The gesture was rather comical.

Did it have a sense of beauty and ugliness similar to humans?

Watching the swollen creature's clumsy movements, Theus's tension ebbed away.

"Forgive me, my lord, for showing you my ugly body..." The monster's muffled voice came from nearby. It had finally realized its efforts were futile.

Was it ugly? Certainly. But Theus knew it wasn't supposed to look like this. At least in the Deep Sea, it ought to have looked more normal.

But Theus didn't get a chance to correct it, because—

"...What did you call me?"

"My lord." The Swollen Monster seemed to understand what he was thinking and continued, "You are the salvation of the Cursed. You led us out of our miserable fate, so you are as a god to us."

Theus's cheek twitched. What was the matter with this monster? Why had it suddenly started calling him a god?

"Allow me to explain." The Swollen Monster looked sincere.

You'd better explain, Theus thought. If you tried this on some ordinary person, you'd have scared them off with that reckless approach.

Theus crossed his arms and looked at it.