The massive beast that they had spawned in initially, whose circulatory system they'd been trying to survive, whose heart they'd gained strength in.

It stood before Moon's eyes.

A golden fish so impossibly large that it dwarfed the massive ocean-going vessels from the old civilization before the apocalypse. Ships that had carried passengers looked like toys compared to this leviathan.

The creature was golden in color, with beautiful scales and two enormous eyes, each one larger than ten meters.

It was beautiful. Terrifyingly, incomprehensibly beautiful in a way that made Moon's mind struggle to process what he was witnessing.

'How can such a beast exist within the First Sanctuary? How is this possible?'

Seeing the creature firsthand from the outside was entirely different from inferring its size based on internal anatomy. The scale was so vast it defied rational comprehension. This wasn't just a large beast, it was a living creature that dominated everything he'd seen and known.

As Moon watched in paralyzed awe, the golden fish opened its mouth while traveling through the water. The movement created suction on a catastrophic scale. Creatures that would individually be considered dangerous threats to human awakeners, were pulled into that massive maw like planets being consumed by a black hole.

Hundreds vanished in an instant, swallowed without the slightest resistance.

Moon wanted nothing more than to flee after witnessing that display of overwhelming power. He'd been away from the direction that the golden fish was eating from, but nothing insured him that it wouldn't turn towards him at any moment, and swallow him whole once again, this time killing him.

He nudged Mirage urgently, signaling upward. 'Away from that thing. Toward the surface. Now!'

Mirage had been doing just that, but Moon was barely able to think. He was ensuring Selene survived, whilst also staring at a display of power that made him want to leave Selene and run for his own life. But even as Mirage began swimming upward with faster speed, Moon couldn't tear his eyes away from the golden leviathan.

The golden fish had turned slightly. Its enormous eye, glowing with golden light, met Moon's gaze directly across the dark water and his heartbeat stopped for a terrifying moment.

Their eyes locked, human and beast. Insignificant intruder and an incomprehensible apex predator.

Moon's body refused to move. Paralysis took hold completely, his mind overwhelmed by the sheer presence radiating from that gaze.

'I'm dead. We're definitely dead. There's no escaping something like this.'

Moon waited for the end. For the massive mouth to open again. For them to be consumed as casually as the hundreds of fish he'd just witnessed disappearing.

But the golden fish simply... ignored them.

After a moment that felt like eternity, the creature's eye moved away. It continued on its path through the ocean depths, the golden light of its body slowly fading as distance increased between them.

The leviathan had deemed them utterly irrelevant. Three tiny motes of foreign matter that held no interest whatsoever.

Moon couldn't decide if he felt relieved or insulted by being so thoroughly dismissed.

But he'd take survival over pride any day.

Gurgle!

The sound of Selene choking on the water entering her mouth woke Moon from his stupor, and he immediately returned his lips to hers. The moment that his eyes locked with the golden fish had thrown his mind into chaos, he'd forgotten to breath himself, let alone help Selene.

The internal waves and currents created by the golden fish's movement made swimming upward incredibly difficult. The water churned chaotically, pushing them in random directions and fighting Mirage's attempts to ascend.

Thankfully, they didn't encounter any other fish during the climb toward the surface. The presence of the golden fish had clearly driven all other marine life far away from this area, creating a temporary void in the ecosystem.

Moon held Selene's unconscious body against himself with one arm while gripping Mirage's mane with the other. His own lungs were screaming for air. Black spots appeared at the edges of his vision. Perhaps his [Tenacity] skill was the only thing keeping him conscious as they rose through the dark water.

'Just a little further…'

Mirage's powerful swimming carried them upward with everything the white horse possessed. His fin-tail never stopped moving despite exhaustion that must have been absolute.

Light began filtering down from above. Faint at first, then it grew stronger as they approached the surface.

Moon's consciousness was fading fast. He could barely maintain his grip on Selene or stay mounted on Mirage's back.

Just as his hands began to leave Selene, they broke through.

"…Aah!…Aah!"

Moon gasped desperately, his lungs expanding with oxygen. He coughed violently, his body trying to expel water that had been forced into his respiratory system by the pressure.

Selene remained unconscious in his arms, her breathing almost absent.

Moon's heart dropped for a moment.

He quickly positioned her across Mirage's back and began proper CPR compressions on her chest, counting rhythmically despite his own oxygen-starved delirium.

"One, two, three, four..."

Thirty compressions. Then he tilted her head back and gave rescue breaths.

No response.

"Come on, don't you dare die after everything we survived…"

ba-dum, ba-dum

ba-dum, ba-dum

Finally, on the third cycle, Selene coughed violently. Water erupted from her mouth as her body expelled the fluid from her lungs. She gasped, her chest heaving as consciousness returned in painful, disoriented waves.

"Moon?" she croaked weakly, her voice barely audible.

"I'm here," Moon said, relief flooding through him. "You're okay. We made it out. We're on the surface."

Selene coughed again, more water coming up. "The fish... did we...?"

"Yeah," Moon confirmed, his own voice hoarse and exhausted. "We escaped. We're alive."

Both of them clung to Mirage's back, floating in the open ocean under an overcast sky, completely exhausted but miraculously alive.

They'd survived the impossible. Now they just needed to figure out where the hell they were and how to get back to land.

Selene, Moon and a white horse simply drifted in the water, too exhausted to do anything but simply float like the clouds in the sky.

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