Sorrowclaw's violent shove sent Roy tumbling backward, and in one horrifying instant, he felt the world turn upside down as he pitched over the ship's rail. Icy saltwater smacked him like a battering ram. He had no chance to scream before his entire body submerged. The shock of it made his chest convulse; he fought not to inhale.
He flailed blindly, arms thrashing to find an up that seemed to vanish. A roiling mass of foam and shadow churned around him. Then came a brutal yank on his ankle, a chain, thick as his wrist, attached to an iron sphere bigger than a truck was conjured and attached to him. It wrenched him downward with cruel, mechanical efficiency, as if the sea had grown claws. Roy's mind flashed with terror.
I can't die like this. Not like this.
Salt stung his eyes and stole his breath. Already, his lungs were screaming. A rising panic threatened to tear away his ability to think. In an act of desperation, he used the one spell he had. Light Barrier. Summoning every ounce of will, he clenched his fists so hard his nails bit his palms, coaxing, forcing, demanding the barrier to form.
A faint glow flickered at his fingertips. For an instant, it stuttered, like a candle in a gale. He gathered more will. Come on, come on, come on… A sphere of pale radiance bloomed around him, pushing the seawater back in a wavering, shimmering bubble. The moment his lips cleared liquid, he gasped, choking on saliva, eyes wild with relief.
"Don't go out—" he rasped at the fragile shell of light, voice cracking. "Stay together!"
The barrier quavered, but it held. He hacked a lungful of saltwater onto the barrier floor, then dragged in oxygen so hungrily that he felt dizzy. His entire body trembled, adrenaline flooding every nerve. As the slack on the chain ran out, the iron ball at the other end tugged Roy downward like a rock.
"No, no—NO!" he wailed, arms pinwheeling. But the ocean had him. He only had time to glimpse the surface shrinking above, a fractured silver glow, receding fast. The pain in his head spiked, as if a jagged spike had been driven behind his eyes. Light Barrier was too painful for him to hold. He'd held it once for four seconds in practice. Never anything close to this. He pressed shaking palms to his temples, forcibly holding the spell.
The barrier bumped something metallic, and a shapeless figure drifted across the barrier's luminous boundary. Roy jolted. For one horrifying moment, he pictured some deep-sea creature latched onto the chain. But as unsquinted his eyes, the shape crystallized: a battered Presidroid torso, side plating shredded.
"This model is… Elegant Arthur, right?" Roy said. He recognized it as the model that had handed him a sandwich just moments prior. "Oh, gods, you got…wrecked." An unexpected well of guilt cramped his stomach.
Gently, he put his cold arm outside the barrier, wrapped it arm around the broken Presidroid and tugged it inside the bubble. "Come here."
Breathe. Right. He forced down another lungful of air, ignoring the taste of iron and salt. The chain gave another tug, pulling him ever deeper. Darkness thickened around the bubble. Roy half-whispered to the Presidroid, as if talking might keep him sane. "I can't see the surface anymore," he said. "It's just… gone."
The water around them grew colder, pressing in with an invisible fist. He looked upward, hoping to see some spark of daylight. It was nothing but swirling black. "They'll come for me," he muttered. "Takara can track me somehow, or Warrex…they can't leave me to drown. Right, Arthur?"
"C—aptain," the Presidroid warbled, and Roy didn't know if it was agreement or random output. It sounded heartbreakingly earnest, though.
Another jerk on the chain. Roy felt his ears pop. They must have drifted thousands of feet down. The water grew quiet, a suffocating hush. It reminded him of nightmares from his childhood—where he'd dream of being alone in total darkness, an unseen presence looming, pressing upon him. This is that dream. Except there's no waking up. Not if the barrier fails.
"How long will my oxygen supply last?" Roy asked out loud.
The Presidroid's flickering eyes brightened a fraction. "We have…emergency… oxy…gen tank and… s-scru…bber built in," it rasped. "In… case… ship compartment… floods…"
Roy's exhale shook with relief. "So you…you can help me breathe? That's something."
He flexed his arms to keep blood moving. The barrier flickered once. Roy's heart lurched. "Don't do that," he whispered fiercely at the glow. Fear spiked anew. His mana reservoir might be enormous, but the deeper they went, the more violently the ocean battered the barrier, therefore, the more mana it took to cancel it out. Yet, to him, the real problem was how this imperfect, forced spell devoured his mind. His temples pounded as if hammered from inside. If I black out, the bubble's gone, I'm drowned. That's it.
Something flickered in the abyss. Roy's breath caught. A monstrous shape, its silhouette thick as a ship's hull, glided overhead. Was it a whale? A serpent? He could only make out two huge, reflective eyes. No, keep going, nothing to see here, buddy. The shape drifted on, leaving behind a trail of slowly pulsing bioluminescent flecks. They shimmered along the edge of Roy's barrier like sinister lights dancing in a dream.
He exhaled carefully, scanning for more threats. "This ocean's just full of surprises, huh, Arthur?" he murmured, forcing a shaky laugh. "At this point, I'm beginning to notice a pattern of attack in these Abyss dorks, get your ass kicked until you sneak attack the captain out of desperation."
He closed his eyes, teeth chattering. Even with the barrier, the water's chill seeped through the floor of the bubble. "Arthur, can you sense anything else out there? Maybe our ship? The Nightshatter?"
"Sen…sors… offl…ine, trying…restart," the Presidroid managed, more static than words.
Roy nodded, despair gnawing his insides. "Guess it's just you and me."
He felt an urge to just let everything fail. Let the water come, fill his lungs, end this headache. The shame of that thought made him want to retch. I am a captain, he reminded himself. I have a crew that needs me. But the fear was so heavy.
Suddenly, the downward motion slowed, as though they were nearing the ocean floor. His bubble glided into a thick silt that puffed up around them. "The bottom," he muttered as the chain rested onto the sand. By the barrier's glow, he saw the iron sphere, a monstrous weight of black metal. He tried pushing it. Not even an inch. It was like trying to topple a mountain. The mental strain soared. Pins and needles crawled up his arms. He blinked away tears as dread settled in his gut. What if no one comes?
Time blurred. Seconds, minutes, hours? Roy lost track. The barrier's faint luminescence flickered constantly; each flicker hammered his skull. He forced himself to speak in an attempt to stay awake.
"Arthur," Roy began, brushing a trembling hand across the droid's busted plating. "Remember when… no, you probably weren't the one. That was Wilson, I guess, the one who used to do backrubs. But anyway, do you remember the day we tried to chart that weird storm? I almost got taken by the current then, too. But Warrex… Warrex saved me. Maybe he'll save me again. He always does. Right?"
No answer. The Presidroid's lens glowed faintly, stuttering. Roy forcibly swallowed a sob. He pressed a palm to his throbbing temple. Everything's turned on its head down here, hasn't it?
At one point, a slick, eel-like creature the size of a bus slithered over the barrier, scraping it with a curious snout. Roy swallowed thickly, too scared to move, certain the slightest break in his concentration would mean an inrush of freezing water. The creature pressed harder, and Roy thought he could feel the vibration through the bubble's membrane. His mana drained violently, leaving him lightheaded. Back off, please, please… The eel eventually lost interest and drifted into the gloom. Roy's breath rattled.
Another wave of exhaustion slammed him. He worried if he let his eyelids droop too long, the barrier would go out. The ocean floor felt like it was stealing heat from him. The chain pressed uncomfortably into his leg, the raw skin where the shackle bit in beginning to bleed.