A massive explosion thundered through the depths...
A new day. A new search.
Cloco set out in search of new clues.
Ever since the death of his father, the former king of the Red Crocodile Kingdom, in that tragic incident, he had become a skilled tracker and hunter of sea monsters.
Whenever he caught a sea monster, he would carry it all the way back to the Red Crocodile Kingdom.
There, he would take it to his burrow and study it.
Everyone saw him return carrying the corpses of monsters that could have threatened their kingdom.
Yet no one ever praised him for it, out of fear of the new king.
Cloco studied, searched, and explored.
He wanted to find the killer who had taken his father's life and stolen the throne of the kingdom from him.
The previous day, Cloco had returned to the ruins where he had found the tracks.
He followed them carefully.
But suddenly...
A massive explosion thundered through the depths.
It happened only a few meters away from him, resembling the violent discharge of a short circuit.
Threads of energy erupted from a crack in the sand, shooting three meters into the depths like a raging underwater volcano breaking free after a long period of stillness.
The sand across a wide area around him cracked apart, twisting like snakes crawling toward their prey.
Cloco stared at the crack and approached it.
Yet he remained completely calm inside.
He did not panic.
He was calm as always.
After all, even humans feared his species.
He knelt down and touched the area where the energy had erupted with his claws.
The effects of the explosion were clearly visible.
But then he noticed something green glowing beneath the sand.
He reached down and picked it up.
It was a glowing green crystal, roughly the size of his palm, with phosphorescent energy flowing gently through it like a tiny fish swimming inside.
It was beautiful.
Beautiful enough to captivate anyone who saw it.
For the first time in his life, Cloco felt genuine admiration for something.
Suddenly, an old memory flashed through his mind.
That exact phosphorescent color.
He had seen a tiny patch of it beside his father's mangled corpse on that terrible day.
A very small stain on his father's leather clothing—or what remained of it.
Back then, he had believed that the beast that killed his father had been the same color.
But no.
Things were different now.
This creature could be anything.
Any creature in the seas.
It could even be something living within the kingdom itself.
And that thought was terrifying.
His father's killer could have been right in front of him all along.
But after years of searching, the game had changed.
And so had his way of thinking.
If he followed the source of this energy, it might lead him to the creature that had killed his father.
Cloco stood there, holding the phosphorescent crystal as he stared into the depths before him.
He spoke firmly to himself.
"I will find you."
*****
In the far southwestern reaches...
Beauty existed here in its purest form.
We were now in the Kingdom of Atlantis.
Its roads were paved with some of the most beautiful stones in the seas and coated in blue sapphire, while colorful coral reefs lined both sides.
High among the underwater hills, inside the royal palace, stood Dogi—the kingdom's guardian and commander of the Atlantis army.
He held a blue energy shield marked with the letter T.
He wore luxurious royal clothing, while his long white hair fell over his shoulders.
In his hand was a blue energy sword.
He swung it toward one of the new recruits of the Atlantean army.
The soldier charged at him with tremendous force.
But Dogi, the Guardian of Atlantis, evaded the attack with effortless skill and placed his sword against the soldier's neck.
He smiled.
"You still have a lot to learn. But you're better now."
The soldier saluted him and walked away.
A moment later, one of Dogi's assistants entered.
He spoke with great interest as he presented a glowing screen projected from a device in his hand.
"Sir, we've discovered a large source of strange energy with unique properties unlike anything we've ever encountered."
The Guardian of Atlantis looked at the glowing screen.
"Fascinating."
He noticed that traces of the new energy had appeared in several locations throughout the Five Seas.
"All right. I'll inform the king and lead a research team to investigate it. Then we'll see whether it can be studied or not."
The soldier left.
But deep inside, Dogi felt a strange uneasiness creeping into his heart like a snake preparing to strike its prey.
A strange feeling told him that this was more than simply the discovery of something worth studying.
Something that could, in truth...
Be terrifying.
*****
Night fell.
Aqua Alien slipped into the Shark Warriors Kingdom, taking advantage of his black body.
The kingdom was dimly lit, receiving only the faint light filtering down from the surface of the sea.
He moved through the underwater alleys, then quietly slipped across the rooftops of several houses and burrows without being noticed.
Eventually, he reached the back of the royal palace.
There was a side entrance used to bring food into the royal kitchen.
Mackerel.
Bluefin tuna.
Sea serpents.
And, of course...
Seal meat.
The finest food in the royal kitchen.
Only two shark guards stood there.
Aqua Alien silently approached from behind them.
He pulled out a small alien device and caught them off guard with an electric discharge resembling the sting of a jellyfish.
The guards' bodies convulsed before they collapsed beside one another.
Aqua Alien slipped through the entrance and climbed a stone staircase decorated with shark fangs.
Carvings of former kings covered its walls.
He continued quietly and swiftly through a long corridor.
He had no idea where it led.
Stone chambers lined both sides of the corridor.
Each door bore the carving of a massive shark wearing royal clothing made from seal skin.
Using the cover of bubbles released by the breath of a sleeping shark, along with a faint underwater current, Aqua Alien slowly reached out and opened the first door he came across.
He looked inside.
It was the library of the Shark King.
He entered quickly and gently closed the stone door behind him so no guard would hear the sound.
Then he examined the maps spread across the stone desk.
Behind it stood a massive chair shaped like a shark's head with its jaws wide open.
But the maps were of little importance to him.
His attention shifted toward the maps hanging on the walls.
Some depicted the history of the kingdom.
Others were piled up in one corner of the room.
But one thing caught Aqua Alien's attention.
A large stone chest beneath a window overlooking the waters surrounding the royal palace.
He opened it.
Inside were scrolls made from black seal skin.
One of them displayed a strange map.
At its center was the image of a green explosion.
An explosion rising from beneath the ground like a tree, stretching several meters above the ocean floor.
Aqua Alien picked it up and studied it carefully.
What was this?
It looked like some kind of energy.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
"Do you like my father's library?"
Aqua Alien quickly turned toward the voice.
Standing there was Nano, holding the remains of a sea serpent.
He stood there up because he had become hungry before going to sleep and wanted to eat five plates of sea serpent meat.
But the moment Nano saw the alien, he shouted:
"Black Sea Ghosts?! My mother told me about them! But I never imagined I'd actually meet one here!"
Aqua Alien gave him no chance to finish.
He fired an electric discharge from his device.
Nano's teeth snapped together violently.
His eyes spun around.
His massive body convulsed slightly before he collapsed onto the floor of the room, his tongue hanging from his mouth.
And the alien disappeared.
The next morning, Nano stood thinking about what had happened the night before.
Who was that strange creature he had seen?
What had he been doing inside the royal library?
And what exactly did he want?
A serious expression settled over Nano's face as he walked through the large central plaza of the kingdom.
He looked at the young sharks playing and swimming around him.
But his mind was lost in deep thought about what had happened.
Suddenly...
The alarm sounded throughout the Shark Warriors Kingdom.
One of the three massive horns mounted above the kingdom's walls blared.
The sound could only mean one thing.
Danger was coming.
Another attack by sea monsters.
Panic spread everywhere.
Everyone was terrified.
Everyone except him.
Nano furrowed his brow and looked toward the walls.
He lowered the massive machine gun hanging across his shoulders.
Then he shouted with excitement:
"Guards!"
A fierce grin spread across his face.
"Let's show them the power of Nano."
And The walls of the Shark Warriors Kingdom shook violently.
*****
If you’re enjoying the legendary world of War of Water, I’d be honored to have you follow me every Sunday and Wednesday for new chapters.
And remember:
Beneath the surface of the sea lie worlds that should never have awakened.
Ismail Alex