“Beneath the surface of the sea... lies a world that should never have awakened.”
Chapter One
Beneath the surface of the sea... lay a world that should never have awakened.
But someone had come to wake it.
A massive ball of fire crashed into the floor of one of the great seas, unleashing a powerful explosion whose echo spread through the depths until it reached them all.
The people of the deep.
But a short while earlier...
On that very day, something had been falling from the sky.
The blazing sphere tore through the endless void of space at terrifying speed, as though it were rushing toward its own death, indifferent to whatever awaited it.
Inside the craft, his eyes scanned the countless screens before him.
He could see nothing but fire.
There would be no return.
Life or death.
Indicators flashed wildly before him, almost as if they were rebelling against his commands.
The temperature inside the craft continued to rise until the entire vessel seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Of course, he felt nothing.
His metallic body was made from materials unlike any metal found on Earth.
Yet even that powerful body could not prevent droplets of water from gathering across his cold, hardened frame.
Despite the danger surrounding him, he remembered his mission.
He remembered where he had come from.
And he remembered that returning without a final solution to the dying world he had left behind was impossible.
The burning craft finally entered Earth's atmosphere.
The flames intensified.
It was seconds away from exploding.
That could only mean one thing:
The mission had failed before it had even begun.
And that was something he would never allow.
He pressed a glowing blue button among a cluster of controls on the side panel.
Gas burst from vents across the spacecraft, releasing a cooling substance that extinguished nearly half of the flames and reduced their intensity.
At last, the burning vessel appeared in the sky, hurtling toward the surface of the sea at a speed approaching that of sound, heading toward one of the most remote regions on Earth.
And then—
BOOM!
The spacecraft slammed into the surface of the sea, shattering through the water and plunging violently into the depths.
It remained engulfed in flames beneath the saltwater, as though defying the laws of nature itself.
It tore through layers of water and scattered the creatures swimming through them in every direction.
Terrified creatures fled for their lives as the blazing vessel descended deeper and deeper.
Until it finally struck the ocean floor with tremendous force.
Another thunderous explosion erupted.
Its shockwave spread for dozens of kilometers in every direction.
Far away in the depths...
Eyes from the Five Kingdoms turned toward the deep sea in concern.
For the first time in years.
Aqua Alien breathed mechanically.
He stared through the front windshield at the vast ocean floor before him, where rays of sunlight filtered down from above in countless shimmering beams.
He narrowed his eyes.
Lying across the sand were the remains of long concrete pillars, ancient and forgotten, covered with carvings left behind by one of the oldest civilizations in human history.
The alien prepared to begin his mission.
He pressed another button.
A small hatch opened, and seawater flooded into the spacecraft.
As the water poured inside, a savage creature suddenly appeared.
A strange beast.
Its head resembled that of a terrifying piranha, complete with enormous teeth, while its body possessed the powerful limbs of a giant squid.
The creature attacked.
The Kotosaurus wrapped its squid-like arms around the arms of the alien warrior, then began snapping its jaws against Aqua Alien's face.
Its sharp teeth struck his metallic body again and again.
But they left nothing more than scratches.
With a sudden movement, a large, razor-sharp blade slid from a hidden opening in Aqua Alien's hand.
He drove it forward with lightning speed.
The blade pierced directly through the center of the Kotosaurus's jaws and emerged from the other side.
The beast's body went limp.
Green blood spread through the water around the alien.
Aqua Alien emerged from the wreckage and stood tall on the ocean floor, surveying the vast depths of the Five Seas.
He remained calm.
His eyes moved across his surroundings while his electronic mind processed dozens of signals.
Something had awakened when he fell.
He could sense it.
Despite having an artificial heart, he somehow felt it.
He didn't know how.
Could this be the target he had traveled so far to find?
He was a stranger here.
A being who belonged to none of the kingdoms.
But he knew one thing.
The sea was hiding a secret.
Standing nearly two and a half meters tall, he examined the ancient remains scattered across the ocean floor—ruins belonging to a civilization that had vanished thousands of years ago.
Suddenly, he noticed an old metallic fragment about the size of his palm.
Green algae covered its surface.
He reached down and gently wiped it clean.
A carving appeared beneath the algae.
Three pyramids of different sizes, joined together.
A symbol belonging to an ancient civilization.
His electronic mind analyzed the fragment.
It was part of an ancient device.
Yet its technology was far more advanced than anything humanity should have possessed at that time.
For years, Aqua Alien had believed that his planet was the only advanced civilization in the universe.
Until the scientists of his world had proven him wrong.
Suddenly—
A faint phosphorescent glow caught his attention.
It was coming from inside a small cavern covered with brightly colored coral.
He directed a white beam of light from a device mounted above his palm into the cavern.
There it was.
A thin thread of phosphorescent light emerged from beneath the ocean floor, coming from deep within the cavern and extending outward.
Aqua Alien reached inside.
But suddenly—
A long jaw snapped down onto his hand.
An eel-like sea serpent, more than a meter long, had bitten down on his metallic fingers.
Aqua Alien pulled his hand free and stared at the creature clinging to it.
He could easily have drawn another blade from one of the compartments in his arm and cut the serpent in half.
But Aqua Alien hated bloodshed.
He fought only when he had to defend himself.
Just as he had with the Kotosaurus.
He stared at the serpent.
His electronic mind quickly determined that it was not a creature to be underestimated.
The serpent released him immediately and retreated into its cavern.
Aqua Alien crouched down and looked inside, directing his light toward the thin phosphorescent thread emerging from beneath the ground.
He reached out and touched the strange light.
The serpent recoiled in fear.
Aqua Alien felt something.
Despite being a machine, he could feel the weight of that phosphorescent energy.
He had always been different from the other warriors of his planet.
And now he knew why.
This was not ordinary light.
It was a unique form of energy with properties he had never encountered before.
It was unnatural.
It had been created...
Or perhaps developed.
He pulled out a small vial and carefully collected some of the phosphorescent energy inside it.
Then he sealed the vial tightly and stored it within a compartment in his arm.
Aqua Alien turned and began walking away, continuing toward the unknown as he searched for another clue about the mysterious energy he had discovered.
But after taking several steps, he suddenly stopped.
For a few seconds, his electronic mind performed a series of rapid calculations.
Then he made his decision.
He retrieved the vial from the compartment in his arm and placed it inside a small device that somewhat resembled a miniature drone.
He adjusted a cosmic location on a small digital screen mounted above the device.
Then he pressed one final button.
The small drone launched into the water, carrying the vial filled with phosphorescent light.
It ascended rapidly, leaving the world of the Five Seas behind and heading toward outer space.
Aqua Alien watched it disappear into the distance.
Then he continued on alone.
He scanned everything around him, searching for any important signs connected to the phosphorescent energy he had discovered.
After traveling nearly three kilometers, he suddenly spotted something in the distance.
About five hundred meters away stood an ancient temple.
Its entire structure was golden.
Strange carvings covered its gates—images of tigers with scales stretching across their backs.
Two enormous golden tiger statues stood before the entrance.
Their scales extended from behind their heads all the way to the tips of their tails.
A large inscription appeared on the temple's doors, written in a language he didn't understand.
Aqua Alien directed a blue beam of light from his hand toward the inscription.
His information system began searching through the known languages of Earth, analyzing the symbols one by one.
Until it finally determined their meaning.
“Golden Tiger Temple.”
Suddenly, Aqua Alien sensed strange movement in the water to his left.
He turned.
A black seal was fleeing at incredible speed.
Something was chasing it.
A large shark.
Aqua Alien quickly hid behind a massive rock and watched.
Then he noticed something strange.
The shark had a large fin growing from the top of its head.
It also had two human-like legs, each with four toes, and two massive arms.
It swam rapidly through the water while wearing a leather vest and a belt carrying a huge mechanical weapon resembling a machine gun with multiple barrels.
The seal desperately tried to escape.
The shark accelerated.
Then, with tremendous force, it struck the seal's tail with one hand.
The impact sent the creature spinning through the water.
It slammed into the very rock behind which Aqua Alien was hiding.
Before the seal could recover, the shark lunged forward and devoured it.
The shark patted his belly and laughed.
“I've always loved seal meat. So tender... so delicious. Hahaha!”
He looked around with a cheerful frown.
He hadn't noticed the golden temple.
Nor had he noticed the alien hiding behind the rock.
Then he muttered to himself,
“Well, I'd better get back to the kingdom before Dad scolds me again.”
The strange shark swam away.
Aqua Alien watched him closely.
For now, he put the golden temple aside after recording its location in his system.
Then he followed the strange shark.
It was the first real lead he had found in the world of the Five Kingdoms.
Thousands of kilometers away from Aqua Alien's location, somewhere deep beneath the Five Seas...
Another thin thread of phosphorescent light emerged from beneath the ocean floor.
No one noticed it.
There was no one there to see it.
But in different places across the Five Kingdoms, some of their inhabitants felt something.
Something that could bring an end to decades of peace.
Eyes turned toward the empty depths of the sea, sensing a danger they had never known before.
A danger that could—
for the first time—
threaten the lives of all five kingdoms.
And end their existence...
Just as it had ended the lives of those who came before them.
*****
Eyes awakened.
Long before they were meant to.
They had awakened with the emergence of a terrifying threat.
A threat that had been buried for ages.
A threat that had awakened from its deep, ancient slumber.
*****
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