529 Conundrum!

If the cuttlefish were able to turn their entire bodies invisible, including their elements and individual attacks, they had to sacrifice something in exchange.

In his superior mind-flowing state, Liam used Shadow Blink to momentarily bring himself to a safe corner of the crevice, then conjured three Shadow Clones in one second, splitting away and camouflaging two of them with his King’s Eye and blending their forms with the water.

The third clone, Liam didn’t bother hiding, instead opting to make it seem like it was regenerating its grisly wounds. He even coated it with a layer of hot ichor, adding a touch of realism. Following this, Liam yanked himself into the Sea of Darkness, then stood still, not moving a finger and closing his eyes. He didn’t even think.

He’d entered a cold, comatose state.

However, he could sense and control what his Shadow Clones did. The visible clone put up a fight against the constant barrage of invisible attacks. But as the fight continued, more and more parts of it were being melted, cut and severed off. Yet the remaining two clones were perfectly safe and undamaged! Granted, they were out of the line of fire… but what stopped the cuttlefish from attacking them?

Liam understood what.

Just as Liam couldn’t see the cuttlefish, they couldn’t see him or his clones!

In fact, their vision was reliant on temperature and color!

And cuttlefish, even on Earth, were utterly colorblind!

Thanks to Liam coating the visible clone with his ichor, and hiding himself with a layer of shadows before pulling himself into the Sea of Darkness, the cuttlefish were unaware of his real presence.

***

It didn’t take long for the Shadow Clone to be overpowered. Putting up a fight, it lasted a good two minutes swinging his and defending against the tide of damage, before being ripped to shreds by another flurry of invisible threats.

KRSH!

Crumbling apart, all that remained of the Shadow Clone was a fleshy interior, further corroded into thin wisps of blood by a final darkness beam.

What ensued was silence. For several seconds, Liam felt and heard nothing of the cuttlefish. The cave’s exit was closed, but there didn’t seem to be any reaction or urge to escape despite any threat ceasing to exist.

Some more seconds passed, and slowly… Davy and Jones finally faded into reality, turning corporeal. Both looked thoroughly exhausted, and their rainbowish colors resembled more of a dull white.

“What the gup was with that guy?!” Davy exclaimed, wheezing heavily. A maw tentacle of his was ripped off, courtesy of one of the Dusks. “I still thought he was going to regenerate after all that!” Jones was in a pitiful state, his gills struggling for oxygen. “Some sort of vampire, I’m guessing,” he wheezed. “Was he one of Gorock’s men? He said he was with the NOCL, though.” “Whatever,” Davy breathed heavily. “Let’s just retrieve the princess and leave. NOCL is bad… but Gorock is much worse.”

As the two turned towards the crystalized blood-covered entrance, both grimaced. “Right…slimy blobface closed it off.” “We need to rest,” Davy said, visibly sweating. Apparently, fish could sweat underwater. How strange. “She’ll be fine. The lava won’t reach her, and she can’t escape the slime cocoon.”

Jones agreed, and the two closed their eyes in what seemed to be meditation. They were cultivating, judging by the iridescent energies that flared across the surface of their white skin.

Oblivious to two, the shadows a few inches away from them flickered subtly. A thread, coated with shadows, circled around both of them, building upon itself until resembling a loose cocoon. Two invisible humanoid forms helped redirect the loose strings, melting with a corrosive black substance. A few strings looped around the crevice and hung from the ceiling, connecting to those below and creating an intricate web that only needed to be tightened to be lethal. The sanguine strings continued to layer upon themselves and thicken, until the two cuttlefish felt a strange fluctuation in the water flow.

Their eyes opened.

Shock and realization.

The web tightened.

Blood.

Black blood spurted in countless thin streaks as the ichorous threads slashed into the cuttlefish’s bodies, directly severing off their maw tentacles and blinding them. The fins on their mantle were also sliced off, and the threads wrapped around their gruesome forms like a tightrope. Just a few inches of flesh were spared on purpose, just in case Liam overdid it and accidentally ended their lives.

Liam didn’t intend to kill them.

Yet.

Slowly, he emerged from the Sea of Darkness, still wounded and battered. He had purposely stopped his regeneration to hide his presence as effectively as possible.

What remained of the cuttlefish were just two lumpy, bloody, mangled pieces of flesh, drifting in and out of consciousness. Perhaps they weren’t even aware of what happened. Liam spared a glance at his core, using Spirit Sight to further scan the empty Path within. For a second, he had felt it. A subtle change that brushed past his core. Yet it disappeared just as fast, not a trace of it remaining.

As of now, his Path was still as empty as ever, manifesting no Qualities whatsoever. ‘I was close… but I missed the mark.’

‘But I’m skipping quite a few steps.’ ‘I still haven’t studied ‘Ora’.’ Right now, Liam was just testing the waters… no pun intended. If it was as Eyes of Knowledge told him, studying ‘Ora’ was a hidden cheat-code to understanding the Qualities.

‘If I had to guess, I was about to grasp something related to Chaos… or maybe Pain. Or maybe Blood.’ Liam quickly realized a major issue.

What was he supposed to start with?!

There were so many Aspects that Liam would find a connection with… but truthfully, they were quite contradictory. He was insane…but patient. He was destructive…but he was also a forger.

He was chaotic…but not disorderly. What a conundrum! Nevertheless, it was an issue to worry about at a later date, and after he’d gained a bit of insight on the issue. Liam brought back his attention to the two cuttlefish. It was time to deal with these two frauds.