The Rising Tide

The water in the Sunken Sanctum was not merely cold; it was predatory. It swirled around Caelum’s waist, thick and oily, smelling of ancient rot and ozone.

Caelum grit his teeth, the taste of copper sharp in his mouth. He swung his greatsword, *Aethelgard*, in a wide, shimmering arc. The blade, glowing with holy luminescence, sliced through the torso of a Drowned Soldier. The creature didn't bleed; it simply dissolved into brackish water, its form losing cohesion with a wet *splat*.

"Is that all you have?" Caelum roared, his voice echoing off the moss-slicked stone walls.

There was no answer, only the relentless rushing of the flood. The water was rising. Ten minutes ago, it had been at his knees. Now, it licked at his ribs.

In the center of the vast, circular chamber, raised on a dais of obsidian, stood the Stasis Crystal. Inside it was Lyra.

She looked peaceful, suspended in the pale blue magic, her hair floating like a halo around her face. But Caelum knew better. He could see the hairline fracture running down the center of the crystal. Dark water was seeping in, contaminating the stasis.

If the crystal filled, she drowned. If the water overtook the dais, she drowned.

"I’m coming, Lyra!" Caelum shouted, wading forward. The resistance of the water was immense, like walking through setting concrete.

Another wave of the Drowned Legion rose from the depths. They were faceless horrors, shaped like men but made of kelp and suffocating pressure. They lunged at him, grabbing his arms, his chest, trying to drag him under.

Caelum fought with the desperation of a man who had never known a life apart from his twin. They were two halves of the same soul. He was the steel; she was the spark. Without her, he was just a weapon with no hand to wield it.

He drove his pommel into a creature’s face. *Crunch.*

But as the creature fell back, a sound cut through the roar of the battle. It wasn't the splash of water or the ring of steel.

* Beep... Beep... Beep...*

It was rhythmic. Artificial. High-pitched.

Caelum shook his head, slinging water from his hair. The sound was coming from everywhere and nowhere. It was the heartbeat of the Sanctum, he decided. The countdown.

"I won't let you take her!" he screamed at the ceiling.

He pushed forward, the water now at his chest. The *beeping* grew faster.