Chapter 448: Tide

The darkness rippled, and Ethan stepped into his fifth beast’s domain.

As expected, water greeted him.

He appeared on the surface of a small island within an endless ocean beneath a pale blue sky. Gentle waves rolled toward distant shores, while towering cliffs rose from the water in the distance. Beneath the transparent surface, schools of fish darted between coral formations, and enormous shadows moved through the depths.

The scenery reminded him of the Aquatic Expanse, only this place was considerably more peaceful. There were no murderous monsters lurking beneath the waves, or at least there didn’t seem to be.

“Now this is more like it.”

Ethan stretched his arms, enjoying the cool breeze.

“It’s like a vacation in my own mind. I can go to a sauna with Wolfy, go mountain climbing with Talon, party with Spark, and charge my phone with Storm.”

He laughed at his own joke.

That’s when something splashed nearby.

He turned.

A tiny head emerged from the water.

Ethan stared.

The creature staring back at him looked like a miniature sea serpent. Its slender, blue-scaled body was barely longer than Ethan’s arm, with a pair of small fins running along its neck and a thin tail that flicked playfully beneath the surface. Two bright eyes rested above its narrow snout, and tiny whisker-like tendrils swayed beside its mouth.

It looked less like a terrifying water dragon and more like something a child might win at an amusement park.

Ethan blinked.

Then he looked at the creature again.

“…That’s you?”

Tide tilted its head.

Ethan crouched beside the water.

“Hold on. You’re telling me that you grow into that enormous, diamond-scaled nightmare?

Tide opened its mouth.

A small stream of water shot directly into Ethan’s face.

He froze.

Water dripped from his hair.

For several seconds, he remained perfectly still.

Then he slowly wiped his face.

“Did you just splash me?”

Tide darted beneath the surface.

Ethan watched the ripples spread across the water.

“Oh, you’re a little shit.”

A small head emerged again.

Another stream of water struck the back of his neck.

“Hey!”

Tide shot away, its tail flicking rapidly as it swam in a tight circle.

Ethan stared at the creature.

Then, despite himself, he laughed.

“All right. All right, I get it. You’ve got a personality.”

He leaned forward, extending a hand toward the water.

Tide approached cautiously, its bright eyes studying him. Unlike Wolfy, which had always been happy to receive attention, or Talon, which preferred to maintain its dignity, Tide just seemed curious.

It swam around his hand before nudging his fingers with its snout.

Ethan gently stroked the top of its head.

“You’re pretty intelligent, aren’t you?”

Tide’s whiskers twitched.

“More than Spark, at least.”

Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, he felt a faint flicker of indignation from his Ember Wraith.

Ethan grinned.

“Oh, don’t act offended. You know I’m right.”

Tide suddenly launched itself out of the water, performed a little somersault, and splashed back into the ocean.

Ethan stared.

“…Okay, maybe you’re more like Spark than I thought.”

The little serpent swam in a circle in front of him, occasionally darting beneath the surface before popping up somewhere else. It was energetic, playful, and clearly fascinated by its new surroundings.

But there was an intelligence behind those bright eyes.

Tide watched his reactions, learned from them, and seemed perfectly aware of the fact that it was amusing him.

A little like Talon, with Spark’s boundless energy.

It also had Wolfy’s attachment and Storm’s rebelliousness.

Ethan scratched his chin.

‘Let’s hope it stays this way.’

He’d already dealt with one enormous water monster that could manipulate an entire ocean. The thought of Tide growing into something equally destructive was exciting, but he hoped its current personality survived the transition.

Otherwise, he might eventually find himself dealing with a giant water dragon that didn’t like listening to orders.

“All right, Tide. I’ll come back to visit and will be evolving you soon.”

Tide chirped.

A wave promptly washed over his feet.

Ethan looked down.

He shook his head, smiling, and allowed the domain to fade.

Ethan returned to the dark, neutral space where his journey had begun.

For a moment, he simply stood there.

Then he closed his eyes.

Or, rather, he closed his eyes within his own mind.

He paused.

“Yeah… That’s weird.”

He was already inside his consciousness, yet somehow he could still perform the equivalent of closing his eyes. He wasn’t even sure whether that made sense, but sense had gone out the window long ago.

‘Whatever. I’ll worry about the physics of imaginary eyelids another time.’

He focused on the five presences surrounding him.

Wolfy’s hellish domain. Talon’s magnificent mountains. Spark’s seizure-inducing disco. Storm’s electrically charged clouds. Tide’s endless ocean.

He could feel all of them.

Not merely as distant places, but as extensions of something within himself. Each domain was connected to him through the bond he shared with its inhabitant, woven into the fabric of his very soul.

Five beasts.

Five spiritual domains.

Five distinct presences that had become part of his existence.

The realisation sent a strange thrill through him.

‘So this is what my Title actually gives me.’

He’d always thought of his beasts as companions he could summon and command. They were powerful, intelligent, and bound to him by a connection he still didn’t fully understand.

But the Beast Space wasn’t simply a convenient storage compartment.

It was a genuine spiritual realm.

A place where his beasts could exist independently, grow, recover, and remain connected to him even when the physical world separated them. And perhaps there was even more to discover.

Ethan concentrated, allowing his awareness to spread through the darkness.

He felt the familiar connections deepen.

Five distinct presences.

Five domains.

And…

He frowned.

‘There’s something else.’

A faint sensation stirred beneath everything he had just discovered.

At first, it was barely noticeable, almost as if it had been concealing itself. A dark, unpleasant pressure buried so deeply within him that he’d mistaken it for part of the surrounding darkness.

But now that he’d become aware of it, he couldn’t ignore it.

Something was festering inside him.

Ethan’s expression changed.

‘What the fuck is that?’

He reached toward the sensation.

The moment his awareness touched it, something lashed out.

Pain exploded through his spiritual form.

Ethan recoiled as an unnatural darkness surged from the depths of his soul, spreading like ink through water.

It wasn’t simply occupying space within him.

It was consuming it.

Devouring the foundations of his spiritual existence and replacing them with something else.

His eyes widened.

‘Wait.’

Its presence was familiar.

His hand flew to his neck, even though he was no longer in his physical body.

‘It’s that mark Aisha implanted on me.’

The marking on his neck had gradually faded, and with everything that had happened since then, he’d almost forgotten about it.

Almost.

There had always been that nagging feeling that something was wrong. An unease he couldn’t quite explain, a persistent sense that something terrible was happening beneath the surface.

He’d dismissed it as paranoia.

But he’d been wrong.

Terribly wrong.

‘How did I fucking miss this?’