Darkness.

  It was deep. Endless.

  Eo floated in it, weightless, formless. His mind drifted, untethered, caught in the strange limbo between consciousness and oblivion.

  It was different from sleep—he could feel something. Something massive. A pressure, not of water, but of presence.

  He was being watched.

  A cold, primal awareness surged through him, snapping him from the void.

  His senses reactivated all at once. The pressure of the ocean, the shifting currents, the foreign warmth seeping through his changing body—he was awake.

  And something huge was staring at him.

  Eo’s vision adjusted to the dim, deep-sea gloom. He wasn’t floating aimlessly anymore. He was inside a massive gorge. Towering rock formations stretched high above, enclosing the space like the ribcage of some ancient behemoth.

  And at the center of it all, it waited.

  A monstrous, tentacled being, vast beyond anything Eo had encountered before.

  It loomed in the darkness, its colossal form shifting subtly with the deep-sea currents. The sheer scale of it dwarfed him—tentacles thick as pillars, eyes like glowing abysses, rimmed with bioluminescent veins.

  The creature did not attack. It did not lash out or devour him instantly.

  It observed.

  And then—

  A sound.

  Not words. Not speech as Eo knew it. A frequency.

  A low, vibrating hum reverberated through the water, layered and complex, carrying a meaning beyond simple noise. It wasn’t directed at his ears—it was aimed at his entire being.

  Eo’s body tensed.

  He had no idea what it was saying.

  The massive kraken-like creature paused, as if startled.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Then, again, the frequencies came, shifting in tone and depth, a structured pattern of communication—yet Eo remained unresponsive.

  The creature’s bioluminescent veins flickered. Its massive form undulated in the water, as if contemplating something.

  And then realization dawned upon it.

  He didn’t understand.

  Eo should be able to hear it. If he was a native of the abyss, he would have known this language instinctively. But he didn’t.

  This seemed to amuse the beast.

  The glowing veins along its form pulsed again, but this time in slow, almost deliberate patterns, as if questioning him. Why?

  Eo didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

  But he was a master of adaptation.

  Without hesitation, he shifted.

  Deep within his mutable body, neural pathways restructured. His sensory organs, still primitive compared to higher beings, morphed. He analyzed the frequency, the vibrations, the way they traveled through the water.

  Then—he adjusted.

  Something clicked.

  The next pulse from the kraken was no longer just a sound. It translated inside his mind, forming meaning.

  "You are not from here."

  Eo’s awareness sharpened.

  It worked. He could hear it now.

  The massive creature watched him with an unreadable gaze.

  Eo remained still, ready to defend himself, though deep inside, he knew—he was nothing compared to this being.

  Yet the kraken did not attack.

  Instead, it pulsed another frequency.

  "Then what are you?"

  ---

  The abyssal beast remained motionless, its vast form anchored within the trench’s jagged walls. Silent. Watching.

  It had seen countless creatures before—some small, others titanic. Some were intelligent enough to avoid its domain, others foolish enough to wander in and be swallowed whole.

  But this one?

  This one was different.

  Its massive eyes narrowed, bioluminescent veins pulsing in a slow rhythm. The being before it was shifting, reforming its body at an unnatural pace. Its flesh—if it could even be called that—was fluid, yet precise.

  It had seen creatures that could morph.

  But not like this.

  Not with such control.

  The kraken-like creature studied the finer details. Muscle fibers twitching. Structure rearranging. Neural connections firing.

  Even in the deepest part of the abyss, where evolution ruled without mercy, this level of adaptation was unheard of.

  And then—

  A flicker.

  Not in the bioluminescent glow, not in the movement of the abyssal currents. No, this flicker was within the creature itself.

  Something inside it shifted again.

  The kraken narrowed its gaze.

  Another twitch.

  It could sense it—something was about to happen.

  Then, for the first time, it heard him.

  A vibration. A frequency. Not perfect, not smooth, but deliberate. Structured. A response.

  "Eo… my name is Eo."

  The kraken’s massive body tensed, not in fear, but in sheer intrigue.

  He had spoken.

  And not just in noise—in understanding.

  It learns.

  The kraken processed this revelation. A creature that learns frequencies instantly. A being that does not follow the natural laws of evolution, but instead creates its own.

  The abyss had seen many things.

  But this?

  This was new.

  And the abyssal beast, an ancient titan of the deep, had lived far too long to ignore something new.

  Another pulse of light flickered through its veins as it responded.

  "Then tell me, Eo—"

  Its massive eyes glowed brighter, reflecting the strange, ever-changing form before it.

  "What are you?"