Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 270: Departure

[Location: Abyss Layer 3 – The Lighthouse Dock]

[Time: Departure]

The screen goes back to Damien, and after collecting the items, the three of them prepared to leave.

The air at the base of the spire was thick with the scent of brine and the low, rhythmic hum of the Sanctuary Field.

Beyond the invisible barrier, the dark ocean of Layer 3 churned with predatory intent, the glowing "Sunken Stars" swarming the rocks like hungry ghosts.

Damien stood at the edge of the stone dock, his trench coat snapping in the cold wind

He reached into his storage and withdrew the small, heavy capsule he had purchased from the Keeper.

"Stand back," Damien commanded.

He tossed the capsule into the water. The moment the dry surface of the object touched the saltwater, unlike what others would have guessed it just float

In what happened next was quite shocking. The bio-organic material hissed and expanded, unfolding like a blossoming flower of bone and chitin.

Within seconds, the Void-Submersible sat bobbing in the waves.

It was a four-seater organic vessel that looked like a cross between a hollowed-out leviathan skull and a massive, armored beetle chrysalis.

Its hull was a deep, oily black, reinforced with the white, calcified ribs of deep-sea monsters.

"It looks... alive," Isabelle muttered, her tail twitching in distaste.

"It is, in a way," Elian Vance whispered, his face pale as he stared at the dark horizon.

"The Keeper’s crafts are grown, not built. But be warned, Master. The Great Whirlpool is not just a geographical feature, it can be called one of the scariest parts of the abyss I’ve seen in my hundred years of life"

"It is a hunting ground. The Deep Ones, the Tier 7 Leviathans and above, guard the drain. They consider anything entering the whirlpool to be a gift from the upper layers."

"Although you might already know this, but the deeper we go into the layers, the strongest the over all level of the abyss rises"

"it won’t be suprising if on the ninth floor we encounter a situation where demi gods walk everywhere, now are you sure you still want to go down?"

Hearing this Damien didn’t reply, he just smiled as he adjusted the white porcelain mask on his face, the ’0’ glinting in the bioluminescent light.

"Let them come. After all, I’ve never been one to shy away from a fight."

Saying this, his eyes flashed with a strange light glancing at his remaining Dp, in case of any accidents, he had to be ready

.............

[The Descent]

The trio climbed into the cramped interior of the submersible. The walls were soft and warm, smelling of musk and damp earth.

There were no windows, only translucent membranes that allowed a distorted view of the outside.

As the hatch, a fleshy, interlocking seal closed, the sound of the ocean was muffled into a low, terrifying thrum.

SPLASH.

The Keeper, watching from the high ridge of the fortress, triggered the release mechanism.

The submersible was sucked into the pull of the currents, heading straight for the center of the lake. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Brace yourselves," Damien ordered.

He sat in the center, his hands resting on his knees. He didn’t use magic instead he activated his Will.

A faint, golden-black shimmer of Will Cladding enveloped the interior of the hull, reinforcing the organic walls and stabilizing their minds against the sudden, violent shifts in gravity.

Then, they hit it.

The Great Whirlpool.

The world turned into a chaotic spin. The sound outside became a deafening roar as millions of tons of water were forced down a narrow planetary drain.

The hull groaned, the leviathan bone ribs creaking under a pressure that would have flattened reinforced steel.

Inside, the pressure was immense. Isabelle gasped, her hands clutching the seat as the crushing weight of the Abyss tried to collapse her lungs. Elian curled into a ball, his eyes shut tight.

Damien remained motionless. His Will acted as a mental anchor, his King’s Intent pushing back against the weight of the ocean, keeping their sanities from shattering in the dark.

Through the translucent membranes, the world was a blurred spiral of white foam and black water. Suddenly, a shadow fell over the vessel, a shadow so vast it blocked out the glow of the whirlpool’s friction.

A massive, lidless eye, larger than the submersible itself, drifted past the membrane.

A Tier 7 Abyss Kraken.

Its tentacles, thick as tower blocks and covered in serrated suckers, brushed against the hull.

The creature vibrated with a low-frequency hum that made the trio’s bones ache.

Isabelle’s eyes snapped open, glowing a frantic red. Her hands ignited with ourple gravity sparks.

"It’s right there! I have to—"

"Don’t," Damien’s voice cut through her panic like a blade. His hand clamped down on her shoulder, his Will flowing into her to steady her heart.

"The moment you attack, you;ll become a beacon of energy. Right now, this vessel smells like dead bone and Abyss waste to it. We are debris to these monsters, Isabelle. Nothing more."

The Kraken lingered. A tentacle curled around the chrysalis, tasting the organic hull. The pressure spiked, the ribs of the vessel began to bow inward.

Damien narrowed his eyes behind the mask, his King’s Will coiling tightly within him, ready to explode if the creature tightened its grip.

After a heart-stopping minute, the Kraken released them. To a Tier 7 predator, a small piece of indigestible bone wasn’t worth the effort.

It drifted back into the dark, searching for larger prey.

The submersible surged forward, caught in the final, accelerating pull of the drain.

The water pressure suddenly vanished.

*BOOM!*

The roar of the ocean was replaced by a terrifying, whistling silence.

"The tunnel is ending!" Elian shouted over the rush of air.

The submersible was ejected out of the bottom of the whirlpool, which acted as the "ceiling" of the next layer. They weren’t in water anymore as right now they were in freefall.

Damien looked through the membrane. Below them, the darkness broke into a haunting, bruise-purple glow.

"Guess its time for the 4th layer, just five more to go!," Damien said, his voice cold and expectant.

They plummeted through the clouds, heading toward a world of crimson grass and jagged obsidian.