14 Chapter Fourteen.

There was no interlude to his entrance into the Dream Realm. One moment, he was peacefully lying in his pod. The next, he was blind and drowning.

Even as he tried to reorient himself, Jack felt the violent waves throwing his body about and salty water rushing inside his nose, as if trying to choke him.

But more than that: He once more heard the voices. Their garbled, horrifying screeches scratched against his ears, promising power and riches beyond his imagination. His Flaw was silent, but he knew it still battered against the walls of its labyrinthian prison in a futile attempt to escape.

Jack felt his body elongating at extraordinary rates as his world once more became monochrome. The already bleak skies became even more through his black-and-white lens.

Once the transformation was complete, he felt like a fish in the water. His sleek gray skin and tentacles permitted him dexterous moves in the drink that wouldn't otherwise have been possible. Taking a deeper dive, he noticed that, even in the dark waters, he felt no need to breathe, and his vision extended for tens of meters. 'My [Son of Darkness] attribute must be giving me some capacity to see inside the True Darkness of the dark sea.'

Seeing the alien and gigantic aquatic life moving about just on the edge of his sight, he knew for a fact he had gotten to his destination: The Forgotten Shore.

Though such a thing was his best-case scenario, at this moment, he had no time to commemorate due to a simple reason...

'Although my Intrinsic Form is immense by human standards... To these corrupted creatures, I must be looking like a tasty morsel near the surface of the water.'

Showing considerable mastery of his Intrinsic Form, acquired over weeks of relentless training, Jack moved his six eyes individually, using them to search for any approaching threats. Simultaneously, he started to create a Fog of Darkness around him, to obscure his precise position from would-be predators. 

The only problem was: his Intrinsic Form was much larger than his original body. Standing at around four meters tall and with a large bulk, covering it completely with the Fog of Darkness was no mean feat for his Dormant Core.

Even as he put his output to the maximum, it felt too slow. All around him, he could see nothing but the vast darkness of the sea, other than the occasional gigantic fin that entered his field of vision. There was no convenient statue or giant rock nearby to stand upon.

'I have no choice. I'll have to go to the surface again. I'll try to not lose sight of what's underneath me.'

After a swift swim, what met him was an endless, jet-black expanse of undulating waves. Above them was an empty black sky. There was no moon, no stars, just a dark vastness of repressive nothingness.

Jack took care to keep four of his eyes submerged and constantly darting, even as he searched for exposed structures with his other two.

'Damn you, Spell!' 

Even with his sharp eyesight, he could see no surface to stand upon. 

'I don't know if this world has a curvature, but if it has a similar one to Earth, then that's at least 5 kilometers with nothing around me.'

It was at that moment, while Jack was deep in thought, that something rapidly entered his field of vision underwater. A shark-like creature, with a maw so large it could swallow him whole, came from the depths and swam frantically in his direction. Although he had managed to create a proper Fog of Darkness, covering his whole body and leaving some meters to spare, it wouldn't make a difference.

'This thing can swallow this Fog of Darkness in a single bite!'

Though the size of the creature and its swiftness unnerved him, Jack kept in place, waiting. Calming his accelerated heart rate, he fully submerged, while maintaining himself inside his Fog of Darkness. 

'Just a little bit more...'

The closer the beast got, the harder it was for Jack to stay put. But he persevered. Once the beast showed its terrifying jaw, with rows and rows of giant teeth, Jack knew it was time.

With a brisk move of his tentacles, he flickered sideways and out of the Fog of Darkness, leaving only the cloud behind. Due to its massive size, the gigantic beast could no longer change course, and swallowed Jack's True Darkness, leaping slightly above the dark waves.

As the shark-like creature fell back into the water, Jack was already in motion. Choosing a random direction, he swam with all his might, as he tried to put as much distance between himself and the beast. Throughout it all, he kept close to the surface.

It soon noticed it had been fooled by its prey, and continued its pursuit with powerful flaps of its fins. Though its size and weight were great, so was its force. Even as Jack tried to escape with his Intrinsic Form, the beast slowly closed the distance on him.

But something peculiar started to happen. The giant creature occasionally slowed down, with sudden and sharp movements. One of its many eyes abruptly turned opaque, with movements similar to small critters inside of it, and it opened its maw as if in great pain.

Jack wished he could laugh at this moment. 'That's what you get for devouring anything in your path.'

What it was feeling was an application of Darkness Jack felt was well suited for giant creatures. He called them Gorging Scarabs. Through manipulation of his ability and using the "Consuming" facet of True Darkness, Jack had managed to create those pseudo-lives.

The hard part was the application: getting it inside an uncooperating opponent. After that, the Gorging Scarabs would wreak havoc on its viscera and destroy it inside out. Such an ability would be tremendously problematic to counter. Even the strongest of Nightmare Creatures usually have soft interiors.

'There is only one problem...'

Moments later, the shark-like creature seemed to recover and, enraged by the injuries inflicted upon it, resumed the hunt. 

'My Essence is quickly depleted. Generating this much True Darkness was already a tremendous dent in my reserves. Manipulating it in such a way is not sustainable at this stage...'

But for Jack, his objective had already been completed. He had been only trying to buy himself time. 

As he swam near the surface with his giant companion, he knew it was a matter of time. And then, the one he had been waiting for all this time came. 

Like a strange, black tower rising, a colossal tentacle extended from the deep sea. With velocity unbecoming of such dimensions, it fell upon his would-be predator, tightly entangling around it. Although the beast thrashed, it was all futile. In a quick motion, it was taken to the dark depths, never to be seen again.

'See you later, alligator. Shark. Whatever you were.' Jack felt deep relief for finally losing his pursuer.

After moving partially out of the water to better see his surroundings, Jack finally saw his safe port: a giant rib bone stretching out of the water - the remnants of a truly massive creature.

He was soon out of the water, returning to his human form and feeling grateful he could no longer hear the grating voices in his mind. After calming his still-racing heart and confirming nothing had followed him out of the water, Jack summoned his crimson armor and lay down to rest.

Although it had no great use as a pajama, his armor would help him conserve heat and keep him prepared for any eventualities during the long night. 

'I'm also not the biggest fan of walking around with my private bits hanging.' He thought with mirth.

Using his hands as pillows, Jack closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep during the rest of the nighttime.

'I'll definitely need it in the morning.'

He sighed and thanked the dead Gods that no nightmares of giant sharks could find him inside the Dream Realm.