Immediately after hearing the greetings of the spell, Aelon found himself... floating, and unable to breathe.
'I'm not seeing anything!'
He was in some body of water.
At first, he didn't know where up and down was, but due to feeling the pressure increase when he went in a certain direction, he was able to figure out where the surface was, by swimming in the direction of where the pressure decreased.
'Thankfully Teacher Julius included swimming in his lessons...'
As a person who didn't exactly grow up under the best circumstances, Aelon never learned how to navigate his body in the water.
After a few seconds of panicked draws against the empty void, he finally felt his head breaking through the surface. Gasping for air, he noticed that it was just as dark outside, as it was in the water.
Darkness everywhere.
Specifically, the sky was just an empty void, making everything around him seem like an empty void.
'Yeah... no luck seeing anything here...'
Staying afloat for a few seconds, legs burning, he managed to catch his breath, and began swimming into a random direction.
'Why the heck is it so exh– oh... yeah I'm weakend.'
Due to no souls being around him, his stamina ran out very quickly. Not after long, he found himself fighting the water, trying to stay afloat.
'GUHH EW!'
Aelon accidentally swallowed salt water in his attempt to take in a breath of air.
Suddenly... his soul sense picked something up.
"..."
It was a soul... that he had never felt before, different of those of the sleepers or awakened, and also different than Jet's weird broken soul. It felt disgusting and dreadful, as if opposing the feeling he had gotten from Nephis' pure soul.
There wasn't just one soul.
There were several.
No...
Not several souls.
'Are those soul cores?
'OH FUCK NO!'
An awakened demon was swimming towards him, at speeds he would never be able to outrun- or outswim in this case.
Panicked, and body bursting from the adrenaline, he swam somewhere, anywhere would be better than going near... that.
Fortunately, Aelon felt himself get strengthened as if there were three awakened, meaning that the number of soul cores stacked his innate ability's augmentation. If he were to fight against an awakened titan, he'd get the same augmentation he'd get from seven awakened humans, or beasts.
In his pure survival instinct, he was able to make that out quickly, and found himself replenished in strength.
'FASTER! COME ONNNNNN!'
Stroke after stroke he was swimming away from the awakened abomination, that was most probably trying to devour him.
Augmented, he was certainly faster at swimming... but an aquatic demon that was an entire rank above him wasn't up to comparison. The speed at which it drew closer and closer was... unsettling.
'Yeah no... I'm fucked.'
Summoning Minos' Soulblade, he sensed the exact location of the demon's soul core, and apprehended that it was only ten meters away from him already.
'What did I even expect?'
It was certain that his luck was... shitty to say the least, but that should've been clear from the moment he entered his first nightmare, and the fact that he was an outskirts rat for ninety-nine percent of his life.
Hoping that it would make a difference, he used [Resonance Shift].
To his surprise, the demon actually slowed down, as if weakened.
'It generally weakens nightmare creatures as it seems... wait! If Minos' Soulblade attacks the soul directly, and resonance shift weakens it, doesn't it mean they should synergize perfectly?'
But just when he finished that thought, the awakened abomination arrived at it's destination.
He couldn't see anything, but he felt it, rows of teeth... swallowing him whole.
Just as it was about to close it's mouth, Aelon used his remaining strength to thrust upward, right into the roof of it's mouth.
With the force of it's jaw trying to close itself, and the augmentation of Aelon's arms, the blade, now in a physical form, pierced the flesh of the demon, and entered soft tissue... it's brain most probably.
[Congratulations, you have defeated an awakened monster, Carapace Shark.]
[You have received a Memory: Aquatic Hide].
Immediately, relief washed over him. His heart hammered wildly against his ribs, refusing to believe that he had somehow survived what should have been certain death.
Having his own flesh pierced in multiple spots, due to the teeth of the demon still catching him, he quickly unsummoned Minos' Soulblade, and climbed out of the abomination's mouth, swimming back to the surface.
'I definitely wouldn't have the strength to do that on my own...'
Ironically, the act of closing it's mouth to devour Aelon, had aided his attack, by increasing the force with which his sword entered the roof of it's mouth.
Struggling, he broke through the surface once again, and began swimming in one direction... only to find that his strength was now completely drained.
'Please...'
Every breath burned his lungs, and every movement of his arms felt heavier than the last, as though the ocean itself wanted him dead.
Weakened again, and exhausted from fighting, it was clear that Aelon wouldn't be able to stay afloat for many more strokes, much less swim.
But to his absolute elation, after swimming for one minute, and feeling that he was about to loose consciousness, he grasped rock.
Pulling himself up with the last of his strength, he climbed it, and finally reached flat surface.
The rough stone felt strangely warm beneath his trembling fingers. For the first time since arriving, he no longer feared sinking back into the endless sea.
Only now did he notice, that he was bleeding from his hamstring, and multiple spots on his arms.
Profusely at that.
'Can't I rest for one second?!'
Letting out a sob, he tore off a piece of his own clothing, and tightly wrapped the wound in it, tying the fabric together.
After finishing, he was now basically in rags, the t-shirt he had previously worn being cropped, and the sleeves also not there anymore.
'Finally...'
The adrenaline ultimately faded.
Every ache, every cut, every ounce of exhaustion descended on him at once.
His vision had been swallowed by darkness before.
Now his mind followed.
The distant sound of waves crashing against the rock slowly faded, replaced by a comforting silence that pulled him into unconsciousness.