Later That Night…

The village chief's house was quiet. In their room, the village chief and his wife were asleep.

And in the guest room, Mia also seemed like she was having a good sleep. Her breaths remained slow and steady.

But, Kael… for an hour, he seemed like sleeping, but then he suddenly snapped his eyes open.

He moved silently, sliding from the mat and summoning Sith in a whisper.

The Vampiress flew out of his body and landed beside him.

She looked at Kael in surprise and then at a sleeping Mia.

At once, her cheeks became rosy for a second as she whispered in a seductive voice, "Is Master intending to give me the reward at due, right now?" She asked.

"Reward?" Kael was taken aback for a moment, but then he remembered promising her a reward for protecting his sister, like when they were in the village of Lira. But that was a week ago. However, he hadn't summoned the vampire after leaving that village. Ten days passed, and he kinda forgot about it.

Kael turned a bit awkward and said, "I will give you the reward later. For now, watch her."

Sith nodded immediately. She turned into a bat and flew to the ceiling, hanging over a chandelier upside down.

Kael, now wearing his assassin robes, slipped from the house. His steps made no sound.

After leaving the house, he made his way back to the harbor again.

As he reached the dock, Cleo flew out of his tattoo and then leaped effortlessly onto his shoulder. The black cat's fur glowed faintly under the moonlight.

"Alright," Kael said quietly, "Where is it, Cleo?"

"Underwater, obviously," Cleo replied with a huff. Then, with a delighted squeal, the cat leapt from his shoulder into the sea with a splash. And surprisingly, a pur escaped the black cat.

Kael blinked, startled by its sudden jump. "You're the first cat I've seen that loves water."

Cleo's laughter rippled through his mind like bubbles rising from the deep.

A moment later, Kael took a breath and dove in.

The world beneath the waves was cold, endless, and dark.

The deeper they descended, the more crushing the pressure became. Strange shadows twisted in the water around them, darting away as Kael approached.

With a deep breath, Kael unleashed his demonic power. His aura pulsed outwards, poisonous and terrifying, sending every lesser creature fleeing away from him.

His demon heart throbbed calmly in his chest, keeping the pressure and cold at bay. His eyes adjusted, piercing the darkness with perfect clarity due to night vision, given by the demon's heart.

The world was no longer murky. It was bright. And it was alive.

Cleo swam ahead with unnatural grace, tail flicking behind her like an eel's.

"Come," she said gleefully. "The scent is stronger down here."

Kael followed, his form cutting silently through the water like a ghost.

The deeper they went, the more unnatural the sea became. Statues of forgotten deities lined the ocean floor, half-buried and crumbling. A broken temple stood in the distance, its roof caved in, its gate wide open. It was as if a village or a town had been drowned in the sea.

Nearly half an hour passed in silence before Kael and Cleo finally reached the mouth of an underwater cave.

The pressure here was suffocating. Even Kael's demon body felt the weight on his shoulders. The water was thick, dense, and almost unnatural.

His demon heart started to throb faster as his senses picked up the presence of a beast.

"It's a demigod," he thought, his eyes narrowing. "I guess this is the same one Mia sensed earlier. The Leviathan."

He paused mid-swim, a faint frown suddenly forming on his face. "Wait a second… I can sense another aura. It's not a beast. It's a human, yet it doesn't seem like one? And judging by the realm, it should be at Tier-9. Hmm.. that's Odd. It feels… familiar. Yet… can't put my finger on it."

His eyes flashed with suspicion.

Without another word, Kael pushed forward, swimming deeper into the cave at a rapid pace. The walls soon closed in, forming a jagged, narrow tunnel. And then..

They surfaced.

The water ended abruptly, receding until it only covered their ankles. A misty humidity lingered in the air, and glowing fungi clung to the cave walls, casting a faint, spectral blue hue over everything.

Cleo leapt gracefully back onto Kael's shoulder with her tail flicking lightly. They started walking cautiously, the silence growing denser with every step.

Kael kept his senses wide open, making sure he wouldn't get ambushed by that expert. If he could sense the enemy, the latter could sense him too.

At first, he could still feel the distant pulse of the demigod beast deeper in the chamber. And alongside it, the Tier-9 presence, unmoving, as if waiting.

But as they turned another corner… the beast's presence vanished, all of a sudden. The expert is still there.

"Did he kill the beast?" Kael wondered for a second but shook his head instantly, "No way that can be possible. A tier-9 beating a demigod? Escaping is one thing, fighting is also one thing, but killing... Hmm..."

Before he finished the thought, the human presence had also disappeared.

"Eh?" Kael stopped, his eyes narrowing in seriousness. "Did they mask their aura or..."

Even Cleo looked confused, her ears flicking back. Yet despite the unease building in his gut, Kael said nothing and pressed on.

They passed through a crumbled archway, half-consumed by coral, and entered a massive open space.

And there, in the very heart of the chamber, bathed in cold, blue light—

—was a portal.

Floating just above the water floor, it shimmered with a ripple of unstable energy. Like a gate to another world.

But that wasn't what caught Kael's attention first.

A massive serpent carcass lay curled at the base of the portal—its long, scaly body torn open, unmoving, lifeless. The water around it was darkened with blood. Its size was undeniable. This had been the demigod-tier creature he was sensing all along, the Leviathan from the legends, the guardian of Mayan Island.

Cleo immediately leapt down from Kael's shoulder, padding silently over the shallow water.

She sniffed at the carcass.

Then turned back with its ears flat and said. "Its mana core is gone."

Kael's expression darkened. "The Tier-9 expert… Indeed, he had killed the beast. But now?"

He approached the serpent's ruined skull, gazing at the massive wound that tore through its chest. "I don't see many wounds on its body, except for this one, but it is likely to remove the core. So, how did he kill this beast? An artifact?"

Cleo's pupils narrowed to slits as it gasped. "It was killed by primordial energy."

Kael's eyes flicked to the portal again. His frown deepened. "Primordial energy, like me?"

Right then, Cleo once again sniffed the air, tail flicking, and began circling the chamber.

Kael blinked, watching the small black figure pace around. "What are you doing?"

Cleo didn't stop. "I smell something else," she muttered. "Something faint… but interesting. It could be treasure. Or something hidden."

Kael arched a brow and pointed at the shimmering portal. "Isn't the treasure inside the dungeon?"

Cleo shook her head firmly. "No. I'm sure it's somewhere here, close. I can smell it in the stones."

As Cleo continued prowling along the walls, Kael turned back toward the massive serpent's corpse. Its sheer size and aura were still intimidating, even in death.

He narrowed his eyes and activated his demonic senses, allowing dark energy to sharpen his perception. Every organ, vein, and residual mana line in the corpse lit up in his mind's eye.

Let's see… poison glands? No, already ruptured.

Edible meat? Possibly, but demigod-tier flesh can be dangerous if not treated right.

Wait… what's this?

His eyes were fixed on an oddly pulsating chamber in the lower abdomen.

He stepped forward, summoned his twin daggers with a flick of his wrist, and began cutting with surgical precision.

Moments later, his blade struck something soft but dense. Gently, he pried it free—a smooth, palm-sized egg, slick with protective fluid, warm to the touch. Its surface bore faint scale-like patterns that shimmered in the cave's light.

Cleo, who had been sniffing at a moss-covered wall, paused and looked back. "Hmm?"

Kael turned to the cat, letting out a whistle. "Well. I guess this trip just became a lot more fruitful."

Cleo padded over, eyes narrowing as she stared at the egg.

She leaned in, sniffed once, and then stepped back with a small hiss of respect. "Yes. I can sense it clearly now. The life of a Leviathan stirs in there."

Her tone turned grim. "But it's not fully developed. If left alone, it'll die before it hatches. That's a demigod beast's egg, Kael. Not just any creature can bring it to life."

Kael frowned slightly, tightening his grip on the warm shell. "Then what should I do?"

Cleo sat, tail curling around her paws. Her yellow eyes gleamed in the dark.

"Simple. Use your demonic energy. Leviathans are demonic beasts by nature. So, your demonic energy can nourish it and accelerate its growth."

She paused, then added, her voice quiet but serious, "Feed it through your blood."