Single for Eternity
Chapter 92: Shallow Water

Chapter 92: Shallow Water

With deliberate, measured steps, Seren traversed the lifeless expanse of the ashen forest.

Each footfall was met with the soft crunch of brittle twigs and bone fragments buried beneath the soot-laden soil.

The trees—gnarled and twisted—arched like ancient sentinels overhead, their bark pale as corpses, their branches clawing at the sky with skeletal fingers.

She moved in silence, her crimson eyes scanning the unnatural stillness around her.

But she wasn’t alone.

The presence of unseen things made itself known—low rustles, the sharp crack of dry branches under unseen weight, the faint reverberation of footsteps that did not match her own.

Not human.

No... something else.

Her senses, honed to an unnatural degree, traced dozens of these phantom presences lurking in the shadows. Watching. Waiting. Their eyes—though invisible—felt like needles threading into her skin.

Still, Seren kept walking.

She gave them time.

Time to strike.

To make their move.

To reveal themselves.

They didn’t.

Her hand drifted toward her waist, fingers brushing the hilt of Dissonance—and that alone was enough.

The unseen watchers shrank back.

The presence that had once closed in like a tightening noose dissipated into nothing, as if the forest itself had inhaled and forgotten to exhale.

"Bunch of weaklings," Seren murmured, barely parting her lips.

If they could be frightened by the mere intention of violence, then they were unworthy of it.

Creatures that feared battle didn’t deserve to die by her blade.

Their fear only confirmed one thing—they wouldn’t yield substantial points. And in this trial, that was all that mattered.

She let go of the hilt with a sigh and resumed her trek.

Time passed strangely in the Sovereign Realm—sometimes too fast, sometimes frozen in moments that stretched for eternities. Yet, after what felt like hours of relentless movement beneath the dead canopy, the forest finally gave way.

And then she saw it.

Water.

A still expanse of silver-blue liquid stretched as far as her eyes could see. But it wasn’t an ocean, nor a river. The water was shallow, unnaturally so—barely reaching up to her knees. Its surface shimmered with an eerie, glasslike stillness, unmarred by wind or wildlife.

Dotting this vast wetland were scattered boulders, jagged and slick, rising from the surface like islands in a silent sea.

Seren stood at the edge, her reflection broken in the ripples at her feet.

She returned Dissonance to its sheath and leapt forward, landing lightly atop the first stone. Then the next. One by one, she made her way across, her figure dancing across the uneven terrain with precision and grace.

She didn’t have a destination in mind.

She didn’t care.

Her goal wasn’t a place—it was conflict.

Battle.

Points.

And in this forsaken realm, where the very air reeked of trials and tribulations, she would move toward whatever worthy opponent fate dared to place in her path.

It wasn’t long before it found her.

About a hundred stones later, her ears caught a sound.

Soft.

Melodic.

A lullaby.

It was faint, almost a suggestion of music rather than a song. But its beauty was undeniable—gentle, haunting, and impossibly soothing. It swirled through the mist like a whispered promise, weaving into the air and slipping past her defenses.

At first, Seren ignored it.

She told herself it was nothing—just another illusion conjured by the Sovereign Realm to distract, to confuse.

But her feet kept moving.

Her direction shifted ever so slightly.

Her body responded before her thoughts did.

She was being drawn.

It wasn’t until her next leap that she caught herself mid-step.

Her crimson eyes widened as realization struck. She landed, immediately halting her movement, fingers snapping toward the hilt of her blade.

"Hex," she whispered, her tone flat but sharp with irritation.

A subtle frown tugged at her brows as she focused her mind, forcibly clearing the haze that had begun to settle over her thoughts.

Her resistance was swift and decisive.

That was the benefit of her training—and her bloodline.

A normal participant wouldn’t have been so lucky. Even an awakened sovereign would have followed the lullaby straight into its source... and death.

A slow smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Whatever that was," she muttered, her voice like a quiet challenge to the empty mist, "should give me a lot of points."

The melody still hung in the air, fainter now, as if realizing its prey had slipped the noose.

She took another step, deliberately this time.

The lullaby still lingered—softer, subtler. Like it was retreating, aware that its influence had failed to take root.

But Seren wasn’t letting it go.

Her instincts were flaring now, not in fear, but in anticipation. Whatever had tried to bewitch her wasn’t some mindless creature. It was intelligent. Calculated. And dangerous enough to test her will.

Exactly the kind of prey she sought.

The water around her rippled unnaturally, spreading outward like a breath drawn in reverse. Seren narrowed her eyes. The boulders behind her slowly began to sink—no, not sink, be pulled down—as if the water itself was exhaling.

She stopped moving, drawing Dissonance once more.

The moment her blade left its sheath, the lullaby stopped.

A heartbeat passed.

Then—

A figure rose from the water.

No splash. No sound.

Just a fluid, gliding ascent, as if the liquid was birthing it into existence.

It was a woman.

Or something like one.

Pale-blue skin that shimmered faintly in the moonlight. Hair long, trailing behind her like mist. But her eyes—dozens of them—opened one by one across her face, neck, shoulders. Blinking. Watching.

[ Sovereign Trial: Lesser Siren ]

[ Threat Level: Awakened ]

Seren didn’t flinch.

The creature smiled, lips curling with unnatural grace. "You’re not like the others," it spoke in a voice laced with the lullaby’s residue. "They come to me willingly. You resist."

"I’m not here to talk," Seren replied.

Her blade pulsed once.

Crimson veins lit up across its surface.

The Siren raised an arm, water rising with it in sharp, whip-like tendrils. "Then die in silence."

They moved at the same time.

The water lashes cracked like whips, slicing toward her with terrifying speed, each lined with tiny, serrated ice shards that would’ve shredded most flesh on impact.

Seren ducked the first, spun through the second.

Her foot skimmed across the water, frozen mana lacing beneath her step as a platform formed.

Then she launched forward.

Her blade clashed against one of the tendrils, carving through it with a hiss of steam and shattering mana.

The Siren shrieked—not in pain, but in song.

The lullaby returned, sharper now, layered with frequencies meant to distort and confuse.

But Seren had heard it once.

It wouldn’t work again.

She dashed across the watery surface, every step freezing the ground beneath her into mirrors. The Siren’s eyes all locked on her, hundreds now, opening across its chest and arms, twitching, unblinking.

Seren’s form blurred. She reappeared above the Siren, descending like a spear, blade-first.

The Siren screamed and raised a barrier of swirling water, but Dissonance sang a note of its own—sharp, dissonant, like a string plucked in a minor chord—and shattered the defense like glass.

Her blade pierced the Siren through the chest.

The creature’s shriek turned into a gurgle. Its body convulsed once, then twice. Water exploded outward violently, sending shockwaves through the shallow lake.

Then silence.

Seren landed gracefully as the corpse dissolved into mist.

[ Sovereign Trial: Lesser Siren Defeated. ]

[ Points Earned: +40 ]

[ Total Points: 66 ]

She sheathed her sword.

The frozen platforms she’d created began to melt behind her, water reclaiming the battlefield like nothing had happened.

Her breath was even. Unhurried.

She turned without a word and continued across the boulders, unfazed.

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