The abyss shuddered. The water around me darkened until even the faint traces of bioluminescent trails vanished behind an expanding wall of shadow. For a moment, I thought it was simply another shift in the abyssal currents, another pulse from the unseen giants that stirred in the deep. Then the pressure changed. It pressed inward as though the entire ocean had turned to a single breath held too long. The weight crawled across my skin and sank into my bones.Something was pulling me.It did not feel like a current. It did not push or swirl. It gripped. Fingers made of gravity and hunger closed around my chest and dragged me forward. The shock hit me so hard I lost my breath. My body lurched as though invisible chains had locked around my ribs. The abyss opened in front of me, and a single point of white light appeared in the distance. It pulsed once, and the sea trembled in fear.Then the light expanded and revealed an impossible mouth.The Maw of Stars.<

The temple doors closed behind us without touching anything. The sound vibrated through the water like the slow toll of a submerged bell. The corridor ahead stretched into a maze of pillars shaped like spiraling ribs. Every surface glowed with faint blue lines that shifted when I walked past them, as if the temple itself recognized my presence.The children surrounded me in silence. They drifted through the water without moving their limbs, gliding like living currents. Their glow dimmed slightly the deeper we traveled, as if the temple absorbed their light.The first child looked back at me. “Stay close. The Hunger listens for the light inside you.”I nodded. My grip tightened around my blade.The corridor widened until it opened into a vast chamber. Its ceiling was lost in the shadows above. The floor was a mosaic of dark stone carved with circles that overlapped in a pattern I did not recognize. In the center stood an enormous statue. It depicted a