The waves are the first to respond to the first ripple.
A quiet dawn.
The surface of the Nereis Sea in the Aqua Empire was as still as a mirror.
The currents flowed in peace.
Yet in the heart of Nereis, on the upper levels of the fortress, the air was filled with suffocating tension, utterly unlike the tranquil sea.
“The flow is being distorted.”
Levian spoke as he gazed far to the south.
“It seems there is something there that is neither the energy of fire nor the energy of metal. Something fundamental appears to be changing in Ignis.”
Several current infantrymen moved busily around them.
“The waveform interference is severe. The energies cannot be clearly distinguished. The two attributes seem to be clashing with each other, and yet, at the same time, drawing each other in.”
Levian’s eyes hardened.
“They are even trying to merge. One must be the energy of fire, but what is the other? In any case, those forces seem to be trying to create a new flow.”
“What is happening?”
At that moment, Nereia ascended to the top of the fortress.
Levian and the current infantrymen quietly bowed their heads to her.
Nereia silently gazed at the wavering waveforms around them.
Her blue hair rippled slowly along with the flow.
“This is no simple tide. It is a wave caused by something.”
She closed her mouth for a moment and focused her senses, then spoke.
“This is the vibration of change. Someone is forcibly altering energy.”
Levian asked,
“Has Ignis manipulated a core?”
Nereia answered calmly.
“They have created something new. What we are sensing is that new vibration.”
She took a step back and continued.
“We do not yet know what they are trying to make. If it becomes a new power, the entire flow of this world may change.”
“The energy of change……”
Naus murmured in the central hall of the fortress.
He asked,
“Have their flames begun to burn in a different color now?”
Levian replied,
“To be precise, it likely isn’t complete yet. We still cannot see the direction of that flow. But the vibration born from the collision of those two energies was creating waveform interference in an entirely unfamiliar direction.”
Before them was a vast map of currents projected upon a condensed surface of water.
The dotted lines drawn over the waves indicated the intensity of the vibration, and its epicenter lay in the deepest part of the Ignis Empire’s territory.
Nereia quietly watched the flow, then said,
“Fire has always been a power revealed outwardly. But this is not fire. It is some design hidden within the fire.”
Naus nodded.
“It appears Ignis’s fire has begun to take on a new form.”
A brief silence passed.
Levian cautiously opened his mouth.
“When I sensed it earlier, it seemed that two energies were combining. One was the energy of fire, and the other seems likely to be the energy of metal. Ignis has recently made contact with Silva, but I doubt Silva would agree with them, and Terra would be the same. Then what remains is Metalum. In fact, Ignis briefly engaged Metalum in battle. During that process, Ignis must have plundered Metalum’s core.”
The air in the room grew heavy.
Ignis had begun an experiment to combine fire and metal?
The result would drastically change existing combat patterns.
After a moment, Levian spoke again.
“If the energy of metal is grafted onto the energy of fire, it will no longer be simple heat, but a destructive force with form.”
With a grave expression, Nereia closed her eyes and sensed the flow.
“This is almost like a warning. Their flames are hiding something.”
She quietly raised her hand.
The vast water map blurred and returned to gentle ripples.
“From now on, we must not be those who follow the flow, but those who read it first and move.”
At the edge of the eastern current.
The water’s force softened gently, continuing into the sound of leaves brushing against one another.
This was the natural border between Aqua and Silva.
Towering trees and tangled vines formed a ceiling, and a green, silent forest of life enveloped the flow.
Upon reaching that border, Aqua’s delegation carefully refined their water energy and sent out a gentle wave.
After a long silence, the leaves began to sway soundlessly.
Silva’s boundary sentinels had answered.
“O waves of Aqua, the life of this forest senses that flow.”
Bramir, Drian’s wind-sensing officer, revealed himself and spoke.
The representative on Aqua’s side was Levian.
He spoke with courtesy.
“We have detected the vibration of this flow. A new energy is stirring in Ignis.
And we are concerned that Silva may be swept into the center of that change.”
Bramir’s expression quietly hardened.
“We felt it as well. That fire energy was sharp enough to sever the roots of life. However, our sovereign, Lady Drian, has said that she still needs more time to judge what that change means.”
“Time is flow. And flow does not wait.”
At Levian’s words, Bramir lowered his head.
“Regrettably, on our side, there is nothing we can do about Ignis’s rampage. Although Ignis’s army recently seized our cores, we could only watch.”
Levian’s expression briefly shifted into surprise.
He spoke with sincere eyes.
“That is why we believe we must be the first to extend our hand. Before your roots are cut down.”
A brief silence.
Then Bramir said,
“Your words have been delivered to the forest. The decision will be made quietly, like a falling leaf.”
The quiet central hall within the fortress.
In a transparent chamber shimmering with blue light, the key figures of the Aqua Empire gathered one by one.
As soon as Nereia took her seat, Levian opened his mouth in a low voice.
“I heard that Ignis invaded and seized a portion of Silva’s life cores.”
The surroundings fell silent at once.
Naus spoke with a grave expression.
“That is a clear crossing of the line. To exploit a mutually generative relationship for plunder…… They have essentially forced Silva into a handshake.”
Moreover, core plunder within a mutually generative relationship did not work in reverse.
It was possible for Ignis to seize Silva’s life cores, but conversely, it was impossible for Silva to seize Ignis’s flame cores.
In other words, unless Ignis willingly handed over flame cores, there was almost no way for Silva to obtain them.
Levian added anxiously,
“Furthermore, Ignis’s actions are not mere resource plundering. Now that even life cores have fallen into Ignis’s hands, Ignis will soon spread yet another new waveform across the world.”
Nereia quietly folded her arms.
“I do not want Silva to suffer harm again. Above all, the one Ignis is aiming for most is us. If Silva falls, we will be next.”
Levian nodded.
“From now on, we must build a structure to respond to this flow. Before it is too late.”
Nereia asked Sian,
“After the fortress underwent its third-stage deepening, it seems enough cores have gathered again. Can the barracks be deepened?”
Sian nodded and answered,
“Yes. We can begin at once.”
“Good. And.”
Nereia continued.
“We will contact Silva again. This time, I will move personally. At this point, it would be best for us to exchange cores.”
At Nereia’s words, everyone’s eyes turned to her.
But no one objected.
Now Aqua and Silva were about to begin their own new attempt.
She slowly rose.
“We begin preparing quietly, and deeply. The direction of the flow has now been decided.”
Levian, Naus, and Sian all nodded at the same time.
Outside this conference room, the citizens of the Aqua Empire were swimming along the currents as usual, but in the heart of that sea, a new wave of strategy had already begun to move.
A blue cavern stretching along a valley of currents.
It was located in the deepest part of the Aqua Empire’s barracks.
Recently, as the flow of tidal cores reached saturation, the barracks underwent another deepening under the leadership of Sian, the representative of the current designers.
As a result, the conditions were prepared for a new type of soldier to be born.
The soldier’s name was the “Tidal Champion.”
Sian explained to Nereia as she looked around the training ground inside the barracks.
“The Tidal Champion is one who breaks the flow of waves and gathers the sea’s wrath into a single body. If the existing soldiers entrusted themselves to the flow, these are the ones who change its direction.”
At the center of the training ground stood a soldier clad in heavy armor.
His armor seemed to have been made by compressing layers of solid current, and the waves flickering over his shoulders whirled against the flow on their own.
“First specimen, Syrnel. The first awakened Tidal Champion.”
The barracks recorder shouted.
Before him, a massive model of a wave came crashing down.
Champion Syrnel did not retreat.
Holding a large trident in one hand, he quietly assumed his stance.
The water beneath his feet flowed backward.
And with a single step forward, the vibration of the tidal wave began to tremble.
“He’s breaking the flow……”
Naus murmured as if to himself.
“That is neither defense nor evasion…… It is a countercurrent.”
Syrnel advanced without hesitation.
Facing the enormous wall of water head-on, he drew up his energy and unleashed it all at once.
In that instant, the surrounding currents stopped.
And the tidal wave split apart.
He moved forward, cutting through the wave.
It was a method unimaginable for the soldiers who had come before.
Nereia smiled faintly.
“If one wishes to lead the flow, one must also know how to break it.”
She looked around and said,
“Now, these Tidal Champions will be the ones standing at the forefront of our formation. We must be the first to break the enemies’ flows.”
Sian also nodded silently, seeming satisfied.
The Aqua Empire had quietly accumulated its wave cores without causing any major clashes with the other empires.
Because of that, it had been able to advance its barracks slightly faster than Ignis, which pursued expansion.
Not long after, the deep waves of the Aqua Empire quietly began to move toward the green forest.
Drian of the Silva Empire still remained silent, but the wind circling around her was gradually changing direction.
Soon, dark blue waves would come to her forest.
From the moment they moved together, the world might tremble once more.