Chapter 103: Date With Watery Destiny, Part Six

“You aren’t actually Eternia, are you?”

The Tide’s words hung in the air between them, heavy as a wet blanket. The perfect beach around them remained frozen in time, waves stuck mid-crash like someone had hit pause on reality, seagulls hanging in the sky like they’d forgotten how gravity worked.

Grace’s first instinct was to keep bullshitting. To maintain the charade that had gotten her this far and her light-dick deep into a water goddess.

“What are you talking about? Of course I’m—”

“Don’t.” The Tide held up a hand, her expression caught between disappointment and acceptance, like someone who’d just found out their favorite merchant in the village was closing down. “I felt it. When we connected. You’re… different.”

[Well, crap. Cover blown.]

Grace sighed, running a hand through her damp white hair.

“Fine. You got me. I’m not Eternia. My name is Grace.”

She braced herself for the explosion of rage, for the vision to shatter and the watery tentacles to return with a vengeance and way less pleasure involved. But the Tide just looked at her, those starry eyes reflecting entire galaxies, like little universes trapped in her irises.

“I knew it,” she said quietly.

Grace blinked in surprise, nearly choking. That was… not the reaction she’d expected.

“You’re not mad?”

The Tide turned to look out at the frozen ocean. She looked tired in a way immortal beings shouldn’t be able to look.

“I’ve been mad for millennia. It grows tiresome. Besides, it was obvious, I suppose. In retrospect. Eternia would never have cared enough to make me feel good. It was always about her pleasure, her needs. That… that bitch.”

She walked a few steps along the shore, her feet leaving no prints in the sand. Grace followed, cautious but curious. Like approaching a wounded animal that could still totally mess you up if it wanted to.

“I remember the day I realized she wasn’t coming back,” the Tide said, her voice distant. “I waited by this very shore. Years passed. Decades. I called out to her. Never got an answer.”

The scene around them shifted suddenly. The perfect beach darkened, clouds rolling in like angry bruises, the water turning gray and choppy. The Tide’s appearance changed too—her elegant form becoming more monstrous, her starry eyes burning with cold fire. She was rage personified, and it was terrifying.

“Loneliness is a poison,” she continued, her voice edged with bitterness. “It eats away at you from the inside, hollowing you out until all that’s left is an echo of who you once were.”

Grace felt a pang of sympathy. She knew loneliness—the empty farmhouse after her parents died, the long nights talking to turnips because they were the only things that would listen.

But her loneliness had lasted a few years, not fucking millennia.

“I started taking the villagers,” the Tide admitted, looking at her hands like they belonged to someone else. “Changing them. Making them like me so I wouldn’t be alone anymore. But it wasn’t the same. They weren’t… real companions. Just puppets. Wet puppets.”

The scene shifted again. The beach returned to its earlier state, but with slight differences. Less perfect, more real. The Tide’s form softened, becoming more human-like again, less sea monster from the depths.

“And then you came,” she said, turning to face Grace. “Wearing her face. Carrying her essence. But you’re nothing like her.”

“… Is that good or bad?” Grace asked hesitantly. “Because if it’s bad, I’d like to point out I’m very small. Not worth breaking in half at all.”

“Hehe…” The Tide’s lips curved in a small smile. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Suddenly, she got a notification.

「System Notification: Use Aura Cleanse」

[Oh! That’s an idea. Thanks, Eternia. For once, you’re actually being helpful instead of telling me to get laid.]

Grace stepped closer to the Tide, raising her hands slowly to show she meant no harm. Like approaching a skittish cat.

“Let me try something,” she said. “Please? I promise it doesn’t involve any more trickery. I didn’t come here to fight you.”

[Well, in a way I did, but yeah.]

The Tide eyed her warily but nodded, curiosity overriding suspicion.

Grace focused, channeling divine energy into her palms. Her hands began to glow with soft golden light, like she was holding tiny suns.

She placed her hands on the Tide’s shoulders, letting the cleansing energy flow into the water deity. The Tide gasped, her entire body lighting up from within like someone had dropped a glow stick into a water bottle. The starlight in her eyes seemed to flicker, then calm, becoming less frantic, less desperate.

“What are you doing to me?” she whispered, but there was no anger in her voice—only wonder.

“Helping you,” Grace said, continuing to channel the energy. “You’ve been corrupted by your loneliness. By your pain.”

The Tide trembled under her touch.

“I’m so tired,” the Tide admitted, her voice breaking. “So tired of this.”

“Then stop,” Grace said gently. “Let it go.”

The golden light spread through the Tide’s entire body, cleansing centuries of bitterness and rage. Where it passed, her blue skin lightened, becoming almost translucent, revealing currents of energy flowing beneath like underwater rivers.

When the light faded, the Tide looked different. Calmer. The stars in her eyes twinkled peacefully rather than burning with fury. Like night skies instead of supernovas.

Grace sighed.

“You deserve a break.”

That actually drew a laugh from the Tide—a sound like gentle waves lapping at a shore, not the tsunami roar from before.

“You are definitely not Eternia,” she said, but this time it sounded like a compliment rather than an accusation.

The beach around them began to dissolve, the edges of the vision blurring into reality like wet watercolors. They were returning to the underwater chamber, to the real world where Diana and Petriel were still fighting transformed villagers just a short walk away.

“What happens now?” the Tide asked, suddenly looking vulnerable, like a breakup was coming. “Will Eternia truly never return?”

Grace had been wondering the same thing. She reached into her robe pocket, fingers closing around the tear-pearl she’d found days ago.

“I don’t know. But, I have an idea,” Grace said, pulling out the pearl she’d found days ago. It glowed softly in her palm. “This is yours, isn’t it?”

The Tide looked at the pearl, something like recognition flickering in her starry eyes.

“The first of many. I was quite the emotional wreck back then,” she admitted.

Grace held the pearl out.

“Should I give it back to you?”

The Tide stared at the pearl for a long moment. Then, surprisingly, she shook her head.

“No. Hold onto it.” She gently pushed Grace’s hand back. “You may be able to find some use for it.”

“Really?” Grace looked down at the pearl. As she watched, it began to change, growing slightly larger, its surface becoming more iridescent. Thin strands of what looked like silver and water began to weave themselves around it, forming an intricate pendant.

“Consider it a gift,” the Tide said.

The pearl flashed brightly, and Grace felt a surge of power flow through her.

「System Notification: Equipment Acquired – Tear of the Tide」

「Description: A crystallized tear from an ancient deity, containing both sorrow and healing. Increases morale-boosting capabilities and allows limited water breathing.」

「Equipment Synergy: Power grows with Love attribute (50/100)」

“Holy shit,” Grace whispered, staring at the notification. “It’s… equipment? Like, magic equipment?”

The Tide looked amused.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but if you mean ’does it have power,’ then yes. My tears contain… pieces of me.”

“Thank you,” Grace said, genuinely touched. “I’ll take good care of it.”

“You’d better.”

“So… Can you release the villagers?”

“Hm?”

“Let them be human again. No more transforming people into water-zombies… Alright?”

The Tide was quiet for a long moment, considering. Then she nodded.

“I won’t need them anymore. Not if we’re…”

“Friends,” Grace finished. “I-I promise, I’ll come back. I’ll bring the best cookies in the Dominion. Maybe we can have a spa day or something. I bet you give amazing massages.”

The vision dissolved completely.

They were back in the under-ocean chamber, but everything had changed. The Tide’s form was gentler now, less threatening. The water around them was warm and clear, not the cold pressure from before.

“Go,” the Tide said, gesturing toward a passage that hadn’t been there before. “Your friends are worried about you.”

[… It’s done?]

Grace hesitated, fingers touching the pearl pendant around her neck.

“Will you be okay?”

The Tide smiled.

“I’ve survived millennia of abandonment. I think I can handle a few more years until your next visit.”

Grace couldn’t tell if she was joking.

“Noted,” she said, patting the pearl at her chest. “I’ll be back. Promise.”

—

The passage led Grace up and up, through tunnels of crystal-clear water, past schools of curious fish, until finally she broke the surface.

Morning sunlight hit her face as she emerged from the water temple, gasping in fresh air like it was the best thing she’d ever tasted. The shore was just ahead.

Grace waddled toward shore, her body aching from the most intense sex she’d ever had and probably would ever have again. Every muscle protested, but in a good way, like after a really intense workout.

It was over. She’d done it.

Not by fighting. Not by killing.

But by understanding.

By connecting.

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