The WCS Ceasarion dove deeper and deeper into the dark of the depths, plunging the bridge into shadow. Outside, Jacob could see mere inches in front of the vessel as it picked up speed, diving downwards. The submarine shuddered every now and then as it went deeper, the glow around it ebbing and shifting slightly as different cards were activated. As the tour group huddled around the casting platform Jacob walked towards the window, looking into the darkness in horror. His grandfather and Stan both slowly followed him, and the three stared outwards at the abyss.
“Alright, that’s enough Rama.” Veronica whined in terror “Ha ha, very funny. Turn on the lights, bring back the crew.”
“Oh I couldn’t possibly do that.” Rama replied whimsically “Union rules are very specific, they’re mandated an hour lunch.”
“And they have to take it now?”
“Rules are rules. If you want good employees, you have to compensate them fairly. Never argue with the union.”
“Do something,” Veronica huffed at the old man “For once in your life, be useful.”
There was the sound of bells, and Jacob looked back at the tour group. Both of the South Koreans glowed, having cast personal armor equips. Ku Do-Yeon caught Jacob’s eyes, and stood up straight. While the woman oozed confidence, she was taking no risks. Jacob turned to look back out the window.
“She wouldn’t put us in any actual danger, would she?” Stan looked to Jacob for support, nervously placing a hand on his own deck.
“Ask Kerl.” Jacob’s grandfather stared into the deep on the other side of him, squinting at something. Jacob followed his gaze, seeing the hazy outlines of something beyond the magically reinforced glass. He looked closer, and suddenly a massive skyscraper loomed out of the deep. Jacob stumbled back as it passed inches away from the vessel, which shuddered lightly as it did. The submarine leveled out in the depths, but didn’t slow as it sped forwards.
“Ah, the Abyssal city.” Rama suddenly appeared behind the three men, having walked up while they were staring out the window “Lost to sea in a day of misfortune. Such irony.”
The remains of another skyscraper passed by them, the glass of the windows shattered, the entire structure leaning slightly. Jacob had heard stories of this place. It had vanished mere days after the cards appeared, with no explanation. One minute it was a massive sea-side metropolis, glittering with wealth and power. The next, it was at the bottom. It had completely vanished from where it was, teleported into the depths of the Atlantic. Expeditions to the city had revealed that all the people had vanished, though where they went was a mystery. Scientists had been unable to explain how the buildings had survived the crushing depths, or how they had been transported in the first place. Eventually it was declared off-limits by international authorities after it was discovered that the buildings had become unstable, threatening to collapse at any time.
DIVE COMPLETED, POWERING DOWN.
“What does that mean?” Jacob’s looked over at Rama. She smiled in response, before turning to face the group.
“I’m going to the observation deck.” Rama declared “I has a much better view.”
The woman flicked her cape as she turned once more, heading for the spiraling staircase.
“What view.” Jacob’s grandfather muttered.
Jacob watched as she headed up, then glanced at the tour group. Veronica looked between him and Rama a few times nervously, before grabbing her father and rushing up the stairs after Rama. The south Koreans and Stan’s wife watched them go, then looked back to the three of them by the windows.
Jacob heard the engines start to power down, and looked back outside as the submarine approached another building. The vessel slowed rapidly, before coming to a halt next to the skyscraper. It was to dark to see inside, it’s shattered windows like ominous eyes in the dark. There was a whirring as the submarine powered down, and the shields in front of the window flickered before going out completely. There was no sound as the water outside touched the window - true to what the crew said, the submarine was built to survive the depths.
The building next to them however was not. It leaned at an uncomfortable angle, threatening at any moment to collapse onto the Ceasarion.
“I don’t like this.” Jacob said softly.
“Are we here?” Stan’s wife walked up to join them, looking out the window “Is the factory in the ruins?”
“I don’t think so babe.” Stan wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist, then looked over at Jacob “We’re not there yet, are we?”
“This is probably just another stop on the tour” Jacob’s grandfather sighed.
“Something’s not right.” Jacob felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. Goosebumps covered his skin, and the pit in his stomach had never left. “Something feels wrong.”
“What kind of wrong?” Jacob’s grandfather asked.
“Like something out there is watching us”
There was light footsteps to their right as the South Koreans stepped up to join them. Jacob glanced over and saw Ku Do-Yeon’s eyes glowing slightly; she had equipped some sort of sight card, which she was using to peer into the darkness.
“What do you see?” he asked her, looking back through.
“There’s something out there.” Ku Do-Yeon spoke softly as she focused “Moving through the buildings. Something big.”
“Maybe it’s a whale?” Stan asked hopefully
“Nuh-uh.” Ku Do-Yeon leaned forwards as she looked “Bigger.”
They all stood in silence for a moment, staring into the waters. They saw almost nothing, the red light of the ship’s bridge piercing only a few feet ahead of them. Jacob felt a nameless dread growing as he looked into the deep, spreading from the pit in his stomach to infect the rest of his body. Whereas before he only suspected they were being watched, now he knew. Something was out there.
“Can you see what it is?” Jacob dropped his voice subconsciously. Objectively he knew it made no difference; what was out there couldn’t hear him. His fear however overrode that objectivity.
“Vaguely.” Ku Do-Yeon leaned forward further, tapping the equipper on her forearm. Her eyes glowed slightly brighter “It almost looks like…”
She gasped and stumbled back, and the effect on her eyes faded.
“What? What did you see?” Jacob turned away from the window to look at her. Ku Do-Yeon took a few deep breaths, then pointed.
In front of the Ceasarion the shadowy silhouette of a massive being stood, barely visible. A soft light emitted from its sides, making its outline glow slightly. It appeared to be a headless man, nearly 100 feet tall, with shadowy tentacles moving lightly behind its back. They were draped down almost like hair, the only reason Jacob could tell they weren’t was the slow movement on the ends, and the bioluminescent line on each. The massive man stood perpendicular to the submarine, staring off further into the deep. It hadn’t noticed them yet, but it would only be a matter of time.
“Holy-” Stan started,
“Rama!” Jacob stepped into the middle of the navigation deck and looked up, calling to the decks above “Call back the crew, get us out of here!”
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,” Rama seemed to be singing as she intoned the strange words “And with strange aeons even death may die.”
“Rama!” Jacob began to grow desperate. He looked back out the window to check that the figure still hadn’t noticed him, before looking back to the observation deck.
“The old one is sleeping, Jacob.” Rama’s head appeared, looking over the railing from the top level “I would not wake him.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“You call that sleep?”
Rama disappeared again into the observation deck “They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen…”
Her voice drifted off, and Jacob looked back out to the window.
The figure was gone.
“Where did it go?” Jacob rushed towards the glass and looked at Stan “What happened?”
“It just kinda faded back into the dark.” Stan shuddered “I think it looked at us?”
“Grandfather?”
“I couldn’t see it to begin with.” The old man squinted out the window “My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
“I don’t care if the crew is on break.” Jacob said “I am not sticking around for that thing to wander over and crush us. Asleep or awake, I’m getting out of here.”
Jake began marching determinedly towards the stairs, leaving the others to look out the window. Stan jogged over as he reached them.
“But Rama said-” He started.
“Rama let a 2000 year old pharaoh turn Kerl into stone.” Jacob snapped back “I don’t want to see what she’s willing to do to the rest of us.”
Jacob quickly began walking up the stairs, the rest of the group at his heels. He emerged on the operations deck platform, which had a variety of controls arranged around it for the various submarine systems. Several were labeled - Ventilation monitoring, reclamation progress, and septic storage levels - while others were not. There was a large panel directly facing the windows with a lever on it; the lever had the world propulsion written above it. Next to it was a casting platform placed on the panel, and a variety of knobs and switches. Jacob glanced up to the third level and saw a ship’s wheel, which could be accessed by another spiraling staircase.
“We’ll need someone up there.” Jacob said, noticing the rest of the group making their way onto the deck.
“I’ll do it.” Jacob’s grandfather grunted, walking stiffly over to the stairway. The old man’s prosthetic leg seemed to be reacting poorly to the trip, and Jacob could tell it was sore again.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Stan said.
“And waiting for an hour for the crew to get back, while hoping that thing doesn’t run into us is?” Jacob shook his head “I’m sure the crew can get us there from wherever we end up.”
“What about the buildings?” Ku Do-Yeon stood near the staircase with her sister. She appeared to have equipped additional armor on her way up.
“I have a card for that.” Jacob tapped his deck box, and it spat out the spell Card of Illumination. “And then he said ‘Let there be light’, and there was.”
Jacob placed the Card of Illumination onto the casting platform, and all of the submarine’s lights flickered on at once. They flooded the deep around them with bright white light, and Jacob blinked to adjust as the bridge lights also came on simultaneously.
After adjusting his eyes he looked outside, and froze in shock.
The WCS Ceasarion was hovering in the middle of the downtown area of the Abyssal City, completely surrounded by old skyscrapers. Several had already collapsed in the depths, while the rest were in a severe state of decay. Pale fish swam along the boulevards, skittering at the sudden burst of light.
All around the city was strewn the wreckage of submarines.
They stuck out of buildings at odd angles, their hulls peeled open, with several in multiple pieces. On the streets and avenues of the city was the remains of dozens of more vessels, the vast majority of which appeared to be military. He didn’t have the knowledge to know which submersibles came from which nation, but there appeared to be a variety of types and sizes. Several looked like they had run directly into the buildings, while the rest seemed to show signs of battle. Exploded hulls, fragmentary debris around them, littering the depths with their remains. They appeared to be newer than the city itself, with two or three looking like they had just emerged from port within the past few months. It was a submarine graveyard.
“My god.” Stan said quietly
“I don’t think he had anything to do with this.” Jacob said back. He looked up and saw his grandfather standing by the ship’s wheel, holding it lightly. The old man nodded, and Jacob turned back to look out at the city. The figure was still nowhere to be seen, and Jacob gentle pushed the Propulsion lever, feeling the engines begin to fire up behind him. The Ceasarion slowly began moving forward, slipping between the skyscrapers to move through the downtown blocks of the city. As they did they saw more wrecked submarines - including a few scientific ones that had been reported as having returned from their expeditions - and more of the remains of the city. The entire metropolis appeared to have been fully abandoned; no cars were on the streets, no corpses or sign of any people whatsoever. Just buildings, arranged exactly as they had been on the surface, slowly corroding in the saltwater.
A large gap in the buildings opened up to their left, and Jacob glanced through to see a series of skyscrapers had collapsed, leaving a large pile of rubble in their wake at least 50 feet tall. Crustaceans and other creatures had colonized the pile, crawling over every inch . Jacob looked past it to see the remains of the truly massive park, whose trees somehow still stood in the depths. Jacob looked to his grandfather and pointed, and the old man nodded. He slowly turned the submarine to however in the park, and Jacob powered down the propulsion system once they were inside.
“Now that we’ve got some room, we can find a way to rise above the city…” Jacob started looking around the console, investigating all the controls.
A massive sound rang from the depths, rattling the sides of the submarine. It sounded almost like a whale call, deep and low, interspersed with unusual clicking sounds. The group froze, listening carefully. The noise slowly faded into the dark, as the sound appeared to move further away. Jacob exhaled as the ocean went silent, then looked back to the controls.
BANG!!!
The Ceasarion suddenly flew sideways as something struck it in itsback half, forcing it to spiral in the water around it’s middle. Jacob and the others were thrown from their feet onto the platform, with Ku Do-Yeon and her sister Amaryllis falling down the stairs. Jacob slammed hard into the platform deck. From where he landed he could see the window beyond the console, through the series of vertical pipes that held it up. As the Ceasarion whipped around he saw the figure approaching, it’s tentacles waving wildly, it’s lights flooding the water around it with colorful bioluminescence.
“I WARNED YOU NOT TO WAKE IT!” Rama’s yelled. He glanced up and saw that she had replaced his Grandfather at the ships wheel, while the old man couldn’t be seen from the deck below “Man that console!”
“Shouldn’t we call up the crew?” Jacob stood up as the sub began to slow.
“No time.” Rama spun the wheel and the submarine righted itself. She pressed a card onto the center of the wheel and the magical shields appeared in front of the window just in time for the submersible to bury itself in one of the buildings. It was an office building, filled with desks and paperwork, all of which exploded outwards as the Ceasarion slammed into it. “Pull up the throttle halfway and throw her into reverse, we’ll have to get home manually from here.”
“I don’t know how to do that!” Jacob looked helplessly at the panel.
“Large grey switch next to the casting platform is reverse.” Rama called back, spinning the wheel in preparation. “You already know the throttle.”
Jacob flipped the switch and pushed forward the throttle lever, bringing it to half power. The Ceasarion’s propellers kicked back on, and there was a great churning sound as they slowly backed out of the building, turning away from it as they did.
BANG!
The vessel jolted once again, and was suddenly pulled backwards. The office building collapsed as they were pulled from it, and Jacob barely avoided being thrown to his feet. The sub was tilted down to look at the park, which Jacob could swear had deer running through the trees. Trees which appeared to still have leaves. All underwater.
“Damn, Laverne’s got us.” Rama beamed in excitement “There’s a line of switches with a button next to them. Flip the top switch and hit the button.”
“Who the hell is Laverne” Stan was gripping the railing on the platform with one hand, while clutching his wife to his chest with another.
Jacob quickly followed the instructions. There was a rushing sound, followed by explosions behind them. The Ceasarion suddenly floated free, drifting in a 180 degree turn. The figure appeared in front of them, all black, the headless form of a man covered in tentacles with a massive mouth full of teeth at the center of its chest. Smoke filled the water around them, where it had been struck by explosive torpedos.
“That’s Laverne.” Rama said as the figure faded. She turned the wheel expertly as the sub moved backwards at half speed. “Be glad you didn’t meet Shirley, she’s mean.”
“You mean there’s more of those things?” Stan called back.
“Jacob, on my mark, switch us back into forward throttle, and punch us up to full power.” Rama’s brow furrowed in concentration, though the ominous smile was still on her lips. “We’re gonna give these things a run for their money. 3, 2, 1, NOW!”
Jacob flipped the switch to forward power and pushed the propulsion lever forward as Rama threw the wheel to the left. The whole submersible spiraled impossibly about its Z axis, churning the ocean into foam around it before Rama corrected the wheel. They flew forward as Rama piloted them through the massive buildings, traveling at immense speed. Behind them was another clicking whale call, which was joined by a slightly higher pitched call in return.
“And there’s Shirley, right on schedule.” Rama laughed at the wheel, and Jacob glanced up at her in fear. She looked down and caught his look, and smiled even broader “We’re off the edge of the map folks, and here there be monsters.”
The Ceasarion flew past the last of the skyscrapers and out of the Abyssal city as Rama continued to laugh maniacally. She piloted them towards a massive cliff wall and several members of the group started screaming. At the last second she turned slightly and the vessel passed into a large cavern. Walls completely surrounded them as them moved down it, the Ceasarion lightly grazing them several times. Faintly the sound of a final call from Laverne and Shirley - this one almost mournful - reached them as they passed out of the range of sound.
“Rama I’ve had enough of this!” Veronica’s terrified voice called from the observation deck “Stop the boat! I’ve had quite enough!”
“Absolutely!” Rama called back “I couldn’t agree more!”
She placed her card again onto the wheel, and every light on the submarine shut off. The Ceasarion plunged into darkness, and the propulsion system slowly wound down. They drifted forwards another couple hundred yards before finally settling in the cave. Jacob breathed heavily at the console, struggling to keep his scarred lungs from sending him into a full meltdown.
“Luckily.” Rama spoke just loudly enough to be heard by the group “We’re here.”
There was a smaller jolt as something latched onto the Ceasarion, and the submarine began moving upwards. The water around them lightened, showing the walls of the cave, before they emerged into a massive white clad, smooth walled cavern. The Wonder Corp. Logo was emblazoned on the side, while a massive set of double doors appeared in front of them. The submarine was slowly pulled in to park directly in front of them, and a ramp automatically moved from to connect to the side of the vessel.
They had arrived.
They had finally reached the Wonder Corp. Factory.
they have reached the factory. If you’ve read thus far and like the story please consider leaving a rating and giving it a follow; I haven’t done any advertising yet, so the reach this story has had thus far is entirely due to the awesome interactions I’ve had with all of my readers! I love reading your comments (yes, even edit suggestions and ‘thank you for the chapter’), and I would be lying if i said I didn’t get a light dopamine rush every time I see the notification of a comment or follow. I’m not great at promoting myself - I very much prefer just writing - but I’m trying to get better as the new year approaches. If you like the story this will help it get in front of more readers on the site, and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard of a deck builder making rising stars.
there will be duels in the factory - though there’s several twists and turns that we have to take to get there. For fans of Pokemon one of the duels I am working on in the future is based on that; the nice thing about having open ended cards that affect reality, is there are many different ways those cards can be used. Farther in the future we also have some card use meant to be inspired by Tarot, so for fans of that stay tuned! For my lovers of Yu-Gi-Oh however don’t worry - the Yu-Gi-Oh inspired duels we’re seen so far are the primary form of dueling in this series.
Ancient Dragon of the Forgotten God; My original version of the duel went on for two more duels, I plan on putting it up on Patreon as a behind the scenes tidbit in a few days - Complete with the cards Cleopatra had in her hand throughout the entire duel.
The Call of Cthulu”, and the second is from The Dunwich Horror. Both are attributed to the fictional text The Necronomicon
trust the cards…
I don't post full chapters on the weekends because I'm trying to build a backlog. Would you like short, 1000 word or less lore and worldbuilding updates during those days to cover things like "How Competitive Casting Matches" work, and "From the Files of the Card Enforcement Agency" on various in-universe things to fill those days?
