BOOK TWO: Chapter 46: The Queen's Summons
### The Taste of Vengeance
Far above the deep black abyss, near the surface shipping lanes, **Shira** watched. She wasn't watching the humans; they were secondary. She was watching the **Orcas**, the intelligent killer whales who had recently acquired a terrible taste for human blood. She intended to bring them under her dark command.
Her new lieutenant, the **Dark Shark**—a 20-foot monster with eyes that burned with black power—circled patiently beneath her, radiating absolute, devoted loyalty.
Shira had discovered a powerful, unsettling new ability: **telepathy**. She no longer needed to speak; her thoughts, laced with her dense Dark Mana, could communicate with the consciousness of any creature in the ocean.
Her target was a pod of seven Orcas: a small, wise mother and her six colossal sons. Shira's cold, calculating mind immediately recognized their tactical brilliance. The Orcas had just executed a flawless scheme, maneuvering to make a group of human fishermen believe the mother had been captured. The humans, already fearful, fell for the decoy, allowing the Orcas to attack a nearby supply ship.
Now, they were feasting.
### The Dark Shark's Test
Shira issued her silent, telepathic command. The **Dark Shark** darted from the depths, a black torpedo. He didn't kill; he attacked with calculated, brutal precision, tearing into the Orcas' flanks and fins, inflicting grievous, painful wounds.
The six massive sons, strong but slow, struggled against the ferocity of the amplified predator. The **Orca Mother**, however, was different. She was smaller, older, and far faster. She was the only one who instantly recognized the tactical trap. Ignoring her injured sons, she engaged the shark, her speed and experience allowing her to evade the killing blows.
The chase was on. The shark didn't try to win; he only led the furious mother away from the chaos and toward his master.
Fifty feet from the hovering form of the Queen of the Ocean, the Dark Shark slowed, completing his task. He circled Shira once, then settled just behind her, rubbing his massive black body against her tentacles like a devoted, awkward puppy.
### The Orca's Transformation
The angry Orca Mother closed the distance, her focus entirely on the retreating shark. Shira made telepathic contact, a thought like a tidal wave slamming into the Mother's mind, instantly slowing the Orca's charge to a dead stop 50 feet away.
The Orca Mother had seen giant squid and whales, but she had never encountered a being like the seven-foot-tall, nearly humanoid octopus hovering before her. The Mother's ancient instincts screamed a single truth: she was catastrophically outmatched.
She turned to dart away, but it was too late. An instantaneous **puff of black ink**, imbued with raw Dark Magic, burst directly into her escape path, shaping itself into a dark silhouette of Shira. The Mother was too fast to stop, and her momentum carried her straight through the large pool of dark ink.
For a single, agonizing second, the pain of the transformation was searing. Then, it was replaced by a blissful surge of power. The Orca Mother's teeth grew to massive size, mirroring the Dark Shark's predatory grin, and her body swelled until she was the size of her six strongest sons—a terrifying **Dark Killer Whale**. Her consciousness doubled, the raw, ancient wisdom of her species merging with the amplified Dark mana.
Her shaky movements slowed as she realized she was not in danger. She looked down and sensed the fading life in her six wounded children a few miles away. Slowly, regretfully, she turned back toward the Queen.
With her new telepathy, she re
ached out to Shira: **"Queen Shira! If I had a knee, I would bend it!"**
She bowed her head and folded her giant, thirty-foot body in a gesture of total fealty.
Shira was genuinely touched. She had only planned for a few of the sons to survive, but she had gained the strongest, most intelligent ally in the ocean. The Orca Mother pleaded with Shira to save her sons.
Shira answered the plea immediately. Six precise **daggers of black ink** shot from the Queen and struck the six struggling sons. The dark magic flooded their wounds, healing them and simultaneously transforming them into even larger, smarter beings of immense power.
The six Dark Orca Sons swam quickly toward their mother and the Queen, stopping just before Shira and bending their massive heads in perfect allegiance to the new Queen of the Ocean.