Chapter 560 - The Deep
A phobia is defined as an excessive and irrational fear reaction.
Those ailing from it experience a deep sense of dread, anxiety, and sometimes panic, or that's what the modern human psychologists that didn't know any better thought.
"Irrational," they say.
Maybe that was the truth.
Maybe it seemed groundless and absurd to some, but to those more informed, it wasn't always all that unreasonable.
Back when humans had not reached the stars, when they thought the earth was the center of the universe, old shamans and village elders had a different explanation for such behavior.
They thought that some individuals that were more in tune with the unknown, with the 'unseen' ones, and those that could peek through the curtain of reality without realizing it were able to know things that normal individuals could not.
Most of the time they could not understand what they were seeing.
At times it would come to them as nightmares, horrid images of things that should not be.
Other times they heard voices, whispers from beyond the veil speaking of inconceivable things.
And sometimes it was a simple gut feeling. Intuition, a hunch, or perhaps just a feeling that there is more than what meets the eye.
And of all the so-called 'phobias', Thalassophobia was perhaps the oldest and the most reasonable one.
It is the fear of the deep. Of the vastness of the ocean and what may lurk in its inky depths.
It is a fact that more often than not, the dangers lurking above the surface of the water are far less threatening than what is underneath.
And many believe that it is our survival instincts kicking in. That this fear stems from something far more real than what we realize, that it is our subconscious mind telling us to stay clear.
Maybe its because deep inside we know that something is else down there. Something in our blood telling us that.
Maybe several 'somethings' that are not meant for the eyes of mere mortals.
Maybe when some of us look at the endless oceans we can see things that others cannot, and maybe we should heed their warnings.
***
Hao Xuan stood at the edge of the underwater cliff, gazing into the bottomless abyss that sat before him.
He reached out with his hand and felt the bone-chilling cold pierce through his skin. It was unlike anything he had felt before.
It of course 'felt' different but it looked different as well.
It was as if his hand had passed through to another world entirely.
He quickly pulled back his hand and rubbed it.
*Beep*
"Significant increase in Ying Qi detected," a warning popped up in Hao Xuan's peripheral vision.
"Thank you captain obvious, I had no idea at all," Hao Xuan commented in as sarcastic a tone as he could possibly muster.
"You are welcome, human," Baracus swiftly replied.
"...."
Other than the direct messages that were ringing in his head from Baracus, Hao Xuan couldn't hear anything else at all.
He slowly walked along the edge of the cliff for more than 10 minutes but couldn't see its end. His brow slowly creased up into a slight frown.
"Are you sure it's down there?" he asked referring to the hatch location.
"Affirmative."
A map popped up right in front of Hao Xuan's eyes. It showed his location and then the hatch's a fair distance away, almost straight down.
"So nowhere to go but down, eh?" Hao Xuan mumbled.
"Yes."
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Hao Xuan stopped. He turned his head halfway to the left and stared at nothingness for a good minute or so before casually walking back.
The hair on the back of his head were standing up like needles.
Just now he had felt the water move. It was faint, too faint to even register if he wasn't completely still.
Hao Xuan backtracked while keeping his head low. He was looking down but all his attention was focused on the peripheral vision, both to the left where the cliff ended and to the right where he felt the movement from.
Less than three minutes had passed when he caught something moving from the corner of his eye.
It was quick, far too quick.
"Baracus, any life signs nearby?"
"Negative," he got an answer instantly.
His heart clenched.
Now all of his attention was focused on the right side, so much so that he did not even notice the drop in temperature.
Ying Qi was bubbling up from the other side of the cliff. It looked like a denser and slightly misty substance.
More and more poured outwards, quite similar to when something is dropped into an already full tank.
It slowly took shape and several tendrils wrapped around Hao Xuan's feet.
But they were so thin that he couldn't feel them.
They moved with each of his footsteps, still connected to something on the other side of the cliff.
Hao Xuan's legs started to go numb but he didn't even realize it until the numbness reached his calves.
"What..." he peered downwards and saw the misty substance covering most of his legs like gelatin.
He stopped midstride and quickly bent over to rip the material off. It felt like paper and was ripped apart with ease.
But his heartbeat had increased several-fold by now.
"Baracus, do you have a light or something in storage? Anything to help me see?" Hao Xuan asked
A chill went up to his spine and he reached out with his hand and pulled, ripping off a chunk of the same gelatin-like material.
"QUICKLY!" he shouted.