The Lord of the Seas - An Isekai Progression Fantasy [ Currently on Volume 2 ]

Lukas felt himself falling.

This sensation was not new. In fact, this was the third time his soul had been hurled into the endless abyss between the land of the living and the Underworld.

Yet familiarity did little to ease the terror that clawed at him now.

Darkness consumed everything.

There was no sky, no earth, no sense of direction, only the weightless plunge into a void that seemed to stretch on forever. Lukas had always managed to return before, but this time…this time felt different. This time, he could not shake the gnawing fear that he would never again see the realm of the living again.

Valkari had been waiting for this. All along, the Dragonborn of the Flames had bided her time, patient and unyielding until the perfect moment arrived. And she had not let the opportunity pass her by.

Was this truly how it would end for him—his purpose severed, his fight cut short, his people left vulnerable to her vengeance?

Lukas had never feared death. But this—this was not death in battle, not death to sacrifice his life for a greater cause. This was being torn away too soon, being stripped of the chance to do all that still burned inside him to accomplish. To die here, in darkness, with so much left undone, with so many depending on him, was something he could not accept.

Yet his acceptance mattered not.

The decision of whether Lukas Drakos would rise again, however, was not his to make.

His fall ended with a brutal thud.

Hot, black sand seared his palms as he hit the ground.

The air was thick and suffocating, heavy with the stench of ash and sulfur.

It was the Underworld, the lands they called Tartarus.

Lukas' chest heaved as he pressed his hands into the burning earth, and a guttural roar tore out of him—raw, unrestrained, born of fury and despair. His scream echoed into the empty wastes, bouncing back at him like a mockery of his helplessness.

He slammed his fist into the sand, each strike a futile attempt to crush the reality of his situation.

Rage burned through him, mingling with a tormenting clarity of thought.

Lukas knew what Valkari meant to do. He knew why she would not stop.

Valkari Ishtar was going to bring a Second Great War upon them all, a war that would make humanity pay for all they had done to her and their race. Bloodshed and ruin, unleashed upon their people once more, all because Valkari could not release her claim to vengeance. She would stain the seas red with the blood of millions if it meant satisfying her wrath.

His mind turned frantically, desperately, to the ones who mattered most: Rosalia. His mother. Jesse. What of them? Each face burned in his mind's eye, not as memories, but as reminders of why Lukas had fought, why he continued to endure. What of the Seas, the countless lives of his people, the very ones he had sworn to protect, to lead, to safeguard against the cruelty of fate and foe alike? Would Lukas fail them now, when their need was the greatest?

Lukas bowed his head, trembling, his thoughts spiraling into grief, guilt and anger so sharp it seemed to hollow him from the inside. And then the torment stilled, the fire inside him snuffed out in an instant, as his eyes lifted and they found her.

His eyes found Styx.

The sight of her banished everything—fear, rage, sorrow, doubt—all fell away the moment she appeared before him.

For the first time since the fall began, Lukas no longer felt lost.

In the desolation of the Underworld, where all hope should wither, she was the one vision that brought him life. She was his anchor, the only woman he had ever loved and ever would love. She was his future, standing before him even in this place of where most lives came to its inevitable end.

Styx was already running toward him when Lukas rose to his feet.

The Goddess was just as beautiful as the day he had first seen her. Her long, dark curls, wild and fizzy, cascaded around her shoulders, framing skin the warm shade of caramel that seemed to glow even against the bleak, black sands of the Underworld. And then, before he could even whisper her name, she flung herself into his arms and Lukas caught her without hesitation.

Everything he had just been thinking—the looming war Valkari wished to start, the faces of those he loved, the despair of failure—all of it vanished the instant he felt her. Every emotion Lukas had carried like a burden was replaced by something that cut deeper, stronger: a love so powerful that it hurt simply to breathe.

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Her laughter spilled out as she clung to him and the sound of it was like water to parched lips, like light piercing through eternal shadow. Her smile radiated joy that no darkness could contain. The scent of her filled him, sweet and familiar, something he had only been able to remember in dreams. And the feel of her—solid, real and alive—was something Lukas had longed for every day across nine long, lonely years.

Now Styx was here. She was real. And she was his.

A laugh burst out of Lukas, raw and unrestrained, the kind of laugh he had not heard from his own throat in years. He laughed as though he had finally been freed from shackles, as though the weight of everything pressing on him had been lifted in a single heartbeat. Styx was laughing too, her head buried in the crook of his neck, her arms tightening around him as if she would never, ever let him go. Lukas slid his hand into her hair, fingers threading through her curls, holding her just as fiercely, unwilling to let the moment slip away.

When she finally pulled back, Lukas met her gaze, and the world fell still. Her eyes—those brilliant violet eyes—were as captivating as the first time he had seen them, endless pools of warmth and mystery that seemed to hold every answer he had ever sought.

Without hesitation, Lukas kissed her.

He kissed her as though it were the last act of his life, as though nothing else mattered but this single moment. His lips met hers with all the desperation, passion, and longing of nine years apart. Styx responded just as fiercely, returning his kiss with equal fire, as if she too refused to waste even a second of the time they had been given.

When Lukas finally pulled away, breathless, nothing else mattered. Not Valkari. Not the war. Not the weight of the world he had left behind. There was only her.

Styx pressed her forehead to his, and in her eyes he saw it—the love she bore for him, vast and unshakable, mirroring the love he carried for her.

A grin tugged at her lips as she whispered, teasing and tender, "Did you miss me?"

Lukas' answer came without thought, more honest than anything he had ever spoken in either of his lives. His voice cracked with truth as he said, "I have missed you more than you could ever imagine, my love."

The two of them stayed there for what felt like eternity, nestled together amid the crimson dunes of the Underworld, where the dead wandered endlessly. But Lukas had never felt more alive. The dragon held the goddess close, arms wrapped tightly around her, and she clung to him as though the world would fall apart if either of them let go. They laughed together, giddy and unrestrained, joy spilling out of them until it echoed across the barren wastes. And for the first time in nine long years, they were not separated by death or duty or time itself.

For the first time, they were truly together.

Hours later, Lukas stirred awake, his body sinking into a bed he had not felt in centuries.

The moment his eyes opened, memories struck him like a flood. The sheets, the familiar carved stone walls, the faint scent of lavender woodsmoke that lingered in the air.

He was really here.

Lukas had truly returned to Kairos Castle.

This was the place he and Styx had built together with their own hands, the home he had sworn he would never abandon. He had imagined living out his days here, raising children within these walls, watching them grow strong and proud and filling the castle with laughter and life. He still did.

Yet now, as his hands brushed across the bedding, it felt almost like a dream, too fragile to hold.

Lukas sat up slowly, scanning the chamber until his eyes landed on her. Styx stood in the doorway of their bedroom, her figure bathed in the faint golden glow of the Underworld's eternal twilight. Gods, she was beautiful. Her presence filled the room like a heartbeat.

When their eyes met, she smiled and Lukas felt his chest tighten.

She parted her lips as though to speak, but the words caught in her throat.

A frown furrowed Lukas' brow as he pushed the covers aside and rose to his feet. "What is it?" he asked softly, stepping closer.

Styx only shook her head, still gazing at him as if trying to memorize every detail of his face.

Then, with a faint, almost reluctant turn, she looked away.

Lukas reached her in two strides, pulling her into his arms the way he had so many times before. He tipped her chin gently toward him, voice low, earnest. "Styx…what's wrong? What were you going to say?"

Her violet eyes shimmered with something deeper than words. She pressed a tender kiss against his chin, her lips warm but trembling, before murmuring, "I just don't want you to leave."

His heart clenched. Lukas cupped her face, steady and certain. "You know I never will."

But Styx let out a soft laugh, the sound beautiful yet heavy with sorrow. It wasn't the laughter she had shared with him in the dunes, not the pure joy of reunion. This laugh carried weight, as if she already knew the truth and he was the one clinging to denial. Her voice was a whisper, fragile but firm: "We both know you can't stay. Not forever. Not this time. You still belong to the living, Lukas."

So his time had not yet come.

Lukas felt both relief and pain all at once.

Relief at knowing that Lukas would still be able to fulfill his purpose but pain in knowing that he would have to leave the love of his lives once more.

"How long do we have left?" Lukas asked.

Her eyes flickered toward the spiral staircase that wound up to the upper floors of Kairos Castle. Lukas followed her gaze instinctively, remembering the halls above—the training grounds where he had honed his strength across centuries, forging himself into something more than mortal.

Her voice was quiet, but every syllable carried weight. "I'm afraid, this time, even I cannot answer that question. You have a visitor. He's been waiting to meet you again for a very long time now."

Lukas blinked, confusion knitting his brows.

A visitor? Here, in the Underworld, within Kairos Castle itself? And not just any visitor, but one he had met before?

"Who?" Lukas asked, though the answer was already forming in the pit of his stomach.

She looked at him then, with both sadness and inevitability written in her violet eyes.

It was Time.

It was time to meet the immortal who had once intervened to grant him this second life.

It was time to meet the Titan he had only ever known as The Man in Green.

"Kronos," Styx whispered. "The God of Time has finally come to see you."