Deepwoken: Divers

Rumbling: ...It tolls for thee

Pakki opened his eyes, deep in the first layer of the Depths he had grown to know so well. He walked right by several monsters, a burning determination inside of him. A determination to kill off the Ministry, especially Regent, because a Contractor, someone who answers to him, killed Gwen.

As he turned a corner, looking out for anything suspicious in the terrain, he saw a group of Legion soldiers. He stared at them for a moment, trying to walk away in front of them. In his mind, there was no reason to kill them, they weren't a danger to him and they likely couldn't get out of the Depths on their own.
That was, until one of the Legion soldiers charged him with a spear. "It's him..!"
Pakki immediately drew his Crescent Cleaver, blocking the attack. "Hey... What are you doing...?!"
The soldier tried to push against him, not even looking at his comrades. "The target is in front of you - The Songspeaker! If we strike him down now, we can still prevent the war!"
"Stop..." Pakki said, looking at the soldiers slowly draw their weapons at him. "There's a still a chance... I..."
The soldier who had him in a blade lock suddenly pulled back, trying to slice at him.

Pakki engulfed his blade in shadows, slicing the upper part of his body clean off. "I wanted to spare you..."
The soldiers looked on for a moment before all charging at him.
Pakki looked at them for a second, gritting his teeth. "... Fine! Throw your lives away, see if I care..!"
As he talked, red sparks appeared around him, before a bunch of monsters crawled out, attacking the Legion soldiers.
Pakki sheathed his weapon, walking away while the soldiers were fighting for their lives. "This kind of death... This is exactly what I wanted to avoid..."

As he kept walking, he saw a strange door, wanting to go in but he heard a scream. He looked at where the scream came from, hearing several others. He had to make a hard choice - and he chose to risk his chance of meeting a Drowned God.
Pakki rushed towards the screams, seeing a crew of rookie divers attacked by an alpha megalodaunt that held one of them in it's arms. Just as it was about to take a bite out of him, Pakki put his hand out, yelling out at it. "STOP!..."
Several red sparks later, the megalodaunt put down a terrified diver.
The divers looked at Pakki, before cheering.
"H-Hi..." Pakki said awkwardly as he approached them.
"You saved us...!" One of them proclaimed.
"You stopped the megalodaunt! With only a word!" Another said.
"Hey, what's gonna wait for us on the surface?" Another asked a seemingly innocent question.
Pakki looked shocked by the last question, closing his eye for a moment before opening it again. "I..." He clenched his fist. "A really, really tough battle. But I'll be right there with you! It's going to be a fight for the survival of the world - no, for the freedom of the world from the shackles of fear crafted by the Ministry!"
Another one looked at him. "How will we know where to go and what to do?..."
Pakki smiled reassuringly. "My dad's gonna wait for you when you get out of the Deepdrill.... As for what to do... Fight. Fight, no matter what. Don't give up. Fight, even if you can't anymore."
A journeyman pushed through the rookies. "Hey, Pakki...! Remember me...?"
"You... Back when the breach happened you--" Pakki said, the journeyman finishing his sentence for him.
"--were in charge of food! What you guys said to me there... The way you supported each other, it inspired me. I guess I just wanted to say thank you..."
"You have nothing to thank me for... But it's great to see you still alive.." Pakki replied, smiling.
"Oh and... Klaris sent you this..." The journeyman said as he pulled out a pile of clothes with a note attached.
Pakki took it, reading the note. "Get out of those damn ministry cloaks, I don't want to see you wearing them, especially not ripped ministry cloaks."
Pakki teared up for a moment. "T-Thank you... I'll... Be nearby." He said as he walked out of sight, changing into his new clothes - a plain red shirt and a black and red overcoat, made from the hide of a nautilodaunt.
As Pakki watched the rest of the divers leave, he turned back to where he came from, going back to the strange door.

After going through, not even he knows what happened exactly. However when he walked out, he was no longer who he was before. He wasn't just a Canor, ready for any challenge. Now, he was Patrick Jaeger, the fourth deepwoken the world would see.
He left the Depths, easily besting the trial, before returning to Etris' shores.

He met up with Faust on the shores, talking through the plan and what happened. He then went up to Lord Regent's palace.
"Patrick.. have you made your decision yet?" Zi'eer asked.
"Yeah..." Pakki answered in an unusually cold tone. "I'm happy to be your puppet. I'll swear an oath to you."
Regent chuckled. "Splendid... Seems like the Jäger project was not a failure after all."
"No, it really wasn't." Pakki replied, reaching up to his eyepatch.
Regent tilted his head. "Oh? What do you mean by that?"
Pakki took his eyepatch off, looking at it in his hands as he tied it up, strings hanging from his arms. "I mean that... The god that you guys seek..." His only good eye rolled to look at Lord Regent, showing a clear burning hatred and determination like no other. His other eye was pitch black, corrupted by the Drowned God of the first layer, Yun'Shul's power.
"...Is me."