79. Cobweb

He dove into the lake without hesitation, pushing deeper and deeper into the cold, black abyss. His hands frantically clawed through the dense sand and slippery rocks, desperately trying to find it — a single strand of hair. How could he possibly find something so small, so fragile, in the heart of this endless, suffocating darkness? His chest tightened, his limbs began to burn from the lack of air, and despair clawed at the edges of his mind. Just as he was about to surrender to the void, a glimmer caught the corner of his eye — a faint, ethereal light blooming from the left. Heart pounding, he turned his head and saw it: a sphere of soft, otherworldly radiance, cradling a lone, delicate hair inside its luminous grasp. Hope surged through him like a second breath. He stretched out his trembling hand, seized the hair, his hand passing through the sphere, and then he kicked upward, his body slicing through the water in a desperate race for the surface. He broke through with a violent ga