Chapter 2: The Diary’s Secret

Professor Olumide Ajayi’s Diary——

July 13, 2045

A week ago, my student Chijioke sent me a WhatsApp message.

He said they had found the ruins of a massive ancient structure ten thousand meters under the sea.

He wanted me to join his underwater archaeology team to lead the research.

Chijioke and I entered a small submersible and started our first dive.

We sat side by side, helmets fogging up, hearts thumping like ogene drums. Chijioke tried to lighten the mood, grinning and saying, "If this thing spoil here, na only God go fit rescue us—no okada for this kind water." But I could still see his hands shaking as he pressed the controls.

Once we passed four thousand meters, we entered complete darkness.

The submersible groaned like an old molue climbing Third Mainland Bridge. We both held our breath as the outside world became nothing but endless, black water pressing in from all sides.

I don’t know how long we floated before a faint blue light suddenly flashed outside the window.

A huge object appeared directly below us.

It was a giant mountain, glowing with a faint blue light, its height beyond words.

It had three sides and a base—a perfect triangular pyramid.

Both Chijioke and I were so shocked we couldn’t talk, just letting the submersible keep drifting down.

It wasn’t until three hours later, when the submersible touched the sea floor, that we finally snapped out of it.

Chijioke was the first to speak.

"At the rate we were descending, this mountain must be at least three thousand meters tall."

His voice sounded distant, as if his mind was still far above the sea, maybe wishing he had stayed on dry land.

I nodded, my mind racing, trying to figure out where this mountain came from.

Suddenly, I noticed strange marks on the surface of the mountain.

There were human-made carvings on it.

They seemed to form some sort of pattern, but the mountain was so big that you couldn’t see the whole design at once.

After I pointed it out, Chijioke also noticed and quickly said,

"This submersible get latest scanner. As we dey come down, e don dey scan and build the mountain model."

He grinned, finally sounding like his old self, and tapped at the screen. "Oga, see technology o."

As Chijioke spoke, he pulled up the electronic display.

A complete model of the mountain showed up, and the patterns on its surface were clear.

But the next moment, a cold shiver ran through me and goosebumps covered my skin.

Because the carvings on the mountain were very strange.

There were four images, from top to bottom:

Image 1: A huge triangular mountain floating above an ancient village.

Image 2: The mountain comes down, and a group of giant snakes wearing rough clothes kneel and worship the mountain.

Image 3: Many humans dig into the mountain, throwing the rocks into the sea.

Image 4: A giant as tall as the sky appears, moving the mountain away.

Chijioke and I looked at each other. I had to ask him,

"Don’t these images look familiar to you?"

Chijioke was quiet for a moment, then took a deep breath and replied,

"Oga, are you talking about the story of Olumide moving the mountain?"

"But if this is the story of Olumide moving the mountain, then who are those giant snakes in the second image?"

His words hung in the tiny sub like smoke from a broken generator. The silence was thick—heavy like harmattan dust.

---

3

I closed Professor Olumide’s diary, my mind a mess.

I couldn’t help but remember the story of "Olumide Moves the Mountain" from my school days.

We used to sit under the mango tree at dusk, my grandmother waving her hand fan and telling us, “Once upon a time, there was an old man called Olumide…” Her voice would drop, children drawing closer as if the night itself was listening. It was the kind of story that taught us never to give up, no matter how big the obstacle.

Once, there was an old man called Olumide. Two mountains blocked the way in front of his house.

To clear the road, he gathered his family to help him move the mountains, dumping the rocks into the Atlantic Ocean.

He said that, with enough generations, the mountains would eventually be gone.

His determination moved the gods, and they sent a mighty spirit to move the mountains for him.

In images 3 and 4 on the mountain, people dig the mountain and throw rocks into the sea, and a giant moves the mountain away—these match the second part of the Olumide story perfectly.

But strangely, in image 1, the giant peak looks like it’s coming down from the sky, as if it came from above.

And the second image is even more disturbing:

A group of giant snakes, dressed in human clothes, kneel and worship the mountain.

This kind of thing has never appeared in any history book I know.

Even the old priests in my village never mentioned such things, not even during the rare times they broke kola nut and told forbidden stories. Could it be that, in ancient times, there was once a civilization of giant snakes?

My gut told me that the answer to all this was closely linked to Professor Olumide’s disappearance.

Shivering, I kept reading the diary.

But what came next made my skin crawl.

What they found at the bottom of the sea was not really a mountain.

It wasn’t a mountain at all, but a huge living thing.

But if the mountain was alive, what else was breathing down there with us?