The cavern was a war zone.
Aeron darted through falling rubble and sweeping shadows, his blade cutting through the thick, soupy air left in the Abyss Devourer's wake. Every breath he took was laced with pain, his lungs burning from the corrupted energy saturating the space. But his mind was clear dangerously focused.
The Devourer roared, swiping its monstrous claw. The attack missed Aeron by inches, slamming into the rock wall and sending a shockwave through the entire dungeon. Cracks webbed across the floor, and the ceiling groaned with warning.
Kael leapt onto a ledge overhead, drawing the monster's attention with a flurry of rapid, aura-imbued slashes. "It's barely even flinching!" he shouted. "This thing doesn't bleed!"
Aeron's grip on his blade tightened. "It's not alive in the way we understand. It's a being of the void—a construct." He dodged a tail swipe, then stabbed forward, driving his newly acquired abyssal energy into its side. The strike caused a flicker in the creature's form, like static breaking through a screen.
Another weak point.
The system pulsed in his mind.
> [Analysis: Abyss Devourer's core partially exposed. Weakness detected – unstable rift energy.]
[Skill Upgrade: Abyssal Rend (II) unlocked.]
[Effect: Can temporarily disrupt enemy mana stability.]
A grin broke across Aeron's face. "Now we're talking."
He surged forward, his blade igniting with dark flame as the skill activated again. This time, he didn't just slash—he plunged the weapon directly into the Devourer's chest. A pulse of void energy erupted from the impact, sending both Aeron and the monster flying in opposite directions.
Kael caught Aeron midair, stabilizing their landing behind a shattered column. "You hit something important."
Aeron nodded, coughing up blood. "Not enough. It's regenerating too fast." He looked up just in time to see the creature's form ripple, patches of its shadowy body reknitting as if rewinding time.
Nyxus spoke again, tone quieter now. "You must become more than human to defeat it. Let me lend you a fragment… but know this: once taken, there is no going back."
"What do you mean?" Aeron asked inwardly.
"You will walk further into the abyss."
A moment passed.
Then Aeron answered. "Do it."
A flood of pain and power surged through him. His vision darkened at the edges. The system pulsed violently:
> [Abyss Contract Fragment Activated]
[New Trait Gained: Abyssforged – Phase One]
[You have accepted the Abyss within. Aura type evolved: Corrupted Variant – Bound Flame.]
[Warning: Soul integrity at risk.]
Dark tendrils of smoke burst from his back, weaving into something like ethereal wings. His aura exploded outward, pressing Kael back.
"What the hell…" Kael whispered, stunned by the sudden transformation.
Aeron's eyes glowed a deep violet, his voice lower, more distant. "Stay back. This part—I'll handle alone."
With a single beat of his wings, he launched toward the Devourer like a meteor, slamming into it with enough force to crater the ground. They tumbled into the abyssal pit beneath the chamber, swallowed by shadow and flame.
Kael stood on the edge, panting. "He's… changing."
He didn't know if Aeron would return from this. Not the same, at least.
Far below, in the dark, Aeron stood atop the Devourer's twitching body. His aura blazed brighter than ever—an unholy, furious star in the deep.
And the deeper he went… the more the abyss whispered his name.
---
The fall seemed endless.
Aeron plummeted through the darkness, the void singing around him in distorted echoes. Time twisted. Gravity broke. It felt less like falling and more like being dragged downward by a will older than the world itself. He hit the jagged ground with a bone-rattling thud but rose immediately, too much energy, too much rage, coursed through him to remain down.
The Devourer's broken form lay several feet ahead, twitching, reforming again.
Aeron didn't wait.
His wings—torn wisps of midnight flame—lashed out behind him, propelling him forward. His sword was no longer just a blade. The system had transformed it, fusing it with abyssal energy. It pulsed like a heartbeat in his hand, its edge warping space around it. The moment he struck, the air screamed.
The Devourer retaliated, swiping with its half-regrown claw. But Aeron didn't dodge. Instead, he let the blow connect—and absorbed it.
> [Abyssforged Trait: Reactive Core – Incoming impact converted to aura energy.]
[Warning: Core overcharge imminent.]
His body sparked with feedback, but he welcomed it. Power coursed through him like molten steel, and with a roar that shook the chamber, he slashed once more. This time, the Devourer cried out, truly pained. A massive gash opened across its torso, void essence leaking out like oil mixed with fire.
"You're not unstoppable," Aeron growled, voice laced with otherworldly undertones. "You're just another nightmare waiting to be devoured."
Suddenly, everything trembled.
The walls cracked. Veins of violet light spidered through the stone, and in the darkness above, a rift began to widen. Something ancient stirred beyond it—watching.
> [System Alert: Dimensional instability detected. Uncharted pathway forming.]
[System Override Engaged – Unknown Entity Interference.]
Nyxus's voice returned, quieter now. "You've drawn their gaze. The Void Watchers."
Aeron paused, panting. "What do they want?"
"To see if you survive," Nyxus said grimly. "They judge those who reach the brink. If you fail, they erase your soul from existence."
The rift pulsed. A tendril of light slithered downward—neither physical nor fully ethereal. It brushed against Aeron's cheek, and in that instant, a flood of alien visions surged into his mind: worlds consumed by shadows, cities drowned in silence, hunters becoming the hunted in realms not meant for man.
He stumbled back, gasping.
But the Devourer took advantage. In a final burst of fury, it lunged—mouth open wide, void crackling in its jaws.
Aeron didn't retreat.
He took one step forward and whispered, "Let me show you what I've become."
He plunged his blade into the creature's maw. Not a strike—an offering. His entire aura surged into it, abyss and fire and soul blending into a violent singularity. There was a moment of stillness.
Then—
An eruption.
A black sun bloomed within the pit, consuming everything in silence. Even the rift above flinched, withdrawing. When the light died, the Devourer was gone. Obliterated. Not killed—unmade.
Aeron knelt at the center of the scorched crater, trembling. His body was smoking, his armor cracked, and his aura dimmed.
> [Victory Achieved: Abyss Devourer Destroyed]
[Reward: ???]
[Analyzing…]
> [Skill Gained: Soulbrand (I) – Imprints residual essence into weapon strikes. Can harm incorporeal or dimensional beings.]
[Item Gained: Abyssal Core Fragment]
[Title Earned: Slayer of the Voidborn]
> [System Warning: Corruption Level – 42%]
[Stability Threshold Approaching]
He collapsed.
Darkness took him.
—
When Aeron awoke, the ceiling was unfamiliar—smooth, obsidian black. Symbols glowed faintly across the dome, drifting like reflections on water. He sat up, groaning.
Kael was beside him, leaning against a stone altar, clearly injured but alive. His sword was nearby, cracked but intact.
"You're awake," Kael said hoarsely. "Good. You scared the hell out of me back there."
Aeron blinked. "How did I…?"
"You floated out of the pit. No wings. Just… void tendrils lifting you like a corpse dragged to shore." He rubbed his face. "Then the ground sealed behind you. The dungeon's gone."
Aeron nodded slowly, piecing it together. "The Devourer…?"
"Gone. Like it never existed. But so's the rift. Whatever that thing watching you was—it stopped once you finished it."
Aeron tried to rise but staggered. Kael caught him, then pulled something from his pack—a dark crystal with swirling light trapped inside.
"This dropped near you. Core fragment, maybe? Feels… wrong."
Aeron took it carefully.
> [Item Identified: Abyssal Core Fragment – Can be used to stabilize or further evolve abyssal traits. Use with caution.]
"Keep it hidden," he muttered.
Kael hesitated. "You changed, down there. Are you… still you?"
Aeron looked at his reflection in the smooth black stone beneath them. His eyes flickered with unnatural light. The shadows around him clung tighter. His voice had weight it didn't before.
"I'm still me," he said. "But I've seen what I could become."
And he wasn't sure anymore which was worse, the monster he fought, or the one awakening inside him.
---
They emerged from the ruins of the collapsed dungeon, the sky overhead cloaked in bruised twilight. Aeron leaned heavily on Kael, his body still recovering from the backlash of the abyssal burst. The world felt quieter now, unnervingly so, as if reality itself was catching its breath after what had transpired.
But the silence didn't last.
> [System Alert: Aura Spike Detected Nearby]
[Source: Hostile – Unknown Classification]
[Initiating Passive Scan…]
Aeron straightened, instincts prickling.
Kael noticed. "What is it?"
"We're not alone."
From beyond the treeline, figures emerged—cloaked in black, faces hidden beneath bone-carved masks. Their presence was cold, but unlike the Devourer's primal void, these emanated structure order. Controlled malice.
The lead figure stepped forward. "Abyssforged," he said in a gravel-coated voice. "You've surpassed the trial."
Kael drew his weapon. "Who the hell are you?"
"We are the Inquisitors of the Null Covenant," the figure said. "And that power you now carry, Forsaken Hunter—it belongs to us."
Aeron's eyes narrowed. "I took it from a Devourer. Bled for it. Earned it."
"That core fragment was never yours to keep," the man replied. "You trespassed in a forbidden plane. You've been marked."
> [System Alert: Faction Conflict Triggered – Null Covenant Rank: High Threat]
[Objective: Survive / Escape / Erase Evidence of Abyss Exposure]
Aeron glanced at Kael. "Can you fight?"
"Do I have a choice?" Kael muttered.
The battle began without warning. Bolts of null-light tore through the air, warping space as they screamed toward them. Aeron deflected the first with the flat of his new blade, the feedback numbing his arm. Kael darted to the side, engaging a second Inquisitor in a brutal exchange of steel.
Aeron activated his aura.
> [Abyss Core Synchronization: 57%]
[Skill Activated: Soulbrand (I)]
[Secondary Trait: Echo Veil – Illusory Afterimages Triggered Upon Movement]
The battlefield blurred. Aeron moved like a ghost, afterimages spiraling from him as he weaved between attacks. He struck at the lead Inquisitor, their blades clashing in a burst of void sparks.
"You can't control it," the masked man growled. "The abyss will consume you."
"I don't need to control it," Aeron snapped. "I need to use it."
With a sudden pulse, his aura surged, twisting around the blade. He drove it forward, and for a moment, the Inquisitor's form flickered revealing not a man beneath the mask, but something else. A hollow thing.
The mask cracked. The creature screamed—not in pain, but in defiance—before crumbling into ash.
> [Enemy Neutralized – Null Inquisitor (Tier 3)]
[Corruption Absorbed: +4%]
[System Note: Purge Advised. Corruption Exceeding Safe Threshold.]
Kael rejoined him, bloodied but alive. "We need to go. Now."
But Aeron didn't move. The battlefield pulsed in his vision. He felt the weight of something watching again not from the sky, but below.
He turned slowly.
A second rift was forming—not as chaotic as the Devourer's, but clean. Controlled. A doorway rather than a tear.
From it stepped a woman. Clad in flowing onyx robes, her aura colder than death, yet strangely familiar. She wore no mask.
"You've become more than you were," she said, eyes scanning him. "But less than you could be."
Aeron gripped his sword. "You're with them?"
She smiled faintly. "No. They serve order. I serve the balance."
> [System Ping: Unknown Entity – Threat Level: Undetermined]
[Interfacing… Denied.]
"Who are you?" Kael asked warily.
"I am called Velara. Warden of the Abyss Gate." Her gaze didn't leave Aeron. "You carry something unstable. A fracture. If left unshaped, it will consume both you and the world around you."
"Then I'll shape it."
"Without guidance, you will fail."
Aeron frowned. "And you're offering help?"
"I'm offering truth." She raised a hand, and a symbol appeared in the air, a dark spiral set within a circle of fire. "There are others like you. Hunters touched by something beyond. Most die. The few who don't either serve… or rebel."
Kael stepped in. "And which are you?"
Velara's expression turned distant. "I was the first."
That stunned even Aeron into silence.
She turned, beginning to walk toward the rift. "Come to the Hollow Convergence when the moons align. There, your path will either end or evolve."
The portal closed behind her, the darkness collapsing like a breath held too long finally released.
Aeron exhaled, every muscle in his body taut.
Kael finally broke the silence. "I don't know what's worse, your enemies or your allies."
Aeron looked at his hand. The black veins were fading, retreating beneath skin once again. But they were still there. Always would be.
"I'm becoming something," he murmured. "I just don't know what."
Kael patted his shoulder. "Let's survive long enough to find out."
---
The wind howled through the broken cliffs, stinging with cold and dust. Aeron and Kael moved in silence, the ashes of the battle behind them still clinging to their clothes, their minds heavy with what they'd just encountered.
The fragments of the fallen Inquisitors had left no remains. Not even blood. Only the scent of burned void and the eerie echo of Velara's parting words.
> "Come to the Hollow Convergence when the moons align…"
Aeron pressed a hand against his chest where the abyssal core pulsed quietly beneath skin. It was no longer painful but it wasn't dormant either. It whispered, humming like a forge heating to full blaze. Not malevolent… not yet. But alive.
Kael broke the silence first. "She said she was the first. Do you believe her?"
Aeron nodded slowly. "I don't think she had a reason to lie. The way she looked at me… like she'd already lived through everything I'm about to face."
"Then that means there were others. Abyssforged, like you."
Aeron didn't respond. He was still thinking about the masked Inquisitors. The fact that the system had barely warned him about their threat. That something stronger than them had emerged without triggering anything at all.
> [System Diagnostic Update Available]
[Aura Integration Level: 59%]
[New Trait Awakening: Soul Scorch (I)]
[Effect: Strikes infused with abyssal aura now burn targets from within – bypassing conventional resistance. Warning: Prolonged use may destabilize core.]
He closed the prompt quickly.
"You alright?" Kael asked, glancing back at him.
"No. But I'm used to it."
They made camp near a crag overlooking a shattered gorge. Kael built the fire, while Aeron kept watch, eyes fixed to the shifting horizon. The stars were starting to appear—but they were wrong. Some constellations no longer matched memory. Some… blinked back.
That night, Aeron dreamed again.
Not of the Devourer or the black rift but of a battlefield under twin moons. Warriors in armor made of shadow and fire clashed with creatures of impossible geometry. Screams echoed not in air, but in thought. And at the center of it all, himself—older, eyes lit with abyssal flame, standing atop a mountain of broken masks.
When he woke, the fire was out and Kael was staring at him.
"You were muttering in your sleep."
Aeron rubbed his face. "What did I say?"
"'I will burn the sky if I must.'"
Neither of them spoke for a long time after that.
By morning, the system issued a new message:
> [System Priority Task Unlocked]
[Title: Beckoning of the Abyss]
[Description: A path has opened. Journey to the Hollow Convergence before the next moonfall. Time remaining: 3 Days.]
[Note: Failure to comply may result in forced detonation of abyssal core.]
Aeron hissed. "Detonation?"
Kael looked over. "What now?"
"They're pushing me toward the Convergence," Aeron said. "And if I don't go—this thing inside me… it'll explode. Kill me. Maybe worse."
Kael scowled. "They can do that?"
"The system can. And whatever's behind it."
Kael stepped closer, eyes hard. "Then we go. We finish this on our terms."
Aeron stared at the distance. "We're being herded like beasts into a storm we don't understand."
Kael grinned darkly. "Then let's be the kind of beasts that bite back."
Aeron smirked, but the humor didn't reach his eyes.
> [New System Prompt: Soul Anchor Detected – A Fragmented Memory Awaits]
Before they could move, a gust of wind stirred a thin black shard from the ground. It hovered for a moment, then embedded itself in Aeron's arm. There was no pain, only clarity.
> [Memory Syncing Initiated…]
The world dissolved again.
He stood in an obsidian hall lit by dying stars. Before him stood a figure with no face, clad in layered armor of voidsteel.
"You should not exist," the figure said.
"And yet I do," Aeron's echoed voice responded.
"You are a flaw. A mistake."
"No," the echo said with finality. "I am the correction."
The memory ended.
Aeron gasped, staggered. Kael caught him before he hit the ground.
"What did you see?"
"I… think I saw a version of myself. In the future."
Kael stared. "And?"
"I think I win," Aeron said grimly. "But I lose everything else to get there."
The wind howled again. This time, it wasn't natural. Something was coming.
And it wouldn't wait for the next moon.
---