"They say that the initiates in the Division of Execution and Sanction are superior in strength to others, but look here everyone!"
Taurus roared as he pointed his axe toward the cheering crowd.
"I say they are nothing special… For he runs and hides out of fear of me, like a coward."
The crowd erupted, cheering and clapping louder, many voices shouting their agreement.
Taurus grinned, stretching his arms wide as he bellowed for all to hear.
"Come out here, Trial Shadow… that I may put an end to you. And prove that even I… a stage one creature" he struck his chest with the flat of his axe, "…can wield more power than an initiate of the most elite division of the Authority… and once I—"
He never finished…
A terrifying voice rolled across the arena, cutting through the noise. It was loud, yet more than loud. It was ancient, and it echoed from every corner at once.
"Taurus… oh, Taurus…"
Taurus immediately turned his head from side to side, eyes darting across the arena as he searched for the source of the voice.
The voice spoke again, cold and terrifying.
"You speak such… profane drivel and it irritates me."
The sound seemed to rise from the shallow water that covered the floor… yet beneath that there was something else, something deeper. It rumbled from a place far below the arena, as if the ground itself opened into a vast abyss and the voice had come crawling up from its depths.
The crowd fell into a heavy silence. The faint rippling of the water was the only sound that remained, but even that seemed unnatural, like the arena itself had begun to breathe.
Taurus took a cautious step back. He was standing at the far right end of the arena. Looking down, he noticed ripples spreading outward from the water beneath his feet, stretching toward the opposite wall, as if something unseen stirred beneath the surface.
When the ripples reached the edge, the water began to climb. First a swell, then a wave, rising higher and higher until it towered more than fifteen meters above him.
Taurus stared with wide eyes as the wind from its sheer mass whipped through his hair. He took another step back, bracing for the moment it would crash down.
But it did not.
"What is this trick now?" he muttered, eyes fixed on the clear wave towering before him, held back by some invisible force. Then he let out a nervous laugh. "Do you plan to kill me with this… water?"
There was no reply. The silence broken only by the faint crashing of the restrained wave.
Then the water shifted. Its crystal clarity deepened into dark ocean blue… and then black.
The moment it changed, a crushing pressure exploded outward, rolling across the arena like an invisible weight. It pinned the crowd to their seats. Taurus buckled to his knees under the force, teeth gritting as if gravity itself had turned against him.
Then the terrifying voice echoed again, rolling across the arena like the toll of a great bell.
"You claim my powers do not work on you because you fear nothing? Oh Taurus, I am appalled by your insolence. How dare you speak so to me, I who am the embodiment of dread itself… If I command you to fear, then you will fear, Taurus… If you claim you do not know what fear is, then I will teach you…"
Suddenly, two massive blue eyes emerged from behind the shadowed wave of water. The moment Taurus saw them, his axe slipped from his hands as dread slithered into his heart. He had never seen or even imagined a creature with eyes so terrifying, so oppressively vast. They were hollow, yet alive with malice. Within them, he was sure he could see dozens of small figures, trapped in fetal positions, writhing helplessly behind the gaze.
The voice rolled out again, this time from behind the wave.
"I have had enough of everyone judging my worth by a glance… and so, if all anyone sees when they look at me is a scrawny, powerless kid… then I will imprint upon your minds something worse, something more dreadful, something born from the very heart of my Abyss!"
It was not only Taurus who saw it. Everyone in the arena saw it.
Behind the wave, a creature suddenly became visible. At first glance, it looked like a woman, but one made of rot. Her skin was a sickly, veined blue, with scales running along her body. Folds of flesh along her ribcage flared open, pulsing like wounds. Her mouth stretched wide in an inhuman grin, revealing needle-like fangs. An aura of dread rolled out from her, filling the entire arena. Taurus's eyes, upon seeing the creature, shifted from red back to their normal black.
In the stands, young people began to collapse, unable to withstand the dread. Virans who were initiates or below were frozen in their seats, as if drowning, certain they were about to die. No one could move or speak.
Taurus, a creature who embodied rage, who had never felt fear, and who always fought without regard for his life, raised a hand for the first time since he was born and begged.
"Please… please spare me. Please."
But as soon as the words left his trembling lips, the creature behind the wave spoke:
"Let silence judge… Let the sea remember… Let the unworthy forget how to breathe!"
Suddenly, the wave collapsed upon the arena. The water did not spill into the crowd, held back by some invisible force — the protection built into the arena to shield the spectators. Still, the water crashed down everywhere else, swallowing Taurus in its depths.
He screamed as inky black water flooded every opening. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was darkness and the grotesque creature looming before him. But that was the last thing he saw. His eyes burst from their sockets.
He could not move. He could not thrash against the water. His bones began to crush under the immense pressure, his body buckling as life was drained from him.
Outside, in the arena, all the spectators could see was black water stretching everywhere, held back only by the protective force shielding them. Even with that barrier, the oppressive weight pressed on them, suffocating and inescapable.
Slowly, the black water began to evaporate, fading until the arena lay bare once more. Taurus was nowhere to be found; even his remains had been swallowed by the ocean. The only figure visible was a boy in a half mask, kneeling slumped on the floor. He was the new Trial Shadow and the undisputed winner of the match to the death… Abyss.