The Abyss breathed.
Every step they took across its scorched ground seemed alive, the stone pulsing faintly beneath their boots. Rivers of molten fire wound between fractured earth, glowing with faces that screamed silently as they passed. The air was thick with ash, heavy with whispers that clawed at the edges of their minds.
Anthony pressed the Codex to his chest, his lips moving in constant prayer. Sweat poured down his temples, but he dared not fall silent — for whenever he did, the shadows seemed to reach closer.
Gabby walked ahead, her golden wings half-spread, her blade cutting arcs of light that pushed back the worst of the dark. "Keep close. The Abyss feeds on isolation. If you stray too far, it will swallow you."
Maxwell nodded, though his eyes flickered uneasily at the chains that stretched across the horizon. Each link was vast as a fortress, dragging deep into the void. And from them came the voice — his father's voice — faint, broken, crying for release.
Maxwell… help me…
He gritted his teeth. "We're coming."
The first horror came suddenly.
The ground split wide, and from it crawled creatures wrought from the Abyss itself — twisted mockeries of angels, their wings skeletal, their eyes hollow flames. Their bodies were bound in broken chains, their mouths unhinged with endless screams.
Gabby raised her blade high, her voice sharp. "Phantoms of the Fallen! Do not let them touch you — their chains will bind your soul!"
The monsters lunged. Maxwell's sword flared silver as he cut through the first, its body unraveling into ash. Gabby's golden light seared through another, her wings striking like fire. Anthony held his ground, the Codex glowing in his hands, verses spilling from his lips in a desperate chant. The holy fire carved a circle around him, burning back the shadows.
But for every phantom they struck down, two more crawled from the cracks. The air filled with shrieks and fire, the weight of chains rattling in the dark.
Maxwell roared, driving his blade into the ground. A storm of silver light burst outward, scattering the phantoms in a wave. His chest heaved, his veins flickering crimson at the edges. He fought to push it down. "There's no end to them!"
Gabby slashed through another, her voice fierce. "Then we carve a path! The Abyss is endless by design — it wants us to break. But if we keep moving, we'll reach its heart!"
They pressed forward, fighting through wave after wave. Maxwell's arms burned, every strike heavier, his blood screaming with Samael's fire. Anthony stumbled, blood dripping from his lips as the Codex seared his flesh, but he refused to stop praying. Gabby led them onward, her wings alight like a beacon against the dark.
The phantoms grew fewer, but stranger. Soon they weren't faceless wraiths — they were familiar.
Maxwell froze as one rose before him, wearing his father's face. Chains wrapped its limbs, its voice a broken whisper. "Son… help me…"
His sword wavered. His breath caught in his throat.
"Maxwell!" Gabby's shout cut through the haze. "It's not him!"
The phantom lunged, and in its eyes Samael's fire flickered. Maxwell roared, his sword blazing silver, and cut it down. But the wound it left in his heart ached deeper than any blade.
They fought through more illusions: Anthony's dead parishioners, Gabby's fallen kin, Maxwell's own mother. Each one was a dagger, each one crafted to break their resolve.
But together, bleeding and weary, they forced themselves onward. Step by step, through fire and ash, until at last the phantoms thinned.
And then they saw it.
At the heart of the Abyss, chained upon a throne of fire and bone, Samael waited. His wings stretched across the horizon, vast and terrible, his eyes burning like twin suns. The chains around him pulsed with living fire, feeding his form until he glowed brighter than the Abyss itself.
He rose slowly, fire cascading from his wings, his voice filling the void.
"At last. My son. My betrayer. My blood. You've come to me."
Maxwell's sword pulsed in his grip, silver against the crimson storm. His storm-gray eyes blazed as he raised it high.
"This ends here."
The Abyss shook as Samael spread his wings, laughter rolling like thunder.
"Yes. It does."