The chamber shook like the lungs of a living beast, its walls made of shifting darkness. Each breath Vemy Lula took came out ragged, trails of Celestine-blue fire steaming from his lips. He tightened his grip on the ring embedded into his finger, his body trembling as the void beasts drew closer.
Hundreds of them crawled and slithered across the abyssal floor—some with too many legs, some with too many eyes, others dripping shadow like ink that devoured the ground. Their roars weren't sound, but pressure: crushing, suffocating, drilling into his skull.
"Dammit," Vemy spat, his chest rising and falling. "No matter how many I burn down, more of you just keep coming."
He thrust out his arm. A torrent of Aetherion fire erupted, the Celestine-blue flames sweeping across the horde. For a moment, the darkness recoiled—limbs burning, eyes bursting, jaws snapping shut as the abyss shrieked. But then… new shapes crawled from the void cracks, and the first wave began to regenerate.
Vemy gritted his teeth. "Even my Aetherion isn't enough…!"
His legs nearly buckled. The pressure wasn't just from the beasts. No—the Forbidden Ring embedded deep in his soul pulsed like a second heartbeat, each throb louder, heavier. He tried to resist it, but with each surge of pain, his vision fractured, static bleeding into his sight.
Give in.
You're surrounded. You're dying. I can save you.
The voice wasn't his, but it came from inside him. Mocking. Tempting.
Vemy clutched his temple, veins bulging in his neck. "Shut… up…!"
A beast lunged—a centipede-like monster with serrated jaws and a skull for a face. Vemy's instincts took over; he spun midair, wings bursting open, slashing the creature in half with a blade of flame. Yet even as it burned, the void stitched it back together.
Dozens more swarmed him. Claws slashed across his skin, drawing blood that hissed against the abyss floor. For the first time, his Celestine-blue aura flickered.
"Dammit all!"
The Forbidden Ring pulsed again. Harder. Louder. Until his chest felt like it would rip open. His vision turned pitch black—then blinding white.
Accept me. Stop pretending you can win with scraps. Accept the Abyss.
The swarm closed in. The void beasts roared, hungry jaws opening wide.
Vemy's lips parted. "…Fine."
The moment he said it, the Forbidden Ring ignited.
A storm of Celestine flames exploded from his body, but this time, they weren't just blue—they were tinged with streaks of black, laced with abyssal patterns like burning constellations. His entire frame warped, wings stretching longer, sharper. His eyes burned with twin circles of void and fire, and his hair, once just a halo of light, now streamed behind him in threads of living flame.
The beasts paused. They knew fear.
Vemy smiled, lips curling in something half-mad. "Now… let's see you come back from this."
He vanished. A single flap of his spectral wings shattered the sound barrier, ripping beasts apart in a spiral of voidfire. One claw sliced downward, cleaving through fifty monsters at once, their screams shredded by the inferno. Every swing of his arms painted the abyss in burning light, annihilating the swarm.
The chamber thundered. The void cracked. Shadows wailed like children being torn apart.
When the flames cleared, the battlefield was nothing but ash and molten stone. Not a beast remained.
Vemy stood at the center, shoulders heaving, arms trembling. His chest was cracked open, void-light leaking from within. His eyes were wide, manic, haunted.
But then, the whispers began again.
More. More. You haven't even touched true power yet.
The beasts were nothing. The real enemy has yet to come.
The ground shook violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the abyss floor. From those cracks rose a shadow far larger than the horde—a silhouette stretching high into the void. Wings. Rings. Chains clattering like prison iron.
Vemy's breath caught in his throat. His flames flickered weakly against its presence.
The Guardian Beast emerged—towering, monstrous, its body bound in thirteen burning rings. Its eyes glowed the same Celestine hue as his own, but hollow, broken, ancient.
When it spoke, its voice was distorted… but undeniably human.
"I was… like you once."
Vemy froze, his jaw tightening. "What…?"
The beast leaned forward, chains clanking as it pulled against them. "The ring… consumed me. And now… it will consume you."
The abyss roared, the Guardian's aura flattening the chamber.
Vemy gritted his teeth, voidfire licking his skin, sweat dripping down his temple. For the first time since stepping into the Abyss, he felt something colder than fear.
Recognition.
The Guardian… felt like him.
The abyssal winds howled. The Guardian raised its claw, the chains rattling furiously as it prepared to strike.
Vemy flared his wings, fire surging desperately, his voice cracking between madness and defiance. "Then I'll prove I'm not you!"
The Guardian roared. The void cracked. And the two forces collided.
⚡ Cliffhanger: Vemy's first true clash with the Guardian Beast, a future version of himself bound by the Thirteenth Ring.