The Waking Abyss
The horizon fractured like glass.
A thunderous roar echoed through the world — not from the earth, not from the heavens, but from the space between. The air thickened, colors bending into impossible hues as the largest rift above the ridge tore wide open. From its heart emerged something that should not have existed — a being whose mere presence warped reality.
The Waking Abyss.
It was vast beyond measure, its form a shifting mass of black flame and molten shadow. Eyes — or things like eyes — flickered across its surface, each one blinking with the light of dying stars. Every breath it drew distorted gravity, pulling the ruins around it into a slow spiral of destruction.
Lira could barely breathe. "It's… it's alive?"
Zero didn't answer. He stood motionless, staring up at the creature as the ground beneath his feet cracked under the pressure of its aura. His body trembled, not from fear — but from recognition. The energy pouring from that thing was the same as his own, but magnified beyond comprehension.
"It's connected to me," he murmured. "It's… the source."
The creature's voice rolled through the sky, not as sound but as thought — a psychic avalanche crashing through the minds of everyone who could hear.
"CHILD OF THE FALLEN STAR… YOU BEAR OUR CURSE."
Zero fell to one knee, gripping his chest as pain flared through every nerve in his body. His markings — the luminous glyphs of Ascension — ignited, burning like liquid fire. Lira rushed forward, but an invisible wave of force threw her back, sending her skidding across the shattered ground.
"Zero!" she shouted, fighting against the pressure.
He forced himself up, teeth clenched, aura flaring wildly around him. "You're the one behind this," he growled. "The rifts, the corruption — all of it!"
The being's form shuddered, its countless eyes focusing on him. "WE ARE NOT BEHIND IT. WE ARE IT. THE VOID GIVEN PURPOSE. THE END THAT YOUR KIND UNLOCKED."
Lightning crackled around Zero's body. "Then I'll close what I opened."
The sky answered his defiance with silence — then chaos.
The Waking Abyss extended a hand the size of a mountain, its fingers composed of writhing shadow. They reached down, sweeping across the battlefield with apocalyptic force. Zero met the blow with everything he had, his aura erupting in a sphere of golden energy that clashed with the darkness like a miniature sun.
The impact was world-breaking. The shockwave leveled everything within a mile. Lira barely had time to shield herself before being hurled back again, her body slamming against the remnants of a stone pillar. She gasped for breath, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth — but her eyes never left Zero.
He was still standing.
Or rather, floating.
His feet no longer touched the ground; his aura had transcended physical form. Wings of pure energy flared from his back, radiant and cracked, like glass barely holding together. His eyes glowed white, and the markings across his body extended upward, reaching toward the sky like living chains.
The air trembled around him. "You want a bridge between worlds?" he said. "Then let me be it — and I'll burn the path behind me."
He raised his hand to the heavens.
A pulse of energy surged outward, and the shattered remnants of the Ascendant relics embedded across the region began to glow in unison. One by one, they lifted from the ground, their fragments spiraling toward him, drawn by a magnetic force of pure will. As they fused with his aura, the light intensified, until even the Waking Abyss recoiled slightly — as if in recognition.
"YOU DARE…"
"I do."
Zero launched himself upward. In that instant, the world disappeared. The distance between him and the rift ceased to exist — reality folded to his command. He collided with the creature in an explosion that tore open the clouds for miles.
The Abyss roared, its body splitting and reforming around him like liquid night. Each tendril that struck him disintegrated on contact with his aura, but for every blow he blocked, more followed. The sky became a canvas of light and shadow, each collision brighter and louder than the last.
Lira, below, could only watch — a silent witness to a battle between god and monster. Every heartbeat sent ripples of energy through the ground. The ruins around her disintegrated into dust. The air shimmered, and she felt her own energy draining, as though the very world was being rewritten.
"Zero… you're going to destroy yourself," she whispered.
Above, Zero drove his blade into the creature's core — a sphere of swirling black and violet energy the size of a fortress. The impact created a shockwave that split the clouds apart completely, revealing the blood-red light of the false dawn beyond. For a moment, the Abyss howled — its many voices merging into one deafening scream.
But then something shifted.
The energy pouring from the rift didn't weaken — it changed. The black light around the creature began to twist, not in pain but in adaptation. The tendrils coiled tighter, wrapping around Zero's arm, crawling up toward his chest.
"Damn it—!" He tried to pull free, but the darkness dug deeper, feeding on his aura, consuming his strength. The markings on his body began to turn black, the golden light fading.
From below, Lira extended her staff, shouting words of power that cracked the air itself. A beam of radiant blue light shot upward, piercing the shadow around him. "I'm not letting you do this alone!"
Her magic struck the creature like a blade, burning through its tendrils. The pressure around Zero lessened — just enough for him to break free.
He turned toward her, shouting through the chaos, "You have to seal it! Now!"
"But you'll be trapped—"
"DO IT!"
The desperation in his voice froze her for an instant — but then she nodded. She slammed her staff into the ground, channeling every drop of her power into the runic circle that spread beneath her. Ancient glyphs lit the earth, climbing upward like vines of light. The spell ignited the horizon, connecting every relic and rune across the battlefield into one massive seal.
Zero closed his eyes. "Guess this is goodbye."
Then he turned back toward the rift and unleashed everything.
The world went white.
For a moment, there was nothing — no sound, no light, no time. Only stillness. Then, slowly, the light faded. The rift was gone. The sky was whole again.
Lira collapsed to her knees, the staff slipping from her hands. The ruins were silent. The Abyss was gone.
But so was Zero.
Only a single feather of golden light drifted down from the heavens, landing softly in her palm. It shimmered once — then dissolved into nothing.
She bowed her head, whispering through tears, "You won, idiot…"
Above her, high in the atmosphere, the faintest shimmer of light flickered — the heartbeat of something still alive, lost beyond the veil.
The dawn had come.But the world would never be the same.