The boy was pulled up into something unknown.
Everything shattered again.
As if everything was a illusion.
The boy was back in the same spot as before, being held up by countless limbs.
Absolutely terror settled into the boy.
The boy found himself facing the same creature.
This time, however, the creature wasn’t somewhere out in the wilderness.
It was here.
Inside its own twisted domain.
The abyss.
Over the course of his time here, the boy had managed to piece together fragments of knowledge about these creatures.
Most of what he knew had been learned while running from them—or desperately fighting them.
Their abilities seemed to revolve around two things:
Corruption.
And madness.
They could infect living beings, twist their minds, corrupt their souls, and turn their victims into little more than puppets.
And now, the boy was experiencing that power firsthand.
The creature’s hands and tentacles constricted around him, applying enough pressure to make his bones ache.
He struggled.
Nothing.
He couldn’t move.
One enormous tentacle slowly rose above his head.
For a moment, the boy thought it was going to pierce straight through him and end his life.
But that wasn’t what the creature wanted.
The creatures of the abyss didn’t simply kill everything they encountered.
They sought evolution.
Corruption.
Transformation.
Death was merely a necessity when something became a genuine threat.
And right now…
The boy wasn’t a threat.
Not yet.
Two enormous hands suddenly emerged from the darkness.
They seized the boy’s face and forced his mouth open.
His eyes widened.
The tentacle descended.
It slipped into his mouth.
The boy’s entire body jolted.
He tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
He struggled violently against the creature’s grasp, desperately trying to break free.
But he was too weak.
For the first time in a long time…
The boy was completely helpless.
The tentacle pushed deeper.
It moved through him—not simply through his body, but through something far deeper.
Something that shouldn’t have been physically reachable.
His soul.
The creature wasn’t merely trying to kill him.
It had sensed something.
Something within him.
The corruption.
The strange taint that had already begun spreading through his soul.
The tentacle reached deeper.
And then—
It entered the boy’s soul.
Everything became silent.
Within the depths of his soul stood a strange, ghastly figure.
It vaguely resembled a humanoid being, yet its form was impossible to properly understand.
The tentacle immediately moved toward it.
Then dozens more appeared.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
An innumerable mass of tentacles filled the darkness, each carrying an overwhelming aura of death and corruption.
Time seemed to slow.
The ghastly figure slowly lifted its head.
Its eyes gazed upon the approaching mass.
Then…
It raised one hand.
Its head shifted slightly, almost as though it were whispering something.
No sound came.
Yet something happened.
The malice surrounding the countless tentacles suddenly weakened.
One by one, they began retreating.
The entire mass withdrew from the boy’s soul.
The tentacle inside his body suddenly jerked backward.
Then it rapidly retreated.
It exited through the boy’s mouth.
The boy immediately collapsed forward, coughing violently.
The voice suddenly spoke inside his mind.
This time, there was genuine concern in its tone.
“Things are looking bad for you.”
A brief pause.
“I know I said I didn’t have any powers, but…”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
The boy’s vision began fading.
His body went limp.
“No…”
His consciousness slipped further away.
“Stay awake.”
“Fight!”
Then—
Something appeared within the darkness.
A sword.
Old.
Worn.
Yet incredibly sharp.
It seemed to simply materialize from the void.
The boy’s fading eyes caught sight of it.
His fingers twitched.
He couldn’t move.
His body screamed at him to stop.
But the boy forced himself forward anyway.
He pushed past his limits.
With his remaining strength, he violently tore at the tentacles and shadowy hands restraining him.
One broke.
Then another.
Then another.
His right hand shot forward.
He caught the sword.
The boy slowly lifted his head.
A defiant smile appeared across his face.
“Not…”
He tightened his grip.
“Yet.”
With everything he had left—
He swung.
SLASH!
The blade tore through the tentacles.
The force of the attack continued forward, cutting deeply into the creature itself.
The slash nearly split the horror in two.
But not quite.
The creature froze.
It hadn’t expected resistance.
For several moments, it simply stared at the boy.
Then—
It released him.
The boy crashed onto the marble floor.
He immediately curled forward, coughing violently.
The creature’s body began to change.
The grotesque mass slowly receded.
Tentacles disappeared.
Limbs reshaped.
The unnatural body compressed inward.
Until the creature once again resembled the old man.
Short white hair.
An ivory tunic.
And the dreadful tenebrous crown resting upon his head.
The old man stood silently.
He looked down at the blood left by the boy’s attack.
His expression was almost one of disbelief.
Then he spoke.
His voice was different now.
No longer raspy and decayed.
It was deeper.
Clearer.
Far more powerful.
“How long…”
He looked at the wound.
“…has it been since my blood was spilled?”
The boy slowly forced himself upright.
The mysterious voice spoke inside his mind.
“Not so bad for a teenager.”
A pause.
“Good work.”
Another pause.
“But I’m getting a very bad feeling about this.”
The boy picked up the sword again.
He looked toward the old man.
Then sighed.
“What a pain in my ass.”
Suddenly—
The air became heavy.
The boy’s smile disappeared.
Something was pressing down on him.
It felt like an entire mountain had been placed upon his shoulders.
His knees nearly buckled.
The space around the old man began to distort.
The marble floor warped.
The air itself seemed to bend.
The world was behaving as though it was trying to reject the old man’s existence.
His aura alone was enough to distort reality.
The old man looked down at the boy.
Then he smiled.
Not kindly.
Not normally.
Like a madman who had just discovered an interesting toy.
“I like your defiance, boy.”
His eyes narrowed.
“In the olden days, I would have rewarded such insolence with a painful death.”
His smile widened.
“You would have made an excellent vessel for me.”
The boy smirked.
“Sorry.
I don’t like being molested by unknown eldritch horrors.”
He raised the sword slightly.
“So stop preying on little kids and pick on somebody your own size.”
The old man’s smile disappeared.
Then returned.
“I’ll enjoy breaking you.”
The ground suddenly shook.
BOOM.
The marble beneath the boy’s feet cracked.
Then something began crawling out.
At first, there were only a few.
Bloody humanoid figures made entirely from unnatural flesh pulled themselves from the cracks.
Then dozens.
Fifty.
One hundred.
Three hundred.
The numbers kept rising.
Hundreds became thousands.
Soon, the entire landscape was filled with them.
They climbed from the ground.
They emerged from beneath the marble.
They simply appeared from places where nothing had been moments before.
The boy slowly turned in a circle.
Thousands of grotesque humanoid figures surrounded him.
And somehow…
He was still smiling.
Above him, the old man calmly placed his hands behind his back.
Then—
BOOM!
A colossal red pillar erupted from the ground.
It was made of living flesh.
The pillar continued rising into the darkness, carrying the old man higher and higher until he stood far above the battlefield.
Then something materialized beneath him.
A throne.
Ancient.
Cracked.
Its surface was covered in countless fractures.
And within those cracks…
Tiny red, bloodshot eyes stared outward.
The old man sat upon it.
For a moment, he looked less like a monster…
And more like a fallen god sitting upon a ruined throne.
The boy looked upward.
His expression changed from fear to genuine admiration.
“Man…”
He tilted his head.
“Badass.”
He pointed his sword upward.
“Were you some kind of king back in your era?”
The old man chuckled.
“For a time…”
His gaze drifted across the abyss.
“I ruled this place.”
He leaned back against his throne.
“But that is of no concern to you right now.”
The old man suddenly looked toward the horizon.
His expression changed.
The boy followed his gaze.
At first, there was nothing.
Then—
A red glow appeared in the distance.
It spread across the horizon.
Slowly.
Silently.
Until an enormous crimson light illuminated the abyss.
The landscape beyond them began revealing itself.
Ruins.
Destroyed structures.
Ancient buildings reduced to shattered remains.
And countless bodies scattered across the distant landscape.
The boy stared.
The old man narrowed his eyes.
The mysterious voice suddenly spoke inside the boy’s mind.
“The second layer of the abyss…”
A pause.
“…has finally appeared.”
The boy’s expression changed instantly.
“Second layer?!”
“Yes.”
The voice continued.
“The abyss contains four layers.”
“The first is the neutral zone.”
“All kinds of weak monsters and wandering spirits hide within it.”
The boy stared toward the crimson horizon.
“What we’re witnessing now is the second layer.”
The voice’s tone became more serious.
“Think of it as a battlefield.”
“This is where the true horrors dwell.”
The boy swallowed.
“And the third?”
“The third layer belongs to creatures that possess divine authority over the first two.”
The voice suddenly went quiet.
The boy frowned.
“And the fourth?”
A long silence followed.
Then the voice finally answered.
“…I can’t elaborate on the fourth.”
The boy’s expression tightened.
“Why?”
“Because the fourth layer is shrouded in mystery.”
The voice became quieter.
“Even I don’t know what waits there.”
The boy looked toward the crimson horizon.
For once…
He didn’t make a joke.
Because somewhere beyond that distant red light…
Something was waiting.
And whatever it was…
Even the mysterious voice was afraid to speak its name.