The ten-foot-monstrosity launched itself from the alleyway floor, clearing the distance within moments with its terrifying speed.
Its massive pincher and razor-sharp blade swung wide, aiming to cleave Soren in two before Soren could even scramble backwards.
Below in the dark alleyway, the rigged mechanism of the crossbow finally gave out as the tension on the overloaded string snapped.
The heavy crossbow released its stored bolt in a violent burst.
The blood-soaked bolt rocketed upwards through the air until it buried itself deep into the soft flesh between the Crabmon’s carapace.
The impact struck the Crabmon mid-air redirecting the monster’s course.
The sheer force of the bolt threw the Crabmon off its trajectory, causing the creature’s deafening screech to turn into a choked gurgle.
Instead of landing on Soren, the Crabmon slammed hard against the stone ledge of the roof, dazed.
The massive weight shattered the edge into a spray of stone as it scrambled for purchase, stabbing its sharp appendages against the building’s side and roof.
Soren stared, his adrenaline spiking through the roof as he forced himself to react.
He ran over to the dazed Crabmon and raised the Dream Sword high above his head, blade-side down.
He manipulated the Dreamy attribute so that the sword would take the shape of a heavy broadsword.
“Die!” he screamed, bringing the sword down.
He tore through the fleshy face with the heavy steel of the Dream Sword, causing the creature to screech before it let go and fell into the alleyway below.
This was his moment.
Soren quickly grabbed the Royal Guard’s Armor that he dropped and ran to the edge where the Crabmon laid dazed and bleeding.
He peered over and smirked at the sprawled figure that was in immense pain.
He raised the armor—which was as light as a feather—high above his head and hurled it down, commanding the armor to become as heavy as it could right when it left his fingertips.
The chestplate flew from the rooftop, originally as light as a feather before it hurled at the Crabmon with its increasing weight.
Mid-air, the light metal turned into a crushing mass of solid iron within moments, multiplying its momentum mid-flight.
The massive, boulder-heavy plate slammed into the Crabmon with the force of a cannon.
A loud boom erupted from the impact as the crushing weight caved the monster’s carapace inward, sending shattered stone fragments and dust everywhere.
Silence settled over the alleyway, only broken by Soren’s heavy breathing.
He winced at the large boom before he scrambled down from the roof through the bloody ladder, landing next to the Crabmon.
He walked around it until he reached its head and grabbed the Dream Sword—manipulating it to morph back into a thinner longsword—and pulled out the Dream Sword embedded into the crab-like demon.
He poked at it, looking for any signs of life.
Not finding any movement, Soren let out a shuddering exhale as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Let’s make that ninety-nine percent luck, one percent skill,” he muttered, a weary grin touching his lips as he grabbed hold of the Royal Guard’s Armor and lightened the armor.
After wiping the large chestplate with his cloak of any blood and debris, he manipulated the size and put it on, sighing in relief at the sense of security he felt when he put it on.
He polished the Dream Sword off to double-check for any remaining threats before tsking, seeing that some Abyssal Creatures were alerted by the commotion and were coming over to check it out.
No breaks for him!
Soren glanced at the crossbow before shaking his head, abandoning it.
The crossbow served him well but he had no ammo and it was covered in blood.
It was a recipe for disaster if he brought it along with him.
He quickly cut off every piece of his cloak that was soaked with blood before putting it back on.
He put on his hoodie before taking a look around, looking to see if he forgot anything or if the Abyssal Creature left behind an Abyssal Item.
Sadly, he didn’t see an item but he did see a small red orb within the corpse.
Nonexistence Essence.
Everytime an Abyssal Creature died, it dropped nothing, an Abyssal Item, or a Nonexistence Essence that someone could use to further their ascension in the Orders of Ascension.
According to the handbook he read, an Abyssal Creature followed one of the many pathways a person can take to ascend the Orders when they spawned.
If the creature drops the Nonexistence Essence, it is of the creature’s pathway and if someone consumed that, their progression to Ascending to that particular pathway would increase.
Soren looked at the Dream Sword and focused the reflection to show him the stats of the Nonexistence Essence.
Name: [Nonexistence Essence]
Rank: [Awakened]
Pathway: [Demonic]
Soren cringed at the pathway, almost dropping it on the ground.
If he consumed the Nonexistence Essence, he’d start ascending the Demonic pathway and that was very taboo.
Although he’d be closer to becoming an Awakened, he’d have to kill a lot more Demonic pathway Abyssal Creatures and consume their essence, becoming a demon himself.
If he had the time and resources, he could get rich through Abyssal Creature hunting, but he both had no time and no resources.
Soren sighed, putting the Nonexistence Essence into one of his inner pockets in his cloak.
Although he wouldn’t use the orb, he could very well find a Demonic pathway user in the black market and sell it to them.
Soren looked back at the Dream Sword and looked for the path where no Abyssal Creatures blocked him.
Although the Abyssal Creatures were closing in on his location, he found that they were, for some reason, steering clear of the restaurant where the Anchor was located.
He shelved it for later and sprinted to the restaurant, passing by a couple bodies that were unfortunately mutilated and consumed by some Abyssal Creatures.
After dodging some Abyssal Creatures, he finally reached the restaurant and slowed down to a halt, catching his breath.
After stabilizing his heart, he looked at the Dream Sword to see if there were any nasty surprises that could end his life before opening his eyes in shock.
There was a group of people huddled behind the counter in the kitchen, trembling in fear—three adults and two children.
However, he didn’t see an Anchor so he specified the Dream Sword to show the Anchor.
It warped before the reflection shifted to show the basement of the restaurant.
In the center, a purple rift remained stationary, illuminating the stale room in a violet light.
However, surrounding it, a hazy creature was curled around it, guarding it.
Soren immediately groaned, sick with the cruel jokes that the universe kept on throwing at him.
Of course he fights an Abyssal Creature one after the other, not able to take a break in this dreadful dimension.
He breathed in before slowly opening the doors in an attempt to not wake the creature in the basement and not scare the humans in the kitchen.
When he opened the doors and walked inside, he grimaced at the sight.
There were broken tables everywhere with blood puddles all over.
It was dimly lit with a faint luminance from the candles that illuminated the dead bodies that were strewn across the floors and table.
Soren winced at the sight and smell, holding in the vomit that threatened to spill out of his mouth.
Of course he had seen dead bodies before but they were usually dead from the elements.
Occasionally, he would see a real dead body—like the royal guard’s headless body—but this was a massacre.
Soren marched forward, ignoring the dead bodies until he reached the kitchen doors and raised his hand.
He paused, listening to the harsh whispering behind the doors.
Knock knock knock.
After he knocked, the hushed whispers stopped.
He waited if anyone would answer before calling out to them.
“Hello?
Is anyone there?” he called, trying to sound as unintimidating as possible.
The hushed whispers resumed, arguing whether or not he was human before they stopped, seemingly realizing that they were probably too loud.
Soren waited in anticipation, ready to try to pick the lock before a click could be heard.
The door slowly opened before a woman’s head popped out with frightened eyes.
She scanned Soren before she sighed in relief, the tension easing at the sight of him.
He was most definitely not an Abyssal Creature and another human, which was welcome in these perilous times.
“Thank The Divinity and the Heavenly Angel!” she exclaimed, opening the door and ushering him in.
“You’re not here to eat us!
Come in, come in.”
Soren smiled gently before walking in.
When he walked in, he saw that there were the two children, one woman, and one man that were huddled together, looking at Soren with relief in their eyes.
“You must understand we didn’t mean to offend you, sir,” the woman said, scanning his sword and armor.
“We just have to be cautious in the Abyss!”
Soren nodded, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
He knew that the people thought he was either an adventurer or part of the royal guard—an Awakened.
He could correct them but he figured that if he didn’t, they’d listen to him better and he assumed that he was the most competent person here.
They were animatedly discussing how much safer they were in the presence of Soren and how they could just stay in the kitchen and survive until the Order Break ended.
He looked around at the five humans before realizing that they had no idea what was going on.
They didn’t realize that the Anchor was below them and that an Abyssal Creature was guarding it, ready to consume them if it went up to the kitchen.
He mulled over it before pulling the Dream Sword out of its sheathe, holding the silver, mirror-like blade in front of him.
The woman that guided him through the kitchen yelped as she stared at the warping sword while the man got in front of her in a protective manner.
The other woman shielded the two children behind her, arms stretched out in an attempt to try to hide them from Soren’s sight.
“You bastard!” the man yelled at Soren, bringing up his fists.
“Are you seriously going to kill us during an Order Break?”
Soren took a step back, confused at the hostility before he realized his blunder.
He was such a dumbass!
“No!
Sorry,” Soren said, slowly setting the sword down beside him and backing up with his arms raised.
“I wasn’t going to hurt you guys.
I was going to show you the Dream Sword, an Abyssal Weapon that shows you a way for survival.”
The man stared at him, malice burning in his eyes, before the woman hidden behind him slowly got up and smiled weakly at him.
“Are you—are you telling the truth?”
Soren awkwardly smiled back, trying to convey the honesty with his smile as he nodded.
“Yes,” he replied before gesturing towards the sword.
“Can I show you?”
“What are you doing?” the man yelled back at her, still facing Soren but head turned to the side.
“Irene!
What if he’s a criminal that came into the Order Break with intentions of freely murdering people in the Abyss without people knowing?!”
The woman—Irene—gently lowered the man’s arms, hugging him in an effort to placate him.
“Jase, my love.
If he was here to do that, he would’ve done it a lot sooner.
I think he is an Awakened with those items and he would’ve just killed us before we had the chance to fight back,” she whispered to him and the people beside her.
“Plus, he put down his sword.”
Jase stared at Soren for a couple moments before sighing as tension released from his body, dropping him to the ground.
“Show us what you wanted to show us.”
Soren, watching the scene unfold in front of his eyes, sighed in relief before bending over to pick up the Dream Sword he placed on the ground.
He was certain that if they thought he was a scavenger, they wouldn’t have believed him and possibly try to fight back and steal his sword and armor.
Soren, with the Dream Sword in his hand, willed the mirror-like sword’s reflection to warp and shift to show the basement of the restaurant they were currently in.
“Right now, we are situated above an Anchor,” he began, pointing at the purple rift that pulsed ominously at the center of the cellar below.
“And there is an Abyssal Creature sleeping right next to it, guarding it from being activated.”
The people around his gasped in fright upon witnessing the eerie creature coiled around the Anchor just a floor below them.
“That’s the creature that killed a lot of the people here before leaving to go somewhere else,” the other woman whispered, hugging the two children beside her harder.
Soren felt a pang of sadness before he quickly forged ahead.
“I have no idea when the Abyssal Creature will wake up.
However, what I know is that if it does wake up, it’d probably find us and eat us,” Soren said gravely, staring intently at the ginormous figure wrapped around the Anchor.
“We have to kill it while it’s still sleeping and activate the rift.
Any questions?”
There was silence until one of the children raised their hands, arms trembling at the sight of the monster.
“What do we have to do?”
It broke Soren’s heart that mere children were stuck in an Order Break of the Divine rank.
Nobody—most of all children—deserved this fate and it frustrated him that he was so powerless.
“You guys don’t have to do anything,” Soren smiled gently at the two children.
“Your big bro will handle all this!”
Then, he turned to the three adults watching him, his smile dropping into a grim but determined expression.
“But you guys have a role to play.
I have a plan and I need your help.”