The Abaddon family limousine was, in every meaning of the word, absurd.
A big car, stretched to a length that bordered on insane, finished in a matte obsidian that swallowed light like it was Abaddon’s personal abyss itself.
There were a bunch of things that Helix didn’t understand...he was never really a car guy. What he did understand was that these cars were worth millions of Ace-points.
Literal gold on wheels.
Helix sat in the very back, one knee drawn up, cheek resting against his knuckles, headphones clamped over his ears.
Outside the tinted windows, the City of Destruction—Kor blurred past, the grey stone architecture of the Abaddon capital sliding by like a long exhale, indifferent and familiar.
They had been traveling for over five hours, and a lot of the journey still remained. Sure, there were faster methods to travel, but Helix had insisted on something mundane.
Just a little time to think before everything goes down.
His abyssal eyes were looking at the words hovering in front of him, faintly luminous, written in characters he couldn’t read, yet somehow understood—the God Language.
God’s Gaze had activated the moment he wished for more information about his blessing, presenting it in neat columns of symbols.
They said:
——〔 GOD’S GAZE 〕——
Name: [Helix Abaddon]
Age: [17]
Bloodline: [Abaddon] [Ezekiel]
Rank: [First Wing]
Bloodline Purity: [96%]
Authority:
Abaddon - [Line of Destruction]
Ezekiel - [Line of Revelation]
Curse: [Curse of Cassandra]
Mastery:
0% [Line of Destruction]
0% [Line of Revelation]
*
A faint smile touched his lips as he read over the numbers, stealing a glance at his brother.
In the middle rows, Morgan was sprawled across his seat like a dead body, his sickly body making the illusion more convincing.
Their mother sat up front beside the driver, eyes closed and hair tied back in a neat bun. While it seemed like Cassandra Abaddon was sitting with them, the truth was that she had departed long ago.
Certainly, she would have loved to spend time with her sons, but her angel had called. As such, what Helix and Morgan saw was merely a convincing illusion made by her Memoria.
Helix’s eyes drifted back to the God’s Gaze, specifically to the purity number, and his smile widened.
Poor Morgan. He thought, smug and deeply satisfied.
96% against the 80-something he awakened. The asshole is going to have to wear a full suit of armor for the next two months...well. It’s for his own good.
Surely his brother would come to love him for it, sooner or later.
Helix shifted on the seat, pulled his arms over his head, and closed his eyes.
The words remained for a moment longer in the dark behind his eyelids, then faded.
The limousine moved on through the city, quiet as a secret.
*
He had always been afraid of the dark as a child, but as he grew up, that fear was buried, like the world in a snowstorm.
But summer would eventually come, melting the piling snow to reveal the sand hidden beneath. And on that day, after falling asleep, Helix’s summer had arrived.
Around him, there was nothing, no floor, no ceiling, just an endless gaping hole of the abyss. He reached out to touch something, anything, but his fingers curled around nothing.
Hate.
He hated the dark as a child, and even now, seventeen years old and supposedly a man, the old terror crawled up his spine as if it had never left.
He felt it breathing behind his neck, warm and damp against his freezing blood.
A woman’s voice cut through the fear clouding his mind, spiteful and angry, stifling curses he would rather not repeat.
The woman, even though he could not see her, was clearly mad.
His throat tightened, but he swallowed the bulge down.
He wanted to cry badly, to curl into himself and disappear, because while the dark may have seemed trifling to others, to Helix it was worse than death itself.
It was a torture nothing could imitate.
He clamped down on his lips with a violent clench, blood welling on his split lip. The pain barely registered in his panicked mind, but it was enough to bring a moment of clarity.
And in that instant, Helix pushed back the tears and moved closer to the woman’s voice. Why was he risking everything for a woman...?
He didn’t yet know, but he did it anyway.
The world tilted.
Not physically, but like a camera lens submerged in water, the darkness thinning at the edges into something blurry. And in that blur, something moved.
Metal scraped against the hidden floor, and something crawled through the darkness. It dashed behind them, then up the walls.
Helix couldn’t make out its body, but two black eyes stood out. Eyes so incredibly abyss-like that they stood out from darkness itself.
The woman stopped cursing, suddenly going dead silent behind him. Helix instinctively glanced behind him, but stopped at the last moment.
He couldn’t dare be distracted.
Move. He needed to move.
"...The hell," he snarled, and the darkness tore.
*
Helix gasped awake so hard his headphones slid clean off one ear, spine snapping straight against the leather seat.
His shirt clung to his back, soaked through, cold the second the limousine’s air conditioning hit it. His heart beat harder than war drums.
Across from him, Morgan hadn’t so much as twitched, still artfully sprawled in his coma of a nap. His mother was still up front, eyes closed, probably asleep.
Helix looked out the window and realized they had just passed the threshold of private property. The Abaddon Estate was soon to arrive.
Great, he thought, dragging a shaking hand down his face.
Add that to the list of things I didn’t need today.
His damned bloodline just unveiled its first act. And to top it off, the Curse of Cassandra wouldn’t let him warn anyone.
Just enough to know something was coming, but not what.