"Damn it, your mom really abandoned you down there didn’t she?" As the car rode smoothly down the road back to the kingdom of Solaris, Michael spoke with his fist on his chin.
His final position as a Null has undoubtedly been cemented, and with the crowd that was present, it wouldn’t take long before the news of a null spread across the four continents.
"...." Raphael didn’t know how to respond, no matter how he looked at it, although it wasn’t supposed to be as serious as this, he felt like he chose his best friend over his own mother.
He had no idea why she acted the way she did.
"Everything will be fine eventually, you activated the third Origin like she wanted didn’t you?"
"Yeah... I guess." Raphael turned to look out the window as he tried to force a smile, but as quickly as it came, it faded.
Whenever they had free time, his mother would take him outside the kingdom for vacations to Midgard, even before Michael came along. As a result, he knew the routes to and from the Solaris Kingdom in the back of his head.
But he didn’t recognize this road.
They were taking a completely different route from the one they were supposed to take.
"Um, Sir Theron, we’re not on the right path back to Solaris." He called out to her the academy’s new bus drivers.
"That’s because..." The driver slowly turned his head at the two boys, a thin mist began to seep through the car’s air conditioning vents, slowly filling the vehicle.
"We are not going to Solaris." He said with a mischievous smile.
Raphael’s pupils shrank in horror.
"Raph?" Micheal raised a brow as he noticed his Raphael’s worried look. "What’s wrong?"
The man sitting in the driver’s seat, the man posing a bus driver, it wasn’t the man she hired to be her driver.
Raphael’s wide eyes slowly began to lose their strength. He suddenly his her body growing numb, starting from his legs as the sensation spread through his entire body.
Michael was experiencing the same thing. Both boys struggled to move, and their strength quickly faded.
As they looked ahead, they saw the two men in front wearing gas masks. "Don’t worry, by the time you both wake up."
Before either of them could react, their bodies went limp, and they collapsed unconscious.
"It will all be over."
..
Michael’s eyes fluttered open slowly. His vision was still blurry, but after blinking several times, everything gradually came into focus.
He was surrounded by trees, larging towering trees with most of them red in color.
He turned to his right and saw the car, with the two men who knocked them out cold leaning against it.
But Raphael was nowhere to be seen.
"Raph?" Michael’s voice caught the attention of the two men.
They slowly turned to him before strolling over with unsettling smiles. "You’re finally awake."
"It’s about damn time."
"You bastards..." Michael’s teeth clenched tightly in rage. He tried to stand, but he still hadn’t regained his strength. His legs were wobbly, causing him to stumble, but he quickly caught himself with his right foot.
He then glared at the two men, his eyes filled with anger. "Who the hell are you!? Where is Raph!?"
"Shut up!" The second man, who was fairly dark-skinned, suddenly rushed forward and drove his fist hard into Michael’s stomach.
Michael’s body convulsed from the impact, and he spat out a mouthful of saliva before collapsing heavily to the ground. "Watch how you speak to us you damned misfit!"
"Now now." The first man stepped forward, holding his comrade’s shoulder to calm him down. "He’s just worried about his dear stupid friend."
He turned to Michael. "If you want to see your friend so badly, there he is." He pointed behind him.
Far behind them, Raphael’s shoe lay right next to her body on the ground, twitching in pain.
Michael, shocked by the sight, slowly got to his feet.
"Raph!" Although he had not regained his full balance, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Tch, what a fool." The second man scoffed, then turned to the car’s boot. "What will we do about this body?"
"We dump the other misfit somewhere else as per our orders." The first man didn’t waste any time in dragging the unconscious body out of the boot and tossing it besides one of the trees. "Also..."
He stared at his partner with a fierce and warning look, and his partner understood immediately. "We can’t stay longer than this."
The man immediately closed the trunk of the car, and they both got in before driving away immediately.
Michael reached Raphael’ side and slid into a crouch beside him.
"Raph, Raph!"
Ralph slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurry as Michael came into view. Weakly, he pushed himself onto his knees, trying to regain his strength. "What happened?" He asked.
"Those bastards tricked us, and they left us here." Micheal looked around. "In some kind of forest."
"Forest?" Raphael’s vision finally cleared, and as he looked around, a chill ran down his spine.
"W—What?" He was so preoccupied that he didn’t even realize where exactly he was.He looked to his right, and what he saw petrified him.
A repugnant smell immediately filled the air, and the atmosphere changed swiftly. The clouds turned blood red and thick with the stench of blood.
Dried up bones filled the red soil, several broken skulls formed a heap not far away from him, and the truth became clear to him.
His heart skipped a beat.
Raphael’s body trembled as he tried to understand what was happening, but he couldn’t shake the instinct that gnawed at him.
But Michael on the other hand had experienced first hand, how the forest became after the advent of the atmospheric collapse, so this was something he could easily grow accoustomed to.
"Let’s get out of here quickly." Michael stood to his feet with all the strength he could muster, turned around and began walking away.
"Who knows what kind of animals are her-" Then, he felt a faint tap against the back of his leg.
He looked down, and his heart immediately sunk as he saw the head of his best friend was lying right beside his feet.
Then his blood ran cold.
"R—Ralph?"
Michael slowly turned his head, almost as if his body was struggling to obey him, the fear, the hesitation to actually believe that was Raphael’s head made his movements stiff and uneven, and his head jerked slightly as he looked towards where his best friend lay motionless.
Then, Michael’s pupils shrank as it immediately felt like the weight of the world had finally crashed down on him.
Standing before him was a large, indescribable monstrosity on four massive legs. Raph’s body lay beneath it, while his blood dripped slowly from the beast’s mouth.
"Raph?"
He froze in shock.
Almost immediately, several piercing screams tore through the air, startling Michael at once.
Then, a voice chimed inside his head.
[Welcome to New Genesis!]
[You have been selected to partake in the trials of the Abyss.]
"Huh?" The mechanical voice snapped him out of his fears, if only barely.
"What is this?" His clenched fists slowly loosened as his mind was dragged back to reality and he stared at the holographic panel hovering in front of him.
Then, his instincts went on high alert immediately.
After centuries of hunting, the beasts of the abyss had adapted to the new entrants of the Abyss.
He didn’t need to see or hear them, even as he was a Null, their bloodlust was too overwhelming not to miss.
As the beast took a step forward, despite the great urge to mourn or reach his best friend, the fear in his heart was far greater.
He ran with all his might, each stride he took packed all the power he could muster from his legs. His heart pounded hard against his chest as the growls behind him grew louder.
Sweat poured down his body like a stream as his fears activated every cell in his body, and the wind rushed past his face as he ran as fast as he could.
Then suddenly, he came to a halt.
His body froze, and his eyes shot wide open like he had just seen a ghost.
He fell to his butt, and his body trembled greatly as a huge shadow emerged right in front of him.
The shadow stepped out into the light of the blood moon, and what Michael saw petrified him to his core.
It had a larger, more muscular body covered in dark, rough skin. Its eyes burned with a faint red glow, and its mouth was filled with long, sharp fangs.
Thin streams of dark smoke rose from its body as it breathed. Its claws were thick and curved, shadow into the ground with every step. The creature looked wild and terrifying, like a beast born from the depths of the abyss.
Michael’s eyes were shaking uncontrollably, he opened his mouth to speak, but his words failed him, not after he felt the aura behind this creature.
It was the head of this territory, the Abyssal Tyrant.
Even the beast that chased after him fled the moment it sensed it’s presence.
"S—Someone..." Michael muttered softly, still frozen on the spot.
RAWWWWWWWWW
The Tyrant let out a loud, thunderous roar.
The sound hit the ground like a wave, ripping through it easily, like it was soft butter, and dirt and cracks scattered everywhere.
"Help me..." Michael found his words, then rose to his feet immediately before speeding towards the entrance of the Abyss.
In one leap, the abyssal tyrant lunged forward at him at great speeds in a hot pursuit.
"SOMEONE!!! HELP ME!!!" His pleas were loud, but the screaming from all directions drowned out his.
Tears fell from his eyes as he moved his limbs in a desperate attempt to escape the tyrant, but it was fast, faster than anything he’d ever seen!
Soon enough, the tyrant caught up with him, and it slashed it’s long, monstrous claws at him, pinning him down to the ground with a loud thud.
CRACK!
A piercing scream escaped his throat as he felt his two legs being crushed under the power of the beast, the sharp pain dulled his senses, and he couldn’t feel his legs any more.
The beast leaned in closer, and as they locked eyes, Michael didn’t miss it. The salivating mouth of the tyrant, the long predatory stare that pierced into his soul.
Without any hesitation, the tyrant charged at him with it’s razor sharp teeth and began tearing apart his flesh.
"HELP ME!!!" He felt the raw sensation of his skin being forcefully ripped from his bones, and each bite was extremely painful and excruciating.
As his senses dulled, and the sounds in environment around him slowly faded, as he stared at his mother’s severed head on the ground.
’Why...’ He said in his thoughts as his consciousness slowly drifted away, and the tyrant devoured him.
All his life, all he had ever wanted was the peace and luxury of a normal life. In his previous world, he lost his closest friends, his family, and even after transmigrating he thought everything would change.
But he was wrong, here, not even his father and mother wanted him, and now... He just watched the only friend and person who truly loved him in this world die.
He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes tightly as tears fell as those dreams became nothing but a facade.
The faces of the two men who brought him here? It resurfaced in his mind, and they were all permanently etched in his memory.
"You should have just killed me... You should have just killed me... And now I’ll make sure you pay with your blood..."
"Do you hear me!?" He glared up into the blood red sky, his eyes now filled with anguish and hate rather than grief and fear as he was devoured alive. "I’LL MAKE YOU BASTARDS PAY THE PRICE!"
Then, a translucent blue screen glitched in Michael’s line of vision.
[Ding! Host has met the requirements for unlocking dormant Origin!]
[You have unlocked the Origin Evolution System!]
[System Synchronizing....100%]
[System successfully synchronized!]
[The Origin Evolution System is now live!]
[Dormant Origin has been detected.]
[Analyzing and extracting...]
The next second, Michael felt his body being violently sucked into some sort of vortex. Before he could react, everything around him vanished.
In the next moment, he found himself floating in an endless, pitch-black void, with nothing but darkness stretching in every direction.
"Huh?"
Everything had vanished.
The piercing screams of those being devoured in the first trial, the repugnant stench in the air, the sickening sound of his bones being crushed, and the unbearable pain of being devoured alive, all of it was gone.
It was as if none of it had ever happened.
Michael floated silently through the void when, suddenly, a massive pair of white, glowing eyes opened beside him. They were so enormous that compared to them, Michael was nothing more than an ant.
His eyes wavered at first, but after a minute of staring into the large eyes, his tensed body relaxed. A strange sense of ease washed over him, calming every part of his mind.
Without fear, Michael turned his attention away from the enormous eyes and stared aimlessly into the endless darkness.
Several seconds passed, yet Michael remained motionless, staring blankly into the void without even blinking.
The longer the enormous eyes stared at him, the more he could sense a growing impatience behind them.
Then, a loud voice finally spoke.
"Michael Dreyar... You are surprisingly calm for a human who has met his end."
For a few seconds, Michael didn’t respond, he just simply stared aimlessly, then he finally said. "The pain from all those beatings... Being eaten alive, the screaming, the disappointment... All those feelings, it’s all gone."
His eyes narrowed slightly as he came to a realization. "We always views death as the most terrifying thing that can ever happen to anyone, but now that I have finally experienced it, what do I have to fear when I don’t feel anything anymore? All my life I’ve experienced nothing but torment, pain and suffering, and now for the first time, all I can feel is solace."
The void remained silent for a few moments, then the deep, ominous voice said. "You are less uptight than I expected, human."
"Wouldn’t you know, my guess is for thousands of years, you’ve come across humans with different views here."
"And where do you think here is?"
"Purgatory, where the fate of the dead is judged, or so my beliefs says. And that makes you death, Isn’t that why you’re here?" Michael turned to look at the large glowing eyes. "To take me to the afterlife?"
For the first time, the large pair of eyes narrowed slightly. "I see..." It peered into his soul.
"See what?"
"You have experienced pain and sorrow since you were a mere child, you have peered into the darkness and grown intimate with it at a very young age. Now I understand how you were able to penetrate this space, many tried to but cowered and feared the darkness, but when it stared at you, you didn’t reject it. You stared back."
"Penetrate this space? What do you mean?" Micheal raised a brow, confused.
"I am not death, and this is not purgatory. Michael Dreyar, I have deemed you worthy to carry on my will."
"To carry on your will? I don’t understand, if you’re not death who are you? And where am I?"
"Just like every natural force have it’s origin, like the Origin of electricity is lightning, the Origin of plants is the earth, this force is where every single thing thing or being in existence was ever created from, the dawn of life. No being in existence should have ever been able to penetrate this space, but your affiliations with the darkness, even though little, bypassed that impossibility."
Michael blinked in disbelief.
"I am he who was there in the beginning, and I am he who will be there at the end."
The enormous pair of glowing eyes slowly faded into the darkness, disappearing into the endless void.
Then a moment later, a translucent blue panel suddenly flashed across Michael’s line of vision.
[You have obtained the SSS Talent (First Origin)]