[Location: The Abyss – Layer 1: The Ash Wastes]

[Time: Unknown]

Avoiding the changing winds, their journey began.

One man and one maid, alone in the terrifying abyss

They had been walking for hours. Or maybe days. In a world without a sun, time was just a measurement of pain.

Damien leaned heavily on Isabelle's shoulder. His boots dragged through the grey ash. Every step was a negotiation with gravity.

"Just... a bit further," Damien wheezed.

He was lying. He didn't know where they were going. The compass on his System Map was spinning wildly, unable to find North in a dimension where magnetic poles didn't exist.

"Rest, Master," Isabelle said softly. She wasn't even out of breath.

"Your heart rate is spiking."

"If we stop," Damien muttered, clutching the useless hilt of the Pantheon Sword, "we'll freeze."

CLICK.

The sound was soft. Like a dry branch snapping.

It didn't come from their feet rather it came from the fog of ash swirling around them.

Isabelle stopped instantly. Her ears twitched. The horns on her head hummed, sensing a vibration in the air.

CLICK-CLICK.

"Something's here," Isabelle whispered.

She stepped in front of Damien, pushing him behind her back.

From the gloom, shapes emerged.

They were Abyss Stalkers.

Damien recognized them from the textbooks, though he had only seen a mutated prototype in the mines. In the flesh, they were nightmares.

Size of a tiger. Skin like wet obsidian armor. No eyes, just a massive, tooth-filled maw that took up half their face.

They moved on six legs, scuttling silently across the ash.

There were six of them.

They weren't looking at Isabelle. Their eyeless heads were swiveling toward Damien. To them, his leaking Celestial Life Physique smelled like a beacon of fresh meat in a world of rot.

HISSS.

The Alpha Stalker drooled, a thick purple slime hitting the ground.

"Meat..." the creature hissed, its voice a mimicry of human speech it had likely heard from previous victims.

"Sweet... meat..."

Damien's instinct took over. He reached for his sword.

"Stay back!" Damien roared, trying to channel his aura.

He drew the Pantheon Sword.

But there was no golden flash. No dragon fear.

The heavy crystal blade dragged in the dirt. His arm trembled under its weight. Without mana to reinforce his muscles, swinging the sword was like trying to swing a telephone pole.

The Stalkers sensed the weakness. They chattered excitedly.

SCREE!

The pack lunged.

Three of them sprang from the left, three from the right. They moved faster than the eye could track.

Damien tried to lift the sword. He failed. He watched the razor-sharp claws of the Alpha descending toward his throat.

'I'm going to die,' Damien thought. 'I'm going to be eaten by trash mobs on Level 1.'

BOOM.

The world turned purple.

Isabelle simply stomped her foot.

[Gravity Magic: Event Horizon.]

A shockwave of crushing gravity exploded outward from her body.

The three Stalkers on the left were instantly flattened. Their exoskeletons shattered with a sickening crunch as they were pressed into the ash by ten tons of force.

The Alpha Stalker, caught in mid-air, was yanked down. It slammed into the ground face-first, its legs splaying out.

"Don't touch him," Isabelle said.

Her voice wasn't soft anymore. It was cold. Imperious.

She raised her hand.

On the surface, Gravity Magic was exhausting. It drained her mana reserves everytime.

But here? The Abyss wanted to be heavy. The mana in the air rushed into her core, fueling the spell before she even finished casting it.

She felt infinite.

[Gravity Art: Black Hole Crush.]

She clenched her fist.

The space around the three flattened Stalkers twisted. The gravity intensified until the air itself screamed.

SQUELCH.

The three beasts were imploded. Bone, armor, and flesh were compressed into a ball the size of a watermelon.

The remaining three Stalkers screeched in terror. They scrambled back, realizing the "prey" was actually a predator.

They turned to run.

"I didn't say you could leave," Isabelle whispered.

She snapped her fingers.

FWOOSH.

Purple-black flames erupted from the ground, encircling the fleeing monsters.

It was Hellfire, fueled by the dense atmospheric mana.

The Stalkers shrieked as the fire ate through their obsidian armor like paper. They thrashed, burning alive, until they were nothing but piles of ash.

Isabelle stood in the center of the carnage. Her hair floated around her, lifted by the sheer density of her aura. Her red eyes burned.

She walked over to the Alpha Stalker, the only one she hadn't killed yet. It was pinned to the ground by gravity, whimpering.

Isabelle looked down at it.

"You wanted meat?" she asked.

She summoned a dagger of solidified shadow.

SLASH.

She decapitated the beast in one smooth motion.

She knelt down and dug into the creature's chest.

Her hands came away covered in purple blood. She pulled out the Monster Core, a pulsating, jagged stone of dark energy.

She stood up and walked back to Damien.

Damien was leaning against a rock, staring at her. He looked terrified. Not of the monsters, but of the sheer gap in their power.

Isabelle wiped the blood from her cheek. The demonic glow in her eyes faded back to a soft warmth.

"Master?" she asked, her voice returning to its usual gentle tone.

She held out the Monster Core.

"It's not cooked," Isabelle said apologetically. "But it has mana. If I filter it... it will help you recover faster."

Damien looked at the bloody stone. Then he looked at the girl who used to be afraid of her own shadow.

He realized the truth of the Abyss.

Here, she wasn't the outcast. She was a Queen.

And he was just the thing she kept alive.

Damien reached out and took the core. His hand brushed hers.

"Thank you, Isabelle," Damien whispered.

He looked at the dead Stalkers.

"We need to keep moving," he said, gripping his sword.

"Before the smell of blood brings something bigger."

Isabelle nodded. She offered him her arm.

"Let's go, Young Master. I'll clear the path."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.