In the crushing darkness, silence was heavy.

Thump... Thump...

The sound of stone feet impacting marble echoed through the sanctum.

The Weeping Sovereign was circling above them. She moved with the patience of a deadly assassin, inevitable and crushing.

Damien and Isabelle lay flat on the cold floor, their chests pressed against the stone to stifle the vibration of their heartbeats.

'Do not speak,' Damien's voice echoed directly inside Isabelle's mind, carried by the Contract Gem embedded in her soul.

'If we even whisper, she'll sense the air move. We can only talk through the contact gem.'

Isabelle gripped his hand tighter in the dark.

'Master... she is close. I can feel the sadness in the atmosphere being directed closer and closer to us.'

'Focus,' Damien commanded mentally.

'She hunts by detecting even the smallest of movements; to beat her, we must become ventriloquists.'

'Ventriloquists?'

'We need to throw our voices,' Damien explained.

'But instead of sound, we'll throw our Killing Intent.'

He squeezed her hand.

'Isabelle. Visualize you're your inner demon. Ball it up into a dense sphere of emotion. Then... throw it to the pillar on your left.'

Isabelle hesitated. Her demon blood roared, wanting to lash out at the monster stalking them.

Although this anger had always existed since she awakened it, but thanks to Damien by her side she always calmed it down.

To tell her to focus it somewhere, for someone who had been learning to control it for over sixteen years, this was easy for her

With this in mind, she projected it twenty meters to the left, toward a massive stone column.

SCREEEEEE!

The Sovereign shrieked.

She felt the spike of "emotion" near the pillar. Believing her prey was hiding there, she lunged.

CRASH!

The sound of pulverizing stone thundered through the dark. The floor shook as the Sovereign smashed the pillar into gravel.

'Move,' Damien ordered. 'While she's distracted.'

They crawled forward. It was a nightmare of sensory deprivation. They couldn't see the floor. They couldn't see the dais.

They only had the sound of the Sovereign thrashing in the debris behind them to guide their path.

A second passed, and the Sovereign realized she had missed.

She let out a psychic wail that battered against Damien's mental defences like a physical hammer. She stopped hunting specific spots.

HUMMM.

A wave of heavy, grey energy pulsed from her body. Petrification Aura.

Damien gasped. His body, already weakened by the Abyss, locked up. His joints stiffened as the gravity around him increased tenfold.

'I can't move,' Damien projected, panic edging into his mental voice.

'My body is failing.'

Isabelle gritted her teeth. Her demon physiology was stronger, resisting the pressure, but even she was slowed to a crawl.

'We are only ten meters from the throne,' Isabelle replied.

The footsteps stopped. The Sovereign was listening again.

Damien made a decision.

'We won't make it stealthily,' Damien projected. 'I will be the bait. You take the mask.'

'No!' Isabelle screamed in his mind. 'She will kill you!'

'Trust me. Go high. Aim for the neck.'

Before Isabelle could argue, Damien released his mental hold.

Unlike before, this time he no longer hid.

Instead, with the little mana he had refined through Isabelle, he unleashed his aura wildly.

In this abyss where regular aura and mana were non-existent, he shone like a blue and black flashlight in the dark

Not only that, but he also unleashed the full weight of the Greedy King's Intent right where he lay.

ROAR.

The Sovereign turned instantly. Even in the dark, Damien could feel her eyeless face lock onto him.

She rushed him. The sound of her approach was like a landslide.

"NOW!" Damien shouted aloud.

Isabelle lunged.

Using the last reserves of her strength, she leapt into the darkness, aiming for the height of the creature's shoulders.

THUD.

She impacted the stone back. Isabelle wrapped her legs around the Sovereign's neck, hanging on as the monster thrashed wildly, trying to throw her off.

"Get off!" Isabelle grunted, reaching around the massive stone head.

Her fingers brushed cold marble.

The Veil of Stone.

The Sovereign bucked, slamming Isabelle into a wall, but the demoness held on. Her fingers hooked under the thick stone blindfold.

With a roar of exertion, Isabelle ripped it off.

"LIGHT!" Isabelle screamed.

Damien didn't hesitate. He snapped his fingers, channelling a spark of raw mana into his flame ability copied from Isabelle.

Z-Z-ZT... FLASH.

A blinding light flooded the sanctum.

The Sovereign froze.

She was mid-swing, her claws inches from Damien's face. But the moment the light hit her exposed eyes, the Quantum Lock engaged.

She saw everything: the room, Damien, and even herself.

CRACK.

She turned to stone instantly.

In turn, Isabelle fell from her back, landing hard on the marble floor, clutching the heavy stone blindfold to her chest.

The Sovereign stood frozen above Damien, a permanent monument to her own defeat.

Silence...

Silence returned to the Garden. A true silence this time.

"We... we did it," Isabelle panted, holding up the artifact.

Damien lay on his back, staring up at the frozen monster. He started to laugh, a dry, wheezing laugh of relief.

"Good job, Isabelle," he whispered. "Bring it here."

Isabelle crawled over and handed him the Veil of Stone.

The moment Damien's fingers touched the cold, rune-carved marble, a shockwave went through his body.

[Ding!]

The familiar blue screen exploded into existence in his mind's eye. But it wasn't glitching. It was crisp, clear, and golden.

[System Alert: World-class plot item.]

[Item Identified: Veil of the Weeping Sovereign.]

[Analysis: This item contains the Divine Law of "Stillness."]

[System Rebooting... 100%.]

[Update Complete: Adaptation to Abyss Laws Successful.]

[Reward for securing Key Plot Item: 100,000 Destiny Points.]

Looking at the sudden notification, he couldn't help but be confused. Before he could analyse it, a new notification suddenly flashed red.

[New Feature Unlocked: Trans-Dimensional Link.]

[Contract Gem Upgrade: Remote Possession & Intent Transmission available.]

VWMMM.

The Contract Gem in his soul flared.

His vision blurred. The dark ceiling of the Abyss vanished.

Suddenly, he wasn't in the abyss anymore; instead, it was as if he was seeing through someone else's eyes.

….................

[Perspective Shift: Lyra – Surface World]

The sky was burning. The smell of blood and ozone filled his nose.

He looked down (through Lyra's eyes) and saw his own hands holding a broken mana bow. He looked up.

A massive Golden Dragon Banner fluttered in the smoke. Beneath it, Void Cultists were chanting.

And behind them, the foot of an Ancient War Titan smashed through the outer wall of a fortress.

Not only that, his vision was suddenly blocked, a blade, an Imperial Knight's sword, was swinging down toward Lyra's face.

*Fuck!*

Cursing outloud, Damien's vision snapped back to the Abyss.

His real eyes, one golden and one black, narrowed behind his mask.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Damien whispered, a terrifying coldness entering his voice.

He stood up, clutching the Veil.

"Isabelle. Get up. It seems there's no time to rest."

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