Prince of The Abyss

Aether took a deep breath, eyes darting around through the many trees. He had to focus, or he would never catch this guy. And if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have anything to eat, so it was a necessity to do so.

It’s been a whole week since he got sick, but his immune system was able to get rid of it in the morning of the second day. That was to be expected, I mean, the Abyss probably had something to do with it.

Kael had been really surprised; he didn’t understand how his body healed up, after all, he was in very bad shape before.

And even after he was all good again, he insisted on staying and resting, but he wanted to get back to his normal life. It angered him, having to stay in bed all day, doing nothing, knowing that he could be getting stronger.

With winter still heavily on them, they needed food, so at the moment, Aether was trying his best to hunt a wild deer, since I guess there are other types of deer in this world. It was just that it was a lot harder than he thought, I mean, this shit was fast as heck.

He didn’t know what the reason for it was, whether it was because he was just inexperienced with hunting, or because this world had really fast animals. But he couldn’t catch this thing, plus it was good at hiding.

Aether clenched his fist as the deer revealed itself, but he wasn’t looking in that direction... so he wasn’t able to see it.

Luckily, though its shadow was just a little slower, and even more, it had a white outline, so he was able to see where it went, quickly chasing it.

[Eden] was actually not a bad ability at all; he didn’t expect it, but it was.

Now behind the deer, Aether threw Voidpiercer at it, but the damn animal dodged to the right just before the blade got to hit it, nearly escaping.

’Damn it, just my luck.’

Aether quickly retracted his chains in a second, getting Voidpiercer back in his grasp.

The deer took a left, jumping over a big bush. He couldn’t go through it, so he had a way to get past it and fast. Could he jump over it? Maybe, I mean, he wasn’t that athletic, he never was, but at the same time, he was an Echo rank.

But why the heck would he do any of that? Like, come on, think for a second.

Aether went around the bush, which did slow him down, but because of his skill, he could grasp the direction the deer went, and got right back on its tail.

It really was hard chasing an animal in its natural habitat, even more in a place he wasn’t used to at all. Aka a forest.

It was strange that he never really got used to forests.

He didn’t go to any in his childhood, but I mean, why would he? He lived in the capital, and in the castle, why would he go to one, and plus, there was a good distance between his home and the closest one.

And the Withered, while it was a graveyard, it wasn’t a forest. He did have some time; he went inside the forests inside Frozen Crown, but instead of having Praise kill Chaos and save Elpis, he didn’t do that much.

The Tides were also, of course, not a place where he would find a forest, I mean, he didn’t understand it fully, but the Tides meant to be underwater. I mean, coral was around, and yet, there wasn’t water around in the air.

Weird, really weird.

But I mean, he already knew that the coral was born from dead humans.

Either way, Aether threw Voidpiercer at the deer, and after a while of running after the damn animal, he hi-... no, he missed again.

”Damn it!” And this time, he didn’t get to see where the animal was. Losing their long battle.

He lay down on the snow, hitting the ground.

It took him so much time to find one, and he was exhausted from following it for so long. So, of course, he was angry.

Plus, it meant that he didn’t have anything to eat.

He sighed.

...

There was also the fact that he hadn’t gone this far in the forest... so he didn’t really know where he was... yet at the same time, he didn’t have anything better to do, and plus he wanted to calm down, and going back to the dojo did the opposite. So he just decided to go wander around.

He pushed himself up and walked without any real direction, weaving between the trees with no goal in mind. After a while, the ground began to dip slightly, the snow thinning just enough for dark lines to show through. He slowed, following the change, until he came upon a small river cutting through the forest.

It was frozen solid, narrow and uneven, ice layered over itself in dull sheets. Snow filled the edges where the water had once pressed against the banks, leaving the river half-buried but unmistakable. He knelt and brushed a bit of snow aside, confirming what he already knew. No water. Just ice.

The trees stood the same as everywhere else, crowded and silent, their branches weighed down by winter. Nothing opened up around the river. It simply existed, carved into the land and forgotten.

Aether stood there for a moment, breathing slowly, letting the cold settle into him. His frustration hadn’t vanished, but it had dulled. Hunger remained steady and unpleasant.

He followed the river’s line with his eyes, thinking.

...

It was nothing special, just a small river... but it was strangely calming.

He knelt down, putting his finger on the ice, feeling its cold hug his finger, before standing up again and continuing his walk.

It was just that the river wasn’t the only one. Not a while from walking, he found another; it was basically parallel to the first, it just leaned a little to the side.

’Hm?’

And the two of them weren’t the last, they continued, each tilting even more... he knew something was up, it was as if they were all pointing to something, as they all led to one point.

And his theory proved true, as he continued to walk, but he intentionally started walking in a circle, finding a river that was directly opposite the one he first found.

There was a massive circle of rivers all leading somewhere.

He knew he was going to have to go there.

He knew it was important.

So he decided to follow the rivers.

Slowly, he made his way walking opposite the river. And watched as the more he walked, the bigger the river began to be.

And in the end, the river opened up... to the bottom of a waterfall.

The sound was the first thing that returned to him.

Not because it was loud, but because it was impossible to ignore. A steady presence, heavy and unbroken, filling the space without demanding attention. Water fell endlessly before him, a vast sheet descending from somewhere far above, vanishing into mist long before its origin could be seen. It did not crash. It endured.

Aether stood near the base, close enough for the air to cling to him. Moisture settled into his clothes, into his hair, but there was no sharp cold to it. Just a quiet chill that soaked in slowly, dulling thought rather than stirring it. The mist drifted lazily around him, soft and pale, catching what little light filtered down from above.

The pool below the waterfall was wide and dark. Its surface was never still, constantly disturbed by the falling water, yet it felt deep in a way that went beyond distance. Old. Patient. Stone curved around it in smooth, worn shapes, polished not by hands but by time. Every ledge glistened faintly, reflecting light in uneven, broken patterns.

He looked upward, though he already knew he would not see the source. Light slipped through cracks in the stone far overhead, thin and scattered, enough to outline forms but not sharpen them. The world here refused clarity. Edges softened. Details blurred.

The air was clean, almost empty. Each breath felt fuller, slower, as if his body remembered how to rest here. Even the sound of the water seemed fixed in place, never rising, never fading.

...”What?”

How was this... possible? How was he back here? And why did all the rivers lead him here?

How did this place even exist? After all, it was a place inside his dream, so why did it look identical... it didn’t make any sense.

And wasn’t this waterfall just an illusion in his dream, Anger trying to trick him, so how did it exist, if in the end?

What on earth was this waterfall?

What did it mean?

And how was it able to appear in the real world?