Prince of The Abyss

The first thing Aether noticed was the cold, and just by that, you had to imagine how cold it is. Someone like him, who had a relic made for surviving all temperatures, was cold. Just went to show how freezing it was in this place. That even he was cold. Made him wonder just how Kresis and her people lived here; it was beyond him. She must have either an ability to keep herself warm or her body had somehow adapted to this. If this were the case, he would be very impressed.

The wind slammed into him the moment he arrived, forcing him to plant his feet deeper into the stone platform beneath him. Snow flew through the air without stopping, carried by the storm in every direction. It made seeing difficult, but not impossible.

You had to squint your eyes; that way, you didn’t get snowflakes getting in your eyes, that was just how bad it was. It was annoying, but in no way was it the main thing that caught your attention

The sky above him had no stars.

None.

Not a single one.

Aether looked up for a few seconds, expecting to find at least something, but there was only darkness. An empty sky stretched above the world, yet somehow the Layer wasn’t dark. You could stare for hours on end, weeks even, and you will not find any star, nor was there any sun. Which made sense, all light in this world was gone. Or at least that was what you would expect. But there was still light.

The moon made sure of that.

Far above him floated a massive white moon, larger than any he had ever seen before. Its pale light covered everything, reflecting off the snow and making the entire Layer visible despite the absence of stars.

It almost felt like daytime.

Just a colder and more lifeless version of it.

The moon was huge, but if he had to say, still smaller than the sun, but it wasn’t like it was easy to get to the glory of the sun. Plus, it was weird having light at night; he wasn’t used to it. Plus, it wasn’t like he would have minded if it were darkness; he could just use Eden. And if it were dark, he would have been faster. Speaking of it, did his advantages work? He didn’t feel stronger, but it was night, no sun, only a bright moon. Probably not, there had to be darkness to work, not night.

Aether lowered his gaze.

Only then did he realize he wasn’t standing on the ground.

He was standing on a platform.

And not a small one.

The piece of stone stretched far into the distance, floating high above the world below. Looking over the edge, he could see dozens more platforms scattered throughout the sky. Some were connected by bridges. Others simply floated alone, separated by hundreds of meters.

The wind became stronger.

His mantle fluttered behind him.

Looking further into the distance, Aether could only see more snow.

Snow covering mountains.

Snow covering ruins.

Snow covering structures so old and damaged that he couldn’t even tell what they had originally been.

There was so much of it that the world almost looked dead.

Not destroyed.

Dead.

It was all white, like a lifeless tundra, too cold for anything to live inside, no matter what it is. And there was a very high chance he was right, with such conditions, he would be surprised if this was the reason there was no life in this place. Yet at the same time, it held so much meaning, and at the same time, an unmatched beauty,

Buried beneath countless years of winter, the work of snow falling for ages, never finding a way to stop itself. It may seem as nothing else... but with Layer 1 revolving around humanity’s Denial, it made him wonder if Layer 2 also had a meaning... and he had an idea for one if it was the case.

’Each snowflake, the storm, it all represents humanity’s sins, and how we never stop sinning, continuing to feed a storm while not realizing. Of course, this may just be him thinking too much; after all, there was another theory why it was an endless winter, and that wasn’t hard to figure out.

The storm never seemed to stop.

The snow never seemed to stop.

The wind certainly didn’t.

Everything about this place felt hostile; who knew the dangers beyond if this was the first? He didn’t even want to imagine how many monsters he had seen; he’s beyond it. He never wanted to see a monster for the rest of his life. Even if he knew that was an idiotic wish, that would never work, he still wished.l

It was like the Layer itself wanted people to leave, and it was to be understood, from the first second you enter, you can figure out that this is definitely not a place for humanity to live, if he had to say, it was probably one of less human copatible places he had seen in all his time as a Reader, but also among the books he had read as a child..

Aether looked toward the horizon, trying to see where this frozen world ended.

It didn’t.

The Second Layer stretched endlessly into the distance, disappearing into walls of snow and darkness.

For a moment, he almost forgot about the Demon of Dread.

Because standing here, looking at this place, one thing became very obvious.

If something powerful enough to rule this Layer existed...

Then it wasn’t going to be easy to kill, but it was never like he had ever thought that the Demon of Dread was going to be someone easy to kill. He had no idea how he was going to win; he just knew he had to.

The second Layer was some sort of gateway between Layer 1 and Layer 3, where the Demon of Dread lived. His theory, it revolved around human sin, and if what the women had said was right, then the monsters were really strong in this place, meaning he was going to have to be really careful.

Aether sighed. People were talking, his first step forward, almost falling, but he regained his balance. It was hard, moving was one thing that he never expected to be hard, but in fact it was, and it was going to be the death of him.

Then he took one more step, getting more used to it. Or rather, learning to deal with it. That way, he wouldn’t need to take breaks each time.

He walked over to the bridge, finding himself hesitant, since this was really dangerous. Looking down was a deep sea, somehow not frozen, yet one that he couldn’t survive due to his lack of swimming abilities. Swimming was something he had not learned, and here it was yet again, causing problems for him. If he had learned it, maybe he wouldn’t have to be this careful, but either way, his goal was not to get pushed off, and that wouldn’t have changed if he knew how to swim.

Aether took the first step, finding the bridge slowly moving under his feet. If he hadn’t been in this state of mind at the moment, he would have had a lot of words to say, and most would have been curse words, but with his mind broken, the only thing he was focusing on was getting to the other platform; crossing the bridge was his priority.

Yet as he continued walking, he found the bridge moving more and more under his feet, making him have to balance himself after each step, which was not only something hard to do, but also something that he could get wrong, and if he did, it was over; he wouldn’t be able to regain himself mid-step.

Yet even with the difficulty, he still found himself close to the end of the bridge, ironic, since there were so many more, and he was struggling at the first, but really, the only reason he had even gotten this far was that he had been concentrating; if he had lost it once before, he would have most likely fallen down.

Yet as he raised his foot for one of the last steps, the bridge moved under him, making him step wrong, and for the whole bridge to move sideways. His eyes widened as he tried to grab onto something, but before he could, he found himself falling straight first into the cold waters. Was there really nothing for him to do? He tried to think of a way, but he wouldn’t find one. The only thing was half control, but the Abyss would have never let him use it.

...

He was going to have to find a way to survive once he hit the water, which was going to be hard to do when your drowing, but there was nothing else.