Prince of The Abyss

Stepping beyond the door, Aether stopped as Lilith stepped to his side.

Freedom chuckled. ”That’s the last boss... It’s not that strong... just a Seeker Demon.”

...

’What!’

Aether instantly turned his head towards Lilith. ”Are you serious? And they expect the students to beat this thing?”

Awakened that have reached the Seeker rank are meant to kill other Seekers, but at the same time, rank mattered a lot; it made them much stronger.

And an example of this could be from when he was a Reader: the Orc king and one of the little creatures that he had trained Kael with. Both Readers, yet one was a fragment and the other a Titan.

Sure, while this one was only a Demon, and not a damn Titan, it still mattered. He was only able to kill the Orc because he had Kael and Lucien with him, and even then, he only won because of a trick with Erosion, and it was also night. He had barely won then.

And sure, while not, he was also a Beast himself, and he had Lilith with him- this... is going to be beyond anything he has ever actually faced.

Could they do it?

...

Lilith tilted his head. ”No, they don’t. Killing this thing is rare, after all; it’s really strong for most Seekers... after all, for one to reach the Demon Rank themselves... it’s very hard, almost unheard of... I’m not sure if anyone has done it before... so without a proper team, only Bearers should be able to kill this all alone.”

Freedom cracked its fingers. ”We passed the moment we finished the last room, but we are here for a record, and to do that, we have to kill this... It had taken me a while with Iris, and more importantly, I got quite hurt.”

He raised a finger confidently. ”However, I was weaker back then; now not only am I close to Enlightenment, but I’m also a Beast.” He closed his eyes, expecting praise, but it never came.

Since why would it... should Aether be proud that he had reached the Beast Rank? I mean, he was at the same rank as him, and he has been a Seeker for far less time than him.

...

Though it is interesting to see just how much faster he had climbed up the ranks, because he had only taken on books with powerful opponents.

...

Aether sighed, looking at the monster. ”I see... also, I think it’s time to address the elephant in the room: why is it standing still... shouldn’t it be attacking us?”

It sat still, almost as if it was passive, which it definitely was not; just one glance, and you would know this wasn’t a harmless beast.

Standing on two legs, each ending on hooves that were almost broken off, one even dangling down from the foot, with the muscles still connecting it fully visible. Its knees were bent, which was why it allowed it to stay on two rather than four legs.

Though, looking at them, they looked severely damaged, as if it had fallen multiple times on them, trying to stand up... though this is where things got worse.

The torso... if I can even call it that, was fully exposed: no fur, no skin; the ribs were fully out, most broken, some even missing, with worms crawling on them. Its organs... also didn’t look normal; they looked almost melted combined together just so there was something there. Its belly also seemed to be infected by little worms, biting holes into it.

Yet it didn’t seem to mind at all.

...

Its arms were long, really long, to the point they reached the ground, yet there was almost nothing on them, just pure bone, and what looked to be larvae. However... its hands and claws. If it wanted, it could probably capture a whole human head inside, probably two if it really tried. Its claws had to be at least a metre long.

Its back was crooked; its spine was never intended to be in that position. Its neck was long, and covered in scars and muscle sticking out, as blood flowed out. At the end, a deer head was connected, with two antlers on its head; one seemed to be slowly eaten by larvae, as the other had almost fully gone.

It only had one eye, as the other had been eaten, and its mouth- all its teeth were fully out, as only its mandible was fully out, the skin and muscles that were supposed to cover it completely gone.

Lilith scoffed. ”Isn’t it obvious? We haven’t crossed the imaginary line put by the teacher here to start the fight?”

...

Aether looked dumbfounded at Lilith, not mad... just a bit disappointed. ’He was really... gone insane.’

Lilith’s smile fell as he saw this, sighing, he said. ”Don’t worry about dying; you only do this in this challenge, you will be back in the real world.” He said, a smirk appearing as he took just one step forward.

...

A step that activated the monster. ’Wait, there was actually a line?!’

Aether watched as Lilith dashed forward, his marks already glowing. ’Damn it.’ He cursed, running to help

...

Facing the monster face to face, Lilith delivered his punch, only to be caught by the monster with its big fist, its claws slowly digging into his arm. But his smirk didn’t disappear, as another burst of energy escaped his fist, making the monster stagger back, its hand just slightly damaged.

Seeing the opportunity, Aether quickly ran behind him, summoning his affinity from both his hands and wrapping them around its neck.

Groaning, he used his strength to pull back the monster, giving Lilith an opportunity to strike, but just as he was about to, the deer broke his chains, making Aether’s face fall, and it dashed out of Lilith’s punch, giving it an opening. Roaring, it prepared to stab him with its claws. So Aether stepped forward, blocking it with Voidpiercer, but the monster was too strong; he had even heard the blade crack, just a small bit, before it was launched from his hand; if it weren’t for the fact that Voidpiercer was connected to his arm, he would have a hard time getting the blade back. But before he could worry about that, Aether had to get out of the way.

So he ran, but the monster followed... and this time it was faster. He felt its claws approaching from behind, ripping his head from his shoulders, but before it could.

Lilith appeared from above, kicking down its arm with a powerful blast of energy. Seeing this, Aether quickly used his manifestation to bind it to the ground, immobilizing it. And giving Lilith just enough time to deliver another strike to its face. Making its mandible hang off.

Even with it almost fallen, it screamed, breaking the chains that bound its arm, before hitting Freedom into the wall with its fist.

’Shit.’ Aether said, as the beast now directly faced him, and going back, he felt the wall. He had nowhere to go, so as the monster’s claws approached, he used Erosion, his body turning into a shadow, for barely enough time for him to walk through the monster and escape.

Yet the moment he turned back, he fell to the ground, in pain... it wasn’t so bad as it was as a Reader... but it still made it so he couldn’t move. The beast turned its head to him, growling, but because it was paying him too much attention, it didn’t notice another kick from Lilith, who was bleeding from his head, and whose smile was gone.

... After the kick, only one thing was heard... its mandible hitting the ground.

It stood frozen, allowing Aether and Lilith to take a quick breath... and for Aether to get over the pain of Erosion... if he wasn’t in a fight, he would have been very surprised by the fact that the pain had stopped so quickly, maybe even mad, since he had trained so much to endure it as a Reader for it to not even be close to what it was now as a Seeker.

...

It screamed, enraged, as it dashed forward, swinging its arms around. Almost completely out of thought. Desperate... which only made things worse... beasts who were desperate to survive and kill were the most dangerous, as they completely forget about anything around them, the only thing that matters being killing you.

They were going to have to be careful, really careful. If they weren’t, who knows what would happen... well, it was pretty obvious: death awaited with each small mistake that they made.

...

But he wasn’t going to fail here... he was going to kill this thing, no matter how close he got to death; after all, he wasn’t actually losing his life, so why did it matter?

And he was sure Lilith thought the same... as much as they didn’t like each other, they both wanted to get the record; maybe their reasons weren’t the same, but did it matter?

When have the Forgotten and Freedom ever had the same reason to fight?