Prince of The Abyss

He was getting close; he knew it. He felt it. After all, he was back in the same field he had been in before. Gripping his blade carefully, he made his way through it, his guard up; after all, he knew that at any moment he could be attacked, and he had no intention of being caught off guard.

After all, he had no idea what monsters could be around, other than the Breaker Titan, so a mistake could be everything; it could mean his life. A lot of the people from the expedition, from what he heard, had been killed by monsters.

That didn’t mean there weren’t strong humans, but still there were more strong monsters than humans inside the Wonderland.

Inky flew above him in the air, looking around with its ability to sense anything that may be important.

It felt weird... he knew that there was a big chance this was never going to work, but at the same time, after so much time he had spent, time that felt... as if he wasn’t doing anything, time where he had slept, eaten, and walked, all over again, he really hoped this was finally going to be over soon.

He was tired, really tired.

Time had passed fast, true, but maybe too fast, and too boring; outside of helping Aeriel, he really hadn’t done anything... this expedition had been nothing like he had expected, really.

Not even close.

Before, when he was with Lilith, he felt as if they were going to wander the different stories forever, trying to find more people. But instead, the only thing he saw were posters of his people getting ripped after they died.

It was the only piece of entertainment he got outside walking. Seeing who had died and who hadn’t.

Seeing how the number slowly got lower... a big part of him felt as if they were close to the end; funny, just not the end he wanted if he didn’t get out and find a way to help the people still inside the Wonderland, then.

...

Everyone was going to die.

It felt unreal to believe; he now understood how Lilith felt slightly, how his brain just didn’t process how people he knew well were just dead now. Even for Freedom himself, he... still couldn’t believe that if they were able to get out, he wouldn’t be there after.

But it was true; he had long been dead now. As well as Orion, and many other people that he knew... some even from his home Kingdom, some of his old friends, ironically, since he felt worse for the former than the latter.

But at the same time, both Lilith and Orion are more recent, so of course he was going to be slightly biased, but when he thought about it, he didn’t spend that much time with them when he was a child, as he usually just hung out with Sofia; he didn’t think it was just recency bias.

The worst-case scenario... it was pretty easy to tell, but even so, he hadn’t thought about it at first, believing that meeting the Breaker Titan was the worst thing that could happen, which was really bad; he wasn’t saying it was a good outcome.

But the worst... was far simpler... that he just couldn’t leave. Since he really had no idea what to do after that. After all, he had been out of ideas before, and the only thing that came to him was getting out and maybe getting help from outside, so if even that was impossible, then he really just had no idea.

What was he even supposed to do? He didn’t have the strength to fight against all the stories in this place, and even if he did, it would do nothing, as more and more would appear just to do the same thing. It was useless. So if he couldn’t fight against the people to save the Readers, then what could he do?

’Funny... well, actually, it’s not amusing at all.’

Was he just supposed to let it happen? I mean, if he did, it would be simpler; everyone was going to die, including him, and that’s it. Over.

But what kind of ending would that be? After setting and ending so many books, was his ending really going to be this? Letting himself die out of helplessness, and not just him but all these Readers, are their endings really going to be this... useless?

He had so much to do back in the Withered; his plan had just started, and his Anchor was going just fine. And Inky is evolving well; he had so many things he wanted to do, so was he really going to just let them go?

...

’Let’s just hope the worst-case scenario won’t happen. Give me a break for once.’ Aether sighed as he felt something trembling from under his feet, stopping in his tracks. He gripped his blade tightly; after all, it was similar to the feeling he had felt that day, just a lot smaller.

”Monsters...” He said, looking around, trying to see where they came from. But after a bit of thought, he closed his eyes, since Eden was faster. He waited patiently until he was able to sense the souls of the monsters under the ground... the only problem was that there were three of them.

’Fine... I guess I could use this as a test to see if I’ve gotten rusty against monsters...’ As the first of the monsters emerged from the ground, Aether stepped forward, thrusting his blade into its scales.

...

...

...

But to his horror, Voidpiercer just bounced right off, not being able to get through the scales of the monster. His eyes widened as he pulled back, as the other two monsters also came out. Looking at them, they seemed to all be the same species.

The... overgrown lizards, with hair over their eyes and scales everywhere, with little spikes coming from their back. Opening their mouth, it almost made him sick, seeing human remains stuck between their many sharp teeth.

It was a horror sight... even more so knowing he had just failed to attack one of them.

Looking at Voidpiercer, he gripped the blade harder, thinking that it might have just been a one-time thing. The monsters didn’t wait, jumping him.

’I have an uneven fight!’ He thought, as he used erosion to pass through them, twisting his body towards them as the skill stopped, and thrust the blade into one of the monsters, but yet again.

Nothing.

...

Even more, looking at Voidpiercer, the tip was... broken. He paled, just staring at the blade, only realizing a moment later that one of them had jumped to bite his head off. Putting the blade between its teeth, Aether tried to push it back hard, but it didn’t take a while for him to realize that, in reality.

He stood no chance in a battle of strength, and even more, if he continued to try to win this fight, the others were going to attack him.

’I finally understood why so many died to these damn beasts.’

Abyssal matter flowed from his finger into its mouth, erupting into spikes, making him stagger back and barely dodge the attacks of the other two. He was lucky for his speed; if it wasn’t for it, he would long be dead right now.

Summoning his bow, Aether quickly created an Abyssal Arrow, firing it at the monster, only to see it just fling off its scales.

...’ Damn it, there’s no way this thing is anywhere close to a Seeker class... there’s no way I can win against it, let alone three of them.’ But what else could he do but fight?

The bare minimum for these beasts was Bearer, and in no world would a Seeker ever be able to beat three Bearer monsters, of course. Again... he hated to keep bringing it up, but this wasn’t Frozen Crown; that was a very special case.

He only beat what he killed because of Praise or Voidpiercer being a direct counter, which made it a lot stronger than it was against any normal beast.

But if he couldn’t fight, then what could he even do?

Backing up slightly, he checked on Voidpiercer, who had cracked even more from the battle. But sadly for him, he was going to have to use it again to block one of the monsters from biting him, pushing its head away with the blade. Aether watched as another jumped him, getting on top of him and making him fall to the ground... but to his surprise, the ground fell away beneath him.

Pushing the monster away midair, he landed on his side, getting up fast before they could get on top of him again. Taking a quick look around, he found himself in some sort of tunnel... if he had to say it was probably built by the number of monsters that lived underground...

’Which is in no way good news!’

Aether clenched his teeth as the monsters also landed, ready to resume the battle. But before they could, he felt a giant ball of fire pass by him, hitting them and burning them, making them run away.

Turning around, Aether saw a group of people...

...

He recognized one of them... Elise.