Prince of The Abyss

He was covered, his body paled from the cold snow, and he shook near the fire lit up by Kael. When he was young, after he had his fun in the snow, one of his maid would come and either put a warm bath for him with a class of hot cocoa, or just get someone to heat him up with their affinity. But now, he had to share a fire.

And worst of all... as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he had lose their battle, he didn’t know how, but this damn guy had an incredible aim, to the point where he got hit by everyone single one of his snow balls, and he was hardly able to touch him... so it is to say that he got destroyed.

It had hurt his ego slightly, after all, he wasn’t used to losing, and definitely not this badly.

...

Maybe he has been losing a lot recently if he thought about it... and there had definitely been a lot worse times like this. I mean Denial made him jump from a height that made him stay in the air for a while before he barely escaped death.

But either way, what he was trying to say was that this old man was the real deal. When it came to being precise and having fast reactions, he was extremely talented, which worked well with a rapier. Which is a weapon that requires accurate attacks that hit your opponents, since if they don’t, you’re left wide open.

So he had to say, his self-proclaimed title became more real for him, maybe he really was the master of the rapier, just maybe, he hadn’t seen him wield a blade yet, so he couldn’t just suddenly trust him and admire him because he was good at throwing snowballs.

But in his eyes, Kael had gained some respect.

A tiring day it had been indeed. Really, snowy days are always the worst, plus, knowing that tomorrow he was going to have to clear the snow around the dojo made him want to scream, so exhausting and annoying, since he had to do it in the cold weather.

It made him wonder if he was even going to be able to sleep with that thought in mind, that tomorrow he had a tiresome job that was going to make him regret everything.

But the truth was that he very much could; the moment his head rested on the bed, it wasn’t long until he completely fell asleep, still clenching Voidpiercer. If he were awake at the moment, he would have been worried that it had become some sort of habit. Sleeping with Voidpiercer in his hand.

...

...

It had been a while since he had a dream, since he always was so tired when he went to sleep, his brain didn’t have the energy to give him a dream, or maybe just because his mind was blank most of the time he was sleeping, but he hadn’t had a dream since he started working for Kael.

But it seemed as if tonight was different, as he realized that he was inside a dream at the moment. It was nice, since it meant his body was getting used to this cycle, and maybe soon enough, he would be able to dream again.

After all, dreams do help. Or at least they did when he was a kid, he hadn’t thought about them since, not because he didn’t care about them, just that he had something more important to do the next time, at the moment, the only thing he had to do the next day it clean some snow, so he could expiernce a dream just like he used to.

And as he had said, they used to help him quite a lot. Whenever he had a happy dream, he would be a lot happier the next day, a lot more energetic and communicative, but when he had a nightmare, he didn’t talk all that much; he didn’t have the energy or drive to do so. It made him wonder if it was going to be the same with this dream.

The first thing he noticed was the sound.

It was not violent, not a roar meant to overwhelm, but something constant and heavy, like the world breathing in long, steady exhales. Water fell in an endless sheet before him, a towering curtain that stretched far above his line of sight, disappearing into mist before it ever reached its peak. Each drop struck the pool below with quiet authority, sending ripples that crossed and faded, over and over, never stopping.

He stood at the bottom of the waterfall, close enough that the air around him was thick with moisture. His clothes felt damp almost immediately, clinging lightly to his skin, but there was no cold in it. The water did not bite. It wrapped the space in a calm, muted chill, the kind that made the mind slow down rather than tense up. Mist hovered in the air like pale breath, drifting lazily, catching the faint light that filtered down from above.

The pool at his feet was wide and dark, its surface constantly disturbed by the falling water. Despite that, it felt deep, ancient, as if it had existed long before anyone thought to name it. Stone surrounded the basin in smooth, curved walls, shaped not by tools but by patience. The rock was worn down into gentle slopes and shallow ledges, each one slick with moisture, reflecting dim light in uneven patterns.

Above him, the source of the waterfall was hidden. Light slipped through cracks in the stone far overhead, thin and scattered, giving the place a soft glow rather than true brightness. It was enough to see, enough to exist, but not enough to define clear edges. Everything blurred slightly, as if the dream itself refused to sharpen its focus.

The air smelled clean. Not sweet, not earthy, just pure and empty, washed free of anything unnecessary. Each breath felt deeper than usual, like his lungs had more room here. Even the sound of the water seemed to adjust to his presence, never growing louder, never fading, staying exactly where it needed to be.

The waterfall dominated his view, a wall of motion that never changed yet was never the same from one moment to the next. It felt significant, though he could not say why. Not an enemy, not an obstacle, but something to be witnessed.

Standing there, watching the water fall endlessly, he felt smaller than the world around him, yet strangely safe within it. As if, for the duration of this dream, nothing expected anything from him at all.

...Strange, but at the same time quite relaxing, he felt as if he could stay there for eternity in the safety of the water, without anyone to harm him.

Yet at the same time, he felt a weird sensation as if something was wrong, as if there was more to this dream than he could see with his naked eyes, but since nothing spoke out to him, he had decided to acknowledge that, though, and relax.

His guard finally lowered for the first time in a while... I mean, he never let it down with his Rebellion, and neither after it, inside the Tides, and definitely not after his first fight with Denial, plus, this was the first time he let it down since he arrived here, so the last time he could remember lowering his guard had to have been probably Frozen Crown.

And... it hadn’t been the best of his ideas, maybe he should have kept his guard up, as the water begun to stray from its usual path that went straight down, and a figure apeared from behind the waterfall, walking through the water, as if it was something he owned, and it almost seemed so, as the water listened, not daring fall on him.

Aether stared completely dumbfounded. This was not something he had expected when he let his guard down in his own dream.

A black figure stood in front of him, with a slight blow on his body, just like Denial had.

And it wasn’t just that, there were a lot of similarities between the two, yet they were’t the same person. Denial was pure white, and this one was pure black.

So...

Who was he?

I mean... for someone to be in your dream, you have to have seen them before; if you didn’t, your brain wouldn’t be able to create them. It isn’t that powerful to just create a person; they just use others you have seen in your life.

So for this guy to be here, he had to have seen him before.

He didn’t remember ever meeting him, so just how was he standing here in front of him, like nothing was strange, like everything was normal?

As if this was where he belonged.

He knew something was bad the moment he saw the similarities with Denial.

He knew this bastard had to be important.

And strong.