Prince of The Abyss

It had been a long fall, one where he had kept his eyes closed for most of the time. It wasn’t something you should do, but drowning was one of the things he feared, since he knew that there was a low chance of escaping it. So he couldn’t keep them open.

The moment his body fell into the water, he felt himself being captured by a coldness he had never seen, one cold enough to make a Bearer relic lack the ability to contain it. It was not an easy feat, but inside a Seeker Titan, it might as well be something not out of the ordinary.

Aether kept his mouth closed, keeping inside him the air he had taken before landing in the war. Though he had already been holding his breath for some time, since he hadn’t known when he was about to hit the water, he had to improvise, taking in the air some time before.

Though now inside the water, he forced himself to open his eyes, yet there was hardly any chance, as the water was completely dark... the only exception was the white light below him, which he was falling straight into.

Squinting his eyes, he put his hands in front of him to block the light from burning his eyes. Yet at the same time, he felt himself needing more air. He had no idea what the light was, but he needed to get to it now.

He was struggling, he really was, to hold his breath, but with each second he got closer and closer, until his finger touched the white light.

...

...

Once he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the ground, in the snow. Yet here it wasn’t so cold anymore, or at least for him and his mantle. Aether quickly stood up, shaking off the snow from his body.

The first thing he noticed was just how much calmer the wind was here; the difference was like day and night. Speaking of it... Looking in the sky, the sun was here once more. Which was strange, not only was it not here before, but how would it be here in the first place? And even more, not even the Tides had it, so why did this place feel like the real world so much... was he still even in the Layer 2?

If he had to say, Demon of Dread had to be the most confusing world out of all the ones he had been inside, he would go as far as to say it was more confusing than any of the worlds his master had been in. Its world was so complex and confusing, and it didn’t help that most of the things that were mysterious required you to be dead, or that only a few had been to them. That way, he couldn’t get any information.

And not only that, the shadows here really were one of a kind, not even paying attention to him sometimes. But with what monsters and humans were inside this world, who knew what shadows he was talking to, who knew, he might as well have talked to the shadow of a Harbinger, of course, it wouldn’t tell him anything. In its eyes, he was nothing compared to its master.

The only world he could say compared to this was Frozen Crown, but not when it came to the world, but in terms of mysteries, that was where Demon of Dread was beaten, as the hidden things in Frozen Crown were mysteries of the past, buried deep. And there were many, and he doubted that he would find information for any of them lying around in a library or something like that.

For example, his blade... he had never heard of it, not even the original sword it was made after, yet it knew so damn much, and it didn’t want to tell him anything, because its master didn’t allow him. Wasn’t he his owner, who was this master of his, and why did it not wish to tell him everything? There was so much... and to find the answers to all these mysteries, he needed to keep going forward.

Aether sighed, looking around, he saw a wooden winter village in front of him. Snow is covering the roofs and streets of the village. It was nothing special, just a small village like any other; he would even say it looked identical to some he had seen.

Though walking inside, instead of seeing humans, he saw something else... some weird humanoid creatures, completely white. No facial features. At first, they reminded him of Denial... and the more he looked, the more they really looked like that damn bastard.

When he made eye contact with one of them, he expected them to attack him or pull him into one of their world. So he instinctively tried to cover his eyes with his hands, but nothing happened. They just stared at him. So he lowered his hands, confused. Walking closer to them, one approached him.

”Outsider?” The beast spoke, yet it felt like more than one had talked, since its voice was multiple overlapping voices. It was weird, really weird; it was as if one of these beasts was a whole chorus.

Though he didn’t panic, it would have been hard for him to do that in this state of mind; he hadn’t panicked while falling into the one thing he knew he couldn’t survive, but he would randomly panic because a monster had multiple voices.

”Yes, I’m an outsider.” What he didn’t expect was that after saying that, he would make all the other beasts listen to him. It was surprising how they all turned to him... wasn’t it obvious he was an outsider?

”I see... You must know your kind is rare in this place... what do you wish for, outsider?”

Aether didn’t respond instantly; it was a simple question he knew the answer to, but it also made him question himself beyond it, one of the questions that his answer had been completely broken after the war in the dies, what he wished for...

Shaking his head, Aether finally responded. ”I wish to find a way inside Layer 3. And kill the Demon of Dread.”

Once he said his wish, many of the beasts gasped, as if they hadn’t expected him to say that name. Yet, they didn’t seem displeased by his idea... which made him wonder what their relationship was with the Demon. If the beasts, the Demon of Dread controlled, didn’t like him, what did this all mean? After all, they weren’t attacking him now. Did that mean that perhaps the monsters never wanted to attack humans... and it’s only because the Demon of Dread was controlling them that they did so.

The beast put its hands on its chin.

”Interesting, though for that, you must get our trust, stray.”

Aether raised one of his eyebrows. Had the beast called him a stray? Well, it did make sense if you thought about it; he definitely was not in the right place; he was an outsider, and even beyond that, he knew. I thought he was a human from the real world, but little did he know, he wasn’t even a person from this world. He was as much of a stray. All Readers were strays if you thought about it. But it was still weird being called that.

”And how do I gain your trust exactly?”

Aether calmly said, preparing itself.

”This part of the world is home to emotions and memories, mostly of monsters and humans who have died. To gain our trust, you must perform a ritual, you must go to the forest of grief, and collect the names of five dead humans; only then would we consider you trustworthy.”

Aether’s eyes widen... bring the names of five people... was he trying to say that he had to see the memories of five humans and carry their burden with him? He really didn’t know if he was fit to do that at the moment; after all, he could hardly keep his mind from breaking again, with all the guilt he had inside his mind. But to carry the emotions and sorrow of five more people.

Was he really going to be able to do that? Was he strong enough to keep his mind whole while seeing the grief and memories of five other humans?

...

Though he really didn’t have anything better, he needed that information.

”I’ll do it.”

The beast nodded. ”Good, though I must warn you, when witnessing the suffering of the dead, you will see a worse version than the original had felt. What you will see is worse, but once you do, they will be all righted to rest... It’s why we do this. We can’t help them ourselves, so we need outsiders to help them. So be careful.”

...

”Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed... don’t forget who you are, if you do, then you will die with those memories, and the dead human will never find peace.”