Prince of The Abyss

As Aether continued to navigate the maze, using the shadows inside the place to his advantage, he sometimes took small glances back at Lilith, who looked... very happy. He was jumping around almost like a rabbit.

”What’s wrong with you?” Aether bluntly said, which made Freedom raise a brow in confusion. ”What? I’m just happy that I will be breaking the record if this continues. This ability of yours really is something, you know? This is much easier than when I was with Iris.”

Aether rolled his eyes as they stopped at a small crossroad; there were about four ways they could go. Normally, something like this would be bad and very hard to navigate, but not for him.

He sighed, turning to one of the shadows. ”Which way?” The shadow instantly looked him in the eyes, raised its finger, and pointed to one of the directions. ”Thanks,” Aether said calmly.

If he was still a Reader Fragment, then this would have been really hard, since he would have had to see if the shadows were lying to him, and he wouldn’t have known when to listen to them. But now, since they couldn’t lie unless they were loyal to their master, which was rare, especially to lost ones, and shadows that have never had a human owner, that wasn’t really a problem; he could trust them.

Still, he really did hope he would finally get another ability soon; I mean, it’s been years and yet he still only had one. Even though he was a Seeker Beast. Sena had two abilities that he knew of; who knows how many she actually had, and this guy probably also had more than two. It wasn’t fair at all. Plus, unlike them, his thresholds didn’t help. His were the type that made him weaker. Which was just annoying; like, what luck did he have?

But after so much time, he had gotten used to it.

...

The maze had been huge. Hard to navigate? No, at least not for him, but the thing was that it had still taken some time because of the sheer size; it made him wonder how much time it had taken Lilith and Iris.

He wondered if Lilith could just blast through these walls, since for him that was the first thing that came to mind, and whether Iris could have made him stronger.

”Here we are,” Aether said as he looked at the two doors that had opened in front of them.

Lilith stepped to his side, putting his hand on his shoulder. ”That was really great, you know? Too bad this ability couldn’t help you stop my killing spree when it came to your little rebellion.” He winked.

Walking over to one of the doors, he called out to Aether before the door closed behind him.

”We will be alone on this one; hope you can handle it.” And then the door closed. Aether tilted his head. ’Still underestimating me, you just said I was a great support or whatever, and that I can fight on my own.’

He sighed. ’I really can’t understand that guy.’

Walking through the other door, Aether watched as there was nothing... that is, until he used Eden, and with it, he saw these things clinging to the walls. ’Huh... interesting.’

He chuckled, gripping Voidpiercer. ”You know, for monsters that rely on surprise attacks, you sure aren’t better than the others I’ve faced!” He laughed. And he had a reason to; if these were Seekers, then it was truly disappointing. After all, he had failed to spot a Reader Fragment back in Demon of Dread while using Eden, so they were getting outclassed by that.

He could hear the monsters growl as they detached from the walls, going on all fours. They had tails, very long tails that seemed to be covered in scales like lizards... ’Though the saws at the end aren’t very lizard-like.’ They had six legs, each ending in sharp spikes, piercing the ground so they could walk. They also had these holes in their backs that looked like little volcanoes filled with a green liquid... if that was acid, then this was going to be quite hard. Their necks were long, connected to an eyeless face filled with teeth.

’I should probably summon my armor.’ As the first approached, Aether summoned his mantle. As they started to jump him, the acid on their backs flew out. Seeing this, Aether instantly ran away, watching as the acid even ate a small bit of the walls, meaning it had to be powerful.

Before he could think of the next thing to do, out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the six monsters try to jump on him from his side. Turning instantly, he used his chains to wrap around its neck, gripping the chain. Even with his core hurting a bit from using his manifestation for so long, he began to swing the monster, throwing it into the others.

As the monster flew towards its friends, Aether lifted Voidpiercer and threw it into its stomach.

The monster groaned as the tip pierced it... but yet again it hadn’t killed it. It was the second time Voidpiercer had failed to kill something instantly, maybe because the monsters were finally the same class as it... but this meant fights wouldn’t be as easy.

While some of the monsters moved out of the way before the injured one could hit them, two of them didn’t manage to get away, getting trapped by their friend.

The other three roared, running towards him. Aether retracted Voidpiercer back into his hand, using it as a barrier between him and one of the monsters that had jumped onto him; it bit down on the blade as the others started to slowly approach.

Aether clenched his muscles, throwing the beast away, before manifesting his chains to wrap around the head of another. But before he could kill it, he had to dodge the attacks of the other, yet the damn beast wouldn’t give up. Every time he dodged, it kept attacking, and with the one he had attacked slowly getting close again, and the other two pulling the injured monster off of them, he needed to do something.

’This is going to hurt.’ Aether let the monster bite his hand, using the moment to transform the end of the chain connected to the neck of the other monster into a sharp point, running it straight through it and killing it.

As it fell to the ground, the other he had thrown jumped to him, reacting out of instinct; Aether lifted his leg and hit him with his friend. As the two monsters flew, the other two that had been trapped attacked. Aether groaned through the pain in his leg before looking up for a second and throwing Voidpiercer into the light, plunging the room into pitch darkness.

...

Darkness, where he was stronger.

Disoriented, the monsters had no way of knowing where he was; they had no eyes, no ears, and no nose, only teeth. While he could see perfectly with Eden... and was much stronger now.

With his enhanced speed, Aether managed to pierce one of the monsters before kicking it into the other injured one, and using his chains to kill its friend.

It was like day and night when it came to how hard this was... he knew how many buffs he had in the darkness, but still this was outrageous. Running to the last two, which had been thrown together by the kick, Aether pierced both with Voidpiercer, before pulling the blade out and thrusting again, and again, until they died.

...

His breath was heavy as the door finally opened. ”I did it!” He said happily, before walking to the door. ”And quite fast, if I have to say, I probably did it first-” As Aether entered the other room, he saw Lilith already there, unharmed, and covered in blood.

Aether slowly made his way to his door, looking inside at something that could only be described as disgusting; he didn’t even want to talk about it. You could imagine what was inside.

Lilith chuckled behind him. ”You know, with Iris I had to quickly break the wall so I could help her. It’s good to not have to worry about that.”

Aether rolled his eyes. ”Yeah sure... now how long do we have left? Is this the last room?”

Lilith quickly nodded. ”The last and hardest, though it shouldn’t take that long. We have a high chance of breaking the record.”

Aether walked past Lilith to the door. ”I don’t care about breaking a record; I just want to get out.”

Lilith laughed. ”You sure? If you get a record, you get a pass for two whole theory seasons.”

Aether’s eyes widened as he heard that. He wouldn’t have cared that much for this one; he couldn’t fail... but the next, if he got the record, it could mean he wouldn’t have to go to this class at all...

Aether smiled, turning back to Lilith.

”Well then, what are you waiting for, dumbass? We’re wasting time.”