Prince of The Abyss

Opening his eyes again, Aether found himself in an empty field.

For a few seconds, he simply stood there.

The grass stretched endlessly in every direction, rolling gently with the land until it disappeared beyond the horizon. It wasn’t tall enough to hide someone, only reaching a little above his ankles, but there was so much of it that the entire world seemed painted in different shades of green. Here and there, small patches of white and yellow flowers broke the sea of grass, swaying together whenever the wind swept across them. A giant field, very different from where he had been put in before, the jungle. Still, it was beautiful... was it normal in Wonderland for things to be this beautiful? If so, then he couldn’t wait to explore.

And the wind...

It was strong, something he had not expected, but since there was nothing to shield them from it, it was a bit annoying; at least his hair was short for the moment; it would be annoying to feel it flying in his face. But he missed it... Maybe it was going to make a return... it was just that he had forgotten to get a hair tie...

Though while strong, it wasn’t enough to knock him over, but enough that it never truly stopped. It rushed across the plains in long waves, bending the grass flat before letting it rise again a second later. His mantle fluttered behind him while loose strands of hair danced across his face. ’Even with it short... my bangs are getting in the way.

It almost sounded like the ocean, which was very surprising, since there was a big difference between an ocean and just the wind. But at the same time, this world was made out of stories; it was as much a Fantasy world as it could be. So why not believe that it did sound like an ocean...

Just... greener.

Aether closed his eyes for a brief moment, letting the wind wash over him.

’...Peaceful.’ The way the wind blew, it was relaxing... really relaxing, almost like he didn’t have any worry in his life.

It wasn’t silent.

Far from it.

The chirping of countless birds drifted through the air, some soaring high overhead while others landed among the grass before taking off again moments later. He wondered just how they were able to fly in this wind.... Should he get some lesson from them? ’Was that what the wonderland was trying to say to me? That no matter how hard he should just keep going forward.’ Aether scoffed.

Rabbits occasionally darted between patches of flowers, disappearing almost as soon as they appeared, while herds of deer wandered farther away, calmly grazing without paying him much attention. Butterflies floated lazily through the air, carried wherever the wind decided to take them, and somewhere in the distance he could hear the faint buzzing of insects hidden beneath the endless grass.

It was a field with animals, which was unexpected... yet at the same time cool to see; after all, it had been a while since he had seen so many. Living inside the Withered, you wouldn’t see any because... they wouldn’t even last a day. And in the Blue Rose... I mean, imagine a pig inside that place; it didn’t make any sense. But that’s the thing, the Kingdom didn’t have a natural place for animals; it had to buy... but it wasn’t like it was short on money.

It also went to show just how big the Withered is.

Interestingly... there were no monsters.

At least... none that he could see.

It almost felt too peaceful. And he was right; he only had to look.

Then his eyes wandered farther ahead.

’...What the?’

Far beyond the open plains, rising from the ground like a second moon that had fallen from the sky, was a gigantic half-sphere.

It dwarfed everything around it.

Even from this distance, its size was impossible to comprehend. It didn’t move once, untouched by the wind, its surface hidden beneath countless layers of swirling dark clouds that slowly rotated around it.

There were no openings.

No cracks.

No glimpse of whatever rested inside.

Just clouds.

An endless shell of clouds.

The sunlight reflected off them, making the enormous sphere shine faintly against the blue sky, almost unreal, like something that shouldn’t have existed.

Aether couldn’t look away.

”...Now that’s interesting. Isn’t it, Sena?” He turned to the girl, who was dumbfounded... yet he had a feeling it wasn’t for the same reason as he was... Why? Because she was staring at him and not the sphere. ”What?” He said, confused.

Fate blinked. ”Aether, do you not have an anchor?”

Aether tilted his head. ”I should? I don’t even know what an anchor is.”

...

Nova burst into laughter. ”Then you should have paid attention to class, dumbass.” She couldn’t stop laughing. Aether just stared, his jaw dropped. He closed it, before frowning. ”You were the one who told me there wasn’t anything important!”

She scoffed. ”Well, everyone knows what anchors, or the only way you wouldn’t know what they are is if you are a newly ascended-”

...

She stopped, remembering that in fact, Aether was a newly reborn Seeker. ”Oops.” She said, sticking her tongue out and winking.

Aether clenched his fists, but before he could do anything, the girl spoke out again. ”I’ll tell you the fundamentals; until then, let’s walk to that sphere.”

Aether stood still for a second, before sighing, letting go of his anger.

While walking, Sena started to explain to him how everything worked. ”In the Wonderland, after finishing a book, you are able to claim it as your anchor, your domain. That way you can come to it whenever you want; it’s also a place where you can create and invite whoever you want; it’s almost like your own civilization.”

She pointed to the sphere they were walking to. ”These spheres hold stories; they are gigantic, but they are even bigger on the inside, much bigger, but not infinite; that’s the Difference between the Wonderland and the Infinite Library: you don’t have access to the whole world, the majority only, the important places.”

’Which probably makes it harder to get a high rating when you finish... or at least that’s how I see it. After all, if you have access to the whole world, you can try to do whatever you want. But at the same time, I can see why it is preferred over the Infinite Library.’

The Wonderland was gigantic; it held so many stories, and more importantly, the anchor thing, it was very interesting. It made it so you can have your own kingdom or civilization.

”Can you find someone else’s anchor?” Aether questioned, and Sena nodded.

”You can; it’s just hard to find them in the wild because of how big the world is, but you can go to their anchor by thinking of it when you enter, if you have permission, that is. Though, there are some powerful civilizations, mostly owned by the Kings of the world, that all can access.

’I see.’

There had been a lot he had not known... he really did regret not paying more attention in class, but what made him even more confused was how Avius didn’t teach him this; after all, it was his job to do so.

...

’Oh wait, he did... I just wasn’t paying attention at all.’

...

’Oops.’

...

The distance between them and the sphere had been a lot bigger than what he had expected; it had turned night until they reached it, but they were finally here, and it was... gigantic.

Aether turned to Sena. ”What now? Do I just touch it with my hand?”

Nova nodded as she slowly approached him, resting her arm on his shoulder. ”Mhm, but only look at the Class and Rank; it’s useless if you also look at the description, only if it’s a Seeker, and above Fragment.”

So there were Reader stories here?

Aether shrugged his shoulders, putting his hand on the sphere.

[Class-Reader]

[Knowledge rank- Beast]

’A Reader... useless.’ While the rank was good, it didn’t matter, since they couldn’t get any sync from it either way.

Turning to Sena, he gave her a thumbs-down.

She sighed, but then smiled. ”Then let’s rest for tonight. I don’t see any other nearby, so we will have to walk a lot. We need the energy.”

Aether stared at the girl, confused. Was this really the same Sena he knew... when had she become responsible? She couldn’t be real.

Noticing this, she flicked his forehead. ”I’m not an idiot, you know. I can be serious when I need to and want to. I can put in an effort. Now let’s go; we need to get some sticks for a fire.”

Watching Sena start walking, Aether stared from behind. ’Maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought it would be. Looks like my teammate isn’t like how I thought she would be.’