Abyss Draconis

A gradual descent into silence.

Slow...silent.

Thoughts fading away.

Words dispersing.

And eventually, the count of his breath began fading away along with it all.

The sensory grasp of the air stopped.

To enter meditation is to feel the world fade away completely. Like sleep—except you remain conscious.

After endless times of cultivating Apex Energy and meditation, Ryuk was already used to this phase of the training, reaching the perfect meditation state in a little less than ten minutes.

Something that shook Kiyona's heart.

Not like it was impossible for one to descend faster into a meditation stage, but because it was difficult for one who had yet to start cultivation to find a way to let go of his thoughts so fast on his first try.

But all of it was to her advantage.

Her hands reached and held the side of Ryuk's head, her nails brushing against those silky white strands, a sensation of extreme softness—but she ignored this sensation.

Her mind instead focused on her hands as she began channelling Aetheris energy.

Silvery white aura began blooming around her fingers, wrapping around Ryuk's head like a cocoon.

"Feel the Aetheris energy in the air. Feel it in every strand of existence around you," she whispered softly into his ears, like the words of a demon in the ears of a sinner.

And Ryuk, through the silence of it, first felt the sensation.

The warm energy that rested on the side of his head—but then this energy began changing, acting as a form of conduit that seemed to call on a force.

His eyes squinted as he tried to see this object, but the more he tried to feel it, the more he felt himself grasping for it—the farther it seemed to fade away.

Kiyona, from outside, could see the stress on Ryuk's face, the realization dawning on her, and she whispered:

"Don't. Don't force it."

"Just hang with it."

"Keep conscious of it and exercise patience. It will reveal itself in time, and then you chase it to wherever it may lead you."

"The key is not to rush, but to wait patiently," she whispered as Ryuk stopped trying to 'see' whatever it was.

Instead, he now chose to silently wait, and as he continued silently waiting.

Keeping conscious of the energy, he then began to notice the world changing.

It was a simple manifestation through the darkness.

A beautiful blue petal—dots of light that faintly ran through the darkness.

Ryuk's mind tried to reach for it, but then...

"Don't force it." The words echoed in his head as his arms—reaching for the dots of light—halted in the air and then slowly retracted back.

"Don't force it," he muttered to himself—and that was when the darkness changed completely.

The instant he decided not to chase after the singular dot, they suddenly swarmed from behind.

Hundreds of thousands of dots that began slipping out into the darkness, instantly drawing his attention as he watched them increase and increase even more.

His eyes marvelled at the sight of the aura that was secreted by the pure energy—but he made no movement to ruffle it.

Watching as the blue dots increased, swarming into each other—not with randomness, but with a defined form and intent. And then, Ryuk watched as they seemed to beckon to him through the darkness.

In a large swarm, they all began heading in a clearly directed path through the illuminated darkness.

"It will reveal itself in no time, and then you chase it wherever it may lead you," Kiyona's voice rang out in his head—and finally, Ryuk got his affirmation to follow.

Unlike before, when it seemed so difficult to reach out, this time it felt like he was gliding through the air—simply following the dance of those dancing motes of blue.

And after traveling for as long as he could keep count...

He felt a brilliant light in the distance.

Like one traveling through a dark tunnel which suddenly opened to the outside world in the end.

Attention-grabbing, as Ryuk made his way forward, calmly—yet his heart jumped faster the closer he got to the open hole.

And when the blue dots of energy entered—and Ryuk followed in...

It was the sensation of weaving through a portal.

When next he opened his eyes...

Ryuk's jaw dropped to the ground.

"What the hell?"

The first word that came to him was an ant standing in the sky to look down on humans.

Right now, Ryuk was standing in the sky—to look at what was below him.

But what was below him was nothing normal.

Below was a realm. A realm of dark and blue.

A realm of interlocking tunnels—each larger than Ryuk by thousands of times and seemingly trailing for kilometers.

From these tunnels, Ryuk could sense shimmering runes that glittered on their scaly surfaces, shining with such powerful light that completely illuminated this realm.

It was the same as the Void Veins—except about a thousand times huger.

But what was most shocking about it all was… Chains!

They were ginormous, darker chains that locked tight the tunnels of blue, their pitch-black light covering the blue energy that was seeping out from the veins.

In fact, the blue lights that filled the realm were like the tiny residual rays that somehow managed to slip through the cracks of these huge devilish chains, something that shocked Ryuk speechless.

'These… these are no doubt my Mental Veins.'

'But why? Why are they all chained up!?'

Ryuk mused to himself in shock—and in the next instant, the world before his eyes cracked into nothing like glasses—and then...

"Ahhhhh!"

A deep inhale left his lips as he opened his eyes to the sight of the blue sky, his heart weaving up and down as if he had just run a marathon—but then, a face appeared at the edge of his vision, looking at him worriedly.

"Hey, Ryuk. You okay?" the voice asked as their hand reached for his cheek—only to be grabbed at the last second, and they withdrew it.

Ryuk slowly rose up from his lying position into a sitting position, groaning a bit as his head pounded within his hands.

"What went wrong with you?"

"Went...wrong?"

------

A/N:

If you're enjoying the novel, consider voting the novel with Golden Tickets and Power stones. It helps I, the author, with visibility on the Webnovel app.

In and Out_SnowySmoos