One With The Abyss

As I exited the arena where I had fought the boss and overwhelming tiredness washed over me but Abby kept telling me to stay awake. I hadn't slept for what felt like days; in the dungeon the sun never moved so I could never be sure how long had passed, but with a battered body and the constant threat of death it was a miracle I could even stand. So, when I arrived at the safe room and saw the pure white walls and fancy fountain I simply fell through the threshold, collapsing to the floor.

When I had woken up, nothing was different from how I had left it. I immediately took off my blazer, shirt and tie - all three being covered in filth - and replaced it with the shirt I had gained from defeating the first floor boss monster. It looked gaudy with all the frilly bullshit on the chest and sleeves, but holy hell was it comfortable. It felt as if silk and cotton had a child inside of a dryer full of fabric softener. More than that it was a perfect fit, unlike before when my clothes were far from a comfortable size and I was constantly racked with an unpleasant tightness. All of the clothes I had received were either hand-me-downs or simply sourced from the trash, meaning they barely fit; even the bra I was wearing now was too tight for me to use comfortably, not that I had grown much there to begin with though - I blamed the ill-fitting clothes stifling my potential considering my sister’s impressive growth.

Excluding the pain in my ribs this was likely one of the best sleeps I've had since I became conscious. Though I did wonder how long I slept.

"It was sixteen hours, I didn't wake you since we're safe now." Abby said, "We're safe so you can probably increase your abyssal energy reserves."

I shot up at that, this was one of my major concerns on the previous floor; being unable to maintain my strength. I had so little energy to work with it was a real mystery how I wasn't simply swarmed and killed on the spot. So, now being presented with the opportunity to fix what I saw as my greatest weakness I jumped at it.

"Absolutely, let's get this party started!" I cheered. What followed was me drinking from the fountain again to stay hydrated and then sitting in a meditative position, like when I gathered my energy. Abby explained her primary purpose was to assist me in gathering the abyss but had been withholding the technique to do so since I had no opportunity to try it out, but now she would pass on the technique."

"Okay, n0w, in your head, repeat after me: 💧︎🙵♋︎♌︎♋︎♎︎□︎□︎📪︎ ⬧︎🙵♓︎◻︎◻︎⍓︎ ⬧︎🙵♋︎◻︎♋︎📬︎ ✋︎ ♋︎❍︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎⍓︎⬧︎⬧︎📪︎ ✋︎ ♋︎❍︎ □︎♌︎●︎♓︎❖︎♓︎□︎■︎📪︎ ⬧︎🙵♋︎♎︎♋︎♎︎♋︎ ♎︎□︎□︎" The noises she made sounded like gutteral shouts, inconceivable and animalistic grunts and yet I could feel the intent behind them. It was like something was calling me and I did as she said, repeating the unknowable words within my mind.

"Now close your eyes and repeat the words like a mantra, let yourself be taken in by them." Even after only hearing them once it felt as though they had been ingrained within my brain, something I had known for eternity and soon I felt the world around me become different. I was worried for a moment but Abby gave me her assurance and I opened my eyes.

The sight was dazzling, I sat on an island, suspended in a sea of stars. different colours of glowing lights depicting images of battles and love and loss, appearing and disappearing like phantasms in the sky. Some flew close enough for me to see, planets and stars flying across the universe like a fantastical lightshow. I had seen ogres and slimes but this: The sight of an endless and beautiful world seemed most like a new world to me.

"This is the gateway to the abyss." Abby said, "Existence wraps around it and its power. A never ending display of dominance over the universe" 

Her voice brought me back to the island I was on, around me were 7 imposing doorways with one that was wide open. Inside was nothing, literally nothing, it was a sight that felt like it would send people mad, but I found it strangely comforting. There was no light, no matter, not even any colour. I feel as though I couldn't even describe it since it lacked any descriptive features, the closest I could find was black; and even that felt wrong as what I saw wasn't black - it was merely the absence of anything and everything.

I forced myself to look away from the open gate and walked up to each of the others. They stood imposingly above me, ornately crafted with depictions of power and greatness carved into whatever they were made of. The only difference I could find between them were the words written on them:

Formless

Weightless

Timeless

Dominion

Void

Eternal

There was no further explanation, I could not see what the 1st of the 7 doors said but it was likely just as cryptic and obscure as the others.

"They're conditions." Abby added in, having been silent for a while, "Each word is a condition, a power you must gain to open the gate and allow more abyss through. Besides the first and last gates, they can be opened in any order. You should begin absorbing now, go to the centre and activate your primary talent."

I did as she told me, sitting, once again in a meditative position, and activated my talent. I had decided to keep my eyes open for this and watched as something impossible happened. The nothingness of the abyss extended and swirled around me, eventually, it entered into me. Along my body, purple lines shot through me, I had read many novels where gaining power like this was a painful experience, but it felt as though each of my cells was being pampered in a 5 star resort. I could get addicted to the feeling this gave me. Soon I felt something inside me grow, a place I had ignored previously, the pit within me where I stored my abyssal energy. Feeling it expand made me realise something though, this had always been there, even on Earth this had been within me. For the time being I simply absorbed energy, I built up how much I could hold within me until I felt I would burst and stopped, and was forced to let the tendrils return into the abyss despite my desperate grasping for them.

"Great job Tia, you've done excellent." Abby said, reassuring me of my efforts.

"Why couldn't I absorb more? I'm supposed to be the abyss! Why am I so useless!" Tears began forming in my eyes, yet again I had failed.

"No, that isn't it." Abby quickly cut in, before I could go any further with my traumatic episode, "Your vessel is simply too small, you will grow and be able to gather more in time."

Abby gave some explanation, she answered the questions that had built up within me. The reason I felt I was too full was due to my vessel not being ready, I had merely reached a bottleneck and would overcome it quickly. I panicked at my lack of talent, I had reached a bottleneck after only a few minutes of absorption, but this was wrong too. It had been almost 8 hours of absorption, and for me to reach a bottle neck so quickly displayed how I had already undergone massive growth. I was able to calm down with this but I still had one more question.

"Why did I feel I had this pit thing, even on Earth?" I felt like I was delusional for thinking like this, but apparently not.

"Because you did. You have always been the abyss, what do you think that birthmark is: It's a mark, the mark of the abyss." Abby explained. 

"So my birthmark, isn't... a birthmark?" I asked, slightly confused; this mark was the cause of so much of my suffering, and now I was being told it was related to my power.

"Yes. As you get stronger the mark will get darker." Abby said. I could feel my anger boiling at that point, but I decided to simply let it go. I was a new person, I had power and no one was telling me I was useless, I had the opportunity to live. Nothing I could do would change the past, but I could still shape the future.

"Okay, you'll be able to leave this place just by wishing to leave it." As I was told this I decided to leave, having gotten my fill of energy and the view; what followed was the feeling of a descent until it abruptly stopped and I was back into my body, back in the second floor of the dungeon, with the pain in my ribs entirely gone.

I marvelled at the way the process had healed me so quickly, deciding my injury can’t have been that bad. Eventually, my thoughts went on to how I would progress from here.

"Now what?" I asked, not sure how to advance, sure I could descend further into the dungeon but then I may get trapped on a lower level, on the other hand, the ogres were likely still waiting for me above.

"You don't have to worry." Abby assured me, "You can teleport between each of the safe zones on every floor, even if you get to the bottom floor you can just go right back to the top again in an instant."

This resolved my biggest worry in regards to the dungeon, knowing I could leave as I pleased I was more than happy to descend. It was important to ensure I did this quickly, I needed to get strong quickly, strong enough to fight my classmates, the heroes.

"Incorrect again." Abby interrupted my thoughts, reminding me that she could do that, "The heroes are going to take a long time before they can become a good fighting force, it may take years. Besides that dark lord they're talking about hasn't arrived so there's no rush. Though I doubt he even exists."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm just saying the dark lord probably doesn't exist. The humans are just looking for a reason to justify invading, killing and enslaving members of the other 7 factions."

"Care to explain?" I wanted to know more about this world and Abby seemed to have the information, so I took the time to ask what she knew. Since I was out of danger for the first time since I had arrived on this world I figured now was the best time for a lesson on this world and the things within it.

In this world there are 8 factions, including the humans. Other than the humans there is no real divide between the other 7 factions, some factions don't like other factions and some races within some factions may dislike just one race in another faction, but it is very uncommon for them to fight one another simply for being in another faction. It is always the humans, who believe themselves to be the superior race, who initiate combat. They designed a weapon that emits a light that dampens the strength of all other races, using this they can gain the upper hand against the weakened races, who are usually stronger than they are.

Other than the humans there were: The Titans. The Fae. The Underdwellers. The Fiends. The Hellians. The Beastfolk. And The Aquarians

The Titan faction is made up of races that are exceptionally large, dragons and all their subspecies count as titans, so do the giants and dragonfolk who are equally massive. The Titans are considered to have the highest natural strength of any race, giants tend to vary in ability based on their size (the smallest giants being almost 10 metres tall) while dragons are always powerhouses regardless of other factors.

The Fae faction are greatly connected to nature, most of their races are native to forests and jungles, really anywhere with abundant plants. The most well known of their races are the elves, but the most populace are the goblins. Even within the Fae there are distinctions to be made, between magical and physical. Races like the elves, fairies, spirits and even angels are blessed with exceptional magic ability; meanwhile their physical counterparts, namely the intelligent goblins, orcs and ogres (among others), lack their cousins magic affinity but make up for it in a greater physical ability. However, among the Fae, the physical Fae are often seen as lesser.

The Underdweller’s faction typically resides underground; most of their races are highly proficient with earth, metal and magma magics - as well as any other earth based magic - but lack affinity with any other magics. With their limited but potent magic they often have greater physical strength and an innate night vision ability. The main 2 races that compose the Underdweller faction are the dwarves and the gnomes, but there are many others; such as the cave-dwelling beastfolk such as mole or bat types, and other creatures like the draenei or smarter kobolds.

Next, the Fiend faction is primarily composed of undead, they are the smallest faction due to what qualifies a being to be considered a member of a faction: Intelligence. Since most undead lack intelligence, most undead are not considered to be a part of the faction. So unlike the titans who have small numbers due to human attacks and a low birth rate, they are simply low in number due to most of their species not being intelligent enough to qualify as higher species. Of those that are intelligent enough are higher undead, like vampires, death knights or liches (among others). They excel at dark magic and any others relating to death. One standout among the Fiend faction are the chimaera and homunculi, who are technically fiends despite not being undead, or having almost any of the abilities most undead have.

The Hellian’s faction as their name suggests is made up of the demonic races, these races are exceptionally powerful but fairly low in number due to a dismal birth rate. Their primary ability lies with dark magic, but they have skill in all forms of magic outside of this as well, excluding light magic, which they are considerably weak to. They were the faction most impacted by humanities weapons due to their weaknesses, but are still considered to be made up of some of the strongest races on the planet due to how hard it is to completely kill one due to them having certain abilities that allow them control over the soul. There are many different races that make up this group despite their low number such as: Succubus, Incubus, mind flayers, beholders or even eldritch demons.

The beastfolk faction are made up of half-human and half-beast creatures. They vary on how bestial or how humanoid they are but always have traits from both, they have the lowest magic ability of any faction (including humans) but make up for it in a body that far surpasses many other races, even from birth. They tend to form tribes based on the physical strength of their leaders and if you were to exclude humans they have the highest number of members within their faction. They are so many different beastfolk races that no one person would ever be able to list off each one accurately.

Finally, the Aquarian faction, after the beastfolk and humans, have the highest total members. This primarily comes from how little the 'great war' (when the humans invented their weapons) affected them due to humans not being able to reach where they lived. Despite that, they were often targeted by human slavers due to how naturally beautiful almost everyone from their faction is. It is made up mostly of mermaids and sirens, but also includes the aquatic beastfolk and some intelligent underwater monsters. They obviously excel at water magic (even the beastfolk), but not much else due to never needing it. Why bother learning to fight another way when you always have the advantage.

Each of these factions are much stronger than humans, and once spread out across the 2 continents. However, the humans created their 'holy lights' that severely weakened the other factions' abilities and drove them from Arcadia onto the more barren continent: Gehenna. Those that couldn't escape were killed or enslaved.

What made the humans formidable was not only their 'holy light' but also that they were united. All human nations had become one, led under the king who had banished me and fought against all the other races. None of the other races boasted an empire anywhere close to its size, even now they were fighting over land on Gehenna while a single human nation sat stably on Arcadia. The factions were more just a way to classify races than any real faction or group, especially since a few residencies on Gehenna were made up of multiple races from multiple factions.

"Is there no chance of destabilising the human empire?" I asked, I had vowed to destroy not only the heroes, but also Malleca and her country - not fully knowing its scale - and was only now realising how difficult that would be.

"At the moment, you don't have the strength, but hopefully by the end of this dungeon you will." Abby said, according to her every dungeon adhered to a certain theme and judging from the first floor, this one's theme was either fields, nature or grass. Leaning more to nature due to the wolves and rabbits not having much to do with plants. 

One more thing she reminded me of was to copy the talent of every monster I see, just in case a mutation has occurred and one of them awakened some kind of superior talent than what they normally had.

With that I rested a little longer, seeing just how much my energy reserves had increased. Now I could maintain larger and stronger transformations for far longer; if I were to give my energy a numerical value, which I couldn't since it didn't show up on my status, it would have been a 1 when I entered and risen to a 100 now.

I had seen what I could do so, I regathered my energy and set out into the tunnel leading into my next floor. My new shirt felt comfortable while my dirty skirt and tights were covered in filth.

"Hopefully some new pants next." I muttered, making my way down the stairs, "Though I wouldn't mind some boots or something. These shoes are fucking killing me."