Shadow of the Abyss

"Your Life?" Azura said slowly. "What would Mephisto want with your life?"

"Probably nothing, or probably everything; perhaps he owed my Mother a favor. I did hear that a favor from Mephisto is like a wish, second only to the Almighty and the Abyss."

A steady stream of cold air slipped from Azura's lips. A cold, scarlet fury burned across her eyes. She had never been one to mince her words and held the same expectation for others, whether they wanted to or not.

"The Council of Omnis" —Azura veered up a little— " He said that they wanted my head for some reason. Perhaps it has something to do with that."

"He explicitly mentioned the Council of Omnis?" Azura pressed.

Altair nodded to assure her. "Yes, he said I am forbidden from using that… ability of mine before he resurrected everyone around me, even the buildings that fell in ruin. Makes you wonder… doesn't it?

"What?"

"You wanted me to burn the Fiftieth Floor of Babels Tower before the Eye of Heaven and Hell. Your exact words. How do you expect us to accomplish that when a precedent has been set within the tower? I destroyed a mere city, yet Mephisto not only resurrected the people but also the city."

The flames in Azura's eyes dimmed. "Precedents have been known to change."

"Is that true when Mephisto is involved?" Altair stifled his laugh at the sudden flames in the Goddess of Rot's eyes.

"Why tell me this?"

"You ask… And it's not like I can lie." —He touched the Mark of Cain—"Well, It's really to keep me alive. I was warned if I used this power again, he would personally kill me."

"And this power is?"

"No idea… It just manifested, and everything turned colorless." Altair admitted, vaguely recalling that day.

If not for the Mark of Cain, signaling truth, Azura might have dragged him into the Lake of Rot. She stared at the boy, her heart telling her of a trap or perhaps something there that wasn't there… a warning. 'And yet, how could a boy set a trap against the likes of me?'

"Did he mention anyone from the Council? By name, perhaps."

Altair didn't have time to think. Zariel hadn't named anyone by name, but… "The Archon of Bios was mentioned. What is Bios, by the way?"

At the mention of the Archon of Bios, rage bore its fangs in the form of a blow that sent Altair back into his body in Almore. He jerked, eyes snapping to Medusa's concerned face so close he could feel her breaths across his lips.

"Your cheek…" she caressed it. It was swollen and red as if the sting of his soul and body had been attacked all at once. She smiled before her palm broke contact with his face. "She's not letting go."

Altair looked down wryly at Raven, clinging to his body like a spider monkey, refusing to let go, arms stretched wide around his chest. It had been months since he saw the young girl, yet she was as beautiful as when he first saw her. A bit dirty, but nothing that couldn't be washed away with a simple bath.

'I wonder how Zariel is going to use the Archon of Bios. Can he simply just use one of the strongest people of the Myriad like that? The Archon is surely to be on the Omnis Ranking.'

'You underestimate the Silver Devil,' the voice of the Vale King returned. Palatine and cold, it sounded through his mind. "If we can only hear the thrumb of the Weave. Can you imagine what would happen if someone could manipulate it?'

Altair shook his head, trying to get him out of his mind, before trying to look at his System.

[Ding]

[Godhand has destroyed THe Origin System]

[Reinstallation will commence in Sixteen Imperial Hours]

Ice penetrated Altair's chest like a knife. "Medusa… can you see the System?"

To his horror, Medusa said, "It's not just you or me. Everyone caught in the colorless blast lost access to the Origin System." she aided him to his feet. "Come, let's get you cleaned."

She ushered him to his room, drawing a bath alongside Tasha and Alyssa while Therion acted as a guard outside. Altair couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he was stripped, Raven still clinging to his chest, fast asleep to care about anything.

Mindfully, Altair made sure not to go so deep as not to accidentally drown the clinging woman. He sighed, looking up at Medusa and Tasha, "Can any of you two destroy the Origin System?"

"The Origin System, Your Grace," Tasha said, "comes from the True Source that gives us the elements, dao, and concepts alike. It comes from the… Hell, I'm not even sure. At our level, I cannot even imagine the level of power… No, that wasn't power. That was something else."

Medusa nodded. "Gods at the peak typically don't seek physical strength or higher forms of energy as that comes to them naturally. Instead, they seek Authority and Attunement. Attunement from the Hells, the Heavens, and the Primordials."

"The Primordials…" Continue reading at empire

"Yes…" Tasha said, gently pouring a bowl of hot water down his shoulders to clean the dust and ashes from his naked form. Medusa did the same for Raven. "Primordials are creatures that possess a True Source. No one Primordial can exist in their true form. Their true bodies stand above the Myriad Heavens, either outside of it or at its infinite peak, grinding their blessing."

"That is why no one practically wants to be enemies with a Primordial. They themselves aren't too powerful. In fact, they are weak as avatars. Very weak. But they represent a power that no one can even hope to imagine. A true source that, when come together, produces Mana, Qi, and Ether."

"That power you use," Medusa began. "Was very similar to attunement. It's the only thing imaginable that possesses the Authority capable of destroying the Origin System. I fear that if you had better control of your power, you might have destroyed the Origin Ystem for everyone caught in its radiance."

If Altair was perturbed, he did not show it. His palm passed through the long, silky, raven-colored hair of the girl on his chest, snoring. It was greasy as if it hadn't been washed in weeks.

"Atelia… how is she?"

"Fainted. Dying will do that," Medusa said slowly. "I had one of the maids bring her to her bed."

Weariness slipped through Altair as the waters and a pair of hands began to soothe the tension in his muscles. Medusa's touch seemed to reach the marrow, pulling out all the stress he never knew he had. It was different from Tasha's, that always left him hard. Her touch always seemed to garner such a reaction.

He could not say when he fell asleep, but when he opened his eyes, he was awoken by the sounds of men shouting, drowning the cries of a woman. Elena's cries.

"I'll KILL HIM!!!!" The shout was unfamiliar, yet the fury, the hate that was so dense it seemed tangible, reached through the door.

Raven was no longer clinging to his body, though she was not too far, her breath smooth.

A powerful thump came from the door, and Elena's cries became balls.

Reluctantly, Altair stood up, throwing a robe around his naked body, and stepped out to see his Forsaken Knights barring the door. Tasha had Gram in her palm, blood licking the floor from its tip. Across from her, with a bone-deep laceration cutting across his chest, stood a bloodied young man, his eyes ablaze like a blue icy sun.

Footsteps echoed from around the corner, with Spearman hurrying forward toward the cries and violence.

"What is going on?" Altair asked, signaling for the spearmen to stop. They did so as if met with an invisible force holding them in place.

"Your Grace," Tasha bowed. "This man was trying to enter your premises. I sensed the Killing Intent and refused him, and he—"

"I'll kill you!" The blue-eyed man roared, the ribbon that held his hair up loosening a rainfall of golden hair down his chiseled face. He bounded forward like a lion pouncing on its prey. A sword shrieking through the corridor.

Tasha caught it with two fingers, looking the gobsmacked Ninth Circle in the eye as if to say his existence had been forfeited.

"Conall… Please… Please stop this!" Elena pleaded.

Brows lifting, Altair glanced at Tasha and smiled, a smile that did not reach their eyes.

"So your Conall… Well, no matter. You—"

'Nox! Don't! Don't kill him!" Elena pleaded. "Don't!"

"Be silent.." Altair snapped at her. "People are watching. Hold your bloody head up, and stop the tears."

Releasing the Spearman from their holds, visible signs of relief rolled across their armored bodies.

"Bring this man to the Dungeons. No harm shall come to him. Am I clear?"

The Master of Arms to the Castillan sauntered forward, three spearmen on his heel, and bowed. "As you command, Young Master Nox." He turned to Conall with a disappointed look. "Do not resist, Conall. You'll only be digging yourself a hole in which to die."

The one named Conell bared his fangs like a wolf but relented all the same, raising his hands to be tied with enchanted iron. He gave Altair a look at could cut before he was dragged off.

"Young Master, I—" The Master of Arms began, but Altair shook his head.

"Just leave… And see that no harm comes to that man. Tasha… Elena, please come inside and explain to me what occurred."