Whispers from the Abyss

The sages and Luke's souls were locked in a battle, with the sage trying to devour Luke's soul and Luke's soul trying to defend himself from the devouring power. Luke should have lost, but Luke's abyssal energy was supporting him and not letting him lose. Luke was even with the sage in the soul battle; neither Luke nor Atosh were able to pull the battle in their favor. The constant struggle between Luke and Atosh's soul was draining Luke's energy faster than it was Atosh's. Luke's soul was on the brink of disappearing from energy depletion. Atosh started to laugh, freaking Luke out, who started to disappear. Atosh monologued to himself, thinking Luke's soul was already gone, "I can't believe such an easy body came to me." There was still a small bit of Luke's consciousness left that heard Atosh, but even that bit of Luke's consciousness was slowly fading away. Luke started to concentrate, trying to figure out a way out. Luke started to think it was over, and his last bit of consciousness faded away.

*Core awakening*

*Host is detected to be dying*

*Core is still damaged at 99%, but core function is still available to activate with unknown effects due to its low durability*

*Core function is activated to protect the host with unknown consequences*

The sage Atosh detected that Luke had lost his last bit of consciousness and proceeded to get to work. Atosh started to input his energy and soul into Luke, thinking Luke's body was an empty vessel. Not even a second after Atosh's life force and soul started to infuse into Luke, Atosh felt like he was being stared down by a famished, savage beast ready to pounce on its prey. The beast pounced on its prey and started to devour Atosh's life force and soul. Atosh felt his energy draining from his very being. Atosh tried to fight back and regain his stolen energy, but the beast started to drain his energy faster. Atosh's mind was working at light speed, trying to figure out a way out. Atosh didn't know of any method to escape this besides cutting off a small bit of his soul. Once Atosh made up his mind, he started to put his plan into action, but it was too late, and the beast had drained too much of Atoshe's energy. Atoshe's consciousness started to fade away, and right before fully fading away, Atosh realized what he was facing and yelled out "Gree.." before fading away.

The life force absorbed went to fixing the unknown core from the ancient civilization that saved Luke, and the soul force was funneled to Luke to absorb and slowly awaken his consciousness. Deep down in Luke's subconsciousness, Luke encountered two beings who surrounded the only light source in the dark; one was overweight with folds on folds and gave off a putrid stench with sweat dripping down its face, and the other was a skinny man who gave off a presence of royalty with its appeal being gold and a golden gem-encrusted crown. Luke felt the stare of a beast and realized the fat one was staring at him, ready to pounce on him and eat him. The skinny one that gave off a royal presence called Luke over and said, "Welcome to your subconscious, Luke. It's so nice to finally meet you. My name is G̷̦͈̾r̶̹͐̕ę̵͗é̸̤͋͜d̸̋̚ͅ and the fat pig next to me is G̴̳̣͗̐ḻ̷̒̿ũ̸͙̙t̸̗͋t̵̲̩̽̒o̸͕͌͑n̴͔͉̍̑y̵͍̹̾̇" Luke didn't notice, but while Greed was talking, Luke started to walk over toward them in a trace and only woke up after Greed finished talking.

Gluttony responded to Greed's insult, "Hey me no pig you pig. Don't make me eat all you food." Luke noticed that Greed looked scared when Gluttony said it would eat all of Greed's food. Greed frightened, and angry Gluttony even dared to say that blew up and said, "How dare you. If you so as even touch a single piece of my possessions, I will hunt you down for eternity." Gluttony laughed, spitting everywhere, and said, "Me no afraid you little me eat you in one bite." Greed and gluttony kept arguing until Luke got over his fear and was sick of waiting and said, "Excuse me, where am I, and how do I get out of here?" Greed turned to face Luke and apologized, "I'm sorry. Where are my manners starting a fight with this disgusting pig when we have a guest in front of us?" Right beside Greed, Luke could hear Gluttony mumble, "Me no pig stop call me that." Greed then asked Luke, "What can we do for you, Kuzdxy ip dtx zasz." Luke thought he had misheard what Greed had said so he asked, "Can you repeat what you just said? I didn't understand." Greed had an odd look on his face, like he was thinking about something, until he said, "Ah, it's too soon for you to understand all in due time." But off to the side, Luke heard Gluttony mumble again, "Haha Kuzdxy ip dtx zasz no understand." Gluttony's mumble was heard by Greed, who instantly started fighting with Gluttony again: "Who do you think you are to make fun of, Kuzdxy ip dtx zasz." But before they could get into it, Luke stopped them again because he still needed answers: "Before you guys fight, can you help me find my way out?" Greed looked back at Luke with a frown on his face and said, "Oh my, how could I have fought in front of Kuzdxy ip dtx zasz twice? I'm so ashamed of myself." Luke didn't care what those two beings did; he just wanted to get out of here and get stronger to keep himself safe for the time being. Luke sighed and said to Greed after losing patience, "I don't care what you do once I'm out of here, so tell me how I get out of here!" Greed smiled and replied, "Wraith will have a fun time when he gets here, but that's beside the point. It's very simple to get out of here; I just have to let you leave." Before Luke left, he asked, "Who is Wraith?" Greed smiled, and the next thing Luke knew, he was back in the mage tower's endless library.

Once Luke saw the endless bookshelves, he knew that he had made it out of his subconscious. Luke looked all around, trying to find Atosh. There was no one else around; all Luke could hear was the endless silence, the only sound being the echo of his movements. After realizing he was alone, Luke took a deep breath and recomposed himself. Half an hour later, Luke felt calm and ready to leave the library and the sea of knowledge. Luke awoke in his "mage" lair, if you could even call it that. Before Luke stood up, he was hit by a shocking, painful pounding in his head and passed out only a minute after he woke up. The bat Luke befriended started to nudge Luke, trying to wake him up, but nothing worked.

Back in the precinct of Thompsonville, all hands were on deck looking for Luke. Detective Smith was talking with his colleague when the communications division received an incoming call from Luke's father: "Hello, this is Luke's father. I'm sorry for not calling a month ago when the news was first released; I just didn't want it to be true. Is there anything that I could do to be of help to you? My son needs to be brought to justice." The phone operator called the lead detective on the case, Detective Smith, to let him know, "Detetive Smith, I have Luke's father on the phone right now. Do you want me to forward it to you?" Detective Smith answered, "No. Instead, can you ask him for his address or come to the station? I want to talk in person with him." Luke's father gave the operator their address and told them to come by anytime after 6. In the meantime, Detective Smith decided to look through all the records and evidence collected from the scene of the crime.