Whispers from the Abyss

Back in the cave, Luke was still knocked out from absorbing energy past the limit his body could hold. The ancient core sensed that it overfed Luke and started to cut off the flow of energy towards him and stabilize his condition, leaving Luke with a message for when he woke up and went back into sleep mode to save as much power as possible. Luke woke up, but instead of being in the cave, he was in a thriving civilization. Looking around, Luke saw a wide variety of alien-like creatures, like the one he saw when he first fell into the abyss. A memory flashed into Luke's mind, this civilization was called Ussas ( Ew-sah) but it fell due to unknown reasons. After learning this, the scene converted to black flames and destruction everywhere. Luke started to walk around, witnessing all the death and destruction happening all around him. Dead bodies littered the streets, coming in all shapes and sizes; not even the kids were spared. A dark feeling started to arise from the depths of Luke's soul, drowning him in the seas of wrath. An eerie whisper passed through Luke's ear: "Concentrate, Luke. Don't give in!" The voice shocked Luke back to reality, fighting off the influence of the dark feeling and instead devouring it. The dark feeling expressed what Luke could only imagine as displeasure. After whittling down the strength of the dark feeling, Luke devoured it whole and realized that it was the remnant energy that was left from Atosh trying to take over. Now that Luke had fully devoured Atosh, all his knowledge was his. Taking a deep dive into Atosh's memories, Luke realized that Atosh wasn't a great mage, but instead, he was a fucking low-class mage. Luke was shocked and scared. If that was a low-class mage, then how long could he last against higher-class mages? Luke knew that the sooner he started meditating with the method in Atosh's memories, the faster he would gain any sort of strength. The meditation technique needed abyssal energy to work, but the earth was barren of any energy, so Luke had to venture back into the abyss. Luke started to pack food and water to at least survive a few days in the abyss, but realized he was out. After devising a plan for how he could stay hidden from the police and get the necessary supplies, Luke set out.

Back with Detective Smith, he was on his way to Luke's house with his partner to meet up with Luke's dad. While on the way, he reviewed all the evidence they had collected, including pictures of the crime scene, and the medical record from the morgue. The morale report indicated that there were no known injuries to the deceased, with only their insides being destroyed somehow. Detective Smith was confused about how the officer died with no wounds. Shortly after inspecting all the evidence, Detective Smith and his partner, Detective Ryan, arrived at Clyde Luke's dad's house. Both detectives walked up to the door, rang the doorbell, and heard, "Just a second." After waiting for a minute, Clyde's wife Gwen opened the door and greeted them, "Hello, how may I help you?" Detective Smith answered, "Hello, ma'am, your husband called us wanting to talk about Luke." Gwen's expression shifted from a smile to a disgusted look, and she said, "One moment, let me go get him." Then I closed the door. Detective Smith and Ryan heard from the house yelling, "I told you not to call the police about Luke. What if he wanted to come home? Now how is he supposed to be able to stay here?" The detective heard a man's voice yell back. "What the fuck is wrong with you? I get that he is our son, but he killed someone; he needs to be arrested!" After that, it went silent, then Gwen came running out the door crying, with Clyde coming out right behind her and telling the detectives. "I'm sorry about that. Now doesn't seem like a good time. Can we meet tomorrow?" Detective Smith told him, "It's alright. I understand it's a hard period for you and your wife. Yes, we can meet tomorrow, but can you come to the station this time?" Detective Ryan's partner heard it on the radio. "Attention all units, Luke was spotted on 53rd Street going towards the supermarket." Detective Ryan yelled, "Smith, get your ass over here; they spotted Luke!" Detective Smith turned around and bolted to the car, wanting to be the first to arrive on the scene.

Back with Luke, he set out from his cave/mage lair with his backpack, heading to the supermarket. Luke's plan wasn't the greatest, but he didn't have much to work with. Luke decided that he was going to cover his face and only go back routes, hoping no one was on it right now. The first street Luke had to go on was 53rd Street, which was one of the main streets of the town, so Luke had to be fast. Once Luke set foot on the street, he saw a police cruiser coming his way and thought, "This is just my luck. Fuck." Luke bolted off, hoping that the cruiser didn't see him, and hurried to the supermarket. After making sure that he wasn't followed, Luke snuck into the supermarket and started to stuff his backpack full of bottled water and preservatives. It only took Luke 10 minutes to get everything that he needed, but by the time he went out, the whole city was swarmed by cops patrolling for him. "The cruiser from earlier must have seen me," thought Luke. Before going into the abyss, Luke wanted to catch his breath away from civilization, but unfortunately for Luke, a cruiser had driven by once he stepped outside the market. The cruiser said over the microphone "Luke, it's over. Turn yourself in. Don't make this anymore harder than it needs to be." Luke took off in the opposite direction down an alleyway, with the cop shortly behind him. Luke knew that he had to do something to get away, but he didn't know what he could do. The cops had been chasing Luke for 30 minutes until they chased him to a dead end and aimed their guns at him.