Whispers from the Abyss

The clone's face held a hint of mockery for Luke, almost as if the clone was gloating about winning. Now that the clone was almost certain it would win the fight, it lowered its guard. Luke, expecting it to lower its guard, grabbed the dagger he hid behind his back and, at an almost superhuman speed, stabbed the clone's throat, killing it. Luke pulled the dagger out, and a pitch-black, blood-like liquid sprayed on Luke's face. The clone's body dropped to the ground. Luke's mind was racing; he didn't want to believe what he had just done. It didn't matter how Luke felt because he was still bleeding from the sword stab.

Luke didn't know what to do; his strength was leaving his body, and his vision was slowly fading black from blood loss. As Luke started to see only black, he heard the same cold, harsh, robotic voice he heard at the start of the trial say, "Challenger beat trial two. Challenger has proven capable of being the new Mother Race. The challenger life force has been detected as dropping. Emergency protocol: scanning Mother race.Detected no abyssal energy..." That was all Luke heard until he was unable to keep consciousness. After Luke passed out, the voice kept going, "Detected no abyssal energy in Mother race. processing solutions to life force depletion. Solution 102 was found to be effective, administrating solution to target. Deploying remaining abyssal energy under control into the target soul and body."

Meanwhile, in Luke's mindscape, he was experiencing the aftermath of his soul and body fusing with the abyssal energy, turning him into an unknown being. Luke was under the watch of an almighty being in the abyss. It started down at him. Luke was under a lot of pressure, not knowing how to counter this situation.

The incomprehensible being spoke with an eerie, distorted voice, "ꅏꍩꁲꋖ ꂠꂦ ꅏꈼ ꍩꁲꀰꈼ ꍩꈼꌅꈼ? ꂑ'ꀰꈼ ꋊꈼꀰꈼꌅ ꌚꈼꈼꋊ ꂦꋊꈼ ꂦꄞ ꐞꂦꐇ ꋰꈼꄞꂦꌅꈼ, ꒒ꂑꋖꋖ꒒ꈼ ꂦꋊꈼ. ꂑ ꂵꐇꌚꋖ ꍩꁲꀰꈼ ꐞꂦꐇ, ꋰꐇꋖ ꋊꂦꋖ ꐞꈼꋖ; ꋖꍩꈼ ꋰꁲꌅꌅꂑꈼꌅꌚ ꁲꌅꈼ ꋖꂦꂦ ꌚꋖꌅꂦꋊꁅ ꌚꋖꂑ꒒꒒."

Luke had a splitting headache, the worst one yet since he had been here. Luke couldn't wait to get out of this place and never have to come back to this hell again. The being stared at Luke for a few seconds after it spoke and then disappeared, resulting in Luke waking up. Luke woke up to an unimaginable pain, coming from what felt like the very essence of his being. Luke felt like he was being ripped apart and reconstructed over and over. Luke lost all sense of time due to the pain; he couldn't tell if only a minute had passed or if an hour had passed.

After what Luke could only describe as the most gut-wrenching, jaw-grinding, agony-inducing pain, he started to gain consciousness slightly when he heard that robotic voice again say, "Mother race transformation was successful. Mother Race managed to become a new species, a mix of abyssal and Unknown Mother race, named "To Be Determined." Mother Race, are you okay? I am only able to sustain my existence for a few minutes, but there is much you must learn. I can only give you so much help, but I will give you the remaining 1% knowledge of the previous Mother race."

After the voice, Luke felt another headache, but with his experience with the other ones he had earlier, it didn't hurt as much. After the headache, Luke felt the existence of new memories that weren't his. Luke tried to think about them, and he got sucked back into his mindscape, but instead, this time he was in front of what looked like a sphere. The sphere was swirling with colors, almost as if there was a galaxy inside it. Luke was enthralled by the sphere, moving closer every second, until he reached it and touched it. After Luke touched it, he could search through the seas of knowledge. Luke was amazed by just how much knowledge there was, but he couldn't help but imagine how advanced the previous Mother race was if this was only 1% of their knowledge.

As Luke was searching for the sphere, he came across the entry for abyssal energy, and it read, "Abyssal energy is created in the depths of the abyss, but no one knows the exact process by which it is created, but what is known is that it is one of the strongest energies available for use, only outranked by one that no one can use."Abyssal energy can be used to do almost anything, from creating a new being out of nothing to being able to curse your enemy, and anything in between."

Luke was fascinated by this and started to look around for more things to read. Luke found another section, but this one is on the abyss itself. Luke read the following passage, " The abyss came into existence when the primordial energy exploded, leaving behind abyssal energy and origin energy, both creating realms. The abyss is where unimaginable horrors live, and not even we were able to explore the very depths of the abyss, but we were able to discover that the abyss went through some sort of civil war. The leading factors for the war that we found were the seven deadly sins, leading experts from the previous era, who tried to dethrone the abyss will and take over the abyss for themselves. They were able to interfere with the very laws of the abyss and add their specialty to them, Pride, Sloth, Wraith, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust, which angered the abyss will, and to retaliate, the abyss will put out a bounty on them, transmitting a message and rewards to every abyss inhabitant. The civil war ended in their defeat, but their laws still influence the abyss to this day."

After Luke read this, he felt like the sphere was pushing him out. Once Luke was fully out and woke up from his mindscape, he felt a message sent from the sphere saying, "Two-hour daily limit reached, become stronger to access for longer; or wait for the daily limit to reset tomorrow."

Luke, now bummed out he couldn't keep reading more of the knowledge, realized that he was giving off some type of blue glow, looking like he was an abyssal creature now. Luke started to freak out, not knowing what was going on. Luke thought about his old human form and how much he wanted to be a human again until he realized that he had switched back to a human with no blue glow. Luke was confused about what was going on, but he just wanted to get out of here. Luke looked around to try and find an escape, but instead, he saw what looked like the portal that took him here, only a few feet away from him. Luke didn't know if he should take the portal or not. While Luke was debating whether to take the portal or not, Luke heard a boom, looked back, and saw that the ruins were starting to fall apart and collapse without the support of the core. Luke ran toward the portal, not knowing whether it would take him home or somewhere far worse…