The Abyss did not offer direction. Only pull.
Raen stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking a sea of black sand. Above, the sky had shifted—no longer violet and void-like, but burning with a dark red sun that didn't give light, only heat. The air shimmered unnaturally, and the silence was broken only by the low rumble of distant roars.
Below, a city lay in ruins—half-buried, half-standing, carved into jagged stone. Obsidian towers, bridges of bone, and collapsed gates that once might've belonged to a thriving civilization.
The System chimed in with a cold whisper.
[Objective: Enter the Forgotten Ruins of Layer Six][Threat Level: High][Environmental Hazard: Memory Bleed Active][Reward: Beast Fusion Catalyst (Rare)]
Raen narrowed his eyes. "Memory bleed?"
[Translation: This place messes with your head. Think dreams. Nightmares. Regrets. But worse.]
He glanced at his three beasts.
Hollowfang's fur was bristling again. Despair Maw let out a low, constant growl. The Jester Wyrm? It spun in midair, muttering:
"Here comes the twist, here comes the twist... I forgot the twist!"
Raen began walking.
The ruins breathed with a kind of pain Raen had come to recognize.
Buildings were carved with markings—claw symbols, ancient runes, warnings in dead languages. Statues of winged beasts lined the stone streets, many with shattered faces and chained necks. Some had inscriptions underneath, faintly glowing.
Raen paused beside one and knelt. The statue was of a horned creature with an eerily human face. The plaque read:
"The First Beast who begged for freedom."
He frowned.
This city wasn't built by beasts.
It was built for them.
"This was a sanctuary," he muttered.
[System Note: Confirmed. The Ruins of Layer Six were once known as the Beastbound Refuge. A failed attempt at peace between divine and abyssal forces.]
Raen stood. "What happened to it?"
[It tried to hope. Hope doesn't last here.]
The first threat came silently.
One moment, the city was quiet.
The next, a creature slithered out of the shadows—faceless, eyeless, its body like melted tar, stitched together with bone fragments. It didn't walk. It crawled, fast and slick, leaving behind a trail of rot.
[Beast Detected: Memory Leech – Rank B][Ability: Feed on regrets. Can duplicate one memory-based attack.][Status: Aggressive.]
Raen didn't wait.
"Hollowfang. Scatter."
The wolf vanished in a blink—newly upgraded Ghostfang Step triggered instantly—leaving behind a puff of black smoke. Raen ducked just as the Leech swiped with a tendril of bone.
Despair Maw surged forward, jaws wide. But before it could bite, the Memory Leech split its body into two.
"What—"
[Warning: Leech mimicked a failed bond from Despair Maw's memory. Defensive adaptation.]
The Jester Wyrm cackled overhead. "I love when the nightmares fight back!"
"Wyrm," Raen barked. "Suppress it!"
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask."
The Wyrm's three heads each glowed with a different aura—blue, green, and orange.
With a shrill scream, it unleashed Confusion Aura—blinding light in fractured colors.
The Memory Leech shrieked, its form glitching and slowing just enough.
Raen struck.
His blade—fused with Hollowfang's soul essence—sliced through the creature's middle, and the beast exploded into a puddle of memory mist.
[Beast Destroyed.][+XP to all bonded beasts.][Beast Codex Entry Unlocked.]
They kept moving.
But something was… off.
As they walked deeper into the ruins, Raen saw things.
Not hallucinations. Memories.
His own.
There, in a shattered temple—he saw his younger self kneeling before Emperor Valcian, accepting the sword of command.
Another step—and he saw himself dragging his men across a burning field, wounded and bleeding, trying to save lives he would later be blamed for losing.
Hollowfang whimpered again. Even the Jester Wyrm fell quiet.
[Memory Bleed at 67%. Prolonged exposure will trigger "Relapse."]
Raen gritted his teeth. "And what's that?"
[You become… him. The man you were before death.]
He shook his head. "Not happening."
But the next turn changed everything.
They arrived at a courtyard.
At the center stood a monument, half-buried and cracked—but unmistakably shaped like a throne. Black crystal. Chains wrapped around its legs. Faint glyphs shimmered across it like blood under moonlight.
Raen approached it slowly.
And then—he saw the carving on its back:
"Here sat the First Beast King. Not a god. Not a man. Something… in between."
Raen's heart stilled.
Hollowfang backed away.
The Jester Wyrm suddenly sang, "Ohoho... now we know why you were chosen~"
Raen turned sharply. "What?"
The Wyrm pointed at the base of the throne.
There, carved beneath layers of ash:
"Tiberis the First."
The air grew heavy.
Even the System hesitated.
[...Processing new data...][WARNING: Timeline Conflict Detected.][User Soul Fragment matches ancient registry.]
Raen stepped back.
"You mean to tell me... I was here before?"
[Correction: A piece of you was. You may not be the first Raen Tiberis.]
[You might be... the last.]
Suddenly, the sky above cracked.
A roar thundered down from the heavens—a beast's call, ancient and filled with rage.
Raen looked up just in time to see a shape descend—winged, massive, burning with violet fire.
[Mini-Boss Encounter: Ruinwatcher – Class A Guardian of the Throne.]
Raen raised his blade. "We'll talk about the past later."
"To arms," he growled.The beasts answered as one.