Thornhaven City, Sector 89 - Suburban Slums
Captain Marcus Veil of the First Patrol Division clutched his chest wound, blood seeping between his fingers as he stared at the apocalyptic scene unfolding in the sky above.
"How could this happen..." His voice trembled with equal parts rage and disbelief.
A month ago, he'd led his tactical team on the trail of an Abyss Cultist cell that had infiltrated Thornhaven City. After weeks of investigation, they'd finally located the cultists' primary hideout today.
Just as they prepared to execute the raid—
Everything went catastrophically wrong.
Among the cultists lurked a Tier 5 Warrior who'd awakened an S-Rank origin talent and changed profession to the exceptionally rare Blood Hierophant class. Using the forbidden Blood Sacrifice technique, he'd forcibly consumed the bodies of all his fellow cultists along with dozens of secretly murdered civilians—
And used their combined life force to tear open a gateway to the Eternal Abyss itself.
By the time Marcus realized what was happening, it was already too late.
The moment that evil, overwhelming abyssal presence erupted into their dimension, three of Marcus's patrol members died instantly—simply unable to withstand the spiritual contamination. Even Marcus, a Tier 6 Warrior, sustained critical injuries from the mere proximity.
Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from the spatial tear, Marcus whispered with dawning horror:
"King-Tier..."
Above Tier 9 Warriors existed King-Tier entities—beings capable of effortlessly obliterating entire cities.
And above that tier stood Demigods—walking disasters who could annihilate nations.
CRACK!
Black lightning surged from the dimensional fissure. The King-Tier Abyssal creature's mere presence warped natural phenomena. The previously clear sky transformed rapidly into churning storm clouds. Violent winds howled. Thunder interwove with crimson lightning in patterns that hurt to perceive directly.
The sealed Abyssal Rifts surrounding Thornhaven's perimeter began resonating with the spatial tear. Abyssal Spawn broke through containment protocols, their eyes blazing crimson with frenzied bloodlust as they charged toward the city walls, roaring with inhuman hunger!
"OPEN FIRE!" soldiers screamed from the ramparts.
Artillery cannons roared their thunderous response. The majority of Abyssal Spawn were obliterated before reaching effective range. Those that survived met the garrison warriors in brutal melee combat—both sides fighting with desperate ferocity.
Meanwhile, Vaelor pressed against the Skyrail window, eyes locked on the unfolding catastrophe.
Multiple figures had manifested in Thornhaven's airspace, standing impossibly without support. Each radiated spiritual pressure so intense it distorted the air around them—their life-force magnetic fields burning like miniature suns, making it physically painful to look directly at them.
Rainbow light flickered in Vaelor's pupils as his Absolute Insight activated reflexively.
"Is that... a Void Cavity?" Headmaster Gareth Ironveil's voice carried clearly despite the distance, his expression grave with recognition.
The lead figure—an elderly man with flowing white hair—responded simply: "Yes."
A dignified, beautiful woman standing beside him added, "This is my first time witnessing one personally."
As they spoke, a colossal eye materialized within the Void Cavity—easily the size of a building. It gazed down upon the defenders and the city below with terrible, alien intelligence. A wave of corrupting spiritual pressure descended like a tsunami of madness.
Several defenders' expressions changed drastically. Headmaster Gareth, possessing the lowest life-level among them, turned pale instantly—sweat beading on his forehead as he struggled against the mental assault.
The dignified woman raised one hand smoothly.
A shimmering barrier covered in intricate lavender runic patterns materialized before the group. The oppressive spiritual contamination vanished immediately.
"It cannot fully manifest yet," the white-haired elder stated with authority. "Attack immediately! Destroy the Void Cavity before it stabilizes!"
His alloy longsword became wreathed in endless crackling lightning. He swung in a devastating arc—
A blade of pure thunder stretched over a thousand meters long, tearing through the sky toward the dimensional wound.
From Vaelor's position in the Skyrail, his Absolute Insight devoured every detail of the technique. He saw the elder's vitality surge through specific meridian circuits—the Thrusting Vessel connecting to the Belt Vessel, resonating with his origin talent to transform raw energy into elemental lightning. The sword itself served as a focus, channeling and shaping the destructive force through microscopic runic engravings invisible to normal sight.
Thunder element manipulation... the energy doesn't generate from nothing. It's vitality converted through specific frequency oscillations, amplified by his S-Rank lightning affinity talent, then projected outward using the weapon as a conduit...
The middle-aged man carrying a sword across his back spoke with cold finality: "Abomination. Return to the void."
His blade left its sheath in one fluid motion. Space itself seemed to tear along the weapon's path. A massive cross-shaped sword energy screamed toward the Void Cavity with power sufficient to bisect mountains.
Vaelor's enhanced perception tracked the technique's fundamental principles. The swordsman's vitality circulated through the Governing and Conception Vessels simultaneously, creating opposing forces that generated spatial distortion. His sword technique wasn't merely sharp—it exploited dimensional weak points, cutting through the fabric of reality itself by finding and severing the threads binding space together.
Spatial manipulation through opposing energy flows... incredible. He's not generating enough force to physically cut space—he's finding its natural fault lines and applying precise pressure to fracture it...
Headmaster Gareth contributed his own power. Multiple white spheres materialized before him, each one firing concentrated air cannons that shrieked through the atmosphere!
Vaelor analyzed the technique rapidly. Gareth was compressing atmospheric particles through rotating vitality fields, creating zones of extreme pressure differential. When released, the compressed air exploded outward with devastating kinetic force—essentially transforming thin air into siege weaponry.
Air manipulation through pressure control... he's using rotational energy fields to compress and weaponize atmospheric density...
BOOM! CRASH! CRACK!!
The combined assault struck the Void Cavity from multiple angles. The dimensional tear began shrinking visibly under the concentrated barrage.
But the King-Tier entity within refused to surrender its gateway. A massive tentacle—easily fifty meters in diameter and covered with hundreds of independently moving eyes—squeezed through the contracting opening. Purple beams erupted from each eye simultaneously, sweeping across the battlefield. Everything the light touched simply disintegrated at the molecular level.
Headmaster Gareth barely dodged, cold sweat drenching his back.
A black-robed figure raised both hands, conjuring translucent barriers that intercepted the disintegration beams, protecting the city below from collateral annihilation.
Vaelor's Absolute Insight dissected the defensive technique. The wizard was layering multiple barriers with offset resonance frequencies—when one barrier failed, its collapse released energy that reinforced the next layer. A cascading defense system that grew stronger as it absorbed damage.
Layered barrier technique using resonance amplification... each failure feeds the next layer. Brilliant resource efficiency...
"Mental Storm!" The dignified woman's fury ignited. Her eyes blazed with brilliant purple light as she unleashed a devastating psychic assault.
Vaelor witnessed her technique's inner workings. She was projecting her spiritual consciousness outward as a directed weapon—compressing her mental presence into a focused lance that pierced the target's cognitive defenses. Not merely illusion or confusion, but direct assault on the enemy's consciousness itself.
Weaponized spiritual projection... she's treating consciousness as a tangible force that can be shaped and launched...
The white-haired elder's thunder blade descended, severing the massive tentacle cleanly. The middle-aged swordsman followed immediately with countless blade projections, slicing the separated appendage into millions of fragments.
Finally, the black-robed wizard completed his casting. A colossal sphere of swirling elemental energies—fire, ice, lightning, and wind compressed into an unstable core—detonated directly at the Void Cavity's center.
The explosion was apocalyptic. The shockwave dispersed the storm clouds, creating a temporary dome of clear sky. The Void Cavity collapsed completely, sealing the gateway between dimensions.
Below in the city, crowds erupted in relieved cheers.
Vaelor remained silent, his mind racing as Absolute Insight processed everything he'd witnessed. His eyes still flickered with faint rainbow luminescence as countless calculations and analyses continued running.
I saw everything. The meridian pathways, the energy circulation patterns, the principles underlying each technique. Thunder manipulation, spatial cutting, air compression, layered barriers, consciousness weaponization, elemental fusion...
With enough time and practice, I could replicate all of them. Maybe even improve them.
The realization was simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying.
In the sky, the white-haired elder sheathed his sword and stroked his beard with evident displeasure.
"These Abyss Cultists grow increasingly bold and reckless."
His sharp gaze fixed on the middle-aged swordsman. "Commander Draven, if your Inspection Bureau can't handle such fundamental threats, what exactly are you accomplishing?"
Commander Lucian Draven maintained his composed expression despite the rebuke. "This incident represents a failure of our intelligence network. I accept full responsibility and will submit a comprehensive report detailing how this situation developed."
"See that you do." The elder—clearly the highest authority present—turned away dismissively.
The group dispersed, each returning to their respective duties.
None of them noticed the consequences of their victory.
Microscopic fragments from the destroyed tentacle—some no larger than fingernails—had survived the explosion and now fell toward the city below. Still smoking, still twitching with residual life force, they landed on rooftops, street corners, vehicle surfaces, and alleyway shadows.
And there, in the darkness, they began to move...
The Skyrail reached its station safely.
Vaelor didn't truly relax until he was home, door locked, wards activated.
He immediately accessed the Warrior Association's official network, reading the incident reports as they were published in real-time.
"Abyss Cultists again. Absolute fanatics."
These people were all fundamentally broken—their minds corrupted by prolonged exposure to abyssal spiritual contamination. They genuinely worshipped the Eternal Abyss as a deity, believing it represented eternal truth and humanity's ultimate destiny.
"Do they actually want to drag all of civilization into apocalyptic ruin?" Vaelor shook his head with disgust.
He felt renewed gratitude for his decision to conceal his true talents and profession. If cultists would sacrifice dozens of people just to summon a King-Tier entity, what would they do if they learned about someone with Primordial Origin talents?
Browsing the updated news feeds, Vaelor found detailed information about the warriors who'd responded to the crisis:
Aldous Stormbreaker - White-haired elder. President of Thornhaven Warrior Association. Recognized as the city's strongest individual. Tier 9 Warrior. Epic profession: Thunder Sovereign.
Morgana Starweaver - Dignified middle-aged woman. Tier 8 Warrior with S-Rank mental-attribute talent. Profession: Phantom Sovereign. President of the Alchemist Association.
Gareth Ironveil - Headmaster of Thornhaven First Combat Academy. Tier 7 Warrior. Profession: Essence Flow Master.
Lucian Draven - Commander of Thornhaven Inspection Bureau. Tier 8 Warrior. Legendary profession: Voidbreaker Swordsman.
Unnamed figure in black robes - Tier 8 Warrior affiliated with the nation's premier guild. Profession: Elemental Archmage.
These were all legendary figures in Thornhaven—the absolute pinnacle of the city's combat capability, aside from the garrison commander stationed at the outer walls.
"No wonder I felt suffocated just looking at them from a distance..." Vaelor murmured.
Even these incredible warriors required combined effort to fight off a single King-Tier Abyssal entity.
The threat of the Eternal Abyss became vividly, terrifyingly clear.
And the brutal, unforgiving nature of this era crystallized in his mind.
But unlike before, Vaelor didn't feel despair.
Because now he possessed something those warriors didn't: he'd witnessed their techniques with Absolute Insight. He'd comprehended the fundamental principles underlying their most powerful abilities.
Given time, he could master them all.
And then surpass them.
Vaelor opened his status panel and began reviewing the wealth of information his enhanced cognition had absorbed. Meridian circulation patterns, energy frequency oscillations, spatial manipulation theory, consciousness weaponization principles...
It would take days to properly organize and practice everything he'd learned today.
But when he finished?
He'd be carrying the combined knowledge of Thornhaven's strongest warriors—refined, optimized, and combined in ways they'd never imagined.
A small smile touched his lips.
"The Eternal Abyss wants to destroy humanity?" he whispered to the empty room. "Let's see how it handles someone who can steal the techniques of legends just by watching them fight."
Outside his window, unknown to anyone, tiny fragments of abyssal flesh continued their slow, purposeful movements through Thornhaven's shadows.
The real crisis was only beginning.