Chapter 2: The Fallen Saintess and the First Taming
The further Cyan descended, the more the air changed.
It was no longer just cold. It was heavy with the weight of ancient grievances. The walls of the Abyss glowed with a faint, sickly phosphorescence, illuminating the path like the veins of a dying god.
"...In the light, we are born... in the shadow, we are forgotten..."
The melody was ethereal, a haunting soprano that seemed to vibrate within Cyan's very marrow. He rounded a jagged pillar of obsidian and stopped.
Before him lay a hidden sanctuary, or perhaps, a beautifully crafted prison.
Frozen in the center of a black lake was a woman. She was suspended in mid-air by chains of shimmering gold—Holy Shackles. Her hair was like liquid midnight, cascading down her back in tangled waves. Her dress, once regal, was now tattered rags that barely hid her porcelain-pale skin.
Even in this wretched state, her beauty was dangerous. It was the kind of beauty that could drive men to madness.
[Ding!]
[Target Identified: Elara, The Forsaken Saintess (Remnant Soul).]
[Status: Imprisoned for 500 years by the Order of Light.]
Cyan didn't hesitate. He took a step onto the frozen lake. The ice didn't crack; it groaned under the weight of his dark aura.
The woman's head snapped up.
Her eyes were hollow pits of darkness, but as she looked at Cyan, a flicker of shock crossed her face. "A... human? No. You smell of the Abyss. And yet... you carry the Valerian bloodline."
"The Valerians are dead to me," Cyan said, his voice cold. "I am here for you, Elara."
"For me?" She let out a dry, rasping laugh that sounded like dead leaves. "Are you here to finish what the High Priests started? To erase the last stain of the 'Corrupted One'?"
"I am here to offer you a deal," Cyan replied, stopping just a few feet from her. "The Light betrayed me. It broke my core and threw me here to rot. I suspect we have much in common."
Elara's gaze intensified. "You were betrayed? By your own kind?"
Cyan didn't answer with words. He activated his new power.
'Eyes of Lust & Ruin.'
[SYSTEM SCANNING...]
Name: Elara
Purity Level: 5% (Severely Corrupted)
Deepest Desire: To see the Holy Cathedral burn and to feel the touch of a Master who won't fear her darkness.
Taming Difficulty: Medium (Resentment-Based).
Cyan saw it all. He saw her memories of being burned at the stake because she discovered the Church's secret experiments. He saw her thirst for vengeance, masked by centuries of loneliness.
"Your shackles are made of Holy Mana," Cyan said, reaching out his hand toward the golden chains. "To anyone else, they are unbreakable. But to me..."
He grabbed the chain. The holy energy hissed against his skin, trying to burn his flesh. But the Heart of Ruin throbbed in his chest, and the purple tattoos on his arm flared.
Shatter.
With a violent pull, the dark energy from Cyan's hand surged into the golden chain, turning it pitch black before it disintegrated into dust.
Elara gasped as she fell, but before she could hit the ice, Cyan caught her. Her body was weightless, like a ghost made of shadow and grief.
"Why help me?" she whispered, her face inches from his. "I am a curse. Anyone who touches me is consumed by the void."
Cyan's violet eye glowed with an predatory light. He leaned in, his lips brushing against her ear. "Then let the void consume us both. I don't want a saint, Elara. I want a weapon. I want a queen who will help me burn the world that threw us away."
[Ding!]
[Target's Heart Rate: Accelerated.]
[Resentment Converting to Submission...]
"If you give me your loyalty," Cyan continued, his hand sliding to the back of her neck, "I will give you the one thing the Light never could. Freedom. And the heads of your enemies."
Elara looked into his eyes—one blue, one violet. She saw no mercy there, only a shared darkness. She reached up, her cold, slender fingers tracing the glowing markings on his chest.
"A King who embraces the Sin..." she murmured, a dark, beautiful smile finally appearing on her lips. "Very well. My soul was forged in the fire of betrayal. Use it. Break it. Just make them suffer."
[Ding!]
[Taming Successful!]
[First Contract Bound: Elara (Shadow Saintess).]
[REWARDS GRANTED:]
Sin Points: +500
Evolution: [Primordial Chaos Constitution] - UNLOCKED.
New Skill: [Shadow Exchange] - (Host can now summon Elara or borrow her dark mana).
Cyan felt a surge of power far greater than anything his old core had ever produced. The very air in the Abyss began to swirl around them in a violent vortex.
"Now," Cyan said, standing tall as Elara knelt at his feet, her tattered rags transforming into a gown of pure, shimmering shadows. "We have a kingdom to reclaim."
"Where shall we start, my King?" Elara asked, her eyes now burning with a vengeful purple flame.
Cyan looked up at the ceiling of the Abyss. "The First Layer of the Abyss is ruled by a General of the Light who guards the exit. He thinks he's guarding a grave."
Cyan's smirk grew wider.
"Let's show him he was actually guarding a throne."