The silence at the bottom of the Abyss was not an absence of sound. It was a physical entity. It was a heavy, grayish mass that seeped through the pores, cooling the blood until the rhythmic heart felt like a noisy intruder in a sacred cemetery.Kaelen opened his eyes, or at least he believed he had. There was no difference between having his eyelids closed or open in the density of the Erebus Mist. The first thing he registered was not the pain, but the taste: oxidized iron and ozone. His own blood had pooled under his cheek, mixing with the bone dust of civilizations that had fallen there millennia ago."I'm… still… alive…" his voice was a broken croak.Every fiber of his being screamed. His right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, a gift from his "older brother" in the sect, Alaric, who had broken his joints before pushing him into the void. He remembered Alaric's face: there was no hatred in it, only icy indifference. For the Silver Edge Sect, Kaelen was not a traitor; he was simply unnecessary surplus. A sacrifice so that the "Effect" of the island would not be depleted.A spasm of pain ran down his spine. Kaelen tried to move, but his fingers only scraped the cold ground. That was when he saw it. Not with his eyes, but in his mind.
[DEBTOR STATUS: CRITICAL]
[PHYSICAL INTEGRITY: 12%]
[SOUL CHARGE: EMPTY]
The letters were not blue nor friendly. They were a pulsing red, like exposed veins, and floated in his peripheral vision.
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO REQUEST AN EMERGENCY LOAN?]
[WARNING: INTEREST RATES WILL BE CHARGED IN VITAL MEMORY OR ORGANIC TISSUE]
"Do it," Kaelen whispered, clenching his teeth until his gums bled. "Give me whatever… to get back on my feet."
[LOAN GRANTED: "VOID ADRENALINE"]
[COST: THE MEMORY OF THE FIRST KISS AND TACTILE SENSITIVITY OF THE LEFT HAND]
Suddenly, a part of his mind became blurred. The memory of a girl, a garden of crystal flowers and a soft warmth disappeared, erased as if someone had passed a wet sponge over a chalk drawing. At the same time, his left hand stopped feeling the cold of the ground. He no longer felt anything with it. It was dead to touch, but functional for violence.A black heat surged from his spinal cord. Kaelen stood up with a choked scream. His bones cracked and realigned under the brute force of the Codex energy. It was not healing; it was forced repair. It was as if the System had driven iron stakes into his nerves to keep him upright.He stood, staggering. The mist around him began to stir. Something had heard him. Something that had not tasted flesh still carrying the warmth of the floating islands for centuries.Ten meters away, two sickly yellow orbs lit up in the darkness. Then two more. And two more.It was not an animal. It was a Mist Stalker. A creature that looked like a humanoid centipede, composed of withered torsos and limbs ending in bone blades. It measured at least three meters long and moved with unnatural speed, hissing a sound that imitated a baby's cry.
[TARGET DETECTED: MIST STALKER (RANK: EARLY IRON)]
[ESTIMATED VALUE: 45 SHADOW CREDITS]
[NOTE: YOUR CURRENT DEBT IS 500 CREDITS. IF YOU DIE HERE, YOUR SOUL WILL BE PROCESSED AS INTEREST]
Kaelen spat blood and extended his left hand, the one that no longer felt pain.
"Forty-five credits…" a demented smile appeared on his pale face. "It's not enough to pay for my life, but it's a start to buy yours, Alaric."The Stalker let out a shriek that tore through the mist and lunged to attack. Its bone legs struck the ground with the force of jackhammers.
Kaelen had no weapon. No armor. Only a hunger for revenge that burned hotter than the system itself. When the monster's first blade descended to split him in two, Kaelen did not dodge backward. He dodged into the creature's reach.The impact of Kaelen's shoulder against the monster's cold, viscous chest sounded like a collision of carriages. The pain was immense, but the "Void Adrenaline" filtered it. Kaelen sank his fingers into one of the yellow eyes."LOOK AT ME!" Kaelen roared.The monster writhed, throwing Kaelen against a ruined stone column. The blow broke two newly repaired ribs, but the young man did not release his grip. The Stalker's black blood began to burn his skin, but the Codex began to vibrate.
[EXTRACTION INITIATED…]
[CONSUME TO SURVIVE]
The fight had only just begun. The Stalker used its multiple limbs to impale Kaelen's shoulders, lifting him into the air. Kaelen hung there, with the bone blades piercing his flesh, but his hands remained clamped to the beast's skull, draining the essence directly from its eye sockets.It was a nightmare scene: a dying young man devouring the energy of an abyss horror while both bled out in the darkness.The air in Kaelen's lungs felt like he was swallowing shards of glass. The Mist Stalker's bone blades had pierced his shoulders, pinning him against the runic stone of a collapsed structure. The blood, too bright red for this gray world, dripped down the monster's torso, which emitted a vibrant purr, delighting in the taste of the "Effect" that still remained in the young man's body.Kaelen, however, did not scream. His eyes, once full of the spark of life, were now fixed on the creature's yellow orbs with predatory intensity. His fingers, sunk into the monster's sockets, were not just trying to blind it. They were seeking an anchor.
[WARNING: MASSIVE DAMAGE TO VITAL ORGANS]
[STATUS: HEMORRHAGE LEVEL 4]
[ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL SOUL COLLAPSE: 120 SECONDS]
"Shut up…" Kaelen growled, his voice mixed with a gurgle of blood. "Give me… more!"The Stalker, sensing that its prey was not dying as it should, reacted with frenzied violence. Its lower legs, like chitin spears, began to rhythmically pound Kaelen's abdomen, tearing the fabric of his initiate's tunic and opening deep furrows in his flesh. Each blow was a hammer strike that threatened to snap his spine.
[NEW OFFER AVAILABLE: "DEFERRED PAIN CONTRACT"]
[EFFECT: THE USER WILL NOT FEEL PHYSICAL DAMAGE FOR 5 MINUTES]
[COST: AFTER THE TIME LIMIT, THE PAIN WILL BE MULTIPLIED BY THREE AND YOU WILL LOSE THE ABILITY TO SLEEP FOR 7 DAYS]
"I accept!" Kaelen's shout was a burst of pure fury.Immediately, the world became strangely silent for him. The sound of his own bones breaking turned into a distant echo. The pain, that boiling mass clouding his judgment, was sucked into a dark corner of his mind, leaving him with a cold, terrifying clarity.
With his shoulders still impaled, Kaelen used his legs. He wrapped his thighs around the creature's segmented waist and, taking advantage of the previous "Adrenaline Loan," applied a force no human of his rank should possess. The Stalker shrieked, a sound that perfectly imitated a woman begging for help, an evolutionary trick to confuse its prey."That trick doesn't work on me," Kaelen muttered. "I no longer recognize that voice."Kaelen remembered that the Codex mentioned "Essence Extraction." He focused his will on his hands sunk into the beast's face. Suddenly, he felt a suction. Threads of purple and black energy began to flow from the Stalker into his own arms. It was not a smooth transfer; it was as if he were ripping the creature's veins out from the inside.
The Mist Stalker panicked. It tried to retreat, wanting to shake off that human who refused to die, but the blades in Kaelen's shoulders were locked in place. By trying to pull away, the beast only tore more of Kaelen's flesh, but he did not yield."If I fall into hell, you'll serve as my carpet," Kaelen roared.With a sudden movement, Kaelen bit into the creature's neck, right where a gland pulsed with a chemical glow. The taste was bitter, like bile and sulfur, but the moment his teeth pierced the chitinous skin, the Codex reacted violently.
[IRON ESSENCE LEAKAGE DETECTED]
[TEMPORARY ABILITY UNLOCKED: "USURER'S TOUCH"]
[DESCRIPTION: YOUR HANDS CAN DISSOLVE ORGANIC MATTER TO PAY YOUR DEBT]
Kaelen's hands began to emit black smoke. Wherever his fingers touched the Stalker's face, the flesh melted like wax before a flame. The monster let out a final scream, a cacophony of stolen voices, as its head began to disintegrate under the pressure of Kaelen's hands.But the Stalker was not a weak enemy. In its agony, it drove all its remaining limbs into Kaelen's chest. One, two, five bone points pierced his lungs and grazed his heart.
Kaelen spat a mouthful of black blood onto the beast's deformed face. His vision blurred. The cold of the Abyss was starting to win the battle. Yet he did not stop. He kept draining, kept dissolving, until the massive body of the Stalker lost its strength and collapsed forward, crushing Kaelen against the ground.The silence returned, broken only by the hiss of black smoke still rising from the creature's remains.
[TARGET ELIMINATED: MIST STALKER]
[SOUL HARVESTED: 45 CREDITS]
[FIRST BLOOD BONUS: 20 CREDITS]
[REMAINING DEBT TOTAL: 435 CREDITS]
Kaelen lay beneath the smoking corpse. His hands were covered in dark mucus and blood. He tried to breathe, but only managed a wet wheeze. The "Deferred Pain" was still active, allowing him to think, but he knew that the moment the timer reached zero, his body would become a scream of agony that would probably kill him.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[YOU HAVE REACHED THE "SACRIFICE THRESHOLD"]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND YOUR 65 CREDITS TO REPAIR PHYSICAL INTEGRITY OR TO UNLOCK THE FIRST GATE: THE GATE OF SHARED PAIN?]
Kaelen looked into the darkness of the Mist. He could sense more presences lurking, drawn by the smell of blood and released energy. If he repaired his body, he would survive a few more minutes, but he would remain the same weak young man Alaric had thrown into the void.If he opened the Gate… he would change forever.
"The Gate…" he managed to articulate. "Open the damn Gate."
[PROCESSING…]
[WARNING: OPENING THE FIRST GATE REQUIRES AN ADDITIONAL PAYMENT]
[THE SYSTEM WILL CLAIM: YOUR CAPACITY TO FEEL REGRET FOR YOUR ACTIONS]
Kaelen closed his eyes, visualizing the faces of the Silver Edge Sect elders. He visualized Valeria, the only one who had not laughed when they pushed him, but who also had not lifted a finger to help him."Take it all," Kaelen said. "I don't need it anymore."A burst of ashen light erupted from his chest, illuminating the Abyss for a brief second, finally revealing what surrounded him: thousands of gigantic skeletons, structures that defied gravity, and on the horizon, a black tower that seemed to suck away the little light left in the world.The ascension process had begun. But it was not glorious. It was an internal slaughter.The world did not explode in white light. There were no heavenly choirs or sense of divinity. When the First Gate: The Gate of Shared Pain tore open in the center of Kaelen's soul, what he felt was a flood of boiling sludge.
[PROCESSING SACRIFICE: CAPACITY FOR REGRET… ELIMINATED]
[SOUL ADAPTATION IN PROGRESS]Deep in his psyche, something that used to be soft and malleable—the conscience that made him hesitate before hurting an animal or the guilt he felt when lying—dried up and crumbled like old ash. His synaptic connections reconfigured. Where there had once been a knot of complex emotions about his betrayal, now there was only a straight line of cold logic: They are the obstacle. I am the consequence.Suddenly, his body, which had been hanging like a sack of broken meat beneath the Stalker's corpse, began to levitate a few centimeters. Not by magical flight, but because the pressure of his new "Effect" was so dense that it repelled the ground.[GATE OF SHARED PAIN: OPENED]
[NEW PASSIVE LAW: "ECHO OF AGONY"]
[EFFECT: ANY DAMAGE YOU RECEIVE WILL BE PROJECTED IN A 3-METER RADIUS. YOUR PAIN IS NOW YOUR WEAPON]Kaelen felt his muscles tense to the point of rupture. His bones, which had fused imperfectly, began to break and reform correctly under the pressure of the black energy. His eyes, now with a vertical pupil reminiscent of an eclipse, opened wide.
And then the timer reached zero.[THE "DEFERRED PAIN" CONTRACT HAS EXPIRED]
[INITIATING INTEREST COLLECTION: MULTIPLIER x3]If what came before had been hell, this was annihilation. Kaelen could not even scream. His vocal cords paralyzed as the total sum of his broken ribs, perforated lungs, and shattered shoulders—multiplied by three—struck his nervous system simultaneously.
The ground beneath him cracked. The air around him vibrated at such a high frequency that the remains of the Mist Stalker still on top of him simply exploded into a cloud of fine dust. The "Echo of Agony" was working: Kaelen's agony was so massive that the physical environment could not withstand it.For what felt like centuries, Kaelen was nothing but a vessel of pure torture. He could not pass out; the System kept him conscious to "ensure assimilation." His fingers sank into the black earth, tearing chunks of rock as his spasms shook the darkness.Finally, the pain receded to a dull, constant throb. Kaelen remained there, gasping, soaked in a cold sweat that smelled of ozone. His body was no longer that of a scrawny initiate. Though still lean, his muscles had a fibrous definition, like taut steel cables. His scars had not disappeared; they had been etched into his skin with a dark silver hue, like runes from a battle he should not have won.He stood up. Every movement reminded him he was still wounded, but now the pain did not stop him. It was fuel.He looked around. With his new vision, the mist was no longer a wall. He could see he was in the middle of what looked like a machine graveyard. Gears the size of houses, rusted and covered in black mold, jutted from the ground like the bones of metallic titans."What is this place?" he whispered.On the Silver Edge Sect's maps, the Abyss was described as a desert of nothing. But this… this was a dead civilization.
Suddenly, a metallic sound broke the silence. Clang. Clang. Clang.It was a steady rhythm, like a hammer striking an anvil, but with a hollow, electronic undertone. It came from behind a large collapsed turbine rising about twenty meters away.
Kaelen moved in absolute silence. His new nature allowed him to blend into the shadows almost instinctively. Peering around the edge of the turbine, his blood ran cold.There, under the dying light of a soul crystal flickering on the ground, stood a figure. It was not an Abyss monster, nor a human from the floating islands. It was a metallic being, an automaton nearly two meters tall, whose armor was so pitted by corrosion it looked made of black lace. It had no face, only a horizontal slit from which a rhythmic red glow emanated.The automaton was kneeling before a small stone altar. On the altar was an object that emitted a vibration Kaelen could feel in his own teeth: a fragment of crystal pulsing with pure white light, a "Heavenly Essence," something supposed to exist only in the highest levels of Aethelgard.The automaton was not striking an anvil. It was striking its own metallic chest with a stone hammer, emitting a sound like a lament recorded a thousand years ago.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[ENTITY: FORGOTTEN GUARDIAN - MODEL "ATONEMENT"]
[RANK: UNKNOWN (DEGRADED STATE)]
[ALERT: THE CODEX REACTS TO THE OBJECT ON THE ALTAR. DEBT POTENTIALLY CANCELEABLE IF THE "PURE LIGHT CORE" IS OBTAINED]Kaelen clenched his fists. His hands still dripped the Stalker's blood. He did not know what that creature was, but the System was giving him a direct order. Fear tried to rise in his throat, but it stopped. The "Sacrifice of Regret" also included moral doubt.If that machine had what he needed to reach the surface and burn Aethelgard to the foundations, then the machine had to die.
Yet just as Kaelen prepared to leap, the automaton stopped. Its metallic head rotated 180 degrees, looking directly toward the turbine where Kaelen was hiding."Are you… another… debtor?" The machine's voice was an amalgam of thousands of whispers, a frequency that made Kaelen's Codex throw an error warning.
Kaelen did not answer. He stepped out of the shadows, the black energy of the "Echo of Agony" beginning to crackle around him."I'm just the man who's going to take that crystal," Kaelen said, his voice icy.
The automaton stood, revealing that its left arm ended in a huge rusted saw blade that began to spin with a roar that shook the foundations of the machine graveyard."Many have said the same…" the Guardian said.
"Their bones… now are the gears… that keep time… in the void."The roar of the Forgotten Guardian's saw was not an ordinary mechanical sound. It was a lament of metal against metal that seemed to vibrate at the same frequency as Kaelen's nervous system. The automaton, christened by the Codex as "Atonement," took a step forward.
Its structure, though rusted, moved with a precision no organic being could imitate."Debtor…" the machine repeated, and this time the red glow of its visor intensified. "Your scent is recent. You still smell of the surface… of the lie of the sun."Kaelen did not retreat. His feet sank into the metal dust of the ground. He felt immense pressure in his chest; the "Echo of Agony" was active, and every heartbeat sent waves of black distortion around him."If the sun is a lie, then this hole is the truth," Kaelen replied. "And the truth is that I need that crystal."Without another word, the Guardian attacked. There was no slow charge; the machine propelled itself with pressurized steam jets from its heels, covering the ten meters in a blink. The saw descended in a vertical arc meant to split Kaelen from skull to pelvis.Kaelen reacted on instinct.
He did not try to block; he knew his flesh arm would be shredded. He dove to the side, feeling the wind of the saw graze his back. The stone ground where he had stood a second earlier exploded into fragments under the force of the impact.
[WARNING: TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED]
[THE GUARDIAN IS USING "CHRONOS-RESIDUE" TO ACCELERATE ITS MOVEMENTS]
"Chronos-residue?" Kaelen gasped, rolling over himself.He had no time to think. The Guardian spun on its own axis with the fluidity of a death top. Its right arm, a massive clamp, caught Kaelen's ankle before he could stand. With inhuman strength, the automaton lifted Kaelen and slammed him against the turbine wall.The blow was so hard the turbine's metal dented. Kaelen felt his lungs collapse and a new torrent of pain flood his system.
[ECHO OF AGONY: ACTIVATED]
At the moment of impact, a shockwave of black energy emanated from Kaelen's body. The "Echo" detected the pain of the impact and returned it with interest. The Guardian's metallic arm began to vibrate violently, and the rusted armor plates on its chest creaked, as if an invisible hand were crushing them.The machine released Kaelen, stepping back. Its red visor flickered erratically."Feedback… power…" the machine screeched. "You are a debtor of the Path of Suffering. Your life will be short… but bloody."Kaelen fell to his knees, spitting a mix of saliva and blood. But instead of showing weakness, his face was twisted by a savage smile. The "Sacrifice of Regret" was taking effect: he no longer felt fear for his own integrity, only the cold satisfaction of seeing his enemy damaged."If my life is short," Kaelen said, standing with difficulty, "I'll make sure yours ends right now."Kaelen charged. This time, he set the pace. He knew he could not win a contest of strength, but the Codex whispered a possibility.
[NEW TRANSACTION OPTION: "OXIDIZED BLOOD BOND"]
[EFFECT: YOU CAN INFECT MECHANISMS WITH YOUR OWN BLOOD TO GAIN TEMPORARY CONTROL]
[COST: 200 MILLILITERS OF BLOOD AND A PERMANENT 2% INCREASE IN YOUR DEBT INTEREST RATE]
"Do it!" Kaelen roared internally.
As the Guardian launched another saw thrust, Kaelen did not dodge. He let the saw graze his side, opening a deep gash in his ribs. Blood spurted under pressure, but instead of falling to the ground, the blood seemed to have a will of its own. Like threads of liquid ruby, the blood shot toward the exposed gears of the Guardian's arm.On contact, the blood began to boil, transforming into a black, corrosive crust that seeped into the machine's joints.
The saw's roar stopped with an agonized metallic screech. Black smoke began pouring from the automaton's shoulder."What… have… you… done?" the Guardian's voice distorted."I've paid the price of your defeat," Kaelen said.With the enemy's arm locked, Kaelen leaped onto the machine's back. His hands, empowered by the "Usurer's Touch" he had used against the Stalker, closed around the automaton's "neck," where the power cables were visible.Kaelen began to pull. Not just with his muscles, but with his soul. The Codex started sucking energy from the Guardian's core.
[ANCIENT CORE EXTRACTION: 10%… 30%…]
The Guardian thrashed frantically, slamming itself against the walls to try to dislodge Kaelen. Every blow Kaelen received activated the "Echo of Agony," returning the force of the impact to the machine's body, tearing its armor apart from the inside out. It was a vicious cycle of mutual destruction.Finally, with a shout of pure effort, Kaelen tore out the automaton's central processor. The red light of the visor slowly faded. The massive metal body fell to the ground with a crash that echoed through the entire machine graveyard.Kaelen collapsed beside it, gasping, his vision blackening at the edges. He was on the verge of total collapse.
[COMBAT CONCLUDED]
[REWARD: 120 CREDITS]
[ITEM OBTAINED: ATONEMENT CORE (RARE)]
[ITEM OBTAINED: PURE LIGHT FRAGMENT (CLASS S TREASURE)]Kaelen dragged his body to the altar and took the pure light crystal. Upon touching it, a warmth he had never felt coursed through his arm, stopping the bleeding from his side. But the System did not allow him to enjoy the relief.
[YOU HAVE OBTAINED A "CELESTIAL GRADE" ITEM IN THE ABYSS]
[ATTENTION: YOUR PRESENCE HAS BEEN DETECTED BY THE "VOID AUDITORS"]
[TIME UNTIL ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST PURGE WAVE: 10 MINUTES]
Kaelen looked at the crystal and then upward. One day, he would return to Aethelgard. But now, he realized the Abyss was not just his grave—it was his forge."Auditors…" Kaelen stored the crystal in the Codex's storage space, which opened like a wound in the air. "Let them come. I still have a lot to buy."In the distance, a howl that was neither human nor animal echoed among the machines. Something much larger than the Stalker or the Guardian was awakening.