Chapter 88: The Whispering Abyss
The chasm was unlike any Kael had seen before. It stretched across the dead plains of the Nether Fracture like a wound carved into the world itself — edges jagged, the air around it humming with a presence that neither welcomed nor warned. Just existence… terrifying, endless existence.
Zeraphin halted mid-stride, his wings retracting back into his spine as the pressure made it impossible to keep them spread. "This is not just any abyss," he muttered, squinting at the dark swirling mists below. "This… is alive."
Elenai frowned. "A living abyss?"
"Not living as in breathing. Living as in… listening."
Kael's eyes narrowed as he stepped closer, unafraid. The Authority Rank within him — a title now known as "Transcendence of Paradox" — had evolved further after his confrontation with the Forgotten Lords in the previous realm. He could sense it: this place was created as a boundary, a prison not to hold something in, but to keep everything else out.
As his foot touched the fractured stone edge, voices began to murmur.
"Return… Herald of Reversal… You were born from what lies below…"
He knelt down, placing his hand over the pulsing sigil engraved into the black stone. The sigil responded instantly, lighting up in brilliant violet flame — a color only those above the 8th Authority Rank could see unaided.
Elenai gasped. "That's… a seal from the Era of Unreal Convergence!"
Kael's expression darkened. "And it's been broken. Not recently — a long time ago."
Zeraphin turned to him. "So whatever was imprisoned…"
"…is no longer here," Kael finished. "Or worse. It's watching."
The ground shuddered as the abyss belched up a cold wind, whispers turning into screams. From its depths, a tendril of shadow surged upward — not to attack, but to offer.
A deal.
"You know me," Kael said aloud, not backing away. "But I don't fear you."
The tendril froze mid-air. Then, it shifted shape — forming a mirror.
And inside that mirror was Kael… but not him.
This version had no warmth. No compassion. His eyes were silver voids, his armor not forged of the Paradox Authority but something darker — The Nullborn Sovereignty.
Elenai stepped back. "Is that…?"
Zeraphin shook his head. "No. It's what he could become. The Abyss is offering power… by forsaking balance."
Kael walked toward the mirror slowly. His reflection spoke.
"End it all. Take control of destiny. Become the only truth."
For a moment, Kael said nothing.
Then, he reached forward.
Zeraphin yelled, "Don't!"
But Kael's hand passed through the mirror — not into power, but into understanding. In that instant, he saw thousands of realities where he accepted the Abyss's offer. Universes burned. Friends fell. Worlds died in silence.
And then… he pulled his hand back.
"No," he said, quietly. "I write reality. I don't erase it."
The mirror cracked, then shattered. The tendril screeched in fury and retracted, dissolving into the abyss.
In that moment, a bridge began to form across the chasm — crystalline, ancient, not made by the Abyss but by something beyond it.
Zeraphin looked amazed. "You rejected the Abyss and earned a passage."
Kael's aura flared with equilibrium once again. "The Throne Beyond Reality waits. But it tests us with every step. Let's go."
As they began crossing, a final whisper echoed from the abyss.
"Even you… Kael… were born from a contradiction."
Kael smiled faintly. "That's why I'll end the cycle."