Chapter 32 Into The Abyss
Lee Seng stumbled to the ground as the loud ringing in his ears distorted his vision. He groaned, clutching his head with his left hand. The sounds around him started to die out. His eyes flared and he yelped in pain as he closed his eyes. His tail was pulsating. Lee Seng struggled to pull himself out of this. He was close to finishing the task and now he was hit with some sort of altered negative?
Lee Seng tried to push himself through it all. He pushed himself upwards only to slump further into the ground. The familiar female voice giggled. Lee Seng went blank and realized what was happening.
'No. What are you... No!' A weird feeling pulled over him. He could feel something crawling deeper into him and he shook his head in defiance. 'It's bac--' He screamed in pain and writhed on the floor.
"Protocol XI: Part 2 shall begin." The female voice chimed. She laughed as Lee Seng felt something forcibly taking control of him.
'Lee, what the hell is happening?!?' Keng shouted. Lee Seng could feel Keng stirring in his abdomen.
"It's... back!" He shouted.
----
Lee Seng felt the Protocol pull on him and he ended up in the familiar abyss within himself. He quickly jumped onto his feet and turned around. He stood near a lake and watched as he began to rise. Lee Seng leaned closer to the water, shocked.
"I'm in here! How am I...?" Lee Seng covered his mouth. "Could it be...?" He watched as his body stood up. An unfamiliar woman was looking closely at Lee Seng.
"Something's... not right, sir." The woman turned and to look off into the distance as Lee Seng's body simply come to a stand and stumble around. She looked back and gasped. Her hand shot out and quickly grabbed Lee Seng's wrist and Lee Seng turned to look at her. She seemed to be watching him and noticed something and quickly let go.
"Sir, I think we should repor---"
"Don't report it." Lee Seng heard himself say. Lee Seng stared at the body of water and shook his head. "I'm... fine."
"You aren't fine! Your... veins!" She pointed. Lee Seng watched as his body lifted his arms up to look and Lee Seng his veins were glowing. Lee Seng stepped back from the lake, covering his mouth.
"Oh my god!" Lee Seng continued backwards. His mind raced with questions of why he was in his state. One of the many questions he had was just overrode with a single question; what the hell was happening? Lee Seng stumbled backwards and fell onto his butt. He shook his head. "This can't be happening, right? I-it's a..."
"LEE!" Keng's voice shouted. Lee Seng paused. He began to turn when Keng jumped into his vision and turned around. "What's happening?!?" Keng stared off into the dark abyss and Lee Seng's eyes slowly moved. The sounds of footsteps echoed. Lee Seng slowly started to stand. He listened for the footsteps.
Click. Clack. Click.
The footsteps stopped. Lee Seng chest thumped loudly as he stood up. He quickly glanced at Keng and then the footsteps rushed at him. A black mist being with glowing veins ran out at them. It quickly ran for Keng who began to run. Lee Seng scrambled and decided to run after Keng. The black mist thing roared and he could hear more roaring in the distance all around them.
"Keng, what the hell is that?!?" Lee Seng screamed.
"I don't know! It just showed up after you collapsed!"
Lee Seng shook his head as he followed Keng. They were making their way through the infinite dark abyss. Lee Seng glanced behind him and saw multiple black mist things now. He immediately turned his head back and shivered.
"There's more! Where are we going?!?" Lee Seng run faster. He quickly caught up to Keng who was only looking ahead.
"There's this old place in the abyss that I haven't fully explored! We can hide there!" Keng responded.
"Old place? Why the hell does this endless place have so much stuff in it?"
"You tell me!" The loud cacophony of black mist things roared behind them. Lee Seng glanced back and saw the large horde gathering.
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap." Lee Seng only grew more scared as he kept up with Keng. The two pushed through the abyss and leapt onto broken concrete. Overgrown grass and weeds sprouted all over the concrete road. Overgrown foliage grew tall on both sides of the roads. The two followed the road for awhile. The roaring of the black mist creatures sounded like they were slowly gaining on them.
A familiar home slowly grew closer. The home was a cape cod. The house had two windows to the left of the door and two to the right. Three evenly spaced windows on the second floor. The home seem to be faded and old. Overgrown weeds and grass covered the small lawn and vines grew up and around the home.
"Quick, over here!" Keng barked. Keng darted off onto the left path and Lee Seng followed. Lee Seng's heart felt like it was sinking into his stomach. He didn't know how to take any of this. The fact he was forcibly removed from controlling his body, the creepy black mist creatures and now the "old place" that was very much his old home. He didn't know how to articulate any of it. He didn't want to go anywhere near this "old place," but since they were being chased by creatures he didn't know existed in the abyss, he didn't want to find out what they were capable of.
The two quickly made it up the stone path and Lee Seng quickly grabbed the door handle and tried to open it.
"Dammit," Lee Seng cursed. The door felt stuck on something. He quickly threw himself onto the door. Something was slowly shifting behind the door and Lee Seng made fustrating noises in return. "C'mon, open up you damn door!" He threw himself onto the door again and again. The black mist creatures were gaining onto them and Keng growled, turning to look at them.
"Hurry, Lee!" Keng screamed.
"I'm trying, dammit!" Lee Seng threw himself onto the door and the door gave way, opening all the day. Lee Seng jumped in with Keng on his heels and he quickly turned and slammed the door shut. He turned the door locks as the black mists crashed into the door and windows. They began to bang loudly and Lee Seng quickly stepped backwards into a drawer. He stumbled to the side and lost his balance, loudly slamming into the foyer wall to his right.
Lee Seng caught his breath and turned around. He recognized the home's layout. He was in the foyer and to his right was the stairs that led to his room. He walked around and pushed the drawer up against the wall and turned. The black mist made everything look darker. He slowly walked around, trying to find his way towards the living room in front of him.
"Lee Seng, I'm over here." Keng called out. Lee Seng could tell Keng had made his way into the living room. He slowly moved with his arms in front of him. His mind had the layout of the home in front of him. If he walked about fifteen more feet, he would hit the entrance of the living room. He would slowly pass by the door to the master bedroom before hitting the living room and he began to slow.
"Is this... really my old home?" Lee Seng muttered. "It feels like..."
"Lee, do you need light?"
Lee Seng shook himself out of his thought. "W-what? Light? Won't that attract the... black mist creatures?" Lee Seng could hear Keng coming towards him. he stopped in his place and waited for Keng to make it to him before moving. Keng walked up to Lee Seng and brushed against his leg.
"It's just me." Keng announced. "I forgot that you haven't used the eyes long enough. You can't see in the dark, yet." Keng's tail began to glow and Lee Seng could start to see, roughly, where things were. "You should be able to emit a light with your tail at least. Try it."
Lee Seng imagined his tail as a light and it began to flicker. He turned to watch it flicker a bit longer but it dimmed back to darkness. He sighed and looked back at Keng who was standing further away near the entrance to the living room.
"I think you should be fine with me. We'll just stick together." Keng insisted. "C'mon, we might as well sit. We need to put our brains together and figure out what's going on." Keng wandered deeper into the living room and Lee Seng saw the furniture and decor were exactly like his old home. He sighed and followed after Keng. He recognized the couch sitting halfway in the living room and walked around it and sat on the couch.
"This place is like my old home." Lee Seng muttered.
"That's cause it is. I think you created this home for some reason in the abyss." Keng answered.
"Created it for what? Why would all of this be relevant to anything?" Lee Seng waved his hands around. He didn't get what the abyss or his soul was up to, but it seemed to only hold monochrome colors and interesting sceneries that were debatable on its pleasantries.
"I don't know why it was created. Could say it's, maybe, a reflection of your memories." Keng guessed. He hopped onto the couch. Lee Seng could still hear the banging and the shifting of the black mist. They were sitting ducks in here.
"Wa-wait, I don't even think this is the thing I should be worrying about." Lee Seng leaned forward. "I need to figure out who ejected me out of my body and took over. Why my veins are glowing and why there's creepy black mist creatures with glowing veins as well." Lee Seng stood up and started to pace.
"I was doing fine in the test. My powers are stronger than I think they are, so they helped me get close to the end. I started to feel sick after I created that white bubble that allowed me to float towards the last floating platform. After I landed and stepped out of it, the negative took effect. Maybe creating a zone like that is the equivalent to ten range uses?" Lee Seng scratched his head.
"You got dizzy afterwards, but that's all I know. The next thing that happened was I felt you enter this world and those black mist creatures started chasing after me." Lee Seng nodded as Keng finished. The realization slowly swept over him and he slowly shook his head.
"The Protocol girl. She giggled and then I was here..."