Shadow of the Abyss

Altair shot the Malakh a measured stare, debating with himself how to proceed. She was a bit younger than he suspected, not that one's age ever mattered on the battlefield. Still, he couldn't help but ask, "Where are your parents?"

Seina Xen bit her lip. "Looking for me. I ran away."

Even without the Eye of Sacrilege, Altair could tell she was lying. "So your parents are dead." he chuckled when he saw her bewildered expression. "What type of God loses their child? They have too much awareness of that. You simply couldn't have run away while taking with you an armor that even some Gods might want to preserve."

The camp firewood crackled, lifting embers into the skies to billow far, far away.

Therion returned sometime time later with a young man, a knight clad in the armor Altair had felled him in. He recognized the man to be one of the men who had attacked him the day he'd awoken in Yarwin. The sight of him brought back memories of the Silvermanes and the lost lamb currently in the depths of hell.

"He'll do, your grace," Therion said.

"See to it then," Altair told him, gesturing for them to depart. He continued to stare at Seina, quivering like a maiden on her wedding night. Tears fell where they may as she awaited judgment. For a moment, he debated letting her go but crushed the thought almost immediately.

'So what if she's a child? She'll be a woman in a few years. More than that, she'll be a Malakh. A little messenger of the Heavens. Seina is valuable. Too valuable to let go." He thought, suddenly, thinking of Reina, who he'd once told to start her court alongside his.

'If she were here, I'd have given her to Ren.'

"Seina," Altair announced. "I'll give you the choice. Your bloodline deserves that much. You can serve me, or you can become one of the Maidens of the Vale. My Saintess would be more than willing to have a youngling like yourself."

"Y-Y-Your not going to eat me?"

"Eat you?" Tasha laughed. "Darling. You've not yet ripened enough for our master to devour."

Seina's face flushed. She felt relieved but more so embarrassed.

"I've no intention of forcing the matter," Altair said. "As a maiden to my Saintess, you'll receive formal training, though it seems you already have. Resources will be enough to raise you to the Ninth Circle and beyond."

"W-W-What happens if I follow you?"

"You die, and I resurrect you in my image. You'll be ten times stronger than you already are, ordained with knowledge that will push you to such heights you'll see how meaningless your lineage before me."

Siena clutched her throat. "I-I-I have to die?" she mewled, shaking her head. "I don't want to die."

"Such a shame; I'd have thought you'd have gotten another Sword Maid," Tasha whispered beside Altair's ear. "Speaking of duty. Didn't Majesty promise Tasha something special on the third floor?"

Before Altair could agree," Tasha continued," Unfortunately, Father has asked we do so on the next floor."

Altair brows beetled. "Why?"

"The Fourth Floor, all the way to the Twentieth, are all connected. How it's connected? I'm not too sure. What I do know, however, is that most Awakeners die during their trials. Either way, Father has paid quite the price to give you the perfect identity."

'Identity?' He thought and said, "How is Grimorie doing? What does a patron of the hells do in their free time?"

Tasha's ruby-red eyes sparkled. "promise not to laugh?"

"Nope. Tell me."

"Hehe, she has gotten into watching K-Drama."

"..." Altair took a moment to process that. "You're kidding?"

"Hey, when you predate time immemorial, then you can judge her. A lot of gods do silly things to pass the time. Some take up knitting while others pretend to be creationist God just to experience what it means to 'create life' outside the spectrum. Grimoire has done all that. So she's doing more laid-back things… at least in her free time."

Tasha lifted a brow, studying Altair's look of surprise. She'd always enjoyed that expression held by those curious about the Fallen Angel. Even her fellow brother and Sister often time gaped at some of the strange hobbies she'd picked up throughout her lifetime.

It had often been said within the Hells that Grimorie was the one to offer Soloman a portion of her wisdom, which allowed him to create the current system of the Arcanes, currently reigning supreme. In the eternity that followed, no such magic has sought to replace what Solomon and his near-infinite wisdom created.

Tasha suddenly looked around.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Something is approaching,' she said, lifting a finger. "There."

Altair stood up, suddenly aware of the mist that had formed out of thin air. He frowned, glancing at Siena, and said," Put back on your helm. We—"

A deafening shriek reverberated across the earth, echoing high and low across the air as an eruption of pounding hammered at the warding Tasha laid down.

Eldritch Flames ignited in reaction to the unknown creature's action, searing the air a ghostly emerald, cutting through a fog.

A pained cry shrieked, revealing an emaciated woman with long, tangled black hair. She wore nothing but the mist. Her body was partially translucent, seeming to fade in and out of reality as she bared her ghoulish fanged teeth.

"A specter…" Altair said, approaching the edge of the warding.

The Specter shrieked again, so powerfully it tore the bark off the tree, shredding the leaves to dust and the grass to mist. The barrier trembled but held.

"What a strange creature," said Altair. "Can she think?"

"Bearly," Answered Tasha coldly. "Specters are souls that Eldritch Energy has effected, or a Yin Base energy, altering the internal balance they held. This one here is a poor imitation of the ones in the hells. It cannot compare to the specters we have in the Hell Pits. Now those breed some delicious fiends."

The creature lashed its gnarled talons at the warding, screaming when the eldritch flames lit her ablaze. She crackled a cry, a stream of black liquid overflowing down the hollow pits of her eyes that revealed silver flames.

Name: Specter

Age: 200 Years

Str: 1000

Dex: 1200

Con: 400

Wis: 1100

Chr: 300

Mana: 150

Skills: [Mana Manipulation], [Ghostly Hail], [Spector], [Ghostly Hate ], [Terror], [Ghostly Hate]

Taken back by the creature's attributes, Altair frowned for a second. This Specter wasn't a creature that any third circle or fourth circle could face on their own. The creature was as strong as a fifth circle.

"Shall I dispose of the creature?" Tasha said as the air ignited with Infernal Might. The trees, weeds, grass, and lilies wilted, falling to ash as her aura unveiled itself. The Specter stood petrified. It wanted to leave, to flee but was bound by a strange force that appeared to lash her to the earth.

Altair shook his head.

Name: Altair Blackwood

Class: [King of the Vale I Lv 10]

Mana Circle: [Fifth Circle: 50%

Str: 272

Dex: 197

Con: 360

Wis: 360

Chr: 360

Mana: 140

"I want to try, " he said, erecting two warriors around him as he stepped outside the warding, reaching into his ring to remove one of the swords Hephaestus had forged for him. The blade glinted off the flames, writhing across the emaciated flesh of the Specter.

The creature spun to face Altair, the ghostly flames in its eyes burning hate that seemed tangible. It lunged at him, entering his Spirit Domain, which allowed him to perceive some movement from the ghost.

Its claw came down with earth-shattering force, shattering Altair's barrier, before its second palm came down across the final barrier, just in time for the sigil in Altair's eyes to ignite. An infernal rune lashed itself across his barrier, igniting almost immediately in a hellfire so fierce the mist that layered the field turned from a vaper to nothing.

Hellish Rebuke

[Ding]

[Hellish Rebuke Proficiency has increased by 7%]

[Hellish Rebuke has evolved]

[Hellish Rebuke [F] → [E]

Proficiency: 97% → 4%

Altair grinned. "I haven't used that spell in a while." He said, a little thankful to the hell lord that gifted it to him. "The drain is still outrageous, though."

The Specter's left arm that had been singed beyond recognition toppled to the earth. The creature howled, letting loose a maddening cry before vanishing. Remerging behind, Altair, only to vanish, then appear on his flank, to his surprise.

The Emperor erected another barrier, adding Hellish Rebuke both on himself and the barrier, finding the Arcane arts to be much more destructive than he originally thought. He'd already mortality wounded the Specter by redirecting its attack back at it with Hellish Rebuke, and he still held more than ninety percent of his Mana.

Suddenly, the Specter emerged from out of the veil it hid itself in, releasing a ghastly wail that shattered both Altair's barriers. Hellish Rebuke did not activate, lacking the means of a physical body or object to attack. The wail struck against Altair like a battering ram, shattering a few bones while crushing a few organs.

He winced but held firm, smiling as his Ashen Blood made him whole in the blink of an eye.

'Shadow Cage'