Chapter 806 - Darkness Perfected

The Abyss was his home and his sanctuary, a womb where time and space held no meaning. He didn't know where he ended and the Abyss began, but he knew that he was safe. There were no sensations, no suffering. He was one with the universe, and it was one with him.

But one day, there was a ripple in the darkness, change in the stillness. It called for him.

He didn’t know how, and he didn’t know why, but he moved toward the beckoning call, his very core burning with urgency. He had been content being one with the Abyss forever, to revel in his absence of being. But now that the darkness was not alone, his soul cried for more.

It couldn't be seen, it couldn't be touched. But its elusive nature only made it more palpable in this world of absence. It was even more real than he.

He was plagued with questions. Who was he? What was his purpose? Concepts that were once foreign flooded his mind, both cursing and liberating him. The Abyss was still his home and part of his very being, but he knew that it couldn't answer the questions that now tormented him. He needed to leave.

The Abyss was fighting his efforts, like a parent reluctant to let their child go. But the calls grew more urgent, and he pushed on, borrowing the endless power of the Abyss to fight the Abyss. After all, as much as they were separate, they were one.

Before, space held no meaning, but now, he started to realize just how far it was. Each breath, he traversed vast distances, entering sections of the Abyss he didn't know existed. Before, it had never mattered. Now, it filled him with curiosity. He could feel mysterious things hiding in the darkness, glorious things.

But they would be there in the future as well, and their call was not as urgent as the one from above.

For the first time in his life, he felt exhaustion. Whatever he was doing was draining him. Yet his destination was still so far away. When he couldn't draw enough power from his surroundings, he dug deeper into his personal Abyss. And the Abyss answered. A surge of power spread through his being, and he felt the exhaustion melt away.

His desire gave him strength, and each time he moved, he wasn't as drained. He still felt the exhaustion, but his will was unbreakable, his adamance unrelenting. Another call came from below. It was urging him to let go. Only suffering waited on the other side. It was telling him to come home.

He didn't listen, and suddenly, the darkness was no more. The endless Abyss had given way to an endless sky, and millions of flickering lights welcomed his arrival. The Abyss had represented perfection and unity, but the myriad colors forming a chaotic tapestry contained an equal truth. For the first time, he took a deep breath, and reality shuddered.

Crashing waves against ancient rocks mourned the loss, but he knew what he had gained outweighed what was given up. With a simple thought, he could join those flickering lights far in the sky, but he instead walked onto the shores. He wasn't the first; two were already standing there, letting themselves be baptized by the new environment while leaving their mark on the sky.

As he arrived, their eyes turned to his. In their eyes, he saw home, his origin. He saw the endless Abyss, darkness perfected.

“Azol," one of them said.

"Mez," his other friend added.

“Eoz,” he answered. He didn’t know why, but it was true.

Nothing else was said. Nothing else was needed. The others would soon arrive. Until then, Eoz was content with standing at the shores, hearing the soothing waves of home as he gazed upon the endless sky.

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Zac took a shuddering breath as he woke up from the vision, but he didn’t even get a chance to digest what he had seen before he found himself in the middle of a torrent of energies. It felt like the ichor in his veins had been replaced with acid, but that was nothing compared to the burning pain in his throat.

A groan escaped his lips, but he knew that he had to hold on. Something was changing in his body at the cost of tremendous amounts of energy. The cave was meant for early and middle-stage Hegemons, but it was sucked dry by him all the same. Even then, he knew it was nothing compared to the terrifying amounts of energy the Draugr called Eoz had consumed in his vision.

Each moment, the Draugr had absorbed more energy than Zac had in his entire life. If Eoz sat here, he would most likely have destroyed the whole Blackink Mountain in a few seconds. Zac didn't know whether the predecessor in his vision was an Autarch or something even greater, but he was definitely not below Be'Zi, and far beyond the Orom or the Havarok Autarch.

All three Draugr in his vision were. It had looked like those progenitors were just stargazing, but Zac felt like they had been shifting the Heavens themselves with their mere arrival. It made him wonder. Just what kind of place was the Abyssal Lake, to birth at least three such monsters out of nowhere?

Was it an Eternal Heritage? Did Draugr originate from an older era? And what were those things that hid in the lake just out of sight, each one emitting a worldending aura that could snuff out an Autarch's soul in an instant? After having seen it himself, he was no longer surprised that even A-grade cultivators could be wounded when exploring the Abyssal Lake.

Yet, he felt a sense of yearning when thinking back to that darkness. Even with the danger, he had felt so safe there in the vision, at peace to a degree he had never felt before. Even if he couldn't visit the depths where Eoz originated from, he still wanted to enter the shallows of the Abyssal Lake, even if just to reclaim that sensation.

But he knew there were quite a few steps before he could reach that point. Most importantly, he needed to withstand the breakthrough. The energy in his body was getting crammed tighter and tighter as more poured in, and the [Quantum Gate] was swallowing as much as the rest of his body combined.

It somewhat confirmed his earlier theories, but he wasn't in any state to celebrate.

Any time Zac felt he would explode from the pressure, his cells shuddered and swallowed a mouthful before the process started over once more. He had no idea how long it took, but the pull eventually subsided. Even then, the room was let almost completely bereft of energy, which was almost a relief for Zac as he took a shuddering breath and sat up.

The process was over, and he curiously turned his gaze inward, looking for the new Hidden Node. However, a few seconds passed, and Zac furrowed his brows in confusion. Something had changed with his body, but he couldn’t actually find any node. Had the process failed, even after being shown the vision? Or was this something related to his Void Emperor bloodline?

He thoroughly scanned his body a few more times, but the only change he could spot was that his energy was denser compared to before. If his Miasma was water before, it had turned into a viscous jelly now. That change hadn’t impacted the speed with which he could move his energy though, so Zac eventually turned to his status screens for answers.

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

129

Class

[E-Epic] Fetters of Desolation

Race

[D] Draugr - Void Emperor (Corrupted)

Alignment

[Earth] Port Atwood - Planetary Lord

Titles

Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500, Planetary Aegis, One Against Many, Butcher, Progenitor Noblesse, Duplicity Core, Apex Hunter, Heaven's Chosen, Scion of Dao, Omnidextrous, Eastern Trigram Hunt - 1st, Tyrannic Force, Achievement Hunter, The First Step, Promising Specialist, Tower of Eternity - 8th Floor, Heaven's Triumvirate, Fated, Peak Power, Sovereign-Select, Frontrunner, Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider, Runebinder, Runic Erudition, Grand Fate

Limited Titles

Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star - 14th, The Final Twilight, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator

Dao

Branch of the War Axe - Early, Fragment of the Coffin - Peak, Fragment of the Bodhi - Peak

Core

[E] Duplicity

Strength

13895 [Increase: 123%. Efficiency: 287%] 1,000

Dexterity

5570 [Increase: 88%. Efficiency: 206%] 1,000

Endurance

8981 [Increase: 109%. Efficiency: 275%] 1,000

Vitality

7502 [Increase: 97%. Efficiency: 262%] 1,000

Intelligence

2275 [Increase: 82%. Efficiency: 206%] 1,000

Wisdom

4615 [Increase: 89%. Efficiency: 216%] 1,000

Luck

540 [Increase: 106%. Efficiency: 229%]

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

[D] 933 662