Shadow of the Abyss

Chapter 324 Third Floor

Lu Chen blurred from his iron scaffold. He appeared three meters away in what appeared to be the prelude to a duel of sorts. Around them, awakeners, new and old, lowered their blades to crane their heads in their direction. It wasn't every day that an awakener, much less one that had only been on the second floor for about a month, saw to ascend.

Most saw the need to capitalize on the mind essence that was given to them to aid in their overall battle prowess.

Altair didn't need such things. While it was useful, there wasn't an overall gain, in his opinion, that the Realm of Spirits didn't offer outright. He'd only just gain control of his Omniscience. And how he wanted to train it on higher layers in the heat of battle.

"This will be your first attempt," Lu Chen said. "Show me what you can do."

The emperor gave a half-smile, lifting a finger that began to arc with profound evil, which seemed to take the light of the world away. It had only been for an instant, a motion that seemed to transcend the limit of mortal ascension, but in a single motion of his finger downwards, Lu Chen was once more before an infernal world tree so blatant in its evil it felt stifling.

Arcs of Infernal Lightning besieged the world, like the ancient roots of Yggdrasil, endless and eternal. It crackled like a whip across the air, shrouding the realm in a dystopian nightmare.

'Indignation,' The Emperor intoned, igniting the world ablaze. Flames turned to fire, fire to light, and light to substance, so blinding it they missed the motion of a hundred sword strokes that came along with each arc traveling towards Lu Chen.

Lu Chen was horrified. Whatever Altair was using wasn't the Sword of the Heavenly Raijin he knew. The motions were the same. The fundamentals were the same, but the heart was twisted beyond measure in a profane matrix that came lashing across his entire being.

"Amazing!" were the only words he could conceive, uninjured by the Sword Art that could kill anyone beneath the realm of the Fifth Circle. It was perfect in almost every conceivable metric of the word.

"You pass."

Altair grinned, "I'm awesome, aren't I? It's ok to admit. I'm sure all the gods will agree."

Lu Chen caught himself. Fixing his expression, he said, "They'll admit you need humility."

"A lord needs his faults. Perhaps I can learn from an angel or two." He said, amusing himself as hundreds of system messages came his way. He laughed, putting them on silent. "Any pointers?"

"You've touched upon the Dao of the Profane. I'd only ask if that is it. Your sword was unbelievable but was a tad bit incomplete if you catch my meaning."

Altair did, and a strange aura he'd always kept to himself began to leak. It felt abyssal, rejecting the laws around him. He looked up, remembering, 'Broken is the King, who stands before the Abyssal Night. Through Despair, the Sword of the Abyss shall appear."

"Desolation… that was what was missing," he told himself, and he said, as the aura receded. "Allow this King some secrets."

Lu Chen allowed himself a smile. "Well said. Altair Blackwood. You are free to ascend to the second floor!

[DIng]

[Congratulations on passing the second floor]

[You Have Been Rewarded]

[All Attributes Will Increase by 25]

"I wonder if I'll ever get something that isn't stat increases?"

Lu Chen laughed. "Don't let anyone hear you. They'll throw a fit."

Altair could imagine, though he didn't much care. He wasn't the one who held the issue; they were the ones.

"What will you do now?"

"Ascend. I got to make it to the fiftieth floor."

Lu Chen made a face that Altair didn't quite understand. "You'd have a lot of issues then. The fiftieth Floor is not meant for mortals. As you are now…" He stopped himself. "Well, you'll figure it out."

"That I will," Altair said confidently.

Lu Chen nodded, glancing behind Altair to Tasha, Raven, and Morrigan, making themselves known. He pointed behind him to where a large pavilion stood on a mount some leagues away. "The Ascension Gate is there."

He smiled, bidding his farewell before making his way towards the pavilion. Tasha, Raven, and Morrigan joined him a few minutes after their test. Inside the pavilion, Altair arched a brow at a man draped in black armor that appeared as if some master blacksmith had forged night into steel.

'A shadow knight,' he thought, unable to see past the armor he wore. Only his three circles stood out, adding to the strangeness of it all. 'An armor that hides everything but the Circle of its wielder.'

The Knight glanced at Altair and nodded before he took the first step up the staircase of ephemeral light.

"What a strange armor that man wears," Altair muttered.

"That there was a woman, my Lord," Tasha said. "I know an untouched cunt when I see one."

"Dear Lord," Altair muttered, taken back by Tasha's way of speaking at times. He liked that about her. But there were times he questioned the vulgarity of it all. Still. "You could see past the armor?"

"No," Tasha said, a lot more seriously now. "I couldn't. Only her Three Circles were visible. If it was three Circles, she might be a transcendent. Maybe higher or truly just a Third Circle. Who knows.

Few things could truly hide for a Devil's discerning eye."

"Well, it doesn't matter now," Morrigan remarked. "She isn't an enemy."

"But perhaps a potential ally." Altair mused.

"And so his harem grows," Tasha remarked. "My Lord, it seems to me woman after woman is rising across your court. Do you not think perhaps rumors of your 'taste' might get around?"

"rumors?" he emphasized, spitting. "If the gods and mortals are so easily swayed by mere rumors, what right do they have to speak in my presence?"

Tasha laughed. "As you say, my Lord."

They trekked up the stairs of light, higher and higher, until the sect below seemed as small as a pin before light shrouded his vision.

***

When Altair opened his eyes, he stood in ruin. Stone-like Monolithic buildings stood in decay and moss. Viens long as they were wide as tree trunks coiled through abandoned windows and stone alike.

The air was acrid with something coppery as a strange force bit at Altair flesh. It was soft, and he almost hadn't noticed it if not for the domain he channeled the moment his eyes opened.

"This is radiation?" he said, remembering one world he'd gone to with his mother long, long ago that had been lost to war in which no parties won. Their world was not as advanced as Genesis, relying on nuclear energy and weaponry to survive. In the end, it was that very nuclear energy that had been their undoing.

[Welcome To The Third Floor Of Babel's Tower]

[Mission Parameters: Kill The Lich King or Survive the Apocalypse for One Year]

Restrictions: Must Consume Food Each Day Or Face One Level of Exhaustion]

[Reward:???]

Presently, Altair stood alone atop a building that had come crashing down to form a stone mount. The horizon was clouded by tendrils of darkness that seemed to lick the skies with shadow flames.

"What in the world?" Altair wondered, hopping down the mount onto the desolate streets, where vegetation had begun devouring. Stone and amber gold-colored grass crested his feet as he mindlessly wondered.

[The Dungeon Master is observing you]

The mana was purer on this layer, nearly twice as pure as it was on the second floor. Something Altair thought was without equal. He was wrong, for not only was the mana stronger but far more violent, adding to the radiation that seemed to eat away at his body. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to affect his Almighty Resistance.

After a while, Altair began making his way to where he sensed Raven about a seven-day journey away. He didn't need to worry about food, having stuffed his ring with various meals to be consumed in the off chance he got hungry or bored. But he was curious by what the laws of this world meant by a level of exhaustion.

It wasn't until seven hours had passed that Altair finally wondered on a humanoid tearing the naked flesh from off a dog, pitifully exuding whimpers. The dog's blood came in pulses from its neck that was being consumed. It wasn't long until its poor cries turned to silence.

Alair froze in his tracks, the Eye of Sacrilege glinting insight.

Name: Superior Zombie

Age: 19 Years

Str: 300

Dex: 200

Con: 400

Wis: 600

Chr: N/A

Mana: 100

Skills: [Run], [Leap], [Bite], [Sense], [Pestilence], [Infect], [Blood Tendrils]

Altair's eyes practically glowed. "A Zombie? One close to the peak of a fourth Circle," he determined, masking his movements with Shadowheart. He drew in on the creature but was surprised to find that it snapped a savage eye burdened by pestilence aimed at him.

It was snapping his gnarled jaw at him. Its cannibalistic teeth were long and yellow, stained with bile that made Altair gut twist.

"What an ugly sight…"