Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 980: The King’s Sacrifice

Silence prevailed in the Zenia prison. They weren’t quite sure what they were looking at.

A corridor buried in the depths of the family compound had now become a gallery for disbelief.

Guards stood shoulder to shoulder, all drawn down here by the same alarm.

No one spoke. They only stared in confusion.

Ahead, one of the most secure chambers the family possessed had just been violated.

Again.

It wasn’t a simple breach like last time.

Last time, an unknown assailant slaughtered through the guards and broke out with their most prized possession.

This time, it was clean and direct.

No bodies. No splintered doors. No traces of battle.

Instead, giant chunks of the prison were simply gone.

Not crumbled. Not cracked.

Gone. Swallowed. Removed.

As if a giant invisible spoon had scooped reality itself out of the stone. The missing sections were impossibly smooth, the cut edges too clean to be natural. It did not look broken.

It looked erased.

But the walls had never been the true defense. They were decoration for the powerful, an outer shell to hide what truly mattered.

That was why the prison had been reinforced with barriers and wards.

Stronger than ever, especially after the last break-in.

Layers upon layers of defenses. A vast interlocking lattice of Sigil abilities woven together into something they had called unbreakable. Contracts. Ritual circles. Ancient artifacts sunk into the foundation like nails through a coffin lid.

All of it combined to create the most impenetrable defense they could muster.

Those very same barriers lay shattered.

They did not even hold for a second.

All of them collapsed at once, leaving scars in the air. Thin, glassy fractures that hissed with leftover power, trembling like heat haze in torchlight.

One guard had the misfortune of stepping too close.

His fingers brushed the invisible wound.

In the same heartbeat, all life drained out of him.

His skin tightened over bone. His eyes sank. His mouth opened in a sound that never became a scream.

He turned into a mummified husk, then crumbled, fading to ash that scattered across the floor like dirty snow.

"You don’t know what attacked?!?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW!?" a man shouted in the back.

With such a large commotion in the family, how could none of them know what had happened?

"We’re missing a chunk of our prison and no one saw what happened!?"

Punching the wall in frustration, he glared at the silent guards.

"Don’t blame them too much. Even if they saw, I don’t think they could’ve done anything." The Doctor stepped through with an amused smile on his face.

This energy, no doubt, belonged to a Lord.

An old, powerful one at that.

"Don’t bother with it. Time isn’t something someone of your calibre should be messing with." A voice warned as Nyer stepped through a portal.

There was a bored look on his face as he traced his finger along the same fissure that killed the guard.

However, it simply sparked against his finger and nothing else.

"Wouldn’t that be a terrible waste?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but Nyer shook his head.

"Even if I allowed it, you can’t do anything with this energy either. It’s fading."

Nyer narrowed his eyes before turning around.

’So the King has decided to give it up...’

He recalled the prophecy of the cogs.

[Let time unravel its chains.]

Exhaling through his nose, a frown hung on his face.

###

Selen’s smile twitched.

Even though she understood it was time for her to request the reward... asking it with her own mouth still felt awkward.

Especially when that person was the one who was moments from killing her.

Miralith gave the King a nudge with her elbow, causing him to click his tongue before looking at Selen.

"Even though the Era has changed, the act of bestowing power is still the same as before. But whether or not you can handle this, I cannot say."

"You can wither away into nothingness the moment you accept. You might even regress to the form of a baby, forced to watch as the era comes to an end despite having the power inside your vessel."

"How my power reshapes your body is outside of my control. Even so, do you still dream of wielding this King’s power?"

Selen closed her eyes.

"I’ve come this far. Turning it down would be foolish." Selen looked up at the King with determination in her eyes.

"You’re already foolish for challenging this King. I didn’t think you had more intelligence to lose." He scoffed, earning another jab in the ribs by Miralith.

"What he means is, accepting is the only natural answer. Since this isn’t a proper Hunt, the contract is also a little different. Whether or not the realm can accept such a contract will be entirely up to the Will of the Abyss." Miralith clarified as Selen nodded her head.

"That faceless fool will accept. I have no doubt about it. Regardless, hold out your arm." He commanded as Selen nodded her head.

Holding out her arm, both Miralith and the King reached out at the same time.

The King paused.

"I’m just here as the stabilizer. She already has my power in her, so naturally, if I help out, the transfer will go smoothly, right?"

Pausing for a moment, the King eventually nodded his head.

In an instant, the air around him changed as the aura of an Abyss Lord erupted outwards in full.

Every Sigil Selen possessed lit up across her body as energy rushed through her veins.

The world around them held its breath, lightning crashing down from above frozen in time.

Embers, earth, all suspended in the air.

Circles unfolded beneath Selen’s feet. The first contained an icon of her first Sigil. Then the second, third.

All the way to six.

A pattern of Sigils appeared beneath her, exactly the way they were engraved upon her body.

Above her, a second array formed upside down like a hanging chandelier.

Selen clenched her fist but remained still. She could feel invisible threads of energy entering her body from above.

The King stepped forward, stopping at the edge of the circle. Close enough where the carvings reflected upon his eyes.

Placing his hand against his chest, the King forced out a single droplet of blood. His expression tightened under the strain.

The gold bead clung to his skin for a breath, then fell and struck the ring.

He stopped.

After this, there was no going back.

A smile touched his lips, gone almost as soon as it appeared. Miralith still caught it.

Then the King lifted that same hand to his face. The black chain around his wrist shivered.

He hooked his fingers in.

He tore out his own eyes.

No hesitation. No tremor.

The eyes that had seen the past, the present, and the future.

He crushed them in his palm. Golden blood spilled through his fingers and sank into the circle, spreading along the lines like ink.

Cracks raced across the chain.

"Hear me, laws that bind the world.

"This is the moment of rebirth.

"Hear me, the witness of eternity.

"Behold this contract.

"Hear me, the throne that bound itself to my soul.

"Witness my parting."

Cracks began to appear across the black chains.

"I offer no prayer, I request no mercy. I declare my severance."

For a King who has given up his power, his fate, there is no more need to bind thee.

His blood continued to drip onto the ring.

"Let the seal acknowledge my will. Let the circle accept my sacrifice. Let the Throne of time release its claim.

"I surrender my power.

"I cut myself from dominion.

"I abandon my crown."

With that final line, the chains around his wrist finally shattered as his authority surged forth. Raw energy condensing into a singular mote of power.

To think his entire life’s worth would be compressed to such a form. Without hesitation, he pressed the orb against Selen’s head.

"Go, claim your authority. Use my power as a bridge to ascend into Lordship."

As his voice faded, Selen found herself in the middle of a white space. She could feel the energy of time coiling around her like a protective barrier, cutting off all outside influences.

"So cautious. Unnecessarily so. I’m not one to meddle with the ascension of people."

Selen snapped her head around and saw a faceless figure sitting on a white throne.

There was an amused grin on his face.

"But enough about the King who gave up his power. Let’s talk about you, young one." He pulled himself up from the chair.

"Time is the most curious thing. With time, some seek to perceive the future. Yet it is a trap in and of itself. An unknown future is one of limitless potential. But observing it hinders that potential. The idea is carved into your mind, a trigger of the Cogs, and what is unknown simply becomes probability." The Will walked past Selen.

"Such an anomaly, yes? With time, you feel all-powerful. Yet at the same time, you realise your powerlessness. Congratulations, girl. With the King’s sacrifice, you may escape the prison that once bound his mind. But finding the key to this cage... is up to you." He grinned.

Clapping his hands together, a chasm opened up beneath Selen as she began to fall.

"I hope you find that key amidst the countless titles tied to time. May the King’s sacrifice not be in vain."

Selen was swallowed by that void as countless flashes of different time periods appeared before her.

The past ablaze with war.

The present mutated by corruption.

The future-

’Heed not the visions of a cursed future. Focus solely on what thou desire.’ The King’s voice echoed out in Selen’s mind as the barrier around her obscured the vision of the future.

This was a trial. To shape her title, to bestow her power. Did she want vision of the future?

A smile hung on her lips.

The weight of the future was too heavy for someone like her. Too greedy and grandiose.

All she wanted was the power to change the present. To help tide over this period of chaos.

Unknown to Selen, a grin appeared on the Will’s face as he felt the title shift...

Several aspects of time have now manifested within the pool of authorities. Ones that have never been claimed before.

But only one can become her authority...