Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 983: Seventh Zone

Erwen stood within the heart of the Grand Cathia Nightmare. The swirling sea of nightmares beneath his feet rippled gently.

Different zones. Different Hunters drifting along as he took in a top-down view of everything happening right now.

Without the fog, he could see the groups of monsters waiting in ambush.

The people who fell prey to these ambushes and those who overcame them.

He then raised his gaze toward a certain group.

Flashes of fire and arrows tore through the horde without any difficulty.

Even from here, the violence of their attacks could be felt against his skin.

Each punch. Each kill.

Erwen watched in silence.

The two split-haired girls following Miki.

He knew they were anomalies, but he did not expect them to be this oppressive.

Had he not decided to turn his attention elsewhere earlier, things could have become disastrous.

However, that was not the only thing.

He could see Miki weaving through the enemy without any difficulty.

Twisting her body. Adapting to the situation.

Her awareness of her surroundings had increased dramatically, to the point that he almost could not recognise her.

In fact...

If they were at a similar power level, he was not sure he could beat her when it came to raw perception.

Exhaling through his nose, Erwen continued to watch.

He was never able to reach that state.

A moment of pure concentration like the one Miki was demonstrating.

Each twitch of muscle from her enemies was taken into account.

Every potential move.

Every form of danger.

If it were him, there would be hesitation.

But she had none.

It was almost as though hesitation meant death.

Why? What kind of training did she do to reach this stage in a few short days?

Regardless...

The seventh zone posed no difficulty for the team.

He understood that even if he created more zones, they would blitz through them with ease.

Claiming the heart of this Nightmare was inevitable.

It was simply a matter of time.

But creating zones haphazardly yielded no benefits either.

Just a waste of effort.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

It did not bother him.

If anything, their strength was reassuring.

Strong Hunters meant the Nightmare would end cleanly.

The more confident they were, the faster they cleared.

The faster they cleared, the better it was for him.

However...

This also made him think.

If people of this calibre had been around when the horde first struck...

Would he be where he was now?

Would he have resolved himself to walk this path?

To kill his teacher.

To kill the pigs who hid behind the sacrifices of others.

Or...

Would things have been different?

Would he have changed his mind?

Would he have abandoned this path?

Would he have admired them as heroes?

Just like the many who once looked up to him.

That confident smile on Alice’s face...

It was confidence backed by strength.

And clarity of heart.

Such mental fortitude was something every hero required.

Unfortunately...

He lacked that exact trait.

It was his weakness that sent him down this path.

That much he would never deny.

It was this weakness that allowed the corruption to fester and grow.

He could blame no one but himself.

###

Compared to the sixth zone, the seventh was essentially more of the same.

Beasts waiting around every corner. Ambushes from below. Monsters bursting from the walls or dragging themselves from the broken ground.

The difference was the density.

There were more of them.

More claws scraping across stone. More bodies crashing through the corridors. More beasts throwing themselves at the Hunters as though sheer numbers would slow them down.

It did not.

Even without pausing too often to enhance their stats, they breezed through the challenge without any real difficulty.

Alice’s arrows tore through the frontline of monsters before they could even close the distance. Each shot punched cleanly through skulls and joints, forcing openings in the horde.

Alyss followed behind Miki, dealing with any beasts that could not be killed outright by Alice.

With more practice using Absolute Zone, Miki was now like the centre of a storm. Her spear carved wide arcs of blood through the battlefield as she did not even have time to shout instructions.

She was in a trance-like state that helped her comprehend the exact actions she needed to take to make the most of her current abilities.

No wasted movement. No hesitation.

Only when the monsters disappeared did she finally snap out of it.

Miki blinked.

The battlefield that had been filled with claws and teeth moments ago was now empty.

She glanced around in confusion, only to realise they were standing before the boss arena of the seventh zone.

Alyss rolled her shoulders, stretching her arms above her head before staring at the empty arena.

"Do you think we’ll get any more freaky visions?" she asked curiously.

Alice let out a groan.

"I certainly hope not."

The last vision was already giving her more than enough to think about.

She did not need another piece of someone else’s trauma forced into her mind.

Miki did not respond. Her eyes remained fixed on the centre of the arena as she rested her spear against her shoulder.

Joking around for a little while longer, the group stepped forward.

The moment their feet crossed the invisible threshold...

Fog rolled in.

It gathered around the edges of the arena, forming a dense wall that sealed the battlefield shut.

No one was entering.

No one was leaving.

The ground trembled faintly.

Then darkness began to pour down from above.

Not shadows.

Not smoke.

Something thicker.

Something that moved like liquid.

It poured down from the fractured sky and swallowed the arena whole, coating the floor in rippling black waves.

Alice instinctively raised her guard.

Her mind braced for another vision.

But strangely...

Nothing happened.

The darkness lingered for a few seconds.

Then slowly receded.

Like a tide pulling back.

The arena cleared.

And standing at its centre...

Was a figure.

At first glance, it looked like a statue.

Not the same kind as the boss from the previous zone.

A tall pillar of stone stood.

Black tendrils spiralled outward from its body like living ink, twisting through the air in slow, hypnotic movements as though it were underwater.

They stretched outward, forming massive arcs behind the figure, converging into the form of a halo.

The creature had no clear face.

Only a single white light surrounded by darkness, pulsing where its head should have been.

A heart.

Or perhaps an eye.

But no vision accompanied the creature’s appearance.

It was a simple fight. Nothing more.

"Well." Alyss creased her brows.

"I suppose we should be grateful that we didn’t get shown something weird again."

Alice nodded as she pulled back on her bowstring and prepared the first arrow.

Yet when she did, the boss mimicked her actions and did exactly the same.

Raising an eyebrow, Alice fired, and both arrows met in mid-air.

"Hou~ Let’s see how many of us it can copy!" Alyss lunged with an eruption of fire.

Preparing to strike, she was surprised to see a section of the boss split off to mimic her attack.

The tendrils twisted.

Ink-like darkness gathered and shaped itself into a mirror of Alyss’s movement.

Flames burst forward.

A mirrored blaze answered it.

The two attacks collided in the middle of the arena with a violent explosion.

Miki took this opportunity to circle around.

Yet the moment she was about to launch her attack at the boss, a clone was created from the darkness.

Their spears collided.

Every movement they made. Every skill they used.

The boss copied it perfectly.

"Let me try!" the mage shouted, raising his staff.

Energy started to converge, but the boss was occupied with the melee fighters.

The tanks joined in to cover.

Strangely, the boss did not copy the tanks, causing Alice to frown.

Once the attack was charged, the mage fired.

It was only after targeting the boss that it responded with a clone to cancel out the ability.

"Try aiming away from the boss! It’s not copying until we target it specifically!" Alice shouted.

Aiming into the sky, she fired a single arrow that erupted into a shower of lightning.

She was not aiming at the boss, merely the airspace. Everything else was collateral.

Forced to dodge the lightning, the boss wanted to attack when flames erupted around it.

Alyss detonated a wave of fire beneath them.

"Don’t give it time to think!" Miki lunged.

Since the trick was now discovered, it was time to kill this boss quickly.

Miki closed the distance first, her spear igniting as she drove forward with a burst of speed that cracked the stone beneath her feet.

The boss reacted immediately, darkness gathering to form another mirrored copy of her attack.

But this was a distraction to break open its guard.

Lightning fell from above while flames burst out from below.

The mage unleashed a control spell, one that did not centre on the boss but was slightly off to the side.

As the strands of energy shrank, they naturally dragged the boss into the air.

This fight was completely in their favour.

###

As the final strike landed against the boss, the tendrils coating its body collapsed.

There was nothing special except for the gimmick. An annoying boss, but one that was not difficult.

They simply needed to be patient.

But as they were about to collect the loot, a spiral of light formed at the centre of the arena, swallowing the party.

They quickly raised their weapons in preparation for an ambush.

The world shifted, and the darkness and fog were dispelled.

Cold wind brushed against their faces as Miki blinked in confusion.

They were no longer standing in a twisted Nightmare landscape.

Stone battlements stretched endlessly to either side of them.

Below lay the vast plains beyond the city.

This was the wall that surrounded Grand Cathia.

And standing at the edge...

Looking out to the distant horizon...

A man stood.

Erwen.