Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 981: Selen’s Title

How long had it been?

Seconds?

Minutes?

Hours?

Perhaps even years.

Selen had lost track. At first, she was simply falling through the darkness with visions flashing across her view. But after a certain point, she started to black out.

This cold, endless fall that didn’t seem to stop.Ever.

The wind howled in her ear, reminding her that even now, she was still falling.

She tried to count the seconds.One, two... Three...

After a while, she would start losing count.

No sight, no sound.It felt impossible for her to find an anchor to ground herself.

Her Sigils pulsed under her skin.Six familiar lights.

And beneath them... a shadow-shape that didn’t have a name yet. A slot in her soul waiting for something to sit inside it.

In this darkness, strands of light began to form. Coiling around a black sphere, a sun that had forgotten how to shine.

A hole in this endless realm, given form by the strands of light.Pale blue radiance raced along its outline.

Selen couldn’t look away.

The moment she focused on it, the fall changed.

The void stopped being a drop and became a pull.

Gravity had found her again.

As she drew closer, she realised the black sphere wasn’t smooth. Countless faint branching fractures were woven together to form these strands of light.

Not only that, but they were familiar...

The feeling of time. Each of these strands was records of the past and present.

Turning her gaze to the edge, she noticed new strands being introduced.

She was watching the present being recorded down and becoming history.

Out of curiosity, she reached out. As if controlling the space itself, the distance between them closed in an instant and her fingers brushed against one of the many branches.

"!!!"

Her eyes widened, her vision flickered.

She saw the past. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

A vision of a man standing against an army of hundreds.

Spells filled the sky so that even night looked like day. Yet he didn’t retreat.

He didn’t bend his knee, he didn’t falter.

There was only one path for him and that was forward.

Selen flinched and the distance between her and the orb lengthened once more.

Indeed, these branches were the markings of everything that had happened before. Everything that had been recorded.

If so... what was the black sphere in the centre?

A vault?

A core?

A grave?

She couldn’t stop herself from staring at the pale-blue radiance racing along the outline.

The longer she stared at the sphere, the more energy flowed through her body. Taking shape, obtaining form.

Six sigils lit up across her body, the seventh still empty.

And at the centre of her being, the slot for authority.

Selen clenched her fist.

She understood that this was her final question.

What form her authority would take.

If the branches represent the past... then the sphere they were coiling around...

Was that the present?

No, that wasn’t it either.

The darkness around them was the present. The strands being woven in real time from this darkness.

Then there was only one thing this sphere could be.

The source of everything.

The Origin of Time itself.

Sweat rolled down her cheek.

Curiosity was a dangerous thing.

A gamble.

Was this foolish greed? Or was this a gamble that could overturn everything.

She swallowed nervously.

In the end, she reached out once more.

This time, it was slower.

Careful.

Aiming for that sphere.

The space bent to her desire, the distance shrank.

Facing this endless void of a sphere, Selen came face to face with herself.

Her own reflection upon this surface.

She was nervous, her reflection was smiling.

Like someone smiling because they already knew the ending.

The reflection lifted a hand.

Selen did too, instinctively.

Their palms hovered a hair’s breadth apart, divided by nothing but that pale-blue sheen crawling over the sphere’s skin.

Then the reflection spoke.

A voice echoing within Selen’s skull.

"Do you know... where you are?"

Selen paused.

"Time."

The reflection’s smile widened just a fraction.

"The Origin of Time." She corrected. "The place where your mind has observed and thus given it form. To allow you to comprehend what is incomprehensible so that your mind doesn’t shatter under forbidden knowledge."

"The King who gave up everything is rather fond of you to surrender his authority so that you may survive."

Selen frowned.

"Who are you?"

The reflection tilted her head, as if that question was a strange one.

"I’m you." She replied simply.

"I’m your Origin. One that only appeared because you have reached this space."

She paused for a moment.

"And because I am your Origin, I know what you desire." Selen’s Origin stared into her eyes, directly into her soul.

"So I will only ask you one question. The only question that matters in this moment."

She leaned forward, stepping out of the reflection before intertwining her fingers with Selen’s.

Her hand wrapped around her waist and pulled the girl close.

Contrasting Selen’s nervousness, she was completely calm. Numb even except for the small smile that hung on her lips.

"What are you willing to give up to reach the Origin?"

Selen narrowed her eyes then mustered up some courage. She took the lead and spun her Origin around so that she was the one looking down on her.

"Then let me ask you... What can the Origin give me that’s worth my sacrifice? Can it overturn tides of chaos sweeping this land?"

"Such is the nature of the human mind. Always wanting to weigh up the odds so that it can compare the benefits." Her Origin chuckled, fading away before reappearing behind Selen.

"This is a demonstration. A show of faith. An act to prove your dedication."

She glanced back, eyes gleaming with an unknown light.

Just as Selen was about to respond, a broken sword shot through the void, stabbing into the Origin’s head, throwing her back into the sphere.

"Useless. To think the Origin can exhibit such greed. Are you no different from the humans you wish to trick?" The King’s voice echoed out as the last fragments of his power protecting Selen manifested as a fading silhouette slowly burning out.

"To give up her life’s work so that she may reach the origin. Yet the price of opening that door is to give up everything. If so..." The King narrowed his eyes and folded his arms in annoyance.

"When standing before the Origin, what else can she give if not her life?"

This revelation sent a chill down Selen’s spine as her Origin smiled a cruel smile.

Wide and stretching ear to ear.

"The price of opening that door, I have paid. So step aside foul wench. Her destiny is not something a b*stard like you can interfere with." He glared.

Even with his power fading, being used as the price to open the door, his arrogant aura still remained.

The Tyrant King who looked down on everything in the world.

Selen’s Origin chuckled softly before fading away.

Within that dark sphere, a single line of light appeared.

"Go. Claim your prize." The King ordered as Selen glanced up at him.

"Th-"

"Did I ask for your thanks or did I ask for you to claim the prize? Useless sentiment. Who gave you permission to thank me?" He snapped, causing Selen to blink.

Even though he was helping her, his words were still harsh as ever.

With no other choice, Selen walked towards the light.

"Run! Who told you to walk!" He roared in frustration as Selen quickly broke into a sprint, fearful of what the King would do if she lingered.

"I have promised you a reward befitting the entertainment you have given me. For one who has presented me with a skill that even I, the Tyrant, had not expected to experience, this is the only outcome that can be allowed.

"I will not allow the gatekeeper to stop you from reaching the power you desire. So run, go towards your Origin. Claim its authority."

A smile appeared on the King’s face before his expression turned serious.

"Let the past become your foundation!

"Let the present become your blade!

"And let the future become your hope!

"This is the final command of the King who has bestowed upon you his grace! Reach out with your hand and seize the Origin!"

Selen gritted her teeth and reached for that line of light.

Even when an invisible force pushed back, she continued to reach out.

Cuts appeared across her body, blood evaporated in an instant. Selen could feel time itself flowing through her veins.

The closer she got to the light, the more dangerous it felt.

As if a single fragment of hesitation would cause her life to be extinguished.

But she continued to push.

For that King had ordered her to seize the treasure of Time.

Her fingers brushed the light and the darkness around her was pushed away.

Countless bands of blue surrounded her, demanding a sacrifice.

The price for power.

The door had been opened and now it was time for her flesh to bleed.

Collapsing on her knees, Selen struggled to lift her hand.

The King paid the toll. But the last step was still needed. The cost to accept the power of Origin.

She could see that mote of blue hovering in the air, waiting for her to claim.

Yet reach out for it she couldn’t.

"Does this not remind you of the time you entered my cage? The young cry baby Selen who lost strength in her knees."

A familiar thread tugged at the contract.

The stabiliser’s mark, Miralith’s, burned through the void like a needle and found Selen.

Selen widened her eyes.

"My King has given you the key. Now it’s my time to pay the final tribute for the power you seek to claim.

"Once again, I am reminded of how fast children grow when you take your eyes off them. Don’t you agree?" Miralith brushed back a strand of her hair as she walked towards that blue node.

"I was not your parent but... at the end of everything, I was still the one who watched you grow up to become the lady you are today." She turned back.

She saw the past, Selen struggling to use her power. Her pouts, her cries. Her tantrums.

It filled her heart with such warmth.

"This is the final gift I can give for a youngling leaving my nest..." Miralith closed her eyes.

"Selen, may your journey lead you to paradise."

Before Selen could say anything, a flash of light enveloped the space and her title was forged in the fires created by two Lords.

Selen - Abyss Lord of the First Hour.

Authority - The Origin of Time.