Chương 34: The Abyss

Haruka's blood was still trickling slowly down the grooves of the stone columns when the heavy silence of the room collapsed upon the survivors. Aurelia collapsed completely to her knees over the debris, covering her face with her trembling hands as violent sobs wracked her body. The shock was overwhelming: the brutal loss of Nora mingled with the horror of discovering that their other companion was nothing but a cold-blooded assassin who had tried to exterminate them all.

Under the devastating impact of that mana mist and the fury of the Shadow that had impregnated the environment, a bizarre physical change began to manifest in Aurelia's black hair. Like an indestructible traumatic and biological scar, strands of her hair gained intense purple streaks that spread permanently across her bangs.

"This is all Kuro's fault!" Aurelia raged, striking an impotent punch against the bloodstained rock, her voice thick with rancor.

"They died because of that monster!" Selene swallowed the knot of panic rising in her throat. Her chest burned from the image of Kuro plunging into the deep rift, but she forced her teeth to clench, refusing to falter. Walking over to the fallen healer, Selene wrapped her arms around Aurelia's shoulders in a firm, protective embrace, formally inviting her to join the party. Kuro loves her... Selene thought, catching her breath so she wouldn't cry. The least I can do is look after her for Kuro.

And I am absolutely certain that Kuro did not die. I feel it inside me. He will return.

"It's all right... calm down," Selene murmured, forcing her voice to be as steady as possible.

"And Kuro loves you, Aurelia."

"Then how does someone who loves make the woman he loves and the people important to her almost die?!" Aurelia fired back with deep bitterness, raising her eyes marked by the purple streaks. In the opposite corner, Lyra remained motionless. Her dark eyes glared at Liora with a murderous coldness, while her hands gripped the hilts of her katanas. Liora, completely oblivious to the atmosphere, coldly wiped the trail of blood from her single katana with a piece of rustic cloth, maintaining her usual military apathy.

Perceiving the hostile intent, Liora tilted her head and fired a dry provocation:"What are you looking at me for, you little bitch?" The insult shattered the remainder of Lyra's self-control. With a fierce growl that echoed through the room of columns, she drew both katanas and charged at an absurd speed toward Liora's neck.

"Stop! I don't want to see any more blood!" Aurelia screamed, her desperate plea cutting through the hall. Lyra froze her blades millimeters from Liora's jugular. The green-haired warrior's chest rose and fell with pure fury.

"She started it!" Lyra hissed, restraining her lethal impulse out of pure respect for her sister's order. She backed away slowly, repositioning herself flush against Aurelia's body like an implacable bodyguard. Aurelia wiped her face with the backs of her hands, taking a deep breath as she tried to reestablish her intellect over the pain. A strange sense of duty and destiny seemed to pull her into that alliance, even under the weight of so much heartache.

"Fine... I accept joining the party. Even though I'm angry, I feel like I should do this," Aurelia dictated, fixing her eyes on Selene.

"But I want twenty-five gold coins from the reward."

"Are you insane? That is too much!" Liora interrupted immediately, finding it an administrative absurdity to hand over almost the entire gross profit of the thirty coins.

"It's fine," Selene cut in, passing over Liora's authority without hesitation.

"Kuro will obtain much more when he returns." With the pact of gold and blood formalized, the group initiated an immediate tactical retreat out of the Mineral Cave. As soon as they crossed the city limits and reached the safety of the inn room, the psychological transformation demanded changes. Liora's long hair had been severely damaged and singed by the magical wind blades Haruka had unleashed during the duel.

Without showing any vanity or hesitation, Liora drew a sharp dagger and brutally cut her own hair, adopting a short, choppy style that highlighted the coldness of her features. She shed her false guardian attire, assuming tight tactical pants and entirely black clothes of a true assassin. While the top of the world reorganized itself beneath the mantle of uncertainty, thirty minutes away, in the absolute darkness of the bottom of the abyss, Kuro finally opened his eyes.

Physical pain was the first thing to greet his consciousness. Because he was completely devoid of mana in his organism, his instant biological regeneration ability had failed completely. The torn tissues and bones broken by the brutal fall had to mend themselves through the natural biological process, exacting a torturing price with every spark of movement.

With his teeth clenched in agony, Kuro dragged himself across the damp earth until he reached the leather travel pouch Selene had hurled in the final millisecond of his fall. His trembling hands opened the leather clasp. Kuro pulled out the first vial of medium healing potion and, without hesitation, poured the crimson liquid directly over the exposed wounds on his chest and abdomen. His flesh burned like live embers as the muscle fibers began to knit together slowly and painfully.

Next, he brought the first vial of mana potion to his lips, swallowing the brilliant blue liquid all at once to force his organism's magnetic core to reactivate the flow of internal magical energy. To recover his strength and halt the extreme exhaustion, he rummaged through the bottom of the pouch and consumed all the rations Selene had stocked: a few fresh apples, assorted wild berries, and a portion of packed soup that, by then, was completely cold and thick.

Among the food, he hurriedly chewed the pulp of a Sylvera fruit—a native delicacy of the kingdom highly valued for its property of immediately restoring vigor and stamina to the human body. Satisfied, Kuro analyzed his garments. His original grey medieval cloak had been completely torn into useless rags and shreds by the friction against the rocks during the fall. He discarded the destroyed cloth, tossing it into the darkness and remaining only in the black assassin attire he wore underneath.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. He needed to rearm himself and create a line of defense against the environment. Utilizing a subterranean source of clear water that dripped from the black stones, Kuro activated his capabilities as an Alchemist and an Assassin.

He collected the potable liquid and used the last remaining mana vial in the pouch to apply advanced molecular alchemy manipulation, diluindo and multiplying the components to create new, stable mana potions, ensuring he would not be left defenseless. Next, he gathered sharp mineral stones from the ground and molded new raw, balanced throwing daggers.

Crushing fragments of mana stones that had plunged down along with his backpack, Kuro combined the compounds chemically with the reactive minerals of the abyss, manufacturing high-impact explosive bombs and tactical smoke bombs for cover. His strategic intellect went further. Utilizing the elastic tendons and flexible rock plates from the cave, he designed and assembled a Mechanical Repetition Wrist Crossbow, coupling it directly to his forearm.

For ammunition, he manufactured stone bolts whose tips carried small corrosive and explosive alchemical capsules, ensuring a devastating and completely silent long-range weapon. The baptism of fire for those weapons did not take long to arrive. From the densest shadows of the lower ecosystem, the first monster of advanced intelligence emerged to hunt him: the Soul Devourer.

The creature was frighteningly fast, possessed an extremely hard outer shell of dark stone, and wore a shadowy cloak, wielding a colossal scythe that made it look like Death itself in the darkness, while also sporting glowing red eyes and a soul essence similar to that of a Shadow. Kuro put his strategy into practice: using his wrist crossbow and daggers to dictate the tempo.

He waited patiently for the ferocious creature to advance and strike with the scythe, dodged at the very last millisecond with his assassin agility, and drove the alchemical explosive made of mana stones and crystals straight into the beast's stone body, detonating it from the inside out in a muffled explosion. The thunder of the detonation attracted a horde of native predators. A pack of black wolves and ferocious quadrupedal creatures that resembled small, wingless dragons lunged at him from all directions.

Kuro moved like a blade in the dark. Alternating between smoke bombs, throwing daggers, and the explosive bolts of his crossbow, he took down each of the beasts through pure grit, clearing the subterranean hall. Using his alchemical knives, he harvested minerals and extracted the tough scales from the fallen bodies. He dismantled the largest black wolf of the pack and chemically treated its thick, hard pelt, fashioning a rustic, heavy fur coat over his black assassin clothes.

The attire now served as anatomical armor against the cold and the claws of the abyss, preventing new attacks from piercing his skin easily. The absolute darkness of those depths caused him to completely lose his sense of time. Seeking to clean the trail of dried blood and soot from his face, Kuro approached the dripping subterranean water source once more. As he leaned over the trembling surface of the clear liquid, he froze completely.

The reflection in the water revealed the extent of the energy shock his body had suffered. Kuro had not changed in age due to his modified shell, but the alteration in the pigmentation of his hair was real: a thick, prominent streak of grey now cut through the bangs of his black hair. Kuro touched the grey strands, analyzing his own appearance with a gaze devoid of any emotion. He accepted his new survivor look and professed his deepest thoughts in a whispered monologue to the solitude of the darkness:"I see...

it seems fate is moving things, isn't it? No, it's not impossible for it to be fate. They were rejected at the guild in a bizarre way, which means it's very strange. It's as if I am a pawn, and like any pawn, I cannot perceive the entire chessboard. But there is no point in pretending to know nothing. I arrived in a perfect world... it is literally my dream come true. Which means the higher entity knew this and is using me. So, I just need to find a way out of this chessboard and reach it."

Kuro tightly clenched his right fist, feeling the rough texture of the wolf fur coat covering his shoulders.

"But, honestly... I don't want to leave this world. I've grown attached to them. I don't want to leave here anymore. I have my real pieces, which are Liora and Selene. Mireya is a piece that has a direct connection to the Goddess Ariana, so automatically, she could be an enemy in the future, but I really hope she isn't. Akari and the others too... they could be lying to me or pretending to be innocent. I need to stay sharp at every step."

He averted his gaze from the reflection, staring into the pitch-black of the lower galleries while organizing the chessboard of his mind.

"To be honest, I know the only one who truly loves me is Selene. She is from a noble family and didn't need to be with me. Liora and Mireya don't feel true love for me, but they might feel it if I start making them fall in love. I just need to strategize. The only thing that will keep the group solid is if I give attention to each one. I cannot stop until they love me. Mireya is just an obligation. Her feeling is shaped by isolation and the panic of being in another world.

She clings to me because she and I came from the exact same classroom on the Normal Earth. It's a mixture of obligation with the biological necessity for survival: I am her only safe haven here. And she is too smart to fall in love so easily and be manipulated." Kuro adjusted the repetition crossbow on his forearm, his eyes gleaming intensely in the penumbra.

"Liora has a past that is far too tragic. She saw her family die, her entire clan, and fled from there when everyone was killed by order of Liria's late king father. But he is already dead, and I don't know if she still wants revenge on Liria. She respects me and owes an eternal debt in her shell for me saving her life. But what keeps Liora's biological loyalty firm is the fact that she sees raw potential and the posture in me to be the supreme leader she needs to follow militarily."

His reasoning complete, Kuro resumed marching through the silent tunnels. After crossing a narrow crevice in the rock, he spotted the entrance to an internal, hidden cave. As he crossed the stone arch with the light steps of an assassin, he froze in place before an overwhelming presence: an enormous dragon with dark scales lay in the center of the enclosure, asleep. It's a dragon... Kuro calculated mentally, narrowing his eyes. It's a perfect piece.

But the strangest thing is: why do I feel no fear at all when standing in front of something that could kill me with such ease? I have no choices. I need a way to get out of here no matter what, and it can help me. Kuro began to approach the ancestral creature slowly. In the exact same millisecond, the beast's heavy eyelids lifted, and two colossal golden eyes fixed directly onto the intruder's silhouette. Should I just run if it wants to kill me? Am I fast enough with this new fur shell?

Kuro thought, tensing his leg muscles. Banishing any hesitation, he raised his voice and shouted toward the creature:"Hey! My name is Kuro. If you understand me, can you answer me?" As the dragon focused its vision toward Kuro, it immediately perceived the presence of residual energy and the dark aura of the Shadow emanating from the youth's body. In a purely instinctive response of replusion toward that corrupted energy, the dragon delivered a swift strike with its tail.

The impact of the tail hurled Kuro violently backward, causing him to smash back-first straight against the cavern's stone wall. While Kuro recovered from the impact, wiping the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, the dragon's immense body began to emit a dense, brilliant magical mist. The colossal size of the creature reduced drastically within seconds, shrinking until it transformed into a woman of the exact same size as Akari right before his eyes. The creature's human appearance was striking.

She possessed long hair of a vibrant pink hue and wore exotic clothes made entirely of her own dark scales. A small dragon tail moved subtly behind her legs, and two small white horns projected from her head, strategically hidden amidst the strands of her pink hair. With an imposing, deep voice that completely contrasted with her new short, compact stature, the dr agon woman dictated coldly:"Get out of here."

Kuro stood up with difficulty, wiping the dust from his wolf fur coat and sustaining the creature's golden gaze.

"I just want your help. I need to get out of here," he replied firmly. She arched one of her eyebrows, analyzing the intruder's audacity.

"And why?" she interrogated. Kuro clenched his fists and answered with human sincerity:"I think there are people waiting for me out there." The dragon woman took a step forward into the darkness of the room. Her golden eyes gleamed intensely as she fired a barrage of direct, deep questions, forcing Kuro to answer as she walked in his direction:"Would you give your life for them?"

"I don't know," Kuro replied.

"Do you hate people?"

"No."

"Do you like them?"

"That is debatable," Kuro countered, measuring his words.

"Liking or not liking doesn't change that I am human, but I don't care about other people except those who are by my side. But people are complicated... sometimes I prefer solitude, sometimes I want to be close to the woman I love. I don't want her to love me; I want her to choose me."

"Who is 'she'? Which one?" the creature pressed, narrowing her eyes.

"To be honest, I don't know..." Kuro confessed, letting out a heavy sigh in the darkness.

"But I like being near Selene. I feel like she also likes being near me; I don't want to leave her. I need answers about who I am and who that woman from my nightmares is." The dragon woman stopped a few paces away from him, staring fixedly at him with an indecipherable expression before dictating the final line that cut through the silence of the cavern:"My name is Reina."