Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

Julia opened her eyes, seeing…nothing. It was black, as far as she could see—as far as her eyes could see, at least.

Her Spiritual Sight was awash with confusing colors—streams of light flowing this way and that. They seemed like rivers of light—visible only to her Spiritual Sight, as they emitted neither visible light nor mana—that flowed across vast distances, propelled by no force she could discern.

There were rivers and streams of all sizes, some even looking like no more than slivers of light. They felt…familiar somehow, as though she'd seen them before.

"Well, now you've gone and done it, little girl," a fell voice rasped from behind her.

Julia spun quickly, her sword in her hand and wreathed with crimson lightning before she even completed the rotation.

There floated Gohlmer—did he ever stand on his damn feet? Why even have them?

He seemed alarmingly unharmed, though Julia was as well, so it shouldn't be such a surprise.

"Do you know what you've done, child? Do you know where we are?" he asked like a disappointed grandfather, though his voice sounded like wind through a graveyard.

"This is the Rift—the space between spaces. You've exiled us outside of reality. We now skirt the edge of what is, rather than participating in it," he sighed, and the noise was such that Julia thought dust and cobwebs should be flying out of his mouth.

So, this 'rift' was…what? The Veil? The space between reality and the Abyss?

"I am surprised to see you confused. You escaped me once before by accessing the Rift, did you not? Or, could it be that you did not fully understand what you were doing? That would be very brave—and very foolish—young one," he said with a horrible smile that had no gums in it.

Julia stared at one of the streams of light, and realization dawned.

That transitory space she'd jumped into to escape Gohlmer before, that space that was all nonsensical space and curving time, it was within those streams of light. This space, this absence, was where she would've ended up had she strayed from her path. What's more, she wasn't actively channeling mana to remain in this space, so she wouldn't escape so easily this time.

She had the strong instinct that returning would also not be quite as simple as stepping into one of those rivers of light. When she was within it, it felt like a separate reality of its own. Looking at it from the outside, she felt she would be ripped apart, like trying to jump into raging rapids.

"Haa, you fail to think before you act—this is common among the young. It allows you to perform miraculous feats—when your gamble works. When it fails…well, look around," he sighed, lecturing.

Julia was unsettled by his propensity for conversation, and not just due to his visage—that of a recently exhumed corpse.

Why was he trying to speak to her? Why would he make conversation rather than immediately returning to the marsh—to the battle? Could it be that he didn't know how to escape? Was he effectively trapped here?

That was a thought that got her heart beating quickly, though from excitement rather than fear. She had a nagging in the back of her mind that she had ignored up to this point. There was too much happening to pay it any mind, but it was there—the Spatial Coordinates that she'd marked shortly before falling into the Rift. The coordinates of the soldiers on the wall.

All she had to do to escape was follow them.

"Well, not much of a politician, are we?" Gohlmer mocked with a crooked smile. "You clearly have a way out in mind, so what say we bargain?"

"Lead me out of this wretched abyss, and I will bring you before my Lord. You are strong, especially considering your age. You will be my equal in his army, no doubt. Even the Thol'Morrak will have to obey your commands, and it would be wonderful to have someone intelligent to speak to regularly," he said, spreading his arms wide, as if to demonstrate the gravitas of his offer.

"Refuse, and…well, I will do what I must. You see, I do not need you alive to receive your knowledge," he explained.

Suddenly, his aura—hidden up to this point—exploded around him. Julia could see faces crying out in pain and barely-restrained rage boiling and churning within the aura, like bubbles in boiling water. They chomped and snapped and raged against his control, as if eager to spread throughout the Rift and consume anything they could find.

"I have seen you admiring my Aura of Death before, as you should. You might not know, however, that it is not native to me—it is not a power I originally possessed. It is a power I created and cultivated over millenia. It is the culmination of thousands of years of hard work and effort.

"I meticulously hunted the strongest, the most compatible people: the Arena Champion, the dreaded Shadow Assassin, even one of the fabled Archmages—powerful people at their peak, all of them. I collected their souls, adding them to my collection, and after thousands of years, my efforts were rewarded with this!" he exclaimed, eyes looking up into the darkness, as though looking upon the face of divinity itself.

His aura exploded outward, surging up into the darkness, and spreading in a blanket over them both. The aura created a ceiling that resembled a night sky of sickly purple, with the glowing eyes of tortured souls as the stars.

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Julia thought she could almost hear their grief, anger, and madness at being confined and contained. She could almost make out individual faces, nearly able to picture what they might've looked like in life.

"To escape this place, I need only add you to my collection, my dear spirit. I must admit that I greatly desire the knowledge and power you possess—I have never had the pleasure of assimilating a spirit. Now that I have seen you in action, my collection suddenly feels incomplete.

"Once you become part of my aura, your knowledge will pass to me, and I will use it to escape. So, the choice is yours, girl. Lead us both out of here, and to a brighter future, or I will rip your soul from your body and use your knowledge far more effectively than you ever could," he commanded with a disgusting smile.

Silence lingered between them, neither breaking it for a couple seconds.

A tingling within Julia was drawing her focus. She had no intention of playing Gohlmer's game, and she had no reason to risk hers and Trixy's lives in battle with him.

She simply needed to leave.

The tingling felt like it was her very soul vibrating, as though there was a cord in her wanting to be plucked. She had an instinctive idea of what it was, and it wasn't a surprise to her. She felt she had several new Skills sitting within her, waiting to be used. She had notifications disabled—there was a war on—but she wouldn't be surprised if she'd gained several Levels.

After only a moment of hesitation, she plucked the cord.

She blurred forward in an instant, gravity magic propelling her past Gohlmer in the direction of the Spatial Coordinates.

She glanced at Gohlmer when she passed, and he didn't react at all—didn't move, in fact. This was what she expected this Skill would manifest as. She hadn't a clue what it was called, but it seemed to skip her forward in time—or rather, it allowed her to move very quickly through time, such that she would appear to teleport to outside observers. For her, it was simply like the world slowed down.

Gohlmer, to his credit, reacted instantly—or his aura did. It shifted from the starry-sky into a lance, stretching and twisting itself around and flying after Julia. Gohlmer took off after her, trailing, or maybe being dragged by, his aura.

As fast as she was—faster than the speed of sound, if she pushed it—the aura was faster. It soared through the air as though unimpeded by air resistance or even the laws of physics.

It speared toward Julia's back—but she darted left just in time. This did not clear the danger, however, as what would be considered the 'haft' of the aura spear suddenly exploded with a violent malevolence.

It tried to wrap around Julia like a net, damned souls chomping and clacking their teeth at her.

She skipped forward, using her new Skill, but as she came out of the skip, she felt a twang in her soul. She wasn't sure what it was specifically, but she got the feeling she couldn't use that ability too many times in a row. It was like the pain of lifting something too heavy—the kind of pain that warns you'll hurt yourself if you keep going.

The aura let out a wailing cry of rage and pain—and this time, Julia knew it wasn't just in her head. The air felt like it was vibrating with the force of the cry.

Julia rocketed toward one of the streams of light, unsure how she would enter it, but also not having the leeway to figure it out at the moment.

Suddenly, everything stopped—as though time itself had halted. She felt a tremendous dread in her very soul, as though death was creeping up behind her. The sudden dread heightened her senses, as though the adrenaline she'd been feeling before were just the prelude.

She felt the aura encroaching on her domain, closing in like a noose. It had somehow caught up to her after the skip, and rather than attempting to spear her like last time, it was widening around her, like a giant maw attempting to swallow her whole.

What should I do? What can I do?!

The sapphire ring vibrated, slipping down her finger.

Despite the slowed time, whether it was due to a new Skill or her greatly-enhanced perception, she couldn't think of any way out of her situation. She could push against the aura with her own magic, but she'd been overwhelmed by the Thol'Morrak alone. This was a Wight leveraging the power of a thousand damned souls to crush her.

The ring vibrated more fiercely, slipping until it caught precariously on the last knuckle of her finger.

Could she risk another skip? What would that accomplish? She'd gain distance—barely—but the dread aura seemed only mildly phased by time. It was as though there were no limitations holding it back, even the rules of reality were barely a hindrance.

The ring dropped from her finger, drifting off into the black expanse. She didn't even notice—a piece of herself slipping away, but what greater didn't come at the cost of the lesser?

Ideas suddenly popped into her head, as though summoned by her desperation. They were clearer than any she'd experienced up to this point, as though the ideas had a source, and she was physically closer to it.

"Ah, of course!" she said quietly.

Trixy! It was always Trixy, wasn't it? Trixy was always her greatest strength, and the one she never leveraged to its full potential. For both she and Trixy were mana, and what did mana want to do most if not combine.

The Aura of Death chomped down, like a massive mouth devouring its prey. However, from the gaps between the maw's teeth, a bright, crimson light shone.

The maw burst apart, the aura itself catching fire—a flame the color of blood. It roared and retreated back to Gohlmer, who smothered the flame in the aura.

"Putting it all on the line, eh? I like the way you think, girl!" he shouted, his mouth twisted in a smile of cruel glee. "Zhul'Kareth: The Flame That Does Not Die, huh? We shall see!"

Through the silence and absence of the Rift, two streaks of light chased each other.

One was a bolt of crimson plasma, as though a corona from a bloody sun had jettisoned into the blackness.

Another was a comet of sickly purple flames, with undulating shapes of faces contorted in rage and pain through its mass. It soared after the bloody coronal ejection like a predator chasing its prey.

They both impacted a river of light, and the river was ripped asunder, the light cascading off into the black emptiness like a river suddenly diverted by a landslide.

And then, just as suddenly as the commotion had begun, it ended. The river of light reformed, and stillness settled over the inky abyss of the Rift, as if nothing had disturbed it in the first place. As if it hadn't even noticed the conflict.