Abyssal Awakening

A single bite. That’s all it took for the battlefield to freeze over.

All eyes turned to Feris in her ravenous hunger.

Space collapsed. No... Perhaps that was the wrong description.

Instead of collapsing, it was more akin to disappearing.

The location that the beast occupied had been erased. How? What had happened?

Questions filled the air but no one dared to speak.

Not even Noah and the others.

After all, this had gone far beyond what they had initially expected. They knew Feris might’ve ben able to defeat the beast but not without problems.

That was their assumption.

But...

Where was the issue? Where was the grand battle?

All they saw was Feris feeling a high like no other then taking a bite out of the beast.

*KACHI~

She chewed. Oh she chewed ever so carefully. She savoured it carefully. The squelching of flesh as she shifted her molars.

The blood that tried to escape her lips.

She ate it.

Yes, she definitely ate the thing holding the fragment.

So why...

Even though it tasted so good...

Why does she still hunger.

She needed more.

She needed more.

She needed more.

More.

More.

MORE.

Give me more.

I need it.

This hunger.

It won’t leave me.

Ah... it hurts.

It’s eating me from the inside out.

Please won’t someone fix this hunger for me?

Please I beg you.

Fill this void in my stomach.

Please let me eat you.

Please let me consume your essence.

Please die for me.

Please.

Please.

Please?

Ah... I can feel it.

Something is wrong/right.

Such clarity.

Haha...

How strange.

Did I feel this way with Noah?

Maybe.

What about the stars?

Maybe.

The Void?

Maybe.

Ah... so many maybes.

But where is certainty?

You know what is certain? The joy I feel from eating the Void.

Yes... In a world of maybes, that is my only certainty.

So I must take it all.

It has taken me so long to reach this place.

I’ve showed so much restraint over the years.

I kept myself calm, held myself back.

Are you proud of me Noah? I held back because I wanted to be with you.

But now that the food is placed in front of me, how can I resist?

You’ll forgive me right?

Please forgive me.

Help me.

Forgive me.

Help.

So just this once....

Please don’t.

Let me indulge a little.

Don’t let me.

Ah~ I can’t hold it back. I can feel a smile stretching on my face.

It hurts.

People should smile when they feel happy.

Get me out of here.

Yes, most certainly. I feel ’happy’ right now. But it’s fleeting, fading. Quickly slipping from my fingers.

Noah please help me. Help me. Help me. Help me help me help me.

I understand my purpose. I must keep consuming. Once all of the fragments are inside me, nothing else can take it away.

Help me help me help me help me.

Ah~ A cage. All these little lights... They must be food. Mnm... I can see it. Some of them carry the essence I desire.

Help help help help help.

But the biggest one of all...

Don’t let me do this.

Is the fragment hovering in the air.

Don’t let me take it.

That heart beat... I miss it. It was always missing from my own chest. This hollow void I feel... it’ll finally disappear.

I was wrong. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.

So I’ll claim it. I’ll make it mine. I’ll fill my heart with joy. I will be happy. I will be fulfilled. I will be complete.

Please please please please please please.

I hold my arms out. I reach to embrace the fragment like the hug of a daughter welcoming her parents back. Innocence.

Help...

And as my fingers touch, I understand one thing. It’s lacking.

The fragment is not yet ready. It is suffering. It hungers like me.

It yearns like me.

It desires like me.

It is me.

It is a reflection of myself.

It is a representation of the emptiness I feel within.

I must fill the heart before the heart can fill this void.

And to fill the heart, I must claim the sparks around me.

Warmth that will thaw the emptiness inside.

The kindling to my fire.

Once I have that, I can finally feel...

Complete.

###

For the first time, Ciel wasn’t smiling.

It wasn’t a presentation of her physical expression. No.

In that regard, she had stopped smiling multiple times already.

What this presented was her state of mind. Her soul.

Something was wrong.

A chill felt to her very core.

As the girl took a bite from the beast responsible for the distortion of space, something had changed fundamentally within her.

A key that been turned and the box was opened.

A monster had been let out.

But Ciel couldn’t pinpoint the issue.

The girl smiled.

It should’ve been normal. It should’ve been beautiful.

But no. All she felt was an eeriness that was hard to describe.

A hazy vision of what a smile should be yet lacked the warmth and depth of one.

A monster mimicking the actions of man.

To this creature, a smile was simply a way of deception. The act of pulling its facial muscles so that the lips curved upwards into what it deemed to be a ’smile’.

It lacked happiness.

A happy smile somehow felt...

Sorrowful. Scared. Vulnerable.

Therein lies the eeriness. Everything about that smile should feel normal but it wasn’t.

Feris wasn’t there.

Something else had taken her place.

Like seeing a reflection of yourself but it as just the slightest bit different. A finger too long. Eyes that were slightly too far apart. Limbs that were slightly too short or slightly too long. A distorted image of reality.

Something else that couldn’t quite understand what the world was like. But it tried.

It mimicked.

Ciel reached out with her hand.

She sought to remove the cage. To deal with the anomaly as this had gone too far for her liking.

Then she paused.

She noticed a slight detail as she reached out to remove the cage.

This... ’new’ Void.

It was different.

Sublime even. It was everything she wanted.

Everything she desired.

An augmentation of her current authority. Such... compatibility.

Her breathing sped up.

She was lusting after the old authority already but the new one? It’s like comparing a rusted old sword with one forged in the brightest fires and honed by a master of masters.

To gamble or to be cautious. That was the question on Ciel’s mind.

She had taken risks to reach this stage. She understood the allure of succeeding in a gamble.

The payout that came with risking anything and everything.

So when presented with this opportunity, Ciel was hesitant.

She wasn’t afraid of the new Void. Far from it. Even though things are going in a strange direction, she could still feel her authority at work.

Even if the Void bled through, that’s only because she had allowed it to do so. For it to foster the heart.

Once the heart has been claimed, it loses this protection. The Void would retreat. It would be forced back to the other realm.

A distinction would be formed and Ciel would regain control of the pit.

A safety net was in place. Yes, she had been careful with her preparations.

Thus Ciel felt confident.

But the bad feeling didn’t fade away.

She trusted her instincts. She trusted her decision making.

So she made the choice to wait.

Bad move.

Had she chosen to attack, she would’ve prevented the birth of ’something’.

Had she chosen to leave, she would’ve been able to discuss methods of dealing with the new danger with the other Gods.

They may not like each other but they will understand the thing that was about to be born was anything but good.

Even Enris wouldn’t find such a thing amusing.

Yet Ciel chose to watch.

The worst choice of all.

Inaction. To simply observe then decide.

This hesitation...

Dreadful.

’Feris’ turned her murky eyes towards the Hunters. Dark and boundless like the infinite Void. Noah and the others took a step back.

She never looked towards their direction. No, they weren’t considered food.

Though something fundamental had changed, that much she understood.

But right now, she must fill this empty heart.

However...

"Noisy." She mumbled.

Her dark gaze turned upwards. Towards the dark spheres in the sky, the clash of authority and personal realms. Lords who have received the blessings of the Abyss fighting for domination.

Their clash was noisy. So she must erase the noise.

*CRACK!!! SHATTER!!!

Space pushed down on the spheres, breaking them apart like glass.

The Lords trapped inside widened their eyes as blood spluttered from their eyes and mouth.

Recoil from the forceful destruction of their world.

And as they looked towards the one responsible for this, they froze.

The hierarchy had changed.

The Hunter became the Hunted.

Lords became food and this ’thing’ that stood, observing them from within the girls eyes was beyond even Apostles.

A God?

Or perhaps the birth of one.

Incomprehensible fear struck their core as they fled.

But where to? The cage still remained around them.

Rather than face that thing, they’d rather burn their lifeforce if they must to shatter this prison!

*Nom!

’Feris’ leaned forward and took a bite.

A cute motion. Adorable even.

A small bite that would consume something no bigger than a walnut.

And yet horrific at the same time.

Four Lords fell.

Some lost their torso, some lost their legs.

But they all died the same.

Consumed by the Void.