LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 333: The Original Abyss
A bit of the glimmer in Viola's eyes was replaced by repulsion as she watched a colossal Sea Leviathan of sorts shoot out from the depths of the water. It bit a Fish Monster that looked like a mutated Goliath Fish, and in a single chomp, it crunched the fish into two. Blood colored the sea red, with the Sea Leviathan making use of its enormous toothy mouth to devour both major chunks of the Goliath Fish before returning to the depths of the upside-down terrarium.
As for the smaller remains of the deceased Goliath Fish, they made for good, hearty meals for the weaker and smaller Sea Beasts.
"Gruesome indeed," Cassius remarked. "But in the end, these are just the way things ar—"
"Yum-yums! Can Yimin gets shome, Master!?"
Silence…
"Yimin, is there ever a moment when you aren't so weird?"
Yimin shook her head, -teeheeing-, "Nope, nope, but Master loves weird Yimin! Master says it before!"
This girl lived in her delusions!
"You two truly are something else," Viola remarked. "I don't believe I've ever met such an unusual pair. But with that being off topic, what exactly are we supposed to be doing down here?"
Looking around, the depths of the aqua abyss called to them.
That surely must be where they were meant to go.
But was that really what they wanted to do…?
The dangers within the depths of the abyss could very well mean the end of them…
Cassius followed Viola's gaze, with even his Magic Sense unable to gauge the true limits of the 13th Layer. It was like peering into a well using the eyes of a mere mortal.
"Well, let's not waste any more time here," he finally said, his voice cutting through the deafening silence. "If we wait around any longer, those Sea Monsters might just decide they want another snack."
Viola hesitantly nodded, whereas Yimin bobbed her head with drool pouring from her lips.
Ignoring her unusualness, Cassius conjured a protective bubble that covered all three of them. After which, he descended into the watery Abyss, but decided to do his VOPC run for the hour sometime in.
A whole day passed for him, but for the outside world, it was as if he never even left.
— A Few Hours Later —
The 13th Layer of the Abyssal Bowl was, by far, the largest among all the Layers. It took Cassius nearly half a day of traveling at his fastest speed just to reach a part where the scenery started to change. And though thousands of giant, planet-sized sea creatures had been slain by him during his descent, they endlessly flooded in.
The amount of EXP being racked up was astronomical. An amount that would surely be a game-changer when Cassius ascends to the Higher Floors of the Humanity Tower.
Suddenly!
"...Who is there…?"
"???" "???" "???"
A voice rang inside the heads of Cassius, Yimin, and Viola. They vigilantly scanned their surroundings but saw nothing. It was also around this time that Cassius realized this part of the watery Abyss was devoid of life.
There were no Krakens, no Sea Leviathans, no huge Monstrous Fish—nothing.
It was like a ghost town.
"Did you hear that, too?" Viola tugged on Cassius's robe, her hand trembling.
She didn't scare easily, but for some reason, that voice terrified her to her core.
Even the silly Yimin had a dangerous gleam in her eye. As she was in full dragon form, her poise was domineering. But at the same time, what looked to be fear crept up her enormous body, causing shivers.
'Yimin never gets like this…' Cassius's bluish-red eyes narrowed into slits as he tried tracing the unknown voice back to its origin.
An action that bore no results…
"....Are you family…? Foe….? W…Who are you…?"
The voice came out very distorted, with certain vowels being repeated several times in an abnormal sequence. Weirder yet was how… familiar it sounded.
None of them had ever heard anything like the voice in their entire lives—that was a fact.
And yet…
Why did it feel so familiar…?
Finally speaking up, Cassius said, "Who are we? The better question is who are you?"
"...."
"I… I don't know… Are you family… Or Foe…? W… Who are you…?"
Like a broken record, the voice repeated what it had already said once before. However, this time, more confusion had been infused into its voice.
It was as if the owner of the voice truly didn't know what it was doing…
Contemplating, Cassius suddenly turned his head up. "We are family."
Silence….
"Family…?" The unknown voice parroted. "Family… F-Family… F-F…Family…!? N-Noooo!!!"
RUMBLE!
The watery Abyss started shaking like crazy, with the calls coming from the depths increasing the pull it had on Cassius and the girls. The unknown distorted voice reached such a low frequency that it became unrecognizable.
Then, out of the blue, a massive hole split the bottomless Abyss in two.
"!!!!"
Moving extremely fast, Cassius teleported himself and the girls away using one of his new Void Skills—'Group Spatial Displacement.'
Right where they had just been standing, a large crimson-red sword tip left a gaping hole in the water that had a diameter of hundreds of thousands of miles.
Yet, with the bloody glow of the sword tip, it—along with the rest of its frame—shrank down to a barely discernible size. Immediately after, a young chubby boy with blackened, blood-stained eyes appeared before Cassius. His expression was overflowing with grief and sorrow, his pain unimaginable even for the likes of the man who had died more times than days the human civilization had been around.
"N…Not Family!!! Can't be Family—!!!!"
The chubby boy's screams reverberated like the tolling bell chimes foretelling the end of the world. His extreme hysteria was followed by the sweeping of a mass of pitch-black darkness that resided at the very depths of the 13th Layer. The Darkness gathered around the chubby boy, enveloping him in its grim embrace.
"Cassius…" Viola mumbled, her eyes opening in shock. "Is this…?"
"Yes, I believe so," Cassius replied, his expression hardening. "This is the World End's Gate Final Boss Monster. This is what will bring about the end of life as we know it—"
OOOOM!!!
"The Original Abyss."