Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

'I'm running out of lives, but this thing doesn't need to know that.'

"FAMILY… F…AMILY…. Family…?"

Taking Cassius out of his thoughts were the mumblings of the Original Abyss. For some reason, it started to change, with all of its anger vanishing without a trace.

Yet, that anger seemed to have been replaced with… sadness.

Immense sorrow.

Believing that this was a better time to spark up a conversation, Cassius asked, "Are you ready to talk now?"

A human-like expression appeared on the blackened-eyed chubby boy's face as he suddenly turned his head up. "Talk…? With Family…?"

"Yes," replied Cassius, his violent aura gradually subsiding. "Talk with family."

The chubby boy's sadness worsened. "But… But Family is… Am alone. Am alone… Why am I alone…?"

Cassius was unable to understand what was going on, but he still tried to help solve the problem. "Listen, kid—"

However, before he could finish even a single sentence, the endless darkness that surrounded the shattered Abyssal Bowl pulled on the chubby boy. His sorrow and grief mixed together with fright and horror as he reached out toward Cassius.

"P-Please, no more… The darkness… Why always the darkness…!?"

"Wait," Cassius called out, trying to grab hold of the boy.

But it was to no avail…

"Darkness… No Family… Alone… M…My Fault… All my fault…." The Original Abyss's mumblings continued as its face severely twisted in helplessness and self-blame. "All my fault."

Tendrils of darkness wrapped around the chubby boy, coiling him in their twilight embrace. Slowly, they covered him up and pulled him in. Morbid shadows contrasted with the deep, dark blues of his saddened face as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

*Fwoooop—!*

The tear, however, did not fall downward. It instead flew toward Cassius in a horizontal line, its glimmer radiating brighter with each passing moment.

"What…!?"

He attempted to understand what was invading his body before it fully did so, but he was nowhere near fast enough. The tear collided with his forehead, rippling through his skin. A bubbly iridescent energy seeped into his forehead, digging down and fusing with the deepest depths of his soul.

Speaking for the final time before being completely enveloped, the Original Abyss said, "A Dead-End is what awaits us all. Don't… resist…"

It spoke its most coherent sentence yet, and unfortunately for Cassius, it just had to be the one that came just before a sea of darkness swallowed him whole.

Sighing, he said, "What a shame…"

Just then, the black tear that entered inside him finished the assimilation process. A series of System Notifications then sounded out—the first few of which were unrelated to the conquering of the World's End Gate:

*Ding~!*

[Absorbed the 1st Fragment]

[Sequencing….]

[The Abyss inside you grows]

[1st Fragment sequenced!]

[Special Innate Ability 'Shadow's Foresight' Acquired]

"Hm?"

Before Cassius received the chance to properly glance over his new ability, another wave of System Notifications bombarded him—these ones bringing him far less surprise.

*Ding!*

[You have successfully conquered the Gold-rank Royale Apocalypse Gate known as the 'World's End']

[You have slain the Original Abyss Fragment, True Name: ???????]

[Trillions of Monsters in the Abyssal Bowl have been massacred by you!]

[Experience Bar has moved by leaps and bounds!]

[Warning! Warning! Warning!]

While Cassius was devouring the sparsely desecrated monsters along with Mora and Lilith, bright red screens flashed in front of him. His brows raised as he read the following System Notification:

[Due to you conquering the World's End Gate, the collapse of reality has commenced!]

NEXUS EVENT - DESCENDING!

"What??" Knox questioned. "I thought the Gate was the Nexus Event! Now you're telling me there's more!?"

[Always expect the unexpected, Dear Host. And don't blame me; I didn't do anything this time. I'm just the humble messenger.]

[Which reminds me…]

[A Tear in the fabric of Space has opened up on Humanity's 0th Floor! Cause: Unknown!!]

[Foreign Forces have begun invading through the Tear in Space!]

[The Gate's Prisoners have escaped the chains that bound them!]

[Other Realities have opened more Cracks in Space, permitting the intrusion of numerous more Foreign Entities!!]

[Errm… Dear Host, have you prayed today?]

"…No…"

[Then you better start now, because you might just be screwed…]

Silence…

RUMBLE!!!

Suddenly, the interior of the World's End Gate shook like crazy. Cracks spread everywhere, with the incomprehensible illusion that lay beyond the shattered Abyssal Bowl forever separating from the layer of existence Cassius was in.

Shooting his sight around, he locked onto Yimin and Viola. Moving fast, he teleported them to him, then reinforced their existences with his own.

"Brace yourselves," Cassius said. "The Gate is forcefully collapsing, and it will do so whether we're in here or not. That means we have to leave the same way we came in."

Pausing at his words, Viola looked all around. "Hey, Cass…"

"Yes?"

"You speak of an exit, but where exactly would that be…?"

Silence…

"Hmm…" Cassius's smile turned crooked. His eyes darted in every single direction, but the portal they came in through was nowhere to be found. "Erm… Maybe I really should've prayed today."

[Hihi~, want a hint, Dear Host~? If you ask nicely, I don't mind telling you~]

Messing up the System's plans, a different System Notification sounded:

[Host will be t… No stop it! Transported out of the World's End Gate in 34 seconds]

[Nooo!!!]

The System's snarky personality fought with the more robotic and organized part. And no matter how hard the snarky side resisted the nature of the robotic, the former lost without contest.

"Oh?" Cassius smirked, conjuring an illusory blue chair that he immediately pulled out and sat down on. "If that's how it is, then good. You should've just started with that, 'Dear' System."

[You… f*cker…]

The System fumed, but in a little over half a minute, its livid expression existed as nothing more than an afterthought of Cassius's.

While being transported out of the collapsing World's End Gate alongside Viola and Yimin, he finally took the time to gloss over the Special Ability he had acquired from that weird chubby boy. Even now, he had no clue what it was talking about or why it seemed so personally related to himself, but that was a subject for another time.

The Ability in question: