The Truth Hidden in the Map
Night fell like a heavy shroud.Lucas walked alongside Vaelin, crossing dead lands where the ground cracked underfoot. In his hands, the map Kael had given him seemed to pulse, as if it were breathing.
His voice came out broken. Almost not his own."This map... it doesn't point to a place."
Vaelin smiled. But it was a strange, tired smile."It points to you."
The lines on the map shifted, rearranging before Lucas's eyes. At the center, a familiar mark: the same symbol from the summoning.
Lucas's chest tightened.Vaelin walked ahead, indifferent."The Abyss doesn't want places. It wants roots. And they always lead home."
They moved forward. The walk was long, the landscape unchanging. Time crumbled into dust.
When they finally stopped, they stood before a gaping fissure in the ground — not a normal crack, but a wound. Black mist rose from the broken earth, and the air trembled.
Lucas halted.The map burned in his hand.
And then, the whisper."So close..."
The Abyss.
The weight of the air grew with each step. The smell of burnt iron clung to his skin. The shadows around them didn't follow the wind — they dragged themselves forward by will alone.
When they reached the fissure, Lucas froze.It pulsed. Something alive twisted inside.
And then, from the crack, eyes emerged.
Not normal eyes.They were shattered mirrors, reflecting distorted images of Lucas.Each reflection showed a different version of him: sometimes crying, sometimes killing, sometimes laughing as everything burned.
A voice exploded from within the fissure."There you are, my favorite little mistake."
The Abyss spoke. But not in a straight line. Every word shifted tones, like a child playing with voices.
"So loooong, so little result... But look at you! Standing tall!"
Lucas took a step back.Vaelin remained still.
The Abyss laughed — a broken, crackling sound like bones snapping."Grandpa Vaelin brought you right to me!" it sang. "Good old dog. Such a shame."
Before Lucas could react, tendrils of shadow exploded from the fissure, grabbing Vaelin by the chest and lifting him off the ground.
Vaelin didn't scream.
The Abyss squeezed."Your role is over, little piece of history."
With a dry snap, Vaelin was crushed like brittle glass.His remains crumbled into dust before Lucas's eyes.
The fissure pulsed, satisfied."Now it's just the two of us."
The Proposal
Lucas stood still, feeling the absence of Vaelin like a gaping cold wound.
The Abyss molded itself in front of him, taking the shape of Lucas — but distorted. The eyes were too deep, the smiles wrong.
"I saw you on the ground. Torn, crying, pissing yourself in fear... begging for help without even knowing who to call."
Lucas clenched his hands until he felt the warmth of his own blood under his nails.
"I gave you this," the voice softened, almost sweet. "Gave your voice back when the world stole it from you."
A tremor ran through his jaw, as if his whole body was refusing to give in.
"You want to go home, don't you?" said the Abyss, a voice that seemed to smile and bleed at the same time.
He kept his hand steady, blood dripping warm between his fingers.
The Abyss laughed — a short, dry laugh, like bones snapping.
"Imagine it... Her opening the door, those little eyes lighting up, running to you..." — the voice shifted, turning almost childlike.
"'Daddy's back!'" it mimicked, in a grotesque falsetto.
"Or..." — now rough, low — "'Daddy became a monster.'"
The laughter burst again, cutting deep.Lucas's vision trembled, as if the world inside him was shattering.
"I didn't come here to listen to you."
The Abyss ignored him. It moved around Lucas, invisible but present, like a beast scratching its claws against the walls of his mind.
"Wake up, little broken doll," it murmured. "This world screwed you over for free. At least I'm being honest. I'm offering you a way out."
Lucas stared into the emptiness ahead."And what's the price?"
"Everything," whispered the Abyss with poisonous pleasure. "Everything that still holds you back. Clara. Lara. Your sweet little world of breakfasts and hugs."
Silence. Then the voice dragged into a long, mocking laugh.
"You want to go back? You want to feel her skin against yours again? Smell her hair? Hear her say 'I love you'?"
"Then stop crawling like a dying dog... and accept who you are."
Lucas ground his teeth, the taste of blood mixing with saliva.
"I'm not yours."
The Abyss whistled, low and mocking."You're not?" it murmured, almost pitying. "Then why am I inside you... and not the other way around?"
Lucas trembled, fighting the impulse to give in.
The Abyss, now closer, more cruel:"Come on, hero. Pretend you still have a choice."
The whisper dissolved into silence for a moment.And then the Abyss spoke again, lower, more intimate, almost hissing inside Lucas's skull:"Start with them."
Images tore through Lucas's mind — the faces of the soldiers who dragged him, the screams in the cell, the smell of burning flesh.
"Burn what broke you. Break what tried to kill you."
He wanted to say no.But he could only breathe harder.
The Abyss laughed, satisfied.
"Only then... will you be able to return to her."
And the world, with no choice left, bowed its head.