C136: End of the Abyss P18
Overall Word count = 2364 on 8/29/2024.
Alt Title teaser: True State
I had originally planned to release this chapter early in the day but work decided to change my schedule and had me come in today. Now I only have 2 free days a week, Sunday and wednesday. Luckily I actually like writing as it stimulates my brain enough to bring me joy from it.
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(Approximately 5 minutes ago)
Axel who was rapidly losing consciousness due to the foreign mana he had absorbed from the Hydra's core. He can feel that the connection between him and his gluttony had been momentarily split which allowed the foreign mana to enter his system just like he did with Araba. Yet this is now done to him, but unlike his method that sought to immediately corrupt the dragon, the dungeon seeks to make him suffer for all of its losses from the past few weeks and even months since Axel has shown up in the dungeon and devoured monsters. THe dungeon sought to deliver pain onto him and that very pain provides him just enough attention to create a shade of the original owner of his esper power, Accelerator.
The teen with messy gray-white 'colorless' hair and red eyes is sitting atop Araba with Axel where he was placed by the others. The albino teen wears a fur coated jacket where within he wears a white t-shirt with gray lines that form multiple arrows pointing down at the center of his chest. He has a black choker around his neck, except it's not a choker but a device that regulates his power after he received a nearly fatal injury in his life. (pic here)
The esper understands what he needs to do and first separates Axel from Sabrina as his devouring power is going out of control that it shifts from the new minimum of 10 layers to full power every moment, this overpowers Sabrina's drain and in just the few moments of connection, she has grown a bit pale but her weakness also ensures that she couldn't wake up at the moment due to how heavy her eyelids were.
Accelerator created a barrier around Sabrina and then also Araba as the drake had been susceptible to the same weakness but even worse due to the entire coverage of Axel's body pressing against Araba. Axel before at least created a barrier himself which prevented the dragon from feeling this effect but now to no avail. Araba has enough strength to enter a side channel on the 67th floor before falling down due to exhaustion.
The Esper moves Axel off the drake so that he can stop using it's power on them. He then goes to the corner as Axel properly falls unconscious. The esper, now technically free, thinks about his next actions but another look at Sabrina and he is reminded of Mikasa Mikasa and his guilt/nightmares ensures he stays. Sabrina is gradually regaining her strength and movement. He clicks his tongue in annoyance and begins to take care of her, using his power as THE accelerator to essentially create a rocking chain for the baby to sway in.
As for Axel himself, he is pulled into his mind space but before he could understand the situation, he is drop kicked by one of 30 dungeon apparitions. The kick sends him flying back as he crashes against his mental wall. Axel takes a quick moment to understand the situation. He and his fragments make up 10 but he sent out Accelerator so there are only 9. Radahn, Kratos and Asura have multiple dungeon wills fighting them while the rest only have 2. That leaves the final 3 Wills for himself.
He gets up and takes a combat stance but he unexpectedly finds the dungeon Will who struck him to say, "You have no chance this time around, I am the one with the advantage here. Submit to me now and you may preserve your body and mind"
"Save your bullshit, you are no threat to me. You had the home field advantage before and still lost, this time will be even worse for you. I was only serious a small handful of times and you haven't seen nothing yet" He uses his soul magic to take control of the space to kick out his mind space and body yet what happens next shocks him.
Nothing.
Nothing happened to them except they seemed to shake for a bit before they snapped their fingers which inflicted pain upon Axel directly. "Argh" Axel nearly falls to his knees as he is confused but can only be stunned by the sight of thick veins covering the walls of his mind space.
"You foolish human, You have willfully accepted my energy into yourself. I reclaimed it and now I am as much part of you as you are of me and the dungeon. You no longer have authority here, we share that now." The dungeon mocks Axel for his actions and thoughts but he does not falter as he takes a deep breath to steady himself. He then prepares himself as he steals a patented technique that is effective against a large majority of enemies.
RUNNING THE FUCK AWAY- Nigerundayo
Axel rushes towards the nearby entrance to his noble phantasm as the dungeon prevents him from teleporting freely. Breaking through the door, he finds himself near the chief's house that 'belongs' to him but he doesnt stop running as the dungeon Wills are right behind him. He runs towards the backyard and hides behind a certain something.
The trial ghost of his noble phantasm can't believe it's eyes as the very person who had fought so hard to unlock this noble phantasm. Committing to even suicidal tactics to defeat the previous proctor.
The ghost facepalms at the situation as the dungeon wills catch up with Axel to the backyard where this challenge reins.
"Hiding behind another of your puppets, worthless human. Just submit already" The dungeon goads Axel
The third spirit sighs as he turns to look at Axel, still cowardly hiding behind him. He reaches out to pat Axel on the head. "Time to stop lying child."
"What" Axel says surprised by the actions.
"Cast it all off. You can't win like this. Not when you delude yourself as you do"
The proctors words seem to cause some sort of revelation to 'Axel'. The color of his hair turns to pure white, a true colorless as he was nothing. His clothes burst off his body, a clean slate as he is nothing. Step by step, everything fades from his body as his true state is witnessed by the proctor and the dungeon.
A jigsaw. Less than human as only random pieces of his face, a random floating finger or toe can be seen.
'Axel' raises his hands to look at them. A single tear escapes the half eye 'it' possesses. "Stop" a disembodied voice escapes from the fractured soul. The word is filled with mourning as it doesnt want to be so empty, not after feeling so full for so long.
"You don't have the right to be human…not as broken as you are…and that's okay. In return, I shall gift you my form" The proctor stabs his own chest and pulls out a blue orb. A reflection of the village being built from the ground up as the owner of the orb grants a blessing onto each of the residents there that allows them to take on a new and stronger form. Now the proctor initiates this ritual with the fragmented spirit who begins to be affected by the orb.
It's fragmented body begins to drip liquid, as if sweating, but no he is not sweating, but melting. 'It' reaches out as it cant understand what is happening before it's body turns to liquid. But not a moment later, the liquid condenses into a blue shiny ball as the proctor speaks out.
"I dub thee, Axel ... .Tempest…Gram. Honor the name of Tempest well, it belongs to me and my sworn brother. Until next time….my son."
The slime can only jiggle as it has not understood yet how to talk but as this is still it's soul space, the voice still rings out, "Thank you ... .and I won't let you down" The proctor nods before slowly disappearing. It has not been defeated but it will not intervene in the fight anymore. But before it disappears, it commands, "It's time to wake up"
A rumble passes through the soul space and noble phantasm village as an energy flows into Axel, as he accepts the inheritance of his 'first fragment'.
[Great Sage has merged Gluttony with Predator]
[Gained Devourer]
The omniscient voice that had spoken up for the first time back during his fight with Tiona and had cleansed her of the world's influence. It had been on lockdown as it proclaimed that Axel was not it's true user but with the proctors command, the Great Sage has properly woken up and made its presence known.
The slimed based body of Axel gradually turns into his original humanoid form of the child that he was when he had first arrived at Orario. He no longer had his shiny star hair but just silver blue colored hair that his 'father' had.
Axel is looking down as he raises his right hand. After looking at his palm for a second, he clenches his fist as the full breadth of knowledge flows into his mind. He raises his head to finally look at his mind and body's intruder. The dungeon Will. the same will who continues to look at him dismissively, while it is confused by the exact situation, nothing has actually changed. In fact, more of the wills have entered the village after they dealt with the weaker soul fragments like migi then Celebrimbor, then one by one, the rest fell as they accumulated too much damage and could not use their own abilities due to their mana gradually being corrupted.
As such, all 30 Wills have gathered in the village, they all look at him dismissively with their ever changing features but Axel just raises his hand above his head as he swings down while proclaiming.
"Get the fuck out of my body" A dragon flame falls down from the sky that strikes all the Wills and shatters them. With his new [Devourer], Axel breaks down the invading energy so no more Wills can be formed as he cleanses his body of filth.
When he wakes up, he finds Tiona about to touch him so he quickly moves her into the Village of Origins. "Ill deal with you later, but your still in time out" He voices out as he is in quite a bad mood. He gets up and stores Araba away and then Accelerator who had hid himself by reflecting light away from him fully. With him is Sabrina.
Axel flows his mana through his body to enhance himself as he executes multiple short range mana bursts and then rapidly returns to the 68th floor. Tione who is looking for her sister is confused by her disappearance as there is only a deadend in the tunnel she followed her to. The 68th floor is a chaotic scene as various acids, fires, and ice litter the floor from the battle as the hydra, which has a hundred various layers of elemental powers, remains immortal towards the group's efforts.
Lily is stuck in the final steps of her apotheosis which means that no more golden light flows down towards her anymore. Which means that Finn and Bell had to use their own power to repel the immortal Hydra after it had gone berserk a moment ago. The duo of Bell and Finn could not dodge as they had to protect Lily/Fianna who was immobile. The other members had provided support where they could. The situation is not looking good with the now 50 hydra heads that unleashed entire tides of various elements to badly injure everyone so far.
Everyone is running on fumes when they hear shuffling not too far from them. They turn their heads to find Axel marching forward with a frown on his face. Hundreds, if not hundreds of thousand of mana threads are created as they condense into a giant mana fist that Axel sends forward into the Hydra. It tries to blast away the very clearly visible giant hand away but [Devourer] consumes all the magical energy inside the various elemental blasts, acid attacks and breath of decay (courtesy of the black hydra heads). The fist comes in contact with the hydra and like before, blows them all away but they rapidly begin to regenerate…or they would if the giant hand did not grab the orb and lifted it up.
Only to slam it down into the ground, then into the far wall from Axel, the roof, another side wall. He keeps doing this until he vents all his frustration on the dungeon. Summoning a nen sword of unseen before quality. Axel grasps it as the giant protective core floats before him by the giant mana hand. Axel infuses the nen sword with spatial energy. He slashes out with the blade and the monster core that had resisted the various damages done to it by the power of Bell's [Argonaut] and Finn's power of [Dim], has been cut clean in half. Axel then slashes out once more but extra spatial magic flows around. A strange situation is seen as the half cut core remains floating. Axel dispels his sword and begins to walk toward a part of the floor that is not in ruins.
Behind Axel, a spatial anomaly occurs as hundreds of spatial based sword swings lash out in all directions, eviscerating the core to worthless pieces.
"Come. rest. I'm tired" He says and flops to the ground face first.
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Alt Title: Virus, True State, Finishing the Fight.
Hope yall enjoyed this chapter and the grand reveal of what was gluttony this whole time and what the true final fragment was. Everything begins and ends with devouring.