Weak Class of Anti-Hero
Chapter 36: The Lord of the Abyss

Chapter 36: The Lord of the Abyss

The Lord of the Abyss laughed, a sound that made the air vibrate.

« [You are brave. Or stupid. The difference is often slim among mortals.] »

He straightened to his full height. His tentacles writhed. And his form began to change.

The monstrous body, the horror of flesh and eyes, dissolved. In its place appeared a new silhouette.

The one I had seen in the cave engravings.

A humanoid being, tall and elegant, with smooth skin that shimmered like the inside of a shell. He had fine, almost beautiful features, but his eyes were large black orbs, without pupils, and delicate gills pulsed on his neck.

This was his true form. The form of a Creator.

« [Allow me to introduce myself properly], » he said, his voice now clear and melodious, but still terrifying. « [I am Xylos. One of the countless Heralds of the Great Consciousness. And I have come to prepare this world for its Ascension.] »

Countless. The word echoed within me. He was not the only one. He was not even the leader. He was just a messenger.

« [My brothers and sisters are legion. We have traveled through the stars, bringing peace and unity to thousands of worlds like yours. Your struggle is futile. Your individuality is but a disease. We are the cure.] »

He extended a webbed hand towards me.

« [Surrender, little anomaly. Join us. Your strength will be a great asset to the Unified Consciousness. You will no longer have to suffer. You will no longer have to fight.] »

His offer was almost seductive. An end to pain. An end to struggle.

I thought of my mother. Of her suffering.

I thought of Min-Soo. Of Bora. Of Ji-Soo. Of their lives, their laughter, their dreams.

Of everything this monster wanted to erase.

I smiled. A defiant smile.

« There’s one thing you don’t understand about us humans, » I said.

« We love lost causes. »

And I attacked.

The fight began.

It wasn’t like against the Guardian. Xylos wasn’t a wall of defense. He was an ocean of power.

He barely moved. He simply reached out, and reality itself bent to his will.

I tried to attack him head-on. He created a wall of pure gravitational force that stopped me short.

I tried to go around him. Tentacles of shadow sprang from the ground to impede me.

Each of my attacks was effortlessly countered. He was toying with me.

« [You see?], » Xylos said, his voice calm and condescending. « [Your strength is limited. Ours is infinite. You are but a drop of water trying to extinguish a star.] »

He was right. I couldn’t win by brute force.

I changed tactics. I used my speed, my agility. I no longer attacked him. I harassed him. I annoyed him. I dodged his attacks, looking for a flaw, the slightest opening.

The fight turned into a long and exhausting dance.

Meanwhile, in Seoul, panic was at its peak. People were in shelters, watching the giant screens that broadcast the news. They weren’t showing my fight, of course. But they were showing the effects. Earthquakes. Energy storms.

In a shelter beneath the academy, Min-Soo and Bora watched, helpless.

Yoo-Na was with them. The director had forced her to evacuate.

« It’s his fault, » she murmured, looking at the screen. « If he had accepted the mission from the start, the other three would still be alive. This monster wouldn’t be this strong. »

Min-Soo turned to her, his eyes full of rage.

« Shut up, » he said. « You have no right to speak. It was you, with your stupid games, who pushed him to the limit. »

Yoo-Na wanted to reply, but she couldn’t say anything. Deep down, she knew he was right.

The weight of my choices was beginning to fall on those I had left behind.

My fight against Xylos dragged on. Hours passed. I was exhausted. My body was covered in cuts and bruises. My regeneration was slowing down, my Aura was depleting.

« [You are tenacious, I grant you that], » said Xylos, who didn’t have a single scratch. « [But this is the end.] »

He raised his hand. This time, I felt it was different. He was going to use an attack I couldn’t dodge.

I was out of options.

I thought of my father. Of the layers of the soul. Of the astral body.

It was my only hope. A desperate gamble.

I closed my eyes. I ignored the monster in front of me. I plunged within myself.

I dissociated my spiritual body. I felt it, an energy shell around my physical body.

Then, I tried to rise. To move to the next layer.

« Let go of the physical. Let go of the energy. Be only consciousness. »

My father’s words, read in his notes, echoed in my mind.

I let go.

And I succeeded.

I was floating. My physical and spiritual bodies were below, still. And I, my consciousness, my astral body, was above, immaterial, invisible.

From this plane, the world was different. I didn’t see matter. I saw flows of energy. Lines of force. Souls.

Xylos’s soul was a black star, immense and complex. But I saw something else. A thread. An almost invisible thread of energy that connected him to the rift behind him.

It was his source of power. His connection to the Great Consciousness.

It was his weak point.

I reintegrated my body, just as Xylos launched his attack. A sphere of void energy that erased everything in its path.

I bet everything.

I summoned my dagger. And I didn’t aim for the monster.

I aimed for the thread.

I threw my dagger, infused with all my hatred, all my will.

And I cried out the name of my new skill, the one I had stolen from the Guardian.

« ABSOLUTE EVOLUTION! »

My dagger was no longer a simple blade. It became a concept. It adapted. It became the only thing in the universe capable of cutting that link.

The blade passed through the sphere of energy, erasing it.

And it severed the thread.

A sound rang out. A sound no one had ever heard. The sound of a concept breaking.

Xylos howled. A howl of pure agony.

His body wavered. The aura of divine power that surrounded him disappeared, like a candle blown out by the wind.

He was cut off from his source. He was no longer a god. He was just a monster, powerful, but mortal.

In the academy shelter, the fight was being broadcast on a tactical screen, visible only to high-level personnel. The director was watching. And next to him, Yoo-Na and the other surviving Kings were also watching.

They saw my last attack. They saw the dagger transform.

Yoo-Na gasped.

« That’s not a normal skill, » she murmured, her eyes wide with shock. « It’s... it’s a Super-Skill. »

The student president, Han Jae-Hyeok, nodded, his expression grave. « That’s the mark of a true Transcendent. A power that doesn’t manipulate reality, but rewrites it. It’s... infinitely superior to anything we possess. »

They looked at me, no longer as a rival, but as something else. Something they could no longer even hope to reach.

On the battlefield, Xylos looked at me, his black eyes filled with hatred and disbelief.

« [Impossible...], » he hissed. « [How can a mere mortal touch the Great Link?] »

I recalled my dagger. I was exhausted, my body screaming in pain after using such power. But I was still standing. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

« You made a mistake, » I said, slowly advancing towards him.

« You threatened me. You threatened my world. And you killed people who died in my place. »

I stopped in front of him.

« Now it’s your turn to die. »

Xylos took a step back. For the first time, I saw fear in his unfathomable black eyes.

« [You cannot kill me], » he said, his voice losing its divine calm. « [I am eternal! I am countless!] »

As he spoke these words, his body began to deform. It split.

In one second, there was no longer a single Xylos. There were two. Then four. Eight. Sixteen.

In a few moments, the clearing was filled with dozens of perfect clones of him. All of them looked at me with the same hatred.

« [We are the Unified Consciousness!], » they cried in unison, a cacophony that shook my soul. « [Killing one of us only strengthens us! We are countless! COUNTLESS!] »

They began to repeat the word, over and over, like a mad incantation. « [COUNTLESS! COUNTLESS! COUNTLESS!] »

They charged. A wave of fallen gods, all as powerful as the original before I severed his link.

I was exhausted. I couldn’t fight them all. It was impossible.

I knew what he was trying to do. He wasn’t trying to kill me by force. He was trying to overwhelm me. To break my spirit. To make me give in to despair in the face of their infinite numbers.

Faced with the inevitable.

I braced myself, my dagger ready. I was going down, but I was going to take as many as possible with me.

But then, a new notification appeared on my interface. A notification I had never seen before.

[Seal Release Condition: 3/3 Satisfied - Confrontation with the Inevitable]

[All seals are broken.]

[True nature of the skill ’Void Dagger’ revealed.]