We are warned to be prepared when we look into the Abyss, lest it consumes us when it stares back.
That was the number one rule of Egoists and the foundation of their powers.
The Abyss was a mirror, reflecting their souls in a new light—an unbiased lens.
And when that lens is corrupted… a Null creature is born.
The battlefield was a canvas of white and black. Torn rotten flesh and protruding raptor parts formed a third layer of gore over the snow.
Their blood pooled beneath the pile. It formed small puddles that had begun to cool from the effects of the rigid cold.
And in the middle was the Bullice Titan.
Its tentacles slithered like living worms as it pulsed in a peristaltic motion. Liquid squelched through as the Bullice Titan brought Luca closer to its face.
Its pale, white eyes gleaming with hunger as its tentacles pumped a foreign entity into the boy's form– Null essence.
It was easy to be corrupted. It was worse, so for Egoists and Trancers. These were people who had begun to stir that mirror in their direction.
And frankly, most Null Creatures couldn't consume what wasn't corrupted.
It was like eating poison.
The beast gurgled. A wet chuckle was emitted into the air in an echo. It completely delved into its mission to consume the young Trancer.
But something changed.
A sudden thump beat in the air.
A loud, powerful shockwave that forced the titan to slow in its acts.
Its pale eyes widened.
The beat struck again. Louder. Firmer.
The titan's tendrils slowly recoiled from Luca's form. One by one.
The titan felt it— danger was building. And it was building fast.
Luca's heart beat grew faster. The sounds of liberation caused the snow to dance in the wind.
The storms failed to quell the sound.
Then Luca's eyes snapped open.
[ATTEMPTED CORRUPTION FAILED! NULL RESISTANCE ACTIVE]
Unfortunately, Luca was immune to all forms of corruption.
The Bullice Titan screeched loudly as it slammed Luca into the ground.
The wind swept up in an updraft, the snow dispersed and a crater formed.
Luca's eyes shone with an ethereal golden light as a cold breath escaped his lips.
His hands were raised over his head as a rush of golden energy seeped out of his pores.
'This… what is this?'
The Titan's low screeches reached his ears as it pushed its tentacles upon Luca.
But contrary to Luca's expectations, his resistance was absolute. He stood firm as a statue and did not go down.
In fact, he had begun to resist even harder.
'Hah, I feel so liberated!'
The energy that seeped out of him slowly turned into a blast that formed a second skin over his body.
It was alien, yet Luca felt at home.
'What is this energy? Is this Ego?'
For the Bullice Titan to consume, it must first corrupt. And when corrupting, they injected their essences– Null essences into the bodies of their victims.
Most humans were easily overwhelmed, but Egoits and Trancers had the pathways that channelled from the Ego Core to the rest of their bodies.
Null essence must reach the core to corrupt the body, but Luca's resistance had overwhelmed it! Leaving such pathways open for the true energy of Egoists– Ego.
If one were to describe Ego, it would be the declaration of self.
Born of hatred. Of joy. Of grief. Of weakness.
Ego was the core– man's proclamation of existence against the world.
Emotions honed into will. Will-given form.
It was energy.
Trancers usually unlocked these pathways after their trials during the body reconstruction, but they had already been opened.
Luca had an idea of how he was able to use it, but he didn't dwell on it. Not when his life still hung before his eyes.
'That was too close.'
The titan retreated its tentacles as Luca pulled his arms back while he tightened his fists.
'I can't let that happen again.'
He had been completely shut down from the fight at that moment. Overtaken by the brutality of the tentacles.
His body still bore the holes. Blood still dribbled down some while the majority had frozen shut from the cold.
At this point, Luca had to admit it was a double-edged sword.
Suddenly, reality bent as the tentacles shot at Luca at ear-wrenching speed.
Luca didn't miss a beat.
His fist landed on the tip of the tentacles before retreating and slamming another that came for him.
Their appendages became a blur and an extension of their wills.
The sound was that of a shotgun. Only, this didn't have a reload time.
Each strike caused the ground to seethe and snow to turn to vapor which rose into the air.
The ground shuddered. It was carved slowly from growing spider-web cracks.
Luca's pupils were dilated. Ego rolled out of it as it shifted side to side within its sockets.
'My vision is out of this world!'
Everything within his sight was spread out. What used to move slowly had become too slow, and what should have been fast was now traceable.
He trailed every tentacle as it came. Striking a fist at fifty in a fraction of a second.
His bones snapped and his muscles screamed from the force, but he didn't stop.
But with time, his thoughts churned.
'I'll be overwhelmed if this keeps on going!' Then he shifted stance. His fist opened up as he gripped the next tentacle instead of striking back.
He yanked the slithering tendrils like they were noodles and tore them off.
Blood splashed against his body, on top of his already painted form. It formed crusted layers of black that had already begun to freeze.
Luca didn't stop there. Another came, he grabbed and tore. Black blood siphoned like a geyser.
The Titan trembled slightly, but by the time it had realised what was going on, half its limbs were littered on the ground.
Its momentum dropped. It began to curve its attacks. Its tentacles whipped like a living serpent. Turning and twisting mid-air as one struck his back.
Luca seethed. 'That hurts!'
His gaze shifted to the spot. At the side, another struck his shoulder.
'It adapted already?! So be it!'
It became a tug of war.
The Titan was rapidly increasing its speed and Luca was quickly tracing after it.
While Ego had begun to bizarrely spread out of him.
The monster screeched. Loud and terrible, when Luca caught two and yanked.
Tearing off the living coils before it went for the main machinery.
This continued for seconds. Seconds stretched into minutes, until finally, the Titan stood still.
Its former glorious sight of reeling appendages was reduced to a heap of black stubble.
Luca's lips curled as he threw the last tentacle to the side. Its fleshy part squelched as it landed on the rising heaps.
He kicked the air as his form became a thin blur.
A streak of gold followed in his wake as he slammed into the back of the Null Bud.
The Beast cried as its mountain-size form slammed into the snowy fields with a loud thud.
The bedrock groaned and then liquified, unable to support the sudden influx of Newtonian force.
Then like a springboard, it recoiled back into its polyp-like stance.
The Null Bud groaned. Its sound caused the very molecules to reverberate as Luca clung to the back of its skin.
He lifted his hand in the air. Motioning Ego to flow within.
It was weird. Ego was not like aura or mana as it was an extremely difficult thing to control.
While it took Egoist weeks to fully understand it, it had taken Luca mere minutes with real-life experience.
Not only did he understand it, but just using it gave him technical knowledge on how it could be used.
So when he willed his energy into a blade, it came as second nature.
The edge stretched into the air, steady—unwavering.
His gaze never left the reverse barnacle.
He drove it down and pushed off, letting gravity follow through as the blade carved a thin, perfect line.
Black blood and gore jetted out in a violent line, as though the creature had been unzipped down its belly.
Luca had landed on the snow, when the contents fell on him.
The creature's body shuddered and its white eyes flickered off and on.
A low, dying cry escaped its lips as its body fell to the ground. A muted hum reverberated with the ground and air, as the wind and snow settled.
Luca pulled his way out of the creature's innards with a loud gasp and fell to his knees.
His stomach churned and his face contorted as he retched. Vomiting whatever content remained in his stomach.
Then he breathed. Slowly.
"Hah… that was brutal."
[TRANCER HAS SUCCESSFULLY CLEARED THE TRANCE WITHIN THE ALLOCATED TIME]
[THE TRANCE HAS ENDED]
[NOW RETURNING HOME]
A wave of relief washed over Luca as he sat up. He cleaned his lips as a wild smile plastered on his face.
"Nice! I don't think I can deal with this cold more than this!"
He had managed to fend off a small army of Null Buds and even the large one with wits and luck.
When he thought of it, he could only thank one of the features.
'100% Null Resistance. I now understand it.'
He nodded in satisfaction.
But why did he have such a high resistance?
Luca had never heard of such a thing occurring in the Federation, and now that he thought about it, he found it odd.
'What's with that, anyway?'
He was nearly lost in thoughts, when suddenly.
[UNABLE TO CONNECT TRANCER TO THE REAL WORLD]
Luca's breath hitched.
[DUE TO THE INTERFERENCE OF THE 21ST GOD, TRANCER LUCAMIR ELARIC IS UNABLE TO RETURN]
Luca's brow arched in confusion.
"WHAT?!"
[TIME LEFT: 39:39]
'Wha– What, that much time is left?!'
[CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING THE FIRST WAVE]
[THE SECOND WAVE SHALL BEGIN]
The snow rumbled and the wind stirred.
A hollow sound shrieked in Luca's ears as he clung it shut.
'Wha– What now?!'
The titan's body trembled under the sudden quake. A storm formed. A tornado of cold currents and snow that consumed it. Whipping it off completely from the face of the Snowy Plains.
Luca could only watch in dismay.
Behind him, a loud rubble occurred.
He jumped to his feet and turned. His head rose slowly as a building began to rise from the snow.
A skeleton image of what he could only recognise as the District 13 General Hospital.
He looked on in confusion, his breath rose and fell as something stirred within his chest.
[THE ABYSS DORMANT RANKED DUNGEON HAS BEEN SPAWNED]
Luca's chest thumped. Blood filled his lungs and neurons sparked in his brain.
'Oh… weird.' He muttered as the building finally stopped rising. A monument now stood in his presence.
Large, pristine and dark. Overshadowed by the yawning wind and snow.
"Don't they call situations like this a trial within a trial?"
There were often times when renowned Egoists talked about their trances. It was a monumental thing to succeed in one, and their experiences became the foundations for many young people like him.
Luca never looked up to them, though.
Having mentors or people you look up to was a dumb notion to him.
He would rather become the best version of himself, than look up to him instead of others.
'After all, people will continue to disappoint you, but when it comes to yourself, you will already see it coming.'
[PROCEED TO THE DUNGEON]
Luca leaned slowly and walked towards the large, skeletal hospital.
His expression was calm, and his gaze sharp. And within all that was a body pumping with dopamine. A surge of excitement that he swallowed.
Fear eluded him, replaced by something entirely– Hunger.