The Abyss

"When one looks long enough into the abyss, the abyss looks back."

In an unknown time and location:

Somewhere in a deep tunnel, there was a huge spider sleeping. Its height was over five meters high and its width was over three meters. This spider had nine hundred grey,red-like eyes and it had many large, golden fangs. Suddenly, the huge spider woke up and roared with excitement.

"New meat... new toys... so much fun awaits us... my children go... go and enjoy the hunt!" As she said this, the big spider fell asleep once more, not bothering herself with anything else.

As if to answer to what the big spider had said, hundreds upon hundreds of large spiders could be seen, roaring with excitement, as they ran out of their tunnel into many other tunnels leading to where their new prey was.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 11 of the Era of Change Era: Era of Change

"What the... What do you mean by saying you're a fool?" asked the boy with silky-grey hair, with a confused expression. He couldn't understand, why would anyone willingly call themselves a fool, while smiling. But when he looked at the person in front of him, he for some reason believed there was actually a person who would willingly do that, while smiling.

"Nothing much, but I don't think we have the time to think about that right now. There's a dangerous creature, not far away from here! We should get everyone out of here before it comes back!" exclaimed Steven as he looked at the boy with silky-grey hair in front of him.

"You're telling me you came to... to save us?" asked the boy with a shocked expression.

"Yeah! But like I said we need to hurry!" answered Steven as he quickly checked up on the other unconscious people. There were five other people lying unconscious on the ground in front of Steven.

One was a little girl that had very beautiful, lush brown hair. Other than that, there were two young women and men. Each person had a unique trait to them, but Steven didn't have the time to admire them at the moment.

"Can you move?" asked Steven towards the boy in front of him.

"Hmm... yeah I should be able to," answered the boy as he slowly stood up. The boy although still sceptical about why this person came to save them, did not perceive Steven as a threat.

"That's good! I'm going to try and wake up these guys. If they can't wake up, we are going to have to find a way to move them away from this location!" worried Steven as he quickly went to wake up the people lying on the floor.

"Wait... I'll wake up the little girl... she's my sister," retorted the boy as he went to his sister and gently tried to wake her up.

"As you wish," said Steven quickly trying to wake up one of the men in the group lying on the floor.

"Hmm...Who are you!" shouted the man that was suddenly woken up by Steven.

"Die!" roared the man as he quickly raised his hand and started to choke Steven.

"Wait! Ugh... I... am... trying to help!" as Steven was trying to explain to the man that he was trying to help, he started to choke as he couldn't breathe properly anymore.

The reason was for one that Steven was still a normal human and the man choking him was a transformed being. That said though, even before the world changed, he would've been able to choke Steven, as Steven wasn't a very strong individual.

"Hmph! Like I care! Die!" shouted the man not seeming to care if Steven wanted to help him or not. Suddenly, the man saw a fist heading to his face, at such a fast speed that he couldn't dodge.

"Boom!!!" the man was blown all the way to the other side of the tunnel by that fist. As the fist retracted, Steven saw that it came from the boy with silky-grey hair.

"Don't get me wrong, this is just me making up the favour for what you did," retorted the boy without looking in Steven's direction, as he saw that his sister was slowly waking up.

"Brother... where are we?" asked Violet as she slowly opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings.

"Don't worry Violet, we will be fine... I promise," comforted the boy gently as he patted his little sisters head.

"Okay!" chirped Violet as she slowly stood up.

"Brother, who is he?" asked Violet staring at Steven curiously.

"Cough! Cough! The name is Steven... nice to meet you," crocked Steven as he slowly regained his breath.

"By the way thanks! I don't know what was up with that guy, but maybe he came back to his senses, after that punch of yours," joked Steven, as he looked at the man that was now very far away from him.

"Hmmm... I don't think so... Steven... if that's what you say your name is," muttered the boy not believing that that man would change. For the boy knew, only naive and stupid people would believe something like that. But he then suddenly realized this person in front of him was exactly such a person.

"Sigh! Why are you such a strange individual?" argued the boy while mumbling, as he couldn't comprehend why a person like Steven existed in a world like this.

"Well it wouldn't hurt to try and help him still. I'll quickly go over to him. If you could please wake up the other three people," said Steven as he prepared himself to run to where the man was.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you... by now it's too late," observed the boy as he stared in the direction of the man.

"What do you mean?" queried Steven, as he suddenly widened his eyes.

Further down the cave where the man was:

"Hmph! That little brat! He will regret this!" sneered the man, while rubbing his face that was now very bruised by the boy's punch.

"Hmm... what the... Oh no... Oh no! No!!!" screamed the man as he saw a huge number of grotesque looking spiders running in his direction. Just as the man wanted to run away though, it was already too late. The spiders jumped and landed right before the man, as they then sank their fangs into his body.

"Ahhhhh…..!!!" as the man shouted in pain, his entire body was surrounded by dozens and dozens of spiders. And before he knew it he was already dead.

Steven was shocked to the core. He had never seen something so disgusting and disturbing before. Luckily he didn't have anything left in his stomach, which prevented him from hurling in total disgust.

Yet it didn't change the fact that Steven felt sick to the core. This was the first time he had seen someone die right in front of him. What made it even worse, was how that man died. It was so horrific, that to even describe it, would make the strongest man shake from fear.

"Why... I..." as Steven was trying to say something he noticed that one of the spiders was staring at him. The spider had black-red eyes. As it stared at Steven, Steven felt like he was looking into a dark abyss of pain and misery.

What happened next though, Steven never would have thought to be possible.

"So it's you..." Steven heard the voice in his head. He didn't know how it was possible, but he knew it definitely came from that spider. In the next moment though, as if to signal that they had finished feasting on the man, all the spiders started to charge in the direction of Steven and the other people around him.

"Oh no! What are we supposed to do?" yelled Steven with a concerned expression, as he was strongly affected and frightened from that spider's voice.

"Maybe I can help?" Suddenly, a voice could be heard from behind Steven. This voice was the same one which had tried to convince Steven previously to run away. It was Xiang and his female companion.