If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back

How did I end up here... at the bottom of the ocean? There is no way it is possible, I'm sure this is some kind of illusion or spell that triggers people to hallucinate. If that is the case then-

Zyun started to pull his cheeks vigorously.

"Wake up...ugh..."Next, he stretches his body up and bends forward. "Ouch..ouch..it has been a while since I have done some exercise..my back is killing me from these sudden stretches." "God damn... so is not working huh.... aren't there any ways to break me from this spell.

Hallucination is some nasty spell that mages often used to temporarily slow down their opponents during combat giving them ample opportunity to either escape from the battlefield or to gain a huge momentum against their foe.

Other than being released by the caster himself there is also another way to break the illusion.

It is by attaining a state of grace, calming our nerves and senses to break the false perception, and by doing that I should be released from this annoying shit in no time and the best way to do that is by practicing meditation!

Yup the same advice I gave to Fanny this evening. To think everything will spiral back is certainly amusing.

But for an illusion spell to last this long I have never experienced or heard it and..... this place is giving me creeps.

Zyun turns his gaze slowly to a 180 degree to confirm if everything around him is actually happening, the sight of a humongous shipwreck pallid on a cliff and its shambling mast drifting against the water, the carvings of hundreds of tombstones against the sea bed, each of them looks like that it is been there for ages hidden away by the depth of the ocean.

Anyway, concentrate, let's break this stupid spell.

Zyun sits down and folds his legs while placing his hands near his navel. Breathe in and breathe...out. Don't think of anything, just relax, keep my mind free, prevent thinking about the event, and concentrate on breathing. breathe in .... breath out.

Almost 3 minutes has been passed since Zyun started meditating.

"It is so quiet...I have never felt so calm before guess. I can feel it is working!" Zyun exclaims excitedly.

Aye then on the next breath out I'm going to open my eyes by then the spell should be undone. Breathe in.... breath out...

As Zyun breathes out slowly through his mouth, alongside he momentarily opens his eyes.

"And finally, the spell is ...still there... "Zyun speaks out in a dejected tone.

To his disappointment, nothing happened. The process of meditation has completely failed him.

"It is no use..." Zyun takes a long sigh. "What the heck happened to me? am I really transported somewhere at the bottom of the sea?" Zyun wonders while feeling very anxious about the situation.

Sulking won't help, I seriously need to find a way to get out of here, placing his hand against the cold soil of seafloor Zyun slowly gets up from the ground and starts walking inside the graveyard.

From the shadow, mysterious dark smoke seeps out, they slowly descend on the ground and follow Zyun from behind while maintaining a short distance between them. After reaching a certain point the smokes swirl upward. They entangle and twist together upwards coalescing to form two silhouette figures.

The two silhouettes' figures have an appearance of a nun, while both of their bodies face each other, their faces tilt towards Zyun and monitor his movement with an ominous gaze.

Unaware of the presence behind him, Zyun continues to explore the graveyard while examining each of the tombstones embedded in the seafloor.

Strange..none of these tombs have names or years on them. I wonder for how long they have been here and for what purpose.

Zyun stops stranding inside the graveyard as he starts questioning his thought.

If this is really not an illusion then what exactly is this place. Zyun stares up at the sea and tries to hear the sound of water thrashing and flowing against the barrier that is preventing them to leak inside the graveyard.

If not for that barrier I will be crushed like a tomato alongside this graveyard from the underwater pressure.

For a barrier to withstand this huge pressure of the sea, it is far too away for me to believe such kind of mage or a creature exists to cast it. But again, this whole place itself is a mystery: a huge shipwreck preserved with all its parts perfectly intact, a graveyard on the seafloor that has no names or whatsoever on the tombs... is there any meaning behind this?

Suddenly a silhouette figure from behind passes through the tombstones. Zyun quickly picks up the presence and turns back to confront it.

What was that? for a moment I thought someone just walked over there." Zyun pulls his attention towards the location he just sensed.

No, it wasn't imagination, I couldn't mistake it, someone is here.

Zyun then hurriedly walks over towards his left side with his heartbeat slowly pacing up from the thrill.

"Just for a slight moment I felt a presence here, where is it" Zyun said.

Zyun dashes through the tombstones as he makes his way to search for that presence while unaware of the haunting figure of a nun that he just passed alongside.

"Whatever it may be, I need to confront it be a ghost or anything, I need to get out from here..where-"

Zyun suddenly hold his movement as his path lay obstructed by a monolithic tombstone. An ancient tombstone but with a detailed description of the person lying underneath. The tombstone end has the curvature of that of a katana hilt.

Zyun slowly approaches the tombstone and admires it.

"312...to 352" Zyun murmurs, while he is busy dusting the grave, the two mysterious nuns reunite and watch it from behind.

"Benshi....maru... year 312-352?... The current year is 785... this year traces back to the feudal age. How come this tombstone has a name on it while the rest don't? And surely this person didn't for long.

Zyun turns around and examines the graveyard if there are any more tombstone beside this that has a name on them. As he continues searching for it, towards the northeast he sees a vague enormous figure standing resting under the dim moonlight. He slowly advances towards it and there he found another gigantic tombstone tilting high up.

"Mother... Dimitri... 400-447..." Zyun reads.

All these years..they all go back to ancient history..and they don't match at all...does that mean the graveyard has been here since the beginning of the time and are these gravestones connected by some means... Ahhh the more I tried to think about it...the more I find myself asking questions about it.

Suddenly two golden lights kindle up slowly at opposite ends of something. Zyun shifts his attention to the front, where he sees a throne adorned with a carving of ancient beasts and letters and lit up by two golden flames from the two gravestones standing at the opposite ends.

"A throne...for who?" Zyun mutters " Texts...? there are some texts written on the throne. Maybe it will give me a good idea more about this haunted place."

Suddenly a hand plunges out from the grave and grasps Zyun by his right leg. Shook by the terror of the grasp Zyun flinches, he looks down and sees a rotten corpse's hand gripping his right leg.

"Oh lord..what the heck..." Zyun gasped upon seeing the sight and shakes his leg violently to break from the grasp.

Zyun tries his best to remain calm then he stretches his hand to summon his weapon.

"Aggraval!" Zyun shouts.

But nothing happened, Zyun looks at his bare hand in disbelief.

"Aggraval... Aggraval...Axoz!.. why the heck can't summon them..is something preventing my power or what.

From the shadow, the two nuns watch everything solemnly.

Seeing the situation starts to become grim, Zyun heartbeats start to palpitate faster, and he starts to paint.

"God damn... let go of me" Zyun struggles hard to pull away from his leg but the grip is much stronger than he expected.

[A wave of faint screech passes on the bottom of the sea]

"What the heck was that" Zyun tilts his head up and looks front at the pitch darkness.

Another wave of screech passes through the graveyard and joins the chorus, but this time the sound starts to get closer to the barrier.

Zyun continuously stares at the pitch darkness in front of him anxiously.

His eyes squeak as he starts to notice a figure moving slowly in the darkness, near the right side of the barrier. The silhouette figure in the water move in a streamline motion and slowly comes into the light.

As the figure gets closer to the moonlight, Zyun looks in fear as he watches a smoldering corpse hand stretching upon him.

Into the light a woman in a bridal appears. She scratches the wall of the barriers and drifts away into the darkness.

Zyun swing his attention at the opposite side of the barrier as he notices another one of the banshees passing by the barrier.

Slowly more of them join in and surrounds the barrier.

As the situation is not dire enough, he notices that the rays of the moonlight start to fade as the banshee up in the water patrols the barrier. In a short moment, most of the rays of moonlight vanishes leaving only a flicker of light in the graveyard.

Zyun looks anxiously everywhere at how dreadful the situation has become. with an ear-shattering screech, a banshee whose face is half devoid of flesh shots towards Zyun with her hand aiming for his head.

Zyun dodges the incoming attack by a hair and watches how the banshee disappears in the shadow.

But Zyun didn't linger long to be terrified from that sudden attack because he starts to hear a rumbling sound at the front.

From the end of the horizon, mud engrossed in coal color invades the graveyard. Zyun watches in grim, as all the gravestones get consumes by the invasion of such savagery.

"Ugh..my leg!" Zyun's heart starts to race rapidly as he feels the tremendous pressure, while struggles badly to break free from the skeletal grasp.

The mud invades the graveyard consuming everything in its sight and in no time is about to reach Zyun.

Zyun then bends down and starts using both of his hands to break from the skeletal grasp.."god...this grip is too strong..."

Suddenly he notices that the mud has finally reached him... he watches in dread as the mud advances near him.

But to his surprise, the mud suddenly stops moving. Zyun for a moment stare in awe.

A withering corpse appears and its hands lash toward Zyun's head. Folding his head tightly the corpse starts pulling down Zyun's body into the mud.

Zyun tries to fight back to hold off but it was hopeless another corpse from the mud emerges out and pulls his chest towards them. then a more and more skeletal hand appears and drags him inside.

As his body slowly submerges inside the mud, Zyun glimpse the sight of the two nuns standing in front of him, he stretches his hand towards them in a desperate attempt to call for him... but it was futile. the corpse drags his hand down, and the nuns watch him silently disappear inside the mud.

"Ha...ha..Ha.."

"Zyun are you alright..can you hear me? Zyun!" Gin asked while he tries to remove the sweat from Zyun's forehead with a handkerchief.

"Puff..ha..ha..ha." Zyun continues to breathe heavily with his eyes stressing hard on the ground.

Abyss stares at Zyun with a scornful look.

"Aight then, time to go home. I don't want to linger here any much longer" saying that Abyss starts walking out.

"But what about the prize-"

"I will bring it tomorrow" Abyss replied with a careless attitude.

As he passes near Zyun, Abyss stops for a moment and gives a vicious look at Zyun.

"Listen carefully kid, if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will also stare you back."