Abandon All Hope

I lunged forward, quickly closing the gap between me and the enigmatic man.

"HA!!"

I descended, throwing a flurry of kicks at him. I was resolute, determined to defeat the man before me and survive.

No, it wasn't just to survive.

It was deeper, a feeling, a memory – fleeting – swelled up within me.

I didn't just want to defeat Galter Droet. I wanted to dominate him, I wanted to prove that I was stronger, smarter...BETTER!

I wanted to prove that I was better!

I AM-

BAM!!

Before I could even finish my thought, a fist crashed into my ribs with tremendous force.

A force so powerful that it rattled my entire body and the space around me, sending me flying at breakneck speed.

URK!!

I spewed out blood as my body crashed into the ground of negative space. I clenched my chest and convulsed violently.

AH...ARGH!!

What the hell?!

What kind of power was...

"Vacuum.", Galter's words reached my ears.

I turned my pained gaze to meet the source, glaring daggers at the white figure who was a few meters away from me.

He continued, "That punch travelled through a vacuum."

"You see by manipulating the World Energy pressure exerted by my Aperture, I can effectively compress the space around me, allowing me to create negative distance."

TSS...

"You talk too much.", I muttered, before lunging again.

Galter sighed, dodging a sweeping kick from me before stopping my following punch.

BAM.

My fist connected with his palm, but I didn't stop, I swung my other arm forward, aiming to strike his head.

But...

I had forgotten that I had no right arm.

Shi-

Galter's fingers pressed down on my fist, locking it in place and with a swift move, he bashed me across the face.

A single bloodied tooth fell from my mouth.

Then Galter's hand lunged forward and gripped my throat, tightening around it before raising me up.

"A-ah!"

I struggled to breathe but Galter's hand didn't let up. He squeezed his fingers taut, making me choke.

"You're not the only one you know.", Galter spoke.

I glared at him, as my left hand clawed at his hand, "What?"

"You're not the only who I lured into the Abyss. There were many others."

"Huh?"

"You see beyond the World and the Underworld, there exists other realms. Realms belonging to gods and deities but there's one...", he gripped my neck tighter.

"There's one strange world that I have become aware of...a world I termed the Overworld."

"An elusive realm which I believe culls a group of humans to the World."

"Wh-what?"

"I believe that's where you came from...", he paused, gauging my reaction, "...and also where the several other youths I had selected to descend came from as well."

I frowned, "Other youths?"

"Yes. Other humans like you who had picked up a tool I left behind. A tool that bound their fates to the Abyss thus, making their descent inevitable."

"What?"

A shadow of a smirk crossed Galter's face as he leaned closer, his hand still gripping my throat,

"Do you realize what that means Alex?", he spoke, his voice cold.

I shuddered.

"It means that since the moment you picked up Silver Lining, you were stripped of free will. All your actions and choices, no matter how odd they seemed where all tied to your inevitable fate to descend into the Abyss."

"You were always meant to descend. You never had a choice not to."

"Silver Lining which you presumed to be your ray of hope was actually a chain that tethered you to the Abyss. It stripped away the freedom you so highly valued, so quietly, you hadn't even noticed."

Galter let out a low, insidious laugh as he watched my face pale. He let go of my neck, letting me crumple down to my knees.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"Oh Alex, how does it feel? Realizing that you had been dancing in my palm from the very start?"

"That the freedom you chased after so desperately was already long gone."

He let out a loud, wicked laugh as he watched my miserable form which was kneeling on the ground with his head hung low and a dark expression etched to his face.

"This is the hideous truth, Alex.", he said, stretching his hands sideways, "The one, the Elders had warned you against. This is it."

"Hope is a lie."

He said in a tone of finality. A tone devoid of mockery and manipulation. A tone said by one who was speaking a fact.

Then in a soft, gentle tone, he spoke, "Abandon all hope, Alex. Free yourself from it. You've suffered enough to its cruel grasp."

He paused, bringing a hand to his chest while stretching one towards me,

"Find peace within me. Within the mercy of I, Kairoth."

I remained still and silent, unmoving.

Galter sighed, "The Abyss is a cruel and dark place. It is a world that takes, not a world that gives. The Elders are not rulers, they're merely victims. Slaves to the harrowing nature of this place."

"So, tell me Alex even if you refuse me? What would you do then? Where would you go? Your mind is fractured and your body is broken. This place, the Void of Imperceptibility is empty, there's no life here. No method of sustenance. No food nor water. Without those amenities, your body will rot and die."

He turned back to me, "Be logical, Alex. Think before you make a choice. Do you want to stagnate here and die? Or would you rather surrender your body to me, and end your suffering?"

A shroud of silence fell over the abyss.

I remained kneeling, head bowed, shadows casting over my eyes. My breathing was uneven, shallow.

My mind was swirling, spiraling while my body was aching with silent pain.

The weight of Galter's words pressed unto me like a heavenly burden, the many revelations threatening to overwhelm me.

My eyes remained bleak just as my inevitable future.

To think that it was all meaningless. That every battle, every struggle, every pain, every anguish, every defiance against death – everything that I had went through...to think that it was all one big script written by a crazed perfectionist.

It felt like a joke.

For some reason, I found it funny. I found it amusing.

And because of that...

I laughed.

At first, it was a low dry chuckle but soon, it devolved into a grating sound of crazed laughter. One that echoed across the expanse of the Void of Imperceptibility.

Galter stared at me with a raised eyebrow, confused. His gaze seemed to ask, 'Has he lost it?'

SHIFF.

Still laughing, I rose to my feet, pushing myself despite my trembling body.

"Ah...Galter...I just realized something just now..."

He titled his head, "What?"

A wide grin split my face as I remarked,

"I am really... the biggest fool."

I stared upwards, at the endless Abyss.

My grinning face was tainted with a hint of melancholy before I turned back to him.

"But you, Galter, are an even bigger fool."

Galter was surprised, but not offended, he asked, "How so?"

I smiled, "Because you underestimated the depth of human malice. The depth of human hate."

Galter simply stared at me, silent.

My gaze wandered over his radiant body which was littered with layers of black imprints.

Imprints that I could comprehend.

"Galter...your True Name is Kairoth, right?"

"Yes?"

"I see...good."

With that, I took a step forward, my feet trembling as I moved.

And then, I leaned towards the puzzled wraith of Galter Droet and with the hatred of over a thousand humans and an immense whirlpool of the World Energy,

I spoke,

"Kairoth...Cease."

The instant those words left my mouth, the entire expanse of the Void of Imperceptibility shuddered.

Galter Droet's eyes widened, the black imprints around his body splintered and then scattered into countless lightless sparks leaving behind only the white silhouette of his body.

Galter took a shaken step back, as if failing to comprehend what had just happened.

While my throat ruptured and even deeper, a silent agony arrested my essence; my soul.

Humans were not supposed to invoke such words, especially an invocation which had bound the essence of a century old wraith.

Since the moment, Galter revealed his true form, I had been trying to grasp the meanings of the runes engraved on his body. Trying to understand not what they said but what they meant.

From Galter's words and Wyrtweard's definition, it could be inferred that True Names were powerful not because of the words spoken but because of the intent behind them.

By understanding the meanings of the runic text etched on Galter, I could better grasp the target of my intent and by relying on not just my own but on the thousands of others in my mind, I could make my will tangible.

In the end, it didn't matter whatever I had said, all that mattered was what I meant.

What I intended.

And I intended to break the seals on Galter's essence, the seals that kept him from vanishing into nothing.

He was already dead, just refusing to depart.

So, I showed him out the door.

I made him cease.

HA...HA...

I swayed before dropping to a knee, the familiar agony of soul weakness washing over me.

A few feet away, Galter buckled, his radiant body crumbling. He raised his head, and stared at me with his featureless gaze.

I met his gaze with a condescending one, a wide smirk spread across my pained face.

A long silence went on before he chuckled,

"Hahaha...so once again, you managed to succeed my expectations...truly marvelous...hahaha..."

Then he's tone turned wistful, "So this is death, huh...it seems calm...peaceful.... perfect even. A fitting end for me."

"Ah...but I do wish though...", he paused, his essence breaking apart as he finally said,

"I do wish I could see Marta one last time..."

Those were his last words before the wraith of Galter Droet, the enigma who had orchestrated the entirety of Alex's lonesome journey, the one who had bestowed him with Silver Lining, vanished into sparks.

The countless sparks scattered into the void before vanishing leaving Alex alone in the imperceptible space.

Then the system's voice which had been silent throughout his whole encounter spoke,

[You have felled Level 50. Kairoth, the Lost Seeker.]