Trial of the Abyss

Pain.

It was not physical, nor something that could be overcome by sheer will alone. It seeped into Daniel's very core, unraveling his thoughts and memories until he felt as if his soul were being pried open. The sensation was unlike any he had ever experienced—a relentless, internal agony that stripped away layers of certainty until only raw vulnerability remained.

His vision flickered between shards of reality and nightmarish distortions. The abyss was no longer merely an external force lurking in the depths; it had invaded him. It was as though the darkness had begun to unravel the very fabric of his mind, piece by piece, rewriting him from within. His system alerts, usually a comforting presence of predictable data, now flashed erratically. They seemed distant, mere echoes from another realm: