The exalted one

Just after chanting Alric's name and a rough kick from Melissa; Alric found the little courage he had to wander off into the distance where that loud cry came from; well, of course, Melissa, Albert and the rest of the crew were just behind him, watching over Alric.

He tried to ignore the fact that the rest of the crew, except Melissa and Albert, were just as weak as Alric and were not even users.

At maximum, they all could have taken on a single small titan and barely would be able to win and suffer a few casualties at that, too.

Then again, he had barely known any pirate crews with users in them; at best, he had heard about a new user growing as a pirate. And it was only him with his mundane crew; users were indeed rare.

He had placed all his trust in Melissa's and Albert's Abilities if he were not to prevail.

Finally seeing a short tree, he claimed it to see the view, even so it had taken him ten whole minutes just to climb that tree, it was just that big, but nothing compared to the wast trees scattered through the entire forest.

And then he looked around from the tree.

Soon, Alric finally laid his eyes upon the culprit of the loud cry from a fair distance, sitting on top of a tree branch, a dwarf tree that is; he was in no way capable of climbing those gigantic trees.

The creature seemed to have resembled a bird, an ancient animal that used to fly around in the sky; he had read about them in a novel. They all seemed to have gone extinct long, long before he was born... so he didn't really care about them. But if he had one regret, that would have been not learning about the anatomy of birds; the knowledge of the anatomy of an enemy was a great help in a fight; he would have known all the bird's vitals if he knew its anatomy.

But this bird? Creature? was in no way the same size as the ancient birds that roam the continents.

It was much bigger, but nothing compared to an adult titan; it was, at maximum, the size of a big house, and it had dark obsidian-like skin.

The place smelled weird to Alric... but he couldn't really get what exactly smelled strange... ah! Yes, the titan was wet, covered in some strange fluid, head to toe... or should he say head to claw?

But on a deeper observation, Alric could see more than just that, he could see that it had barely any fur... 'how so' he thought, well it was actually obvious, it was wet and it had barely any fur, just Like that, the realisation hit Alric like a rock... "that titan had just been born I guess" he muttered to himself and after five more minutes of deep thinking he asked himself "why is he crawling when he was supposed to be just born!?" He really couldn't get the logic behind those titans. Or maybe he was just a fool to bring logic into this.

But deep down, he was ashamed of himself for targeting a child that had just been born... "No, no, no! What are you thinking, Alric? You will get yourself killed like that you fool! It's still a titan even though it just came into this world!" He stopped himself from making a great mistake, and that mistake was underestimating his opponents, even an ant could make an elephant's life a living hell if it could get into its trunk... not that Alric knew of what an ant was... he knew what an elephant was through, he had read about them once.

He slowly waited and observed the titan carefully; it seemed to have been crawling its way to somewhere... not that Alric gave a shit about where it was going. He was just waiting for it to crawl adead so it would be just beneath him... beneath the dwarf yet still a big tree.

And then, finally, his wait was over; it was now positioned right below him.

Alric took a deep breath... he was ready to kill.

Gripping the black obsidian dagger with both of his hands he jumped off the branch of the dwarf tree.

Using all of his body weight he tried increasing the impact of his strike and soon with all of his momentum and his strength, his dagger dug deep into the titan's skull The titan Let out a horrifying scream that almost Busted Alric's eardrums and it started shaking its body violently trying to get Alric off its body, it was a great thing that it did not have hands, it just had wings... struggling from the loud screams and the relentless shaking alric was terrified "fuck... Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Alric let out a series of loud curses, 'This attack was supposed to be the end of this fucker; why the fuck is this fucking thing still fucking alive!' He thought inwardly wanting an answer, but he already knew the answer 'the fucking dagger is not fucking long enough!' He answered his own question.

The dagger could not peace in its brain or even if it did so, it would have still not been long enough to rupture the vitals of its brain.

Alric had fucked up... he had fucked up in the best way he could have fucked up "I'm fucked" he knew what the little bastard was doing... it was screaming, and letting out a desperate call for help, and before that help could arrive, it had to have been dead by alrics hands.

He was fucking stupid, he had gotten a new long knife from Melissa, but he still chose to use a smaller dagger; if only he would have used The fucking long knife instead of that dame dagger.

"Well, no worries, I can still do it" he still had the upper hand in this; he was on top of that thing.

He then took out the long knife that was in the folds of his dark robes as fast as he could do it, then he just yanked the dagger right out of the titan's skull and the titan shook even more violently than before, letting out an even more terrifying scream.

Alric almost lost his balance because of that, but soon enough, he regained a little of his lost balance and, gripping the long dark emerald knife tightly, he shoved it right into where the dagger had made a hole in the titan's skull.

The long dark emerald knife sunk deep into the new born titans brain... right through it's olfactory lobe to right into its optic chiasalma.

Yes, it was just a newborn titan, but it was still a big threat to the entirety of the rase humanity, if not now, then in a few hundred years for sure, when it grows up.

And just when the titan slowly stopped shaking violently, the beautiful and peaceful voice of the Relic sounded in his head.

[You have slayed a titan +1 access point]

He felt prideful... and a little sad, too, but his pride overshadowed his sadness; after all, he was one Access point closer to fulfilling his dream of getting as strong as Melissa and Albert.

But it seemed that all his luck ran out in this battle, because something was about to happen, something bad.

While Alric was pondering happily over the matter that he had just killed a titan for anhe first time, even though it was just a child... something came from the sky... something big, and it swallowed him a whole...

Melissa and Albert, who were watching from a distance, widened their eyes in horror, they ran towards that gigantic bird... but it was too late, they were too far away.

Taking a final glance at its dead child... the mother's eyes teared up, and she let out a rageful roar; she had come to its rescue when it shouted for help... but it was too late Alric had already killed her poor child.

She spread her gigantic obsidian-like wings in the air and flapped them as fast as she could... she couldn't bear to see her child's lifeless body, a single tear fell from her eyes falling down onto the dry and dead grass then she lept through the air and took flight she flew and flew but her tears regularly fall from her dark eyes, not stopping at all.

But Alric did not give a fuck about anything... he was still alive, although inside the stomach of the mother whose child he had just killed.

He was covered in strange fluids but maybe he still had a bit of luck, he was alive and the best thing, he had not lost any limbs, just because he was practically the size of an ant in front of that thing, the shire size difference had saved him... he was swallowed a whole and did not loss any of his limbs nor did he suffer any injuries except for brushing against the titan's enormous beak while he was getting eaten alive.

He was now slowly travelling down her food pipe, and he knew it... he could not afford to go in her stomach, who knew what kinds of acids would be in there.

"FUCK THAT FUCKING FUCKER FOR FUCKING CALLING ITS FUCKING WHORE MOTHER TO FUCKING FUCK WITH FUCKING ME!!!" finally finding a little air for him to breathe, he chose to waste it all on cursing the thing he had just killed a few minutes ago.

And he did not regret it one bit... he was not going to die like this; he just simply couldn't die like this; he simply couldn't allow himself to die like this.

Die from the hands of the mother whose child he had just killed; if he had to do so, he would kill the mother too; he would even kill whoever that whore got fucked from to make that fucker, all just to survive.

He will prevail, no, he had to prevail, he had to win or nothing, all he could think about was to win.

"Fuck that fuckers entire bloodline" Cursing again, he gripped the hilt of his long knife tightly and shoved it into the titan's food pipe.

The sharp dark emerald blade went right through the surprisingly thin food pipe.

As Alric was travelling downwards, the blade slided down with him cutting a large hole in her food pipe, he had hoped to slice her arteries but all of his luck had run out, maybe for real this time, he was now by himself, he had to win by himself, And he would do just that.

The mother let out a loud, painful cry as Alric sliced through her food pipe, her wings flapping even faster as he did so.

"Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, I'm getting closer to the stomach" If he was correct, it would take around 20 hours for that whore to digest him... that was not the problem; in there, he would have no air to breathe from.

He could have used his ability to move somewhere else, but that whores body was just so big that he would still end up inside her even if he used the maximum range he could move to.

"Fuck" Alric took a deep and last breath he could take right now, and he went straight into her stomach.

His skin was starting to burn from the fluids in her stomach and he closed his eyes shut, not even letting a drop of her acids come into his eyes, ignoring the agonizing pain alric swam right to the end of its stomach and all that took him one minute... it was a surprising fleet taking in just the sire size of her body.

Taking his long knife, he shoved it into her flesh, slicing it, and her fluids started to leak into ,her flesh, burning it as well, but he was running out of oxygen faster than he could attack; each strike took high amounts of oxygen from him.

Slowly but surely... he almost ran out of oxygen, an,d also the only thing that was keeping him alive.

All of his strength was gone... he was about to die, die from getting eaten by this whore... he then slowly started to sink deeper into her stomachs fluids, drifting and drifting, his life was about to come to an end...

But suddenly... something brushed against his hand, which was showing signs of turning blue in colour, something hard. Yes! It was definitely hard, not soft, but hard.

He was in his final moments... so he just had to see what it was that was brushing against him in the last moments of his life and finally finding most of his remaining strength.

He gripped the hard, rock-like thing... Alric opened his eyes.

It was surprising that he could even do so.

It was a bright blue rock, and it was as big as him, wasting a little strength; Alric smirked; he wanted to laugh, but he was under... fluids. So he suppressed his laughter.

His eyeballs burned, but he did not care about it; all he cared about was the rock in front of him.

Ah!... how the tables have turned... it was the core of the titan... one of the most vital parts of them, and today was the day Alric had seen it in front of his eyes.

He gripped the core tighter and tightened his lost grip over his long, dark emerald knife.

And using all of his last strength... he shoved the knife into her core.

Nothing happened at the start, but soon... small cracks started to appear on the beautiful light blue core, and then those small creaks turned into bigger ones.

Alric wanted to smirk again, but he was out of all his strength, all he could do was watch... he couldn't even lift a finger in the state he was in right now.

The bigger creaks turned even larger.

And then finally... the beautiful core shattered.

The mother of the titan, no, the titan herself... Busted into small chunks of meat.

The sky seemed like a messy gore seen... blood and chunks of muscles flaying around.

And there he was... the culprit of this bloody scene, that looked like a firework in the sky, but instead of beautiful light, there was blood and flesh.

Not that Alric knew anything about fireworks.

He was there, right in the middle of the goresum explosion.

The first thing Alric did was take a series of deep breaths, and when he finally had enough air, he did not bother to look down; he was high up in the sky. He relaxed his body, falling down in the air. But then...

[You have slayed a titan +5 access points]

"Plus five?" He started laughing while falling through the air "Was I that weak compared to it?" He laughed and laughed.

He did not know why... but he was offly in the mood for some poetry right about this moment...

"Ahhh..." He let out a exaggerated sigh, he did not know how long was his life now... but this was sure... as soon as he hit the ground, he would be no more, he did not know how long he wouldl keep falling but if he was going to die... why not do it in a fashionable way?

He had no regrets... he had killed that fucking whore. And there was not anything more to do now.

He was feeling offly peaceful... right before he was about to die...

He exaggerated another of his sigh

"Pardon me" alric took in a deep breath.

"but I must confess" he then slowly exhaled.

"anger within me hath found no place, nor grievance doth I bare..."

He let's out an exaggerated sigh and closes his eyes but not completely.

"Ahh... the world feels..."

Alric gulps slowly.

"The world feels so wondrous and full of light"

He gets quite, and takes another deep breath, not saying anything for a while but he then soon broke that silence.

"In all the heavens above and the realms below"

"I alone... am the exalted one"

As soon as he Finnished the last word, his back hit a branch of one of the gigantic trees... then another.

And another

And another

And soon... he hit the ground.

He felt pain... then he felt nothing.

His vision blurred and soon there was nothing more... just the sound of leafs rustling in the gentle wind.

The darkness surrounded him, embracing him.

He wanted to say good bye to this word... to call it beautiful one last time... but what could he have done? If he could have made a sound... he was sure it would have been him saying 'ah... what a brilliant view' and then processing to let out a soft laugh.

He was slowly losing his conciseness.

It was surprising that he did not burst into chuck's of meat.

How disrespectful would it have had been if so... dieing like the same thing you had just killed...

But he hath no anger... nor did he had much time.

Letting out all of his remaining breathe... he slowly lost consciousness... everything around him turning black... and dark, he felt at home here, like he was ment to be here.

It was so peaceful, so magnificent, so preposterous... brilliant, the darkness surround him, embracing him.

He felt warm, he felt good, he felt magnificent, he felt better then he could ever had been... he felt death.

Who knew? That death would have been so peaceful and so warm.

He felt like a child in his mother's arms... he had never felt this good ever in the 16 years of life he had lived.

This was the best feeling he had ever gotten.

He did not feel his body here... and he had no mouth to speak with, he had no eyes to see with, he had no brain to think with, he had no ears to hear with... all he could feel was darkness... the same darkness that he borrowed his powers from... the same darkness that scared him as a kid... the same darkness that he saw when he closed his eyes... the same... that he had in his heart.

He had already lost his conciseness, and he could not feel his physical body in any way... he could not command it to stand up to move its hand to make a voice, he couldn't even feel his physical body... all was nothing and nothing was all... and all was darkness and the darkness was nothing.

A beautiful yet strange voice sounded in his head... not that he had any head to speak of right now.

[You, the user of the eternal and all loving Abyss... you have been embraced by it... the user of the Relic of the Abyss... the relic of nothingness... you... the Abyss]

It was the relics voice... it sounded so peaceful. But it's tone... it seemed that the relic was... Angry? Flustered? Sadness? Like this was not supposed to go like this? And then soon, in an even more angery tone, it spoke again.

[You... have died]