Abyssal Echoes

1. The City of DecayIn the deep rift of the Abyssal Corridor, the darkness was as thick and viscous as tar, with the wings of the flying steed scorched by corrosive burns. Alice drew her ice blade and embedded it into the rock wall, the cold glow barely lighting their path—massive fungal trees erupted from the ground, their canopies dripping with glowing spores, resembling an inverted starry sea. The roots were entangled with the remnants of buildings: Gothic spires, steampunk pipes, and nests made of biological slime, as though the corpses of various civilizations were haphazardly stitched together.

"Welcome to the Abyssal Corridor," Ash said, his giant sword igniting with fire. "Here, time is fractured, space is maddened, and the only safety rule is..."

A sharp screech interrupted him.

The fungal trees spasmed, and the spores rained down on them in a violent downpour. Kane quickly slashed his hand with a shard of clay, blood spraying into the air, forming a silver shield. The spores hit the shield and exploded into fluorescent green corrosive liquid.

"Get inside the building!" Alice shouted, freezing the approaching fungal tendrils. They rushed through the nearest stone archway and found themselves in a decaying opera house: velvet seats overrun with flesh tumors, stage curtains woven from sinew, and the orchestra pit filled with dried corpses of musicians, their finger bones still resting on moldy instruments.

Ash set fire to the audience seats, startling parasitic bats hanging from the ceiling. These creatures had human faces, but their throats were split into suction cups. "The Abyss is getting more creative," he said with a grim smile, slashing down one bat that attacked him. Its body melted into acidic liquid.

Suddenly, Kane grabbed his aching head. The leftover spores from his clay shield began seeping into his skin, triggering a flood of hallucinations—he saw Leah nailed to an operating table with silver tubes inserted into her spine, Alice's father, the High Inquisitor, piercing Ash's chest with a wooden sword, and then, the blood-tears of Mobius, crystallizing into a single phrase:

"All godslayers are born from betrayal."

"The walls are moving!" Alice's shout snapped him back to reality. The opera house walls began oozing black liquid, which quickly solidified into mirrors. However, their reflections were not their own—Kane's reflection held a full clay knife, Alice's mirrored self wore a Church crown, and Ash's reflection was dressed as a Temple Knight.

Ash suddenly roared in anger, swinging his giant sword and shattering the nearest mirror. "Disgusting tricks!"

But more mirrors began to grow from the liquid splatters.

2. The Echo TrialA faint singing voice echoed from the mirrors. Kane's mirrored self stabbed at him with the clay knife, cutting through his sleeve. "These mirrors reflect possibilities," Alice said, freezing the advancing mirror image. "If we die here, a version of us from a parallel world will take our place!"

Ash shattered another mirror, but his knightly reflection leaped out from the shards, its platinum armor flawless. "Still hate your past self?" the knight said, its swordplay as graceful as a dance, forcing Ash to retreat. "Admit it, you betrayed the Church because you were jealous of me..."

"Shut up!" Ash's giant sword melted the knight's body in half, but the fragments immediately reassembled.

Kane's mirrored self attacked from behind, the clay knife thrusting toward his back. In a split second, Alice threw her ice blade, deflecting the knife. Kane seized the opportunity to stab the clay shard into the mirrored chest. But the reflection smiled eerily. "You don't dare kill me because we are both vessels..."

As the clay shard pierced the heart, Kane felt a sharp pain explode in his chest. The reflection melted into silver liquid, flowing into his body. Golden patterns spread across his hand, forming chain-like patterns along his forearm.

"Don't attack the reflections directly!" Alice pulled him away. "The Abyssal Corridor will retaliate!"

The singing grew sharp. All the mirrors fused into a giant one, showing the trio's deepest fears:

Kane saw Leah's pupils turn into an abyss, and a dagger pierced his own throat;

Alice saw her father drive the Rose Crest sword into her forehead;

Ash saw himself kneeling before the Church altar, setting fire to the pyre.

"Face your fear, or become fear," a voice echoed in the opera house.

Alice suddenly walked toward the giant mirror, allowing the mirrored dagger to stab into her shoulder. As blood dripped, the fear-vision dissipated like bubbles. "Just an illusion," she trembled and laughed coldly, but then turned the ice blade toward the real Kane. "But some realities are worse than illusions... like how you're becoming a monster."

Kane's right arm was now completely covered in golden markings, and his nails had turned sharp like claws.

3. Corruption and RedemptionFungal tendrils erupted from the cracks in the floor, wrapping around Kane's mutated arm. Ash slashed through them, but the backlash caused his hands to crack. "His godslayer blood is resonating with the Abyss!"

More fungal beasts emerged from behind the curtains. Alice fought while retreating, her ice blade slowly turning into a filthy green. "We need to find the Echo Core!" she yelled, cleaving through a fungal beast, the slime splattering on her face, leaving red burns. "Otherwise, we'll be assimilated into the Abyss!"

Kane struggled through the intense pain. The golden markings slithered toward his heart, while Leah's cries and Mobius's whispers echoed in his ears. In the chaos, he grabbed a shard of clay and stabbed it into his right arm. Silver blood sprayed onto the fungal tendrils, causing them to wither instantly, revealing bronze pipes beneath the floor.

"Down below!" He knocked open a vent grill. The trio fell into the pipe, and the beasts shrieked but didn't dare follow.

The pipe led to a round laboratory, with incubation pods arranged like a beehive, floating with children resembling Leah. Ash touched the control panel, and a holographic screen lit up: [Godslayer Cultivation Program - Iteration 71, Survival Rate: 0.03%]

"The Church conducted experiments here," Alice traced the Holy City emblem on the pod. "They accelerated the cultivation using the time distortion of the Abyssal Corridor..."

Kane stumbled to the central control panel. The screen suddenly activated, showing the figure of the High Inquisitor: "Alice, I taught you, curiosity killed the cat."

The holographic figure raised its hand, and the laboratory gates slammed shut.

4. The Truth of BloodlinesThe exhaust fan released green gas. Ash's giant sword cleaved through the gates in vain, and he turned to shout, "Your father is a bastard!"

But Alice stared at the screen in a daze. Behind the High Inquisitor's image, a flash of a golden-haired woman locked inside a pod appeared, a Rose Crest sword sticking out of her chest.

"Mother..." Alice's pupils trembled. "She didn't die of illness seven years ago... she was..."

"...Turned into the first-generation godslayer," the High Inquisitor's cold voice continued. "Your bloodline is the perfect catalyst, Alice. Now, complete your mission."

The lab shook, and all the incubation pods opened. The children's eyes were devoid of pupils, replaced by abyssal whirlpools. They floated toward them, their mouths speaking Leah's voice: "Brother, why did you abandon me?"

Kane's right arm had fully mutated into claws but froze when it touched the black-haired girl—she had the same golden markings on her hand.

"Leah's clone..." He roared, shredding the approaching tendrils. Silver and black blood splashed across the screen. The High Inquisitor's image wavered, revealing the true scene behind it: Leah's pod was falling into a furnace.

Alice suddenly thrust the ice blade into the control panel. "Father, did you forget the backdoor in the Church's system?" She bit her finger and wrote a blood seal on the keyboard. "With the blood of the Saint Roland family, terminate the agreement!"

The gas valves exploded, and green gas began to backflow. Ash seized the opportunity to cleave through the ceiling: "Let's go!"

Kane scooped up the unconscious black-haired clone and jumped into the pipe. The distant voice of the High Inquisitor echoed: "Alice, in the end, you're just like her—betrayed me."

The explosion consumed the laboratory.

5. The Fading EchoesThe trio emerged from a sewage vent and collapsed at the edge of the fungal forest. The black-haired girl in Kane's arms turned to silver sand, leaving behind a four-leaf clover earring—identical to Leah's.

"They were weapons created by the Church using your sister's genes," Ash wiped the slime from his sword. "But this one seems to have retained some humanity."

Alice silently bandaged her wounds. Her ice blade was broken in half, with blood crystals formed at the fracture. "Why save that child?" she suddenly asked Kane. "She could mutate into a monster at any moment."

Kane clutched the earring tightly, the golden markings receding from his hand. "Because someone told me...