Chapter 23 - The Abyss Between Life and Death(EDITED)
Darkness.
It wrapped around Maximus like an endless tide, swallowing him whole. His body felt weightless, his mind adrift. The last thing he remembered was the battlefield—monsters, blood, the desperate struggle to survive.
And then… nothing.
He was sinking, deeper and deeper, as though pulled by invisible hands. A sluggish, suffocating void pressed against him, draining everything away—his pain, his exhaustion, even his sense of self.
Was this death?
A fleeting thought, barely formed, before even that dissolved into the abyss.
---
Then—light.
No, not light. Consciousness.
His eyes opened, but there was no ground beneath him. No sky above. Just an infinite expanse of black, stretching beyond the limits of his perception.
Cold. Silent. Empty.
And yet, something stirred within that void. A presence. A storm of shifting, chaotic energy churned in the distance—an ever-consuming force, neither alive nor dead.
Maximus inhaled sharply. Or at least, he thought he did. His body… it wasn't real. He felt no heartbeat, no breath, only the vague sensation of existing.
A frown creased his brow.
"Is this the afterlife?"
His voice barely made a sound in the oppressive silence.
He turned his gaze outward.
Then, he saw them.
Corpses.
Suspended in the abyss, floating like forgotten relics of an ancient war.
Some were humanoid—twisted, broken. Others defied logic, monstrous in ways that words could never describe. One had a body of living metal, its plated armor fused with rotting flesh. Another resembled a titan, its massive skull alone large enough to dwarf mountains.
Maximus moved forward cautiously, weaving between the bodies. Their stillness belied an overwhelming presence—a lingering aura of power so immense it sent a shiver down his spine. Even in death, these beings radiated something terrifying.
His hand reached out, brushing against a corpse.
Nothing happened.
"As expected… I can't copy them," he muttered. No mana. No body. Just his soul, drifting in this endless graveyard.
Maximus licked his lips.
If I could copy these… I'd become a god.
But he immediately shook the thought away.
No… I'm dead. There's no point in thinking about that.
He sighed and continued walking.
At some point, he noticed the swirling chaos in the distance—a massive storm of pure brown energy. It churned violently, its very presence screaming danger.
His instincts flared.
An overwhelming, primal fear gripped him.
His very soul screamed.
If I touch that… I'll cease to exist.
Maximus stepped back instantly, his body trembling. His golden eyes flickered with something he rarely felt—pure terror.
That thing… It's beyond me.
For the first time in his life, he didn't dare approach something. Instead, he carefully moved away, avoiding the chaotic storm entirely.
He walked and walked, unsure of how much time had passed. Strangely, he never felt tired.
Damn it.
He clenched his fist. Without his abilities, without a way to fight, what was he supposed to do?
The silence pressed down on him, heavy, suffocating.
So he walked.
With no direction, no purpose, he walked.
Through an ocean of the dead, past the remnants of creatures that had once been gods or devils, beings beyond his comprehension. Some had the remains of weapons lodged in their chests—jagged spears, shattered swords, broken relics of forgotten battles. Others bore scars so deep they seemed to cut through time itself.
One corpse in particular caught his eye.
It was… small.
A child? No. Something else. Its body was purple—pure, unnatural purple. It had no face, only a jagged mouth, frozen in an expression he couldn't decipher.
Maximus knelt beside it, reaching out—
His fingers passed right through.
As if it wasn't real.
He stared, his mind churning. Something that exists and doesn't exist at the same time?
A flicker of unease crawled down his spine. He exhaled slowly, shaking his head.
"Forget it. Keep moving."
More bodies. More horrors. He tried not to look too closely.
One creature had a car-like exoskeleton, its limbs twisted into unnatural shapes. Another had writhing tendrils where a face should be.
And then—
A humanoid figure, its mouth replaced with a grotesque, phallic mass of flesh.
Maximus' eye twitched.
"Yeah. I've seen enough."
He quickened his pace.
Time became meaningless. Minutes, hours, days—he had no way of knowing how long he had been walking.
Then, finally—
A light.
Distant. Pure. A single speck of white in the endless void.
Something inside him stirred. Instinct.
That light… I need to reach it.
He moved.
First, a walk. Then a jog. Then a full sprint.
The void remained silent, but his heartbeat pounded in his ears.
Yet—
No matter how fast he ran, the light never drew closer.
He gritted his teeth.
"Damn it—!"
Still, he refused to stop.
Seconds blurred into minutes. Minutes stretched into eternity.
Then—
A voice.
It wasn't sound. It was deeper than that, reverberating through his very soul.
A woman's voice. Mature. Gentle.
"Child, you're too slow. Let me help you this time… but remember—this is the only thing I can do for you."
Maximus froze.
"Your enemy is all. Do not trust anyone—not even the system. You are an anomaly. Your talent is an anomaly. And your bloodline—born from us—makes you even more so."
His breath caught in his throat.
"Stay alive."
The words burned into him. Not just in his mind—but in the very fabric of his being. Even if he wanted to forget them, he knew he never could.
Then—
A foreign energy engulfed him.
Not mana. Not anything he had ever known.
It swirled around him—a violent brown storm, tinged with a sliver of white.
Then—
He moved.
No, he was launched.
Faster than light. Faster than thought.
The endless abyss blurred. The corpses, the darkness, the swirling chaos—all vanished in an instant.
The light consumed everything.
Then—
Silence.
A space devoid of time. Of matter. Of existence itself.
And there—
A figure.
Vast. Pure white.
So immense it defied perception, stretching beyond infinity itself.
Then, the voice spoke again.
"Good luck, child."
Maximus' vision blurred.
He was falling.
Falling.
Falling.
---
Gasp!
His body jerked violently.
His eyes snapped open.
His lungs burned as he sucked in air, gasping like a drowning man who had just reached the surface.
His surroundings… familiar. The scent of blood. The cold air. His body.
Real.
He was back.
His heart pounded against his ribs. His fingers trembled as he clenched them into a fist.
I survived.
A slow grin stretched across his lips.
"I'm back."