Against the Abyss

Liam's silhouettes throbbed with rage, twisting around his form like a living second skin. Noctis' voice was cold in his head as the behemoth charged ahead, claws outstretched to tear him limb from limb.

"Liam, you need to concentrate. This creature isn't like the others. It isn't about strength—it's about desperation.".

Liam was breathing in ragged gasps, the press of the creature's presence a vice across his chest. He could feel its emptiness, the hunger nibbling at the edges of his mind. Each move, each action a struggle to clear his head, to keep his purpose from being submerged by the void that the creature represented.

The creature's claws whipped through the air, each slash a strike against the fabric of existence. The roar was resonating in Liam's head, leaving him with a buzzing, constricting feeling.

He rolled to the side just in time, but its claws bit deep into his chest, its leather armor ripped and shallow cuts searing like hellfire. Liam gasped, the pain immobilizing him for a second. The creature was unnatural, moving with a speed that its size was not entitled to.

"This thing is quicker than it looks," Liam swore, gritting his teeth as he rose to his feet. "But so am I."

Noctis spoke in him, "You possess the power, but you must outwit it, not overwhelm it."

Liam's fists curled. His shadows churned, black tendrils curling around his arms, his legs, his center, filling him with more life, more attunement to his own power. He could sense his power expanding with every strike he dodged, every step he sidestepped.

"Let this count," he stated, his voice firm among the chaos.

He wasn't going to be a victim.

Liam clenched his fists, and blackness erupted about him, distorting and curving into sharp spines of dark matter. He unleashed them against the monster, every blow striking to the heart of its bestial center. The monster answered with a shriek, but the blackness tore through it, opening rents in its flowing mass.

It didn't die. It didn't even stagger.

Liam snarled. "Not enough!"

The creature flinched and bit again, its jaws open wide, showing rows of venom-coated razor teeth. Liam leapt to the side just in time as the creature snapped at him, the tips of its teeth scraping the hem of his cloak. He couldn't spend all day dodging. He needed to make this stop.

Riven, still close, threw her daggers with precision death, each one into the body of the beast. The beast cried out in rage, but Riven was not finished. She struck her fists upon the hard stone ground, and the shadows around her jumped at her command. The earth cracked open under her, and the ground bore stone spikes into existence that engulfed the beast in a prison of sharp-rock.

Liam took a step back, panting. He could see the monster pulling at the prison, but it wasn't working to hinder its progress. The monster tore through the stone, its anger only intensifying.

"This isn't going to work!" Liam cried out. "We need something stronger."

Noctis' tone was smooth, calculated. "You've been struggling with your darkness. Why don't you struggle with mine?"

Liam blinked, then nodded. He shut his eyes for a moment, and concentrated on the blackness within. The blackness of the Abyss, the one within him all along, was as if stirring.

The blackness enveloped him that closed in all around him swirled and rippled and spread liquid shadow at his feet, the air heavy with it. He was full of Noctis in him, full of the dark itself that invited him, invited him beyond everything he had ever known he might be.

Liam offered his hand, and darkness folded in upon itself, coalescing into one point of dark energy. This was not the shadows that appeared to gather around him; this was the blackness that had been following him for so long, the energy of Noctis himself.

The wind chilled. The ground shook under his feet.

With a strong push, Liam thrust his arm out before him, and the massive, churning mass of darkness launched itself into the beast, driving on through it like a shaft of unyielding night.

The beast screamed.

The shadows engulfed it, driving inward from within, the tendril-like force of darkness ripping through its hide like paper. The roar of the beast gradually faded, its body jerking, then dissolving.

It crashed to the ground with a revolting thud, twitching once before it stopped moving.

Liam stood there, gasping, his shadows drawing back inside him, leaving him somehow hollow. The fight had been won, but the triumph was not as sweet as he had imagined.

He turned and glanced at the masked man.

The man's voice echoed through the air, flat and almost disappointed.

"Good work, Liam. You're stronger than I thought."

Liam's gaze snapped back to the man in the mask. "That's all?"

His tone was icy, bitter. "You bring me here, make me fight this. thing. and now you just stand around?"

The man smiled, but there was no laughter in his voice. "You've won the battle, but the war isn't even begun."

Liam's silver eyes narrowed. "Then tell me what is happening. What do you want from me?"

The figure raised a hand. The shadows that surrounded them shifted, and the muffled sounds of footsteps could be heard in the distance. Others were coming. "You will learn soon enough."

The cathedral doors were flung open, and a few more figures strode in, clad in the same black robes as the masked figure, their eyes glowing like predators.

Liam's shadows sprang up around him reflexively, prepared to battle once more. Riven advanced, daggers at the ready. "I don't believe they're here to negotiate."

The masked man smiled—a chilling, wicked smile. "No. They're here to make the delivery."

"The Abyss is just getting started with you, Liam Vaelthorne."