Abyssal Awakening

'Who… Am I?'

Who was she? What was she doing?

Why was she walking in this endless expanse?

She didn't know why, but she knew she had to keep walking. To ignore everything around her and keep walking. . .

But why?

Strange memories floating in her mind. As though she was looking at things from an outside perspective.

Was… this split haired woman her? Or was she someone else?

She could see her smiling, laughing, drinking.

But…

It didn't feel like her.

She seems the most familiar yet at the same time, unfamiliar.

A fabricated existence wearing someone else's skin. Someone else's thoughts.

An illusion of a person.

She glanced down at her own hand, the countless spider lilies that blossomed across her skin.

Death.

The stench of death followed her closely. Where she walked, death followed.

She couldn't help but ask…

Was this kind of existence necessary for this world?

Was a being with such a blood be allowed to persist?

One wound.

That's all it'll take without proper care to ruin a region.

To corrupt and destroy.

Her powers, an amalgamation of four sources. Each keeping each other in check yet at the same time, it was a ticking time bomb. Waiting for the perfect chance to explode.

Should she try and attain divinity?

If so, what will she do about this eldritch power within her?

Why did she want to attain divinity? Why was this girl fighting so hard for it? Despite her nature of death.

Once again, she couldn't help but ask, Who Am I?

Three simple words yet the answer made her contemplate for an eternity.

She could say she's Alice Agnelia. Yet it's not quite right. Is she Alice Zenia? That's not it either.

That was the twin whom she unfairly stole the name of and even replaced it with Alyss.

Then what was she?

At that moment, she felt her world darken.

Strange viscous green liquid filled her surroundings with a single man standing in front of her, looking up at her.

"Subject V-213k is showing signs of stabilization. Though the host body is… incompatible. The soul is stabilizing to an acceptable degree but the body is degrading. This will last… 3 days at most."

The man muttered, making notes on a pad before placing it down on the table next to him.

His eyes were hollow, as though given up on the world in its entirety. Slumped shoulders and the fatigue of an endless journey reflected upon his gaze.

A strange sadness filled her chest as tears began to form around her eyes.

Noticing her reaction, the man glanced up in mild confusion.

"Subject V-213k is… Crying? Early signs of emotional development." He muttered, walking closer and picking up his notebook once more.

He recorded every detail without missing anything but the next words she spoke caused him to drop his pad.

"N..yer."

Was this the man's name?

Why did he look so happy yet sad?

She wanted to reach out towards him.

Raising her hand, blood began to pour from her body, mixing with the liquid in the container as her flesh tore apart.

Panic filled Nyer's eyes but he soon calmed down and returned back to a stoic expression, devoid of expectation.

A deep fatigue.

"Subject V-213k showing early signs of decomposition. Perhaps a destabilization caused by a premature awakening and emotional development. Housing an artificial soul prematurely showed great signs of development but the body cannot sustain such growth." He muttered, placing his hand against the glass.

She felt her vision beginning to blur, fading as more and more of her body broke apart, unable to hold itself together.

"Subject V-213k time of death… 4 minutes after birth. I will… choose a different approach."

Then her world faded.

All sensations numb.

Was V-213k her name? The source of her existence?

If so, she was pronounced dead.

So how was she still here?

As though answering her questions, her world appeared once more.

Strangely, the world felt so much bigger than before. Her balance was unstable yet a hand held her gently, supporting her.

Looking up, she could see a sad smile on Nyer's face as he lifted her up.

"V-398k, do you see the land in front of you?" He asked, pointing at a landscape of ruins.

What used to be majestic structures now crumbled with vegetation growing on the surface. Beasts roamed the streaks, breaking walls to see if they could find any scrap of meat before leaving in disappointment.

"This used to be the greatest city in the realms. A place of prosperity and peace. A place I hold dear to my heart." He spoke with such tender softness.

"But a place is simply a location after all. What matters are the people within. Do you see the tallest broken tower?" He pointed towards the centre.

"A Goddess used to live there."

"A… Goddess?" She questioned.

She wasn't sure why she asked that question.

"Yes… A Goddess. Far above the mortal grasp yet she walked the same soil we walked. She laughed, she cried, she raged just like us. How strange don't you think? Unlike the other divinities, she walked alongside us. Cared for us." Nyer trailed off as his sadness soon turned into anger.

"Yet the world rejected her existence. Rather, the other divinities couldn't tolerate it. It's unfair isn't it?" He turned to her with expectation in her eyes.

There was a brief moment of clarity in the girl as her gaze softened at the city.

But that clarity disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

Her vision shifted once more.

This time, she was back in a container.

The man who seemed calm yet volatile was now throwing documents across the room.

His inaudible screams could be felt through the glass as he punched whatever he could get his hands on before collapsing with his back on the wall.

He tugged at his hair, covered his eyes while gritting his teeth in frustration.

A hallowed husk aiming for a single goal that was so close yet so far out of his reach.

A sad existence.

"Four hundred and eighty nine thousand. That's how many clones I've made now. Where am I going wrong? What can I do to make the soul stabilize? Why is the body rejecting the artificial soul?" He muttered, glancing at the container holding V-489k.

"Perhaps this… Experiment direction is a failure. I must change my approach. The body and soul must grow simultaneously. Having one exceed the other will cause an instability. I'm sorry V-489k. I will now terminate this experiment." He spoke slowly, standing up and walking up to the glass.

As he prepared to end this experiment, she gave him a gentle smile.

Then her body was reduced to nothingness.

"It's a sad pursuit devoid of meaning and hope. The dead should stay dead. Past is in the past, time waits for no one." A familiar voice spoke out next to her but she didn't reply nor did she pay it any attention.

She had to keep moving forward no matter what.

"He chases after a shadow, a woman he cannot bring back. Yet he continues to work. Cloning, reincarnation and even forceful descent. He explored the workings of the soul, made contracts and breached lines of morality no one should ever.

"Forever so close yet so far. Even the soul rejects his work. His mind forever trapped by the beauty of the past, he cannot ever look forward. He's cursed himself an immortal life for an endless pursuit. A curse or a blessing I wonder." The voice continued to speak, not phased by the fact that Alice wasn't responding.

Golden markings were slowly appearing around Alice's wrists and ankles.

"Seems like our time has come to an end. The knowledge you have given me has been… Delectable."

As the voice spoke the word Delectable, it began to shift and mutate.

"Even after erasing your sense of self, you continue to walk, heeding the warnings. But most importantly of all, the foundation of your being is the culmination of centuries worth of work. A foundation that not even I can fully perceive the depths of even with this trickery.

"So heed my name fabricated one. I am Zal-Ka'Rith, the Outer God of the Writhing Script. I will be keeping a close eye on you." Zal-Ka'Rith grinned as the world began to collapse with golden chains manifesting around Alice.

Little by little, her eye regained its clarity.

###

*Crack

Pausing briefly, Nyer glanced down at the pen that broke apart suddenly.

An omen?

Furrowing his brows, he could sense the eldritch energy surrounding his… subject. The swirl of an ominous ritual and the influence of several Outer Gods. But he wasn't going to intervene.

There were moments where he should accelerate the growth but this was not one of them.

He was planning on loosening the restrictions but the Will of the Abyss handled it for him. A strange action no doubt.

The use of the Inverted World to access the world's memories, to read what he had concocted and even forcefully applying it to the subject.

Nyer had to admit, he was angry at the actions of the Will.

It could've caused everything to go to waste but thankfully, the subject held strong. And now, the Eldritch energy around her was now forcing a different type of adaption.

Just as he was about to continue his work, he suddenly raised his hand and clenched his fist.

The space around him locked as a tome slowly manifested with a sharp grin on the book's surface.

"So it was Zal-Ka'Rith." Nyer narrowed his gaze, understanding who it was that was tampering with his subject.

Thankfully, this Outer God wasn't one to intervene while it was on the pursuit of knowledge. His experiment can proceed unhindered.

Everything was still within his expectations.