Prince of The Abyss

Aether took off his boots, walked to the water, and stood still as the waves washed over him; its cold temperature made him shiver slightly. But how long had it been since he felt water? He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, feeling the water, before turning back towards Keres, who was looking at him, confused.

"Is that some sort of good luck ritual?" He chuckled, which made Aether scoff, walking over to his boots to put them back on.

"You got something a kid enjoying the sea? It’s been a long while since I’ve felt water, but saw the sea like this." Tapping his feet against the ground, he finished putting his boots back on.

"You aren’t a child; don’t exaggerate," Keres said, looking at a stone wall. Aether walked over to him, putting his hand on the wall. "Well, technically..." he pushed slightly on it, watching as it opened in front of their eyes.

"I am a child, since I’m sixteen." He walked into the corridor, revealed, walking through the darkness with Eden.

Keres followed him, putting a hand on his shoulder so that they wouldn’t get separated. "Teenager, that’s what you are, usually; kid is for people a lot younger than you are."

He chuckled. "Though, it does make me wonder: if Sofia found out, what would happen? What would she feel? After all, her little nine-year-old dead brother is now a sixteen-year-old. And very much alive. How would she react to losing so much of your life, not being present in it?

Aether stopped, turning back slightly as the sea wind blew in his face, moving the hair off his face. "You really know how to say the worst thing in the worst moments, you know that, right?"

Keres stuck his tongue out, pushing him to make him continue moving. "I know. It’s something I’m fond of. Still, it’s your fault; if you had done it already, I could never have made that joke. So why don’t you just reveal your identity? It’s not like something bad is going to happen."

Turning his gaze slightly in front of them, Keres noticed a brightened room at the end of the corridor. They had their luck; they had found it, and quite easily... more by guessing, really; after all, outside a giant stone wall, there was nowhere to hide a base in.

Continuing, he put his attention back to Aether. "I mean, revealing your true identity to me can be considered a bigger risk, and one with actual danger, but with her, it’s not even close."

Aether chuckled at him. "Danger, what danger? If I remember correctly, all the times you guys tried to kill me.

I survived."

As they got closer to the room, Aether didn’t need to lead Keres anymore, who, after that comment passed him, shot him an unpleased gaze before entering the room in front of him, only stopping suddenly to point towards the ground...

Where bodies rested among bodies... but they weren’t normal.

Aether frowned slightly, putting a hand over his mouth as he looked away for a second.

Most of the dead bodies were... mixed; it was not a very... nice scene to see.

Walking around the first body, Keres entered the room, which was... stained with blood everywhere, and nature everywhere... though, by what he thought, this wasn’t natural; it seemed man-made... someone trying to imitate Mother Nature, and going horribly wrong.

Aether followed Keres inside, before moving towards a shadow and asking if there was anything they should take a look at. The shadow responded, leading him towards a small journal hidden behind some books.

Taking it, Aether pushed the dust off before opening it.

...

***

Day 1.

Things are going a lot worse than we thought... as more and more people start coming, we slowly can’t keep up this lie. There’s no such thing as getting out of this place; it’s impossible. As much as we try, it is something that will never happen.

This is our punishment... those bastards just don’t understand that. Still, they’re dumb enough to believe just anyone who says that it is possible... we’ve kept them here without any problem, just sometimes speaking with them about how we’ve started to hear the Codex talk, and they bought it, but now some have started getting skeptical... we need to find a way.

....

Day 2.

There... was an accident at the lighthouse today... one of those stupid Readers died, or rather was killed by one of us. He talked way too much; if he continued, he could have started to make the others realize that we are just spitting bullshit, so we had to do something about it, to drag him with us, but he resisted... and died.

However... it worked in our favour... all that was needed was to say that the Codex had confirmed the kill, and then they were as happy as before, maybe even more... this could prove to be a good way to take care of the nonbelievers.

...

Day 7.

With the amount of people dying, you would think that people would stop trying to question us, just to avoid death, but no, it has only gotten worse and worse... I fear there may not be anything we can do... that is, without actually showing them something that resembles the real world, something that can make them hope again without asking any questions.

That is why we started a new experiment, one that is supposed to try to mimic nature. It is going to be hard to do, but I have hope that it is going to be possible. And after we finish, we won’t have any problems keeping people here.

...

Day 23.

The experiment has never gone better. By creating an artificial core, with the help of a Reader we corrupted, we were able to change a relic of a bonsai tree into a living being, one that is able to grow and feel. I didn’t think that it would be possible, but here we are; the only problem is that we need to feed it... and to do so, we need human lives.

...

At first we had been against it, but since we had been killing them either way, we decided to do it. Since it also helped with the whole lie, if we took believers to go back to the real world and they didn’t come back, it would make others believe more.

...

Day 123.

The experiment has continued to grow, and at a pretty abnormal rate. From just a small tree, it created a whole ecosystem in this hidden place. We had no trouble getting it food, as news spread and people became skeptical; since we had shown them nature, more and more people came. The only bad thing is that, with it continuing to grow, it’s going to get too big soon, and it might start trying to get out, which is something we can’t let happen. We are going to have to cut it if it does.

...

Day 130.

Something is horribly wrong... the creature, it started trying to escape, growing towards the exit, so just like I’ve written days ago, we tried to cut it... But it fought back badly, injuring one of our men... I fear our creation has started to get a mind of its own, or rather the ability to think for itself, and is now going against us. I fear what it’s going to do.

...

Day 207.

I feel death is near. We’ve long lost any authority over the creature, which has blocked the exit, while continuing to grow outside, feeding on those that got curious enough to approach... or us. Only some of us remain; the rest have gotten parts of their bodies eaten up, and their core’s completly gone.

...If I don’t write again, then I fear I am dead... and to whoever is reading this... it might also be too late for you.

***

Aether closed the book, standing still for a second as he looked back at the corridor with Eden, seeing how the end was now covered in veins... their exit had been blocked off.

Moving closer to Keres, he tapped his shoulder. "I think we have a problem." He said, constantly looking around.

The Harbinger tilted his head. "What? Did you find something?"

Aether nodded. "Yeah... this place, it’s alive... and it wants us dead."

Keres’ eyes widened, but as he was about to open his mouth, from a big flower in the corner of the room, something spit out, falling onto his back. He groaned in pain as the liquid started to dig into his skin.

Aether cursed, trying to wipe it off with his mantle, but it was already deep, and way too much to get off without completely destroying his mantle.

And yet, as Keres fell to his knees, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

His body that had been shaking before, was still as the liquid evaporated by itself.

Getting on his feet, he glanced at Aether, who was bewildered by what had happened. "And what if it wants us dead? It’s not going to be able to kill us." He said, as the plant spat once more on him.

...

Yet this time it had no effect on the Harbinger.