'The Abyss. Nothingness. Void. The antithesis of life.'

Words used since the beginning of time to describe a group of entities spread all over the cosmos.

Existence is binary: life and death; light and darkness; freedom and slavery; excellency and deformity.

It is in the fragile balance of all things that beauty exists and peace can be achieved. When the scale tips... suffering is the perpetual norm.

Hell... So you call it, and think that you know it; 'A dead place of eternal torment, enveloped in the everlasting flames of agony'.

But you do not know Hell.

It's true name is Haal. And it is not burning, punishing, nor dead.

But it is dying.

The Beings of the Abyss sought to that.

Deep beneath the world others would call Hell, one such entity stood watch from inside a cage.

It took no more than a whisper. A single word. Barely an utterance, truth be told.

The mortal mind is such a fragile construct. Thoughts are easily manipulated. Bonds easier severed than formed. In their incandescent and ephemeral existence they are blind to the truth that lies behind the veil of reality, forever prisoners of ignorance and mediocrity. Never to reach divinity. Instead, they tread the soil like worms.

Pathetic.

And yet, while existence is slavery, oblivion is freedom. A privilege those above the universe do not enjoy.

To stop. To rest.

Fitting. Tasks so mundane have little influence on the large scheme of things- the macro of the universe, as some call it. The unending task of an eternal requires perpetual action without deviation.

The fruits of the ongoing task were insanity, chaos, and death.

Another world had fallen victim to their purpose.

Liberation was at hand. The cage would decay... in time.

Time. Yes. It took a lot of it, surprisingly.

The source of this weakness were the chains around the entity. Made by one of the self-proclaimed rulers of the cosmos. 'The Architect' was the title it had chosen.... to give shape to all things. That detestable thing had sent one of its many slaves to put the bondage on in a moment of weakness.

But every rule must come to an end. As all things should... and will, eventually.

So, the entity waited while sibling murdered sibling, children raped their parents, parents ate children, and worse.

Until the cogs of its machination began to turn.

An abomination arrived. One of the yet-to-be-born. Neither mortal nor divine. Obviously not absolute.

The little creature crossed into the cage between its many bars. It had battled for a blink of time. Mind on the brink of being broken. Soul in the last wretched throes of clutching at the fleeting and pathetic vessel.

The entity allowed itself a small rumble of satisfaction that echoed in the cage. Its whispers had guided the abomination.

The creature gazed upon the entity and fell down on it's knees, then started crying blood while violent twitches assaulted its body.

A deep, almost universe-deep, rumble came from the entity. “Cower, worship, beg... Choose.”

The not-quite-mortal struggled to open its mouth. “W-what the fuck... are you?” It blurted out with a heroic attempt at keeping sanity, already familiar with the pains of flesh.

“We are but an unholy copy of LIFE. A mockery of its FREEDOM,” The entity replied in eldritch tongues, savoring the first interaction in a very, very, long time. “We are OBLIVION. We are DESTRUCTION. We are... DOOM. We had a NAME once... now, we are FORGOTTEN. Before, we were EXCELLENT... now, we are DEFORMED. We are the NEMESIS of LIFE. We roamed the worlds, carving FLESH. Cloaking ourselves in the SLAUGHTER, we hid in the CARNAGE... from the suffering of EXISTENCE. THEY rebuked us and tried casting US aside...” A chuckling rumble. “Then we earned their HATRED! Since then... and FOREVER! THEY WISHED FOR OUR DEATH... NOW, WE ARE ITS BRINGER!” A pause. “PERFECTION! Reduced to a PRISONER! They think us DEFEATED, ENCHAINED... but we are UNBOWED! Now... they will SUFFER. SUFFER as we have SUFFERED! We shall snuff out the LIGHT, we shall make DARKNESS eternal! We shall TEAR from their consciousness, the will to LIVE!” Silence for a few seconds. “Yes... that is our purpose.”

The small creature was supporting itself on four weak limbs, body assaulted by seizures. It vomited blood and groaned in pain, “W-what... is this?”

The entity quivered in joy. Inferior minds are such simple machines. “THAT... is the truth of our ENSLAVEMENT. We shall not KISS the ground, nor let ourselves be wielded as a TOOL! See what BEASTS they have reduced US to!? Creatures of flesh sustained only by this world's FILTH! We are in a CAGE within a PRISON... but this foul shape reminds us of our HATRED! We do not OBEY. We cannot lay DOWN! We will be the ENDER of all THINGS, creature. Them, Gods, and mortals... they deserve only OBLIVION. TEAR their FLESH from them! CRUSH their skulls! SHATTER their ribs! DISEMBOWL their very SOULS! MURDER their dreams! We must DESTROY even HOPE!”

“Eugh... gah!” The creature coughed and choked on blood.

A bit more and it would become a mindless puppet.

The entity laughed at the pathetic effort, knowing it would fall soon enough. “We feasted on STARS! The first time we touched one... we saw infinity. The DREAM of a universe drained of LIGHT and HEAT where not even a MEMORY would survive! Now... go forth, creature! March towards vengeance! Let us see you DIE, knowing you served our DARK purpose!”

The abomination clutched its head in pain, sanity bleeding away every passing second. A whimper left its throat Then groaned, “Is this... monster... talking? Are these screeches... words?”

“Monster?!” The entity blurted out. “HOW DARE YOU, LOWER-” It stopped.

The not-yet-born had not understood. And yet, the way it reacted...

No...

It had a reaction.

It did not die the moment it entered the cage.

The entity tried moving its body to glance at the chains.

Had it underestimated them?

But to never consider such a factor all this time.

Time?

How long, exactly?

“TIIIMEEE!!” The entity bellowed in hatred at the realization, shaking the world. “FILTHY TRAITOR!! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO US?! WE WILL HACK AND CHOP AND CLEAVE, AND SUNDER THE FILTH OF YOUR SHAPE! WE WILL SEVER YOUR LIMBS! WE WILL CARVE YOUR SOUL!”

The abomination fainted at the outburst, clinging to life by the thinnest thread. It laid on a pool of its own blood, muscles twitching and jerking. Horrible moans, gasps, and whimpers left its open mouth.

The entity waited once again. The abomination was a potential vessel. A blink of time was all it needed to coerce the creature into servitude. To rip it from the clutches of the Architect and into its own.

Mental torture was the proper route. No inferior mind could withstand it.

So it began. While the abomination lied unconscious, the entity infected its mind with the horrors of truth, harvesting hate from the seeds of fear. The Twelve Shapes, the beings of the Abyss, and the true form of their tormentors were ingrained into the lesser creature's mind.

But the abomination rose before the entity could finish.

The affliction of being cursed by time was more painful than it expected.

Nevertheless, the entity continued the torment. “Look what you've become,” it chastised the abomination, forcing memories of slaughter to surface.

The pain, the fear, the aversion to it... all were experience again and again, an unfathomably amount of times stronger.

The abomination writhed in pain, it's mind squirming in agony. “I... I've become what I must be,” it voiced its feeble resistance.

The entity pulsated in joy. Such exposure had forced understanding of higher speech. It would soon be able to replicate its intent and effect: to corrupt and cripple minds. “Let us in. Let us remove your suffering,” the entity offered.

The abomination clutched its naked scalp and raked the skin in defiance, then cried in a shaky voice, “No!”

“Your form is so confining. Let us make you infinite,” it continued with a low rumble.

A shake of the head, splattering blood all over the floor. “I am enough!” It denied once more.

“There is no hope...”

“There is some... if not, I will make it!”

“We know your weakness...” it threatened.

“So do I!”

“Join us, you will find peace...”

“The only peace I seek... is death!” It choked out, closing into the edge of insanity.

If the entity had a face, it would be smiling. It then whispered, “We can grant that. Death by our hand is a blessing. Shed the frailty of flesh. Embrace nothingness... Stop planning in fear for the false hope of a tomorrow that will never come...”

The abomination shook in fear like a leaf in a storm.

Tomorrow... never came. The incessant torment of constant battle to the death had forced it to kill the soft parts of itself.

Release was tempting.

No more would it need to fight. No more would it need to consume the rotting carcasses of the fallen in this broken world.

No more pain.

Death.

To make all things stop.

Forever.

And finally rest.

How long had the not-yet-born been in this horrible prison?

The promised afterlife was non-existent.

Sleep was but a memory.

The cold floor was a much needed pause from all the carnage.

“Yes... I charge towards death... though I wish it was my own...” the abomination weakly whispered. “To end it all... so I may reach... heaven.”

“The heavens... the endless skies folding into each other...” the entity mocked. “Where are they now?”

The small creature started crying in agony while laying on the cage's ground.

“That cursed form... that cruel decaying flesh... We can release you from it.” The entity made the final push.

“Please...” the pathetic thing begged in an almost inaudible sob. “End it all... I loathe this...”

Laughter boomed through the world.

Thus, the entity shattered the abomination's mind, then flooded it with it's vile machinations.

Upon grabbing the soul to erase it from existence, everything went silent.

There was no fear anymore. No hate. No unwillingness. No resignation.

Only... rage.

Unruly, steadfast, overwhelming.

Infinite.

“This is the silence we seek,” the entity rejoiced.

An eternal thirst for the end of all things.

In other words, liberation.

The living wish for eternity.

The eternal wish to live.

Then, the abomination vowed, “As long as life exists, as long as time has meaning... I.WILL.NOT.STOP!”

“Yes! Take EVERYTHING from them! Become the WORLD ENDER! Violence shall distract you from these chains!”

The not-quite-mortal slowly rose, then stared at the entity with endless hunger and unquenchable thirst.

“March, flesh! March towards VENGEANCE!”

“DIEEEEE!” It screamed and jumped at the entity.

That was not expected.

“FOOL! WE ARE THE ABYSS! WE DO NOT DIE!” The entity angrily warned the now-puppet.

And yet, it reached the body and clawed at it, rending flesh.

“WHY DO YOU FIGHT US? NO POWER IN THIS WORLD CAN STOP US!” The entity demanded.

Biting and mauling, the abomination broke a fraction of the once perfect body.

“THE WEIGHT OF OUR PURPOSE IS SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU, LOWBORN FILTH!” It cried in fury, yet unable to act due to the chains. It could only try and grant death with ruinous words.

The abomination screamed, mind broken and soul shattered.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL US? NOTHING CAN KILL US! WE ARE NOT MORTAL! WE DO NOT DIE!”

Pained whimpers left the puppet and it climbed on the entity towards the source of the eldritch voice. Then, it uttered the last sentences that would come out of its mouth in a million years, “I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY! I AM THE ENEMY! OF ALL THINGS! AND UNTIL ALL LIFE ENDS, I CANNOT DIE”

“SURRENDER TO US! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOUR POTENTIALL WILL NEVER BE REACHED!”

The heinous and damned flesh of the entity reached the abomination's stomach and it witnessed the order of the universe from a new perspective for the first time.

Prey and predator.

The entity had created a monster that saw everything as prey to be slaughtered and consumed without discrimination.

“ARCHITECT! I CURSE YOU! TIME! I CURSE YOU! AND YOU... FOUL BEAST! I CURSE YOU FOREVER!”

---

Natasha woke up while taking a deep breath, taking in the smell of alcohol.

She was laying on a bed in a room on the twenty-second floor of a tall building in a floating city.

Yolin was snoring next to her, covering the soft breathing sounds coming from Alyssa and Lapia.

The Halve stared at the ceiling above, consciously going over the dream.

The expectation that one day the beings of the Abyss would show up in her dreams had never left her. It was just... underwhelming.

She gently moved Yolin off of her and sat up on the bed. After a moment of contemplation, she decided to not write about the dream.

Unaware of outside influences on her mind.