The shadows closed in around him, consuming his vision like the grip of death. Leonard's chest tightened as the suffocating purple mist wrapped itself around him, filling his lungs with a cold, suffocating presence. The weight of the shadows pushed against him, their cold tendrils curling around his limbs, forcing him deeper into the void. His body felt heavy, as though every part of him was being torn apart by invisible hands.

He couldn't breathe. His thoughts were slipping away.

A flicker of light, a single thread in the consuming dark, shone ahead of him. Instinctively, Leonard reached out toward it, his hand trembling. The whispers grew louder, more urgent.

Embrace the Abyss.

That voice. It echoed in his mind, repeating the words, urging him to give in. The shadows seemed to pulse with life, shifting and twisting around him, their shapes indistinct and shifting like living nightmares.

But just as Leonard thought he might lose himself completely, he felt a sharp pain. His whole body was jolted forward, as though he had been ripped from the very fabric of reality. The world fractured in an instant, and in the next breath, Leonard found himself falling—no, being thrown—back into the room he had just been in.

His body hit the floor with a thud, breathless and shaken, as though he had been violently ejected from the depths of the void itself.

His surroundings flickered before his eyes, like a broken film reel struggling to find focus. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision, the disorienting sense of vertigo fading slowly. He was back in his room. His worn sheets were tangled around his legs, and the dim light of the oil lamp flickered in the corner.

Leonard pushed himself up, his palms cold against the floorboards. His breath came in heavy gasps, but as he looked around the familiar space, the weight of the experience pressed down on him, heavier than any physical exhaustion.

The Abyss.

Was it real?

What had happened to him?

The events of the past few moments were still fresh in his mind, a chaotic blur of swirling shadows, flickering stars, and the sensation of being consumed by the darkness. His heart was pounding, and his thoughts raced. The vision of the princess—her graceful beauty, the way she studied, the aura of nobility that surrounded her—was burned into his memory. She was someone important, someone he had seen in that brief, fleeting moment. But who was she? And why had he been shown that vision?

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But there was no time to think about it. The overwhelming pressure that had filled his chest—the suffocating presence of the Abyss—was gone. All that remained was an uneasy silence that seemed to linger in the room.

He placed a hand against his forehead, feeling the cold sweat on his brow. It wasn't just the shadows, the whispers, or the strange vision of the princess that unsettled him. It was the power he had felt, the overwhelming sensation of being in the grip of something far greater than himself.

What was that power?

The necklace.

He hadn't forgotten the necklace. The cursed, ominous thing that had been around his neck ever since he had first felt its pull. He glanced down at it, the All-Seeing Eye carved into the moon shimmering faintly in the dim light.

The words that had appeared before him, the golden script—Path of the Emperor: Level 7 – SHADOW Unlocked. Absolute Order. They still rang in his mind. The power of the necklace, of the skill it had granted him, felt... wrong. It had been a strange, foreign force, something he didn't fully understand.

Leonard clenched his fists, breathing deeply to steady himself. His heart was still racing, his mind whirling in a hundred different directions. But this wasn't the time for panic. He needed to focus.

Focus on what he could understand.

He had been pulled into that dark place. The Abyss. The Eclipse Rift? He wasn't sure. The name didn't matter. What mattered was that it had been real. The power he had felt—the pressure, the weight of the shadows—was real. The necklace, the whispers, everything about that experience was far beyond anything he had ever encountered before.

But why him? Why was he being dragged into this?

His mind raced as he began to think through the possible explanations.

Could it be tied to the trial? The mysterious door he had opened? He had barely survived that. And now, this? It felt like everything was spiraling out of his control.

He exhaled sharply, pushing the thoughts away. There was no point in dwelling on it for now. He needed to act.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, he would start his search. He would try to find out more about the Abyss, about the necklace, about the princess—and most importantly, about the power that had unlocked within him. The All-Seeing Eye, the Absolute Order.

Leonard glanced at the oil lamp, its flickering flame casting shadows on the walls. It was late, and his mind was too clouded with confusion to continue thinking clearly. His body still ached from the experience, and the weight of it all was pressing down on him.

For now, he would sleep. But sleep didn't bring peace. His mind raced, his thoughts tangled, and the fear of what he had experienced—what he had felt—lingered in the edges of his consciousness.

He lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling as the room seemed to pulse with the remnants of the shadows. His breath slowed, but his mind refused to settle. Even as his eyes fluttered shut, he could feel the weight of the necklace around his neck, the cold presence of the All-Seeing Eye.

Tomorrow, he would try to understand.

But for tonight, there was only darkness.

And the whispers still echoed in his mind.