After an indeterminable amount of time, mainly because of her inability to gauge its passage from the surroundings, Nyx slowly blinked. As she did, the protective membranes glided across the surface of her eyes a fraction faster than her eyelids, giving them a reptilian-like appearance. When they were closed, the blue hue illuminating the remnants of her bedding vanished for a brief moment. When the light reappeared, the increase in the amount of lightning-like streaks within Nyx's eyes caused a ripple-like pattern to emerge on the fabric. Combined with the occasional noisy drip of water, the damp, stagnant air and the pitch-black surroundings, the flickering effect made it look as if she was in a deep-sea cave.
Apart from this limited light, in the three underground rooms, there was only darkness.
It was a little while later that a whistle of stale air vented from Nyx's throat as she slightly shifted her body and took the first breath she had taken in centuries. Even though the movement had barely stirred the rags covering her, Nyx's body screamed out in protest while feeling extremely stiff due to the immense coldness emanating from within.
After coughing slightly, faint cracking sounds originated from beneath her skin sounding as if her bones were splintering. However, it wasn't her bones but tiny fissures appearing in the flesh and muscles that had frozen solid during her hibernation-like sleep. Shifting a little bit more until she was comfortable, somewhat enjoying the pain, Nyx squinted as she searched for the peculiar feeling that had awoken her only to ascertain that it had vanished.
After blinking a couple more times, a little more forcefully as she tried to clear the residue that had built up during her long nap, Nyx began to contemplate if the sensation had just been another one of her more lucid dreams. As she thought, Nyx she realised what had been unsettling her.
While the fleeting sensation of familiarity had initially attracted her attention, it wasn't enough to sufficiently rouse her from her dreams. Instead, what had truly gained her interest was the changes in her surroundings. Even though her entire body was covered in rags, Nyx had discerned that not only were her icy surroundings completely dark, the silver glow from the restrictive runes missing, but she could sense faint traces of dark and ice essence nearby. Something that should have been impossible.
Taking another breath, this one much more profound, Nyx's mind stumbled with the realisation. Yet, even though she could almost guarantee that the surrounding restrictions had fallen without examining them in any great detail, she knew that not all of them had stopped working.
There was still a heavy pressure pushing down on her body. It wasn't close to the same level as the suppression Nyx felt at the time she faced Lucifer, but it was still enough to feel as if a small mountain was weighing upon her back.
After each time she sucked in a deep breath through her teeth, the cracking within her body momentarily increasing each time she did, Nyx continuously released long clouds of smoke-like vapour. As it billowed outwards, a repugnant stench and small brown particles of what looked to be similar to the toxins expelled during cultivation, drifted in the air before freezing and falling to the floor.
As she watched this, Nyx wondered if her nightmare form was similar to that of a dog's when sweating. However, she couldn't test any of her ideas as her body was still frozen to do anything significant.
When she had stopped paying attention to her breath, Nyx slowly analysed her surroundings through her various senses. The more she discovered, the more restless she became. It wasn't long before a squirming, agitated feeling started to form in her chest before spreading outwards.
The uneasy sensation caused Nyx to recall vague memories from when she had eaten too many high energy foods or been extremely apprehensive. However, Nyx couldn't tell if these were her own memories, something she dreamt, or what she had observed and felt in the abyss. This was because after countless years, sensing the intent from souls, watching the physical world through the connections in the void, and dreaming, Nyx could no longer clearly separate what she had perceived from what she had personally experienced.
At the moment, Nyx felt a similar feeling to a human in a dozing state, who was partially asleep but conscious enough to interact with the outside world. The line between reality and fantasy blurring effortlessly as their mind only realised something was wrong when a thought or idea broke some underlying belief or foundation. This resulted in Nyx feeling as if she were treading water, just barely keeping her head above the surface while gasping for air. Her grasp on what was real and what was fantasy swapping and changing as her thoughts tumbled chaotically.
As she continued to try and make sense of her thoughts, Nyx started to feel queasy. While it was something that always happened upon waking up in her nightmare form, this time, the sensation was much worse due to the growing anxiety growing in the pit of her stomach.
The day that she had been dreading almost as much as she looked forward to was quickly approaching.
While Nyx somewhat felt like she had prepared by practising and developing skills and abilities when having the energy and patience, without resources or natural essence to cultivate, she had been unable to progress her physical form or upgrade her core. This greatly troubled Nyx as she felt it more than likely that she had been left far behind in terms of power. This was even after the considerable power boost she received when she ascended.
Nyx had entered the arena with a power ranking of core-thirteen layers. As she progressed through and merged with the Dungeon heart, a strange phenomenon had occurred where both energy types created their own layers instead of fusing. This doubling would have given Nyx a rating of twenty-six, something even the geniuses of the prime content wouldn't be able to compete with.
Yet, her shocking growth didn't stop there. When the abyss essence merged into Nyx's core, it once again doubled her original thirteen layers, forming a thin barrier between the other two. While it was much smaller, the abyssal essence contained within was far stronger equaling the three out and creating something that Nyx hadn't even thought a possibility. A trinity of energies came together to create a core layer count of thirty-nine. Working together in harmony as they mixed together and changed her physical form at a fundamental level.
It was this sudden increase, as well as utilising the power of the abyss and her soul, as well as the damage she caused by overdrawing his soul energy from the connection, that let Nyx surprise and corner Lucifer.
It also put Nyx her in a league of her own. If she had been able to form her gem crystal and continue cultivation, no one in the same cultivation realm would have ever been her match in terms of quality and quantity of available essence. Even higher realms wouldn’t have been too difficult. However, that didn't mean that the genuine powerhouses would be threatened.
While Nyx may be able to jump realms for average cultivators, the doubling effect each breakthrough had in both time and essence after the layering stage quickly built up. This meant that if they were fast enough, even the dullest practitioner could pass her given enough time.
Her foundation was solid, but it also meant she could only move at a snail’s pace when advancing.
The feeling of danger was compounded by the fact that Nyx had stagnated for an indeterminate amount of time. Not only that, Nyx knew better than most that time waited for no one. The advancement of the intelligent species was unstoppable. In fact, from the few glimpses she had taken from the soul connections, she felt that the age of cultivation had already ended.
Technology, like what had happened in her first world, and magic had taken over and eliminated the gap formed by raw strength and skill. While there was still a place for it, it seemed to only be towards the bottom rungs of society. She guessed this from the few insights she could glean from her spying though the soul connections as most of those believing her seemingly soldiers or civilians that had faced and survived void beasts.
Nyx's mind rapidly drifted from the past to what she had seen in the abyss before finally an issue had that gnawed at the edges of her mind for a long time. It would always surface when she thought about changes in the physical world.
Compounded with her confusion about reality, Nyx had started to analyse and break down her existence, and in the end, she had come to believe she was nothing more than a sphere-like object that existed but didn't at the same time. On top of not having a true form, Nyx could create or destroy either her physical or metaphysical body with a thought which further distanced herself from anything she knew. Nyx felt that she was, in a sense, a formless ball stuck between the physical world and the abyss that contained a consciousness that defied all logic.
Unique, Alone, Not human.
Feeling the urge to manically laugh and cry at the same time, Nyx continued to breathe steadily while her outward appearance remained calm and collected. As she did, various emotions rose and fell.
Anger, Sadness, Hatred, Jealousy.
These emotions churned in with many others. However, it wasn’t long before Nyx regained control and released a faint, mirthless chuckle that split the skin at the corners of her mouth. If it wasn't for the strong sense of self that she had developed during her time under the thumb of the Mad Summoner, and that she could cope with the loneliness, Nyx felt she would have lost her mind long ago.
Nyx’s thoughts drifted off topic once again.
"If the abyss stares too long into the abyss, who will stare back?" The concept amused Nyx, distracting her as she played with changing words in phrases from her past to try and reflect her situation. What had been a habit during Nyx's many lives in an attempt to unsettle her opponents had been added amongst many other coping methods she used to amuse herself.
"Madness? This is the abyss!" Upon thinking the last quote, Nyx startled. "Madness? No thanks. Not today."
Remembering her current situation, Nyx tried to focus. At one point, she had found it amusing that her life had become the definition of insanity, repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. Nevertheless, over time the idea had become something that haunted her waking moments. To escape the question that could only be answered when she lost her mind, Nyx would instantly distract herself or change her train of thought with whatever she could find.
Not that it was hard to do in her current situation. Now Nyx had remembered the state of her prison, she quickly turned her thoughts to trying to work out if she was excited or scared at the possibility of freedom. As she bounced back and forth between the two sides, she unknowing started humming a tune while thinking a few words everything and then.
"...Should I stay or should I go~..."
However, no matter how many positive spins she put on it, after such a long time of stagnation, any change had become a daunting prospect. Especially as her dreams became nightmares more often than not.
It was only when she realised that the amount of natural essence in the surroundings was gradually increasing that Nyx discerned that she didn't have long to wait, one or two naps at most. As the sense of unease threatened to become panic, she quickly focused on all the things she missed in an attempt to look at the bright side instead of all the negatives.
While the list had been comprehensive at the beginning, it had whittled down over the ages until only six items remained — food, drink, companionship, sex, warmth, and an environment to cultivate in. For Nyx, without these lures, she wondered if she would still have the desire or confidence to walk upon the physical worlds.
This was mainly because Nyx's viewpoint on her prison had steadily shifted over time. It had become her fortress and its current state, rapidly falling into disrepair, was causing her extreme anxiety.
At some point, the defences that kept her prisoner became the fortifications that kept others out and gave Nyx a sense of safety for her core. With the realisation that their collapse didn't seem to be too far away, Nyx knew that she would be forced to act whether she liked it or not. Even if it was just to find another sanctuary to hide her core.
While this wouldn’t have been a problem if everything went as she hoped, it seemed that even the abyss wanted to make trouble for her. This was mainly due to the black souls, who had developed and grown significantly since she noticed them, had somehow managed to re-kindled belief in her and the abyss to some extent. She didn't know how they had done so, or why, but it had seemingly destroyed her plans of vanishing from history.
Nyx released a quiet sigh as she recalled where her desire had stemmed from. During one of her thoughtful moments, she had remembered the quote 'The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.'. Quickly the daydream that had started as a means to alleviate the tedium, living an uneventful life while enjoying its ups and down in ambiguity, quickly spiralled into a goal. As she continued to expand and dissect this thought process, Nyx realised the best place to hide was not in the shadows but in other peoples ignorance. A drastically different approach to her previous mentality. One that, if she lived by a few rules, she would be able to exist in the open and without always looking over her shoulder.
However, her body was trapped, and she had a limited ability to impact the physical world in any significant way. But it then occurred to Nyx that she didn't need to trick people into believing anything. If even gods could die, why worry. She didn't seem to have a lifespan and eventually, everyone who knew about her would die. Even any records about her past would be lost and forgotten at some point if given enough time and events. Nyx felt that for once time was actually on her side.
That was, as long as the memory of her was allowed to fade.
Nyx's stomach continued to churn as she thought about all of these things while the urge to be sick gradually grew. As it did, Nyx's violent side started to draw closer to the surface as it subconsciously began to enter the flight or fight response.
Realising this, Nyx quickly calmed herself. If time had given her one gift, it was that she could tell that most of her troubles had been caused by her temper and impulsiveness. However, knowing about it and changing it were two different things.
Even now, there was a small part of Nyx who wanted everything to burn upon her return, as she slaughtered her way to answers and avenged whatever wrongs had been done in her absence. While it had shrunk drastically over time, Nyx felt deep down, it would never vanish. And she didn’t want it to.
Still, in its place, alongside the wish to be unknown, an opposing desire had taken root.
She wasn't entirely sure if it was laziness or indifference, but Nyx felt herself becoming more and more estranged with the physical world and the events that transpired within. A behaviour that was magnified when she was in the abyss or gazed into it from within her core.
This had resulted in the emotions linked with Nyx's past events to fade. Gradually, even the most significant ones had started to feel like they had happened to someone else. If she was given the option between having revenge and a warm meal, Nyx honestly thought she would respond with 'When can I eat?' instead of ripping someone's throat out like she would have done. This idea was only enhanced by her belief that everyone she had ever known had died when the realms had collapsed.
She had been alone, or almost. Only one faint mote of light had remained, hinting that everyone who knew about her had fallen. On one side, she felt sadness but on the other, relief.
However, as this logic propagated, Nyx felt herself become more and more withdrawn and secretive. She had even isolated her soul's intent by wrapping layers upon layers of abysmal energy that would absorb it around her core. Now, whether in the abyss or inside her chest, not even an occasional flicker of blue could be seen. Her smooth and vibrant crystal-like core had become surrounded by swirling mist, coming to resemble a miniature black sun.
Nyx snickered at her conflicting feelings, this time sounding a lot less painful. On the one hand, she yearned for companionship and interactions. On the other, she sought solitude and walled herself away from any contact.
While lost in her thoughts, the sound of dripping water would occasionally disrupt the deafening silence enveloping Nyx reminding her prison had fallen to the ravages of time and was nothing more than a ruin.
Because of the gradual dilapidation, Nyx had been forced to move her makeshift nest multiple times to avoid the leaks and damp that had gradually appeared. She was now tucked into a corner atop the remains of the bed frame. However, due to the tiny movements that she made earlier, the rotten wood below Nyx had slightly crumbled and caused her platform to sink. Because of this, Nyx could feel the damp scraps of cloth she had used to cover her body slowly soaking up the fridged water as their edges touched the nearby puddles.
This, coupled with the question on why the water hadn’t frozen if it was so cold, finally brought Nyx out of her musings as she shook her head slightly to dislodge the rags covering it. However, after a few loud cracks from her neck, she gave up. While she could get rid of them, she felt it wasn’t worth the effort at the moment.
However, it did allow her to shift the piece covering her eye. As she looked out upon the room that had once been a bedroom, a faint, sigh-like sound escaped as Nyx felt as if her world was slowly crumbling around her generating an intense sensation of melancholy.
The temptation to return to sleep returned, so she could once again leapfrog through time, but was quickly suppressed. Nyx knew that even if she did, the onslaught of time was relentless, and she would need to deal with its aftermath when she woke. This was the reasoning that finally extracted Nyx from her depression in the abyss and drew her to the physical world, where she attempted to deal with the emotions that seemingly had no base.
Watching time ravage her surroundings also caused Nyx to feel even more separated from everything. She felt as if she were a spectator or ghost, lingering at the edges as she watched everything fall apart without being able to interact.
"Immortality," Nyx recalled what she had said upon discovering the destruction of the higher realms and the haunting emptiness within. "Isn't living forever. It's watching everything around you turn to dust."
Nyx sighed again, a faint mist rising from her nostrils and body. While her body wasn't that warm yet, it was already far hotter than her surroundings.
As her tail started to twitch and her toes wiggle, Nyx didn't rush to get up. However, she was now using the minuscule amount of dark essence she had recovered to map out her surroundings.
In the pitch black, cave-like room, Nyx seemed to be completely isolated from the world. In fact, if it wasn't for the gradually rising temperature or her blinking now and then, Nyx felt that even a heavenly existence would find it impossible to discover her. This thought wasn't just because of the visibility, and it included that Nyx's surroundings were much colder than the rest of the room due to the endothermic process generated by her body while sleeping.
The reason Nyx believed that she couldn't be found was that she had almost entirely masked her existence. Even the cloth and scraps of wood had more presence than her body, making it seem as if they were propped up around a void-like space.
The leading factor in this was Nyx's soul. While the five senses could still faintly detect her the sixth and seventh senses, the soul and essence, had been entirely suppressed by the innate pressure she released. This was because the energy from the motes of light had repaired and strengthened her soul over time. In comparison to others, Nyx's soul was more akin to the sky when compared to a photograph of it. It was so vast that it was hard to perceive.
In conjunction with some abilities Nyx had discovered and passively practised when she could be bothered, the effect had almost mirrored what one would be able to perceive upon staring into the rift above the ruins of Corban. An empty void which felt of nothing. Of course, this was also a weakness. If someone knew about it and wanted to find her, it would be like searching for a black hole against a star-filled sky. Hard but not impossible, as it was her absence that made her visible.
The effects had also impacted her domain’s abilities but, with no one to test it on, Nyx wasn’t quite sure what had changed. This was because even though it was her domain, she was immune to its effects.
After a while, a faint thud emanated outwards as a small pulse of energy rippled from Nyx's core and quickly circulated her body. As it did, the black liquid with streaks of vivid blue that was her blood began to move slightly faster. As the blood flowed through her muscles and flesh, they gradually began to thaw, and a faint trace of Nyx's presence started to form. However, it was only to the point that Nyx now seemed to exist, like a rock on the side of the road, and not at the same level of even the most insignificant of living beings.
While she could handle the biting cold, even if it were extremely uncomfortable, Nyx would need a fair amount of time upon waking to slowly warm-up. She had rushed it once, only to spend a tremendous amount of energy repairing the damage to her internal organs and muscles. The worst had been her tongue. Even now, she could clearly remember when it had abruptly shattered and purposefully numbed it until she felt it was safe to move.
Stretching her neck slightly, Nyx's tongue wiggled inside her mouth as the numb sensation slowly faded.
It had been a long time since she slept like a human, finding her Nightmare form was a lot more comfortable to rest in without the luxury of a bed. However, she also discovered that as a side effect, her body would freeze if she slept for too long. How long was too long, she didn’t know, but by the dust that always seemed to settle on the scraps of clothes she used, it wasn’t a short time.
Having reached the point where she could move a bit without causing any damage, Nyx started shivering as her form slightly uncurled from its sleeping position. Her current posture was similar to that of a sleeping cat that had pulled itself into a ball. Finding the thought amusing, Nyx continued forcing the small muscles in her body to vibrate as she revealed a slow smile. Unfortunately for Nyx, she had been too impulsive, and the skin on the side of her face split due to still being partially frozen.
After rolling her eyes slightly, Nyx circulated her essence to repair the damage as the pulses rippling from her core increased until they sounded similar to the beat of a resting heart. With each minute that passed, Nyx's mind and body became more awake and nimble, dispelling some of the fog she had been experiencing.
At this point, she could probably start moving slowly. However, the thought of discovering that the barriers only needed a little push to fall suddenly appeared in her mind causing Nyx's chest to feel as if it was trapped in a vice. After coming up with various excuses to put it off, even after all the positive thinking she had done earlier, Nyx decided to check on the abyss first.
With a thought, the protective membrane covering her eyes slid closed as Nyx's consciousness moved to inwards and to her core. After focusing her sight so that she could only see where she was looking instead of the unsettling three hundred and sixty degrees, she gazed into the abyss while a small frown marred her forehead in the physical world.
====
It had been a long time since Nyx had formed her physical body. She had not returned to the abyss since, mainly because her spiritual sense made the empty feeling almost unbearable. It also didn’t help that she felt that her personality changed, becoming more cold and aloof, the longer she spent there. However, that didn't mean she was unaware of its goings-on.
At one point while bored and still feeling depressed, Nyx had discovered that she could look outwards from her core while maintaining her physical presence. It was similar to how she had been able to see the physical world from the abyss, but because there was no light within her chest, everything was pitch black. Still, strangely that didn't hinder her sight at all.
At roughly the same time that Nyx had taken note of the darkening souls that had appeared during her slumber. Even then, three of the cloud-like, gassy entities stood out from the rest.
"Hmm, Mid and Small are-" As Nyx's focused on a large, black sphere that was orbiting her body, it suddenly flickered before becoming transparent. Without any colour, it almost looked like a floating crystal ball. "All three are in the physical world? How strange. Don't they normally leave one here to keep an eye on me?"
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While she didn't know if it was the truth, Nyx's thoughts didn't seem too far of a stretch. One of the three would always remain in the abyss and keep its focus on her, providing energy and relaxing intent if she showed any signs of activity.
Nyx sighed, her physical body completing the action her spirt wanted to perform.
The three transparent spheres slowly orbited Nyx's core. All of them seemed lifeless but would occasionally release a pulse of energy carrying a faint intent. Nearby, tens of thousands of smaller black, cloud-like souls clustered like swarms of flies above a lake in summer.
Sometimes, small tears would appear in the inky-black space, and the cloud-like souls would rush towards them. As they did, they would often fight one another as they jostled to be the first to reach it. However, while they were the most energetic, the black souls were not the only things in the inky-black abyss.
Nyx could sense ordinary souls, having recovered somewhat from her cleansing, hiding at the edges of her senses. Unlike the black souls, they seemed much weaker and more skittish, quickly escaping at the slightest hint of danger.
Also, with Nyx at their centre, thousands of tiny, white lights that glittered like stars. Faint white beams, connected mostly to the big three, could be faintly seen. Even the smaller black souls had at least one or two motes leading towards them, displaying that they had gained the belief of a soul in the physical realms.
Occasionally Nyx would sense a pulse of interest aimed towards her, but for the most part, the smaller souls ignored her believing she slept an eternal slumber. A Deity in its death throws as it becomes one with the abyss. A dormant volcano that may never awaken.
Nyx chuckled, the sound from the physical world sounding extremely faint and distorted in her mind’s eye. As she couldn’t really tell what a soul was thinking, she had formed a habit of making up stories and personalities for them. This included how she felt they should feel about her.
Because of this, and the lack of other entertainments, Nyx had spent a vast amount of time observing them when she was awake. While it hadn’t been that interesting, the black souls had somewhat impressed her. Especially when they discovered new ways to travel to the physical world without using rifts and taking over dead or prepared bodies.
The largest three, which she had named Big, Little and Mid, would build their forms from energy and resources plundered from the physical world. While, from what Nyx could interpret from the pulses of intent, the smaller souls were too weak and had to possess a body and mate to give birth to suitable vessels for each other. While she felt it seemed inefficient since not even Nyx knew when a tear in the abyss would appear, or where it would lead, it appeared the souls had somehow made it work.
The big three also seemed to have the capacity to mate and give birth. This caused the strongest of the smaller souls to battle with each other for the rights to possess one of the powerful vessels. However, it appeared that some of the big three’s offspring were too strong for the lesser souls and would turn the table and consumed instead. When this happened, two of the big three would release pulses of pride and arrogance.
However, Nyx could only infer this from vague intent and wasn't sure if this was actually the case.
Because they could visit the physical world seemingly on a whim, and Nyx couldn't even experience what they did like the white motes of light, she became extremely envious of the dark souls over time. To make matters slightly worse, though they had displayed three new ways an entity of the abyss could infiltrate the physical worlds, they were methods Nyx could never use.
Instinctively, Nyx knew that to exist in the physical world, she needed to be connected to her core. Without it, as a bridge between realities and the anchor for her soul, she would have to expend vast amounts of energy to maintain her form. The moment her strength ran out, she would be sucked back into the abyss, and her soul would be severely weakened. While she didn’t believe she would be in any danger as she was in the abyss, Nyx felt for some unknown reason that it should only be used as a last resort.
Huffing noisily, Nyx watched in annoyance as a few small souls were sucked into themselves before vanishing, the sign she took to be they had been born into a body. It wasn't as impressive as the tears, but it seemed to take a lot less energy and be less jarring for the souls. When they returned, the souls always showed a significant increase in power and intelligence. Especially when compared to those that that had forced their way through.
Finding the scene irritating, Nyx returned her gaze to the black souls swarm around the transparent crystals and sighed as she wondered when the abyss had stopped being the abyss. While it was her home and sanctuary, the more time passed, the more it changed and developed in a way that seemed separate from her.
Nyx had often been tempted to wipe the dark souls out and return the abyss to what she believed to be its Natural state but always stopped herself at the last moment when remembering the isolation she had felt after culling the ordinary souls.
With the dark souls to focus on, which she had little to no control over, Nyx found a weird sense of peace. Eventually, this helped her come to accept that something terrible had happened in the physical realms and that her adoptive mother was probably gone.
"If I even had one." Nyx shuddered, quickly suppressing the notion that her previous life had been nothing more than a dream.
Suddenly, a flux of energy at the edge of the abyss drew Nyx’s attention. However, she didn't enter and see what had caused it. Remembering the breathtaking sight had been spoiled when the realms collapsed, as well as the strange sense of loss, she felt no desire to return to that place. However, that didn’t stop her feeling a pang of pain where her heart should have been.
Nyx felt her body grimace in the real world. She didn't know why she felt so bothered, especially after so much time and having limited interactions with the Goddess of Night. It was as if they had bonded at some spiritual level that Nyx was unaware of, or else she couldn’t make sense of how attached she was. However, no matter how much Nyx tried to logic it out and accept, the thought of her self proclaimed adoptive mother falling caused equal amounts of sorrow and rage to bubble beneath the surface for a couple of seconds.
Because she was so focused inwardly, Nyx didn't realise that she had unintentionally released a couple of bolts of black lightning from the mist surrounding her core in anger.
The bolts smashed into two nearby black souls, instantly destroying them while damaging a couple of others nearby. As if they could see what had happened, the rest, including the big three, slowly retreated as if they had come face to face with a terrifying predator.
Without Nyx knowing, the abyss had seemingly frozen in what felt existence holding its breath. Things started moving again only when Nyx had stabilised her mood, and the angry black mist that swirled around her core had calmed. As it settled, the black souls quickly regained their positions around her as if nothing had happened. However, faint traces of black mist swirled within the transparent crystals of the big three, indicating that at least some of their consciousness was paying attention.
As Nyx continued to recover from her momentary burst of anger, she spotted one of the injured black souls flickering, seemingly about to go out. It had been barely grazed but was still struggling to maintain its presence.
Not knowing that she was the cause, believing it had just returned from the physical world after a traumatic experience, Nyx cautiously released a thin strand of inky-black essence. Seemingly invisible to the souls nearby, the energy quickly reached the struggling soul and wrapped around it. As its pulses stabilised and it’s colour darkened, Nyx sensed relief from the soul's intent as she slowly withdrew her power.
The small act of what she perceived to be random kindness made her mood a little better.
The positive emotion only grew as Nyx watched the soul, much darker than before, float slightly closer as if seeking security and comfort from her presence. It also seemed as if the other souls nearby had noticed its plight as they all sent it strands of energy. With each strand, the pulses of the recovered soul revealed relief, warmth and a small amount of pride.
Seeing this, Nyx drew in more of the abyss and converted it to her domain, letting it disperse from close to where the small soul was. In response, the little soul’s pulses intensified as it rapidly started to absorb and convert the energy to its own.
It had not been too long ago that she had discovered that the souls enjoyed greedily cultivating in her energy. While their passive absorption didn't put too much strain on her, if she were to help like she just had, Nyx would lose a tremendous amount of power due to the soul's inability to absorb even a fraction of what she provided.
As such, she usually only did so on a whim when she was feeling down.
This had been another point that had drawn Nyx to the idea of wiping them out, this time so she could save energy. However, once again, she felt their existence outweighed the cost. The entertainment they brought, similar to how the small soul was seemingly flaunting its new power before its peers, and the connection she had developed with them having watched them grow for so long always brought her a small amount of happiness.
Even though they had advanced so much, Nyx still saw them as the tiny, instinct-driven entities that would fall apart after a couple of incarnations. This enabled her to distance herself and not grow attached, but at the same time, it stopped her from perceiving the actual rate of their development and increased intellect.
With this in mind, Nyx had recently started to absorbed more of the abyss into her domain and concentrated it around her core. Like moths circling a flame, the ploy had worked, and she had an easier time observing the souls as they assembled around her. In fact, she had felt more than one pulse of gratitude, but whenever she looked for the source, she had been unable to find it.
Yet, due to the fact she could only watch their cloud-like bodies and sense their intent, Nyx's interest was always short-lived, and she would typically return to the physical world reasonably quickly. However, while she was watching, Nyx had often wondered if what she was doing and how she felt was similar to the other gods.
After observing, sometimes guiding, they would grow bored and disinterested with the life that was expanding around them. There was also the issue that because the souls could experience what Nyx could not, she felt herself becoming resentful of the entities whose fates she held in the palm of her hands. If she could do so without wiping them out, she inevitably would have created a lot more trouble for them.
Growing bored of the small soul's shenanigan's and her mood souring rapidly, Nyx started to count the white motes of light. When she realised it was impossible to keep track, she changed her attention to the dozen or so specks that were connected to her core.
As she thought about the disparity in numbers, the three black lines connecting Nyx to the large spheres momentarily glowed as a surge of energy flowed towards her. When the soft, calming power washed over her core, the urge to sleep abruptly grew before being suppressed.
As Nyx absorbed the energy freely given, refining it and turning it into her own, the frown on her body in the physical world grew. "Hmph, wanting to keep me sleeping so they can play about in the real world while getting all the benefits of being close to me..."
The expression on Nyx's face continued to fall. Unlike the white motes of light, as Nyx could not link with the dark souls, and could only try and guess what was going on via the limited information transmitted by their intent. As if trying to distract her, the largest and smallest of the three suddenly released a couple of pulses.
To Nyx, it felt as if they were hunting something but had run into each other while chasing the same prey, and her thoughts quickly drifted as she started to imagen a story behind their encounter. While Big and Little seemingly battled, Nyx could sense the two souls weren't serious. Without any suspense for Nyx, the pulses started to merge, and she felt the animalistic intent from them swell.
“Really?” Nyx didn’t realise it but her frown in the physical world had vanished as she focused on Big and Little, the most violent but also most expressive of the big three. “Do you always have to fuck after fighting? Can’t you be more like Mid and make it more interesting?”
During this, the middle-sized sphere faded into the background more, apparently wanting to be unnoticed. However, from the small waves of intent, Nyx could sense that it was stealthily bypassing the other two and going after their prey.
“Atta girl," While Nyx wasn’t sure on their genders, there was something about Mid that made her feel as if it was female. As she egged on Mid, sending a small amount of energy towards its sphere that seemingly encouraged it, Nyx continued to make stories in her mind. “That will teach them for taking their eyes off the price.”
However, while Nyx was having fun, she couldn’t ignore the pang of jealousy she felt.
Quickly suppressing the urge to lash out again, remembering all the times she had done so only to her detriment, Nyx projected her essence towards the lesser souls nearby to distract herself. They weren't as entertaining as the big three, but she wanted to see how long it would take for them to form their crystals and add more characters and chaos to her half-imagined reality show.
She only stopped when she felt the strain on her soul, indicating that she was nearly out of soul energy. It was only at this point Nyx remembered that her prison was on the verge of collapse. “Ooops, I forgot. I won’t be going right back to sleep.”
At this time, the three large souls had returned to their dull, lifeless appearances and only released a few pulses of intense concentration.
Wondering if she had been subconsciously handicapping herself, her soul power being the source of her most potent abilities and skills at the moment, Nyx slowly withdrew her consciousness from her core and towards her eyes.
====
This time, the process was much slower as Nyx let her thoughts wander. Seeing the souls in the abyss behave in such a lively manner, she had started to imagen what she would do if she could escape.
In her mind, images of her living a seemingly dull life, travelling and having many everyday experiences, fluttered past. But at the same time, Nyx thought about the excitement and thrill of the hunt. There was even a rogue thought or two of Nyx finding someone to be intimate with. While she still felt the draw of the humanoid female form, time and how she now saw herself had worn away most of her prejudices. In fact, one of the most significant appeals to Nyx was the heat and intimacy that she imagined would be generated from bodily contact.
Shaking her head slightly, this time not generating any cracking sounds, Nyx sighed. "Damn it. Seeing them be so lively has got my blood pumping. There are so many things I want to do."
As she continued to daydream, the anxiety in Nyx's heart gradually diminished. Soon, she was even criticising herself for being so worried. "That's right, I doubt they even remember my name let alone the past after all this time. If I can leave, I should just take it easy and go with the flow. Experience the world a bit before I search for answers."
However, even though Nyx was trying to think peaceful thoughts, her claws slightly extended as the spikes on her back, arms and legs lifted as the urge to stalk, hunt and devour steadily grew. Distant memories of when she had toyed with her victims slowly surfaced, causing her smile to warp into something more feral.
Pushing the violent thoughts to the back of her mind, Nyx was shocked to find that she wasn’t actually sure what she should do when she left. While she had dreamt and planned many scenarios, they all felt like the end goal. Also, she didn’t really know what state the world was in, and so it could all be for nought.
While she had ignored this thought in the past, mainly because she didn’t know how long it would be until she could see the light of day again, it caused her to shiver as the fear of the unknown once again began to corrode her excitement.
Taking a deep breath, her body moving smoothly and without pain, Nyx shook her head. “I just need to remain unknown and low key. If I do that, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
The more she thought about it, the more appealing the idea became. She wanted to be nothing more than a passing stranger, a ghost. For those she would interact with, they would be like ships passing in the night.
"And what’s better, even if some do know of me, nobody actually knows me." While she didn't know how long had passed, Nyx knew from the fact she had only had a single light at one point that all but one of the people that had known her in the past were dead.
As that was so long ago, she tried to force herself into believing it was unlikely that anyone would care about her anymore. If Nyx had thought a little more and realised that there were many people, including gods, that had believed or known of her existence which did not have a soul connection, she might not have been so quick to accept her thoughts as fact.
However, as she convinced herself to feel better about leaving, she couldn’t help but think that she was naive. Just before she started to try and discover the root of the feeling, Nyx shook her head as if trying to dislodge the thought. "I guess before I waste any more time thinking, I should stop procrastinating and find out how long I have left."
Sensing her body was now defrosted enough to move, Nyx slowly uncurled and lifted herself onto all fours. After giving a little shake, the spikes on her back scraping against her skin, she pushed herself up onto her feet. As the rags fell from her body, Nyx stretched leisurely as she looked around. The room was pitch black, but with the limited light from her eyes, and her affinity with darkness, she could still see pretty well. The only limitation to her sight was the loss of colour casting the world in various shades of black.
Picking off and discarding the few bits that got stuck to her spikes, Nyx chuckled before yawning. "So the room's formations are truly dead. Will little Nyxy be able to go out and play?"
Nyx's feminine, slightly serpent-like voice rang out before she snickered, a couple of memories when she had said similar things for different reasons surfacing. This time, instead of trying to intimidate, Nyx had spoken out loud, with a light-hearted sentence and tone to try and alleviate some of her nervousness.
Slowly walking out of the bedroom, taking a couple of steps to balance herself, she scanned the large hall and frowned. One of the corners had collapsed while she had been asleep, revealing a large mound of dirt. However, the disapproving expression only lasted a moment as Nyx noticed the door she had entered, a little over eight thousand years before, had reappeared.
Seeing this, Nyx hesitated for a moment as the beat of her core increased. While she expected to make some progress, she never expected that her prison door would be wide open. As the surprise wore off, the realisation but she might actually be able to escape now, Nyx’s anxiety increased.
In the abyss, there was nothing that could harm her as it was her domain. However, the physical world was different. While she had thought about it earlier, it had been theory and what-ifs. Now, presented with the doorway that appeared to be a hungry maw waiting to swallow her whole, everything felt a lot more real.
After she stared at the door for a long time, Nyx swallowed loudly and clenched her fists. At the same time, she wondered if the reason it felt so big and intimidating was because of her tiny stature or what it represented in her mind. However, before she could become lost in her thoughts, Nyx slapped her cheeks. “No. No more thinking.”
A small smile appeared on her face. “It’s time to go on an adventure.”
As her words trailed off, Nyx hesitantly started walking towards the door. However, she didn’t approach it directly and skirted towards the edges of the hall. After reaching the doorway, and sneakily jabbing her hand out to test if there was a barrier that would stop her from moving forward, Nyx hid behind the wall before cautiously sticking her head out.
Before her, a tunnel bathed in darkness stretched out beyond her sight. The dim light from her eyes seemed like blinding beacons, causing Nyx to frown. However, because of the extra colour, she was able to see that the crumbling walls on each side were in an even worse state than the hall she was standing in.
The thought of being buried alive suddenly popped into Nyx's head. Wondering if she would be crushed or forced to dig her way out, Nyx tilted her head to the side and listened intently.
Though she didn't fear the darkness, the urge to retreat was almost too much as the core in Nyx's chest increased in tempo. "Come on, Nyx. You've not become an agoraphobic after all this time, right? If I don’t like it, I can always come back."
Nyx’s voice echoed off the walls as she tried to make light of the situation as she encouraged herself to move.
After a short while, Nyx sucked in a deep breath of air, coughing slightly because the dustiness, and slowly started to creep forward. Now and then, she would stop and listen or examine the walls and floor.
She would often come across small cave-ins and would carefully dig her way through. Due to the lack of nutrients, Nyx’s body had become comparatively small, so it was quite easy for her to dig her way through most of the time. If the dirt and stone looked like it would be unable to support itself, Nyx's body would transform into a black mist and pass through the soil until there was enough space to reform. When she did, Nyx would suck her core back towards her body, effectively pulling it through the dirt.
However, every time she did, she would reveal a pained expression and need to sit down and rest. After she had done this twelve times, her body had shrunk even further, now appearing to be similar in height to an eight or nine-year-old girl.
Looking at her hands, flexing her fingers, Nyx chuckled. “Waiting away. I need a good meal, or I’ll never grow big and strong."
As Nyx continued down the corridor, seemingly much longer than she remembered, the more excited she became. The essence in the surroundings that had been extremely lacking started to improve. Every time she took a breath in, streams of black and icy-white would form and flow into her nostrils and mouth. While this wasn’t common, in Nyx’s time this phenomenon wasn’t unheard of. If one had exhausted their essence reserves entirely, the suction force could cause certain elemental types to congregate and become visible. Often, it was seen when cultivators were in a life and death situation and were going all out.
After Nyx reached the maze-like corridors, she shuddered and crouched as the energies had reached a point where they started to mix and circulate her body. While it wasn't exactly a pleasurable feeling, the gradual return of her strength was intoxicating. With each circulation, Nyx felt her body and energy recover. As it did, more of her hesitation dissolved, and she started moving faster as a bright smile appeared on her face.
After examing some of the broke runes marking the walls, Nyx was quickly able to navigate her way and felt the air gradually becoming cleaner and more vibrant. Without the befuddlement and space distorting enchantments, the twisting and ever crossing corridors were child's play to her. Often she was able to bypass whole floors as she climbed the rubble from the occasional collapse ceiling above.
It was when Nyx was stalking past a battle-damaged intersection that she thought back to her battle through these corridors and noticed that the passages were clear of any remains.
"Hmm?" Stopping between two heavily damaged walls, Nyx crouched as she placed her tiny claws in the markings left on the floor. Because of the small size of her hand, only three of her nails could reach the deep grooves she had carved during her rampage.
After staring for a long time, she slowly stood up and shook her head as she remembered the black lightning and rift above Corban. “I would have thought they abandoned this place? Maybe they snuck back in or the lightning faded?”
After Nyx's gaze scanned the thick dust covering everything, she sighed. "That, or a really, really long time has passed."
Many hours later, Nyx came to an enormous underground hall. Several pillars stood on each side, holding up the ceiling. In one corner, the column had fallen, causing a mountain of rubble to cover the floor.
As Nyx gazed to each side, she could see carvings on the walls. However, most had faded beyond recognition. There were many figures, their features worn away by time, but the most common aspect that Nyx could make out was a tiny black silhouette with what looked like a tail. There were also a couple of black circles with what looked like lightning shooting from them. “I wonder… is this my story? But why carve it into a decoration? Did they turn my imprisonment into some sort of victory?”
While Nyx wanted to study the walls more, the strong smell of water and soft breeze she could feel on her skin wouldn't let her focus. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head as she listened. After a few moments, Nyx's long, pointed ears occasionally changed position as she started to walk. With each step, she felt as if the beat of her core was about to burst through her chest.
Nyx shivered, the pulse of her core increasing. While she was still nervous about what she might face, Nyx could no longer suppress her desires as she started to imagen the wind, sky and sun.
Without Nyx's knowledge, in the abyss, a small amount of her intent leaked out through the layers of insulation, causing the two of the three spheres and lesser souls to shudder. The third, Mid, seemed to be too focused on the real world to sense it. After a brief moment of inactivity, the abyss exploded into action as souls scrambled for any way to enter the physical world. However, the intent they released wasn't one of fear or joy but a desire to gain their goddess' acknowledgement, grace and backing.
Back in the physical world, Nyx body exploded into motion as she charged towards the collapsed section of the hall and quickly climbed to the top of the heap. Flickers of black energy covered her fingers as she started to tear through the rock like a hot knife through butter. The higher she dug, often causing more rubble to fall, the more frantic her movements became.
It was only when a couple of drops of water hit Nyx's face that she jerked to a stop. Slowly pulling her hand back, faint light filled the small tunnel-like hole left in its wake.
"Outside." Nyx stared into the hole, feeling the wind blowing onto her face as she listened to the faint howling noise.
Nyx’s body shuddered with excitement as an enormous grin, too wide to be considered natural, bloomed on her face. After taking a couple of calming breaths, she slowly pulled her hand back. At the same time, Nyx’s core within her chest started to move. After it travelled to her right shoulder, it started moving down her arm. As it progressed, the flesh and bone that it came into contact with turn into a black mist, only reforming when it had passed.
“I want to,” Nyx shouted as her arm blurred as it short forward. "be free~."
The moment her core left her hand, Nyx’s body seemingly dissolved into a black mist with tiny flickers of blue lightning and trailed behind it.
However, Nyx ignored this as her perception returned to her core and gazed out upon a grey, dingy world. Yet, instead of being upset and the poor weather, Nyx felt ecstatic. The grey clouds moving across the sky due to the wind, high above the pitch-black rift surrounded by shinning blue runes were like a beautiful sunset to her. Combined with the ruins, large heaps of twisted metal and battle scared landscape below, Nyx felt overwhelmed and would have shed tears of joy if she was in her physical body.
Surrounding the ruins, Nyx could also faintly see a shimmering, dome-like barrier. However, she didn’t care that she had finally run into another wall of her prison. Instead, it offered a small amount of reassurance as she urged her energy to catch up to her core as quickly as possible so she could reform her body.
By the time her core had reached its zenith, Nyx's body had reformed, and she was able to release the hysterical laughter she had been unable to release. It was only when she was a meter from the floor did she react and twist her body so she would land on her feet. The cold splash of water from the puddle, though significantly warmer than its counterparts in her room, caused the tiny scales on Nyx's arms to slightly lift as she shivered in pleasure.
After wiggling her toes, her tail swishing behind her, Nyx bent down and raked her hands through across the dirt-covered concrete-like material that could have once been a road. As she did, Nyx expanded her senses to the maximum as she tried to experience everything in her surroundings.
However, the moment she did, Nyx released a low grunt before spitting out a mouthful of black blood and cradling her head with her eyes closed.
“Calm down, calm down,” Nyx repeated the words, like a mantra, as she focused her mind and started to filter out the overwhelming amount of information and stimulation while rocking on the souls of her feet.
Because Nyx's senses had enhanced to a shocking level, and that she had basically been living in sensory deprivation for millennia, she hadn’t been prepared and suffered a severe backlash.
After a significant amount of time, in which the sky gradually lightened, and some of the clouds started to break apart, letting rays of golden light through, Nyx slowly stood up. There was still a small amount of black blood seeping from her eyes and left ear, sizzling angrily when it dripped onto the dirty floor.
However, even with her head feeling as if it was about to split, Nyx couldn’t help but slowly lift her arms. Feeling the wind caressing her skin, Nyx began tilting her head back as she took a deep breath.
"I'M FREEE~." Nyx’s shout caused a small shockwave to resonate outwards from her body and her voice to echo from the surrounding concrete ruins.
Less than half a second later, an ear-piercing shriek followed by an enormous bang erupted from Nyx’s left, causing her to flinch. Thoughts of how she was going to keep a low profile fluttered across her mind as she turned and saw the faint barrier she had spotted earlier shake.
This was followed by another shriek and what sounded like a few explosions. Nyx was almost sure that with each blast, whatever was making the noise was getting closer.
“Awww come on.” Nyx sighed, though she couldn't keep the smile off her face for long. The joy of being outside after so long overwhelming any concerns she had at the moment.