Yun Jin felt himself drifting, weightless. A strange sensation of detachment overtook him, like floating in a dream—but unlike a dream, his senses were sharp. Too sharp. His body wasn’t entirely his, nor did he feel grounded in reality. There was no up or down, no direction to anchor himself.

Darkness stretched endlessly around him, an abyss without walls, without sky. It was the same sensation he had felt back in the Dryad Dungeon when he first glimpsed the void beyond comprehension.

Then, a sound.

Not a voice in the conventional sense, but something far greater—a deep hum, the kind that seemed to reverberate through the very fabric of space. The vibration resonated through his bones, sinking into him like an undeniable force of the cosmos itself.

He shouldn’t have understood it.

Yet, somehow, he did.

[ Abyssal Language Unlocked: Rank C ]

"Run."

The single word was neither warning nor plea. It was a command, raw and absolute.

Yun Jin's eyes snapped open.

He was no longer drifting.

Instead, he was standing—no, moving—amidst a battlefield of impossible scale.

Vast, liquid darkness stretched as far as the eye could see, illuminated only by shifting waves of light that pulsed like an ocean caught in an unseen tide. It was beautiful, mesmerizing.

Then, his breath caught.

His entire body tensed in shock, maybe even horror.

Because above him, blotting out the sky, was something he could not comprehend.

A Void Orca.

Not just a baby. A true Void Orca, so colossal that its very body stretched across the heavens like a living galaxy. Its black, undulating skin shimmered, refracting waves of glowing light as it swam through the abyss. The currents of energy he had mistaken for simple light were, in fact, part of its celestial body, flowing across its form like the aurora over an endless night sky.

It was fleeing.

Yun Jin turned, his instincts screaming at him to assess the battlefield.

Behind the great Void Orca, monstrosities pursued.

A fleet of grotesque, living ships.

Their hulls were pulsing with sickly, shifting flesh, appendages growing and retracting at random as though the vessels themselves were alive. Some were the size of mountains, others smaller and dagger-like, darting between the larger entities in a formation that was both chaotic and terrifyingly precise.

And leading them—

A titanic, planet-sized entity.

It hovered like a grotesque celestial body, an orb of writhing flesh and malformed orcans, pulsating like a living heart. Vast, jagged anchors trailed from its form, massive harpoons of abyssal steel, eerily similar to the glaive-spears of the Abyssal Mermaids Yun Jin had fought.

Then, realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

He wasn't seeing this battle from the perspective of an observer.

He was part of it.

His perspective shifted, and he became aware of his own form.

Not as Yun Jin.

But as a Baby Void Orca.

The immense mother Void Orca surged forward, pushing against the darkness, her celestial glow flickering. But even as she swam, the grotesque fleet closed in.

Then—the harpoons fired.

Massive, obsidian spears shot forth, piercing into her body.

The great mother Orca thrashed, her agony sending violent ripples across the abyss.

But she did not stop.

With one final, desperate act, she turned toward the enemy and opened her maw.

A wave of pure, condensed light erupted forth—

The sheer force of the attack annihilated dozens of enemy vessels in an instant, tearing them apart as they burst into blinding explosions.

For a moment, it seemed as if she had created an opening.

But then, the planet-sized monstrosity absorbed the shattered remains of the fallen ships.

Its pulsing flesh expanded, mutated, feeding on the destruction to grow even larger.

Then, the outer layers of the grotesque orb peeled apart, revealing the red crystal buried at its core.

A crimson harpoon, massive and crackling with abyssal power, launched from its depths.

Yun Jin could only watch as it pierced through the mother Orca’s chest.

The moment of impact sent a shudder through her being.

Then, corruption spread.

The luminous glow of her celestial skin began to darken.

She knew.

Her life was measured in mere seconds.

Yet she did not hesitate.

With her last remaining strength, the mother Orca turned—and swam straight into the abyssal fleet.

One final wave of radiant energy erupted from her being, consuming everything in its path.

Collision.

The great entities collided in a cataclysmic explosion, a detonation so vast it swallowed all sight.

Heat and light surged through the abyss—

And then—

Darkness.

Yun Jin gasped.

The battlefield was gone.

He was himself again. His body was intact, standing within an expanse of nothingness.

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Yet, as he steadied his breath, he realized—he was not alone.

In front of him, a cage of crimson energy crackled violently.

Suspended within its depths, a Baby Void Orca thrashed, trapped within the blood-red chains of an unknown power.

Yun Jin's gaze narrowed. His instincts screamed at him, and he turned—

Standing before the cage, staff in hand, was the Elder Abyssal Mermaid.

Its grotesque form loomed in the void, and embedded deep within its forehead, the crimson gem pulsed ominously.

Slowly, it turned toward him.

Its abyssal voice reverberated through the emptiness.

"You, lander—how dare you step foot into this sacred place?!"

--

Yun Jin’s gaze swept across the endless void, his expression unreadable. He stood firm, feet planted on a surface that did not exist, surrounded by nothing but the abyss.

His voice was steady. “Sacred? This isn’t even a place.”

The Elder Abyssal Mermaid’s form rippled, its jagged crimson crystal pulsating with fury. Its voice, layered with contempt, rang out in the airless expanse.

"You speak our language? Foul! How dare you?"

A deep, resonating hum vibrated through the void, sending unseen ripples outward. "This is not a place. This is our mind—our sea of birth, the wave of origin, the very current of our souls. How dare you enter? Get out now!"

Yun Jin’s expression remained cold. He took a step forward, feeling the weight of something unseen pressing against him. His body, though sluggish, was slowly acclimating to the strange rules of this realm.

“So you’re the one controlling that innocent creature.” His fingers curled into a fist. “No.”

The Elder scoffed. "This beast belongs to me! It is our slave, our pet! What do you know, outsider?" The contempt in its voice sharpened. "If our civilization had not fallen, filth like you wouldn’t even be worthy of gazing upon us!"

Yun Jin’s eyes flickered. “A failed civilization?”

The Elder let out a slow, derisive chuckle. "So ignorant. So blind. And yet you stand before me, daring to question what you could never comprehend."

The void trembled as the creature's rage built, its grotesque form stretching, expanding, no longer bound by its weakened physical state.

"Do you even understand what you face? I am the last of my kind! The remnants of a once-glorious empire! And yet I am forced to speak to a mere hairless primate! If my people still reigned, you’d be nothing but a tile beneath our feet!"

Yun Jin ignored the words. His focus sharpened. The longer he stood here, the more control he gained over his body. He raised a hand, palm facing outward, as an icy mist swirled around him.

“My task here is to kill you.”

His qi surged.

[Ice Conjuring]

A sword materialized in his grip, forged from his own will—a blade of ice, different from any weapon he had wielded before. The double-edged design mirrored the weapons of his home world, its crystalline edge gleaming with unyielding purpose.

The Elder Abyssal Mermaid sneered. "You?"

It laughed, a hideous, reverberating sound that made the very air distort. "You, who don’t even know how to fight within the soul? You, who stand before one who has conquered it?"

The void itself rippled, responding to the Elder’s will.

Abyssal energy surged around it, its body growing a hundredfold in an instant. The pitiful, starving husk of a refugee was gone. In its place stood a towering, ancient horror—an Elder Abyssal in its full, terrifying glory.

It raised its arm, claws extending into spears of blackened bone, pulsating with malice.

"If not for the system’s restrictions, you would have been erased the moment you set foot here!"

Then it attacked.

Yun Jin moved instinctively, raising his blade just as the first strike came.

A black tendril lashed toward him, slicing through the air like a falling meteor. He twisted his body, barely dodging, the force alone splitting the void behind him.

He countered, his sword flashing with frost.

[Sword Wave]

A crescent arc of ice shot forward, slicing through the abyss. It struck the Elder’s form—but the wound sealed instantly, its flesh reforming as if his attack had never landed.

The Elder grinned. "Useless."

Another strike.

A clawed hand raked through space, forcing Yun Jin to parry. The impact sent a shudder through his entire body.

The Elder’s soul wasn’t bound by flesh. Every part of it could shift, twist, regenerate in ways he couldn’t fully predict. Every strike he landed was undone in seconds.

His breathing grew heavier.

He was losing.

The Elder loomed over him, its eyes gleaming. "This is the difference between us. Your soul is still weak. Mine is eternal."

Yun Jin tensed as the next attack came, a strike he knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge—

And then—

A wall of ice erupted between them.

A freezing storm swept through the battlefield, halting the Elder’s advance.

Yun Jin’s eyes widened as a familiar presence emerged from the frost.

A towering, ghostly figure—broad-shouldered, thick-bearded, exuding an aura of sheer, unshakable might.

Olag.

The spirit warrior turned to Yun Jin, smirking. "Show it what you’ve got, young warrior."

Then, just as suddenly, he was gone, his presence fading like melting snow.

But Yun Jin understood.

He tightened his grip on his sword.

He could feel it now—the truth Merlin had spoken of.

This wasn’t a battle of might. It was a battle of will.

If the Abyssal Mermaids could manipulate their own mass, shape their bodies at will—then he had to do the same.

He focused.

This wasn’t about just fighting a monster. This was about defining his own existence.

His sword shifted.

The ice reshaped, transforming—not just a weapon, but a declaration.

The hilt curved, its edge sharpened.

The Heaven-Ruling Blade.

The sword of his master.

The Elder Abyssal snarled. "Cheap tricks won’t save you!"

It lunged.

Yun Jin moved.

Light Blade Sovereign Style: Thirteenth Form—Vector to Heaven.

A single strike.

Space itself split apart.

The Elder Abyssal Mermaid froze mid-motion. A thin line of radiant energy ran down its form—before, slowly, its body split apart.

It howled, but its voice was fading, its very essence unraveling.

In its final moments, it glared at Yun Jin.

"Damn you! Why couldn’t you just look away?! Why do you force us to fight?! SYSTEM—!!"

The scream ended.

Its form dissolved into nothing.

The cage surrounding the Baby Void Orca shattered.

Freed, it flickered for a moment, then turned, swimming downward—deeper into the abyss in fear of being caged again.

Yun Jin reached out instinctively. "Wait—!"

Then—a rupture.

A horrifying, otherworldly presence stirred from the deep.

[WARNING! OUTSIDE INFLUENCE DETECTED. DEPLOYING PROTECTION.]

[PROTECTION FAILED.]

A monstrous tentacle surged from the abyss, latching onto Yun Jin and the Void Orca.

Pain.

Unimaginable, incomprehensible pain.

Yun Jin screamed, his mind burning, his soul tearing apart—

Then—

A hum.

A soft, reverberating sound, vast as the cosmos itself.

A wave of shimmering light erased the tentacles from existence.

He looked up.

A vast, celestial figure loomed above—the Void Orca Mother.

She gazed at him with timeless, majestic eyes.

A current of radiant energy washed over him, flowing through his body. Warm. Kind.

[Your Light Affinity has been upgraded to Rank C.]

She turned.

With slow, graceful movements, she swam deeper into the abyss—vanishing into the endless darkness.

Yun Jin held the baby Void Orca close, carrying it upward—toward the light above.