Garden Of The Abyss

Taking in one more breath that was fought against the dense, sharp storm, he marched forward with a throbbing heart.

Calm down, he thought.

It wasn't just him telling himself it, he commanded it of himself--allowing the thumping of his anxious heart to settle as his breathing steadied.

"This is weird…"

Even standing before something as crazy as this, I can be as calm as if I was experiencing a tranquil dream, he thought.

At last, the king finished building his extensive grandiose magic, pulling his mighty blade down as he brought with it the roaring tempest. As it began to fall down directly in the path towards the young man, an endless howl was accompanied by a dozen thunderclaps that signaled its swift approach.

It doesn't matter if I die, I can come back. But, for Iris, that's a different story. So...I'll use this. It's weird; it's not like I've ever learned of its name or nature, but it's just naturally known to my mind. It's scary...there's no other answer coming to my mind. So this is my only path to victory, isn't it? Even so, I can sense it...my mind and body are telling me this ability is on a level I'm not ready to handle yet.

Sounds like just the type of ability I need right now, Ren smiled.

Readying his body, he relaxed his stiffened, anxious muscles with a soft breath that was fought for in the wild tempest. Everything was blocked from his senses, everything but the warmth of his blood as it traversed his veins, and the melodic beating of his heart.

Shout it out and win, he thought.

" Let the chime of the world's bell grant me strength. Be like a diamond; indestructible. Be like a thunderbolt; fearsome and surging with power. Godhead: Vajra!"

Like the scales of a dragon, hexagonal patterns stretched over his form, taking on a celestial complexion as a mixture of divine energies anchored to him.

Descending down as a personal apocalypse, the tempest crashed against his body with a blinding force. Immediately, he was engulfed in its viscous, spiraling nature that shredded any solid matter it came into contact with--but, even so, he withstood it, holding it back with his body.

It hurts. It hurts. It's so heavy...so powerful--I can feel it trying to peel me apart, rip me limb from limb--all across my body…! He thought.

With such acute pain surging through his body as if a thousand daggers sailed across his skin, he used Heaven to nullify his own sense of pain.

But, somehow, it didn't work. Though the pain was dulled, it still existed—burning into his skin with enough pain to make a man foam at the mouth. It wasn't just a tunnel of erratic, malicious wind that engulfed him in its somber form; flashing around him and pelting his body was lightning that never rested.

How is this possible? Don't tell me his magic has a special property? Is it magic negation? No…that wouldn't be able to interfere with an innate ability. It's something higher than that, Ren surmised.

As the wild tempest pushed against him like a hulking colossus, he dug his soles into the ground, pushing back against it with his mystical body as he roared out, though it came out in a painful groan.

Keep it back, Ren! Keep it...away! He told himself.

Pressured from all sides by the unbelievable weight and strength of the mountainous, controlled storm, he could feel the sensation of blood trickling from his ears and nostrils, tasting it against his tongue as his gums stung violently.

I'm going to die…! He thought.

It was a natural thought to be thrust forth in the belly of a grandiose beast; he could hardly see his own arms extended in front of him through the thick, blinding storm, but the evacuation of his own crimson blood through his pores was unmistakable.

Grit your teeth and bear it…! If I can just survive this, I can win! He thought.

Amidst such a place, surrounded by nothing by sharp, eviscerating winds and burning shrouds of lightning that never ceased--he allowed his mind to retreat.

"Keep it back,"--it was the command he gave to himself as the pain and pressure became too much, his lost blood being pulled into the colossal storm as it reddened with his essence.

Against its ears it roared with never ending thunderclaps, slamming against his body with its almighty pressure as he could only stand there and bear it.

It seemed to be an eternity before it finally came to an end; the guided tempest dissipated, leaving him standing in a carved chunk of land as if it had been excavated for all it had.

"...I did it?"

Ren asked weakly, still standing as his vision was blurry. It took a moment for his senses to return as he looked down at his body; his cloak and coat had been eviscerated completely by the wind--leaving only half of his torn, sable tunic over his torso.

Every inch of his body seemed to be either coated in his own, running blood, or marked by a cut by the dissipated tempest. Stretching from his left shoulder, over his chest, and down to the right side of his waist, a ravine of fresh scarlet existed, born from a deep evisceration to his flesh.

He watched as the culmination of his countless wounds gathered; trickling down his arms, a small stream of blood rained down on the desolated dirt.

"Ren…!"

Iris shouted painfully from her throat at the sight of the eviscerated young man. Even in the state he was in, the resolve embedded in his seraphic, golden eyes wasn't worried--raising his hand to the air as he halted the young woman in her tracks.

"Iris! Stay back."

"Huh…?"

"Remember what I told you…? Trust me. I've got this handled."

As he spoke through heavy breaths with lips diced and laden with blood, he looked back at her briefly with a small smile.

A couple dozen meters in front of him, the hollow king lowered his blade as he stood on the sole patch of flowers untouched by his destructive attack, watching the young man with his lifeless emeralds.

That's right, look at me, Ren thought.

Clenching his trembling fist as he squeezed the freshly flowing scarlet from his wounds, Ren placed a confident smile across his bloodied lips as strands of lightning that exhibited an array of lights flickering between red, blue, purple, and black danced around his raised arm.

"...Vajra is a two-act performance, Arthur."

Before the king could move, a column of celestial magecraft imprisoned him within its hold; reaching from the ground to above the the seeable heights of the sky above.

"Unbreakable" The defensive ability that let me survive that blast...that's the first part of Vajra, but it's not the last. Unbreakable also allowed me to convert the energy from that attack into mana...letting my tap into Vajra's trump card! This isn't something I'd be able to use by myself, not by a long shot, but you charged me right up! Ren thought.

Shooting up from his raised arm, the colorful strands of lightning extended into the still present clouds, overwriting and shifting them into star-like, spiral seals that centered above the sky-high prison that ensnared the king.

Iris could only fall silent, witnessing the beautiful array of cosmic lights that filled the cosmic domain as if the realm of stars brought itself down right in front of her.

Shifting into place like the gears of the heavens, the humming, celestial seals became ingrained with the column, spinning as the roar of pinnacle magecraft shook the foundation of the domain. As much as the hollow king attempted to escape his bindings, even the blessed strikes of Excalibur couldn't dent the celestial prison.

"Godhead: Vajra -- Asura Slaying Divine Instrument of Indra! Strike, Burn, and Erase!"

At his call, striking his fist down, an unmatched radiance that flashed with a spectrum nearly imperceivable to the naked eye, crashed through the celestial gates--filling the column and striking the king with impunity.

The moment the celestial retaliation of Vajra fell upon the world like a howling divinity, the entirety of the verdant stretch quaked; heat waves fluctuated rapidly, distorting the space directly around the origin of the blast.

Witnessing the beam of cosmic destruction he summoned continue to batter down against the king now hidden by its utmost light, he huffed before it finally began to settle.

"...There. I did it…"

Ren spoke in a shallow breath as he witnessed the meticulous, dense magecraft vanish, allowing the skies to clear again as the flowery fields were left further desecrated.

The gilded wheels vanished from his eyes, leaving them to burn once more with a familiar pain that left him unable to stand.

"Hey…!"

Iris shouted, catching him as he nearly fell over exhausted from the two-stage attack unleashed. Somehow, the pain was duller than the last time; it was still an indescribable pain, but he was able to bear it as he was kept close to Iris.

"You need to rest…look at you. I'll heal you."

She spoke as the young man sat on his knees, placing her hands above his cut and bloodied torso, letting a soft light caress his wounds.

With such an exhausted body, he could do nothing but sit there and breathe as his wounds were tended to by her magic, looking down at the cold, damp dirt. Staring at the ground, he realized something.

It's not disappearing....we're still inside of this place, he thought.