THE ABYSSAL PATH

THE ONE WHO WAITED

Kael did not move.

Something had opened its eyes in the darkness.

He could feel them watching him.

Not the eyes of a beast.

Not the eyes of a human.

Something older.

Something that made the air itself feel heavy.

Kael's fingers tightened around his knife.

His ribs screamed with every breath, but he ignored the pain.

Running was impossible.

Fighting was probably suicide.

So he did the only thing he could.

He waited.

The darkness ahead remained silent.

Then a faint golden light appeared.

It came from the stone platform.

Kael narrowed his eyes.

The object sitting upon it was beginning to take shape.

A book.

An enormous black book covered in cracks and ancient golden symbols.

Kael stared.

He had seen it before.

The same book from his dreams.

No.

That was impossible.

He had never seen it before tonight.

Yet something inside him recognized it.

The book slowly opened.

Its pages turned by themselves.

One.

Two.

Ten.

Hundreds.

Every page was completely blank.

Kael took a cautious step backward.

The book stopped turning.

A single golden symbol appeared on the center page.

Kael's shoulder suddenly burned.

He looked down.

Blood was dripping from his wound.

One drop fell onto the stone floor.

The moment it touched the ground—

BOOM!

Golden light erupted throughout the chamber.

Kael raised his arm to shield his eyes.

The ancient symbols carved into the walls began glowing one after another.

The book floated from the stone platform.

Kael's heart pounded.

Then a voice came from the book.

"Interesting."

Kael froze.

The voice was deep.

Calm.

But there was something beneath it.

Something that sounded almost like amusement.

"Seventeen years..."

The book slowly turned toward him.

"...and you finally found me."

Kael's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?"

Silence.

Then the voice laughed softly.

"A better question would be..."

The golden symbols brightened.

"...who are you?"

Kael frowned.

"What?"

The book suddenly slammed shut.

The entire chamber shook.

Kael's knife was immediately raised.

The voice became colder.

"Do you know why that stone called you worthless?"

Kael's expression hardened.

His mind returned to the clan.

The courtyard.

The crowd.

The laughter.

The stone remaining completely lifeless beneath his palm.

"Because I am worthless."

The voice went silent.

Then—

"Wrong."

Kael's eyes widened.

"You weren't rejected by the stone."

The book floated closer.

"The stone simply couldn't see you."

Kael stared at it.

"What does that mean?"

The voice didn't answer immediately.

Instead, a faint golden light surrounded Kael's body.

He suddenly felt something moving beneath his skin.

His breathing became difficult.

"Stay still."

Kael's instincts screamed at him to attack.

But before he could move, the golden light disappeared.

The voice became unusually quiet.

"Impossible."

Kael noticed the change immediately.

For the first time, the ancient voice sounded disturbed.

"What?"

No answer.

"Who are you?"

Still nothing.

Kael's eyes narrowed.

"If you're going to kill me, do it."

The book slowly stopped moving.

Then the voice spoke.

"My name is Veyron."

The name echoed through the chamber.

"I once stood at the summit of this world."

Kael remained silent.

"I commanded armies. Destroyed sects. Crossed forbidden lands. Fought creatures that your people now consider myths."

A pause.

"Thousands of years ago, I was betrayed."

The golden light around the book flickered.

"My enemies could not defeat me."

Veyron's voice became colder.

"So they used the one person I trusted."

Kael said nothing.

He could hear the hatred buried beneath those words.

"My body was destroyed."

"My soul was sealed."

"And this book became my prison."

Kael looked at the ancient book.

"So you've been trapped here all this time?"

"Yes."

"And you're waiting for someone?"

Another silence.

Then—

"I was."

Kael's eyes narrowed.

"Who?"

Veyron laughed.

"You."

Kael's expression changed.

"Why me?"

"Because of your body."

Kael looked down at himself.

"My body?"

Veyron's voice became serious.

"Tell me what happens when you cultivate."

Kael hesitated.

"Nothing."

"Wrong again."

Kael frowned.

Veyron continued.

"You absorb spiritual energy."

Kael's eyes widened.

"It disappears."

"Exactly."

For seventeen years, Kael had believed that was proof of his weakness.

Every time he attempted cultivation, spiritual energy entered his body.

Then vanished.

His meridians remained empty.

His strength barely changed.

He had assumed his body simply couldn't cultivate.

But Veyron's next words made his blood run cold.

"Your body is consuming it."

Kael stared at his hands.

"Consuming?"

"Spiritual energy enters your body, but it doesn't remain within your meridians like it does in ordinary cultivators."

Veyron paused.

"It is broken down."

"Absorbed."

"Compressed."

Kael's heartbeat quickened.

"Then where does it go?"

Veyron didn't answer.

That frightened Kael more than anything else.

"I don't know."

Kael looked toward the floating book.

"You don't know?"

"I have lived longer than your entire civilization remembers."

Veyron's voice became unusually quiet.

"There are very few things I cannot understand."

The golden symbols around the chamber began fading.

"But your body..."

A long silence followed.

"...is one of them."

Kael swallowed.

"What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing."

Veyron's answer came immediately.

"Your body isn't defective."

The book moved closer.

"It is unfinished."

Kael stared at it.

"Unfinished?"

"Your body possesses a constitution that existed before the cultivation systems you know today."

Veyron's voice lowered.

"The Voidborne Body."

The name seemed to make the chamber colder.

Kael repeated it quietly.

"Voidborne..."

"Your body doesn't naturally store spiritual energy."

"It consumes it."

"That is why the awakening stone showed nothing."

Kael remembered the stone.

The laughter.

The humiliation.

For seventeen years, everyone had believed he possessed no talent.

But the truth was different.

The stone had simply been incapable of detecting what was inside him.

Kael clenched his fist.

"So I really wasn't useless."

Veyron laughed softly.

"Don't misunderstand me."

Kael looked up.

"Your body being extraordinary doesn't mean you are strong."

The words struck harder than Kael expected.

"Right now, you are still weak."

Veyron continued.

"You have no cultivation."

"Your meridians are barely developed."

"You can barely survive against the weakest spirit beast."

Kael's jaw tightened.

"But..."

The book floated directly in front of him.

"...you possess something that most cultivators could never obtain."

Kael waited.

"Potential."

The word echoed through the chamber.

Kael looked at his injured hands.

For the first time, he wondered whether all those years of failure had actually been preparing him for something.

Then Veyron's voice changed.

"Give me your hand."

Kael immediately stepped backward.

"No."

A quiet laugh came from the book.

"Good."

Kael frowned.

"What?"

"You didn't obey."

"Why would I?"

"Exactly."

The book slowly opened.

"Trusting someone simply because they promise you power is foolish."

Kael's expression remained cautious.

Veyron continued.

"I don't need a servant."

"I need someone capable of making his own decisions."

Kael stared at the ancient pages.

"And what do you want from me?"

Silence.

For several seconds, Veyron said nothing.

Then:

"Your body."

Kael's pupils contracted.

The chamber suddenly felt colder.

Veyron continued calmly.

"Not today."

"Perhaps not for many years."

"But if you become strong enough..."

The book's golden symbols flickered.

"...your body may become the perfect vessel."

Kael's hand moved toward his knife.

"So that's why you chose me."

"No."

Veyron's answer surprised him.

"I chose you because I was curious."

"Curious?"

"I wanted to know how far that body could evolve."

The ancient book suddenly trembled.

Veyron went silent.

Kael noticed.

"What's wrong?"

No answer.

"Veyron?"

The book's pages began turning rapidly.

Golden symbols appeared and vanished across them.

For the first time since Kael had heard his voice...

Veyron sounded afraid.

"Impossible..."

Kael stared.

"What?"

Veyron didn't respond.

Instead, his consciousness entered Kael's body.

Kael suddenly felt a strange pressure inside his chest.

His vision blurred.

The chamber disappeared.

For one brief moment, Kael saw something else.

An endless black space.

No sky.

No ground.

No stars.

Only darkness.

And far in the distance...

stood an enormous sealed door.

Chains covered its surface.

Ancient symbols surrounded it.

Kael stared.

"What is that?"

Veyron didn't answer.

The ancient being was staring at the door too.

His voice came faintly.

"That shouldn't be there."

Kael turned toward him.

But Veyron suddenly looked behind the door.

His expression changed.

Fear.

Real fear.

Then—

Knock.

Something struck the other side.

Kael's blood ran cold.

Knock.

The chains trembled.

Veyron immediately withdrew from Kael's consciousness.

Kael collapsed onto the stone floor, gasping for breath.

The vision vanished.

The chamber returned.

He looked toward the floating book.

"Veyron..."

Silence.

"What's inside me?"

For several seconds, the ancient being didn't answer.

Finally, his voice emerged.

Much quieter than before.

"I don't know."

Kael stared at the book.

Veyron continued.

"But whatever is sealed inside your body..."

A pause.

"...it noticed me."

Kael's expression hardened.

"Is it an enemy?"

Another long silence.

"I don't know."

"Then is it helping me?"

"I don't know."

Kael slowly stood.

For the first time, he realized something.

The ancient being who had claimed to know almost everything...

was afraid of something inside him.

Veyron's voice finally returned.

"Kael."

"Yes?"

"If you wish to survive..."

The golden symbols surrounding the chamber went completely dark.

"...you must become strong."

Kael looked at his blood-covered hands.

Then he remembered the clan.

Riven.

The elders.

The stone.

The laughter.

His eyes slowly hardened.

"Then teach me."

Veyron was silent.

Then, after thousands of years of waiting, the ancient consciousness smiled.

"Very well."

The book opened.

A single golden character appeared upon the first page.

BEGIN.

And deep within Kael's body—

behind the sealed door—

something opened its eyes.

To be continued...