Far above the suffocating darkness of the Abyssal Rift, another world existed.
A world of warmth.
A world of comfort.
A world that had completely forgotten the man buried beneath it.
Overseer Facility Sigma stood like an artificial mountain carved into the side of the massive crater overlooking the Rift.
It was a fortress built from glass, reinforced steel, and cutting-edge Vanguard technology.
Its purpose was simple.
Keep the monsters below from ever reaching the surface.
But there was another purpose far more important.
Make sure nothing thrown into the Abyssal Rift ever came back.
Inside the facility's luxurious command center, Warden Silas sat comfortably behind an enormous mahogany desk.
Silas was a Rank-B Mage.
A thick, heavily built man with a permanent scowl, an expensive military uniform stretched slightly too tightly around his waist, and a synthetic cigar resting lazily between his teeth.
He poured himself a glass of hundred-year-old scotch, watching the amber liquid swirl around perfectly spherical ice cubes.
Life was good.
Very good.
Silas didn't fight on the front lines.
He didn't risk his life against Behemoth-class demons.
He didn't crawl through the nightmare below with the soldiers who actually earned their titles.
He simply sat in his climate-controlled office, watched automated defenses do their work, and collected the enormous payments that appeared in his private accounts every year.
A comfortable life.
A profitable life.
A life built on making sure certain people never returned.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The peaceful silence of the command center shattered.
The massive holographic tactical display covering the wall suddenly flashed crimson.
Silas frowned.
The glass stopped halfway to his lips.
"Report," he barked, his voice thick with irritation.
The facility AI responded in a smooth, emotionless female voice.
"Warden Silas. Automated bio-sensors in Sector 4 of the Abyssal Rift have detected a significant life-sign fluctuation."
Silas raised an eyebrow.
"A monster wave?"
"Negative," the AI replied instantly. "The fluctuation matches the unique mana signature of Prisoner Zero-One."
A brief pause.
"Kaelen Cross."
The glass in Silas's hand stopped halfway to his mouth.
Then he slammed it onto the desk.
The crystal shattered against the polished wood, spilling expensive scotch across the surface.
For a moment, silence filled the command center.
Then Silas smiled.
Not a normal smile.
A cruel, hungry smile.
"Cross..."
He slowly removed the cigar from his mouth.
Ten years.
For ten long years, that bastard had somehow managed to survive at the bottom of the Abyss.
Like a cockroach refusing to die.
Like a stain that refused to be cleaned.
Marcus Thorne, the Golden King of humanity, had paid Silas five million credits every year for a single responsibility.
Make sure Kaelen Cross suffered.
Make sure Kaelen Cross died.
And yet, somehow, the bastard had endured.
His life-sign had always remained there.
Faint.
Weak.
Barely detectable.
A pathetic little spark refusing to disappear.
Until now.
"Define fluctuation," Silas ordered, rising from his chair.
The AI responded immediately.
"Prisoner Zero-One's bio-rhythm experienced a severe anomaly, followed by the complete disappearance of his previous baseline signature."
A pause.
"Probability of biological termination: 99.8%."
For a second, Silas simply stared.
Then he laughed.
A loud, booming laugh that echoed through the command center.
"He's dead."
A wide grin stretched across his face.
"The bastard finally died."
Silas walked toward the corner of the room, where his pristine enchanted armor rested on a display stand.
This was perfect.
If he returned with Kael's skull, Marcus Thorne would reward him generously.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Perhaps double his annual payment.
Perhaps even grant him a position within the Inner City.
The thought alone made his grin widen.
Silas activated his comms unit.
"Jax. Vance. Gear up."
He lifted the heavy mana-shield generator and began strapping it onto his armor.
"We're taking the cargo elevator down to Sector 4."
A few seconds of silence followed.
Then a voice crackled through the communicator.
"Sir?" a rough voice crackled through the radio. "Down to the Rift? Are you sure? Crawler activity is unusually heavy today."
Silas rolled his eyes.
"I don't give a damn about some oversized insects."
His voice was filled with absolute confidence.
"Prisoner Zero-One finally died. We're going down there, confirming the kill, and bringing his head back."
A brief silence followed.
Then the soldier answered.
"Understood, Warden."
Ten minutes later, Silas stood inside the massive industrial cargo elevator descending into the Abyssal Rift.
The reinforced steel platform groaned as it sank deeper into the earth, carrying them toward the darkness below.
Beside him stood Jax and Vance.
Two elite Rank-C Vanguard guards.
They wore heavy black combat armor from head to toe, each piece reinforced with advanced mana plating. Their hands rested firmly on high-caliber mana rifles capable of tearing through armored vehicles.
Silas adjusted the collar of his uniform, staring at the glowing floor indicator above the elevator doors.
The numbers continued to fall.
Floor -10.
Floor -50.
Floor -100.
The surface disappeared.
The warmth disappeared.
The light disappeared.
Only darkness waited below.
"Easy money, boys," Silas chuckled, lighting another cigar as smoke curled through the elevator.
"We walk out, pick up the corpse, and we're back upstairs before dinner."
Jax and Vance remained silent.
They had no idea what waited for them at the bottom.
Neither did Silas.
Because he wasn't descending into a grave.
He was descending into a slaughterhouse.
And he had just volunteered to become the next victim.
***
Down in the suffocating darkness of Sector 4, Kaelen Cross froze.
The newly formed puddle of mana inside his chest wasn't merely a tool for casting a few weak spells.
It was directly connected to the Interstellar Overseer System.
And now, it was warning him.
A sharp, piercing siren exploded inside his mind.
[WARNING!]
[Proximity Alert: Three Human Signatures detected descending via Cargo Elevator Alpha.]
[Estimated Time of Arrival: 4 Minutes.]
Kael slowly lowered the heavy crossbow in his hands.
Beneath the hood of his Shadow-Weave Cloak, his silver eyes narrowed, glowing faintly in the endless darkness.
Humans.
That was unusual.
No one came down into the Abyssal Rift.
Not unless they were prepared to die.
This place was a one-way journey.
Unless, of course...
They weren't coming to explore.
They were coming to confirm a corpse.
Kael's eyes darkened as the answer became obvious.
His sudden mana recovery.
The strange disappearance of his previous life-sign.
The cloak masking his new magical signature.
The surface sensors must have detected the anomaly.
They thought he was dead.
They were coming to verify it.
Kael already knew who controlled the facility above.
Warden Silas.
The fat, corrupt pig who had stripped Kael of his Vanguard armor, spat in his face, and pushed him onto the execution platform ten years ago.
Silas was Marcus Thorne's dog.
A faint smile slowly appeared on Kael's face.
The universe had finally served him a meal worth eating.
He glanced toward the upper left corner of his vision.
The viewer count had climbed to a staggering 6,102.
The chat was overflowing with theories, speculation, and excitement, wondering what the strange human would do next.
Kael ignored the chaos for a moment.
Then he spoke.
"Hey, chat."
His gravelly voice cut through the silence of the cavern.
Instantly, the scrolling messages slowed.
Thousands of cosmic entities focused their attention on the mysterious human standing alone in the darkness.
Kael reached down toward his modified quiver.
His fingers brushed against the highly volatile, neon-green acid glands he had harvested earlier.
His smile widened.
Not with excitement.
Not with anger.
With anticipation.
"You ever seen a pig get slaughtered?"
[User 'Zark': Oh shit. Oh shit. He's smiling. Why is he smiling like that?!]
[User 'Blood-Fiend_99': YES! BLOOD! GIVE US BLOOD!]
[User 'Star_Dust_69': Wait, human signatures? Is he going to fight his own kind?]
[User 'Weapons_Nut_44': Look at his hands. He's grabbing the Corrosive Glands. He's setting a trap.]
[User 'Gloop': Wait a second... he isn't panicking. He's actually preparing for them.]
[User 'Tactical-Genius_01': The terrain advantage is obvious. If he built something here, this is going to be disgusting.]
[User 'DragonBoredom': Interesting. The human's instincts have changed completely.]
Kael didn't waste a single millisecond.
He turned and sprinted through the mud.
Despite the uneven terrain and heavy darkness, his movements were completely silent, every footstep swallowed by the E-Tier Shadow-Weave Cloak.
He knew this place better than he knew himself.
Every crack in the stone.
Every monster path.
Every blind corner where death waited for the careless.
Fifty yards from the base of the massive cargo elevator shaft stood a narrow, jagged gorge formed by two collapsing stalagmites.
A natural choke point.
A perfect killing ground.
If the approaching soldiers followed his last known tracker location, they had only one path to reach him.
Straight through this gap.
Kael dropped to his knees in the thick, black mud.
From his pouch, he removed two hollowed-out monster bones filled with highly pressurized, volatile green acid.
His scarred fingers moved without hesitation.
No wasted motion.
No uncertainty.
Only precision.
He dug two small holes on opposite sides of the gorge and carefully placed the acid-filled vials inside.
He didn't bury them completely.
The fragile spider-silk caps remained exposed.
They were the trigger.
Next, Kael reached into his waist pouch and pulled out a spool of raw, unrefined Shadow-Weaver sinew.
It was thinner than fishing line.
Nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Yet strong enough to tear through flesh if enough force was applied.
His fingers moved with terrifying mechanical precision.
He tied one end of the sinew around the fragile silk cap of the left vial.
Then, slowly and carefully, he stretched the invisible wire across the entire ten-foot gap.
Exactly four inches above the ground.
Ankle height.
The perfect position for an unsuspecting step.
He secured the other end around the cap of the second vial.
Then he covered both containers beneath a thin layer of wet, black mud.
Invisible.
Undetectable.
Waiting.
[User 'Tactical-Genius_01': ...Flawless. The wire tension is perfectly calibrated. A standard human stride will snap the caps off simultaneously, depressurizing the glands and creating a pressurized horizontal spray of lethal acid.]
[User 'Gloop': He built a fucking claymore out of bug spit and spider string in sixty seconds!]
[User 'DragonBoredom': I haven't been this entertained in a century.]
Kael slowly stood.
He stepped over his own tripwire without hesitation.
He didn't retreat.
He didn't hide somewhere far away.
He walked directly into the deep, pitch-black shadow cast by the right stalagmite.
Only fifteen feet away from the kill zone.
Close enough to watch.
Close enough to strike.
He pulled the hood of the Shadow-Weave Cloak lower over his face.
Instantly, his entire presence disappeared.
His magical signature faded.
His body temperature blended with the surrounding darkness.
Even advanced thermal detection would struggle to find him.
He became nothing more than a shadow.
A ghost waiting in the dark.
Kael unslung Vengeance from his shoulder.
His massive arms flexed as he pulled back the heavy mechanism, loading a reinforced bone bolt into place.
Click.
The sound echoed softly through the cavern.
The elevator was coming.
The soldiers were coming.
And they had no idea they were already dead.
The trap was set.
Now, all Kael had to do was wait.
The cavern remained silent.
Too silent.
Then....
Groooooaaaaan.
A deafening metallic scream tore through the darkness.
Ancient gears roared to life somewhere above, their massive mechanisms grinding against each other as the sound echoed throughout the Abyssal Rift.
A hundred yards away, the ceiling split open.
A massive ring of blinding yellow floodlights pierced through the oppressive darkness, cutting through the toxic air and swirling dust.
The cargo elevator was arriving.
It descended slowly, kicking up a storm of debris as the colossal metal platform lowered toward the cavern floor.
Kael didn't blink.
He didn't move.
He didn't even breathe.
His breathing slowed until each inhale came once every thirty seconds.
His heartbeat became nearly impossible to detect.
The predator had gone completely still.
CLANG!
The elevator slammed into the bedrock.
The hydraulic shocks hissed violently as the massive platform absorbed the impact.
The heavy reinforced steel doors slowly slid open.
"God, it smells like absolute shit down here."
A loud, arrogant voice echoed through the cavern.
Warden Silas stepped out into the mud.
A translucent blue sphere of energy surrounded his body, a high-tier mana shield protecting him from the dangers of the Rift.
Behind him, Jax and Vance followed.
Their heavy mechanical boots sank into the black mud as their high-calibre mana rifles immediately swept across the darkness.
"Sensors show his tracker pinged directly ahead, roughly sixty meters," Vance reported, his voice distorted through his helmet.
"Good."
Silas chuckled.
He pulled his cigar from his mouth and released a cloud of gray smoke into the toxic air.
Then he patted the large empty canvas sack attached to his belt.
"Keep your eyes peeled for the body, boys."
His grin widened with cruel anticipation.
"I want that bastard's skull intact."
He laughed.
"It's going to look absolutely beautiful sitting right on top of my mahogany desk."
Silas took the lead.
His boots sank deeper into the mud as he guided his guards straight toward the narrow gorge.
Straight toward the invisible wire waiting in the darkness.
From the absolute pitch-black shadows fifteen feet away, a pair of glowing silver eyes watched them approach.
Kaelen Cross rested his finger against the trigger of 'Vengeance'.
His expression remained completely calm.
The trap was ready.
The targets were in position.
And the execution was about to begin.
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