At the Center of the Abyss

Raphael walked into the center, getting closer to the girl while keeping his distance.

"So you are what is at the bottom of the Abyss."

The girl stood up and smirked. "Indeed, I am. My name is Elena. And you are Raphael, who was pushed into the Abyss."

Raphael opened his eyes wide.

"You saw that?"

"Indeed. The Abyss is my domain. I know everything that happens inside it. It's been quite entertaining watching you grow from a helpless boy to the man that stands in front of me, over these past three years."

"Three years?!"

Raphael knew time had passed, but he hadn't guessed this much.

"So, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna combat me to try to gain your ticket out? Or are you gonna give up like the others before you?"

"There have been others?"

"Yes, around seven other people have reached the bottom. None of them managed to defeat me. The only way out is to defeat me. And in the last layer, no matter who you are, if you just try to climb your way up, it's guaranteed death." She sharpened her eyes. "So, what's it gonna be?”

Raphael hesitated for a bit. But then he clenched his fist again. He was different now. He had promised himself to get revenge, get out of this Abyss, and show them all what he was capable of. And this was not an unfounded belief.

Right now, with the plethora of spells of imprints and the Laws Layer of multiple imprints like light, gravity, and space, he was now stronger than any person he had met. He was beyond Legend rank, probably Ascendant, nearing God rank, if not for the fact that he did not have a Divine layer rule that shaped the reality around him.

Raphael sharpened his eyes and immediately activated Atherial Sight to obtain information on her imprint. He focused on it, and he caught a glimpse of her having something called a void imprint, but then, before he could get more details, the Atherial Sight was canceled.

"What the—" Raphael said, closing his eyes in pain.

"You are a pervert, sir, trying to look into my business."

She said this before she applied a Null spell of the void imprint to remove the weight of her armour. Raphael was still able to sense the spell and imprint, but only after it had been cast. With the weight removed, she moved at superhuman speed, and in a blink she was right beside him, swinging her sword against him.

Raphael was just able to block at the last second by covering his wooden arm with mythical steel, but then the blade activated another skill, Void Slash, that cleanly cut through his arm, despite it being one of the two strongest and most rare metals in the world.

Elena smirked and tried to grab Raphael with her gauntlet. She didn't know what would happen until she activated it, so he hurried and cast Blink, which teleported him a few meters behind Elena. But as he had learned with the whales, this spell depleted a bit more than half of his Atherius mana pool.

In the same breath, he cast Light Beam directly towards her, as he was behind her. The beam traveled at the speed of light, but right as it got close to her, it was absorbed, and it disappeared.

"Clever boy. I would have disintegrated you if I managed to touch you with my gauntlet. And that beam was perfectly timed. Sadly for you, it will not be enough. But don't worry, you are definitely in the top two right now of the people who have confronted me. The people below you didn't last as long as you have. They all became useless as soon as I saw their imprint. The only one that got close was a really beautiful lady with a maid uniform who had the imprint of time and a powerful weapon that didn't rely on imprints. She was so cool and beautiful and elegant!" Her eyes sparkled, reminiscing. "Because of that, I made the exception to let her live, and she spent time with me until she passed away of old age…"

The girl looked at the ground.

"But don't get any ideas!"She shook her head. "She was only an exception 'cause of how cool she was!"

Raphael laughed awkwardly, taken aback by the quirkiness of this girl. Raphael knew of the lady she was talking about. She was a powerful mage 200 years ago; she was said to be on the path of becoming the first time god. But she never returned from the Abyss.

Raphael took a deep breath and sharpened his eyes. He could do this, especially because he still had one more Laws Layer spell he had not yet tried.

While the girl had been talking, he had applied some healing magic to himself to recover from his exhaustion and regenerate his wooden arm again.

He immediately used the light imprint to use the Laws Layer spell Reflect Light, which made light bounce and made him invisible. He then touched the ground and used the imprint of ice, Ice Spikes, to create spikes of ice from the ground. Then he immediately cast spells from the imprint of fire, then from lightning, then from light, and then from wood, then from the water imprint, the wind imprint, and many others.

He started using all of the spells at his disposal. The ability she had was powerful, making her able to absorb any phenomena. But, as with any other powerful skill, it should cost a lot of mana, which probably increases exponentially if it has to absorb different types of imprints at the same time. Whoever runs out of mana would win.

Elena tensed her face and tried to minimize the depletion of her Atherius by dodging some of the attacks or blocking. But eventually Elena became overwhelmed, and her absorption couldn't keep up. She eventually got hit by a lightning bolt and crashed into the wall of the tree, her arm bleeding.

She tried to locate Raphael, but she couldn't, so she extended her arm and cast Void Hole, which started to attract everything around it with great force. But then Raphael used the battle imprint to run towards her to tackle her, which made it pull both of them directly toward the void.

Elena canceled the spell just before they reached it. On the ground, Raphael tried to use Light Dagger, which creates a dagger of light to kill her, but then she used Severance, which removes a phenomenon's imprint temporarily from a target. The light dissolved.

Raphael cast the imprint of trees, but this time to manipulate the wood of the Abyss tree, and then used it to constrain her arms and legs. He put his hand on her neck, and he started activating a plethora of spells to overwhelm her and deplete her, so he could eventually rely on it, or at least his raw strength in his hands, to do the job.

But then Elena activated Atherius Drain and started consuming the Atherius from Raphael. Raphael's Atherius mana was already close to its limit, and he eventually collapsed as he was almost drained of it.

Elena cast Void Orb, destroying all the matter of the Abyss tree, freeing herself. She stood up with a smirk, and then called her sword with a modified version of Void Hole towards her hand. She directed the sword against his neck. But then, at that last moment, Raphael's skill Insight activated, and he obtained the imprint of the void. And he immediately cast Severe on her, removing her only imprint. When this happened, Elena collapsed as the weight of the armour returned, and she knelt, unable to move, as it was too heavy.

Raphael laughed, with his eyes half closed.

"I won."

Raphael passed out from the absence of Atherius.

When he woke up, it was to the sight of the gap in the center of the tree, looking at the star-like sky of the Abyss layer, which was illuminated by a mimic moon.

The face of Elena appeared in his line of sight. He immediately stood up and put up his guard.

"Hey! I was making sure you were sleeping comfortably. I even let you sleep on my lap!"

This was true. He had indeed felt a soft and comfortable surface on the back of his neck.

"Besides," Elena said, standing up, "you won, so I'm not gonna kill you. You are the person my father was hoping would receive his legacy, the person I have been waiting for all this time."

"Your father?"

"Yes, you might know him as the first God. He was the one who created the Abyss."