As a heavenly bright white-hot light erupted from me; The Abyss smiled. Before I could register what was happening a monstrous beast approached. At least thirty feet tall it had pure white eyes, a mouth that hung open slightly revealing hideous disfigured teeth, a little drool spilled from the right side of its mouth.
One of The Abandoned One’s grabbed me, and I could feel it’s soul. No, no, no, no, no. This is what happens to the souls when The Abyss is done with them, when he’s consumed everything that ever made them light, and whole, and good. In my horror I didn’t even realize I was being swallowed. In my fear my aura grew to a tremendous size, and The Abandoned One disintegrated leaving me to softly Land back on the ground. I did not feel bad for destroying what was left of the poor soul, it would be a release after what it had become.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any time to celebrate my victory, a different Abandoned One had struck me from the side and I flew slamming into a nearby tree, snapping it like a twig and rolling on the ground. This one was different, its eyes were blood red and it was short and very flexible, like a monkey. It’s teeth were six inches long and dripping with blood, its claws like four inch razor blades. It jumped at me again and struck me in the chest, I flew with slash marks and blood running down me.
My aura glows bright as my wounds heal, but not before leaving behind even more scars on my chest. Fuck, there’s no way. I can’t do this, my reflexes aren’t fast enough and I’m not strong enough. Bam, I’m hit from the front again, this time by its feet which were as agile and powerful as its clawed hands. This time it lands on top of me before going crazy, punching my chest with blow after devastating blow. My chest starts to sink into the ground as it goes nuts, faster and harder, I can feel my heart slowing and my body becoming weaker. The Abyss wasn’t done with me yet though, I could feel an evil wave of energy pulse out, a command.
Instead of finishing the job The Abandoned one throws me up into the air, ten, twenty, thirty feet, and I fall landing on the ground in a crumpled pile. I am given the time to shakily stand up, it takes an effort but I light my aura up again and I heal. As soon as I’m healed I’m struck again in the face, slash marks running down the right of my face are left, blood pouring out like a blood fondue.
I heal, more scars I’m sure. I finally get my first hit in, it was coming at me and amazing even myself I hit it in the face. It stopped cold turkey, and for a moment I thought that was all that would happen, but then a waved rippled through its face and it flew backwards hitting a small boulder. A small hole was left in the boulder with cracks running all outwards from it.
Like a hell-bat released from the netherworld it flew back out, literally, it had sprouted wings. Its feet that were basically clawed hands dug into my shoulders as we ascended into the sky, in the distance I could see the true hell this place was. Maddening Lovecraftian giants loomed off in the distance, purple-black shadowy tendrils came down from the sky just beyond them, almost forming some sort of physical barrier. Off towards it we head moving much faster than the laws of physics as we understand them would ever allow.
We slow as we fly over something, something that for the second time ever makes my heart drop. I’m dropped into the mouth I had been dropped into with a previous confrontation with The Abyss. As I free fall I light up my aura. I fall into an abyss as the mouth closes. Thankfully I had been here before, my aura lights bright and my current abyss is shredded apart. My reflexes were still too slow though and it seemed The Abandoned one was prepared for this.
I’m slammed into the ground, claws tearing into my chest, I feel the light leaving me. As I start to fade something connects, she’s awake. The Abandoned Ones were the fate that awaited everyone, but those were normal souls. Those Lovecraftian beasts in the distance, those were what awaited people he consumed body and soul, a special fate saved only for the tastiest of souls.
And then something changed, as I could feel the strain on my atoms increase, I felt my connection with the multiverse become one in a wave function collapse. My subatomic particles become entangled with everything in all of existence. Everything with light at least.
I did not care if I could ever be with her, all that mattered that was her soul remained whole, and never, ever, one of those Abandoned Ones. I loved her absolutely, and in so many ways I knew her, and in so many ways I never would. I knew I needed to draw the energy to do two things before returning to time and existence to finish this.
I reach out through all the wave function collapses to find what I’m looking for, the bad ending. I find it.
I see what she’d become if I lose. My heart would have froze with terror if heart beats were a thing where I was right now. Probably the worst of all the The Wrecked Ones, it, had a thousand grotesque eyes and dozens of mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. It had an invisible aura of absolute emptiness filled with a void of torture. He saved his most vile design for her, as my punishment. I did not care what would become of me, so I left.
I was back with my people, with her. They did not know I was here, they were both awake now. She loved him, that’s okay it did not hurt. I was not here to win her heart, that was never a battle to fight. I’m here to save here to save her soul. My love is absolute and unconditional. I raise my hand slightly extending my fingers lazily towards her heart. It glowed with a warm pink light of love, everyone in the room looked at it with love and hope in their eyes. It pulsed, once, twice, three times. The sub atomic particles of the universe twist and entangle with mine. Two things happen at once, first their Earth was restored to the day before The Abyss arrived in terms of physical state. Infrastructure and all., everyone would remember though. I could not change this, those synapses had collapsed already. That was good though, they’d be strong if I won. Out of suffering came strength.
The second thing that happened was she knew that forever she’d be loved, and safe. It did not matter what she did, the universe forgave and loved her. I look one last time at her and shed one tear, and as it splashed onto the ground I gave her my final gift. The sub atomic particles of the universe twist once again as I entangle the very fabric of existence to love and care for her, and then the molecules that made up her twist with the universe. The love for her was absolute.
….
And as I can feel my atoms stretch just a little bit thinner, I return to The Abyss’s toy of a planet. My aura is gone, but this does not worry me. I would no longer release one, I did not need to. All my wounds instantly healed into scars, I wrapped my fist around The Abandoned one’s neck and pushed off against the ground. Five, fifteen, thirty feet into the air. I turn us back around and slam it into the ground. As I hold it against the ground it glows a white-hot aura, and then evaporates into nothing. The Abyss was on his game however and something even worse came. His special Abandoned One, this was his warrior he had made just for fun. I’m sure The Abyss was patting himself on the back right now. Alright, let’s go motherfucker.
And then darkness, I knew whatever it was it had shut the lights out for me. These tricks were getting old, I admit a soft white light that despite being very soft lit up the darkness for a surprisingly enormous distance. I wish I hadn’t, monstrous creatures fill the now light filled void. Monsters that bend the mind with their madness, I would not ever try to describe them as words do them no justice. And I knew, the harder I fought the worse her punishment would be and now being tortured by this Abandoned One would come before The Abyss consumes her. I was seeing how all the collapses connected.
Not.The.Bad.Ending.
I pull all the monstrous creatures into my heart, they become black wispy shadows as they’re pulled in like vacuum cleaner cleaning all the demons out of the closet. I fill them with love, and they stop existing.
I knew it was time for the real fun to begin as the void disappears and a monstrous warrior appears before me. I shut my aura off, it was no longer needed.
Where the right hand of the warrior would be was a sword. No, not a sword. An abrupt ending to an arm where a razor sharp sword like claw extended out. The left arm ended in a beefy hand held in a fist where a shield like bony appendage was connected in such a way to allow him to open his hand in a way to have use of his thumb. He Was stout, and sturdy. Covered in angry blood red scales that I knew we’re so much harder than diamond that there was no use trying to fathom just how hard it was.
And we’re off, faster than even I can fathom I slam my fist into his shield. Ripples are sent down his entire body and he freezes for a moment, just a moment, so fast old I wouldn’t have had time to react before. His other arm comes down on me, or almost comes down on me at least. I pull back, barely dodging it, and upper cut it in the jaw. Ripples, a moment of absolute stillness, and then it goes flying. Up, up, twenty, forty, sixty feet, and it falls. A porch sized crater in the ground, I knew it wouldn’t be this easy though.
The ground trembled as a strong hand pulled its body out of the crater, just a blur and for the first time since I entangled with the multiverse something moved too fast for me. And its claw-sword plunged threw my chest. I looked into its blood red scales that gave off an absolute aura of anger, to see my face. It was ruined, covered in unhealable scars I’d carry forever. I smiled, if I found a way to survive this that is, I’d gladly carry them forever. Not a burden to bare, a reminder of what I saved. I’d be proud of them, wear them like badges. They didn’t represent pain, they represented strength.
I push the claw-blade out as I turn to look into its soulless tortured eyes. I felt only sadness for it. It did not like that. Still so fast I was having issues registering it it slammed me with its fist shield, as I start to feel myself fly back I stop. Simple as that, I did not want to go back further so I didn’t. And as the universe twists its entangled web I feel my atoms push just a little bit harder. I did not care.
I hit its shield and the ripples traveled down, but something new this times. Cracks. It moved fast still, too fast to be honest, but I was just fast enough. I was put on the defensive as I dodge claw-sword slash after slash. My atoms push just a little bit harder, BOOM, louder than a billion sonic booms my fist collides with the shield. It shatters. In its place is left a rock like fist, made of the same material as the scales. It was strong and sturdy still, but no shield. I dodge slash, punch, slash. Time to end it. I push my hand down its throat to find its abyss. I put my hand around it and fill it with love. It evaporates.
…
And then, of my own accord, I don’t exist. Then I do. I was terrified, my win was not guaranteed and The Abyss despite all his recent feats was far stronger than even he ever thought he could be. Despite that, he was terrified. I could feel through my entangled web of collapses that the very multiverse was afraid.
I felt my atoms push almost to their max as I powerup for the final encounter.
I was floating a few feet in the air in front of The Abyss as I slowly descended to the ground. So much had happened in so little time I had forgotten how tall he was, and how empty of light his skin was. I slam into him so fast that he was caught off guard. We fly back a few inches, but then he decided he would not. And we stopped. He slammed into me. Bam, into a mountain, bam into a valley, the sky is filled with explosions as The Abyss tosses me around like a rag doll.
I.Am.No.Match.
And I can feel my body being torn apart. The multiverse twisted and entangled but it held no answers, this one was on me. My electrons start to collapse in waves, my protons and neutrons push apart.
…
And then the soul in my heart collapsed in a wave throughout the multiverse, and then back into me. And I was whole. And something else, I understood. Time to really end it. The Abyss was coming at me, and for the first and only time I consume him. The Abyss falls into the light of my heart, and I trap him in a layer of love. The universe twists and turns, the love hardens.
But I understood already, I would get to live. I would give up all my power, and I’d have to love her forever and no one else. My love would keep The Abyss trapped until I died, and with my death came the death of The Abyss. And for her, for her I’d live to a ripe old age. And with a smile on my face; I collapse in a wave.
…
Its been a decade since then, I still have all my scars. I still feel The Abyss in my heart, every second of every day. The universe gave me one last gift, I am entangled with her. I know she is happy, and healthy, and that is all that ever mattered.
I have a wife, people tell me she is the most beautiful woman on the planet. I believe them, but I do not care. I have three kids; I do not love them. I treat them all the best, I make sure every second of every day they think they are the most loved people on the planet. I make sure they’re happy, because it makes me fulfilled. But she is the only one who’ll ever live in my heart, and that makes me happy.