strictlysupreme Chapter 208: Abyss Expedition Begins
Chapter 208: Abyss Expedition Begins
Monster Paradise settled into its new shape overnight.John spent the first hour after waking just walking the boundaries, feeling out how much bigger everything had become. New terrain stretched where there had been open sky before, jagged ridgelines and low valleys still soft at the edges, like the world hadn’t finished deciding what it wanted to be yet.
"It’s still forming," Chuthulos said, floating beside him with his usual easy grin. "Give it a few days and the new sections will stabilize completely. For now, don’t push it too hard."
"Wasn’t planning to," John said. "I’ve got somewhere else to be."
Before heading out, he opened a Magic Whisper channel he hadn’t used in a while.
’Max. Still alive out there?’
’Bro!’ Max’s voice came back instantly, practically vibrating with energy. ’Barely. Do you know how much paperwork an organization generates? I miss punching things.’
’You wanted the position,’ John said, amused. ’How’s the Levetron Empire treating you?’
’Cautious. Suspicious. Annoyingly polite.’ Max snorted. ’But my org’s holding its own territory inside their borders now. Got about two hundred people under me, mostly ex-mercenaries and a few defectors who liked our benefits package better than their old bosses. I’m keeping my head down and my ears open, like you asked.’
’Good. Keep it that way. I’ll swing by once things settle here.’
’You’d better. I’ve got stories.’
John cut the channel with a faint smile, filing the update away. One more piece on the board, quietly growing roots in enemy territory.
*
Yuna’s training arc had started the moment John told her no.
Weeks ago, before the Ulaang family, before any of it, John had asked her to stay behind while he, Azelis, and Jibril handled the political groundwork in Temeraat World.
"Your Soul Talent still isn’t stable," he’d told her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "If you push out there half-formed, you’ll be the weak link, and I’m not risking you like that."
Yuna hadn’t liked hearing it, but she hadn’t argued either. Instead, she threw herself into training with a focus that even Azelis would have found intense, spending her days cycling through enlightenment sessions, sparring against constructs John had left behind, and slowly forcing her Soul Talent to stop fighting her.
Her Monster Geno Art, Emberflight Wraithfox Cascade, had been frustratingly incomplete since she awakened it, a fire-and-illusion hybrid that kept slipping out of her control whenever she pushed past a certain threshold. It wasn’t that she lacked power. It was that she couldn’t hold the reins tightly enough to use all of it.
So she trained until her hands blistered and her Soul Palace ached, refining her Ruinblaze Mastery alongside the newer Wraith Mastery her Geno Art demanded, teaching her own instincts not to flinch when the fire threatened to spiral.
By the time John finished dealing with the Ulaang family and pushed Monster Paradise through its evolution, something in her finally clicked.
Her Soul Talent, once a broken, half-formed thing, stabilized into Wraithbound Convergence, letting her split her Soul Energy signature into two overlapping states for a few seconds at a time, striking from an angle her body hadn’t physically moved to yet.
Her pet, Emberlune, a nine-tailed fox that had grown from the same three-tailed cub she’d tamed years ago, evolved alongside her, each new tail sprouting like a physical manifestation of her progress. Where the fox once wove simple fire, it now wove fire that lied, illusions layered over real flame so enemies couldn’t tell which strike would actually kill them.
When John returned to the palace after the Hollow’s absorption, Yuna was already waiting on the steps, arms crossed, Emberlune curled protectively at her feet.
"I’m coming with you," she said. "No arguments."
John studied her for a moment, feeling out the new density of her Soul Energy, the sharper, more controlled edge to her presence.
"Yeah," he said, a slow grin spreading across his face. "I think you are."
*
They gathered at the Abyss Labyrinth entrance the next morning, all four of them checking their gear and running through their kits out of habit more than necessity.
"Alright," John said, cracking his knuckles. "Quick roll call. What’s everyone bringing?"
"Razewater and Gravitalon," Jibril said, summoning a thin blade of condensed water that hardened into something closer to compressed steel before dissolving back into liquid. "Fourth mastery level on both now. Tidereign’s ready to fight." Her Pet Monster, a sleek, storm-feathered hawk grown from a humble Mistysky Aquawind Sparrow, screeched sharply from her shoulder.
"Shadow Ink, Windbloom, Gravecinder," Azelis said, flexing her fingers as thin tendrils of darkness curled around them like smoke. "Volkia’s itching for a fight." Beside her, a compact mechanical dragon unfolded from a storage seal, its plated body humming faintly with space-time distortion along its joints. "Selenroot’s staying on standby unless someone needs patching up."
A second Pet Monster, a low, root-covered guardian shaped vaguely like a turtle crossed with a willow tree, rumbled quietly in acknowledgment without otherwise moving.
"Ruinblaze and Wraith Mastery," Yuna said, a small, proud smile tugging at her lips as flame licked harmlessly across her knuckles. "Emberlune’s coming too." The nine-tailed fox at her side flicked each tail in turn, fire dancing along the tips without catching on anything.
"And me," John said, "Chronolight, Voidspace, Feralsteel, and whatever the Eldritch attribute decides to do today. Full squad’s coming too."
He gestured, and all seven of his Pet Monsters materialized around him in a burst of layered light. Alfred landed first, growling low, patterns of black starlight shifting faintly across his fur. Pymon shrieked and immediately launched toward the ceiling to scout. Rexion cracked his neck, wings shimmering with new patterns from his Eldritch evolution. Levi skittered forward on eight legs wreathed in faint violet mist. Chronavael’s antlers flickered out of time with reality itself, leaving faint afterimages trailing behind him. Terravax lumbered up last, testing the ground with one massive clawed foot. Noctelith coiled low near John’s feet, patient and silent, waiting.
"Alright," John said, satisfaction plain in his voice as he looked over the assembled group, four Tamers and eight Monsters strong. "None of us have actually set foot in here yet, so stay sharp. Let’s go earn something."
*
The corridor they emerged into was built from black stone that seemed to swallow light rather than reflect it. Faint runes pulsed along the walls, arranged in patterns that shifted whenever anyone tried to focus on them directly, as if the Labyrinth itself resented being studied too closely.
"So this is it," Jibril said, voice hushed despite herself.
"This is it," John confirmed, already scanning their surroundings. "Multiple Eldritch Gods built this place together. Still building it, actually. It changes every time someone enters."
"Changes how?" Azelis asked.
"No idea. That’s part of the fun."
The corridor branched after a hundred meters into three separate paths, each radiating a different kind of pressure. The left path felt cold and still, the right buzzed faintly with something like static, and the center simply felt heavy, like walking toward the bottom of an ocean that didn’t exist yet.
"Center," John decided. "Heaviness usually means density of resources. Chuthulos mentioned something like that before we left."
They took the center path, and it wasn’t long before the first guardian rounded the corner, a hulking construct of black stone and pulsing violet cracks, roughly bear-shaped and twice the size.
Jibril moved first, closing the distance before the guardian could get a full swing in, her blade of condensed Razewater slicing clean through its stone shoulder before the impact detonated into a burst of pressurized water that blew the arm apart entirely.
"Gravitalon," she called, and the severed pieces suddenly lurched sideways, pulled by an invisible weight into a crushing pile against the corridor wall.
Tidereign dove past her a heartbeat later, talons wreathed in compressed wind that tore through the guardian’s remaining structure like it was made of wet paper.
"Nice," Yuna said, grinning as she watched. "Show off."
"You’re one to talk," Jibril shot back, flicking water off her fingers.
A second guardian rounded the corner, and Yuna stepped up, Emberlune darting ahead of her in a blur. The fox split into three overlapping images, all identical, all radiating heat, and the guardian hesitated for a fraction of a second trying to determine which one was real.
That hesitation was fatal.
Yuna used Wraithbound Convergence in the same instant, splitting her own presence just long enough to strike from an angle the guardian’s tracking hadn’t accounted for, her fist wreathed in Ruinblaze punching straight through its chest cavity.
The guardian’s core cracked, then shattered entirely, collapsing into fine black dust.
"Show off," Jibril echoed, smirking.
"Learned from the best," Yuna said sweetly.
They cleared the rest of the first stretch quickly, four Tamers and their Monsters working in a rhythm that felt natural despite none of them having set foot in this place before.