In Citlali's home.
While months had passed in the Abyss… only days had passed here.
The house looked like a battlefield between a hurricane and a hoarder.
Dirty dishes in the sink. Crumpled papers on the floor. A shoe on the ceiling fan for some reason.
Citlali sat cross-legged on the couch, nose buried in her favorite book:
"What If The Sovereigns Started a War"
(A dark fantasy multiversal epic with way too many hot people.)
She was halfway through a scene where VlastMoroz ripped a Lector in half with a frozen meteor, when—
"UGHHH!"
The door burst open.
Felix stomped in, wings twitching in frustration, tail dragging like a depressed snake.
"Another failed search?" Citlali asked, barely glancing up from her book.
"Yes!" Felix flopped dramatically onto the floor like a dying Victorian noblewoman.
"I've searched every damn cliff, crater, and cactus in Natlan—no sign of him!"
Citlali sighed and snapped the book shut with one hand.
The bookmark fell out.
She didn't care. She was built for chaos.
"You know…" she said, standing up, "You could just ask for my help. Instead of doing the tough guy lone-wolf thing."
Felix shot her a glare.
She raised an eyebrow.
"If you actually tell me what happened that day," she continued, arms crossed, "I might figure out where he is."
"...Fine," he muttered, tail curling around him protectively. "If you think you can help—whatever."
She waited.
"...He was messing with me."
"Messing?"
"Yeah. So I put him outside in the garden."
Citlali blinked.
"...And?"
Felix threw his hands up. "That's it! After a while, he just—vanished!"
Citlali squinted like she was waiting for a punchline.
"...That's the whole story?"
"YES."
She stared.
"Felix. That is not a story. That is a missing child report with extra laziness."
Citlali charged out into the garden.
The wind blew ash and flower petals across the cracked stone path.
Her eyes scanned the space, glowing faintly.
"...Yup. Definitely fishy," she muttered.
She knelt and placed her palm on the soil. It pulsed—cold, ancient, and faintly wrong.
"...The dimensional energy here… feels like the Abyss. It's extremely faint, but it's there."
"Abyss?"
Felix perked up like a startled cat, his ears twitching.
A low growl rumbled in his throat. "You sure?"
"Yeah. Abyss."
Citlali stood, dusting her hands off. "I'll try to find a way to open a rift there. But don't get your tail in a knot—it'll take time. A lot of time. That place doesn't play by any rules."
She turned to him with a more serious expression.
"But you've been out there. You've seen what's happening—Natlan's already at war with the Abyss. If anything happened to him, if he slipped into that plane... someone out there might've seen something."
Felix clenched his jaw. His shoulders were trembling—whether from rage or guilt, even he didn't know.
"...First I lost Orion."
His voice was low. Heavy. "Then Elynas... That little girl..."
He looked down at the same patch of earth where the child vanished.
"And now... Orion and Frieda's son."
He straightened, wings twitching, eyes smoldering with determination.
"I won't lose him too. Not until I find out where the Sovereigns and Arian vanished to... I'm not stopping."
He took a deep breath. The air around him seemed to thrum with restrained power.
"Even if it means turning the Abyss into a void that never existed."
He walked away again.
This time, with a purpose.
And Citlali didn't stop him.
♦ Inside the Abyss♦
Above a glowing field of lavender flowers, a woman sat with a man-child resting peacefully in her lap. The child's face, though mature, was softened in sleep—his fingers still twitching as if holding onto dreams.
She gently combed through his hair, her eyes unfocused, fixed on memories older than pain.
Her voice was soft—more for herself than him.
---
"Long ago... when I first opened my eyes in the Abyss..."
"There was nothing. Not even the comfort of shadows. Just endless, suffocating dark. I couldn't see. I couldn't feel the ground beneath me. I was naked. Alone. And hunted.
They came from everywhere—those things—crawling, dragging, hissing. I remember running until my legs bled, until my skin cracked from the cold.
And then... the first miracle.
When I thought their fangs would finally tear through my throat—light bloomed."
She paused, looking down at the lavender blossoms beneath her.
---
"These flowers. They glowed. For the first time. Like they chose that moment to wake up."
"It was too bright, even though the light was faint . It burned my eyes, maybe because It was my first time seeing anything... But in that flash—I saw for the very first time."
Her voice cracked.
"I saw it. The monster."
"A face with no skin. One eye missing. Fangs like broken glass shoved into a skull. It stood there, inches from me... But the light repelled it. It staggered back. And for the first time in the Abyss...
I was saved."
---
She exhaled. A strange smile played at her lips—bitter, amused, exhausted.
---
"I kept moving. I thought maybe I could fight them. So I tried."
"Every time the flowers lit up, more of them came. And every time—I tried killing them. I found tools from the bones of others. I stabbed. Crushed. Sliced. I shattered their skulls. Smashed their limbs.
But they never died.
They would crawl back, broken but alive. Or... not alive. I don't know."
---
Her fingers stilled in the boy's hair.
"Eventually... I stopped fighting.
And I ran."
There came a time…
Where even the will to move was too heavy to carry.
She had been running for what felt like forever—across endless darkness, through fields that pulsed with false hope and the stench of death. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Her skin—once pale and clean—was now scraped, bruised, torn raw by the harsh terrain.
Her body collapsed.
Her legs folded beneath her, and she hit the ground with a thud that echoed into nothing.
"I... I can't run anymore..." she whispered, lips dry, eyes glazed.
"My feet... they hurt..."
She blinked.
Even her tears refused to come.
The black earth was cold against her skin. Too cold.
She felt it in her bones. Her nerves screamed—but her mind was going blank by the second.
Then—a glow.
Lavender light shimmered faintly in the near distance. A field. A chance.
But she didn't move.
Because she wasn't alone anymore.
---
"Why are you running?"
A voice slithered into her ears like smoke through cracks.
"There's no need to run."
She turned her head.
Behind her—just at the edge of her vision—stood a thing.
Not quite a man. Not quite a monster.
Its shape shifted like a mirage, but its face… its face didn't change.
Wide, jagged grin.
Two glowing white eyes that never blinked.
The rest was shadow.
---
"You don't have anything to live for anyway," it said.
"But if you die here... if you just stop... maybe your soul will protect someone else out there. A noble sacrifice."
It stepped closer, still smiling.
"You could finally be useful."
---
Her fingers twitched.
Her breathing was shallow. Her limbs were numb.
"Should I just... die?"
"I can't run anymore..."
"Fighting them is pointless..."
The thoughts weren't hers anymore.
They were seeded.
---
And the creature knew it.
"Exactly," it whispered.
"If you escaped... all you'd bring is destruction."
---
She closed her eyes.
P.s.//
who is your favourite character in the story so far?