The ground beneath Athen was ruined. The stone pavement had turned to dust in a one meter radius around him, and more cracks spread out for another two meters. It was a truly harrowing sight.
I did this?
"It fully awakened, huh." The Old Man said under his breath, but it was just loud enough for Athen to catch it.
"What fully awakened? What is happening to me?"
"Do not be afraid, child. The Abyss has seen you, and it has decided to answer you." The Old Man's dull eyes seemed to have been reignited with fervor.
"You survived the Abyss' touch, you have been chosen. This.. power of yours, it is a sign that the Abyss has taken interest in you."
Athen looked at the Old Man confused. Taken interest in me? It sees me? Athen couldn't make heads or tails of the cryptic ramblings of the Old Man. It sounded nothing like the Abyss of his previous life, but Athen had an instinctual feeling that they were connected somehow.
"Why did it choose me?" Athen asked
"Who knows? It's will is not to be understood by mortals. Not even I, someone who has long embraced the Abyss, can begin to understand its motives." The Old Man paused for a moment, observing Athen for a moment before continuing,
"Long, long ago. Back when the world was whole, this 'gift' was known as The First. Everyone has a dormant First Gift within their souls, a flicker of divinity. It may be lost knowledge now, but its existence still persists."
Like magic? There's magic in this world? Athens showed a small smile, unbefitting of the death and destruction around him.
"It's not magic, child. There are rules, rules of how the world operates. Those who awakened The First have manifested those rules." The Old Man quickly corrected Athens thoughts, as though reading his mind.
Interesting, what rules have I manifested? Something related to decomposition and destruction? Athen recalled his two previouses 'uses' of his new power, they certainly seemed quite destructive and dangerous.
Now the question was, how can he learn to control this power and how far can he take it?
"How do I control this power? It's always just… happened." Athen asked the Old Man.
"Control? There is no control. The Abyss has its own will, its own desires. We are merely the tools that it has deemed useful." The Old Man answered in a wistful tone,
"Learn to see, learn to observe. Look towards the shadows, they are the Second. A reflection of what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. That is the Second. All truths lie within it, and by peering deeper, all will become clear to you."
Athen looked around, observing the flickering shadows. He could see the shadows of townspeople appear and disappear, doing all sorts of mundane or extravagant tasks.
"How does observing make me stronger?" Athen asked, not understanding what the Old Man meant.
The Old Man didn't respond, instead he put his hand forward, gesturing at Athen to stand up. Athen took one last glance at Martha and Aubrey before standing up, and they began walking out of town towards the forest Athen had been at before.
As they walked through the forest, Athen would occasionally spot the Second, brief glimpses of the shadows. There were saplings and tall trees, flocks of birds and a desolate land devoid of any life. It was like he was seeing many different worlds overlapped on top of each other, but each one felt like it fit.
I suppose that's what he meant by seeing the past, present, and future. The Second, whatever it is, seems to exist outside of time.
Walking deeper and deeper into the dense forest, it became harder to see. Less and less light was able to pierce through these towering ancient trees, but yet the Old Man continued on wordlessly.
The deeper they went, the more the world seemed to shift. The air was heavy, and the shadows of trees swayed to a different rhythm.
The Old Man stopped. Athen was slightly out of breath, the terrain had become rather difficult to traverse by this point.
"What's going-" Athen tried to ask, but the Old Man stopped him, his eyes looking just ahead.
Athen tried focusing his sight, but he couldn't see anything. Then, he heard the rustling of leaves.
A large silhouette slowly manifested before him, a monstrous beast nearly 15 meters tall was slowly approaching. Its footsteps were.. silent?
No thats not right, this silhouette isn't here in reality!
It's steps left no sound in the world, yet the shadows quaked beneath it. Every motion it made rippled through the Second, distorting reality around it. The real trees stood motionless, but their shadows thrashed like they were being torn apart.
That's the Second! Is this creature interacting directly with the world of the Second? Or does this creature exist within it?
As Athens mind raced, the Old Man finally spoke.
"Eidolon. A stalker no less, the forest remembers blood. Perhaps a large battlefield?" The Old Man mused, a small smile appearing on his face.
"Lesson one, child. When emotions overflow, the Abyss listens. It takes in all the fear and madness of humans, and manifests them as a creature. We call these creatures Eidolons. They are Echoes. Depending on the quantity and quality of emotion, they manifest at different ranks. Wretch, Stalker, Revenant, and Eidarch." The Old Man paused for a moment, giving Athen a second to digest the information.
"These ranks are not just for show, they are catagorized by how much affect they can have on both the Second, and the real world. The one before us is a Stalker, likely born because of a large battlefield that was here in the past, or in the future."
Before Athen could ask anything else, the Stalker dashed forward. It moved with a blur, every move it made felt wrong, displaced. Athen blinked, and the world seemed to shatter before him. The Stalker collapsed mid-lunge, a gaping hole in its head. Flakes of the Stalker slowly dissipated, like a paper burning away.
From the Stalkers vanishing form, a spot in space turned ever dark. An illusory void appeared, and slowly it morphed into the Old Man. His hand was raised, his fingers twitching like a puppeteers.
Huh?