Darkness had no texture, no scent, no warmth.
But Caleb could feel it watching him.
He had returned. Or perhaps, had never truly left.
The world around him was not the Abyss he first saw.
This was a deeper layer—more silent, more primal. Each breath echoed like thunder in his own skull.
There was no ground, and yet he stood.
No sky, and yet his vision stretched endlessly upward.
He walked.
Every step made ripples beneath his feet, as if the world was made of liquid glass.
Then came the whispers.
Not voices.
More like thoughts that weren't his. Questions. Accusations. Warnings.
"You are a thief."
"You trespassed."
"You seek the code, yet fear its cost."
He clenched his jaw, heart racing.
A flicker.
From the corner of his eye, something moved.
It darted like smoke, then vanished. Another flicker—this time above him.
Then beside.
Then it lunged.
A formless shape—a beast of stitched shadows and broken mirrors. No eyes. No mouth.
But it screamed anyway.
Caleb fell backward.
The creature pinned him down.
Its limbs were like ropes of memory—tightening, crushing, whispering.
His mind burned.
Visions poured into him.
A child crying in a mirror.
A thousand versions of himself.
One of them was dying.
Another had killed. Another… was begging him to stop.
Caleb screamed.
And the world listened.
The shadow pulsed from his chest like a blast wave.
The creature shrieked—shattered into fragments that dissolved into the void.
He gasped for air, even though no lungs should work here.
He stared at his hands—veins glowing faintly with silver-black lines.
Then he saw it.
A glowing symbol beneath his palm.
Not just a mark. A glyph.
One word carved into the void:
"Observe."
His first command.
His first spell.
The Book was still hidden.
But the Abyss had given him something else: a path.
And for the first time, Caleb Noir whispered into the dark:
"I am not afraid of you.."