The main body of the Endless Abyss slowly descended into this secret world, pressing against it like a black star blotting out all light. Its corrupting pull, like the gravity of a black hole, began to drag every corner of the realm downward into the lower dimension where the Abyss itself existed.

The fertile soil that had once carried life and harvest was crushed beneath the demons' iron hooves, trampled into foul, rotting earth. The calm oceans frothed into pits of sludge, their waves turning to a stinking mire that bubbled with decay, and even the air could no longer be breathed without disgust.

Worse still was the corruption of hearts. Entire races, once proud and defiant, had bent before the shadow of despair long before the Endless Abyss arrived in full. They had abandoned their gods, betrayed their kings, and thrown away their honor, becoming slaves to demons and hounds of corruption.

This was no longer a world in struggle. This was a world that had fallen.

But the greatest tragedy lay in its final betrayal.

The fallen prince, who dreamed of ruling in the Abyss itself, discovered the truth too late. He believed his prayers were answered by the will of the Endless Abyss. He had burned lives in sacrifice, spilled the blood of his own people, and chanted rites to open himself to power.

But the one who answered him was no lord of worlds,it was only a demon.

Now, in the same shattered palace where his father had died, the prince screamed lungs out.

"Ahhhh! Evil Eyes, you promised me! You swore I would rule them, that I would stand above all souls as their king!"

The demon, with its skin bristling and eyes of every shape and color, smiled with a mouth full of larvae squirming on its tongue. It bent low, clutching the struggling prince in its claw.

"Oh? Did I?" the demon hissed. "I promised to make you a king, didn't I?"

"Yes! You promised me!" The prince clawed at the demon's fingers, his voice hoarse with terror.

But the strength of this creature was beyond anything he could resist. Three true names had already awakened within it, and its power stood just beneath that of a Demi-god. Were it granted one more spark of authority, it would be a myth given flesh.

The demon's laughter shook the halls. "Then let me grant your wish."

For a heartbeat, the prince's eyes filled with hope. Then he screamed. The demon bit into him, tearing away his head and spine in a single crunch of bone. Flesh splattered across the throne room floor.

From the crown of the demon's skull, a new eye opened, wide and bloodshot. It was the eye of the prince himself, forced into existence on the demon's body. More eyes bloomed across its skin, each one carrying the prince's fear, confusion, and regret.

His soul had not been devoured. It had been bound, trapped forever within this abomination.

The demon mocked him as it chewed his bones. "Behold, Your Majesty. You now command all the eyes upon me. You will always stand above their heads… even at the very top of mine."

Like that the promise was kept.

Cruelties like this were not rare, they echoed across the breadth of the fallen world.

Everywhere, demons hunted mortals and enslaved races, binding them with trickery, torture, and blasphemy. Each soul devoured strengthened the Abyss. The deeper the temptation, the sweeter the fall.

And Cillian, Lord of the Endless Abyss, paid no heed to their suffering. He had no need for such distractions. His gaze was fixed on something greater.

⸻———x——————

As the world broke, its core was laid bare. Its heart of power shone like crystal, only to be swallowed whole by the Abyss. Cillian absorbed it without hesitation, feeding the foundations of his domain with its essence.

He let out a breath that shivered like smoke through the void. "At last. The seventh world consumed."

For months now, he had pressed through the mist Realm, seizing one world after another, dragging their cores into his abyss to forge its strength. Seven had already fallen. Each one was harder than the last.

The fog around him stirred, revealing distant walls of crystal, the boundaries of other worlds waiting in silence. He looked on them with weary recognition.

"The scale of this war… I underestimated it." His voice was low, almost lost to the haze. "Each world here is stronger than the last. Stronger than most could ever imagine."

For the first time, he grasped why the highest seats of power were given only to those who created transcendent divine realms. They alone had the strength to endure what lesser domains could not.

And he understood, too, the purpose of Grimstone training. The assessments were invasions with real consequences. They prepared students for the only war that mattered, war between worlds.

The ordinary had no chance here. The creatures of normal worlds would be ground into dust before they could even grasp the rules. Only the extraordinary could contend, only those wielding divine fire and realms of their own.

Cillian sighed, the sound echoing across the void. Then he raised his hand, and the mark of his divine fire pulled him back through the Mist. Behind him, the explored regions of fog closed in, sealing themselves once more.

He returned to the stability of his domain, but there was no rest waiting for him. He walked straight to a structure of stone and black iron, its presence humming with arcane power. Above its gates hung a sign etched in burning runes:

[Exchange]

Here you could exchange world rules, mythical blood, strange species, cores, and all sorts of treasures gathered, a fuel for the endless climb.

Cillian pushed open the doors of the Exchange and stepped inside.

The interior was a cathedral of trade, arches of black stone veined with silver light, counters lined with crystal tablets, and merchants in brilliant robes moving with rehearsed grace. Each trader wore the same polite smile, the kind of smile that never reached the eyes.

One of them approached immediately, bowing low with the ease of long practice.

"Welcome, sir. Are you selling or buying today?"

Without waiting for an answer, he continued in a smooth tone, "We currently have a wide selection of world resources available, world rules, rare species, the blood of mythical creatures. If it is a world core you seek, however… I'm afraid we are out of stock. Prices for such items are extremely high at present. But, if you happen to have cores for sale, I can promise you will be more than satisfied with our offer."

Cillian said nothing at first. His silence drew a flicker of unease across the trader's face.

The world core, the most valuable material a god could hold. Outside the one given freely to every student at Grimstone academy, all others had to be earned through blood and ruin. They could be traded, or seized by invasion, but neither path came without cost.

Destroying even a small world meant mobilizing an army of divine realm soldiers, every one of them a precious resource in their own right. And no invasion came without risk. Secret realms often hid worlds so dangerous that even gods could be devoured by them. There was never certainty.

Finally, Cillian spoke.

"I will sell first. Then I will buy."

A wisp of divine fire flickered to life in his palm. From it, he drew forth dozens of crystallized fragments of law, the rules of conquered worlds. They hovered in the air, burning faintly with alien colors.

These were not the common rules that were already known and charted. These were wild rules, born in secret realms, and foreign to the ordered heavens. Their value was completely different.

For a heartbeat the traders froze, and soon those around him close enough to see started whispering.

"A genuine lower god…" one hissed.

"So young…" another murmured.

Then their eyes widened as they counted the fragments. "Dozens? Impossible…"

Even the passersby's in the Exchange stopped to stare, their disbelief plain. Under ordinary circumstances, a destroyed secret world yielded perhaps ten rules worth trading. And those would be divided among several gods. For one man to stand here with several times that number…

Cillian narrowed his eyes. "What is it? Shouldn't they be identified first?"

The trader jolted as if waking from a trance. "Ah—y-yes, of course!" He scrambled to gather the rules, bowing quickly. "We will conduct the identification immediately. Please, in the meantime, proceed to the trading hall and select the resources you require."

Cillian inclined his head and walked past them.

The hall within was alive with movement. Gods, traders, and apprentices drifted between glowing counters, each displaying divine wares, shards of dying stars, caged creatures with too many eyes, and even flasks of divine ichor filled with stolen power.

Cillian stepped to the nearest counter. "I need world resources."

The trader there raised her hand, and a great nebula appeared above the counter.

"These fragments," she explained with a courteous smile, "are called Chaos Continents. Each one the size of a world, brimming with pure, attributeless elements. With them, you can expand dimensions, fuel wars, or birth entire ecosystems from nothing."

She paused, still smiling. "How much would you require, sir?"

In Cillian's account, the fragments of law had already been converted into trading points, more than enough to secure a fortune. He raised his gaze and gave his answer without hesitation.

"One hundred continents."

The woman's smile froze. Her hand faltered as the nebula flickered. "…One hundred?"

"Yes." Cillian's tone was calm. "One hundred."

No ordinary divine world could hold such resources. Pouring them in would cause a collapse, a detonation that would reduce the god's realm to ruin. To demand such a number was either folly… or proof of something far more terrifying.

Cillian wasn't fool.

The Endless Abyss demanded it.

For months, it had grown at a pace that shook even him. The Incubation Pools, meant to prepare for war, consumed resources faster than he could provide. The Abyss was no longer content to slowly crawl. It had become a beast with hunger even he was struggling to slow.

And in its rapid evolution, Cillian saw something that froze his heart.

The endless abyss had a major flaw.

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