Time at the bottom of the Abyss of Whispers did not flow as it did on the surface. There was no sunrise or sunset, only shifting intensities of darkness that occasionally pulsed due to the radiation from black crystals on the cave walls. For Elian, time had ceased to be a series of seconds and had transformed into a rhythmic sequence of pain.
His small body was now completely encased in a hard layer of black keratin, resembling an ancient insect chrysalis attached to the pile of his ancestors' bones. Inside, within the soundproof, cramped space, Elian no longer used his eyes to see. He "saw" through the flow of mana absorbed into his pores.
The assimilation process of the Ring of Weight had entered its most critical stage.
The ring was no longer a circular band on his finger. The gravity-absorbing black metal had dissolved, seeping into Elian's bloodstream, and was now settling on the surface of his bone marrow. Every time Elian's heart beat, the metal particles scraped against his nerves, forcing them to adapt or be destroyed.
Crack... crack...
The sound of condensing bone echoed inside the chrysalis. His dragon bones, initially porous in structure, were now being coated in dense gravitational metal. This was torture surpassing anything Elian had felt at the hands of the Templars. He was being forged from the inside out.
Pain... Cold...
Elian tried to maintain his consciousness. In his inner darkness, he saw his damaged Core. The cracks on the energy sphere were now filled with swirling black fluid—residue from the Void energy he had absorbed during the confrontation with the Inquisitors.
Suddenly, the "Whispers" returned. This time, the voices no longer sounded like disturbances, but like instructions flowing directly into his brain.
"Do not resist the weight, Little Child." "Weight is not a burden. Weight is a foundation." "The world did not give you wings to fly; it gave you roots to crush anything that stands above you."
The voices were memory fragments of the Vane warriors who had died here. They were the betrayed guardians whose residual wills had merged with the abyss's darkness. Through blood resonance, they began teaching Elian how to control his own body's "mass."
Elian started to regulate his breathing. He stopped trying to resist the gravitational pull dragging his internal organs down. Instead, he allowed every cell to become as heavy as the ring desired.
Instantly, the pain changed.
He no longer felt pressed from the outside; he felt like the center of the pressure itself.
It was then that a rare phenomenon occurred. Although Elian was thousands of miles below the surface, far from forests or sunlight, nature around him responded. The black crystals at the bottom of the abyss began to glow brighter, channeling pure earth energy toward Elian's chrysalis.
In this exceedingly rare moment, his identity as a Child of the World truly resonated. The earth seemed to be nursing its wounded child, wrapping him in a protective layer that made time inside the chrysalis move faster than outside.
One day on the surface was one week inside the chrysalis.
***
POV: Lunaria
Three weeks had passed since Lunaria parted ways with Elian at the foot of the Shattered Peak.
The Elf Queen stood on a hill overlooking the town of Oakhaven. She had ensured Elara was in safe hands, but her heart was not at ease. The mana contract connection she had with Elian had faded until it was nearly gone.
Usually, that meant the subject was dead.
"You couldn't die that easily, Elian," Lunaria murmured.
She looked at the tracking badge in her hand pointing north—toward the Abyss of Whispers. The direction hadn't changed in three weeks, but the signal was now buried very deep, obscured by powerful energy interference.
Lunaria knew what lay at the bottom of that abyss. She knew the dark history of the Vane family erased by the Church. If Elian had truly fallen there, he had only two choices: become part of the bones there, or crawl out as a monster that would topple the world order.
"I will give you three months, as we agreed," Lunaria sheathed her silver sword. "But if you don't appear in three months, I will descend into that hell myself to retrieve your corpse."
She turned, disappearing into the forest. She had to start building an information network. If Elian returned, he would need a place to hide temporarily before they began their long-term plan to infiltrate Sky Haven Academy.
***
POV: Elian
The second month at the bottom of the abyss.
Inside the black chrysalis, Elian began to dream.
He didn't dream of Elara or his father. He dreamed of a giant burning tree, its roots wrapping around a shattering planet. Beneath that tree, he saw a woman in a dress of black rose petals—the same woman he had seen in the Mirror of Souls.
The woman approached him, her cold fingers touching Elian's cheek.
"You have let go of many things, my little one," the woman whispered. "Love, pain, humanity... you sacrificed it all for a promise."
Elian wanted to speak, but his voice was gone.
"Be a Ghost. Be the Void. Because only in emptiness can the world write its new destiny."
The woman kissed Elian's forehead, and instantly, the black chrysalis cracked.
CRACK!
The floor of the abyss shook violently. The air pressure at the bottom of the Abyss suddenly increased hundreds of times before finally exploding outward.
The chrysalis shattered into obsidian shards.
Elian Vane stood amidst the ruins of his cocoon.
His appearance was now completely different. He had grown slightly taller, but his muscle density made him look leaner and sharper. His skin now possessed a strange pallor, smooth as porcelain yet hard as armor. His long black hair now had streaks of grey at the tips, a sign of excessive Void energy usage.
His left hand... the hand wearing the ring... now bore a permanent mark. Black vein-like lines protruded, running from his index finger up to his shoulder, forming a natural tattoo pattern that looked hauntingly beautiful yet terrifying.
Elian clenched his fist.
The Ring of Weight no longer felt heavy. He was the weight itself.
He picked up his ancestor's rusted sword stuck nearby. With one light pull, the blade that had been frozen for hundreds of years was freed.
"Two months..." Elian whispered. His voice was now deeper, colder, and devoid of the lingering childish tremors. "There is still time."
He looked up toward the peak invisible from this dark bottom. He didn't need to climb.
Elian kicked the ground.
BOOM!
The earth beneath his feet caved in a meter deep. Elian shot upward like a black bullet, cutting through the abyss fog with speed impossible for a Tier 2 knight.
This wasn't flight magic. This was pure mass manipulation. By making his body "lighter" than air for a moment and exploding his muscle power, he could launch thousands of meters in a single breath.
As he shot up, the "Whispers" around him cheered. They had found their mouthpiece.
Elian Vane was no longer a runaway child. He was the Ghost of the Abyss returning to demand the world that had cast him aside. And in his heart, a dark room had just been locked; he would no longer feel mercy for those who were not his "loved ones."
His journey to the mainland of Noctis had just begun again, this time with a body no longer entirely human.