Chapter 37 – The Heart of the Void: Our End and Beginning

A door. Not the smooth, circular door we’d opened before, but something… different. Larger. More… menacing. A gaping maw of darkness, carved from the very essence of the Abyss, a void that swallowed light, a tear in the fabric of reality. Black tendrils, like living shadows, snaked out from the doorway, their movements sinuous, their purpose… unknown. Were they part of the Abyss itself? Or something… created by the door?

“…This is…”

I recognized it. The same style of door we’d seen on the seventh floor. The same style of door that connected each layer of the Abyss. But if this is the door… then what about the path we’ve been following? The ruins? The city? The visions?

“Noah…” Yuri whispered, her voice barely audible, her eyes wide with a dawning realization. “…the places we’ve seen… the floors… were they…?”

I looked back at the path we’d taken, the layers we’d traversed, the trials we’d endured, the memories we’d unearthed. And a chilling thought took root.

What if… what if those weren’t just memories? What if… those were the remnants of worlds already consumed by the Abyss? Echoes of what once was, now… nothing more than… ghosts?

“…doors of the Abyss…” I murmured, my gaze fixed on the black doorway, its darkness beckoning, promising… something. But what? Escape? Or… oblivion?

If this door… isn’t just an exit… if it’s a boundary… between what the Abyss has consumed… and what it… still hungers for…

I took a step towards the door, a sudden, overwhelming urge to… cross it… to see… what lay beyond.

“Noah! Look!”

The black-robed figures stood before the door, their forms shimmering in the distorted light, their faces still hidden in shadow. But they weren’t unified. A division amongst them. A choice.

Some of them, their eyes glowing with a strange, unsettling light, a mix of madness and… ecstasy, turned their backs on the collapsing city, on the screaming people, and walked towards the door, their movements slow, deliberate, their expressions… serene, as if… they’d found… something.

“We have arrived…” one whispered, their voice echoing in the chaos.

“This is… the place… that calls to us…”

“The heart of the void… our end… and our beginning…”

“We are… one…”

Their voices were calm, devoid of fear, their steps unwavering as they walked into the darkness, into the door, their forms dissolving, absorbed by the Abyss, leaving… nothing behind. They’d chosen… oblivion. A willing sacrifice.

But others… they hesitated, their gazes fixed on the door, their eyes filled with doubt, with fear, their bodies trembling. They looked back at the collapsing city, at the screaming people, their faces etched with despair, with regret. Everything they’d believed in, everything they’d fought for… it was all… crumbling around them.

“This… this isn’t… what we wanted…”

“Is this truly… the way…?”

“Why… did we open the door…?”

“We can’t… we can’t handle this…”

Some knelt, their heads bowed, their bodies shaking. Others closed their eyes, as if trying to shut out the horrors unfolding around them. Others simply stared into the void, their eyes empty, their faces blank, their hope… extinguished.

They’d reached the door, but they couldn’t… cross it. They weren’t gods. They hadn’t found salvation. They’d found… only despair.

And then, the final moments, the final choices. Some turned towards the door, their steps slow, hesitant, their fear battling with… something else. A need? A compulsion? Others remained rooted to the spot, their bodies trembling, their minds reeling, unable to choose, unable to… move. And others… they cried out, their voices filled with anguish, with regret.

“Stop! Don’t go! It’s not… it’s not the way!”

“We’ve found the answer! Why are you still… afraid?!”

“This isn’t the answer! That door… it’s not salvation! It’s destruction!”

“Destruction? No… it’s a new beginning!”

“You can’t come back! Once you cross… you’re gone!”

“There’s no reason… to come back…”

They looked at each other, their faces illuminated by the flickering light, their eyes reflecting their choices: despair, hope, acceptance.

And those who chose the Abyss… they smiled, their expressions serene, almost… joyful.

“You don’t understand…” they whispered, their voices echoing in the chaos.

“The truth… it’s… beyond the door…”

“We are… no longer… human…”

And then, they were gone, their forms dissolving into the darkness, swallowed by the void.

I held my breath, watching the scene unfold, the city collapsing around us, the ground shaking, the sky tearing, the Abyss consuming everything. We couldn’t intervene. We were just… witnesses. Observers. Ghosts in a dying world.

“…they did this…” Yuri whispered, her voice hollow, her eyes fixed on the collapsing city. “…they brought the Abyss… here…”

“Was it… worth it?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “…to sacrifice everything… everyone… for this…?”

Luna gripped my sleeve, her small hand trembling. “Noah… should we… be seeing this…?”

I couldn’t answer. Because I knew… somehow… that seeing this… being here… it meant… we were part of it now. Part of the city’s fall. Part of the Abyss’s… awakening.

We watched as the city crumbled, the ground beneath our feet shaking, the sky above tearing open, the darkness spreading, consuming everything. But this vision… it was different. The others had been fleeting, glimpses of the past, but this… this felt… real. We weren’t just observing; we were… experiencing. And there was no… escape.

“…Luna… Yuri…” I looked at them, their faces pale, their eyes wide with fear, and knew… they felt it too.

“Why… why are we still here?” Yuri whispered, her voice trembling. “We should be… back in the ruins…”

“This isn’t… a memory…” I said, my voice low, the realization hitting me with the force of a physical blow. “…this is… real. We’re… here. In this moment.”

“So…” Yuri’s eyes widened, her voice barely a whisper. “…when the city falls… we… we’ll be gone, too…?”

I couldn’t answer. Because I knew… she was right. This wasn’t just a vision anymore. We were part of it. And if the city fell… we would fall with it.

I looked around desperately, searching for a way out, an escape, but there was nothing. Just the collapsing city, the encroaching darkness, the… end.

And then, I saw it. The door. The Abyssal door. Our only way out.

I’d hesitated before, uncertain, afraid. But now…

“…there’s no other choice…” I murmured, my gaze fixed on the door, its darkness beckoning, promising… escape. Or oblivion.

“That door…” I said, my voice stronger now, “it’s our only way out of here.”

Yuri looked at me, her eyes wide with fear. “But what if… what if we can’t come back…?”

“If the city falls…” I said, my voice grim, “…there’ll be nothing… to come back to.”

She didn’t argue. The city was collapsing around us, the ground sinking, the sky tearing, the Abyss consuming everything. There was no other way.

Luna looked at me, her small hand gripping mine tightly, her golden eyes shining with a unwavering trust.

“…Luna… trusts Noah…” she whispered.

I looked at her, at Yuri, our hands clasped together, a small circle of warmth, of connection, in the heart of the chaos.

I took a step towards the door, then another, my movements slow, deliberate, my gaze fixed on the darkness, the unknown, the unknowable. And I knew… we had to choose.

“Yuri,” I said, my voice firm, “Luna… let’s go.”

“This door… it might… swallow us whole,” I said, my voice low, the weight of the words settling upon me. “But if it’s the way… to the tenth floor…” We have to try. We have no other choice.

Yuri took a deep breath, her gaze meeting mine, then nodded resolutely. “Let’s go.”

“Noah…” Luna whispered, squeezing my hand. “…together…”

I looked at the door, its darkness swirling, beckoning, waiting. Waiting to consume us. Or to… set us free.

I took a deep breath.

And we jumped.

The light vanished, the world dissolved, the very fabric of reality tearing apart, our bodies twisting, turning, pulled in… then out… then in again, weightless, then heavy, then weightless again, up, down, left, right… all direction, all sensation, lost in the chaotic embrace of the Abyss. The air rushed past us, or perhaps… there was no air, no sound, no light, no feeling, just… the endless, swirling darkness, our very existence… dissolving.

And then… nothing.

[Abyss – 9th Floor Terminus – 3000m Underground]

Pattern: Convergence of Scattered Trajectories.

Description: Unlike the patterns on previous floors, this one is incomplete, fragmented, a chaotic network of broken lines and flickering dots, like a map of shattered pathways, converging, then diverging, stretching across the floor and walls, a constant reminder of the… instability… of this place.