Chapter 5 #3
And there Harald was forced to a stop. His mind wandered, probed, but he couldn’t continue. He felt overwhelmed still by the power of his Abyssal Imperium realization and had trouble bringing his focus to the new task.
For hours he knelt, utterly focused, mind straying, probing, asking.
Then he hit upon an elementary truth: the abyss was the source of the Grasp’s and Wellspring’s power. The Starless Deep was a literal rift into the abyss that he tore open on the battlefield.
The Deep was, in a sense, the source of the Grasp and the Wellspring. Yet Harald was himself an embodiment of the abyss. He now wielded Abyssal Imperium and the Crown of the Abyssal Tyrant. With the Form of the Black Throne his literal body became infused with the abyss’ very darkness.
The Maw of the Starless Deep was no longer merely a power. It was himself, Harald, made manifest on the battlefield.
He was the abyss. The void lived within him.
He and the Starless Deep were one.
Everything collapsed in upon itself.
Active Ability Unlocked: Well of Starless Dominion
The Starless Deep establishes a permanent font within your soul.
Abyssal tendrils now emanate from this wellspring, draining enemies and empowering you and your bound Servitors as battle endures.
Harald felt it open inside him. Not a spell, not a summons, not a surge. A depth. A wellspring. Somewhere beyond his heart, beyond memory, beyond fear and sense of self, an invisible shaft plunged down into black infinity.
And from it, the power of the abyss arose.
Unable to resist, Harald activated Starless Dominion, and though he felt his four Thrones pour their power into this new Active, what now blossomed in his essence was a font to the abyss.
Upon activation, it cracked open, allowing void power to trickle out, forming the tendrils of shadow he recognized from Abyssal Grasp and Shadow Dominion, but with each passing moment the aperture grew wider.
His Thrones controlled how long he could keep the Well open, but the Well itself was endless in depth, and a moment later he received his first notification.
Starless Dominion Bestows +1
His frame shuddered as power poured into him. What was the cap? His new power, unlike Dread Wellspring, didn’t define a limit. Was it simply for however long he could keep this power active?
Excitement and awe caused him to shudder.
Text filled his vision, surprising him.
The abyss welcomes its living conduit into the world.
By the decree of the Fallen Angel, you are granted the next echelon of your destiny.
Abyssal Master 9
Wrestling with the implications, he opened his window and focused on the section that listed his Abilities.
Class: Abyssal Master 9
Class Actives: (A) Abyssal Imperium, (A) Well of Starless Dominion
Class Passives: (A) Crown of the Abyssal Tyrant, (A) Form of the Black Throne
Four powers. Grave Concordat had also been absorbed into Well of the Starless Dominion. That had to mean his Servitors would… what?
Harald summoned Shadowpaw.
The huge mastiff appeared by his side, coalescing out of swirling darkness, and Harald sensed the difference instantly: the open abyssal font within his soul began to pour dark energy into the hound through a slender and translucent thread.
Shadowpaw whuffed in momentary confusion, then turned to gaze at Harald with burning black eyes. He seemed augmented, larger, his presence more chilling and lethal.
Which he promptly undercut by licking Harald’s hand with his great red tongue.
“There’s been some big changes,” whispered Harald, and knelt to scritch the hound behind the ears. “I’m… I’m not the man I was, even a few hours ago.”
Shadowpaw chuffed and lapped at Harald’s cheek with his abrasive tongue. For a moment it was all Harald could do to chuckle and bury his face in the thick fur of Shadowpaw’s neck, and then, taking a deep breath, he stood and turned to face the blank wall.
“If they think they can lock me up in here and forget about me, they’re wrong.”
Shadowpaw stepped up alongside him.
Harald took a deep, shaky breath, and activated Crown of the Abyssal Tyrant. He felt that platinum crown appear above his brow, the air turn purple, and his breath begin to puff out with each exhalation. Shadowpaw became a denser than dark presence by his side.
Harald activated Form of the Black Throne.
He felt himself shift, transmute, become partially ethereal, his essence feeding off the ambient darkness.
Starless Dominion Bestows +2
And then finally, Thrones straining, Harald activated Abyssal Imperium. The light from above faltered and became little more than a gloomy glow. The air filled with the whispering rush of a thousand unseen blades.
Augmented past anything he’d ever experienced, feeling himself doom made incarnate, Harald summoned the Chyron’s Scourge to his fist, and raised the Epic-ranked blade.
Its length gleamed an impossible black.
He drew it back for a strike upon the smooth wall, and felt his will rise, his malice spike, his eagerness for confrontation build.
“Here I come, Alabenthos. Ready or not.”