NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Chapter Nine: When the Abyss Hungers
A storm of black fire rippled across the Hollow Vale.
The sky, once fractured by celestial fury, now bled with a darkness deeper than the void itself. Reality shuddered, torn between the weight of divine judgment and the rising force of something far older.
The Ashen King stood at the center of it all.
Before him, the abyssal entity loomed—a shadow given form, an echo of something that had existed before the first light. Its presence bent the world around it, twisting the fabric of reality as though the laws of existence had never truly applied.
It had no name.
No face.
Only a hunger that had waited for eons.
And now, it had awakened.
The Forsaken Throne's Warning
The throne behind him pulsed with unseen power, the ancient runes carved into its surface glowing with abyssal fire. It knew what had come. It had seen the rise and fall of countless rulers, had borne witness to gods, monsters, and kings who thought themselves eternal.
And yet, none had ever sat upon it like the Ashen King did now.
The entity's voice slithered through the void between worlds. "You do not understand what you have done."
The Ashen King did not move. His crimson eyes remained locked onto the abyssal presence before him. "You assume I care."
A pause.
Then, laughter. A deep, unsettling sound that reverberated through the Hollow Vale. The entity's form shifted, flickering between reality and something beyond it.
"You amuse me, mortal. Even when you wield the power of the Forsaken Throne, you remain bound by your own arrogance."
The Ashen King's lips curled into a smirk. "And yet, you stand before me, rather than devouring this world outright."
The entity's swirling mass of shadows pulsed.
"You are an anomaly. A fracture in the pattern. I have seen many kings rise and fall, but never one who commands both the Abyss and the Throne."
Something within the Hollow Vale rippled, as though the land itself recoiled at those words.
Even the gods had feared the Forsaken Throne.
But even they had never considered the possibility of its ruler being something more.
The Ashen King's fingers brushed against the throne's armrest, feeling the weight of its history. "Then you should understand one thing."
His aura shifted. The air around him cracked, not from celestial fire, but from something else—something deeper.
The Abyssal entity stilled.
For the first time since its emergence, it felt something unfamiliar.
Not defiance.
Not arrogance.
But control.
The Ashen King did not resist the Abyss. He did not fear it. He commanded it.
And that changed everything.
The Gods' Last Stand
Far beyond the Hollow Vale, in the Celestial Dominion, the Supreme Arbiter stood before the gathered gods.
They had unleashed the last seal.
And yet, even that had not been enough.
"The Rift stirs," a goddess whispered, her divine light dimming with unease. "The Abyss has recognized him."
The Arbiter's expression remained unreadable. "Then we act now."
A heavy silence followed.
They had to act.
But the gods of Eidryn had spent eternity believing themselves untouchable. They had woven the laws of existence, ensured that their dominion remained unquestioned.
And yet, now—
For the first time since the dawn of creation—
They felt something they had never known.
Doubt.
The Ascendant King
The Hollow Vale trembled beneath the weight of two impossible forces.
On one side, the abyssal entity, a being that had existed before gods, before laws, before time itself.
On the other, the Ashen King—once mortal, once powerless, now something that defied all understanding.
"You cannot stop what comes next," the entity whispered.
The Ashen King exhaled slowly. Then, without a word, he raised his hand.
Darkness surged.
Not the uncontrolled hunger of the Abyss.
But something sharper. Stronger.
And in that moment, the entity understood.
The Abyss did not consume him.
He was not a vessel, nor a victim.
He was its master.
And that changed everything.