His pulse quickened. He can feel the urgency in Abyss's voice.
"Define 'anomaly'."
[Signature matches residual traces of a Dominion class entity. Calculating power level. Power level….unknown.]
Dominion class. His grip tightened. He has just begun to grasp the concept of Dominion. The power to command. The power to shape the very flow of the Abyss through sheer will.
And now he was faced with something that had already mastered.
"So what the hell did my crawler just wake up?"
The voice of the Abyss was silent for a moment. Then…
[Entity designation: Remnants of the Usurper.]
His eyes narrowed.
"Usurper?"
He didn't even got the time to think. As the ground trembled again. This time, it was closer to him. A sound rose from the depths of the chasm.
Not a growl. Not a roar. A chuckle. Low. Rumbling. Ancient.
His claws curled, the predatory instincts in him flaring to life. He had heard that laughter before.
In the void. In the darkness of the Fragment of the Forgotten King. It is very similar to that. His pulse steadied.
The Abyss had given him a gift. A fragment of something long forgotten, something that once ruled. But it had also given him a test.
A shadow moved in the depths, slow and deliberate. A shape taller than any creature he had yet encountered, its presence alone pressing against reality like a story waiting to break.
The Usurper was awake. And it was watching him. His lips curled into a grin.
"Good. Let's see who rules this Abyss."
The air was different. It wasn't just the cold, biting presence of the Abyss pressing against his skin. It was something older, something heavier.
Sensation clawed at his senses, thick with the weight of a forgotten sovereignty. The unseen presence did not just lurk in the dark. It commanded it.
And then, the voice spoke slowly.
"You are unworthy."
The words slithered from the abyss, heavy with amusement, with contempt. The unseen entity. The Remnant of the Usurper. Spoke with the weight of something ancient. Something that had ruled before and was now witnessing an intruder.
He did not flinch. His claws flexed, his senses sharpening. He could feel the chasm vibrating beneath him, pulsing with unseen power.
His connection to the Maw Crawler was still intact, but it had frozen in place, paralyzed by the overwhelming force pressing down upon it.
This was not just a battle. It was a trial. A test of Dominion. And he refused to be beneath anyone.
"Then try and cast me down."
A slow, hollow chuckle echoed through the chamber.
"Amusing."
And then. It moved. A shadow lunged from the darkness. Faster than thought.
His instincts screamed, his body reacting before his mind could fully process the attack.
He leaped backward, his talons scraping against stone as he barely dodged the incoming force. The impact struck where he had just stood, an invisible weight crushing the ground, shattering stone into dust.
He landed, muscles coiled, his vision snapping to the source. A figure stood amidst the destruction. It was wrong.
Not fully formed, not entirely physical. It was a massive of shifting black, a distortion in reality that flickered between states, sometimes solid, sometimes liquid. Something little more than writhing smoke. But its shape, what little he could perceive was humanoid.
Yet, that thing has no face. Just an empty, shifting void where eyes should be.
And then, it moved again. He barely had time to react. It was everywhere. No steps, no motions, just instantaneous displacement, as if the abyss itself bent to its whims.
It appeared in front of him, a claw of writing black slicing through the air. He dodged, but it was too late.
The edge of the attack clipped his side. Pain erupted through his torso as something alien tore through his flesh, not just cutting his body, but severing someone deeper.
The wound was wrong, pulsing with black tendrils that crawled along his skin like living things.
His breath hitched. This wasn't just physical damage. This thing was attacking something inside him.
The voice of the Abyss surged in warning
[Unknown force detecte. Classification: Dominion Erosio. Caution: Direct exposure may result in systemic collapse.]
His mind snapped into focus. It wasn't just a battle of strength. It wasn't just a battle of survival. This was a battle of sovereignty. A battle of rule.
And if he let that thing exert its dominion over him…he would cease to exist. His claws curled. His hunger burned. He had fought, devoured, evolved. But it had always been an instinctual struggle.
Now, for the first time, he felt something beyond survival clawing at his mind.
A need to conquer. The abyss was full of monsters. But he would not be one of the ruled. He would be the ruler.
As his way of thinking changed, his Dominion flared. The tendrils crawling over his wounds halted.
A ripple pulsed from his core, an unseen pressure pushing back against the invading force. The black tendrils shattered, disintegrating into nothing.
And the Remnant paused. For the first time, it hesitated. He grinned.
"What's wrong? Afraid?"
The void where its face should have been twitched. And then, the real fight began.
The Abyss roared around them as the two forces clashed.
It came at him with the speed of a collapsing star, its form shifting unpredictably, striking from impossible angles.
But he did not retreat. He met it. Claws against claws. Will against will.
After this confrontation. He understood that Usurper is just a Remnant. So it doesn't have even one-thousandth of its power. All it can do is pressure him with Dominion.
But with even that much less power it was able to be on par with him.
Every impact of them, sent shockwaves through the cavern, the very stone breaking under the force of their collision.
His blood splattered against the ground, but the moment it touched the Abyss, it moved, the liquid tendrils slithering back to him, refusing to be left behind.