The Abyss

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche.

Coughing and heaving were immediately heard. A single man lay with nothing but pants and a shirt on his person. He was distraught and confused with no knowledge of his whereabouts.

"Where am I?" the man questioned.

Nothing responded. Nothing but silence. What could have been hours or seconds passed before the man resolved himself to at least investigate his surroundings. All he could find was what seemed to be an entrance. The man had to stop to gather himself.

"Who am I?" the man questioned.

Once again no answer except for an eerie silence. It was obvious he would not get answers unless he found them. Continuing past the entrance his eyes had finally somewhat adjusted to the darkness. What greeted him was an unbelievable sight. A dim violet rune shimmered along the cave wall.

A deep urge welled up from the man's very soul. All of his instincts screamed two words, "grasp it". His hand slowly reached out and just as he was about to touch it-

"SCREEEEEEEEECCHHH"

An ear-piercing cry rang out bouncing along the cavernous walls.

A cold-sweat enveloped the man's clothes, this unworldly scream penetrated his very soul. He desperately scoured the ground for something, anything that he could defend himself with. Grabbing a rock and throwing it in search of something better, he repeated this process for what seemed to be hours.

"Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck… FUCK!!!"

The best thing he could find was a rock with a sharp end that was about 10 centimeters long. The man prepared his heart. This impossible situation couldn't be happening, not to him. This all had to be a dream, a long scary dream. Forgetting his name, awaking alone in a dark and quiet cave, runes along the ancient walls; all of this had to be fake.

But his instincts said otherwise. The cool feel of the stone, the way sound echoed off the walls, ceiling, and floor. It was all too real. Even the scream felt too vivid to be a dream. This terrifying nightmare was reality. A reality he had to overcome.

Steeling himself, the man put his back against a wall to at least eliminate one angle he could be attacked from. His heartbeats became rapid, a deep thud pounded against his head over and over. His eyes glanced at every angle possible, he stopped himself from shaking. Soon he heard a faint noise.

"Click click clack"

"Gyuhhhhh"

Clicks could be heard approaching him with alongside it the groans of what sounded like a human.

"Wha- what is that thing?"

An ant-like monster was clacking its razor-sharp teeth. Its arms looked flexible and hard, and its body looked like a layer of pure armor with chitin protecting every weakness. Dripping from its mouth fresh crimson blood dripped down. Within its mandibles was a half eaten human. Mangled to pieces it barely looked human. All that came from its mouth was a few groans and gasps, post-mortem noises. A death rattle.

The man's breathing became ragged and his head became hot. Every synapse in his brain was telling him to run, to leave as fast as possible.

No, no if I run now... wont I end up just like him?

The unfortunate victim had been eaten from the lower body while the upper body was relatively fine besides a missing arm. He had tried to run, and the ant had easily caught up to him. If the man were to run his fate would be sealed.

His eyes looked all over the beast and searched for any weak point. Its joints were a no go, the chitin was especially thick there. The eyes wouldn't matter, if he got there its mouth would easily chop him to pieces.

Finally one part stuck out. Right where the thorax and abdomen of the ant were connected was a pale spot. Whether biological or injury induced this part looked softer than the rest of its body. The ant was durable and fast, but it did not seem mobile. Due to its thick joints it probably could not bend down easily. He could possibly get under it and not get chewed to bits.

I have to do it, I have to go for it.

The man bit his tongue till iron filled his mouth. His breathing finally settled. To pull this off he had to be calm and calculating. One misstep would spell his end.

Firmly grasping the sharp stone the man accelerated at a rapid rate. The ant was about 20 meters away from him.

15 meters

10 meters

The ant took notice of him and threw aside the corpse. Violent clicking escaped its maws.

8 meters.

The ant began to move towards the man. It got closer and closer. The gap between the two had to be two meters apart. The man then slid on his legs.

The rocks and uneven surface cut and battered his feet and legs tearing apart the man's pants. He grit his teeth before looking up.

The ant passed over him unable to immediately stop. As the ants body flew by the pale spot came into view. With all of his might the man thrusted upwards.

"GRAHHHHHHHH"

A viscous green liquid poured all over him. Whether by luck or skill the puny rock had pierced the soft underbelly and cut open a part of the ant.

"CREAAAAKK"

The man quickly got up after the ant flew past. The ant was screeching in pain and anger. The ant tried to get up to move towards the man. But its backside had seemingly become paralyzed.

"Holy shit, I must have severed a nerve!"

The man was gleeful. He had just overcome this beast with nothing but a rock after all. Finally something good had occurred. With these few joyous thoughts he moved cautiously towards the ant to finish it off for good.

As he approached the ant it was deathly still. The man was filled with anger in no time. He was nearly killed moments after waking up by a mere ant. With righteous anger he slammed the rock into the head of the ant.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

He kept on hitting till he could no longer feel his hands.

"You miserable piece of SHIT! YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKER"

He screamed and screamed before finally falling backwards. A warm liquid enveloped his legs and exhaustion set in after his adrenaline had worn off. Wincing in pain he looked at his scraped up legs. All he could do was lay down.

After just laying down for minutes upon minutes he heard a familiar sound.

"Click click clack"

"You've got to be shitting me"

Another ant had shown up. And this time he couldn't even stand up. He desperately crawled towards the dead ant hoping to use it as a shield. But fate was not on his side.

The other ant quickly ran at him with surprising accuracy.

"Did the other ant leave a pheromone on me?"

The man could only laugh at his bad luck. Of course the ants would function like a hive mind even if they were the size of humans. The ant raced at him before finally making contact.

"GAHHHH"

The man was flung across the cave with frightening speed. He slammed into the opposite wall before coughing from getting the air knocked out him. His vision was blurred and his eyes glanced at everything around him trying to think up a solution.

Then something caught his eye. A dim violet blur filled his vision.

His soul once again was grasped in an instant. All he could see in his mind was the outline of the violet. The shape resembled something familiar to the man. The shape was Ω−.

He quickly pressed his hand against the rune before a sharp pain overcame him. Numbers, symbols, sounds, a multitude of stimuli filled his eyes and ears. The ant was of no concern to him. All he recalled at the moment was one word...

"Omega"

A word that meant something to him, a powerful word. With that word came another word.

"Hyperon"

Not much could be made of these words besides it being integral to the man's identity. But this did not matter at the moment. He had snapped back to reality.

The ant was charging at him, with its mandibles clicking its endless amount of teeth together. But the man felt no fear. In fact it was like all the concern he had faded away. Everything clicked together and he came to a realization.

"I can do this"

The monstrous entity came at him but when its mandibles were less than a meter away the man's head pumped at full capacity.

The world slowed to a halt while he emptied his brain of every unnecessary detail. The world became a series of strings. All of it was connected and entwined together. Pulling on this string would cause an uncertain reaction. But this was all he could do at that very moment.

He reached out to the string before carefully plucking it. Soon a symphony of strings graced his ears.

"Twinge, twang, throng"

Multiple noises rang out before one noisy vibration was born. It continued to speed up faster and faster before an immense heat started emanating from it.

The world then returned to its normal view with the ant only centimeters away from him. Then in between him and the ant appeared a dot. The ant milliseconds later touched the dot by accident.

"BOOOOOM"

The dot exploded right in front of the ant flinging the man away.

"Cough, cough, shit what was that?"

He got up with the last bit of energy he could muster and walked towards the ant.

"What the hell?"

Half of the ant had disintegrated from the pure heat of the object.

"Did I do this?"

The man wobbled back and forth a bit before hitting the ground. His consciousness was fading away.

"What am I?"

Once again the darkness did not answer and he slipped away into sleep.