Abyss and Death

It was unsettling. Albert knew his special technique cannot be dodged, but the way that man examined him and his surrounding made him feel an indescribable horror. For a moment, he had a lingering thought that perhaps 'Will he actually dodge them?'

But just as soon as that appeared, Albert quickly dismissed it and increased the energy of the sphere in his stomach.

In just a moment from now, a thick cluster of countless energy shots will shoot out from the sphere in his stomach, and they will all rain down and attack that man. To even think that this man will be able to somehow dodge this attack was inconceivable, especially in this cramped room. The human body occupied a certain amount of space, so if those energy shots filled the entire room, it will be logically impossible to dodge or block all of them, regardless of how much of a proficient swordsman or a fighter you are. Even if you were ridiculously faster, it wouldn't matter when there even wasn't space to dodge.

Still, the man's gaze on him felt cold, as if he was piercing his soul.

'What the hell are you looking at with those creepy-looking eyes?' Albert thought, 'I'll crush, and I'll absorb your soul. I'll make sure you'll suffer for all of eternity!'

"Die, you wretched bastard!" Albert exclaimed out loud, and immediately after, the sphere in his stomach glowed a brilliant light of red, and in just a moment, thousands of energy bullets shot out everywhere.

They were similar to the sphere in terms of shape and color, but their speed was so inconceivably fast that even Albert, with his astonishing speed, wouldn't even be able to dodge or block even one of them.

The energy bullets filled the room, and a lot of them ricocheted off the walls. Logically speaking, these bullets should also affect Albert since they will be shot everywhere, but thankfully, since they are his own energy, they passed through his body whenever they touched him as if he was intangible.

It took less than a blink of an eye for the bullets to bounce through the entire room, and of course, many of them reached the man.

Albert laughed in his mind, and a certain sense of relief washed over him. It was over, he thought.

But, something kept bothering him. This man was doing something strange. Just as the shots were about to reach him, he slightly tilted his body at a weird angle. His arms, legs, head, everything was tilted at a different angle.

'What the hell is he-'

"...?!"

Before Albert could finish his thoughts, he widened his eyes in a shock, and his mouth was threatening to fall off from the shock that just happened before him.

The bullets, which were supposed to tear the man into shreds, easily passed through the man without any injuries to the man!

'No- It- it... looks like he's dodging them?!' Albert's mind was crumbling more and more as he witnessed the unbelievable sight in front of him. Every bullet that was reaching towards the man was easily dodged by the simplest tilting of his body. It was impossible, incomprehensible, Albert thought.

With every movement he made, the man was able to dodge the set of hundreds of bullets that came toward him at the same time. Albert, who had astonishing reaction speed and as such was able to perceive the man, didn't understand how he was dodging them.

His mind couldn't register it. It was so unfathomable that even his mind couldn't register how the man was dodging the bullets.

Albert instinctively took a step back in fear, his eyes shivering with horror. Immediately, he strengthened the power of the sphere, causing another set of thousands of energy bullets to shoot out of it, causing his own stamina and energy to be depleted at an unfathomable rate.

But he didn't stop there. Originally, he just shot the bullets to randomly bounce in the room, but now, he directly used his precise control of energy, and send out a command to all the bullets that were shot out.

'Target him, and kill him!'

All the bullets suddenly stopped mid-air for a moment, and immediately after shot in the direction of the man. This was Albert's last resort to kill the man, and he had used almost all of his energy on it.

Thousands upon thousands of energy bullets were sent after the man, surrounding him from all directions, making it impossible to dodge.

But alas, Albert's hopes have been utterly crushed as he saw the man moving slightly more frantically, and dodging all the bullets. Even after completely focusing on the man, he still didn't know how he dodged them. It was as if he was intangible, just like Albert.

But he knew, deep down, the man was not intangible, but actually dodging them through impossible means.

"T-This- This is impossible!" Albert muttered, his voice filled with shock and fear. His body was heavily shaking from both terror and fatigue.

*Step!*

Albert's 'heart' skipped a beat when the man took a step while dodging the bullets. As if him dodging the bullets wasn't already shocking, he began to notice something else.

'I-Is he... getting faster?' Albert didn't know if it was because of his fatigue causing his reaction time to become slower, but he felt that the man's movement is becoming faster and faster by the second.

*Step*

The man took another step, which caused Albert to step back in response.

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

The man's walking speed increased massively, and he was now outright running towards him at an incredible speed, much faster than when he was fighting Albert previously.

Albert stared at the man with horror, and for a split second, a sudden thought fell down upon him. He had heard of people like this man before, people who were such astonishing fighters they could overcome any threat in their way, regardless of the strength and speed difference. Additionally, if they were met with great opponents, they'll adapt mid-way through the fight to become stronger and faster.

But, these people weren't human, they were 'fairy tales', creatures from fairy tales that usually talked about unbeatable swordsmen that overcame any obstacle. These people were incredibly rare to find, and only a few people have met them. This world, which was mixed with many realms and fairy tales, was inconceivably large, after all.

'C-Could it be- that this man is one of those people?!'

That thought sent shivers all over Albert's body, and when he noticed that the man was getting closer while dodging all of the bullets, there was only one thought in his mind.

'I have to run!' Albert instinctively turned around and fled with all of his strength, the ground cracking due to the sheer force.

Albert's body, which was heavily worn down due to the excess amount of energy he had used for his special attack, was contorting and deforming. As he was running away from the man, his body slowly shrunk and deformed, until he was eventually turned into his true form.

A white, relatively large white bunny, with red eyes.

Due to the sudden change of form, his speed got heavily affected, immensely slowing him down. However, he continued running on four legs as fast as he could to the end of the room.

'I have to run. I have to escape! I'll get killed if I stay here any longer!' His thoughts were in shambles, and he felt like he was about to faint any second now.

Just as he was about to reach the end of the room, Albert used his last remaining energy and caused the red sphere in his stomach, which was now smaller than a bead, to glow red. Suddenly, a fissure, a crack in space, appeared at the end of the room. It was a portal, his last saving grace to get him out of this place.

He will get a penalty from the divine system if he escaped from this realm, but he didn't care. Right now, surviving was of the utmost importance!

Albert didn't dare to look behind him, but he could hear the sound of the man's footsteps approaching him closer and closer. Albert, with all of his strength, jumped and entered the portal.

"YES!" Albert happily exclaimed. Despite his current form, he could still talk just like a normal human. He felt an incomparable relief wash over his body and a heavy weight lifting from his heart. He was currently in the air, falling through what seemed to be an endless pit. Sides of the pit were filled with cupboards, book-shelves, maps, and pictures hung upon pegs.

It has been forever since Albert entered this place, and he didn't want to come back to it, but it was the only place he could open a portal to. Still, this place, which he hated greatly, felt like heaven to him.

However, that moment was short-lived, as Albert felt a stinging, sharp pain in his abdomen, slicing his organs and causing indescribable pain. Albert's eyes slightly widened in shock, and slowly, due to the injury and his fatigue, he slowly turned his head around. From inside the portal which showed the room he was just in, there was the man stretching his hand out, before suddenly moving once more toward the portal.

Then, Albert looked at his abdomen. There, a large, steel sword was passing through his stomach, heavily damaging his organs. However, the sphere wasn't damaged, as if it purposely was aimed to not damage it. Blood started dripping from the wound, and from his mouth and eyes.

For you see, the man immediately threw his sword the moment he saw Albert leaving the realm through the portal, and with horrifying accuracy, he impaled Albert.

Albert's eyes were hazy, and he felt his consciousness falling through darkness, but with his last remaining willpower, he managed to stay awake. However, when he saw the man jumping with massive strength towards the portal and entering it just as it was about to close, sent a feeling of utter hopelessness to Albert.

"N-No...! D-Don't k-kill me...!" Albert pleaded weakly, the blood flowing from his mouth causing his words to slightly crumble. He noticed the man was getting closer, and Albert's body began to shake violently.

'Was this what death looked like?'

Was this how his victims always felt?

Whenever he was about to kill his victims, they always had a look of sheer horror, fear, and most importantly, weakness.

Was Albert showing the same expression as his victims?

It was horrible.

"P-Please...!" Albert begged, tears of blood flowing from his eyes like waterfalls, "I-I won't kill anyone anymore! I-I'll help you! I-I can make you stronger! P-Please, I-I... I-I don't want to die-"

Before Albert could even finish his sentence, the man had already reached him. He extended his hand towards the sword that was still impaled inside Albert's stomach and grabbed Its handle with all of his strength.

*Slash!*

*Splurt!*

And calmly slashed his sword upward, easily tearing Albert's upper-half body in half, splashing blood everywhere.

Albert, with his strong soul and energy, didn't immediately die after being sliced in half. His eyes were filled with shock, and he managed to throw a glance toward the man.

His face was expressionless. The man's eyes were empty, and hollow, as always. He felt like he was looking at the abyss, and as the saying goes, he felt the abyss was looking back at him. His eyes were penetrating Albert's soul, threatening to swallow him up in darkness.

And like that, Albert's consciousness finally disappeared, his final thoughts about the man's indescribable and horrifying abyss-like gaze.