Enter the Abyss

"The first trial involves territory acquisition; you, all as envoys of the princes, have been tasked to grow your legend. Let the mortals of your world hear your name and tremble. Let your names cause the earth to rumble; let nature be forced to react to the sound of your voice. Let your patron gods be proud to have you as envoys."

"Now, go spread your legend throughout the earth."

As soon as the voice finished speaking, Jacob, as well as the others whom he assumed to have been his fellow contenders, vanished.

"What do you all think of them?"

The voice spoke again, and the stars seemed to react, emitting the brightest shine before morphing into human-like figures that were partially visible from the excessive light surrounding them.

"They're all just mortals; there's nothing special about them," one of the figures declared.

"And your point is? You'd do well to remember some of us perished at the hands of these mortals," another interjected.

"Some of them seem to lack resolve; a lot of them wouldn't last," another voiced his opinion.

"Lucifer, what do you think of your envoy?"

Lucifer, lost in his thoughts and not expecting to be put on the spot, stuttered a little before finding his bearing.

"He... yeah, yeah... he's a good kid."

"Is something bothering you, brother?" Another figure wreathed in flames voiced his concerns.

Lucifer's face immediately scrunched up in disgust and spat, "Disgusting hypocrite, cut that smile off your face before I cut it myself."

"I also would be happy to spar with you; we don't get much practice in as gods." Michael, the god wreathed in flames replied

"I also would like to participate in this battle." Another figure spoke, strangely not covered by the blinding light the others were, so the fiendish grin plastered on his face that radiated his sinister intentions was plainly visible for the others.

"Why is this hybrid even here?" Lucifer spoke with irritation.

"If you have a problem with my son, then feel free to take it up with me." Yet another god spoke; even through the blinding light, his grin was oh so visible, and his bloodlust palpable.

The tension continued to rise as the gods bickered back and forth with each other, the air practically heating up. The machine-like cadence that caught Jacob's attention began to falter, forcing itself to move like it always had. It seemed a battle could break out at any time. However, before it could escalate further, the ethereal voice that seemed to be there and not at the same time sounded off.

"To conveniently ignore me and conceive the thoughts to fight in my presence, you lot have grown bold."

The gods trembled; true enough, they had forgotten this monster was here. Who could blame them? It was easy to forget something you couldn't attribute an image to. The best they've gotten was a shadow or, at best, part of her figure. Even though they were gods, their omnipotence was completely useless on this being.

The entire ecosystem that was already stressed by the aura of the gods directly gave out. Everything froze; even the gods themselves could only dart their eyes about. Some planets directly exploded, collapsing in on themselves. It was like a firm grip was placed on the area, and the weak structures within such grip were destroyed directly.

"Tch.... do not let this repeat itself; it'd be a shame if our numbers were to reduce the more. Alright, since you all don't have anything of importance to say, there's no point hanging around all your ugly faces, LEAVE."

One by one, the brilliant figures began to vanish; none of them even had thoughts of extending their welcome. This monster was truly terrifying.

As soon as every one of the gods had left, and the only one remaining was the monstrous woman, at least her presence. The space distorted, and some sounds could be heard. It was like an unholy mash of scrambled radio, wailings, and monster screeches. However, the woman seemed to be immune to it. In fact, if one could see her face, it wouldn't take an expert to decipher the excitement and anticipation on her face.

"Hmm, you've found it?"

"#%&£&%&£*"

"In that boy?... So what should I do?"

"#£&£^^#@*#&££"

"Are you sure? If I do that, he might not survive the games."

"#££%%÷£(*£&@&"

"Alright alright, it won't kill you to explain, you know... then again, you're already dead."

"#####"

"I'm joking, I'm joking. I also can't wait to meet you again, my dear."

Meanwhile, Jacob opened his eyes to find dilapidated buildings and debris all around him. It took a while before he realized he was back. The first thing he did was try to contact Lucifer. However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't reach him. Throwing this to the back of his head, he decided to test his ability on some creatures and maybe absorb some soul energy. The scene he saw gave him a spark of motivation to get stronger.

"I also would like to hold up the skies," he muttered to himself.

Making his way through the city's maze of buildings, debris, and foliage, it wasn't long before he encountered his first target. A human-like creature about six feet tall. Its body was riddled with wounds spewing what looked to be pus.

The creature likewise spotted Jacob and, in typical fashion, screeched and made its way to him disgruntledly.

"I really don't want to touch that... I should get myself a weapon or something. Alright, let's try this new ability," Jacob complained as he settled himself into an exaggerated pose.

He planted both feet flatly on the ground, drawing them farther apart such that the left foot was in front and the other behind. His left fist was reeled in below his shoulders just beside his abdomen, while his right arm was bent, and his hand was shaped in a claw that was directed toward his opponent.

When the creature was about ten meters in front of him, he exerted pressure from his left foot, which caused the ground to cave in and magically caused a portion of the earth immediately in front of his left foot to fly up until it reached the level of his fist.

He then punched out towards the portion of earth with all his torqued force. However, if one were to look closely or perhaps play his motion back in a slower speed, one would notice the earth ball already gaining momentum the moment his fist started moving.

As a matter of fact, his fist never had contact with the earth ball, however, his motion was too fast to notice these small details. The earth ball flew out with mind bogling speed surprisingly still maintaining its structural integrity; it drew a straight line towards the staggering creature and passed right through its head still without losing speed. It continued its trajectory through barely standing buildings, robbing them of their final structural integrity, causing them to collapse.

The body of the creature fell limply to the ground without even putting up a fight.

"Aha, I see why those guys have all those comical poses now. That was way more powerful than last night. Maybe it has to do with energy flow and all that nonsense, but wouldn't that mean I have like a daitan and meridians or something. Lucifer really isn't a great teacher; he could have at least given me a lecture on this. Hopefully, he returns soon."

"No, no, no, no. How am I supposed to extract its soul now? Urghh, what a pain."

Jacob murmured as he skipped the few distances from the now headless creature.

"Maybe..."

Jacob placed his hands on the creature and, after getting a few curses out on how the skin felt to touch, he felt that strange feeling and directly absorbed the soul of the creature.

After a brief moment of the usual disorientation, he smiled to himself but immediately tried to hide his pleasure.

"I really shouldn't be getting used to this... then again, it does kinda feel satisfying. Haha, how poetic I'm being corrupted by the devil; might as well live up to the name."

Unbothered about the moral justification of his actions, a big smile appeared on his face as he prepared to find more 'nourishment' to sate his hunger for power.

Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, destiny already had different plans for him. Jacob felt his heart stop, and a big chunk of himself or rather what was now himself forcefully being ripped out. If he were to describe it in words he had come to be familiar with, he would say it felt like a good chunk of his soul was torn out, and the pain was way worse than when he was the one at the other end. All the pain tolerance and toughness he had come to be used to wasn't worth shit at this moment; he writhed on the ground while letting out blood-curdling screams that were terrifying to whichever ears that heard it.