Catching Hope

"What is this?"

It was an experience Varian wasn't expecting. He sensed energy far purer and more potent than anything he experienced.

Varian teleported to a hill under the ocean and waved his hand.

The hill broke into pieces and a crystal floated above Varian's palm.

The crystal had a single small black dot inside it—the original energy, even though it's diluted millions of times.

And around that black dot were many black threads. The same black thread responsible for turning dead into Undead.

Varian didn't understand a lot of things about the crystal.

But after he summoned another Abyssal, killed him, and saw an extra black thread in the crystal while the black dot shrunk, he realized something.

The black dot was being used to create the Undead. The black thread was some sort of energy that was being collected.

"Collected for what?" Varian didn't know, but he was certain it wasn't for anything good.