The next day, Helios was in his office reading documents. Someone knocked on the door. "Come in," Helios said in a weary voice.
"Hello, Leader!" Ray said with a beaming smile on his face.
"Ray, what do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?" Helios asked, glancing at the mountain of documents on his desk with a frown.
"That's not important right now! We have finished creating the spiral energy measuring machine!" Ray announced in an excited voice, his eyes wide with childlike wonder.
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Helios replied in an indifferent tone, returning his focus to his paperwork.
"You should be happy, Leader! We are finally going to have rankings for our Seeker members!" Ray exclaimed, spinning around so his white lab coat fluttered in the air.
"Still not interested. I have too much work to do," Helios said, his voice as cold as ice.
"Is that so, Leader? I should tell you... Sara is going to be there," Ray said in a teasing tone, a mischievous glint in his eye.
Helios's face flushed a deep red. He stood up abruptly and walked out of the room. "Leader, the machine is at the training grounds!" Ray shouted after him. "Young people," Ray added, sighing with a knowing smirk.
Helios walked down the balcony stairs leading to the training grounds. "Leader, you're here too? I thought you were busy," Rio said, clutching his summon pillow with a sleepy expression. The other members of the organization who were there bowed respectfully.
"Yes, I thought it would be a good idea to come and see," Helios said, his gaze drifting toward Sara, who was wearing a snow-white dress adorned with blue flower designs.
"Morning, Leader," Sara said, watching Helios with her piercing, icy blue eyes.
"Morning, Sara," Helios said, quickly looking away to hide his nerves.
The leader has been acting weird since yesterday, Sara thought, her blue eyes remaining fixed on Helios with a curious stare.
"Are you going somewhere?" Helios asked, his eyes shimmering with a faint red glow.
"Yes, but it's not just me. You're coming with me," Sara said firmly.
"What are you talking about?" Helios asked, blinking in surprise.
"We have to go to a party. The aristocracy invited us," Sara said, her tone suggesting that Helios was already supposed to know this.
"Why?" Helios asked in a confused voice, staring at Sara.
"I put a document on your table this morning. Did you not read it?" Sara asked, tilting her head with a look of slight exasperation.
"I had too much paperwork," Helios said, clutching his head in frustration.
"We should be talking about the spiral energy machine!" Ray interrupted from behind Helios. Helios looked back as Ray walked toward a glass screen. "This is our spiral measuring machine. Our experiment will be this guy," Ray said, pointing to a member standing nearby.
"Come here," Ray beckoned, and the person stepped to Ray's side.
"Is this safe?" Nova asked, his black eyes peering worriedly from beneath his fox mask.
"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe... I think," Ray said, activating his octopus summon arms to create a protective shield around himself. "Now!"
The person placed his hand on the glass window, and it began to glow with a vibrant yellow light. The machine displayed the number fifty-two.
"It works!" Ray exclaimed, dismissing his summoned artefact with a triumphant grin. "Let me explain what the number means," Ray said, his voice trembling with joy. "A number from 1 to 20 shows that you are in the beginning stages of Awakening, called the 1st stage of the Seeker path.
20 to 40: Stage 2
40 to 60: Stage 3
60 to 90: Stage 4
90 to 120: Stage 5
120 to 500: Stage 6
500 to 1,200: Stage 7
1,200 to 2,800: Stage 8
2,800 to 30,000: Stage 9
30,000 to 100,000: Stage 10
These power rankings aren't valid yet; we are still doing research. We will tell you more next time. Now, everyone out! I need people to carry the machine to the lab!" Ray shouted, waving his arms energetically.
Helios and Sara met outside the training grounds. "Sara, what do you mean by 'we were invited to a party by the nobles'?" Helios asked, looking perplexed.
"Leader, you can ask questions later. Right now, you need to go home and change clothes," Sara said. She grabbed Helios's hand, causing his face to turn bright red as she led him toward his car.
They reached Helios's mansion. "Leader, hurry up! The party is going to start in a few minutes, I think," Sara said urgently as Helios ran up the stairs.
"You're back early, brother. Why is Sara here?" Luna asked, walking inside with a suspicious look.
"Your brother and I have somewhere to go," Sara said, meeting Luna's gaze calmly.
"Are you taking my brother away? He's mine," Luna said, her eyes glowing a menacing red.
Human, your sister makes me feel weird. Have I told you that? Circlet spoke in Helios's mind.
"Shut up, you dumb crown," Helios muttered under his breath while rushing to get ready.
In the hollow Broken Veil of the world lies the Abyss, a vast and silent hunger that swallows the light of the sun and the hope of the brave. It is not merely a cavern or a pit, but a living void, a throat of shadow that breathes with the rhythm of ancient, forgotten creatures. Here, the air is thick with the scent of blood and old copper, and the silence is so heavy it rings like a funereal bell in the ears of those foolish enough to descend.
Within its crushing depths, the laws of the surface wither and die. Space twists into impossible geometries, and time stretches like thinning silk, turning seconds into centuries of isolation. Strange creatures, born of concentrated darkness and spiral energy, prowl the jagged edges of the gloom, their eyes glowing with a predatory, violet fire. They are the hunter's of the Veiled World, protectors of the secrets that humanity was never meant to find.
To enter the Abyss is to surrender one's soul to the weight of the deep. It is a crucible of the spirit, where only the strongest Seekers can endure the pressure of the veiled world without shattering. It is the beginning and the end, a beautiful, terrifying kingdom of eternal night.
What do you think is the most dangerous thing hidden at the very bottom of the Abyss?