THEY THREW ME INTO THE ABYSS, SO I DEVOURED EVERYTHING

THE ABYSS MAW

"Hold your blades!" the High Priest screamed, scrambling to his feet while clutching his bruised hip. "Do not strike him! Do not let that filthy, corrupt blood spill upon the sacred floor!"

The fifty wardens halted mid-step, their heavy boots scraping against the marble as their silver swords glinted in the dim, shadowed light.

Julian lowered his blade half an inch, his shoulders rigid, his eyes wide as he stared at the thin black veins branching across Felix’s throat. "What do we do with him then, Your Grace? He broke the Pact Orb. He ruined the ritual!"

"Throw him to the Maw," Sarah said, stepping forward. Her voice was flat, devoid of its earlier sweetness, her pale hands clenched into tight fists inside her sleeves. "The pit takes all trash. Let the beasts inside clean up the mess."

"Yes," the Priest gasped, pointing a trembling finger at Felix. "Open the central grate! Cast the void-crawling filth into the dark where he belongs!"

Felix spat a dark gob of blood onto the white stone floor. "You tried to bury me in the mud, Sarah. You think a hole in the ground is going to hold me?"

"You are nothing, Felix," Sarah said coldly, not meeting his eyes. "You are just a broken vessel."

Four heavily armored wardens rushed forward, slamming the heavy wooden butts of their spears into Felix’s stomach and ribs. Pain exploded across his midsection, knocking the air straight out of his lungs. He crumpled to his knees, but before he could push himself back up, two guards grabbed his arms, dragging his boots across the slick marble toward the massive iron ring at the center of the arena floor.

Julian stepped into his path, leaning down close with a cruel smile. "Give my regards to the bottom, brother."

"I will see you again, Julian," Felix wheezed, his jaw locked. "I promise you that."

Julian kicked Felix’s legs out from under him. The wardens dragged him to the edge of the pit where a massive, rust-covered iron grate was already grinding open. A foul, humid stench of ancient decay, damp moss, and old rot surged up from the black void below.

"Drop him!" the High Priest commanded.

The wardens let go.

Felix fell backward into the dark.

The daylight vanished instantly as the heavy iron grate slammed shut above his head, reducing the world to a tiny square of fading silver light. The air rushed past his ears, cold and heavy. Felix twisted in midair, reaching blindly for the jagged pit walls, but his fingernails only scraped uselessly against slick, wet granite.

He struck a sloping stone ledge thirty feet down. The impact snapped his collarbone with a sickening crack, sending him tumbling head over heels down a steep, slippery chute of jagged rock and calcified bone. He rolled violently, slamming into granite outcroppings until he crashed onto a soft, filthy pile of animal remains at the very bottom.

Silence settled over the deep.

Felix lay flat on his back in the absolute blackness, his chest rising and falling in shallow, agonizing gasps. Every breath felt like a hot iron poker thrust into his side.

"Still breathing?" the voice rasped, echoing softly inside his skull. "Your bones break so easily, little rat."

"Shut up," Felix groaned, coughing up a mouthful of iron-tasting blood onto the crushed ribs beneath him. "Help me up."

"I am not your walking stick," the entity hissed, its tone dripping with dark amusement. "Fix your own spine. Or let the local wildlife gnaw on your soft bits."

In the pitch-black silence of the cavern, a dry, clicking sound echoed from the far wall.

Click. Click. Click.

Felix froze. He forced his eyes wide, but the dark was absolute. There was no light, no torch, no glowing moss. Only the wet, heavy smell of stagnant blood and old rot.

Something heavy scraped against the stone floor, moving slowly toward the bone pile. Then came a low, wet hiss that vibrated straight through the cold ground beneath Felix's back.

"What is that?" Felix whispered into the dark, his fingers digging into the crushed ribcage beneath his left hand.

"A predator," the Void Sovereign whispered back, sounding delighted. "It smells your broken ribs. It smells your panic. It thinks you are dinner."

The clicking grew faster, louder, moving in a sweeping semicircle around his body. A second pair of scraping claws sounded to his left, followed by a wet, snapping jaw to his right.

"There is more than one," Felix muttered, trying to pull his legs under him. His left knee buckled instantly, sending a blinding bolt of pain up his spine. "I can't stand."

"Then crawl," the entity mocked. "Or better yet, let them tear your skin off. Perhaps I will enjoy the next body more."

"No," Felix growled through gritted teeth, dragging his body an inch across the bone pile. "I am not dying in a hole while Julian drinks my wine."

A sudden, fierce gust of wind blew across his face, carrying the rank, sickening stench of raw meat.

A massive, armored creature lunged out of the lightless void straight toward his throat. Felix could hear the sharp, sickle-like claws cutting through the heavy air, the snapping of bone-crushing mandibles inches from his nose.

Give it to me! Felix roared in his own mind.

"Finally," the Void Sovereign laughed.

Felix’s mouth forced itself wide open against his will. A sound escaped his throat that was not human—a deep, booming, unnatural screech that shattered the nearby stalactites and sent stone dust raining down into the dark.

Thick, writhing black tendrils exploded outward from the mark on Felix’s chest, tearing through his ruined shirt like living whips. They lashed into the darkness, catching the jumping beast straight in midair.

The creature shrieked as six shadowy spears impaled its hard outer shell, locking it suspended in the air right above Felix's face.

"Now," the entity echoed through Felix’s jaw, forcing his eyes to flare with a dark, lightl

ess purple. "Let us see who eats whom."