Sovereign of The Abyss

Chapter 5

Miko blinked, still in shock. The strange, fiery heat in his chest faded as he suddenly felt the world shift around him. One moment, he was standing in the Abyss, the air heavy and thick with pressure, and the next, he was back on solid ground. He looked up in confusion as his surroundings began to come into focus.

The bright, blinding sunlight cut through the red mist of the Abyss, and he felt a cool breeze brush his face. The mirror, the one he had fallen through, stood before him, its surface still flickering with strange energy. It didn’t make sense—he had just been there. Hadn’t he?

Miko’s eyes darted to the surroundings, only to realize he was no longer in the red wasteland of the Abyss. He wasn’t alone either. His classmates stood nearby, staring at him. Some were pointing, others whispering amongst themselves. His gaze landed on the principal, standing tall, flanked by several teachers. Miko’s confusion grew.

"What… What just happened?" Miko muttered, looking from the mirror to the teachers and students around him.

“Are you alright, Student?” the principal, a tall man with an intimidating presence, asked, stepping forward. “You’ve just returned from an… unexpected journey.”

Miko slowly stood up, his body aching, trying to make sense of the situation. "I was just... in the Abyss. There were wraiths, and…" His voice trailed off as he looked back at the mirror. The skull imprinted on it was slowly vanishing, and the air around it was now calm.

“Yeah, that’s gonna take some time to wrap your head around,” one of the teachers said, a middle-aged man with glasses.

“It’s a miracle you’re even alive,” another added.

The principal held up a hand, silencing the murmurs. “Student Miko, we know you have a lot of questions. And we do, too. But first, let’s get you some food. You need to recover.”

Miko barely registered the offer. His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. The Abyss, wraiths, the pendant, the strange powers coursing through him—nothing made sense. Before he could protest, the principal motioned for him to follow, leading the way through the school halls.

**

In the principal’s office, Miko sat down slowly, still processing everything. The office, large and neatly organized, felt strangely normal compared to the chaos he had just experienced. The principal stood by the window, looking out, while Miss Rose, a teacher with fiery red hair, sat across from him. Another teacher Miko barely recognized stood off to the side.

“I still can’t believe what just happened,” Miko muttered under his breath. “I was just in the Abyss… fighting creatures, and now I’m back here like nothing happened.”

The principal, sensing Miko’s confusion, finally spoke up. “You’ve been through something most students could never imagine. The Abyss… it’s not a place normal people are supposed to enter.”

“What was that?” Miko asked, looking between the three teachers. “The Abyss, the wraiths, and the portal…”

Miss Rose leaned forward. “The portal you came through—that’s part of the numerous portals we’ve been studying for years. It’s a direct connection to the Abyss, the land of wraiths and death. These portals appear out of nowhere, on any mirror but it only appears in places with high density of mana.

“But why was one here?” Miko asked, his voice filled with frustration. “Why was there no guard? Why didn’t anyone help me?”

The principal let out a long sigh, then sat down. “That’s a question we don’t have an easy answer to. The Abyss—well, the wraiths—first appeared seventy years ago. Back then, the world was normal, peaceful. But one day, portals started opening. Mirrors, windows, random reflective surfaces. And with them, came the Eidolon wraiths.”

Miko frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. “The wraiths?”

“Yes,” the principal continued, nodding. “They’re not just monsters—they’re the result of a strange occurrence. The moment the Abyss started to leak mana into our world, it birthed elemental powers. Fire, water, air, earth, all of it became possible, but at a cost. The wraiths, these creatures you saw, are the products of that very leak. They are elemental beings, born from the Abyss’s influence.”

“So... the wraiths are made from elemental magic?” Miko asked, piecing it together. “But why was there no one to stop me?”

“We’ve never encountered a portal like the one you passed through,” Miss Rose answered, her voice laced with worry. “This is a new development. Mirrors—sometimes they act as conduits, opening the way between worlds but they only occur in places with high density of mana, not until now, we haven’t seen anything like it in decades because the density of mana in this school is far from high. We didn’t expect any of the students to accidentally walk into it.”

Miko sank back into the chair, still reeling from everything he had learned. "Okay, but I still don’t get it. Why would the Abyss open here? At school?”

“Because the Abyss doesn’t follow any rules. It shows up wherever it wants. And mirrors, in particular, are its favorite conduits,” the principal said, rubbing his temples.

“The mirror is a special case,” the teacher Miko didn’t recognize said, finally speaking up. “We’ve had it in the school for years, and we thought it was secure. But clearly, that’s no longer the case. Portals like this are unpredictable. We can’t always anticipate when they’ll appear.”

Miko took a deep breath, still in disbelief that he was back in the real world. His head throbbed with questions, but he chose to keep his thoughts to himself for the moment.

“There’s no need to tell them any info about the pendant,” he thought too himself.

Instead, he glanced around the principal’s office, his eyes settling on Miss Rose and the other teacher standing quietly by the wall.

“Well?” Miss Rose said, breaking the silence. “How did you survive in there?”

Miko hesitated, not wanting to reveal too much. He could feel the weight of their gazes on him, but he didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing everything. He had his own secrets.

“There’s no need to explain everything,” Miko said, shrugging. “I just… I figured it out. Kept my head down, kept moving forward.” He could feel his hands itching, the ash power still swirling inside him. It felt strange, powerful. It had to be related to what he’d survived in the Abyss.

Miss Rose raised an eyebrow. “Just like that?”

Miko looked at the floor, his thoughts moving quickly. The pendant had something to do with it, but he wasn’t ready to mention that just yet.

“Actually, there’s something else I need to show you,” Miko said, standing up. He wiped his hands on his pants, feeling the ash starting to coat his fingers once again.

“Miss Rose, can you shoot a small magic blast at me,” He didn’t need to explain it fully.

Miss Rose looked at him curiously, “I heard you’re having a hard time in classes and I wouldn’t really want to put you in any da—“

Before she could finish, Miko had already reached for a pencil sitting on the desk. Without another word, Miko closed his fingers around the pencil, and within moments, the ash wrapped around it, coating the entire object in a dark, smoky layer.

“Teacher, I’m waiting for you,” Miko said as he looked at her.

The air seemed to thicken with tension as Miko held the pencil up.

“Miko, what exactly—?” Miss Rose started, but Miko didn’t give her the chance to finish.

Miss Rose took a deep breath as she conjured, “Wind spike!” She blasted at him.

He flung the pencil with a sharp motion toward the spoke.

The moment the pencil collided with the wind ball, the pencil bounced off and flew away. “ Leaving Miko to dodge the spike.

The room fell into stunned silence.

The male teacher and the principal both stared, their mouths agape in disbelief.

Miss Rose dusted her palm.

“As expected, a mere pencil can’t cut a wind spike, I don’t know what you were trying to demonstrate,” Miss Rose said.

“What in the world just happened?” The other teacher asked.

“What in the world just happened?” the other teacher asked, his voice shaky. He adjusted his glasses, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“What did you botj see?” Miss Rose asked.

The principal, however, didn’t speak immediately. He was staring at Miko, Finally, he broke the silence. “That wasn’t… normal. Miss Rose, didn’t you see it?”

“See what?” she asked, folding her arms. “He threw a pencil, and it didn’t do anything. What else was there to see?”

The principal stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he addressed her. “The moment his pencil made contact with your Wind Spike. Didn’t you notice the split in your magic?”

Miss Rose frowned, replaying the moment in her mind. Slowly, her confidence began to waver. “What do you mean?”

The male teacher interjected, his voice rising in pitch. “I saw it too! Right before the pencil bounced off, the tip of the Wind Spike… it split. It was like something sliced through it, but not completely.”

“That’s not all, what type of pencil would survive a clash with a wind spike?” The principal said as he walked towards the pencil.

He picked it up, revealing the good state of the pencil. “It should have been..”

“Torn to shreds,” Miss Rose uttered as the realization struck her.

Miss Rose’s eyes widened as she turned to Miko, who stood silently, his expression unreadable. “What did you do?” she demanded, her tone sharp.

Miko hesitated, debating how much he should reveal. Finally, he sighed and held out his hand. The ash began to swirl around his fingers, faint at first but quickly thickening into a visible haze.

“This,” he said simply.

The principal took a step back, his eyes fixed on the ash that seemed to pulse with its own life. “What… what is that?”

“It’s my element, ash,” Miko said, his voice calm. “In the face of life and death, I discovered that my ash had the ability to swallow mana like a void. So anything I coat with it becomes and anti-magic weapon”

Miss Rose’s spine stiffened as a shiver ran through her. “That… that’s not normal magic. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The principal nodded slowly, his expression grave. “Such magic… This isn’t something we’ve encountered before when it comes to The Ash element. Miko.”

Miko hesitated again, his thoughts racing. He couldn’t tell them about the pendant or the Abyss—not yet. Instead, he decided to keep his explanation vague.

The male teacher stepped forward, his eyes filled with fascination. “And you can control it? Just like that? I mean you can turn on the anti-ash and turn it off? Choose. When you want to slice magic and when not to?”

”Well, it comes at a cost,” As Miko ended that sentence. Everyone in the room finally noticed the blood pouring out of his nose, eyes and mouth.

“The cost is my life. If you look properly, you would notice my dark hair got lighter. The skill burns away my lifespan as it’s battery. So this is a skill that I don’t think I will ever use,” Miko said.

Miss Rose shook her head, her expression filled with concern. “This doesn’t make sense. Magic has rules. Elements have rules. But this… this is something else entirely.”

The principal cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Miko, we’re going to need to investigate this further. Your abilities… but like you said, it’s a good choice to stop using the anti-magic part of your ash.”

“Ash Void,” Miko uttered.

“You’re giving a name to a skill you’re not planning on using?” Miss Rose asked.

The room fell silent again, the weight of the situation settling over them like a heavy blanket. Finally, Miss Rose spoke, her voice softer this time. “Miko… do you have any idea what you’ve been ‘birthed’ into?”

Miko looked at her, his expression unreadable.

The principal nodded, his expression serious. “For now, we’ll keep this between us. But Miko, be careful. Whatever this power is… it’s not something to take lightly. If it gets out of the school that you have such a power, you’ll be scouted into battle units or even the military. They will do their best to risk your life for a cause.”

Miko nodded, his mind racing. He didn’t have all the answers, but he knew one thing for certain: his life was never going to be the same again.