Chapter 58: First son of the abyss
The 45th Floor of the Endless Abyss
A demonic city spread across the Basin of Malice. Smoke rose from its towers, and the air burned with the scent of sulfur and blood.
Inside this pit of ruin, the legendary-rank demon Fabudi pushed open the door of a tavern called The Broken Horn.
As soon as he entered, every demon inside turned to him and burst into laughter.
"I heard you’re getting summoned by the Lord of the Abyss again?" one sneered.
Fabudi ignored them and walked to the counter where a wriggling, tentacled demon stood polishing a cracked glass.
"Two glasses of Filthy Blood Wine," Fabudi said,
"and a plate of Fresh Dwarf Heads."
He dropped a handful of abyssal innards on the counter as payment. The bartender said nothing but took them, while the rest of the demons laughed rang even louder.
"You’re still telling people you’ll be made a demon lord? Trying to cheat them out of land and slaves again?"
Fabudi’s four arms twitched, and his red eyes flared. "You think I’ll just let you insult my honor like that?l"
"Honor?" one roared, nearly falling off his stool. "Two days ago, you provoked the Fire Demon Gregory and got hung over his volcano for an entire day! I could hear you screams halfway across the realm!"
The tavern erupted in laughter.
Fabudi’s face twisted in humiliation. "A dispute between demons is no lie!" he barked. Then he began muttering phrases about the Lord of the Abyss being "too busy," and how he "would never be forgotten by the will of the abyss."
Every demon laughed harder as the tavern shook with their howls.
Then—A thunderous sound tore through the tavern. A black-and-red portal burst open beside Fabudi, shattering the air itself. Cracks of space spread like a spider’s web.
The laughter stopped instantly.
A heavy silence crushed the room. Every demon froze, eyes wide. The air grew thick with the presence of a power far beyond them.
One by one, the creatures fell to their knees, pressed flat to the floor.
Even the walls seemed to tremble under the weight of that power.
"This... this can’t be..." Fabudi stammered. He collapsed to his knees, trembling as the aura of the Lord of the Endless Abyss seeped from the portal.
Then a voice echoed in his mind.
"Enter."
Fabudi gasped. "The Lord of the Abyss has summoned me!"
He rose shakily, his chest swelling as he and walked toward the portal. Before stepping through, he turned to the other demons, his mouth twisting into a smug grin.
He said nothing, but his eyes told them everything.
Wait until I return. You’ll all pay for your ridicule
The others paled. In the Abyss, mockery always came with a price.
⸻——X——————
In the lowest realm of the abyss Fabudi knelt before Cillian, Lord of the Abyss. His head was pressed low against the black stone floor as he chanted in a trembling voice:
"Great Lord, creator of eternal darkness, embodiment of the void..."
Cillian, seated bone throne and eating roasted rabbit, waved a hand impatiently. "Enough."
He didn’t care much for flattery. Compared to the endless scale of his domain, the matter before him was insignificant.
He had summoned Fabudi out of boredom more than any sort of necessity, as something to fill the silence between his experiments on the Sea of Mind.
"What do you want?" Cillian asked.
Before Fabudi appeared a projection of countless true names, the ancient marks of fallen demons, and a swirl of abyssal powers waiting to be claimed. Any one of them could elevate him to the rank of a Mythic, strong enough to rule his own plane.
But Fabudi shook his head. His voice trembled,
"Great Lord, I desire the Forty-Fifth Layer of the Endless Abyss. I want to rule all within it, to enslave every creature that breathes its air. But..." He hesitated. "The powers here are not what I truly seek."
Cillian turned, eyes glinting with interest. "Oh? You refuse the gifts of the abyss?"
"No, my Lord," Fabudi said quickly. "I accept all that you give, but what I truly desire is your permission."
Cillian raised an eyebrow. "Permission?"
"Yes. A license to slaughter my enemies freely. To fight for you. To invade worlds in your name." Fabudi’s voice grew desperate. "I’ve seen too many demons waste their strength fighting each other. We battle for barren land and slaves that taste like ash. But I’ve seen the outer worlds, those beautiful worlds! Rich with flesh and blood, ripe for a ruler!"
His tone rose into madness. "I want to serve you, my Lord! To conquer worlds forever! To feel that rush in my soul again! I offer everything—my body, my will, my existence, as your servant!"
Cillian leaned back in thought.
His mind sparked with a new idea.
If individual demons couldn’t survive crossing into other worlds... what if he didn’t send them as individuals at all? What if he shaped the Abyss itself into living forms, demons who were not just born from the Abyss, but were parts of it?
It would be a living extensions of the abyss’s will, a child of the abyss by all rights, if he was the king of the abyss then it would be the prince.
A demon prince
The thought deepened.
Cillian remembered hearing that name before. But in the Endless Abyss, it was nothing more than a self-proclaimed crown for demons strong enough to seize a few planes and declare themselves "Prince of the Abyss".
Just as countless demons called themselves Dukes, Marquises, or kings of certain planes, the so-called Princes were no different. In this place, titles had no meaning, but that didn’t mean it was fake. If a demon had the strength to crush others, their title became real. If not, it was nothing but air.
Still, some believed Demon Princes were real, creatures of impossible power who stood closest to the core of the Abyss itself. They ruled not one, but multiple layers, each capable of starting wars that could erase entire worlds.
That theory made sense to Cillian. After all, the Abyss had beings like Mirethane. If such a creature wanted, it could unify several planes overnight.
But there was another, less popular belief in the abyss.
It claimed that the Endless Abyss created demons for a single purpose: to expand itself. Every demon, in their bloodlust and chaos, was a tool meant to spread the reach of the Abyss across all worlds.
Demons were the perfect instruments for such a goal, violent, cruel, and unpredictable. They despised order, resisted peace, and lived to destroy. Their greatest joy was to spread despair and corruption wherever they went.
the Abyss itself was chaotic by nature. Even the most loyal demon could not perfectly obey its will, if the Abyss told them to march left, they might run instead. Their disobedience was woven into what they were.
But what if the Abyss did have a will, a form of dark intelligence that sought to control its own chaos?
If so, the demons’ defiance would make them failures.
This was an idea Cillian had explored this idea while at Grimstone, a breed of demons who could act as its hands and eyes. These were the Demon Princes.
They were not rulers but puppets, chosen by the Abyss to embody its purpose. Under its unseen guidance, they became both slaves and symbols of its will, a "trap of obedience" set for the strongest demons.
The more power they gained, the tighter the Abyss bound them. They believed themselves masters, yet every step they took only served the endless hunger that had created them.
They became something new, beings closer to servant gods than demons, stripped of their true selves and enslaved by the Abyss’s secret design.
Cillian looked down at Fabudi, the trembling demon still kneeling before him.
"You said," Cillian began quietly, "you’re willing to give up everything, to become the dirt under my feet, a puppet of the Endless Abyss, correct?"
His tone was almost kind.
"Ah... this..." Fabudi’s throat tightened. For a moment, he regretted his words, but regret was forbidden in front of the Abyss’s master. The air around Cillian shimmered with silent pressure.
Fabudi swallowed hard and forced the words out. "Yes, Great Lord. That’s...what I wish for."
Cillian smiled faintly. "Good."
He stood slowly,, a new idea forming in his mind. What he needed was a subject, something to test his theory.
Fabudi would do nicely.
Dark mist began to rise around Cillian, spilling from the cracks in reality. It swirled across the chamber, thick as oil, until his form disappeared within it. The entire plane seemed to dim.
"Although I can’t say what this process will make of you," his voice echoed from the fog, "I can promise you one thing."
A pair of eyes opened in the darkness, black, ringed with red spirals.
"This will be the greatest opportunity of your life. From this moment on, every wish you’ve ever had may be granted."
The mist surged forward, wrapping around Fabudi’s body.
"My Lord...what is this?!" the demon screamed, thrashing as his body began to dissolve.
"Just a little pain," Cillian’s voice whispered. "Bear with it."
Fabudi’s howl tore through the plane, echoing for miles. His body split apart into black vapors, melting away like a candle in flame. Flesh, blood, and soul unraveled, devoured by the mist that had birthed him.
The black fog swallowed him whole, breaking him down to the smallest pieces. Then, slowly, it began to rebuild him.
Countless dark tendrils reformed his flesh. His bones were reshaped from pure abyssal essence. His veins filled with black fire. His soul was drawn back together and branded with the mark of the Endless Abyss itself.
What rose from that storm of darkness was no longer the same creature.
Every muscle, every fragment of his being pulsed with the energy of the Abyss. His eyes glowed with endless hunger, his heartbeat echoed like the rumble of a dying world.
A being above all demons, but bound completely to the Abyss.
A true son of the Abyss.
Watching from within the mist, Cillian smiled faintly.