Hunter of the Lost Gates-Chapter 34 - : The Abyss Stares Back

A suffocating silence filled the chamber as the door at the far end slowly creaked open. The air around Sai and Lena thickened, growing heavy, as if the very world was holding its breath.

Then, it stepped forward.

A figure wrapped in shadows, its form shifting and flickering between existence and nothingness. It wasn't fully solid, yet Sai could feel the weight of its presence—something ancient, something beyond human comprehension.

A deep voice, layered with countless whispers, echoed from the darkness.

"You are the first to reach this place in an age."

Sai clenched his daggers. His heart pounded against his ribs, but he forced himself to stay still, to analyze, to understand.

This wasn't just another enemy.

This was something else.

Lena swallowed hard beside him, her knuckles white around her chakrams. "Sai... this feels bad."

Sai didn't take his eyes off the entity. "Yeah. I know."

The shadowed figure tilted its head, those hollow eyes burning with abyssal light.

"You bear the mark of the Keybearer. You are not meant to exist."

Sai's system flashed red.

[Unknown Entity Detected.]

[Threat Level: Beyond System Parameters.]

His stomach dropped. Even the system can't categorize it?

Lena shifted uncomfortably. "So, uh... how do we kill it?"

The figure chuckled.

"You do not kill the Abyss."

Then—it moved.

A Battle Against the Unknown

Sai barely had time to react before a wave of crushing force slammed into him, sending him flying backward.

He crashed against the stone floor, rolling to absorb the impact, his entire body screaming in pain.

Lena dodged just in time, her chakrams slicing through the air, but they passed through the entity without touching it.

She cursed. "Sai, we have a problem! Physical attacks don't work!"

Sai gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand. His system flashed with incoming data, but it was fragmented—unstable.

[Entity Exists Outside Known Boundaries.]

[Warning: Your attacks will not connect.]

Sai's mind raced. Then how do we fight it?

The entity raised a shifting hand, abyssal energy swirling around its fingers.

"You are an anomaly. You should not be here."

It lashed out.

A pulse of black energy surged forward, twisting the space around it.

Sai barely managed to blink out of the way, his body moving on instinct as the attack obliterated the ground where he had stood.

This thing wasn't playing around.

Lena flung her chakrams again, this time infusing them with energy, hoping magic would work where steel had failed. The spinning weapons crashed into the entity's form, but instead of passing through—

They froze mid-air.

The entity simply looked at them, and the weapons disintegrated.

Lena let out a choked gasp. "That—That was my strongest attack!"

Sai forced himself to think. If physical attacks didn't work, if even abyss-infused weapons were useless...

Then, the only way to fight was to understand it first.

Seeing Through the Abyss

Sai activated Abyssal Insight, his vision shifting.

The entity's form warped, and suddenly, Sai could see it.

It wasn't one thing—it was many. A mass of shifting souls, fragments of something far greater than itself, bound together by an unknown force.

And at its center—

A single, flickering core.

A weak point.

Sai grinned.

"There!" he shouted, pointing at the pulsing mass within the entity's chest. "Aim for that core!"

Lena hesitated for only a second before nodding. "Got it!"

She flung another chakram, this time directly at the core.

The entity shifted, trying to move away—but Sai was already there.

He activated Phantom Step, vanishing for a split second before reappearing behind the creature.

With a sharp exhale, he plunged his dagger straight into the core.

A piercing shriek tore through the chamber.

The entity convulsed, its form losing stability, flickering wildly as if something deep inside it had been ruptured.

Lena's chakram struck next, sending a shockwave of energy through its body.

The entity staggered, its whispers turning to shattered fragments of voices, overlapping, chaotic.

"You do not understand... You do not belong... You do not—"

Then—it collapsed.

The air cracked, splitting apart as the entity's form was torn into shreds of shadow and energy.

And then, it was gone.

The Last Door

The chamber fell eerily silent.

Sai's breathing was ragged, his hands still trembling around his daggers.

Lena exhaled, running a hand through her hair. "That... was the worst thing I've ever fought."

Sai barely nodded, his mind still reeling. That thing—it wasn't just another monster.

It had spoken. It had known him.

And most importantly, it had feared what he was becoming.

His system chimed.

[Entity Defeated.]

[Path to the Abyssal Gate Unlocked.]

Sai looked up.

At the very end of the chamber, where the entity had been standing, was another door.

This one was different.

It wasn't ancient stone or abyssal metal. It wasn't covered in inscriptions or flickering runes.

It was smooth, black, untouched.

It was waiting.

Lena followed his gaze, her expression uneasy. "Sai... tell me we're not going in there."

Sai took a slow breath.

He thought about the Abyssal King, about the warnings he had received.

The Lost Gate is not just a passage—it is a prison.

And yet, he had been chosen to find it.

He stepped forward.

"We have to."

Lena groaned but followed. "I knew you were going to say that."

Sai placed his hand on the door.

The surface was cold, sending a sharp pulse of energy through his fingertips.

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Then—it reacted.

The black surface split open, revealing a swirling vortex of darkness and light, unlike anything they had seen before.

And from within—a voice spoke.

"At last... you have come."

Sai gritted his teeth.

And then—he stepped through.