SSS-Rank Extra: I Got a Chaos System-Chapter 29: The Abyss Stirs

The air itself howled as the first chain shattered. A sound like the destruction of a world shook waves of power throughout the cavern. Dust and debris descended from above as the Abyssal Warden stirred.

Kazuki and Lillian didn't look back.

They ran.

The chasm's passage twisted around them, its walls of stone twisting like a creature, as though the Abyss itself wanted them to stay. The whispering voices had picked up again, swelled to a chant, speaking in that unfathomable language that scraped against the edges of their minds.

Lillian gripped Kazuki's wrist harder, her ice magic flaring as she threw a frozen spike behind them. The frost-covered ground shattered beneath the charging undead, momentarily slowing their advance.

Kazuki breathed in. "You won't find me complaining about running, but we do have to have a practical exit plan—

The cavern quaked again.

BOOM.

A second chain shattered. A dark pulse erupted outward, slamming into their backs like a tidal wave, force nearly sent them tumbling.

Kazuki grinded his teeth. "I swear, if this thing awakens before we can get out of here, I'm blaming you, Lillan."

"You wanted to go down here!" Lillian shot back, frost lacing her words as she forced more energy into her spells. The passageway ahead was narrowing, its walls pressing in like closing jaws.

Then—

A glimmer of light.

It was faint, distant, but unmistakable—the exit.

Lillian exhaled sharply. "There! We just need to—"

CRACK.

The third chain broke.

The cavern convulsed.

Behind them, a sound unlike anything they had ever heard filled the space—a monstrous, hollow breath. The weight of it crashed down like an ocean swallowing a ship. The air turned suffocating.

Kazuki dared a glance back.

He immediately regretted it.

The Abyssal Warden was rising.

The giant skeletal monolith raised its head, its glowing embers in its empty sockets bursting into flame like dead stars rekindled. Its broken armor moved with the action, rusting plates creaking under the burden of millennia uncounted. Its giant great sword throbbed, black veins of abyssal power coursing through the broken steel.

And then—

The Warden looked at them.

A guttural voice, deep and hoarse, resonated through the chamber.

"ᚦᛟᚾᛖ..!ᚨᚾᛟᛗᚨᛚᛟᚷᚤ."

The words crept into their brains, invading through their ears, like worn nails scraping against their skulls.

Kazuki was unable to understand the words, but the intent behind them lingered on his soul.

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He felt his body freeze. Lillian's breath hitched.

The air ignited with power. A pressure greater than anything before crashed over them, their knees buckling under the force. It was as if reality itself rebelled against their presence.

The abyss howled.

A force unlike anything Kazuki had ever felt crashed down on him, pinning him to the spot. His knees nearly gave out as an invisible pressure coiled around his ribs like iron bands. It wasn't just weight—it was something deeper, something wrong. Like the universe itself was rejecting their presence.

Behind them, the undead shrieked in unison, their frenzy intensifying. The whispers of the abyss grew louder, warping into a maddening chorus.

Lillian grit her teeth, forcing her magic through the suffocating air. Ice cracked along the cavern floor, frost creeping up her arms as she summoned every last drop of strength. She grabbed Kazuki's arm.

"Move!" she snarled.

Kazuki forced his legs to obey, every step like wading through tar. The exit was close—so, so close—but behind them...

The Warden was rising.

Its skeletal form straightened, the ancient armor shifting as if waking from a dream. Runes burned along its fractured plating, pulsing with dying embers of power. The massive greatsword beside it lifted off the ground as if drawn by unseen hands, abyssal energy weaving around its jagged edges.

Kazuki heard a deep, resounding crack—the last chain broke.

A pulse of pure, crushing force erupted from the throne. The entire cavern trembled. The jagged walls buckled.

Kazuki barely threw himself forward before the impact sent a wave of debris hurtling past him. The exit was right there.

The Warden took its first step.

A wave of blackness flowed outward. Behind them, the zombies screamed as they were swallowed up by the void, their bodies breaking and rejoining, remade into something nastier.

The whispers in Kazuki's mind turned into screams.

Lillian pulled him into her, her ice magic re-igniting as she hurled them both towards the ground with one final burst of power.

They came out of the chasm at the same time the tunnel collapsed behind them.

A deafening roar followed—a sound of frustration, of fury, of something ancient and hungry.

Kazuki struggled for air, his chest rising with every strained breath as he rested on the hard ground. The sun burned. They were outside. They had escaped.

Lillian gasped, sitting up on trembling arms. "Never. Again."

Kazuki, still propped out, managed a weak thumbs-up. "Agreed."

Both had little time to draw a single breath when the ground shook again, a thudding, pounding shock that caused the ground beneath their feet to tremble. The destroyed passageway behind them heaved and bulged, as though something huge and amorphous was trying to push its way through from the opposite side.

Then—

A howl.

Not from the undead. Not even from the Abyssal Warden.

The abyss itself screamed.

Kazuki's vision blurred as a crimson system prompt flashed before him.

[Emergency System Alert]

Danger Level: Cataclysmic

Seal the Abyss: Use Abomination Core (??? - Mutated)

Kazuki blinked, chest still heaving. What?

A second later, another tremor rocked the land. Behind them, the collapsed cavern wasn't settling—it was stretching. The abyss wasn't content to stay buried.

Lillian swore under her breath, forcing herself to her feet. "Kazuki, tell me that's not what I think it is."

His eyes sharpened and he forced Lillan back with his hand.

Kazuki didn't wait.

He reached into his inventory, the system's interface flickering in his vision. His fingers curled around the phantom sensation of something wrong, and with a sharp pull—

The Abomination Core materialized in his hand.

It was small, barely the size of a clenched fist, but it weighed down his entire being. The surface was blackened and twisted, like flesh fused with molten metal. Faint, sickly veins of violet energy pulsed across it, each beat syncing with his own heart—as if it was alive.

Lillian grabbed his arm, her fingers ice-cold. "Kazuki—wait!"

But he had already stepped forward.