Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

He didn't know how far he would have to travel, but the monotony of the endless terrain only heightened his unease.

Every so often, he summoned small bursts of Phoenix Flame to test the ground, but the result was always the same — no reaction, no heat transfer, no damage. It was as though the terrain simply ignored his flame's existence entirely.

Hours passed – or so it felt in this timeless place.

Alex's stamina was endless thanks to his constant upkeep of energy, but even he began to feel the mental strain of the endless void around him.

But just as doubt began to creep its way into his thoughts, he spotted something in the distance.

A break in the monotony.

His heart quickened as he approached cautiously. The ground finally gave way to a vast chasm. It was a jagged opening in the ground that seemed to stretch on endlessly in either direction. The edges of the chasom were sharp and uneven, clearly contrasting against the previously smooth terrain he had been walking on the whole time.

Alex crouched near the edge, peering into the depths below.

His eyes naturally couldn't make out a thing thanks to the lack of any light, so he relied entirely on his spatial perception once again.

However, unexpectedly, he didn't need to.

The chasm wasn't completely dark. There was a faint, pulsating blue light emanating from its walls. It reminded him of bioluminescence, but it wasn't quite the same.

"Is it alive?" Alex questioned, feeling a sense of intrigue and caution.

Before he could delve deeper though, a faint noise reached his ears.

Click!

Clack!

A clicking, skittering sound that sent a shiver down his spine. Experience new stories on empire

He stood up rapidly, gripping Virtue's Edge as the sound grew louder, multiplying rapidly until it became an orchestra of skittering.

Then, they emerged.

From the chasm's depths, a swarm of creatures spilled forth.

They were insect like, grotesque blend of ant and spider, with segmented bodies covered in a chitinous carapace. On this exoskeleton, the blue light originated from.

'So that light was these creature's bodies!'

Their multitude of legs carried them with alarming speed, and their glowing, compound eyes locked onto Alex with a singular focus.

Hundreds turned into thousands, then hundreds of thousands.

The swarm surged toward him like a living tide. Their collective screeches echoing loudly in his ears as a reminder that they mean't business!

Alex's heart skipped a beat at the sheer scale of the approaching horde, but his instincts quickly kicked in.

A moment's observation told him everything he needed to know.

They were D rank, Ordinary class creatures at best. Individually the posed no threat, and even in their overwhelming numbers, they were nothing more than an annoyance.

"Seriously? My heart skipped a beat for nothing!" Alex muttered, relaxing his shoulders.

With a snap of his fingers, Phoenix Flames erupted around him, encasing both himself and Virtue's Edge once again in the scarlet red flames. He swung his sword without much force behind it, and a wave of fire met the creatures.

The first wave of creatures collided with the flames, and their screeches quickly turned into shrieks of agony as their bodies disintegrated upon contact.

The flames spread outward, and a sea of fire consumed the horde as it advanced.

Alex didn't need to even move – his flames were more than sufficient to handle the creatures.

They burned brightly, allowing him to get a better view of the chasm they were still swarming out from in droves.

Inside, the first kilometre or so of depth were lit up by the burning sea of insect creatures, but deeper than that it was all darkness.

Still, Alex couldn't shake the unease gnawing at the back of his mind.

This horde didn't feel like it was an attack against him, it felt more like a defence mechanism, triggered by his proximity to the chasm…

When the last wave of creatures eventually fell silent, Alex extinguished his flames, stepping forward cautiously toward the edge of the chasm once more, this time unimpeded by a sea of insects.

He gaze into its depths with his Spatial Perception, but found that even further beyond the first kilometre was still just empty air.

'Just how deep does this place go?' Alex felt both confused and bewildered.

He felt like he'd already traveled deep enough to come out on the other side of the planet by now, as the planet's diameter wasn't very large.

But gravity hadn't even flipped for him yet, which meant he was still on the same side of the planet he came in from. But how could that make sense if he'd fallen so far into its depths?

'Whatever, I came this far, so I may as well investigate further.' He thought to himself, not thinking more on the topic to save his dwindling brain power.

He felt more reassured that the danger wouldn't be too high since the horde of creatures that filtered out of the chasm were only D rank at best. Still, he kept his vigilance up. You can never be too careful, as they say.

But despite the vast darkness below, Alex felt no hesitation. He had faced far greater horrors than this in his life, and his body was more than capable of withstanding the impacts that would obliterate lower ranked awakened.

Without a second thought, he leaped into the abyss.

Just like last time when he was involuntarily thrown down into this mysterious place, the air rushed past him as he descended.

His spatial perception mapped out the immediate area, but it could only extend so far before being overwhelmed by the sheer size of this place.

The fall lasted for longer than he anticipated. He braced himself, ready to land on solid ground and assess the situation the moment he landed.

However, instead of the anticipated hard impact, he plunged into something entirely unexpected.

Splash!

Alex's descent was abruptly interrupted as he crashed into a vast ocean of liquid.