The Primordial Record

It was not hard for Staff to know that she was in the Great Abyss. It helped that the Earth was on fire and all forms of monstrous bodies were raining down from the sky like rain.

Staff had never been to the Great Abyss despite all the many places in reality that she had visited, and this was not by design; there was too much to see, and the Great Abyss was on her list. Still, she would naturally get to it, maybe billions of years in the future, but that chance had been forcefully dragged up until now, where she entered her supposed homeland.

The view sucked.

Midway in her ascension to the sixth-dimensional level, she was drawn into the Great Abyss, and her Memory dimension was already taking shape around her. But something changed the moment she entered this place. A domain of white appeared all around her that was slowly beginning to expand from her perspective, but in truth, this domain was moving many times faster than the speed of light.

From everything she had researched surrounding the Memory Dimension, it was supposed to be intangible, a construct inside the consciousness of the immortal. If it were to manifest in reality, energy would have to be spent. Why did it seem like her Memory dimension followed the opposite pattern?

She did not know the reason; all that Staff could understand was that this process did not feel forced or painful. She was enjoying the feeling, as if a part of her that was lost was slowly taking shape, and she gloried in that sensation.

As her domain spread through the blighted land of flames and corpses, knowledge began to stream into her mind, and the memory of this place merged into her domain, becoming her own. She knew she was on the 7,856th Level of the Great Abyss, which meant she was deeper than any fifth-dimensional immortal should have the Capacity to reach.

It was unknown how many levels there were in the Great Abyss; many said it was infinite, but it did not matter anyway when even Old Ones from great Primordial Domains had spent an eternity inside the Great Abyss. They had not gone deeper than the ten thousandth level, at least from all available records that was the level that none seemed able to surpass.

If it was truly the case that the Great Abyss was infinite, Staff suspected that even the Demon Lords of the Abyss were unaware of it, maybe the mythical Demon Overlords might be aware but even that was not set in stone, because the deeper you went, the more potent the Abyssal energy that could be found there, which carried a massive property of corruption that was considered to be sentient.

Abyssal Energy or Essence was the spark of corrupted vitality that gave all Demons life and powered all their abilities, and they could not live without it.

For foreigners in the Abyss who were not strong enough to resist the Abyssal Essence, the most likely option was death. However, even their bodies and souls were not allowed to rest in peace, for frightening mutations would soon follow that changed the corpses into Demon Lavae. As for the unfortunate survivors of this Abyssal corruption, their fate was to become true Demons.

Abyssal Essence was so powerful that it could twist even Angels, pure beings of light, into Demons. If Celestials could fall, then there was no hope for any living thing to resist the power of the Abyss. They could only endure for a little while before departing this place unless they became a part of it forever.

Still, these were just the effects of Abyssal Essence in small quantities. Going deeper into the Great Abyss, even Demons, no matter their ranking, were no longer safe from the Abyssal energies. In large enough quantities, this energy was no longer nourishing to Demons; it became poisonous, and the true nature of this power would be revealed because it was always hungry.

Its nature was to devour everything to make it part of itself, and the deeper you went into the Abyss, the greater its hunger became. Any weaker vessels that intruded upon it would become its meal, merging into a landscape made from flesh and bones.

At the level where Staff was ascending to the sixth dimension, the degree of Abyssal Energy was so potent that immortals who should be able to be here had to be at the seventh-dimensional level. Still, with her innate talent that could absorb all forms of energy, including Abyssal energy, the Staff would have been fine here, even as a fourth-dimensional immortal.

So, she could never have been in danger of corruption even if she was unconscious. However, what happened here as she ascended to the sixth-dimensional level was extremely strange. This white domain that blasted out of her was doing two things. The first was that it was absorbing every trace of Abyssal energy around her and then releasing it into her body, where a new change began to occur.

Her body was no longer releasing kinetic energy as it usually did; instead, it was all converted into this unknown domain, and she was becoming something like an ever-growing black hole that was drawing in enormous amounts of energy and expanding.

A loud crack resounded throughout this level, and the earth below her feet collapsed. The domain had become so powerful that it had sapped every trace of Abyssal energy that it contained, turning the ground to dust, and Staff fell through the earth into the level below.

It was as if reality shifted from one state to another. From a fiery world filled with falling bodies, she appeared in a massive swamp. Like a falling white sun, Staff plummeted towards the ground until she slammed against the watery surface, and her domain began to eat through everything in sight.

The Abyssal energy was thicker here, so the domain's growth accelerated. However, it no longer expanded; it only seemed to grow deeper.

She spent even less time on this level, and Staff barely realized that she had killed hundreds of millions of demons in this level who had been unfortunate to be near her descending domain.

Bursting through this level, she appeared in the next, and as she fell, her domain grew stronger under the stimulation of more powerful Abyssal energy. It began to draw upon this power from a distance, acting like a gigantic magnet. Nearly half the Abyssal energy in this level was drawn into the domain before she penetrated the next level.

It was unknown how long this lasted as her domain plunged deeper into the Great Abyss, yet no one stopped her. No Demon Lords came to halt her rampage; she just kept descending lower into the Great Abyss, and at this point, she was traveling so fast that her domain had taken the shape of a long beam of light that vapourised everything in its path as she reached levels that had exceeded all known and unknown records.

Staff had reached areas no one had seen since the beginning of the Supreme Era, and even before that, she had no idea. Her mind was in a daze as countless years of Demon heritage flew through them, and after what seemed like forever and a moment, she slammed into the ground that would not give.

The echo of this crash resounded throughout the Great Abyss, for Staff had been traveling with such speed that it equaled those of Rowan's dimensional soul leaving Limbo—a speed that had long exceeded the scope of reality.

By any right, despite all her powers, this impact should have killed her, but her domain shattered into pieces, and she was left unharmed, although she was dazed for a long time.

It was not because of her landing, just the flood of Memory that filled her head, but soon this feeling of bloat began to subside, as there seemed to be a significant force pushing down upon it. This outside interference made her eyes snap open and her perception sweep around her.

Staff saw that she was in a desolate plain that extended for what she regarded as infinity, where no light shone except from a single red throne that was not far from her, and on that throne sat a man with long white hair and black skin that appeared to be sleeping.

Gasping in shock, she got on her feet, confusion and pain filling her eyes as the man on the throne slowly opened his eyes, and this time she gasped. Staff could not see anything familiar inside those eyes that should mean everything to her, and her confusion transformed into anger.

"Who are you? Why do you wear the form of my father?"

"Father, you say," the man said, "that is odd. I never remembered siring any offspring in this Era."

Pointing her staff to the man on the throne, Staff whispered, a terrifying calmness in her voice that promised an untold amount of slaughter and pain to those who defied her.

"I will not ask you again, who are you?!"

The man cocked his head to the side in an apparent display of confusion, and gestured around him,

"I thought this would be evident by now, I am Primordial Demon."

Staff hands dropped weakly to her side, the strength leaving them, but this was only for a moment before she brought her staff and pointed at the man on the throne,

"If you are Primordial Demon, why do you wear the face of my father?"

Primordial Demon smiled.

DAWN OF THE SUPREME ERA (FINAL)