Eclipse Online: The Final Descent-Chapter 60: THE PRICE OF POWER

The air was thick with the otherworldly power that filled the glowing symbols carved into the stone arch. 9th⁰⁰⁰0

Kaito sensed it—not with his eyes, but with all of himself. It surrounded him like wet mist—drowning, choking, and unrelenting. It did not ask for his permission. It demanded his notice.

The power pounded like a living heart, rhythm with something ancient, something bad and long-suffering that had waited too long for this moment.

He couldn’t explain the sensation—it wasn’t just power. It was more than that, a force that did not make sense, seeping into the crevices of his mind and soul.

A gravity that wasn’t just magnetic, that pulled not just the body, but the idea of who he was. And yet, it gave... something. A dream. A salvation in darkness. A poison that would deliver crystal.

Kaito’s frame trembled—not with terror, but at the size of the presence that had left its mark in the stone. A deep, seismic hum coursed through the ground beneath him, below sound—such as a choir of age-old voices buried in the world’s crust, singing in frequencies men were not fit to listen to.

The Abyss was calling, and for the first time in a very long time, Kaito didn’t know if he would answer or run.

Behind him, Nyra remained frozen. Her lips were clamped shut, but the tension wrinkles in her posture betrayed her. One hand was on the grip of her sword, but it did not shift.

She was not prepared—not for this. The unbreakable fighter who had bled and survived with him through atrocity after atrocity now was murmuring, not commanding.

"Don’t... be careful, don’t," she said.

It was almost a plea.

He didn’t reply. He couldn’t. The tug of the archway made his concentration shrink until it was all there was.

The runes in the stone throbbed in harmony with his heartbeat. Or perhaps his heartbeat had yielded to harmonize with them. He didn’t know anymore. But then, through the hum of magic and insanity, he heard it—the voice.

"The price..."

It was louder now. It wasn’t a whisper any longer, but something within his chest. Something that did not require ears. A voice that enveloped in straight into his soul, around thought and into meaning. It spoke in truth. In certainty.

"You want to destroy the Abyss, but it won’t be easy," it said. "Power is paid in price, Kaito. And you, above all others, know the cost."

Kaito’s windpipe contracted. His hand remained on the cold stone, feeling the vibrations permeate his bone and flesh. The voice did not have to specify whose "price" it was talking about. He knew. Oh, he knew.

The Abyss had taken so much already—his name, his peace, the susurrations of a soul wearing down like stone against waves of blood and years. Friends lost. Dreams shattered. Hopes burned on the altar of need.

Every step taken had cost something. A name. A memory. A piece of what he used to be. And yet, it was never enough.

He glanced at Nyra. She stared back—fear, yes, but not weakness. Determination. She knew.

"I must do it," he rasped, sandpaper to his voice. "If this is the only way to seal the Abyss for good... then I’ll pay the cost. I won’t let this darkness destroy all that’s left."

Nyra stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. Her grip trembled, but her tone didn’t. "I get it. But just. remember. Not everything is worth power. Some things heal you so deeply they kill you beyond repair. If you step across this line—if you take it—there may not be a going back."

Her voice cracked at the end, and that nearly killed him more than anything.

Her words slash the last fault line in armor he had erected around him—the walls built with grief, guilt, and sheer endurance. But still, his path ahead of him was set.

The Abyss had cost too highly to abandon now. And it would require more. That was the bitter surety of it. There was no ending that did not leave scars.

"Price," the voice insisted, this time in a rough resonance that seemed to vibrate through the earth itself, shuddering through his ribs, up into his skull. "To take the Abyss from what it is... to take it from its rightful shape... you must face it in all of its depth. Make it yours. Own it. Bind it to you. The price will not be in blood, but in self. Choose."

Kaito shut his eyes. And the memories came like flame:

—Rin’s scream, torn from her lips as darkness consumed her.

—Black Fang’s betrayal, the shine in his eye not of madness, but clarity. Knowing, cold.

—The wretched corruption of the game world, glitching out into reality.

—The days of hope reduced to ash.

Every moment a knife. Every decision a wound.

He had not come this far to fail now.

He met Nyra, eyes shining with silent apology. She nodded.

She did not have to say it. He heard it anyway: No matter what it costs... I will not leave you.

Kaito took a deep breath. Again. And then he rested his hand against the archway once more—this time not to listen, but to receive.

The reaction was instinctive.

Energy rushed into his hand, a flash of lightning charged with darkness. He dropped to one knee, gasping. Air was choked to breathe. His body was convulsed, stuck in a whirlwind of energy not for the human form.

He screamed, but no sound emerged from his throat. The storm was inside him now.

His mind disentangled. Visions—not pictures—attacked him.

Nyra ashes within his embrace, and he weeps, unable to save her.

He towers over a grave of corpses—friends and enemies, innocents. All his. All beneath his feet.

He laughs, not Kaito, but something else—eyes burning with the Abyss.

He was the monster now.

The scenes spun, collapsed into themselves, rearranged. The future. The past. Distorted by something outside of time. And with them all came a whisper—not the voice this time, but something nearer. Himself. Drowned. Dying.

But then—light. Not blinding, not golden.

Just real.

Nyra stood firm amidst the torrent of madness. Her eyes locked with his. Her presence alone cut the weight of the vision in half.

She was real. She believed in him. That was enough.

"You’ve made your decision," the voice replied, this time softer. Resigned. "Now go and face your destiny. But know this—what you consume will never release you. The Abyss is yours. And you are its."

The storm raged again.

Kaito let out a scream. His form was ripping apart—skin an idea, flesh a painting being torn and redrawn in the light of stars and blackness. Black light coursed through his veins, a sickly elegance. His soul teetered on the brink of devastation.

And then—he chose. He rejected. Not the power. But loss of himself.

He refused to allow the Abyss to claim him. He plunged into the storm, gathered up the broken pieces of what he had been, and held on. Screamings, wailings, not wanting to disappear.

The darkness coalesced around him. Not a master. Not a slave.

And then, stillness. The storm passed.

Kaito collapsed, his body slick with sweat, gasping and ragged. He opened his eyes, and the world was new.

Different.

He rose to his feet, slowly. The ground beneath him trembled. The air held the leftover energy—coated in something otherworldly. The archway, which had shone, now slumbered. It had given and now rested.

Nyra sprang to his side. "Kaito! What have you done? What have you done?"

He snarled, muscles screaming as he struggled upright. His limbs were strange. Stretched. Rerouted. His flesh crawled from within. His eyes—his eyes no longer sparkled bright. They glimmered, dull and deep, like moonlight on black water.

"I took it," he croaked. "The Abyss... it’s within me now."

Nyra recoiled. "And... are you still you?"

That question cut deeper than any blade. He looked at her, uncertain. That answer wasn’t his to give.

"I think so," he said at last. "I still know who I’m fighting for."

But the whisper in his mind—the hunger—did not go silent. And in that silence, he wondered: Had he mastered it... or had it merely shifted the leash?

The earth shook again.

A deep rumbling sound shook from the earth beneath the stone archway. Above them, the sky twisted—clouds bending into impossible whirls. Reality itself bent.

Kaito instinctively stood in front of Nyra, his hand on the hilt of his blade. The new power within him thrummed—untested. Strong.

At the opposite end of the archway, something changed.

No, not something. A presence. Not the Abyss. Not even the Architects.

Buy something Older. Broader.

It watched. It saw.

Kaito’s hands flexed on the hilt. The whisper inside him grew sharper, hungrier. A chill hunger that tingled at the edges of his mind.

He ground his teeth and pushed it back. Not yet. Not now.

Nyra inhaled beside him, "Kaito... can we win?"

The question hung—like judgment. He said nothing at first. He couldn’t. Then, he spoke to her. His voice was steel.

"We have to." He replied.

Behind them, the arch pulsed again—its heartbeat fading.

Before them, the road lay out. Into the heart of the Abyss.

Kaito took a step forward. And strength within him followed behind.

Salvation or destruction... only time would tell.