This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange - Chapter 435

Chapter 435: Chapter 435: If You Gaze into the Abyss…

Kain drifted in nothingness. A weightless, formless void pressed in from all sides, an oppressive lightless space that stretched infinitely in every direction. There was no ground beneath him, no sky above, only a vast, consuming darkness. It was as if the world had forgotten him, leaving him adrift in a realm without sound, without light, without time.

He didn’t know how long he had been there—seconds? Hours? Years? His thoughts felt sluggish, muffled by the all-consuming darkness. But then, finally, he felt solid ground beneath him again. He had never realized how reassuring being grounded was before.

Kain took a cautious step forward. At least, he thought he did. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t feel where he was stepping. Only the unsettling sensation of shifting pressure beneath his feet gave any indication that he had moved at all.

The ground was… wrong. It wasn’t solid, nor liquid, nor anything he could name. It squished underfoot with a sickening give and a faint squelching noise, pulsing, undulating, as though something beneath the surface moved with his every step.

If he had to compare it to something, it’d be like trying to walk steadily on a perpetually moving waterbed.

A deep unease settled in his stomach as he moved forward, the ground writhing subtly beneath him, pressing back against his weight.

A shudder crawled up his spine as he reached out, searching blindly for something—anything—to orient himself. His fingers brushed against a surface, and immediately, a wet, crawling sensation spread across his hand. It wasn’t stone, nor wood, nor metal. It felt alive.

Slimy, wriggling bodies coiled around his fingers, shifting beneath his touch, clinging to his skin like living filth. A nauseating squelch filled the silence as his hand sank slightly into the mass. The things beneath his fingers twisted and pulsed, some tiny and slick, others thicker, their movements slow and deliberate, pressing against him as if responding to his presence. But after a brief moment of contact, none attempted to recontact or pursue him further—his presence already forgotten.

A horrified shiver ran through him, and he yanked his hand back with a sharp breath, shaking it furiously. The sensation lingered, phantom squirming worms crawling along his skin.

Kain had probably never been more horrified by a lack of sight in his life. He needed to see.

Gathering what little strength he could muster, Kain reached inward, grasping at the remnants of his dwindling spiritual power. He activated a simple spiritual skill to increase his eyesight in the dark. However, the darkness was so thick it barely was cut through with the assistance of the skill.

Still, it was enough.

His faintly glowing eyes took in his surroundings—or rather, what lay within them. And Kain almost wished he had remained blind.

They were everywhere.

Writhing, churning, an unfathomably dense mass of abyssal worms stretched beyond sight. Their slick, segmented forms twisting and slithering in a ceaseless, sickening rhythm.

There was no end to them. No space between them. No escape from them. They pulsed like a singular, living thing, a disgusting ‘ocean’ of worms too vast for Kain to comprehend just how many of them were present.

A chill far deeper than fear rooted Kain in place. His breath came in ragged, uneven gasps. The sheer magnitude of what he was seeing threatened to unravel him, to consume what little remained of his reason.

Then, he felt it.

A pull. Subtle. Faint. But it felt remarkably similar to the pull from his affinity, but slightly different, more dull.

Somewhere beyond the writhing mass, something was pulling him in a certain direction.

Kain moved before he could think better of it. The worms did not react to him, their undulations unaffected by his presence. He drifted past them, practically weightless. Even the worms he stepped on directly only paused briefly, unsquished and still alive, before continuing on with their low-level lives.

As he moved further out of (or into—it was hard to tell) the tunnel, the scenery changed. He left the portion of the dark tunnel filled with worms and entered a slightly wider portion that branched out into several narrower tunnel openings that led who knows where.

As he continued forward, he saw more.

The horrors of this place were not limited to the churning worms. Monstrosities lurked in the shadows just beyond his limited vision—things that defiled normal aesthetics. Hulking beasts made of solid black muscle or chitin, elongated figures with too many limbs, too many mouths, or too many eyes that glowed like red embers in the darkness.

Eventually, Kain saw a source of light in the distance—an exit?—and instead of picking up the pace, he slowed down out of caution. He still had no idea where this was.

Gradually, he approached the mouth of what looked like the opening to the tunnel he arrived in.

It opened out to the ‘outside.’ But Kain wasn’t strictly sure he could consider this outside. At least it didn’t resemble an outdoor environment he’d ever seen.

The ‘sky’ was solid black without a single constellation or celestial body.

The ground lacked any kind of vegetation and was just solid black stone. And built onto, and likely from, this black stone was what looked like a ‘town’ that appeared to have abyssal creatures and the corrupted as its inhabitants.

Then Kain saw the others.

They were not abyssal creatures or the corrupted.

People—living beings—trapped, used, and abused.

Kain’s stomach twisted as he saw them. Humans, but not ones from the Empire. Their clothes, their features appeared foreign.

And others too. A lithe figure with long, pointed ears and bright silver hair. A stout being with heavy chains binding his limbs, his face gaunt, hollow. The long-lost Elves and Dwarves. Even creatures Kain could not name.

They were not simply killed. They were made to suffer.

Some were hung in writhing translucent cocoons, their bodies pierced through with wriggling tendrils siphoning something Kain couldn’t identify.

Others were forced into torture shows for the amusement of the watching high-level abyssal creatures, their limbs reshaped, their body parts stolen, their minds shattered. Some still clung to life, their eyes wide, their souls intact but barely holding on. Others had become soulless shells—mentally dead from the horrors they’d suffered.

A convoy passed through the town, abyssal creatures dragging captives from this small town toward an unknown destination.

Kain barely had the sense to hide, pressing himself into the shadows of a large boulder as they moved. His breath hitched as he watched, heart hammering. Thankfully, none of them seemed to sense his presence.

Then, it came.

A creature among the convoy unlike the others. Its form was not monstrous, not in the way of the other abyssal creatures.

It was tall, eerily elegant, draped in black silks that wove and unwove themselves with each movement. But its eyes—

Gold and violet flecks, a rare source of beauty among the hideous surrounding—an Abyssal Demigod.

Kain didn’t need it confirmed, he knew instinctively that that was what it was.

And it was looking right in his direction.