The Abyss wasn't just a place.
It was alive.
And it was hungry.
Asura — the man who had once been Kai Arashi — stepped deeper into the broken landscape.
The sky overhead twisted in wrong colors.
The air reeked of iron and ash.
Each step forward triggered new System warnings:
[Warning: Abyss Pressure at 30%.]
[Warning: Abyss Contamination Risk Active.]
[Bloodline Trial Initiated.]
A circle of black flame ignited around him.
The ruined ground cracked.
From the darkness ahead, something stirred.
Something old.
Something furious.
A shape emerged — lurching on all fours, its body bloated with mutated Sigil energy.
Its skin was split open in places, leaking black mist.
Its eyes glowed crimson, unfocused, mad.
The System flashed urgently:
[Bloodline Beast Identified: Fallen Sigil User — Mutation Level 3.]
[Warning: Target Abilities Corrupted.]
Asura smiled coldly.
Finally, something worth killing.
The creature lunged, shrieking — a blur of corrupted muscle and broken Sigil light.
Asura sidestepped smoothly, the Blood Tide flaring around him.
The beast swung a clawed hand — a massive force wave tearing apart the earth —
but Asura twisted through it, his body moving faster than instinct.
He slashed upward with a whip of blackened blood.
The beast howled as part of its arm severed —
but it regenerated almost instantly, new flesh bubbling over the wound.
[Bloodline Core Detected: Hidden Within Target.]
Asura's eyes narrowed.
He couldn't just rip this thing apart.
He had to break its heart.
The beast charged again, its body morphing mid-run —
limbs doubling, bones snapping outward into jagged spears.
It was adapting.
Learning.
Mutating in real time.
For the first time in weeks, a thrill ran through Asura's deadened veins.
This… this was a real fight.
He let the Blood Tide surge —
his own veins darkening, shadow energy exploding outward.
He ducked low, dodging a spear swipe,
and with a snarl, plunged his hand directly into the beast's stomach.
Black blood erupted, steaming.
The creature shrieked.
Reality twisted.
The System glitched — static and runes flooding Asura's vision.
Then a new message burned itself into existence:
[Abyss Evolution Path Unlocked: Bloodline Devourer.]
[Do you wish to initiate forced Bloodline Assimilation? Y/N]
Asura didn't hesitate.
Through gritted teeth, through the roaring bloodstorm around him, he whispered:
"Yes."
Darkness poured out of his body.
Tendrils of corrupted energy latched onto the beast's blood core,
ripping it from within.
The monster thrashed violently —
its screams echoing across the broken world —
but Asura held firm, dragging the Bloodline into himself.
Pain unlike anything he'd felt before tore through him.
It was like being set on fire and frozen at the same time.
Every cell in his body screamed.
The System blared warnings:
[Warning: Body Exceeding Normal Human Limits.]
[Warning: Bloodline Mutation: 27%…]
[45%…]
[68%…]
Asura roared, falling to his knees as black veins cracked across his arms.
His heart felt like it would burst.
His mind fractured at the edges.
He could hear them —
the whispers of the Abyss, screaming, laughing, dragging him deeper.
"Become one with us.
Become more.
Become less.
Become nothing."
Through the agony, through the madness, Asura grinned.
He would not break.
He would bend the Abyss to his will.
Not the other way around.
The System snapped back into clarity.
[Bloodline Assimilation Successful.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Abyssal Sovereign Blood (Dormant).]
[Stage 1 Mutation: Complete.]
Asura staggered to his feet, smoke rising from his skin.
His body was different now.
Smoother.
Harder.
More alien.
Black markings etched along his spine — visible even beneath his torn clothes — pulsing faintly with forbidden energy.
The air itself recoiled from him,
as if reality realized he was no longer meant to exist within it.
He flexed his hand.
Shadow tendrils slithered across his fingertips.
The Bloodline had changed him.
But he was still in control.
For now.
Asura looked out across the endless Abyss Zone, his new powers simmering beneath his skin.
The Bloodline Trials were only beginning.
And he would conquer them all.
Or tear the Abyss apart trying.
The era of monsters had arrived.
And Asura would be their king.