**Chapter 1: The Summoner's Battleground**
The arena was a floating island of cracked stone, suspended in a void of swirling, violet energy. Glowing runes pulsed across its surface, humming with ancient power as a spectral crowd of onlookers—shadowy figures from a thousand different dimensions—whispered in anticipation.
In the center stood two summoners.
One was Ember, the warrior reborn from Zion's sacrifice. He carried himself with a bold, almost arrogant confidence, his void-forged blade at his side and an aura of crackling fire dancing around him. He remembered nothing of his past, but the instinct for battle was a fire in his soul.
Across from him stood Zorak, the Shadow Summoner. Cloaked in a dark robe that seemed to drink the light, his glowing purple eyes narrowed with cunning. He smirked, raising a staff tipped with a shadowy crystal.
"A simple Fireball, Ember? How quaint," Zorak taunted, his voice a low sneer. He slammed his staff into the ground, and a wave of darkness erupted. From it materialized a Shadow Wraith, a ghostly creature of swirling black mist with glowing red eyes. It charged, claws extended.
Ember remained unfazed. He raised a hand, and the air behind him warped, tearing open a rift to the void. A colossal beast emerged, its scales as black as the abyss, its eyes glowing with violet light. It was the Descent of Eternal, a Void Dragon whose roar shook the very foundations of the arena.
"Abyssal Claw Slash," Ember commanded.
The dragon's claws ignited with void energy, and it swiped the air, sending a wave of destructive purple force hurtling across the stone floor. The attack shredded the Wraith into dissipating wisps. The wave continued, slamming into the Shadow Barrier Zorak hastily summoned. The barrier cracked, and the Shadow Summoner staggered back, his confidence flickering.
"Tch… that dragon is a problem," Zorak muttered. He raised his staff again, summoning a three-headed Shadow Hydra. As the serpent lunged for the Void Dragon, Zorak unleashed a spear of dark energy—a Shadow Bolt—aimed directly at Ember, hoping to break his concentration.
But the attack never landed. As the bolt flew, a new power surged through Ember. The fiery aura around him darkened, infused with cosmic energy. A dark hood materialized over his head, and his eyes, once blue, began to glow with pure, brilliant white.
He felt a new title settle upon his soul, a name that felt more true than Ember. He was the **Abyssal Lord**.