The last traces of Soren's unleashed power faded, and the warped, chaotic space finally began to steady itself. The space channel behind him flickered but remained open, only because Soren continuously fed it with energy pulled from the Everlife's reserves.
If he let it fade for even a heartbeat, the abyss plane would seal him in like a tomb.
The molten earth around him gradually settled.
Lava that had been flung skyward moments earlier rained back down in sluggish, glowing curtains. Soren swept the battlefield with his senses again.
His mental power intertwined with the lingering distortion of space, reaching out like invisible hands.
No trace of Mephisto.
But something else no, several somethings were drawing near. Powerful ones auras. Each radiated hostility toward Mephisto… but a few felt strong enough to threaten Soren himself.
The closest aura rushed into view first.
From the thinning magma haze emerged a figure or rather, the suggestion of one, drifting at the edge of the newly hollowed battlefield.
The explosion had carved out a massive cavity in the magma lake, giving Soren a clear view of the approaching being.
The Nightmare Lord.
This was Soren's first time seeing a creature like it. Its presence felt wrong in a way Mephisto's never had… its form unstable, its existence somehow slipped between the cracks of reality.
The Nightmare Lord's aura didn't push against him like Mephisto's brute force. It seeped around him, slipped under his skin, brushed his mind.
Dangerous… more dangerous than Mephisto, his instincts whispered.
Soren stayed on edge.
"What happened here…? And where is Mephisto, Lord of the Abyss?"
The Nightmare Lord's voice was a warped whisper, like someone trying to speak through a broken dream. The meaning was difficult to grasp, yet Soren understood enough.
Though the Nightmare Lord detected no active power coming from Soren, it kept its distance… a smart move.
Soren studied it quietly as it drifted closer, no physical body. Not even a proper form.
Just pure, condensed mental power, enormous, drenched in every negative emotion imaginable. Fear. Rage. Despair.
The closer it floated, the more the air thickened with those emotions.
"Mephisto is dead," Soren said evenly. "I killed him. Who are you?"
The Nightmare Lord's shifting black mist rippled violently, like a storm trapped in a bottle. Its inner world shook with turmoil.
Mephisto the ancient ruler of the abyss was killed by the human standing before it?
It scanned Soren again, disbelief roiling through its aura.
A human… not a demon.
No abyssal taint, yet Mephisto's aura had vanished completely.
Among the countless beings of the abyss, only a handful besides Mephisto understood the broader worlds beyond their plane. The Nightmare Clan formless, ever-changing, feeding on the subconscious of other beings, were among them.
And the Nightmare Lord was one of their strongest.
It drifted in silence, If Mephisto was truly dead…
If this human had truly done the impossible…
Then the position of Abyss Lord a throne the Nightmare Lord had coveted for ages was finally vacant.
The opportunity it had waited for countless years… had arrived at last.
"You're bold, human," the Nightmare Lord hissed, its voice rippling like a nightmare half-remembered. "To come to the Abyssal Plane and claim you killed Lord Mephisto… Do you truly believe the Lord of the Abyss can be slain so easily?"
Despite the bravado, its aura churned with doubt. It wanted Soren to slip, to confirm what it couldn't bring itself to believe.
Soren's remained unmoved at this creature radiated danger, and he wasn't in the mood to be polite.
"What are you exactly?" He said with a cold snort. "Still trying to be Mephisto's mutt?"
The Nightmare Lord's form convulsed violently. No one… no one had ever dared insult it. Its mental power surged, shadows twisting around Soren as the Lord prepared to drag him into a lethal dreamscape…
~And was stunned
A new aura swept across the battlefield. Smooth in a completely different way.
"Lord Demon," A melodic voice called out, "Is this really where you choose to posture? Everyone in the abyss knows your… history with Mephisto. Are you truly here to avenge him?"
The shifting darkness peeled back, revealing a woman with an almost inhumanly perfect form. She stepped forward with the effortless grace of someone used to having the room or the plane bend around her presence.
The Great Elder of the Succubus Clan.
The succubi had no singular lord, but their Great Elder stood equal to one feared, desired, respected. Though they weren't known for raw battle prowess, their beauty made them the center of countless alliances and political entanglements across the abyss.
Even the Nightmare Lord hesitated around them.
Not just because of temptation.
But because of something far rarer… something far more valuable.
Prophecy.
Succubi were among the few races capable of glimpsing the threads of the future. Their predictions guided wars, alliances, betrayals and the Great Elder was the strongest prophet among them.
Her voice was practiced in human language. She spoke to the Nightmare Lord, but every syllable was deliberately shaped so Soren could understand.
Soren wasn't a fool. One sentence from her told him exactly what he needed to know, the Nightmare Lord was no loyal retainer of Mephisto.
If anything, it probably wanted the Abyss Lord gone.
Its arrival here… was reconnaissance, not revenge.
Soren's lips curled upward. The abyss plane wasn't just deadly, it was a nest of ambition and intrigue.
Messy… Treacherous.
And a lot more interesting than he'd expected.