The bond with his new minions felt alive in Mitch’s mind. Their wills were silent voices waiting for a command. Each one felt like a tiny connection he could now reach and tap into with ease.

  Abyssal Bind

  Level 4(+1)

  Exert command over Abyssal beings and draw others into a permanent bond.

  Followers: Create lasting connections with chosen beings. Extend your influence and power over them.

  Requirements: True allegiance must be granted willingly.

  Minions: Abyssal Mice: 4, Abyssal Fodder: 5

  Followers: Sable (The First Follower)

  Mitch could sense the change. Abyssal Bind wasn’t simply a connected leash—each creature’s allegiance, accepted willingly, lent strength to the bond, transforming it into something deeper. He glanced at Sable, who was tying multiple wires together. Her eyes met his, and then he looked over his new minions.

  He could lead them. Or command them.

  It was a straightforward word, but this connection felt like leadership with the potential for force. When they’d submitted, each of his Abyssal minions had been cloaked momentarily in a shadowy aura, their bodies recognizing the pact without losing their sense of self.

  Sable watched him as she readied her wire, preparing to scale the Pit walls. Mitch caught her expression. Her fear mixed with oddly morbid respect at what he'd done. She had just witnessed the power Abyssal Bind afforded him, and the influence he wielded over these creatures of darkness.

  But Mitch wanted more than mindless drones. He would be better than the Abyss and its method of breaking those it had in its clutches.

  “You are right in your assumption. If you copy the Abyss’s methods, you are no better than It. You cannot break something by becoming it.” Galadrith murmured in his ears.

  “I get it, Galadrith. You’re a wise old sage.” Mitch spoke aloud to the soul sword.

  “Lead the way. You,” Sable pointed at the creature who had first stepped forward, “Up to there,” she gestured to the Pit wall and then considered the creature with far too many limbs. “What…what is your name?”

  The grotesque creature froze at the question. For a being of the Abyss, it was an odd reaction, as if it didn't quite understand. It blinked its many eyes that stretched around its twisted face.

  “Name?...Once,” it rasped, a pained emotion taking over the creature. “I was…Varak.” The creature tilted its head. The word had rolled out with a note of pride.

  Sable’s expression softened as she processed its words. “Well then, Varak,” she nodded towards the wall. “Lead the way.”

  With a series of clicks and an eager huff, Varak clambered up the rock wall. It carried Sable’s wire in one of its many claws. Other Abyssal minions followed suit. They formed a line, a chain of dark forms working in harmony and scampering up the rockfaced wall.

  Mitch felt their excitement through the bond. A faint, shared pride in their purpose. These weren’t mindless beasts, and now, neither were they shackled to the mind of the Abyss.

  One by one, they began the climb up Sable’s wires. Varak and the other creatures stabilized cables and secured footholds.

  Mitch and Sable followed, climbing using Sable's secured wires that the Abyssal creatures had wound against the facia.

  Mitch glanced down one last time at the Pit as they neared the perch.

  It was a graveyard of withered bodies and the blood pool shimmering in the dim light. He considered it.

  He stretched out his hand, tapping into his Abyssal Vault skill. Mitch felt the distance stretching to its limits. A mental tether formed, thin and barely there, until he felt the distant pull of the blood pool. Before his eyes the tendril of viscous liquid flowed into him and drained the pool.

  Settlement Amount: 355 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 830(+413) Flesh.

  It would serve them well in whatever trials awaited.

  Mitch was last onto the Perch, following Sable. The Abyssal minions waited eagerly and faced him awaiting instruction.

  As Mitch stood on the Perch and overlooked the Pit, a memory bubbled up. Hazy, and drifting up from somewhere in his body. He remembered standing there before. Overlooking the Pit. But…it was teeming with life. Voices called out and roared, but their faces and forms were blurred. Caught behind some veil just beyond his mind's reach. They were shouting, and obscured bodies were streaming against the endless drop that led to the Pit.

  Something was in the pool he had emptied, but the memory didn’t pierce far enough to know what.

  My body has been here. Right here. Overlooking the Pit.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Mitch,” Sable’s voice cut through his thoughts. He blinked, and the shadowy memory flipped back into the depths of his body. Leaving only a chill behind.

  With the Pit behind them, the group faced a long, twisting tunnel that stretched into blackness.

  Mitch nodded to Varak, who smiled twistedly, before the creature took the lead. Its limbs scrambled over the rocky floo with uncanny skill. The other minions followed close, and Mitch brought up the read.

  Into the dark passage only illuminated by badly interspersed glowstones, Mitch noticed subtle shifts in their movements. Even his monstrous minions, accustomed to the horrors of the Abyss, moved cautiously. One creature’s eyes darted nervously as it searched the shadows.

  The further they ventured, the more aware Mitch because of the horrid weight that pressed from ahead. The damp tunnel walls practically throbbed with unspoken nightmares.

  Varak and the others pressed forward, but they did cast nervous glances back.

  “Sir…Butcher…the pig…will be…there,” Varak grunted through their broken mouth. “He... very strong.”

  Mitch exchanged a look with Sable, who raised an eyebrow. “If they’re nervous…” she started.

  “Whatever Butcher throws at us, we will deal with it. Besides, wouldn’t you like to strangle him too? They’re recycling souls, Sable.” Mitch interrupted.

  Her nervous face was immediately replaced with fury. Mitch noted the heavy clench of her jaw as she turned and tramped ahead.

  The ground was littered with peculiar objects. There was twisted metal scraps, smooth stones etched with strange symbols, pulsing fleshy masses.

  Mitch scooped up a few small stones, pocketing them. Their surfaces were cracked but marked with intricate symbols that glowed under his touch. Robin’s request to collect trinkets had not been forgotten. Their purpose was unknown to him, but Mitch could feel their raw, feral power pulsating off of them.

  “These relics…,” Sable observed, picking up a rusted metal knife that had long been discarded. “These are worth fortunes, Mitch.”

  Mitch felt the faint pull of Galadrith’s approval. The sword sensed Mitch’s readiness to turn anything, even the scraps they found, into weapons or tools.

  Pressing forward, Mitch clutched the relics in his hand.

  Cold, merciless resolve settled over him. He was here to break his newfound squad free of this prison, and save Hathgar as well.

  If I can find him…

  “What lies ahead, Varak?” Mitch called out to the creature as they led the minions towards the front.

  “Prison.” Varak rasped as their head turned completely around as it continued to walk forward, meeting Mitch’s eyes. “Not…good. Nothing…good, there.” Varak’s head turned back around and It pressed forward with newfound energy.

  “What's waiting for us in this prison?” Sable asked.

  Varak’s head twisted back, mismatched eyes blinking in slow, eerie unison. “Imagine…Pit within Pit. Abyss…does not look there.”

  “Comforting.” Sable responded.

  Varak’s laugh was a disturbing mix of clicks and giggles. “Comfort? You find…screams…families too.”

  “What do they keep in there, Varak?” Mitch asked, trying to discern the creature’s meaning.

  “Things like me,” Varak replied with a gleam in Its eye. “Creatures…that have done wrong. Made mistake. Butcher smell bad…for a reason,” the other minions laughed at the joke Mitch and Sable missed. “He eat…everything. Yes. All.”

  They continued down the winding, dimly lit tunnel as the temperature dropped. A dangerous chill had seeped into the stone. Mitch could sense the prison before he could see it.

  Faint sounds of chains clinking and monstrous roars echoed from the distance.

  The tunnel ended in an arch in the wall. It was carved from dark, bone-streaked stone in a mind-bending pattern. A sickly green glow emanated from the edges, bathing the entrance in light.

  Mitch’s eyes sharpened, every instinct sharpening as he took in the scene.

  Varak pointed a claw towards the entrance. “Welcome,” it said with sarcastic delight. “Abyss...hospitality…friendly place!”

  “We’re going to work on that sense of humor, buddy,” Mitch rumbled to the creature. The other minions cackled and placed themselves around Mitch, forming a protective barrier.

  Sable swallowed, her face set with determination. Mitch felt the weight of Galadrith in his hand, and Rex’s strong presence covering him in a protective layer. The Shadowshroud growled in his mind at the arch.

  A faint but familiar sound drifted through the air. A mocking laugh that sent a chill through Mitch’s spine.

  It was Butcher. The pigman was cackling somewhere in the depths of the prison. His booming voice mixed with the roars of unknown monsters.

  “Hathgar is somewhere in there,” Mitch gritted through his teeth. He glanced at Sable and his minions, all poised and tense, their eyes locked onto the giant closed entrance.

  His allies were ready, and in that moment, Mitch realized this alliance might be the only way he’d survive whatever lay ahead.

  Mitch gathered himself. He took a step forward towards the door. It stood like a closed off beast ready to devour them whole. With a final shared look with Sable, she offered him a small smile.

  “Fuck these people,” Sable said through tight lips..

  “Yeah!..Fuck.” Varak joined in and flexed their claws. The Abyssal creature was practically humming with violent energy, faced towards the door.

  Mitch stood in front of the Warden’s prison door. Where the man had his own minion send monsters to slaughter. To then be farmed out of Mitch’s core in some twisted game of recycling.

  He let the rage of his debt build inside of him. For just this moment, Mitch allowed the anger of his bodily inheritance fill him to the brim.

  Whoever had brought him here and placed the curse upon him would pay.

  Butcher…and then the Warden is a good place to start.

  As Mitch stood before the prison doors, letting it simmer to a boiling point, he activated Soul Sacrifice. A soul ignited, burned away forever, and seared through his veins.

  His minions responded as well–their multiple eyes rolled as the intensity of energy poured into them. Sable’s breath hitched as she felt the raw force from him. Mitch had a feeling every ounce of strength would be required to beat what lay ahead.

  “It’s time to get out of here,” Mitch said to his ragtag squad.

  “Go. Show them why they should fear us.” Galadrith’s voice murmured through his mind.