And so Marine completed the Sorceress's trial, as did each of her two companions, Markus and Amara. For 14 years Marine searched the Earth for power that could defeat the Abyssal God, the primordial being which spawns all evil, the malevolent entity that delivers all despair, but more importantly the one who seeks to answer the first question of man; to whom do we humans owe our horrible and absurd suffering? The Abyssal God resides in the Ethereal World, a place so foreign and preposterous that only entities of abstraction may survive. Marine was of one the very few who knew of the Abyssal God, or anything at all of the supernatural; she believed that it was responsible for much of humanity's suffering, including the plague and hordes of demons that recently swept the countryside. Marine sought to kill the Abyssal God in the hopes that all its underlings, and the plague would be erased from the Earth. For that reason, Marine and her party agreed to the Sorceress's trial, on the grounds that they would receive magical weaponry if they passed. Marine remembered from her previous encounter with the Abyssal God that she needed to become more powerful.
14 years ago she thrusted her sword into the belly of the Abyssal God, a monstrous, floating, shadowy disfigured humanoid of brains, eyes and tendrils. Hot and crimson blood burst from the wound and painted her face. With its black arms it grabbed the blade and pushed it deeper within itself. Squealing with laughter, the beast yawned wide and revealed his rows of jagged teeth. Expecting an attack, she tried to dislodge the blade, but to no avail. The monstrous head slammed downwards, cracking its head like an egg onto her sword.
"What!" she said in shock.
The two sagging halves of its head rose from the ground, flapping again as it burst into laughter.
"Was this your plan?" Its voice sounded like two sheets of metal being torn apart.
She froze in fear as the monstrosity regenerated its body.
"Where's your valor? Where is your bravery now!" it roared.
"I…. am the hatred they feel…"
Its shadowy tendrils impaled her chest.
"I…am the vengeance they crave…"
Its tendrils pierced her hands.
"I… am the torment they carry…"
Its tendrils crushed her shoulders.
"You can come here as often as you'd like, but without the power to kill that which exists everywhere, you'll fail every single time."
She snapped out of her memory as the Sorceress materialized before her.
"I hope your pleased?", Marine said coldly as she flicked the blood off her fingers. "Not every day do you get to see a demon strangled with my bare hands".
"The malice in your heart is unsettling, yet the fairies still deem you worthy of their blessing. They will grant each of you a weapon of great power, if that is what you truly need to defeat the Abyssal God. Behold the portal to their enchanted armory.
Amara reached into the portal and pulled out an enchanted bow. Similarly, Markus pulled out a rapier imbued with fire magic.
Teaming with excitement Markus asked, "Where do these fairies come from?"
"Fairies come from the same place as the rest of the supernatural, the Ethereal Plane. Whenever a human believes in something, it gets spawned into the Ethereal World. Usually, it's quite weak and stays there until nobody believes in it or it becomes forgotten. But if that belief is passionate enough, or if multiple people believe in it as well, the being grows in power, exerting influence into the corporeal plane, and in some cases can physically manifest. From stories passed down, children believed in various fairies and so the Flow Of The Universe willed them into existence!"
Everyone looked towards Marine as she reached into the black portal.
"I wonder what weapon will be bestowed onto our glorious leader," Amara chided.
"Something that can strike multiple places at once hopefully."
Marine reached even further into the black portal but found nothing.
"What's going on here, this must be a misunderstanding? I passed your trial, where is my weapon?"
"Don't look at me, I'm just their intermediary. The fairy lord determines which weapons you pull out. All I can say is that there is no mistake, the fairy lord is never flawed in his decision."
Amara's face reddened in frustration, "If Marine doesn't acquire more power, then how will she ever defeat the Abyssal God? Why is this world so cruel and unfair!"
Marine patted Amara on her head. "Come on. This isn't the first time I've been let down. Everything will be alright, bad things happen to everyone, we just need to keep moving forward."
Marine suddenly froze, nearly breaking down as everything finally became clear.
"I'm going to the Abyssal Plane. We must prepare the ritual at once!"
"What? But you're nowhere near powerful enough to face it, you admitted that yourself," Markus said.
"Sorceress speak with the King of this city and have him gather every resident in the town hall. Maybe the reason I didn't get a weapon is because I don't need one. That means whatever I have now is enough defeat the abyssal God."
Thousands of people formed a circle around Marine in the town hall. All of them chattered among each other as to why they were gathered.
"It's dangerous to congregate like this. The plague is contagious, we'll get sick like this", a man from the crowd barked.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Marine whispered the magical phrase, and a pool of darkness spawned on the ground, transporting everyone to the Abyssal Plane. Before them was the enormous Abyssal God, floating above the ground. All one thousand of the Abyssal God's eyes focused onto Marine as she walked towards the front.
"We meet again. Are you ready to begin this battle?"
"No, I'm here to end it."
"We shall see."
Marine drew her iron sword and charged into battle. While her skills had grown tremendously since her first encounter, she was no match for its incredible power.
"Is that all? Did you really think that you found the power to defeat me?"
Marine rose from the ground and as calm as ever she responded, "What do you mean by found? It's taken me 14 years to realize this, but I've had the power to defeat you from the very beginning. You call yourself a God, but you are no God. You don't even exist at all. You're just like everything else, an idea that was spawned from the consciousness of man. In order to rationalize why our world was so unnecessarily cruel, we humans subconsciously thought of an entity so malevolent that it existed only to cause despair among humans. Your strength is a derivative of our hopelessness and our misunderstanding of the universe. Take this plague for instance. While you might be augmenting the spread of this plague, it doesn't change the fact that plagues are bound to occur, and that they come and go at random. Your existence is farce, because horrible things happen to everyone no matter how kind they are, and that is the Flow Of The Universe. But as humans we can choose to respond in a way that isn't destructive to ourselves and others. In the face of despair, we must smile, forgive each other and move onwards. That is why I have brought everyone here, from the sickly, the poor, the criminals to the wealthy."
Her words rippled throughout the crowd who hugged and exchanged forgiveness for all the sins they have committed.
The Abyssal God smiled.
"And so it ends. You have found the power to kill me at last. Me and my spawns shall this world once and for all. Farewell, Marine."
With those final words the Abyssal god dispersed into dust, and a new era of light was ushered for mankind.open.