GusLey Short Story Collections

To The Abyss

In the middle of the fight to obtain the Heart of Anima, the Paxley brothers thrived their way against their ancestor named Valentina and the group of Natan, along with Lonux and Belerick.
It was one tough fight, and nobody wanted to lose. Every group had their own reasons.
Aamon wanted to save his younger brother. Valentina wanted to revive her beloved husband. And Natan wanted to save the future.
Who really deserved to obtain the Heart of Anima? It was a tough question either.
At last, the powerful crystal stumbled upon the abyss, rolling to its fall.
Seeing such a moment, each alliance attempted to reach the crystal but failed to save it.
The cursed one, Gusion, felt the urge to run after the Heart of Anima and couldn't control himself. He ran after the crystal, falling along with it to the depths of the abyss.
"Gusion? Noooo!" Aamon ran to save his beloved brother. But it was too late.
"Oh, no!" Lonux gasped.
"No way!" Natan stepped towards the edge of the abyss and stared at the bottomless pit. "There's no way he can come back!"
"There must be a way!" Aamon panicked.
Valentina was enraged and approached the groups. "Imbeciles! You've wasted the Heart of Anima that I've been waiting to appear for hundreds of years!"
"There's no time to whine, granny! I need to save my brother!" Aamon responded.
"How shameful for the Paxley family to raise an ill-mannered son like you!" Valentina replied.
"You've never been in the Paxley house. You've disappeared for a long time! You've sacrificed the clan! You will never know what happened in that house, and how much pain it has caused me and my brother!" Aamon replied with fire in his eyes. "Therefore, I would never take your judgement." And he left the scene to find a way down to the abyss.
Valentina wasn't able to retort Aamon's words. She knew it was her fault why Aamon and his brother had to fight with her to obtain the Heart of Anima.
"What shall we do now, human?" Belerick broke the silence.
Lonux looked at Natan as well, waiting for an answer.
"We'll plan about it later. For now, we need to leave this place!" Natan replied as he looked at the sanctuary waiting for its total destruction.
The rest of the group left the sanctuary and had their own plans.
Meanwhile, Gusion was still out of his control and continued to fall to the bottom of the abyss, yet he managed to obtain the Heart of Anima.
A few seconds later, he returned to his senses. Upon seeing his state, he panicked and immediately took his daggers. He kept the crystal securely in his pocket and dragged his daggers in the rocks trying to get a grip.
He managed to get his daggers on the rocks keeping him from falling completely.
"Brother?" Gusion yelled, calling for Aamon like a child crying.
But there was no one to help him. It was a dim place. And only the light from the surface gave Gusion a small hope of escaping.
"It's so dark, I can't see." He complained.
Gusion lit up his daggers using his magic and it enabled him to see his current state.
"I'm so glad I've learned this magic, it really becomes handy in times like this." He chuckled as if he didn't know what danger might come to him at any moment.
He found a slightly plain rock and he jumped to get there. He walked along beneath the rocks hoping to get somewhere.
After hours of walking, he realized that he was getting nowhere. It was an infinity of darkness.
"How can I go back, to my brother?" He thought of giving up.
Gusion quietly laid on the rock to take a rest. As he closed his eyes, an unusual creature was stealthily crawling its way to him.
Gusion noticed the inevitable danger. He took his daggers ready.
A second after, a giant spider-like creature sprung up into the air and attacked Gusion but the wary man dodged the attack.
He fought up against the creature and managed to take it down. But to his surprise, the creature's dead body divided into countless smaller spider-like creatures and created a luminous light making it easier to spot.
"You just made yourself into an easier target." Gusion smirked.
But to the man's surprise, the smaller spider-like creatures attacked him at a blistering speed making it hard to kill.
After killing off the first batch that attacked Gusion, he had spent most of his energy leaving him no choice but to escape first.
But one spider managed to reach him and bit his left arm.
"Arrgh! You!" Gusion raged and killed the spider instantly.
He breathed heavily and looked at the remaining numbers of his enemy.
"These creatures are no joke!" He whispered, and he ran for his life.
But the creatures were so fast that it caught up to him in an instant. As one of them jumped towards Gusion, a smoke bomb suddenly appeared behind him.
The explosion caused the creatures to run away, saving Gusion's life.
"It seems like you are having a trouble there, young man!" A woman's voice appeared from a distance.
Gusion regained his composure and stood straight facing the disappearing smoke to see the woman behind the voice.
"This place is Araneida's territory! You enter their turf, you become their prey!" The woman said in an alluring tone. "They hated the smell of this smoke. You use this on them, they'll instantly retreat."
And as the smoke cleared, Gusion finally took a glance at the woman's face.
"You?" Gusion was surprised to see a familiar face.
The woman smiled slightly. "What a dangerous place for us to meet again, Paxley boy!"
Gusion smiled and walked towards her. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Ms. Vance!"
He approached the woman, and kissed her fingers like a gentleman.
"Oh, my! The last time we met, I could remember you flashing your daggers towards me! Did the time change now?" Lesley responded.
"Well, you've taught me manners!" Gusion replied.
"But don't think that I'll help you escape this place just because you've changed into a fine gentleman!" She tried to pull a joke.
"Hmm? As if you had a choice! You're stuck with me now." Gusion held her wrist tightly.
"Hey! That's a tight grip! You're crushing my wrist bone." Lesley complained. "Let me go, you little brat." She yelled.
"I won't let you go!" Gusion grabbed Lesley by the waist. "You see, I'm just a crying little boy right now! I want to cry so bad. Just help me escape this place. I want to see my brother." He pleaded to her as he pulled his puppy eyes.
"Alright, I'll help you. Just don't act like a crybaby. You're creeping me out." Lesley replied.
"Give me an assurance!" Gusion demanded.
"Yes, I'll help you get out of here!" Lesley replied immediately. "Now, can you let go of me? You're pressing against my chest, I hope you're not forgetting that!"
"It feels comfortable here!"
"So, that's why you're not letting go?" Lesley madly thought. "I should've killed you back then!"
The two travelled for hours, escaping threats and dangerous creatures along the way. Lesley encouraged Gusion not to initiate fights against any creatures as each of them have their own unique ability that is yet unknown to humans.
After a moment, a red light was visible from a distance.
"Is it possible that there are inhabitants below here?" Gusion asked as he walked behind Lesley.
"Well, it's time for you to figure it out!" The woman replied and rushed to where the light was.
It was an old tavern full of torches to guide lost travellers along the way and to use the tavern as a refuge from the abyssal creatures.
"It was a safe place! It was guarded by a powerful magic disguising the tavern and the abyssal demons weren't able to sense any human form inside." Lesley explained. "But we must be careful! The refugees here were dangerous as well." She talked about the mean and savage demon hunters inside the establishment.
Upon entering the establishment, Gusion was amazed to see that such a haven exists in the middle of darkness in the abyss. Crowds were dancing, singing while drinking, and having the best time of their life because they knew that the moment they set foot outside the tavern, they might not be able to come back alive again.
"Why don't you take a rest for a while as I plan your escape out of here?" Lesley suggested. "Just make sure not to mess with the brutal men around here or it'll be trouble. I won't be there to interrupt a man's fight and protect you." She smirked.
"That's a great ide..." Gusion couldn't finish his words and suddenly fainted.
It was the spider's poison that caused him to lose consciousness.
"You've been bitten and you didn't tell me!" Lesley was mad and worried at the same time.
She pulled Gusion in a room upstairs and let him get a rest. She cured the poison as well using the remaining antidote she had.
"Glad I saved a few drops of this. You'll be alive for today, Gusion." Lesley ran her fingers through his hair and slept in the wooden floor. "It's gonna be a long way for us to get out of here." She whispered looking at the ceiling hopelessly.
-The End-