Abyssal Awakening-Chapter 1010: Five’s Desires

Five dug. She kept digging.

She wanted to see more of that void. That radiance within her hands reach rather than the skies above.

Rather than the stars.

Something she can touch rather than simply see. This burning desire, this greed in her heart.

It pushed her body forward.

Dig.

Keep digging.

Don’t stop.

As if possessed by madness, Five swung her pick without any care for her own stamina.

Even when her skin broke apart, even when her blood seeped into the handle, she kept pushing.

"Five!" The boy shouted from behind. He couldn’t reach her with how she was swinging the pick. Doing so would risk his death.

"FIVE!" He shouted once more.

But Five wasn’t responding. There was an insane grin on her face as she swung. She didn’t blink.

Completely entranced by something the others couldn’t see.

With no other choice, the boy timed himself and lunged forward, grabbing the pick before Five could pull it back up.

"Five!" He shouted for a third time as the girl finally turned to look at him.

"Let me dig." Five spoke, surprising him.

She only spoke when it came to the stars, nothing else.

Yet today, she was asking him to let her work.

He glanced at the blood splatters around her.

"You’re not making much progress. If you just swing, you won’t be able to dig well. Look at your hands." He shook his head. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The key to dealing with Five wasn’t to deny her what she wanted to do. But rather to convince her that it wasn’t efficient.

The boy glanced at her hands and winced. The flesh was torn horrifically yet she acted as though it didn’t bother her.

Finally, Five relented as digging like this wasn’t going to be good.

"What’s gotten into you? Was there something that you liked?" He asked, giving her back the pick.

It was time for a break along with a chance to help dress her wounds.

"Mnm... You didn’t see?" Five asked, her mind lingering on that beautiful fractured piece of space." Five asked, glancing back.

Even now, she could see that tiny gap.

He followed her gaze but saw nothing and shook her head.

Deliberating for a moment, Five opened her mouth.

"A piece of the sky. It’s in the earth."

A cryptic answer as the boy realised she must be seeing something he wasn’t.

Something worth grabbing her attention.

"I see... Do you want me to help you?" He offered. At the rate she was going, Five will wear herself out before she could excavate whatever it was that she wanted to dig out.

". . ." Five glanced down at her bloodied hands and nodded.

"Please."

"Alright. I’ll help you out after we get some bandages. I think if we get Six’s clothes and wash them on our way back, it’ll be fine. For today, let me mine the rest." He patted her on the head.

Five glanced at the back of the boy who walked on ahead. He’s someone who always checked up on her, showed her the sky and now offered her help for the shard he couldn’t see.

###

Their routine was solidified after that.

Not that it wasn’t before.

They woke up, marched and went deep into the pits to mine.

But this time, Five wasn’t doing so just to pass the time or because it was an order from the Boss.

No, this time she was doing it because she wanted to. She had a purpose.

This shimmering shard of a different realm...

She wanted to see more. Feel more.

Know more.

She even made sure she got herself a full nights worth of sleep.

Five would curl up at night, ignoring all the noise and the people around her. Conserved her strength. The time she spent looking up at the sky was instead focused on resting.

So that when the morning came, she could dig with full strength.

This change was naturally noticed by the boy. He always noticed the small details when it came to Five.

Without a word, he adjusted himself to match her focus. Helped dig around her to make things easier. Attracted the boss’s focus when he was suspicious about anything.

When Five faltered, he would pick up the pace and help finish her share.

"If you just use your arms, it’ll be more exhausting. Lead your body into the motion." He would teach.

Five listened. Everything for the goal of mining this piece of the sky.

The deeper they dug, the more the fragments started to appear.

So much so that even the boy was starting to feel as though something was off in the air around them.

These fragments would appear and disappear at random intervals. But Five was seeing them more often now. The more she saw, the more her eyes shimmered.

If she kept digging... She’ll be able to find more.

Right now, they felt like strange visual distortions. Not something she could hold onto.

At least not for the moment.

But her instincts told her that she had to keep digging. If she kept digging, she’ll be able to find the piece she so desperately wanted to hold onto.

A piece of the sky just for her.

Her heart pounded against her chest. This rush of excitement.

She wanted to indulge herself in it as much as possible.

The Fragments got bigger.

At first, they were no bigger than a finger, no bigger than her palm. But now, they were bigger than her hand. They pulsed with a soft energy that felt... warm. Soothing even.

They felt comforting, as though it was a piece of herself that she had lost and finally recovered.

The emptiness in her heart that she filled with her love for the sky was finally feeling full.

The boy watched as Five showcased more emotions than ever while digging during this period.

Her joy when a new piece was found.

Her delight when he mentioned he could feel something in the air.

All of it brought her joy like no other. It reached a point where he couldn’t help but smile.

To help her even though he couldn’t enjoy half of what she was seeing.

Of course, it wasn’t just Five who noticed the shift within the pit.

The boss noticed as well.

First was Five’s performance.

He noticed that she was getting faster, more eager than the others.

More consistent.

Where most slaves chipped away blindly, she worked with the boy next to her to achieve progress others could only make after working for three days.

This kind of efficiency...

He couldn’t lose it.

She showed results the others could only dream about.

He didn’t understand why, not that he needed to.

The only thing he needed to know was that Five must be preserved no matter what.

Same with the boy next to her.

"Give her more." He would order, allocating more food so that Five could gain the strength to dig.

An extra portion of food. Cleaner water.

It wasn’t kindness. Oh no, far from it. It was... a kind of investment for the future.

If she performed better, she would be fed more.

If she was fed more, she would perform better. A simple cycle of the carrot and the stick.

Naturally, Five didn’t care.

As long as she could dig better, that’s all that mattered.

Food was food, it didn’t matter how much.

Each day, the pit was dug deeper.

And soon, the sounds began to change. The toughness of the material...

It sound that it made.

The pit had changed and no one else seemed to notice.

Except three people.

Five noticed. So did the boy.

They felt it in their bones when they dug. The vibration travelling up their hand.

But the biggest change of all... Was the distortions that they were seeing.

They were much bigger now. Around the side of an arm.

One day, Five touched the edges and felt a spark travel through her body. A numbness that made her eyes glimmer with excitement.

"Look! Look! I can touch it now!" She would exclaim to the boy beside her. He had a look of surprise on his face.

After all...

He could see the distortions as well. Not as clearly as Five.

No.

What he saw was the warping of the air. As though something invisible was pressing against their realm.

As for the third, it was the boss.

Whatever he was looking for seemed to be exactly this because he was urging them to dig faster, to dig harder.

To be more like Five.

He bought more slaves to work, more food and spent money for better picks.

He was now more involved in the work than ever. The boss wasn’t satisfied with just sending them down to work and sitting back.

He was now also down in the pits, barking orders while telling people not to both Five.

She was his treasured worker right now. Distracting her was not something he tolerated.

*CLANG!!!

A sharp echo like no other rippled through the pit.

Everyone looked over.

Five dug into something others haven’t.

*CLANG!!!

She hit again.

The feed back caused her to drop the pick as the metal couldn’t pierce the ground no matter how hard she hit.

The boy moved first. The thing they hit wasn’t stone. He pulled the debris aside and brushed it with his sleeve.

The two wasn’t sure what they were looking at.

A patch of black material, glossy and reflective like no other. Cool to the touch and strangely...

It radiated the same feeling as the distortions that Five had been touching.

This material... It must’ve come from that realm.