Meeyn wiped the sweat from his brow and forced himself to try again.
The darkness slithered out, thinner this time but sharper, threading through the Titan's body, stitching through muscle and bone.
The night dragged on.
Failure after failure.
Collapse after collapse.
Each time, he pushed his control deeper, learning the rhythm of their strange flesh, tightening the abyss around their dead nerves.
His mind throbbed with pain. His vision blurred. But he didn't stop.
By the time the first gray light of dawn crept through the trees, a Titan stood — silent and still.
And on its broad shoulder, Meeyn stood — calm, steady — the Titan completely bound to his will.
"Heh, I'm just too good," he muttered, a crooked grin tugging at his lips.
He commanded the Titan forward, toward the open plain. Balancing on its shoulder wasn't easy at first, but somehow, it came naturally to him — as if the abyss itself steadied his steps.
He wanted a better view of the sunrise.
As the first rays of the sun broke over the horizon, light spilling across the fields, something shifted.
Meeyn felt it immediately — the Titan beneath him twitched.
The threads of darkness holding it unraveled like smoke caught in the wind.
In a blink, he lost control.
The Titan shuddered, and life returned to its dead eyes. But it didn't attack.
Instead, it turned — panicked — and bolted, stumbling over itself in its desperation to flee.
Meeyn watched the Titan disappear into the trees, his arms crossed, expression cold.
"...Tch."
His fingers twitched slightly, still feeling the phantom pull of the broken connection.
Why had he lost control so suddenly?
He thought back to the moment — the exact second the grip had slipped.
It was when the sunlight touched them.
Meeyn slowly lifted his gaze toward the rising sun, narrowing his eyes.
The light felt... wrong.
Not in a way he could describe, but like two forces brushing against each other — the abyss inside him and the sun's warmth, naturally repelling.
"So... that's it," he muttered.
The sunlight weakened his influence.
Or rather — the abyss, at least at his current strength, struggled under the sun's gaze.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Meeyn's gaze lingered on the horizon, the golden glow of dawn reflecting the inner turbulence he couldn't shake. The sunlight was a silent enemy, something that ate at his power from the inside. He needed to think.
"Where…" He muttered to himself, his eyes scanning the dense forest around him. The sun was high now, and its rays seemed to penetrate even the thickest of trees. He took a deep breath, trying to center his thoughts, his mind racing.
"I need darkness," he decided firmly, his fingers curling into fists. "A place where the sun can't touch me... somewhere I can use all my strength."
Without hesitation, he turned from the plains and moved deeper into the woods, his boots crushing the leaves beneath him. The trees grew denser, the air thickening as he journeyed farther. The darkened path felt comforting — the more shadows there were, the less the sun's reach.
His feet carried him instinctively until, after what felt like hours of searching, he stumbled upon it: a narrow entrance, barely visible through the underbrush.
A cave.
Meeyn paused, standing at the edge of the darkened mouth. He could feel the absence of light, the coolness of the air that lingered there. It was perfect.
Without wasting time, he entered, his footsteps echoing faintly against the stone walls.
The darkness enveloped him, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Meeyn felt his strength returning, his connection to the abyss.
But then, a thought flickered through his mind.
The entrance.
Meeyn's eyes narrowed as he turned toward the exit. Though the cave was shadowed, a sliver of light crept in, filtering through the cracks at the entrance.
It was enough to break the suffocating darkness. Enough to keep his power from reaching its full potential.
"I'll need to seal it off." His voice was low, the decision coming naturally.
He stepped back into the cave, searching for something heavy to block the way. His eyes scanned the surroundings until they landed on a massive boulder, wedged into the corner of the cave. He approached it, his muscles tensing as he reached out, hands gripping the rock's rough surface.
Without breaking a sweat, he began to lift it, the weight of the stone seeming insignificant. The boulder came free easily, almost effortlessly, as if it weighed nothing at all.
Meeyn's grin spread wider as he hefted the boulder higher. He pushed through the resistance, the rock moving effortlessly as if it were no heavier than a stone.
He turned and walked toward the cave entrance, a grunt escaping his lips as he shoved the massive boulder into place. It wedged firmly in the opening, sealing it completely, leaving no room for light to sneak through.
Satisfied, Meeyn stepped back and wiped the sweat from his brow, his eyes watching the last sliver of sunlight vanish.
In the profound darkness, he felt… something unexpected. It wasn't the blind, oppressive kind of darkness that would normally have sent someone into a spiral of panic. In fact, the absence of light didn't bother him at all.
Before, in his past life, being trapped in a dark room would've left him struggling to breathe, his mind gripped by anxiety. But now, here in the abyss, he felt a strange kind of peace.
The darkness was no enemy, no suffocating void. Instead, it embraced him, and he could see perfectly, as if the absence of light revealed more than it concealed.
He let out a content sigh, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "This... this is it."
Meeyn settled deeper into the cave, his body sinking into the ground like it had become part of the very stone.
The total absence of light seemed to expand and contract around him, pulsing in rhythm with his breath, as if the darkness itself was alive. In this space, he could feel the Living Abyss more acutely than ever before.
(A/N: The Living Abyss is a primordial, eldritch darkness manipulated by Knull, allowing him to create and control symbiotes, forge weapons like the Necrosword, and dominate lesser beings. It enables him to shape constructs, project dark energy, and corrupt or consume souls. This malleable void essence is the source of his supreme umbrakinesis and symbiote hive-mind dominion..)
He closed his eyes and extended his hands in front of him, concentrating.
The darkness slithered and twitched at his call, strands of black leaking from his fingertips like threads of oil. He gritted his teeth, trying to shape it — to breathe life into it.
Hours passed.