Even The Strong Have Their Struggles

Before his master, there was nothing but an inky, black abyss. A period of time that he couldn't recall, but knew had existed for he himself was definitely there, yet hidden deep within the recesses of his mind. After his master – Reid; The Sword Saint – found him hidden in depths of that nightmare, plagued with monsters and traps of all kinds which had been ravaged with their all consuming hunger, Reid had looked after him akin to an uncle taking care of their dead brother's kid.

The time they had spent together hadn't been very long, but for that period of time where the two were never separated, complex emotions of joy and excitement had soared in his chest when he lived in that time. However, nothing ever built was meant to last.

The war between Orth and Zaravia had begun ravaging both nations, and Reid was not exempted from it. Forced to carry out his duties as a White Whistle, he left him in the care of two friends of his who accepted him into their family with joy. He then spent his time studying the ways of alchemy and slowly working his way up the whistle ranks. By the time he was ready to join the fight however, Reid had perished protecting the two princesses from an army of one-thousand in time for Sou to arrive on the scene.

Once some time had passed, the war ended after the Zaravian invading army, consisting of ten-thousand soldiers all ranked at either Twilight Moon or Black level, had been wiped out by King Regus in the depths of The Abyss which he hadn't returned from. The war ended in Orth's victory with Zaravia surrendering and entering into a very flimsy peace treaty with Orth.

By the time the war had ended, he was ready to undertake the test to become a Black Whistle and succeeded, having the highest scores of anyone within the last thirty years. During the war however, his parents had birthed a young girl who he would take care of as her big brother. Three years after the war had ended, he had become a highly distinguished alchemist who's knowledge and strength were feared by the enemies he had made along the way, and his parents had unfortunately disappeared during an expedition to the Fifth Layer of The Abyss. Regardless, due to his prowess in alchemy, he had become a member of the Royal Knights of Orth to continue his research with more tools than ever before; he also had taken upon a prodigy named Dain as his own apprentice.

One day, he and a team of 4 other black whistles along with Dain (who was a Twilight Moon whistle at the time) delved to the fifth layer of The Abyss to investigate a growing amount of monster sightings. As they trudged their way through the wet earth of the Fifth Layer, surrounded by the ever expanding Sea of Lost Souls, they had been ambushed.

15 black whistles, 10 twilight moons, and 5 monsters native to the Fifth Layer all participated in a coordinated attack on the group. As the 6 delvers attempted to fight them off, a monstrous beast had emerged from the water to their side to drag them to the depths as well. A giant aquatic beast with 4 tentacle arms and a long, winding tail that could form tidal waves with a single motion rose from the depths, it's 6 eyes staring at the group with hunger as it commanded it's slaves to bring them closer.

The battle was brutal, the other 4 black whistles had been devoured or slaughtered by the humans-turned-monster or the ever hungry monsters themselves. In return however, all the enslaved humans and monsters had been felled, and the Aboleth was heavily wounded. Hoping to land a final killing blow before it could kill him and Dain, he mustered up the last of his strength and despite his clothes being in tatters, and his body covered in heavy wounds and blood, he expelled the last of his strength in order to slay the beast which was blasted by that immense power. The Aboleth's eyes were scorched, leaving it with 3 eyes remaining while two of it's tentacle-like arms were separated from it's body and fell into the water while the beast's screeching cries echoed throughout the abyss; it's shrieking voice reverberating off the cavern walls, relentlessly assaulting his ears as it dove under the water.

The monster retreated to the depths of the Sixth Layer before he could land one more blow, but the damage had been done, and the Aboleth wasn't seen ever since then. Unfortunately however, he was mortally wounded and exhausted, but Dain was far worse.

Dain was covered in blood, having been constantly targeted by all the enslaved creatures due to his intrusion upon the domain of the strong. Horrifying gashes criss-crossed his body like tattoos, and his normally neat and tidy blonde hair had been ruffled and stained with blood, making it appear red in the dim light the luminescent fungi provided. It was unfathomable to think he could still be alive with those wounds, yet he held on. Desperately wanting, pleading for it, he begged the gods to let him uncover the secrets the world had hid from them alongside his master forever.

And as he watched Dain shed tears of helplessness akin to the ones flowing from himself, the coldness of The Abyss watched the two in silence. The Abyss is a cruel place, and yet, it's also a place where your dreams become twisted realities.

As Dain breathed his last breath, his dying wish had been granted to him. As he went limp in his master's arms, from the wound on Dain's stomach there shone a stone of the purest white, seemingly lighting up the darkness of The Abyss itself.

As he looked around him, staring at the corpses surrounding him, he met an unfortunate realization as he held the stone in his hands. Two of the black whistles he had killed with his own bloodstained hands had been his missing parents, the two who had vanished in the Abyss not too long ago, and upon realizing the damage he'd done, he could hold himself back no longer as he screamed out to the endless darkness of the Abyss.

His voice echoed off the jagged rocks protruding from the ceiling and ground, bouncing back into his own ears as his chest roared. He had lost far too much that day, and he planned to never lose anything again since. And so, that was the day he took the mantle of a White Whistle.

As Chozu greeted the rare visitor to his research facility on the Fifth Layer, he found a single lone man, covered in blood and his cheeks stained with tears, there stood Albedo, The Harbinger of Dawn.