by Konrad Ryan
Voidshift didn’t seem that useful. Roar could be useful, but Tad moved on to the bunnyvoid’s essence.
*Is this the essence you choose? You can learn one of the following skills:
Acid bolt - A bolt of acid shoots toward your target. Costs 1 mana.
Water bolt - A bolt of water shoots toward your target. Costs 1 mana.
Greased Lightning - consume 20 mana. Lightning strikes your target, doubles target’s speed for five seconds.
Torrent - Consume 80 mana to create unlimited water for 10 seconds. You can control the fluid throughout the duration.*
The hairs on Tad’s arms stood erect with each skill he read. With the minotaur, Tad hadn’t thought twice about where the abilities originated from. Yes, the minotaur had used both voidshift, and roar, and even the equipment system. But the skills had seemed like those the minotaur was designed with, the tools to be strong in his labyrinth, but this list was different. These were spells the bunnyvoid had used throughout the fight against both the minotaur and after. She was now dead, but Tad could eat her essence to learn what she knew. If Tad had died, would she be looking at ‘quake’ and ‘heal other’ with a greedy look in her eyes? Or even better, she could steal his equipment system or maybe even his ‘Path to Zero’ book from his corpse.
Tad moved onto the last void. Despite the gruesome and cutthroat nature of this reward system, excitement bubbled in Tad’s gut. If his suspicions were true, this next essence could contain the best reward.
The reward he, himself, had missed.
*Is this the essence you choose? You can learn one of the following skills:
Summon arrow - Costs no mana.
Fire Sheath - Wrap an object in fire. Costs 1 mana.
Ice Sheath - Wrap an object in ice. Costs 1 mana.
Spell runes - Consume 15 mana. Combine with another spell to lay a trap. Activates on touch from any other creature.
Gigantify - Consume 80 mana. Cast after summoning an arrow to multiply its destructive power by 10.
Equipment Aspect - Already owned.
Stat Aspect - Permanent 2x bonus to stats.
Zhangheist’s Longbow - A void weapon containing the Leonic voidsign*
And there it was, just as Tad had suspected. The lionvoid had earned the 2x stat bonus in his soldier trial, and now it was within Tad’s grasp. The demented void that had lived inside his dagger had commented once about aspects. The words surged to Tad’s mind. You earned the equipment aspect? Impossible! Here was another aspect. Aspects were powerful skills, passive skills, potentially only available to voids. And had the bunnyvoid won, surely she would have chosen either Tad’s equipment aspect, or the lionvoid’s stat aspect.
But what was that bow? It had gleamed the same as Raekast’s Fang, but Tad had no idea what a Leonic voidsign was, or how it would be useful. The stat aspect was the right choice.
“I choose this essence. Stat aspect.” Tad spoke to the ether.
*Warning, the process will destroy the essence. Confirm your decision.*
The words were a punch to the gut. He had already killed the lionvoid, and now he would consume his soul.
“Confirmed.”
The lionvoid had reminded Tad too much of Zero. He might not have been able to consume the bunnyvoid’s essence, even if she had the stat aspect. Sure, she had tricked him, but they had worked together. Been a team, even if it was just for a short moment. She hadn’t seemed like a bad person. Just a scared one who wanted to survive. Tad almost saw his own reflection in her terrified eyes. Except he had now become harder, like steel. He pushed his will further, strengthened his resolve. Maybe the lionvoid didn’t deserve utter annihilation. Maybe he should have chosen the minotaur’s essence instead, and not consume another void’s essence. Another human’s essence… or whatever the lionvoid was. No, he wasn’t human, but maybe a near cousin. Tad hardened his resolve, his tongue slicked to his gums where his three teeth were still missing. This was the right reward, and the hard choice. If he aimed to be a match for Zero’s infinite might, Tad needed every aspect he could get his hands on.
*Confirmed, brace for installation.*
The black greasy smoke-like essence moved at an incredible speed into his slightly open mouth. He wretched at the flavor that permeated his nostrils and swept across his tastebuds. Something rotting, burning, acidic even, pushed itself into his lungs. Tad stood in the trial’s darkness, as pain, similar to the first installation of his leveling up program, wracked his body. But this time, there was no screaming, there were no tears. This time he stood, eyes burning with flame, without making a single sound.
He needed the strength to keep climbing. Strength brought with it safety for both Tad and his friends. He would do what was needed here, no matter the cost.
*Warning! Void Assimilation commencing in 3… 2… 1…*
What! The blaring warning had startled Tad from the pain. Time warped to a stop. With a thought, Tad opened his stats, knowing what was waiting for him. The debuff ‘Void Paralyzation’ had taken control, his sight darkened, the world blackened, and the void swallowed him whole.
* * *
Tad floated in the darkness, but this time his senses were sharper than before. He wasn’t floating through the void, but instead he was moving through, in skips, bounds, and at an alarming speed. Like he was being sucked toward his destination by a giant unseen vacuum.
Suddenly, the journey stopped. He had reached his destination. Black flame torches dripped with fire, revealing a small circle of obsidian, small enough that if Tad was twice his size, then he could touch the walls with both hands. Somehow, Tad knew these walls were not actual obsidian, but made from physical darkness. Opposite him stood the lionvoid, tall, and naked as the day he was born. Even in the dark light of the torches his skin glowed silver, his eyes sharp and narrow, his hair flowed around his neck, joining with his mane. Up close, Tad finally saw him for what he was, a silvery lion humanoid, stalking his prey.
“My only fear was that you wouldn’t choose me. That you would be reckless and choose the minotaur or for void’s sake the girl. But now that I have you here, you have no choice. Surrender yourself to me, willingly, and I will take us to the end.” His mouth parted, revealing sharp canine teeth, but his voice sounded like a silky rumble to Tad’s ears. He gestured with his hands toward the wall of the small obsidian arena, nails pointed and sharpened into claws. “You can’t beat me. I saw your weak resolve in the minotaur trial. You allied that untalented void to defeat me. She hadn’t even earned the equipment aspect.” He spat the words out like rotten meat.
“You’re wrong, even she had the resolve to survive at all cost. To join with me, and she almost pulled it off, equipment system or not. It’s not a weakness to know your limitations.”
The silky voice turned to a roar of laughter. “Limitations? We have none, for we are voids. You have the equipment aspect, perhaps you earned the book too? If so, you saw, Zero made no allies, he cut through all to reach the tallest peaks of power.”
Tad hesitated. “That’s not what I saw. Zero made allies, had allies. He just cut them down when they stood in the way of his power.” Like Tad had cut down the girl void, the realization stung more than the guilt of killing her. She had betrayed him, but even if she hadn’t, he would have cut her down all the same. To survive. To grow stronger.
Just like Zero.
The lionvoid paused in concentrated thought at Tad’s statement. “To join you would be to throw away my future. My eventual rebirth. What promise do I have if we join?” His eyes studied Tad’s face.
Something was wrong, but Tad couldn’t figure out what it was. Something was happening, the lionvoid was doing something, but what? One thing was clear, the conversation was a distraction.
“What other option do you have? You’re already dead.” Tad scanned the lionvoid’s face at his words, searching for some hint of what was going on. The lionvoid’s expression twisted into a smirk.
“This is your first voi
d assimilation?” The lionvoid sounded like he couldn’t believe it. His smirk grew into a full toothy grin. “Like I said, weak.”
A warning blared in Tad’s ears.
*Warning! You have lost control of your feet*
Alarm flooded through Tad. Whatever this was, he was losing. He needed to do something! Tad leapt forward and tried to strike out at the lion void, his fists sunk deep into the Lion’s chest and passed harmlessly through.
Sharp laughter filled his ears.
“You already won that fight. How is it that you are so clueless? Are you an errant? Not trained by the Voidspire? I’ve never heard of an errant making it this far.”
“Errant? Voidspire? What are you talking about?”
The lionvoid’s mouth opened in mirthy laughter once more. “You truly know nothing. Then it’s settled, I cannot allow my fate to be in the hands of an unknowing child, I will consume you here, and wear your body.”
*Warning! You have lost control of your legs.*
Tad looked down at his legs, but they seemed the same as always. The panic burgeoned in his chest. He was going to lose this battle without even knowing what was going on! He danced from foot to foot, he still controlled his body. What was the warning talking about?
“I was trained by Xionith, he claimed I was a prodigy.” The lionvoid paused, as if waiting for Tad’s reaction.
“Who is that?”
His face fell to a frown at Tad’s reaction, he had been expecting more. “Xionith, brother to Xethdar.” He said the last name like anyone would know it.
“Who are you talking about? I don’t know any of these people!” Tad’s frustration at being in the dark rippled through his voice. The entire obsidian chamber in which they stood twisted slightly, before reverting to normal. Worry appeared on the lionvoid’s face for the first time, his eyes drawn toward the twisting darkness.
Something pricked Tad’s back, a small bug bite or a pinprick. Tad slapped at it, almost reactively, but his hand slapped across a tube, or a pipe, thick as his finger. Was this it? Was this what the lionvoid was doing? Tad yanked at the tube in his back. It was inky black, extending to the edge of the obsidian walls. He tried to pull it out of his skin, but it stretched endlessly.
“It’s no use. Even if you found my source. Its too late. I already own too much of your body. I’ve won this battle!” The lionvoid’s victory shone on his smug face, his previous concern gone.
Physical darkness. Suddenly it all hit Tad like a giant mosquito’s gorilla punch to the face. The demented void that had been inside Raekast’s Fang had turned into a titan spawn when Tad had stabbed it. This was an essence battle! Tad wasn’t in his body, he was currently in his essence form. His void essence. And the wall of this place was sucking Tad’s essence away.
Maybe this wasn’t his first void assimilation. Just his first official one.
Tad remembered the black mist made from physical darkness that had covered the demented void, that had hidden him. They had struggled for control of the darkness. And Tad had won.
He had stabbed that void with Raekast’s Fang and turned it into a titan spawn. Maybe that would work here too.
Tad reached out his hand and pulled. He pulled like he always did when he summoned Raekast’s Fang, but instead of the blade, a thick torrent of shadow stretched from the obsidian wall and settled into Tad’s hand, thicker than Tad’s own incredibly muscular thigh.
A look of shock, that matched Tad’s own feelings, appeared across the lionvoid’s face. “How…? How can you control that much darkness?”
Tad pulled again with intention. This time, however, he imagined claws, like those of Raekast herself. Hundreds of huge, deadly sharp claws formed from the walls at Tad’s summon.
He locked eyes with the lionvoid, whose eyes now bulged from their sockets.
“I have no idea.”
Chapter 20
It only took three claw swipes at the lionvoid’s body to rip enough essence to regain his own. Fistfuls of essence pumped back into Tad. The warning voice rang out twice more.
*You have regained control of your legs!*
*You have regained control of your feet!*
Tad hungered to continue, to rip the lionvoid to shreds, but the lionvoid had something Tad wanted more than immediate victory, more even than the stats aspect. He had information.
“Who are Xeonith and Xethdar?”
The lionvoid had slumped to the ground, pressed against the obsidian walls, curled in a fetal position. He was utterly defeated. He no longer even tried to fight, his string of physical darkness had retracted back to the wall.
The lionvoid roused himself at the question. He pushed himself up into a sitting position “How do you not know these things? Xethdar is Zero. The strongest Zero there has ever been. The only Zero to ever match the strength of the alpha creators.”
The information felt like a slap across the face. “Zero has a brother?”
The lionvoid only nodded. “End this. You win.” His voice trembled, but only for a moment. “But promise me this. Promise me, that you’ll take us to the heights of power. To creator and beyond.”
“I promise.” Tad’s voice sounded more sure, even to his own ears, than he felt. “But first, I need some answers. You seem to know what is going on. Why am I different from everyone else? Why am I a void?”
The lionvoid laughed, a harsh guttural laugh fitting the king of the jungle. Agony and anguish filled tones, swept through his painful chuckle, Tad felt each emotion surge through him, as if the two were connected. Self loathing and hatred, desperation and the desire for strength. No, desire wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the lionvoid’s true feeling. It was more like pure need.
“Why were any of us born voids? I must have asked that question a thousand, thousand times. Why do the gods hunt us like dogs, why must we hide in shadow from the light?” The lionvoid went quiet for a moment, then continued, his voice more composed, no, inspired. “But Xethdar was different. Zero changed everything. He could stand in the light. He fought the gods, all six of them, toe to toe, fang for fang. Even the alpha creators had to retreat before his pure might.” The lionvoid tore open his mouth into a roar of anguish. The thunder reverberated in the small cell. “Why did he abandon us! Why did he disappear without a trace!”
Tad furrowed his brow. What was he talking about? “What do you mean? Zero is trapped in Titan.”
Tears of darkness dripped from bulged eyes. The lionvoid tried to grab the front of Tad’s torso with clawed hands, but his paws went right through Tad’s chest. “You know where Zero is?”
Tad nodded. “I’ve talked to him. Well… more like he spoke to me.
“What did he say?” His question came out as a deep growl.
“Not much.” Tad tried to remember. What had he said? There had been so much pain that his head had threatened to break in half. “He asked me where the rest had gone. And what had happened to Titan.”
“What is Titan?”
Annoyance washed over Tad. Why was he the one answering all the questions?
“Hang on, it’s your turn. What is Voidspire? What are errants? Or the alpha creators?”
The lionvoid’s face twisted into confusion. “How do you know the location of Zero, but you don’t know the most basic information about us? About our plight?”
Tad shrugged his shoulders at a complete loss.
“From which of the gods are you born?” The lion examined him once more, as if for the first time. “You… don’t have any godmarks at all. Impossible.”
“Godmarks? What are you talking about? My mom is Trisha Harrington, I wasn’t born from a god.” Tad had never been more confused in his life. Born from a god? Is that how normal voids were born? Was his mom a goddess in hiding? If so, she picked a pretty lame cover story, civilian rank truck driver.
“Not your parents.” He said the words with such derision that Tad couldn’t help but feel a little stupid. “Which lineage did your family come from
?”
“What do you even mean? One grandparent was Asian, another Irish! The others were American, I don’t even know what lineage they were! I literally don’t even know what you are talking about? Do you expect me to know my ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve? I don’t even believe there was an Adam and Eve!” Tad’s breathing was irregular, madness crept into his mind at the absurdity of the questioning.
But the look on the lionvoid’s face stopped Tad dead in his tracks.
The lionvoid’s body was stiff, every hair on his mane bristled with alarm, his voice soft and sharp. “…did you say Eve?”
Just then an alarm blared in Tad’s mind, louder than the previous alarms.
*Warning! Time limit approaching!*
Both Tad and the lionvoid looked around the darkness for a sign or some indication of how much time was left. There wasn’t any.
The lionvoid got real close to Tad “There’s no time, you’ve got to finish me. As long as you live, my essence lives on. Even if I can’t reach the heights of power, together, we can.”
“Wait! What about Eve! What about the Voidspire?”
“There is no time for the tale of the banished mother. Finish me now or we’ll be trapped in here forever!”
Uncertainty filled Tad’s chest. All the answers he ever wanted were right in front of him. From the sound of the conversation, the answers to dungeons and voids were deeper than Tad had thought before. But there was no time for more. Hard. He needed to harden himself. There would be more opportunities for information. For now, he had to act.
Tad pulled. Black panther claws formed once more from the physical darkness of the small battle arena. Each claw took huge chunks of essence from the lionvoid. His skin and muscles seemed to stretch thin, and then holes appeared, which grew larger with each swipe.
“Eve. The banished mother. Should be dead. Third of seven. Alpha creator. Banished to the void for propagating life beyond the alpha creators.” Only the mouth of the lionvoid remained. “Become Zero. My name is Leo-”
A final swipe forced the last of the lionvoid’s essence into Tad.
