No sound came from Sen’s mouth, but a bullet of blood came from it when he spat on the invisible surface acting as the floor in the lifeless bleak darkness of the void. His entire body ached after the lich sent him reeling from a single punch to the chest with its abnormally large skeletal fist. He was on his knees and his head burned like someone had laid a scalpel in a blacksmith’s crucible and promptly used it to incise the matter behind his skull.
- The ambient XXXXX is interfer-
The Magic Society Recording Tablet that provided Sen with his interface system and several other features manifested from Sen’s voidspace and fell onto the floor in front of him, on top of the Essence the lich slung toward him. He let out a sigh of relief as the burning sensation in his head halted its onslaught. The pain was still there, but its slowly reducing intensity gave him brief respite.
The tablet itself glowed with sigils and lines of data, glitching through different screens as it both tried to make sense of the magic that surrounded it and attempted to connect to its living documents back in the Magic Society’s libraries.
All of this happened a few moments before its screen went black. Sen watched it, trying to recover from his sudden onset of painful stimuli as the lich watched him like a statue. When the light from the tablet faded, the only physical source of light in his vicinity, Sen noticed there was some form of light allowing him to see through the darkness of the void, unlike how he had seen it, or rather not seen it, the first time he was here. Something was allowing his eyes to witness the eternal bleakness.
The tablet then erupted in streams of ephemeral white data lines, cicrlcing and centered on the tablet in alternating planes, with some of the data passing through Sen like a hologram. The data spun faster and faster, fading from its white coloration to a purple hue much akin to the purple of the glowstones and crystal dais in the sanctum that showed him the way back to the voids embrace.
The purple data coalesced back into the tablet, flattening and shrinking until they were only a single glowing runic script across the tablet’s screen. Sen flinched, putting his gauntlet in front of his face as the tablet rocketed back toward him, and was surprised to realize he caught it between his fingertips. He looked at the brightly glowing screen as he held the tablet in his hand, and his eyes strained to translate the single runic insignia that was emblazoned on it.
Consume.
Sen stared at it for a moment, not focusing on the rune, but letting his eyes lose focus as he contemplated what he wanted, compared to that of which the void wanted from him.
“But there’s no difference.” Sen said silently. “It’s just Want. That’s what you are. I... don't...” Sen mumbled and halted himself from speaking further. He wasn't sure what he wanted, but he certaintly wanted more than nothing.
He absorbed the tablet back into his voidspace, placing the tablet back into his only quick-use slot.
- Interface system reestablished.
- Connection to the Void has been established.
- Several functions have been added.
“We have given, and we shall take. Sing the loom’s melody. Unfurl the folds.”
Several other dialogue boxes were opened but minimized, showing up as faint arrows in the corner of his vision.
Sen felt a sinister disgust in his gut as he gave the Void what it wanted, annoyed and frustrated that he was just a pawn in a much larger cosmic game. Although new to him, he always thought there were greater powers active within the cosmoverse, and he always expected them to be working behind the scenes. He even expected them to be affecting his life up until he was transported to another world, as trivial as that life had been. The Void had gifted him with many powers, but Sen knew it could take them back if it wanted; it could take anything. He unnervingly gave into its will, but couldn’t help but feel more powerful and more dominant in doing so. He was conflicted, to say the least.
Sen heaved up another glob of blood from his lungs and spat it onto the floor, next to the Essence. He stared at the Essence before looking at the Lich.
- Uladin (Adjutant with no King) – (Iron)
- Chaotic Adjutant
- Awaiting soul release through primordial violence
“Uladin.” Sen wheezed through damaged lungs.
The lich stared at Sen with the pinpoint lights held within the eye sockets of his skull, unable to hear Sen through the void. He pointed a single finger at the Essence in front of Sen.
Sen looked down at the Essence. The lich was giving him more power for some reason. Uladin’s previous statements in the sanctum were cryptic, but it seemed like he was waiting for Sen, perhaps for a long time. Not only that, but the cult that built the sanctum must have had some motive related to Sen’s appearance. The cult, and this lich, certainly couldn’t have been considered his enemies, but could they be considered friends?
Then he remembered. He had fought with the Void when he was first placed in it. He was alone in the dark and silent depths for months, maybe years. He had nothing but himself and the void around him. He was tortured by the cold scraping against his body and by falling in nothingness for hours on end, until the momentous occasion of his last memory. He remembered he was drowning, and he gave in. He gave himself to the void, embracing it as it embraced him. He remembered the candleflame embodying his life flickering and dying. He felt no desire or hatred, no love or suffering, only the lack thereof. That was the Void. It was want, and it was satisfied. It was chaos, but not the immature, destructive kind. It was pure chaos, where everything was simply happening all at once, like the pinpoint millisecond a universe is created, when it is barely the size of an atom, but holds infinite potential. Sen is the same as the void. He is want. And he is satisfied. At least, that’s what he knew the void taught him to be. Becoming it and maintaining that state of being was a different alignment entirely.
Sen picked up the Essence with his armored right hand. He mentally swiped away the dialogue box that appeared when touching it. He didn’t need it, he was satisfied.
When he looked into the translucent cube, he could see himself, a tiny figure in a massive space. He stared at his other self, the tiny figure that it was, as cracks formed on the side of the cube, his grip tightening on the Essence. The cracks made the sound of shattering glass, much louder than something its size should have, until the cracks on its surface wrapped around the cube and touched each other, shattering the Essence in his grip.
Sen became the tiny figure in the massive space. He had a legitimate out-of-body experience as the power of the Essence was absorbed into his body. He could see himself, and the lich, as if he was hovering in a helicopter several hundred feet above. Watching himself kneeling in the void, his perception came back to his body when he forgot he wasn’t breathing.
Though there was no air to breathe, the void allowed his mortal body to feel the air rushing back into his damaged lungs. He coughed again, spitting out more blood.
- Vast Essence absorbed:
- Vast essence has linked to your [Recovery] attribute.
- 3 of 4 essences absorbed
- Progress to Iron rank: 75%
- Vast Essence ability manifested:
- Lone Existence [Special Ability – Vast]
Effect (Iron): The lower number of allies you have with you, the higher the efficacy of your single-target abilities.
Sen fell back from his knees onto the invisible floor. From the pain in his chest to the pain in his head, combined with the disorientation of consuming his third Essence, he was ready to pass out. His vision shallowed and blurred, and he had to lift his head from the floor to see Uladin in order to see anything, and the lich was still immobile like a statue.
Bright grayish-blue light began to glow from Sen’s chest, through his armor and tunic, illuminating the darkness moreso than what the void already allowed.
***
In the Void Sanctum, Zulli was silent, staring at the archway Sen had disappeared into.
“I’m not getting very far with this.” Arty reported. He had a crystal floating around the crystal dais, while he held a tool in his hand that resembled a measuring compass. He placed the point of the compass on different parts of the large purple crystal as he rotated it, measuring different points, and gauging the magic that was held within.
August was also silent as he let the two iron rankers do what work they could. He still couldn’t interfere. He had to let Sen do what he came to do, and gave in to letting Zulli and Arty do their work as well. The whole situation had come together with too much acquiescence to be chaotic coincidence. He had considered holding Arty from fidgeting with the crystal, but Zulli convinced him otherwise. Arty was here for a reason just as she was.
“It’s why you’re here.” Zulli stated plainly, though just a guess on her part. “You need to figure out how to open the Rift. We have to get him back.”
“If you’ve got any ideas, I’m all ears.” Arty retorted, still focusing on the crystal.
A beam of bright starlight impacted the crystal. Arty recoiled from the sudden blast. He was silent and dumbfounded as he peered over at Zulli with a hysteric look. She pulled her wand away as she halted her attack. Arty looked back at the crystal, which held a faint purple glow that quickly dissipated.
“Reckless.” He stated, quickly putting the points of the compass back on the crystal. “But it did something, that’s for sure.”
August let out a soft grunt as he folded his arms.
***
Three translucent cubes manifested over Sen’s supine body, one holding a purple glow, another bright silver, with the third almost invisible holding a faint dot in its center. They spun in a circular fashion over him, and he raised a hand to touch them as they rotated, but they phased through his hand as if they weren’t there. Their gyration slowed, with one falling slowly behind the top of his head, the others at his shoulders. The three cubes then drifted beneath the floor he laid upon, rippling the surface as if they were dropped in a calm pool of water. Once underneath him, they swiftly joined together directly underneath his back and rocketed through his chest, with another singular cube forming on the other side. Sen shuddered when he felt the magic flow through him. He looked at the cube that manifested as his confluence. It was completely black, except for the intensely bright white corona it released at its edges.
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Sen unhurriedly reached his hand upward to touch the Essence. His gaze was fixed on it, beholden to its pure beauty. For some reason, Sen felt an eerie connection to it, as if he was looking into his own soul. When he touched it with his unarmored left hand, it didn’t budge. He folded his fingers around it, and it was so stable he used it to help lift himself onto his butt as he peered at it.
- Confluence Essence Manifested: Gravastar
- Your Essences have converged, combining their magic with the (anti)magic of the Void, creating your bespoke confluence Essence.
- This Essence may only be absorbed by: Senadin
- This Essence may become corrupted if it is not absorbed by: Senadin
Sen was exhausted. He wasn’t sure if his body could take absorbing another Essence, but he knew it was just his weak mind wanting him to quit, to just relax and take a nap. He didn’t want the Essence to become corrupted, whatever that meant, so he gripped it tighter, attempting to crush it like he had all his other Essences.
It didn’t crack. He squeezed tighter, his face creasing as he put in as much effort as he could muster. Getting back on his knees, Sen hunched over the Essence as he used both hands to squeeze as hard as he could. It didn’t budge.
Sen relented, his physical or magical force not enough to break the Essence open.
Staring at the Essence, he nodded. It was all a lesson, everything he did here. The impossibly vast knowledge and wisdom of the void would make diamond rankers, maybe even transcendent beings, blanch from its magnitude. He had forced the magic in his body before, perhaps a subconscious act to prove his control over it. This time, he had to give in to it.
Sen rested on his knees, his butt falling onto his heels as he placed his hands flat on his thighs. His head lowered, his eyes closed, and his breath released. He surrendered. He couldn’t see it, but the Essence floated into his chest, melding into his being.
His eyes shot open. Power coursed through him, the immensity of the void was felt inside him, while its uncanny impregnability could be felt outside. He felt like his whole body was constantly exploding, while also being pushed back into him, a peculiar juxtaposition of being torn apart while being remade, as well as an unwavering constancy all at the same time. It felt like he shouldn’t be able to understand what was happening to him, that his mind couldn’t comprehend the dimensions at which everything was happening, but it was still happening to him anyway.
- Confluence Essence of the Gravastar absorbed.
“Your wrath will be witnessed, and your serenity realized.”
Sen fell onto his hands, holding himself up on all fours. He felt even more power rushing through his body as he glowed with a grayish-blue eminence.
- Essence of the Gravastar has linked to your [Speed] attribute.
- 4 of 4 Essences absorbed: Progress to Iron Rank: 100%
- Iron Rank Reached
- Progress to Bronze Rank: 0.2%
“This is iron rank!?” Sen exclaimed. His voice resounded through the Void like a wave. He felt like he could climb a mountain just to warm up.
- Gravastar Essence ability manifested:
- Unreal Grasp [Special Attack – Force - Control]:
Effect (Iron): Creates an instantaneous positive or negative force using the power of the void.
Cost: Moderate Mana
Cooldown: 20 Seconds
Sen shot to his feet. His pain was gone, his body healed. His need for violence was refueled. He swiftly picked up his sword again, his eyes locking onto the lich, who had been waiting patiently.
Sen decided to respect and repay his patience with a warning. “Prepare yourself, Uladin.” Sen declared, his righteous fury booming out of his new iron rank aura.
He could feel his new abilities and already had the vision of their potential. He activated the weightlessness of his armor once more. Forcing his armored hand toward Uladin, who still stood like an unmoving monument, Sen pulled his hand toward himself and used his Unreal Grasp to create an invisible force that launched himself forward. He pointed his sword at the lich, but a realization of horror crossed his face. Mid flight, his grip softened on the hilt of his blade; all his newfound power seemed to slip away. With his forward momentum already in place, he slammed into Uladin like a bird on a window.
Uladin caught him with one arm before Sen’s motionless body fell onto the floor. Sen’s face was already bruised from the impact, and his sword fell from his grip. He peered at Uladin through shallow eyes.
“What did you-” Sen tried to ask the question before he was halted by retching out black ichor, the sticky substance dripping out from his lips, the slime covering the side of his cheek. The same black ichor was expelled from his skin, peeling out through the black oily latex of his armor and dropping onto the floor of the void, disappearing into its depths.
Uladin lightly tossed him onto the floor once more as Sen continued his retching. He held the hand out from his skeletal frame as the ichor coming through Sen’s vestments dripped from his fingertips into the Void.
“Rest. We have time.”
***
“He just said that he would be back. He didn’t know when.” Zulli told August.
“Do you not believe him?” August asked her.
“I want to.” Zulli conceded. She looked away from him and back toward the archway in the sanctum. “That place was… I don’t know. It didn’t want me there.”
“But it wanted him there.”
Zulli didn’t respond.
Arty stood with his arms crossed, peering at the crystal like a puzzle unable to be solved. He had laid out a bolt of cloth with many different tools next to and now attached to the crystal. “So, what if we can’t-”
“It hasn’t even been an hour!” Zulli exclaimed. Her hands wrapped into balls at her hips.
“What is it between you two?” Arty asked unabashedly. “You seem like you’re into each other, but what, you're just friends? You can't figure out what you want?”
Zulli felt anxiety rushing up her spine. She didn’t answer.
Arty looked from Zulli to August for answers.
August leered at Arty and shook his head. “How long do you want to wait, Zulli?” August asked her, trying to find a solid resolution to their situation.
“Until he gets back, or until we find a way to open the Rift again.”
“How about a couple days? We can set up camp here.”
Zulli looked at August with a disgusted look, but August couldn’t see it on her empty face.
“The Adventure Society can help. They will help, once I make my report.” August told her.
Zulli felt a wisp of hope cross her mind, which was quickly abated. “And then they’ll take him.” She replied.
“Maybe. But they’ll let you stay with him.”
Zulli shook her head.
“August, can you try that acid again?” Arty asked, pulling his tools away from the crystal.
August had his eyes set on Zulli, but complied and walked back toward the crystal. He held his hand above it and an emission of vile yellow liquid spewed from his hand onto the crystal. Instead of dripping onto the floor, the crystal absorbed the acid, giving it a bright purple glow as it absorbed its power. It glowed brighter than when Zulli would attack it with her Quasi-Stellar Beam. Arty assumed it absorbed many types of magic and used it to fuel its own purposes. He attempted to study how it did so and tried to figure out what the energy was transmuted into, but his instruments were unable to read it, crude as they were.
A black bird, neither a crow nor a raven, circled over a hole created in packed snow. Once it felt the time was right, it flapped its wings hard, stopping its momentum, and dove straight toward the ground, into the hole. It swooped into the first room, directly into an archway past a set of double doors, then down another staircase into a darker room below. The bird landed just beyond the entrance, hopping a couple times and lifting its head to the side to take note of the occupants.
August, sensing the birds approach, conjured a short sword, as well as a wide, but compact steel shield. “Arturo.” He said.
Arty, noticing the odd black bird as well, took the cue and hurried behind the large stone chair to pair up with Zulli, and they both watched the bird with August.
The bird melted into its own shadow, and the shadow grew larger, and from it sprouted the visage of a woman’s silhouette, taking form from the floor upward. She was fully realized wearing a long silky black dress, split at the hip down to her ankles. Her skin was very pale, a creamy white, and her face was hidden behind a lacy veil attached to a black circlet wrapped into her hair. Like her circlet, black, straight hair fell from her head toward the ground as if it was commanded to do so and obliged accordingly, ending just beyond her shoulders.
“There is no need for violence, Khepri.” Her voice warned him. She was short, not even the height of August’s shoulders, even shorter than Zulli, but her voice was sultry and motherly.
“Prove it.” August replied.
The woman took a step forward, and she disappeared into shadow, reappearing behind him and next to Zulli, who recoiled from fright but didn’t run away from the woman. Arty did, in fact, run away, back to his original position next to August, by the crystal dais.
Zulli’s hand instinctively reached for the wand at her belt, and she saw the shadow of the woman’s smirk behind her veil.
“That was mine you know.” The woman teased.
Zulli looked down at the wand, not taking it from her belt, and looked back at the strange woman.
“Yes.” She said. “I captured it, believe it or not. Some people go their whole lives without witnessing something so rare; a celestial body captured and put into its own catalyst. And now it’s yours.”
“You can help Sen, can’t you?” Zulli asked her.
“I already have.”
“You got him out of there?”
“No. I helped him to find it. Garrus Carbon and I, and you, and August, and this young man.” She said, motioning her faintly visible eyes at both August and Arty.
August took a step forward.
“Do not let your deeds thus far give you false hope, Khepri.” The woman softly said as her face pointed directly at August. “As I said, there is no need for violence.”
August was distraught. He wasn’t expecting a visitor, and Garrus had not told him of anyone else who knew of their quest. He hadn’t sensed any auras following them since the portal to Silverwind. Now that he felt this woman's aura, he understood why; she was silver rank, and at a very high level of silver at that, far past what most adventurers considered the wall. August was special in that his powerset was versatile and strong enough to adventure alone, and had gained notoriety for being nearly unbeatable in a duel, at least against fighters of his own rank. This was not to mention the Adventure Society using August's skillset to to raid several bandit encampments on his own in the past, but not everyone was privy to that information specifically. This woman had obviously done her homework.
“Why should we trust you? Garrus made no mention of you before.” August retorted.
“If I wanted to stop what was happening, I would have done it before the boy entered the Rift. I followed you as a redundant precaution. You watched out for the obvious threats; I watched for the ones that hid in the shadows.”
“And why make yourself seen now?”
“The girl.” The woman said with another haughty smirk, looking back at Zulli. “You are the true enigma. I needed to see if you went with him, and if not, what happened to you.”
“I… tried.” Zulli said, her head lowering. “I went through partway. It was too hard to get through, whatever barrier was around the Rift.”
“But you did get to see inside?” The woman questioned, an inflection of genuine curiosity alighting her sultry tone.
“There was nothing to see.” Zulli said. “Just Sen and that lich. And now it’s just them, and who knows what the lich has done to him.”
***
Sen rolled over onto his elbows and knees, spitting out whatever black ichor he could. Its taste made him heave and gag. He couldn’t see if any of the substance was left on his armor, but the black chrome plates were clean. Whatever might have been on the oily inner lining slipped off it as mostly everything does. He wiped his unarmored hand across his face and through the stubble of his hair, attempting to remove the rest of the black substance.
He stood up, feeling exhausted, but his iron rank recovery was working at a somewhat noticeable pace. He could feel his newfound power, just not as magnified as when he first absorbed his confluence essence.
“Okay, so you obviously don’t want to kill me.” Sen stated, turning to face Uladin. His voice was now clear in the bleakness of the Void, and his Voidtouched aura emanated around him. He still breathed heavily in an attempt to catch his breath.
“No.” Uladin replied, his skeletal jaw did not move, instead, his voice rang out from his own aura. “I do not want to.” And with that, Uladin summoned an axe in his hand. Its blade was jet black and reached from the top of the short-hafted handle coming to a tip at the bottom.