Void System: Every Heroine Makes Me Stronger

Severin stepped through the gate before another light could die.

His right boot met a clear plate over open darkness. He stopped with most of his weight still on the back leg, sword low beside his thigh. The glass held.

Behind him, the gate narrowed to a black seam and vanished.

A ribbon of road led from the entry plate to an uneven hub. Beyond it, glass crossed at several heights beneath a thinning line of pale lights. Some roads curved toward a central dais. Others ended in dark frames suspended over nothing.

The crowned serpent moved along the broadest road.

Translucent plates rose from its skull. It lowered them against a clear stud at the road’s edge.

Glass dimmed behind its tail. Darkness ate inward from both sides until the last strip disappeared.

Severin fixed the stud’s position before he crossed the ribbon. His first stride overshot. His left foot struck near the edge, and the old ache under his right ribs tightened when he arrested the rest of his body. He shortened the next step. The sword stayed close. The loose bandage around his calf brushed wet cloth with every stride.

By the time he reached the hub, the serpent had stopped on the far side. Its head faced him. A crown plate hovered near another raised stud.

A short spur opened to Severin’s left.

Amber glass enclosed a steel sword laid across a narrow stand. The blade was dark and straight. Its edge looked clean, and tight black wrapping still covered the grip.

Dried blood and a shallow nick marked Severin’s blade. It looked poor beside the sword in amber glass.

He turned enough to judge the spur. The central dais seemed to shift farther away as the angle changed. The amber branch sloped away from every road that still led forward.

His gaze stayed on the dark blade a beat too long.

He activated Appetite Bridle.

The desire remained. His left foot stopped turning toward the spur.

Shame.

Severin faced the roads again.

Amber light folded across the alcove. The spur withdrew into darkness with the sword still inside.

Only the upper causeway and the rotating plates beneath it still led toward the dais.

The upper causeway was broad, bright, and almost straight. Pale light ran beneath its surface toward the dais. Below its left edge, separate plates rotated around empty centers. Their rims approached, separated, then approached again at different angles.

The serpent’s crown settled lower.

Severin chose the upper road.

He stepped onto it, looked past the far frame toward the dais, and accelerated. He fed Gust Vector into the run. His boots hammered a clean line down the center.

The serpent moved before he reached the midpoint.

Its body slid toward the node beside the far end of the causeway. The crown dipped. A pale thread ran from the stud beneath it into the road under Severin’s boots.

The serpent went for the node instead of Severin.

He kept running.

The crown struck glass.

The far end of the causeway went dark. A black line spread toward him, swallowing the safe road in a steady rush.

He let the darkness close to within a stride.

Then he broke left.

His right heel skidded. He turned through it, planted the left foot near the causeway edge, and pushed down toward the rotating plates. The glass vanished where his next stride would have landed.

Severin dropped onto the nearest rotating plate.

It dipped under him and turned harder. His right knee bent deeper than intended. The sore shoulder pulled when he spread the sword away from his body for balance.

Above, the causeway disappeared behind him.

The serpent lifted its crown from the node and tracked him beneath the empty place where the broad road had been.

The next plate rotated in the opposite direction. Another passed below it, close enough to hide part of the gap whenever their rims overlapped. Severin watched the edges meet, separate, and miss the same place on the next pass.

Waiting would only give the Hall time to take the plate under him.

He chose the next crossing and activated Chance Stake.

The payment left a hollow pull under his sternum.

Severin bent his knees.

The landing plate turned farther than before.

He jumped.

His right boot found nothing.

He triggered Gust Vector too late. The burst shoved him across the gap instead of down onto the center. His left hand caught the glass rim. The edge opened his palm.

Pain snapped to his elbow.

The sword point rang against the plate below. His legs swung over darkness, boots scraping for purchase that wasn’t there.

Severin hooked his left forearm over the rim. His right boot found the underside. The plate kept turning while he pulled himself up, wet cloth dragging across glass.

He rolled onto the surface and closed the cut hand once.

The fingers obeyed. Blood crossed his palm in a thin red line.

The plate carried him toward the next rim. Severin rose before they aligned, crossed without another stake, and caught a skid by laying the flat of his sword against the glass.

Behind him, the nearest lower plate lost its light. The plate beyond it dimmed next, and the road vanished in pieces after him.

Ahead, the remaining plates narrowed into a glass neck leading to a vertical frame beside the dais. Only the light above the platform still burned. The serpent reached the far side first.

Its crown struck the node behind the frame.

Glass climbed through the opening in clear layers.

The passage narrowed to a seam.

Beyond it, the serpent coiled across the space where Severin would emerge. Its head stayed low. Crown plates covered the upper skull. The tail waited beyond the curve of its body.

The plate under Severin dimmed.

He stepped onto the final neck. Darkness followed his rear boot.

The barrier sealed, and the serpent tightened its coil.

Now.

He opened Void Devour against the sealed frame.

Black mist surged from him and spread over the glass. Pale light bent into the darkness and vanished. The serpent began to loosen, but its body had nowhere to unwind before the barrier blackened from the center outward.

The glass disappeared without a crack or falling shard.

[Void Devour successful.]

[Absorbed: Glass barrier]

Severin crossed the empty frame.

The serpent lunged crown-first.

Threat Vector cut a route through the charge.

Left. In.

He stepped left and drove forward. A crown plate scraped across his right shoulder. Cloth tore. Heat opened along the skin beneath it.

The serpent’s head passed. Its body bent around the frame, and the nearest coil swept across the road ahead.

Severin stopped short of it.

He was inside the turn, beside the crown base.

The serpent tried to drag its head back around. Severin drove his left forearm against the inner plates, keeping the cut palm turned away from the edge, and wedged his left knee against the jaw hinge.

Scales ground over glass.

The crown shoved him backward. His right boot slid. The dais waited behind his heel while the last light weakened overhead.

Severin let the serpent push.

His right boot struck the dais.

The serpent opened its jaw against his knee and tried to wrench its head free.

Severin turned the sword point under the inner crown edge and drove it through the exposed eye.

The blade entered deep. The tail swept behind his calves and knocked his left heel aside, but his right foot stayed planted on the dais. His left forearm held the crown away from his chest. His sword hand kept the point buried.

The serpent’s body struck the glass neck.

Its coils tightened around empty air.

Severin held until the pressure against his arm weakened and the jaw sagged away from his knee.

The last light died.

Darkness covered the Hall.

The dais remained under his boot.

He drew the sword free and stepped clear before the body settled. The blade came out wet. He waited through the final scrape of scales against glass.

Nothing moved.

He called Void Devour again. Black mist spilled over the corpse and raced along its coils. Crown, body, and the soul clinging to it vanished together as the darkness drew back into the Void.

[Void Devour successful.]

[Target: Glasscrown Serpent]

Digest.

[Digestion Target: Glasscrown Serpent]

[Digestion initiated.]

The Hall didn’t release him.

Severin lowered onto his right knee, kept the sword in his right hand, and held the bloodied point off the glass.

He counted each second under his breath.

The cut in his left palm pulled when he flexed the fingers. Fresh blood welled, slowed, then stopped before reaching his wrist. His shoulder scrape burned when he rolled the joint. The torn cloth no longer grew wetter.

The rib ache had faded to pressure. His tongue still felt scraped dry. Fatigue remained in both legs, heavier now that nothing was trying to kill him.

The pressure inside the Void changed.

[Digestion Target: Glasscrown Serpent]

[Digestion Progress: 100%]

[Digestion complete.]

[New Skill Acquired.]

[Acquisition Source: Void Devour]

[Skill Grade: A — Apex Skill]

[Skill Name: Decision Lattice]

Decision Lattice settled into his understanding without bringing practice with it.

Known facts split into branches. New evidence tipped some nearer and buried others. Blank spaces stayed blank.

Severin knew how to call the skill. He left it dormant.

His balance settled more cleanly when he rose. The cut no longer gaped when he flexed his hand, but the grip still hurt. Torn cloth dragged across the tender scrape on his shoulder.

[Divine Trial 5 of 5 completed.]

[All Divine Trials completed.]

[Transfer initiated.]

The dais vanished beneath his feet.

Warm air touched his face. Pale stone replaced glass. His left boot slid forward before he stopped.

The sword was still in his right hand. Fresh blood darkened the blade around the old nick. He lowered the point.

A woman stood several steps beyond it.

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