The Forbidden Void: Rise of the Untouchable Son-in-Law

Chapter 1

The rain in the Rust-Sinks was a cocktail of industrial grease and acidic mana-runoff. It fell in heavy, gray sheets, sizzling against the rusted corrugated metal of the slums. For the residents of the "Lower Tiers," this was life: breathing the dregs of the wealthy who lived in the Aurelian Spires above.

Jaxen stood in a dead-end alley, his boots submerged in a puddle of iridescent sludge. He wasn’t looking at the grime. He was looking at the six men blocking his exit.

They were "Silver-Grade" Enforcers, dressed in high-end mana-weave tactical suits that shimmered with a protective blue hue. In their hands, they held Phase-Blades—crystalline swords that drew power directly from the city’s grid. To a normal person, a single one of these men was a walking natural disaster. To Jaxen, they were just a noisy distraction.

“The Lady Seraphina is a very patient woman, Jaxen,” the leader of the group said. His name was Thorne, a man whose face was scarred by over-channeling fire magic. “But even her patience has limits. You humiliated her at the Academy graduation. You rejected a seat at the most powerful table in Xylos. Now, she wants to know if you’ve reconsidered.”

Jaxen adjusted the strap of his bag. His expression was as cold as the rain. “I told her four years ago on campus. I told her yesterday at the gates. My answer doesn't change because you brought toys into a back alley.”

Thorne laughed, a harsh, metallic sound. “Toys? This blade is powered by a Grade-4 Mana Crystal. You don’t even have a spark of mana in your blood. You’re a ‘Null,’ Jaxen. A biological mistake. We aren't here to ask anymore. We’re here to break your legs and drag you to the Spire.”

[System Notification: Hostility Detected.] [Scanning Opponents... Six Level 15 Mana-Users.] [Current Void Capacity: 0.01%. Recommendation: Siphon.]

Jaxen ignored the translucent floating text that only he could see. The "Primordial Void System" had awakened the moment he was expelled from the Academy for having "Zero Potential." The world saw an empty vessel; Jaxen knew he was a black hole.

“Kneel,” Thorne commanded, raising his Phase-Blade. The air around the sword began to vibrate, the heat turning the falling rain into steam. “Maybe if you crawl, I’ll leave you one good arm.”

Thorne lunged. He moved with the magically enhanced speed of a predator. To a regular human, he would have been a blur. To Jaxen’s Void-attuned senses, the man was moving through molasses.

Jaxen didn't draw a weapon. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets. He simply stepped three inches to the left.

The Phase-Blade whistled past his ear, the heat singing a few strands of his black hair. Before Thorne could recover, Jaxen’s hand shot out like a viper, gripping Thorne’s armored forearm.

“What the—” Thorne started, but the words died in his throat.

[Void Heart: Siphon Initialized.]

A terrifying coldness radiated from Jaxen’s palm. In an instant, the brilliant blue glow of Thorne’s armor flickered and died. The Phase-Blade, which should have been able to cut through a tank, turned into a dull, grey stick of glass. Thorne let out a strangled scream as he felt the mana being ripped out of his very cells. It wasn't just his magic—it was his stamina, his strength, his very life-force.

In two seconds, Thorne went from a peak-level warrior to a withered husk. Jaxen tossed him aside. The leader hit the wet pavement with a wet thud, unconscious before he even landed.

The other five enforcers froze. Their scouters—monocles designed to read mana levels—were screaming.

“His level... it’s jumping!” one shouted, his voice cracking with terror. “It was 0! Now it’s 50... 100... it’s off the charts! It’s—!”

The scouter exploded, sending shards of glass into the man’s eye.

“Kill him!” another yelled, losing his nerve. He leveled a mana-cannon at Jaxen’s chest. “Fire!”

A bolt of pure white energy, hot enough to melt stone, roared toward Jaxen.

Jaxen simply raised a hand. He didn't use a shield. He didn't dodge. When the bolt hit his palm, it didn't explode. It vanished. It looked as if the light was being swallowed by a hungry shadow.

“Is that all?” Jaxen asked quietly.

He moved then—a streak of dark motion. Within thirty seconds, the alley was a graveyard of broken armor and drained men. Jaxen stood in the center of the carnage, his chest rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm.

[Siphon Complete. Void Storage: 5%. Level Up: Level 22.] [New Passive Unlocked: Magic Resistance (Rank C).]

Jaxen wiped a smudge of soot from his cheek. He didn't feel pride. He felt a deep, simmering anger. These men were just the hounds; he knew who held the leash. Seraphina Valerius. The woman who had been obsessed with him since their first year at the Aether Academy. She couldn't stand that a "low-born Null" was the only student who could solve runic equations faster than her. She couldn't stand that he didn't bow.

He turned at the sound of splashing footsteps. It wasn't an assassin.

“Jaxen? Jaxen, are you there?”

It was his father, Silas. The man looked older than his fifty years, his back bowed by decades of labor in the mana-refineries. He was clutching a tattered envelope and gasping for breath. When he saw the unconscious bodies in the alley, his eyes went wide.

“Jaxen! What happened? Did you do this?”

“They tripped,” Jaxen said flatly, his voice softening only slightly. “What are you doing here, Dad? The Sinks aren't safe tonight.”

“The Valerius family...” Silas wheezed, holding out the envelope. “They sent a formal summons. They’ve cut off our sector’s light and water, Jaxen. The neighbors... they’re freezing. The hospital is running on back-up batteries. They said if we don't come to the Spire tonight to 'discuss' your future, they’ll turn off the air filtration units next.”

Jaxen’s jaw tightened. This was the Valerius way. If they couldn't buy you, they’d starve you. If they couldn't starve you, they’d suffocate you.

“They’re using the whole sector as leverage,” Jaxen muttered.

“Please, son,” Silas pleaded, his eyes brimming with tears. “I know you hate them. I know you want to be independent. But Lord Valerius is the Chancellor. He controls the Core. We are nothing to them. Just go there. Beg for a job. Clean the floors, scrub the conduits—anything to make them turn the power back on.”

Jaxen looked at his father’s trembling hands. He felt the 5% Void Energy humming in his veins. He could probably kill Lord Valerius tonight if he caught him off guard, but the city’s defense system would vaporize the Rust-Sinks in retaliation. He needed more. He needed to be inside the Spire. He needed access to the Core itself.

“Fine,” Jaxen said, taking the envelope. “We’ll go.”

---

Two hours later, Jaxen and his father stood before the Obsidian Gates of the Valerius Estate. The Spire loomed above them like a jagged tooth, lit by millions of credits' worth of decorative mana-lights.

The guards at the gate looked at Jaxen’s worn clothes and his father’s soot-stained face with visible disgust.

“The beggars have arrived,” one guard sneered, leaning on a spear that pulsed with golden energy. “The Chancellor is in the solarium. Leave your pride at the gate, Null. You won’t be needing it where you’re going.”

They were led through halls of white marble and gold leaf. Everywhere Jaxen looked, he saw "Wealth"—which was just another word for "Stored Mana." The very walls were impregnated with energy that could have powered a thousand homes in the Sinks for a year.

[System Warning: High-Density Mana Environment detected. Siphon potential: Massive.]

Not yet, Jaxen thought. Stay calm.

They reached the solarium. Lord Valerius sat in a throne-like chair, sipping a glass of glowing blue nectar. Beside him stood Seraphina. She was breathtakingly beautiful in a cold, crystalline way, her silver hair cascading down a dress made of literal starlight.

She looked at Jaxen, her "Golden Eye"—a hereditary magical trait—scanning him. She frowned when she saw the same "0.0%" reading she had seen for years.

“You’ve caused a lot of trouble, Jaxen,” Seraphina said, her voice like silk over glass. “My enforcers are in the infirmary. I assume you used some illegal Null-tech to ambush them?”

Jaxen didn't answer. He watched his father drop to his knees.

“Lord Valerius! My Lady!” Silas cried, his forehead touching the cold marble. “Please. My son is headstrong, but he is a good worker. He was the top of his class in theory! Give him a job. We will do anything. Just turn the power back on for our people.”

Lord Valerius didn't even look at Silas. He kept his eyes on Jaxen. “Your father has more sense than you, boy. He knows his place.”

“He knows his heart,” Jaxen corrected, his voice echoing in the large room. “Something you wouldn't understand.”

Seraphina stepped forward, her eyes flashing. “Still so arrogant. Even when your family is one switch-flip away from death. But you’re right about one thing—you are a waste of talent. So, I have decided to give you a job.”

She pulled a document from the table. It wasn't a job contract. It was a marriage certificate.

“You will marry me,” she said, a cruel smile touching her lips. “Not as a husband. As a Consort-Slave. You will be my ‘Battery.’ Your Null-body is a perfect vacuum. You will sit in my ritual chamber and absorb the excess heat and waste-mana from my cultivation so I don't have to deal with the side effects. You will be the trash can for my soul.”

Silas gasped. This wasn't a job; it was a death sentence. Absorbing waste-mana without a core would eventually melt a man’s organs.

“And if I refuse?” Jaxen asked.

Lord Valerius stood up, his aura exploding outward. The pressure was immense, enough to make the marble floors crack. Silas collapsed under the weight of it, gasping for air.

“If you refuse,” the Lord growled, “your father dies tonight. And your sector will be erased from the maps by morning.”

Jaxen looked at the contract. He looked at Seraphina’s triumphant face. She thought she had finally trapped him. She thought she was giving him a burden that would kill him.

She didn't know that "waste-mana" was exactly what the Void Heart craved. She was offering to pump him full of the very fuel he needed to destroy her.

Jaxen picked up the pen.

“I’ll sign,” Jaxen said, his voice eerily calm. “But on one condition.”

Seraphina arched an eyebrow. “A beggar making conditions?”

“The marriage is for 100 days,” Jaxen said, his eyes meeting hers. “During those 100 days, you give me full access to the family library and the sub-basement levels. If I’m still alive on the 101st day... you set my family free.”

Lord Valerius laughed. “He thinks he’ll last 100 days! Most Nulls pop like grapes after a week of absorbing Seraphina’s waste-mana. Deal. Sign it.”

Jaxen scribbled his name.

As the ink dried, a massive surge of golden light erupted from the contract, binding their souls. Seraphina smirked, feeling the connection. She expected to feel his fear.

Instead, she felt nothing. A total, terrifying silence.

Jaxen leaned in, whispering so only she could hear. “You shouldn't have invited me in, Seraphina. You’ve spent four years trying to find out what’s inside me.”

He leaned closer, a predatory glint in his eyes.

“By the time you find out, there won’t be anything left of your empire to save.”

[System Notification: Contract Bound.] [Primary Mission Initiated: Devour the Valerius Bloodline.] [Time Remaining: 99 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes.]