Void Devouring System

Chapter 3

Kael trembled in his thin shirt, clutching a single duffel bag containing all of his worldly things, at 2 a.m. He was meant to leave at daybreak, but security had woken him up early.

"Special instructions from Mr. Darius," the guard remarked, pushing him toward the roof access. "He wants to say goodbye personally."

Kael stood on the edge, looking down at the city lights far below, which merged into neon streaks.

"Isn't this a beautiful view?"

Darius emerged from the shadows with a glass of amber drink in his hand; he was not wearing a coat, and the cold didn't bother S-rank awakeners.

"What do you want, Darius?""Kael gripped the bag tighter. "I'm leaving. Isn't this enough?"

"Leaving?"Darius chuckled, swirling his drink." Oh, Kael. You are very naive. Leaving suggests that you have somewhere to go. "Leaving implies a future."

He took a cautious sip.

"The father's disownment documents are detailed. No money. No connections. No name. You'll die on the streets in a week. Most likely, starvation will occur. Perhaps a low-level thug chooses to beat the former Ashworth heir to death for fun."

"I'll survive," Kael replied, his voice wavering, "and I'll find a way to help Luna."

Darius groaned and placed his drink on the railing. "That is exactly the problem. You know, 'The Tragic Death of Luna Ashworth' is a very delicate story I'm creating. It should be clean. Poetic."

He moved closer, and Kael backed up until his heels met the low safety wall.

"Having an angry, discredited brother rushing around trying to'save' her. Creating scandals? Begging for money? This undermines the aesthetic. "It complicates the story."

"You're sick," Kael said.

"I'm efficient," Darius corrected, checking his watch at 2:15 a.m. The ideal time for a heartbroken young man, crushed by public humiliation and familial rejection, to make a fatal decision."

Kael's blood turned cold. "Darius, don't—"

"You heard, Father. "You're not family anymore." Darius's smirk faded, and his usually sarcastic eyes went dark. "It's time to make it official."

His hand moved, but this time it was a shove rather than a punch.

Kael's chest was hit with increased strength like a battering ram.

The feet left the ground, and gravity vanished.

Kael flailed, gripping Darius' jacket, but his fingers slid on the silk, and he tipped backward over the balcony.

The wind blasted in his ears.

As he descended past the forty-ninth story, time seemed to pause, and he noticed a glimpse of movement through the reinforced glass of a bedroom window.

Luna.

She was awake and looking right at him.

Her eyes widened in horror, and she screamed—a soundless, fearful shape in her mouth—as she reached for the glass, her thin fingers pressing against the barrier separating her from his death.

I failed her, Kael reflected, and the revelation hurt more than the impending hit. I pledged to save her, but I failed.

He closed his eyes and waited for the end.

It didn't arrive.

The rushing wind ceased, the city noise receded, and the sensation of falling froze.

Kael opened his eyes.

He was hung in mid-air, fifty stories aloft, with traffic below him frozen in streaks of light, and Darius leaning over the railing, his face frozen in a mask of cruel joy.

The world had become gray. It was silent and still.

Then the skies ripped open.

A jagged, vertical crack erupted in the air directly next to him, showing not stars, but a whirling, utter darkness that felt heavier than the world below.

"Child of rage..."

The voice did not originate from his ears; it vibrated in his bones and tasted of iron and old blood.

"Disregarded by those who should be protecting you. "Betrayed by your own blood."

Kael attempted to speak, but his voice had vanished; he drifted in the gray quiet, peering into the abyss.

Seven crimson eyes appeared in the darkness, massive, ancient, and filled with a hunger that made Kael's soul quiver.

"Your world's authority rejected you because you were destined for something bigger. Something... hungrier."

The thing transformed, a mass of shadows merging into a vaguely humanoid shape that dwarfed the tower next to them.

"I'm the Nexus. The space in between realities. "The hunger in the void."

The crimson eyes concentrated on Kael.

"I'm offering you a contract, tiny broken thing. I provide you the ability to consume all who have harmed you. "To absorb their strength and make it your own."

Kael recovered his voice, which sounded tinny in the silence. "What is... What's the price?"

"Price? Ah. Nothing is free. You will be my anchor, my link to reality. I want to... "Taste this planet.

Kael stared up at Darius' frozen face, his smug conviction that he had won, and then down at Luna's window, her scared expression frozen in time.

Will I be strong enough?" Kael inquired, "Strong enough to save her?"

The Nexus appeared to laugh, emitting a sound similar to tectonic plates grinding together.

"Strong enough to make the gods kneel. Strong enough to devour the Sun. Do you accept?"

Kael didn't pause; the fear and despair were gone, leaving just the cold, biting wrath.

"Yes," he muttered, "make them all pay."

The seven eyes flashed.

"Done."

Kael screamed as his body was torn apart and patched back together, cell by cell, with void energy. Shadows erupted from the rift and slammed into his chest, giving him the sensation of being injected with both liquid nitrogen and molten lead at the same time.

The grey world shattered.

Time has restarted.

Kael hit the ground.

CRACK.

Pain erupted—then went instantly.

He lay on the concrete pavement of the private alley behind the tower, his legs fractured and his spine dust-covered.

Instead, black mist swirled around his limbs, bones snapped back into place with agonizing crunches, and torn flesh knitted together.

Kael gasped, breathing in air that tasted of ozone and city smog, and pushed himself upward.

He was alive.

More than living.

He gazed at his hands, and veins of dark purple energy pulsed beneath his skin before vanishing. When he clinched his fist, the air surrounding them warped and rippled like heat haze.

A blue holographic screen appeared before his eyes.

[NEXUS INTEGRATION IS COMPLETE].

Host: Kael Ashworth

Status: Void Contractor (Hidden).

Core Ability: [DEVOUR] - absorb vanquished foes' powers.

Current Level: Nascent (0/3 abilities stored)

Mission: Prevent Luna Ashworth's Death.

[Time remaining: 6 months].

Warning: Each use of power brings beings from the void closer to Earth.