“I was traveling a lot in different realms,  in search of a body, and a way to control myself. That town was not there when I arrived. Maybe a few struggling buildings, but nothing like it was when you arrived. At the time, no one saw me. I am made of shadows, the light in the sky hid me away when the Day Cycle came. At night I was a passing wind, still. Humans passed through so often, those who were awake during the Night Cycle never questioned my presence. By this point, I thought I had learned to control my strange hunger. I thought I knew all of the secrets to myself. I knew for certain that I had an appetite for weaker souls, as in some Moons, I cannot even feel the urges. I felt the less interaction I had with these souls, the safer it would be.

For a while, it seemed to work. Without a body, I didn’t feel the pangs of hunger, only the thought of consuming. So, when I figured I’d finally controlled the thoughts, I befriended humans who were usually awake during the Night Cycle. This seemed like a logical decision to me.

I can’t remember how exactly it happened…I just know one moment, I was learning human songs and laughing with them. The next…I was restrained by my cloak on the same old wall we’d all been by. All of them were angry and shouting at me, ‘Give them back!’ I was beaten in my head viciously. I guess in an act of self preservation, I’d reacted, swallowed all that were in front of me. 

With further-away-witnesses seeing what I’d done, they kept me in that space, and built their growing community around me. They’d feed people to me during the night, when the shadows hid their crime. Outlaws, victims, debtors, they faced my growing shadowed space and never returned to the light. I felt awful. I think at some point, I became numb to it. It didn’t matter who I was eating, as long as I was fed. But I never was full. 

When they stopped feeding me, the shadows they provided me adapted, luring its own food my way. Anything that would look in our direction, I would eat. Anything curious enough to explore my corner, I would eat. The same applied to you. That is how I was found by you. Are you satisfied with this?”

Void was sat in utter silence, mouth agape and hands pinching his arm and side, like grounding forces. 

“My Void?”

He shook himself, “Yes, sorry, that was…” he trailed off.

“You may process it later, I must hear your tale now.”

Void stumbled over their syllables for a few seconds before composing himself, clearing his throat.

“Right, so…my story…”

***********

Whisper and Void conversed timelessly. Stephen had commented to him that this strange monster acted more as a counselor of sorts. She gave Void snippets of advice about his powers as he’d explained to Whisper what he’d discovered over the years, and they talked about how he could use them in this place.

She knew the Dark Realms and some of its secrets from being so old, and yet never seemed to show disdain for Void being so naive to this knowledge, even after hearing his story. Even he knew there were a multitude of answers they could have gotten from that spirit. It frustrated him sometimes, how lost they were in this world they now held power in.

“It’s very odd, humans don’t usually become one of us…” She had said, “They just die on their plain and stay in a separate Moon. None of us, from any other Moon, have seen where they rest. Anything human related is very protected from us. To take a dying mortal soul and change it…make it one of us… And not only that, but give it the power of gods? All of Shine’s Moons must feel this.”

Void had many questions, so many, but not enough time to ask as he felt a large disturbance in the dark.

He went rigid, immediately alert from the relaxed posture he’d assumed when talking to this wise monster. Whisper watched curiously as Void received the realm’s signals that something was out of place.

“What is it?” She asked, barely audible to any ears.

“Something just opened. There are monsters that aren’t usually here, approaching. I just see…red. All I feel is anger.”

“A color? The Dark Realms do not produce light, you can’t possibly be seeing color. Besides, the only Monsters that embody such a thing are…” she stopped.

Of course they would be the first to notice the change. They fed off of the chaos and imbalances these realms fell to! Much like Void did, except it was their entire purpose. They were known as torturers, bargainers. They were the monsters seen in the midst of war, and violence. 

“Demons,” Whisper gasped.

Void shot to his feet, glancing around. He made quick work of throwing his hair into a ponytail, something they did when nervous, and Void was buzzing with nerves.

Pure, enraged instinct seemed to be driving the monster in this current moment. Claws extending, eyes inking over, and veins showing the power coursing through him, he frantically glanced around. Whisper assumed the signals were growing stronger, and to such a new ruler, she could guess it was a lot. 

“I know you may not be able to speak right now with all that is running through you, but I encourage you to breathe my Void, I can help if I know where-”

She was cut off as a spear rammed through her cloak.  Evidently, they did not know she had no body. It distracted her momentarily, seeing as it would have gone straight through her chest, had she possessed one. She glanced down before turning her head completely around, looking into the dark.

“There it is!” She heard, before the battle cry of Demons and their footfall followed. They rushed out of the dark horizon from everywhere.

Void snarled, showing off sharp teeth, as he rushed at the first set of monsters he saw.

Whisper was going to assist him, but she noticed she had become a target too. Arrows whooshed past her head and through her cloak. She easily removed the muzzle Void put around her mouth by unhinging her jaw and shaking it off of her face.  

The demons rushed in foolishly, weapons raised and skin stained red. Whether from their natural hues acquired from their realm, or something else entirely.

Whisper’s eyes widened as she felt herself grow almost delirious with hunger. Her mouth expanded immediately, and she closed her eyes as she consumed whatever lay in front of her, mindlessly.

The demons in Whisper’s path scrambled to no avail. Tentacles impaled and drilled through their feeble bodies, dragging them into the white nothingness in the blink of an eye. 

This time, Void stayed out of Whisper’s way, ducking and jumping over whipping tentacles that threatened to add them to the count.

Those who did escape the Eater ran straight into Void, who was slashing through them all effortlessly with their own weapons, his claws, and his teeth. When they tried to gang up on him, he simply blasted them back. Something had changed about that ability of Aster’s, though.

Where it used to be a simple field of power that sent people backward, this one was sharper, darker. The closer the victim was to Void, the more chance they had of being snapped in half, burned alive, or- at the safest distance- knocked unconscious.

Whisper did eventually close her mouth, and burped as if she had a stomach that was actually digesting these creatures. There were not many fighters, just enough to get overwhelmed had either of them been any weaker.

Their numbers dwindled as quickly as they had rushed in. Void took a glance around at any stragglers amongst the twisted corpses. None of the survivors were willing to fight. They pleaded when their eyes locked with his, holding hands high in surrender. Void was splattered in deep red ooze, with some random sword in hand and barely a dent on its body. No one was going to challenge him again, he knew this.

“Go home,” Void started, the loudest he’d ever spoken in this realm, “Tell whoever sent you of your defeat, and let them know that if it’s a fight they want, they will face me head on, none of this foolishness.”

Most of them obeyed, hobbling to their feet and limping away into the darkness. Whisper watched Void’s shoulders relax bit by bit as they left.

“Why are you still here?” He asked out loud.