Voidwalker, Lord of the Void

The wheels of time have continued to turn in the living world, but today is different. A pampered Empress spent her days tending to her subjects and herself with little care for any world other than her own. Her world, filled with politics and glamour, now changes for the worse as a creature of a world other than her own stole a part of her own life, her spirit.

In another part of the living world, a second creature from the Void hunts for the thief in a multi-domain, multi-spectral chase that will inevitably end in one of their deaths. The second creature has honed and sharpened her abilities all her life while the first has had less than a century to understand her much more advanced powers, so I wonder what the outcome will be. Two otherworldly beings clashing under gods and goddesses, demons and angels; I cannot wait to watch.

A third and fourth player has entered the field of battle, one spanning entire worlds. One is a wingless demon, a lost ally who wants to redeem herself. The second, a demon slaying illusionist, thought to already be plucked from the battlefield. The demon was once a child who lived with her parents, demon and mother, and sister. When a terrible accident rendered her sister unconscious indefinitely, the child rejected her identity and hid as an Elven woman. She lived like this for decades until she saw her sister awake again, but a different woman. A creature from another world was given the body so that she could survive. When the demon woman saw everything her sister’s keeper had become, she chose to embrace her demon side, but not for long.

In a few weeks’ time, the demon saw her ally betrayed, herself betrayed, and all of her friends slain, destroying her cause. With little left in the world, she fled to fully embrace her demon blood. She lived alongside demonkind and became cruel and unforgiving, paving her tracks with blood. Now, dropped to the ground like an injured sparrow, she wants redemption.

Our final player on the board, the demon slayer. He is an abomination of man, a being that only seeks to destroy and kill specific members. While his arsenal is lesser than those of his foes, he is thought to be dead. The element of surprise will go in his favor, so I must wonder: how will this all end? I am dying to find out.

Emily, Daughter of the Void

Eleanor is more powerful than I thought. When tracking her, I had to keep a full spectrum of vision open so I didn’t lose her. At one point, she disappeared and I could only see her when I tracked by heat. I am still right on her tail, though, so she isn’t that good. I was worried we may be tracked by that demon she was confronted by, but I wasn’t going to expect it could track both of us without wings. Did Eleanor do that to it, sever its wings? If so, I’m not entirely sure what I am dealing with here.

I took a huge leap as Eleanor materialized in the living world and I sent a blast of electricity to knock her down. The spell hit, she faltered, and I gained the advantage. When I reached her, I aimed to strike at her leg, but a force dropped me to the ground. After I landed, I wasn’t able to get back up; I wasn’t even able to look up.

“Wrong move,” she said before my head was slammed into the ground. I saw red, then black, and then nothing.

I woke up in a bed- my bed. The velvet sheets were soft and clung to my body as I sat up. Everything I saw was familiar: the dully painted walls, the line of stuffed bears on the shelf, my wardrobe topped with a wide mirror. I felt a pain on my head, so I put my hand up and rubbed it. I remembered that I hit my head last night when dueling P’erro. I probably drank a little too much wine, but that’s fine; I don’t drink that often.

The door opened. “Good morning, sweetheart,” a man’s voice said.

I looked up and smiled when I saw Majere, my blonde-haired knight. “Good morning, love.”

“Oh, darling, does your head still hurt?”

I nodded. “Not too much, but it’s painful.”

“You pushed yourself too hard.” He came and sat down on the bed with me, then gave me a kiss. He always had a way of making me feel a bit better. “Dalia came by and asked if you had time for lunch.”

“I could probably go, I just want to take something to fix this headache.” I slid my legs to dangle off the bed, then stood up to get in front of the mirror.

“As beautiful as ever. Please never cut your hair.”

“Do you know how long it takes to tie it up?” I looked at myself in the mirror. The aching part of my head was a little pink, but the rest of my face looked the same: perfectly pale. “At least it doesn’t look like you struck me, Majere.”

“My, I would never,” he said as he stood up. He walked up behind and gave me a hug. “Who would ever want to hurt your perfect face?”

“I couldn’t tell you, honey.” After he let me go, I pulled my nightgown off and grabbed a dress from the wardrobe to put on. Before I slipped it over my head, I felt his arm wrap around my waist and he pulled me in close to him. The dress fell to the floor and I felt myself press against him. “Oh my, sir,” I gasped.

He shushed me by locking his lips against mine and I felt his other hand against my back, then I reciprocated the kiss. After, he leaned back and asked, “How does it feel to finally be mine, Ellie?”

Ellie? I thought as he kissed me once more. He lifted me up and I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist, but I pushed him back to ask, “Who’s Ellie?”

Both of his hands were holding me up at this point. “You are. What do you mean, ‘Who’s Ellie’?”

“I… No, my name is Emily, not Ellie.”

“You did hit your head a little hard, sweetie. Do I need to take you to the doctor?”

I pushed against him and dropped to my feet. “No, I don’t need to go. Who is Ellie, Majere?”

He looked completely confused. “Honey, your name is Ellie. I don’t know who ‘Emily’ is, but you’re not her.”

I rushed myself to the mirror again and started at it, now realizing something. My face was perfectly pale- perfect. There wasn’t a hint of black anywhere on it. “This isn’t real.”

“What?” Majere asked, walking closer. From the mirror, I saw his hand shifting to his pocket.

I spun around to face him. “This is not real. I’ve never been married and I don’t have a lover. I don’t even know you.”

“Your choice to remember. You could have had a perfect life,” he said coldly as he drew a dagger. He lunged, but I caught his wrist, realizing he wasn’t as strong as I thought he would be.

“You’re just an illusion,” I said. I grabbed his forearm near his elbow and pulled. His arm snapped and broke off, then fell to dematerializing dust. I looked up at his face, one I thought I had very fond memories of. He looked blank now as he, too, began to fall apart. “I knew you were way too good to be true,” I said to myself. I shook my head and looked around the room. I tried the door and the window latches, but they wouldn’t budge. After going back to the mirror, I stared into it. I noticed something about the painting on the wall looked odd. I turned around to look; the painting was different in and out of the mirror!

The painting exploded into dust as I threw a vase against it. Behind it, there was a hallway. Poor planning, Eleanor. Before getting out of the room, I went to the mirror one last time and looked at myself. I lifted my hand and tried to form a blade, but was unable to. Mana blocked, of course. I tore a hook off the wardrobe shelf and bent it to look something like a tool. I watched myself in the mirror as I put it to my cheek. I drew it against my skin and cringed as it began to draw blood. The skin over my own began to fall away. As the dissipation spread, I saw my black skin emerge again. After a few moments, the illusion was gone. I was still in my same clothes and my hair was back to normal, so I was ready to move on from the room.

I pulled myself through the fallen painting and cautiously went through the halls. They were definitely familiar, resembling my mother’s mansion decades ago. I knew where this would be going, so I rolled with it. The next room I entered was the kitchen. It seemed normal enough, so I went to the pantry and looked inside to find all sorts of food. I went to grab a loaf of bread, but it didn’t move. I tried harder and was eventually able to lift it, but it was too heavy for bread. I dropped it on the ground and it shattered into a black mess. Solid Void rock- horrible choice. I noticed that it was getting a bit hot in the room, so I turned and saw that the oven and table had caught fire, and it was spreading fast. I began to bolt towards the door but fell over some books that weren’t there before.

“Damnit, Eleanor!” I coughed out. The smoke was covering the air and reaching my lungs quickly. I scrambled out of the kitchen and saw the halls were beginning to burn as well. I ran through them and flew around the corners. They were seemingly endless and kept winding around in circles, so I ran straight at one of the walls and charged my shoulder against it. It gave in easily and I fell through, falling out into a grass field. My eyes were still hurting and my skin still felt hot, but the cool morning breeze felt great. I looked back to see nothing behind me but the grass. Great.

I stood up and whipped around, trying to find anything out of place. The area looked and felt completely normal, but I wasn’t ready to believe it. I wasn’t going to keep playing her games anymore, but I didn’t know where to go from here. I was inside of someone else’s illusion, but worse, I was inside of a Void creature’s illusion.

“Hi there,” a girl’s voice spoke behind me.

I spun, seeing nothing. “Who is there?” No response.

“Hi.” This time, it was right in front of me. I searched, but saw nothing there.

“This isn’t funny, show yourself.”

I heard a frustrated grunt, then the voice said, “I’m right here.”

I saw nothing, so I hesitantly reached and stepped forward. My hand touched something and I pulled away quickly. “I…” I reached forward again and it ran into something soft.

“That’s…”

I felt the something move when the voice spoke and I retrieved my hand, a bright red blush forming over my face. “Oh! Uh- S-sorry!” I didn’t know exactly who or what I was dealing with, but I definitely just violated their personal space in the worst of ways.

“Don’t worry about it, please.” She sounded young, but mature at the same time. “I thought maybe you could help me. I… I’ve been here for so long, I just…” She sniffled, then her voice cracked. “I don’t know wh-what to do anymore…”

Sensing tears coming, I tried to calm her down. “Woah, woah… I can help you, miss, don’t worry.”

Something, hopefully her hands, grabbed mine and I felt them shake. “You will? Thank you so much!” Her voice was much happier now, which was a good sign.

I hesitantly asked, “Why can’t I see you?”

“Oh, because I’m a Bellamute!” Bellamute, I’ve never heard of that before.

“What is… that?”

“Me! My family and I live in the forest, but… not this one. No, this one only has fake people.”

“Fake people? What do you mean?”

“You haven’t seen? I’ll show you!” I felt a tug on my hand as the other was released and I was led off deeper into the forest. I felt light whipping from what I thought was her hair against my face and I smelled something like lavender coming off of her. “Right here,” she said as she stopped in almost the same looking place.

“What do you-“

“Shhhh, watch.” I stopped and watched in her direction. We stood completely still and in silence, then suddenly, the wind shifted. From down the tree line, a line of the same exact person began to march past us. They all looked just like Akan, but looking much, much happier than I remember. Somewhere around thirty of them walked by and disappeared into the trees past us. Not a single one acknowledged us and not a single one looked different from each other.

“What was that?” I asked the woman.

“That happens a lot. Like, a lot.”

“Why?”

“I’m not really sure.” She stood still for a few moments.

“Come on,” I said as I pulled her away. My plan was to keep moving away from the area until we found an exit. We kept walking for what felt like forever until she tugged back on my hand. I turned my head in her direction, “Huh?”

“Look, I marked that tree.” I assume she pointed but I didn’t see where. After a moment of me not looking anywhere that she wanted me to, she moved my hand to point over at a tree nearby. The tree had a large chunk of the bark stripped off, making it much different from any others. “We were here earlier. The forest… it just swallows you up and spits you out right where you were at before. It takes you round and round in circles and… you don’t escape.”