"Domain of Absolute Devotion!"

Lars opened the festival straight with his most powerful ability. Holy energy spread to cover the entire building and most of the grounds around it, giving every object and most people a golden glowing outline. He knelt and stabbed the floor with his sword, locking in that position.

Robert felt an influx of energy so powerful he felt he could defeat the fake Marcus right away. All for the glory of the Academy and its august sponsor.

Most of the assembled teachers seemed to feel the same thing as they stared at the impostor.

However, those who were against the status quo suffered under Lars' domain ability. The left-hand guy and a couple of teachers started to scream as they burned with golden fire. The fake Marcus didn't seem to be affected at first sight but some sparse flames licked at his clothes.

"Call of the Void!"

Fake Marcus shouted, negative energy spreading in a bubble extending for ten or fifteen feet around him from where all color drained. It must be another one of those ultimate abilities because they would only activate if their names were called out loud. It made no sense for the guy to give away what his trump card was.

It was heinously similar to the liminal void. Robert intended to enter the liminal void and strike fake Marcus but now he hesitated. The flames eating at the left-hand lie-detecting man disappeared but the few seconds they struck him did their damage. The man's skin was covered in oozing blisters and red like rare meat. All of the hairs on his head were burned. The smell was awful. The guy fell on his knees and vanished underneath the grayscale table.

Fake Marcus was obviously a cultist of the Pail Priestess. A Void-affinity Arch. He moved, a dozen times faster than a human should. A sword appeared in his hand. Cackling in a high pitch due to the acceleration, he killed four teachers before anyone else could react.

"Robert, stop him!" Actus shouted. "You can do it!"

Without any choice, Robert used his talent. All color drained from the world except for the bubble around Cultist Marcus. That region suffered the inverse. It became colored.

"You!" Robert shouted his taunt. "The void beckons!"

The lowest-pitched voice Robert ever heard croaked. "Her... reh... tick!" (heretic)

Cultist Marcus shouted in slow motion. He gave up on slaughtering the teachers and moved toward Robert. Around eighty times slower than he should.

Robert grinned. He could see it as clear as day The guy's spell allowed him to phase halfway into the liminal void, It allowed him to interact with the real world but most likely only inside that bubble. Or perhaps he was stuck halfway between reality and the liminal void, unable to fully act on either one but still stuck to the rules of both.

Robert approached the bubble but kept outside of it. He had to test a few things. He had the speed advantage but limited time in the void. Moving along with Cultist Marcus, Robert checked his timepiece. Oh. He only had nine hours in the liminal void. Would it be enough time to defeat Cultist Marcus?

The man moved like stuck in molasses. It was rather comical seeing his expression shift and move in slow motion. Robert went around the table to goad him away from the still-alive people. To test the effects of the man's ability, Robert took an apple from his ring and tossed it toward the bubble of mixed realities. The apple stopped as soon as it left his hand and he clicked his tongue. Of course, he'd forgotten about the particularities of the dimension the moment he needed it the most.

So he took a spool of twine and tied it around the apple, then tossed it. The twine fulfilled the physical contact requirement for the object. The apple flew toward the bubble and slowed down considerably as it entered it. He felt a tug on the twine and then decided to pull it. The fragile tether broke right at the interface of the bubble. The apple kept flying toward Cultist Marcus as he leveled his sword to slash the fruit.

He decided that entering that bubble would be suicidally stupid. But he had no ranged attack. Maybe he could reach Cultist Marcus with his spear but he was pretty sure the tip would slow down when entering the bubble too. Otherwise, the apple would've kept its momentum. No. That wouldn't do.

Robert pondered as he watched the slowest live-action game of Fruit Ninja ever played. Cultist Marcus' sword was inbound to slice the apple in about half an hour, he estimated.

The golden aura didn't affect him in the liminal void. He looked at Knight Graahaal, still kneeling down. Had the man used his Domain for nothing? Well, not that Robert could defeat Cultist Marcus.

Wait. He could create a Void spell, couldn't he? If he could imagine it and then create the shell, maybe... He was almost done with Void Punch. Only his fear of permanent injury kept him from experimenting with his unfinished spell further.

His aptitude with the Void affinity was great. Starting from two stars and onward, it was expected of the Arch to make his own abilities. It could be done before that but often the Arch's comprehension of their affinity was lacking. However, Robert had spent almost a decade in the liminal void already. If anything, the fact he hadn't finished Void Punch meant he was being extremely lazy.

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Could he create a new spell in nine hours? Probably not. But what else he could do but try?

He imagined what he needed. A ranged attack spell, of the Void affinity. One that could kill or deliver grievous injuries to Cultist Marcus. Perhaps a projectile, a void spear, a void spike, a void lance, a void javelin, or any other name. Did it have to be a projectile? He didn't think it matched what the Void did.

But what did the void do?

He remembered all the people who died in the liminal void. The Kraven acolytes. That woman they rescued from Cerebelon. The one who decided to give in to her greed. The void drained their essence, drained their souls.

That's it. That's what was most natural for the void to do. Deprive. Drain. Nullify.

He felt his essence stir. As the image solidified in his mind, he plucked the chords of his affinity like a musician on a harp. The Void Beckoned. The Void Hungered. The spell forming in his Ethercosm was not a nice one. It was something meant to obliterate. To annihilate. Disintegrate. Despoil.

The liminal void was his domain. How dared these deranged cultists think they could step foot here and threaten him? For this transgression, the Void would take everything they had and suck them dry.

The feeling was exhilarating. Robert felt a power like none before seep from his core and into the outside. He closed his eyes and entered his Ethercosm. There, a marvelous black shell devoured all light provided by his star. Chains of translucid and ominous runes wrapped around, becoming solid as his will and intent became manifest.

Devour. Destroy. And then feed its master. He imagined the swarm of wisps that left the corpses of the Kraven acolytes. He remembered Gerard saying that the brief time he spent exposed to the liminal void took five percent of his third star's power.

This spell was the punishment for all trespassers. The strips of Void runes finished laying themselves over the shell. The black sphere was let go to orbit his star. Now, he needed to test it.

Robert opened his eyes. The bubble was close to him and the two halves of the apple were almost reaching the table. He probably stayed for two hours in his Ethercosm.

His new spell pulsed with power, waiting to be unleashed upon the world. Robert thought he should give it a name. Which name should he give it? He could call it Void Tribute. But no. Robert disliked taxes. And naming it after the affinity was too on the nose. What about something related to the underworld? Chthonic Tax?

Taking a step away from the advancing bubble and sitting on the table, Robert took a thesaurus and checked. Chthonic Tribute sounded like something that could get him in trouble. Chthonic's synonyms were demonic, hellish, infernal, or related to the underworld. No.

Drain Essence? Again, he didn't want to give away what the spell did but then he remembered that this wasn't one of the spells that needed to be called out loud. It was nowhere near the level of power of Lar's Domain or Cultist Marcus' Call of the Void.

Drain Essence it was. Because it was exactly what it did. And then he thought of something. Diving back to his Ethercosm, Robert made a little change to the shell. The spell should use some of the drained essence to become self-sustaining. The more it took, the faster it would take the rest. It would reduce what it gave back to Robert but he didn't care much. The resource efficiency was more than a fair trade.

He stood up and moved away from the bubble, again. Cultist Marcus' face was pure rage. There he was, a four-star Void Arch, envious of Robert's talent. Or so Robert thought, drunk on his own hubris and anticipating what was about to happen.

Pointing his palm toward the Cultist, Robert cast his new spell. His essence reserves dipped as the power necessary to overcome Cultist Marcus' resistance was taken from him. Drain Essence latched onto the man. Void and Time wisps started to seep out of him, flowing straight back to Robert.

He looked at the bubble and an idea formed in his mind. Why restrain it from taking essence only from people? This bubble bothered him. He cast Drain Essence again, falling dangerously short of emptying the tank. The bubble wobbled and then more wisps, these only void-attuned, flowed his way.

Robert focused and gathered them all. Entering the Netherecho, he harvested both types of wisps, slowly replenishing his reserves.

"Please, kind sir, do not kill me!" A remnant shouted as it ran away from the exchange.

Sparing a glance at the ether construct, Robert saw that its concept was stillness. He let it go. He had no use for such a remnant.

Slowly, Cultist Marcus' face shifted from one of anger and aggression to surprise and horror. A quarter of an hour later, in Robert's subjective time, he broke the spells. His bubble had shrunk by about ten or twenty percent of its diameter and Robert hadn't recovered all the essence he spent on casting Drain Essence.

As he gathered the last wisps he could, Robert exited the Netherecho. Along the way, he checked the progress of his new spell. It was twenty percent crystallized and a little more powerful than before.

Robert cast it again, this time only at the bubble. If he could collapse the bubble or reduce its radius to cover only Cultist Marcus, he could try other options. Void wisps seeped from the bubble, like dollops of honey out of a crystallized honeycomb as it heated up. This time, he guided the spell, enforcing his will upon the connection to drain it faster.

Cultist Marcus once again tried to interrupt the spell and a battle of wills ensued.

Robert was the weaker side here as the willpower of a four-star was nothing to scoff at. He absorbed around fifteen percent of the sphere before the connection was cut short. He had enough Essence to cast Drain Essence one more time but he doubted Cultist Marcus would let him.

Cultist Marcus hadn't slowed down. Robert hoped for it but so far the only thing he managed to do was shrink the bubble by a third of its diameter. Which was a good thing because it restricted what Cultist Marcus could reach.

"Ee oo... Ah rhee... May kee een gue... Ay... Bee gue... Mee is tay kee..." He mouthed. (You are making a big mistake).

Robert stared at Cultist Marcus, angry that this guy thought he too could take a piece of Robert's freedom. What mistake he was making? These crazy Void cultists had to be stopped. They had no regard for life and were so haughty they made Robert want to puke.

They reminded him of the side he never showed people. Of things he kept repressed deep inside. His pride. The anger at his own failures. No. This guy dared come to the liminal void and steal his thunder? Preposterous.

Robert thought that maybe Cultist Marcus had a big resistance to Void spells, given his affinity.

Drunk on dark energies, Robert let these negative emotions guide him. He stared at Cultist Marcus and whispered.

"Mind Blackout."