"If you don't freeze his nuts off or something to wake him up, then I'll just chop 'em off. That will for sure wake him up!" Camila's voice rang in his ears, both from how loud it was and how terrifying those words had been.

"Please, let's not resort to either extreme," he managed to groan, his eyes flickering open to reveal the two girls leaning over him. His head throbbed as if it had been pounded like a snare drum, alternating between ice-cold and scalding sensations.

"Come on, Zion, you need to sit up and drink. You've been out cold for an entire day," Beth urged gently, her soft tone a welcome relief from Camila's intensity. "We got some stew made. It'll be good for your tummy."

"Good grief, Beth, you sound just like our mother," Camila laughed incredulously. "He's eighteen, not eight."

Beth's cheeks flushed slightly as she played with a lock of hair, avoiding their gaze. "I was just worried about him, Camila. Don't be a butt," she retorted, still not meeting their eyes.

Zion laughed at her reaction, feeling some pain in his chest from the humor. "It's fine, kinda cute when she does it," Zion said teasingly, sitting up and gently bumping Beth with his shoulder. The movement hurt, sending fresh shocks down his body, like that feeling when your leg is asleep.

She pulled away further, throwing a canteen at him and folding her arms. The canteen hit his stomach, eliciting a grunt and sending more pain up his frame. He reached down to grab it with a snort and froze. His arm was completely blue. Not just a blue hue from his veins like he had been, but full-blown, might as well call him a mana potion, blue.

"What the fuck…" his curse trailed off, and he saw Camila give him an understanding smile.

"You were like that when you passed out," she told him gingerly, getting that he was freaking out at his new skin color. "It also isn't just your skin. Your hair and everything we can see is blue. Except for your eyes—"

“What's wrong with my eyes?" he interjected suddenly, his body tensing before she finished her sentence. He couldn't fathom why those words unsettled him; his eyes were already blue, so it shouldn't matter. He breathed a sigh of relief, attempting to calm his racing thoughts

"Your eyes are black, Zion," Beth chimed in, shattering his brief respite. "Black with swirls of blue starlight. Beautiful, but undeniably otherworldly."

His eyes were… black. Why? Why the hell would his eyes turn black? His body turning blue made sense because he was chock-full of mana, even more so now that he had spread it further into his body.

Realization struck then. He only knew one person, no, not a person, a goddess, that had black eyes. His body was taking cues from freaking Ki! It wasn’t enough that he was practically giving his life in pursuit of her cause! He had to give up all his humanity in the process!

He hoped his anger would summon Ki's soothing voice in his mind, but all he encountered was silence. Even the usual connection he felt with her seemed severed. Fear gnawed at his gut. What if something had happened to her when she saved him?

Zion called out to her, this time with genuine concern rather than anger. He called out for what felt like mere moments, but Camila's worried voice broke his concentration.

"Zion, are you alright? I know it's a lot to process, but you've been silent for like ten minutes."

Had it really been that long? It felt like he’d only been trying to contact her for a few seconds, not minutes. "Sorry," he apologized. "I was trying to talk to Ki, and I'm not getting any type of response."

"Does she usually communicate with you so frequently?" Beth inquired, her voice tinged with a hint of envy. Her gaze bore into him, lips pressed into a tight line, and he couldn't help but sense the jealousy in her demeanor. It wasn't entirely unwarranted, given that Chosen no longer had direct contact with their deity.

"Not exactly. 'Talking' wouldn't be the right word," Zion eventually responded, trying to placate her. "It's more like I can sense that she's there and get some flecks of emotion from her. But right now, I got nothing. Complete and utter quiet."

Camila scoffed at his reply, “She can’t be talking to you all the time, man. She’s a freaking Goddess over one of the larger domains. She's probably just busy with the huge plate of responsibilities she has.” With a playful slap on his leg, she thrust the canteen into his hands. "Anyway, drink up."

Taking a gulp, Zion felt grateful for the divine water as it quenched his parched throat. He nodded his thanks before turning his attention to the bowl of stew Beth handed him. It was the same simple fare he had prepared for them—nothing fancy, but comforting nonetheless. As he ate, he felt the warmth spread through his body, easing the lingering aches and pains.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Now spill it, what in the world just happened?" Beth's eyes widened with curiosity as she watched him finish his meal. Despite the seriousness of her inquiry, Zion couldn't help but snicker at her earnest expression.

Once he was done with his amusement and got to see her annoyed face, he let out a breath, explaining what had transpired. “When I entered that ball of Void, I felt my mana bottom out and knew I was dead.” He looked around at that, trying to find the ball of destruction, but couldn't see anything. In fact, as his eyes scanned the room, he noticed that all the built-up Void taint was gone. In its place the room was replaced by a pristine sheen that seemed almost surreal in comparison to its previous state.

“Don't mind that, Not important, we'll tell you about it after,” Camila interjected seeing his wandering gze, waving her hand impatiently for him to continue.

He humored her, trying to find the right words for what happened. “I found myself in some place that was pure darkness. Kinda like the Void but darker? If that makes sense. Except it was alive and began to eat me alive.” The girls gasped at that, and he couldn't blame them. Being eaten alive was pretty shocking. “But it stopped when some sweet voice started talking to me, discussing the faults of the Weave and how I could join him to make things right. And I believed him. It was like his words wormed themselves into my head and removed all my memories of what acts Devastation has committed.”

“I was really going to join him right then and there. Until a blue light blossomed in front of me and snapped me out of his influence.” The girls leaned in, hanging on his every word, their eyes glued to him.

“Ki showed up and saved me. She gave me some special mana, and I fused it with every part of me. The voice stopped being sweet, instead becoming the birth of the original wrath. His anger destroyed that darkness, shattered it like a glass window, revealing a set of eyes that could cover a house. If not for this power Ki gave me, I’d be dead. I think…I think the voice was a God of Devastation.”

“When I reappeared here, I gained a new ultimate and felt so much power flowing through me. I knew it wouldn’t last, so I wasted it all destroying that bastard. And then I woke up.”

They both sat there slack-jawed as he finished his story. Sharing glances, they both kept stammering as if the words wouldn't come.

Beth finally found her voice after taking a deep breath, her hand trailing down her body with the inhale. “Zion, I am, in fact, sure you met a God of Devastation. If I had to guess, it was Hatri, God of Hatred. The reason I'm so confident is that the place you described sounds like Nil.” She whispered both Hatri’s name and the Nothing like those words had some physical power.

“What is Nil?” Zion asked, very curious. He had never heard the term used before.

“Nilis home to the original Void, the gate that birthed the Devastation Deities. It is a place empty of everything except Void. Even if you enter the Void zones between the Spheres, there are some remnants of mana or chaos fiends which again have some mana. That isn't the case with the Nil,” Beth informed them, her lecturing voice showing up as she squared her shoulders and addressed them like students. “You're honestly lucky to have left there alive.”

“I don't think he needs to be told that, Beth,” Camila corrected her, eyebrow raised. “Pretty sure Zion can read between the lines and knows like he said, that Ki was his salvation. The bigger question is how Ki infiltrated the home of Hatri.” Camila did not whisper the god's name, instead saying it with a slight sneer.

“That's a good question,” Beth relented, though he didn't miss her eye roll. “Ki shouldn't have been able to breach that plane. If anything, that's why you're not hearing her, Zion. She's probably exhausted after expending that much energy.”

Zion had to admit that it did sound logical. He couldn't imagine how much power it would take to combat a god in their own domain. When her voice returned, he would have to thank her… after screaming about how she turned him into a walking blueberry.

“Okay, enough about my brush with death,” he finally said, returning to the group conversation. They blinked rapidly as if trying to make sense of his words as if what he had said was utterly dumb. “Seriously, it's over now, and I'd rather not think about it. What happened to this place… it looks, well, pure.” He gestured to the surrounding sparkly, clean surfaces.

“Whatever the hell form you took, let out an immense amount of mana. Like way too much for your tiny body,” Camila started, waving a hand over his frame. He flipped her off, eliciting a grin. “Anyway, it spread out, filled me up, and Beth too. Then, it proceeded to wipe away the Void. That part took the better part of a day like the two forms of energy were locked in a battle.”

“If you wouldn't have killed Odalin, I don’t think it would have worked. It was like his death snapped the breach,” Beth explained, pointing at the absolutely massacred body of Odalin. The boss monster was in pieces, most of him splattered across the floor. The sight made Zion a little nauseous; he couldn't believe that had been his handiwork.

“After the Void taint cleared, we saw a chest appear, but we also saw a large amount of loot fly into that Void ball before it was gone. It was a substantial amount, a worrisome amount,” Beth remarked, looking at a spot where nothing lay. She hugged herself before voicing her concern, “I think they are stealing supplies for an army.”

Now, that was an unsettling idea. An army composed of Devastation could only confirm what Ki had told him. There was another war of chaos building, and one side was well ahead of the other.

“We need to finish anything we have left in here and get back to the surface,” Zion told them, standing and brushing himself off. “It’s time to spread the news and prepare for full-scale war.”

The three of them shared a look at his pronouncement. After they left this dungeon, everything would change; it was a palpable feeling in the air. Once this got out, things would tilt, and they would have little rest. They would be harbingers of change, willingly or not.