A drum pulsed. Thump. Thump. The beat pounded inside the hollow shell of a man as he twitched his charcoaled finger — the roasted skin dropped open, multiple layers falling — and a foul sulfurous odor discharged, a smell that can't just be expressed as burning steak or meat. No, there was more to it. You can't be a human and not be affected by that smell.

"Harrumph." The voided man grunted, his lips splitting, and as he stood up, the little remaining of his clothes dissipated as ash in the air. He appeared like burnt toast — blackened. But nothing left inside that man allowed him to care about the pain, so he continued walking, letting his skin fall apart.

An eerie chill shrouded the area, coming from the man once known as Void.

"We have a survivor!" a woman yelled — she was with a team of twenty rescuers sent to the facility. She pointed her flashlight at the survivor, a fear growing in her as she did, not just from the smell that forced her to puke but from the view of a man whose skin was falling apart like an onion being torn — it made her wonder if people even had that many layers of skin. She stepped back as she wiped vomit off her lips. "Are you… alive?"

"Ehhh." Void groaned as he limped towards the Female Atlantean and touched her face, his bumpy and harsh hands rubbing around. Without warning, he blasted her head, launching blue blood everywhere.

A surveillance member saw this and communicated it through his walkie-talkie. It didn't take long for the nineteen remaining members to get in position and shoot at Void, but the bullets dropped whenever they neared him. He walked towards the building's exit as his skin continued falling off his body.

The soldiers didn't have a choice but to keep shooting, none of them wanted to approach the burned man. They were scared, and after all, that man blew their teammate's head, frittering brain matter around. They needed to implement caution.

Void's roasted hair bits fell out as fresh white follicles stemmed out of his crisped scalp, but he stopped moving, falling to the floor and sprawling on it. The pain inside him erupted. Similar to his charred outsides, so were his insides, and his internal anatomy felt as if it was colliding against lava, burning everything it touched, but the most horrific part was once anything got burnt, it somehow re-grew. His body was regrowing. From his skin to even his pubes, everything regenerated back to normal.

As for his sanity, that was a totally different question. His emotions were empty. Sanity wasn't possible.

The soldiers took this opportunity, surrounding him in a circle and shooting at him. They didn't stop. Even as he screamed and shouted. They didn't.

Void was squirming on the fallen bullets like a worm, and ironically, his pain was the only thing keeping him from drifting into the void.

Silence formed as a soldier held their hand in the air, signaling everyone to stop shooting. The soldier neared the dead man and poked him with his gun. The man didn't move.

Void's face seemed peaceful, a smile on his face and his eyes closed.

The soldier pushed their gun into the man's mouth and shot the automatic weapon for a few seconds, around a hundred bullets entering the already dead being.

But this so-called dead being groaned as he twitched his eyes in pain.

The soldier ran back, and the others began shooting as they released everything they had, including explosives — grenades, flares, and whatever they could throw.

Void screamed as he sprawled on the floor, his body radiating with a vibrant purple shade. The light penetrated through his skin, leaking out light like water pouring out of a tank with holes, and while this occurred, all he could do was bang his head against the floor and scream in agony. The purple light shined in the dark room, burning anything it touched.

The guards tried running away, but those touched by the light disintegrated in an instant.

Light also came out of all of Void's holes. He continued whaling in pain as the purple rays blasted out of his mouth and nostrils. He exploded.

Everything and everyone in the area was wiped out — nothing except a crater was left, and inside the crater stood Void. He remained standing and looking at the sky, almost like he hadn't just killed twenty people. From his expression to his body's appearance, it all seemed normal.

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Though he was butt-naked, his ass glistened in the sunlight, and luckily, the view of his bullocks was obscured by the light.

Void held both his arms in the air. It was as if he was trying to discern something. He quickly found whatever it was, considering he started nodding and walking up the crater, but whatever he located, it felt cold and miserable. As he walked up, he noticed everything was destroyed, and nothing was in the distance except for one object: a white van.

The driver of the car slammed the pedal as soon as Void got out of the crater. The wheels revolved against the road and created smoke from the traction. They were trying to escape.

Void placed his hand in the air, his fingers crunching into a fist, a move that stopped the car from moving, and then he lifted his hand up, raising the vehicle in the air. He brought his hands towards his body, forcing the car to fly towards him.

The driver opened the door, but Void used his powers to shut it. There was no way to escape the inevitable.

Void lowered his hand; the van also descended. Since the windows were tinted, he couldn't see through them, so he knocked three times on the driver's door.

He didn't answer.

Void placed his hand against the door, ready to blow it up.

The man in the car opened up, shooting his shotgun at Void's face.

He didn't flinch.

The fish person's lips lowered as worry took over. He dropped the shotgun, holding his hands up and pressing them together in an attempt to beg. "Please don't kill me. I'm only a nerd. I swear, I only came here to explore this haunted prison. I… I…"

Void cleared his throat and pointed to the Atlantean's hoodie. "Give me your clothes."

"Hey… man," he said. "Please don't do that to me. I'm sorry I shot you, but you don't need to take it that far. Please. Please. I'm still a virgin. You don't want to-"

Void tilted his head. "Give me your clothes."

"Okay, okay, take them and leave me alone. Please, I beg-g-g… you." The Atlantean took off his green hoodie with two fish chicks illustrated on it and got out of the car, but before he could hand it to Void, he heard the naked man clear his throat, so the nerd rushed to also pull down his brown khaki pants — he gave both his clothes.

Void put on the attire, but they were a bit tight, still wearable. At least the hoodie covered part of his face. He gave the Atlantean, who pissed his underwear, a thumbs up and ran away towards whatever spine-shivering thing he discovered earlier — a cold and miserable feeling. The "thing" Void found was undesirable. Not even words could or would spell it out, or perhaps, there was nothing left to describe whatever disgustingly eerie flow he encountered.

Void's leg muscles expanded as he ran at speeds not possible for a human. It wasn't even physically possible for any Tuam user since one would need to specialize in speed to reach his momentum, and that's if they spent their whole lives enriching themselves in the arts of running — their main power.

The city wasn't far from the prison, but it wasn't near; no matter, it only took Void two minutes to reach. Atlantis wasn't an advanced dystopia by any means, but it wasn't a poverty-filled land since the area was decently advanced, on a par with most living countries in today's age.

Void ran on the road, avoiding the moving Atlanteans. It was a simple task, mostly because they were moving in slow motion in his eyes, and frankly, he avoided hitting them, not out of pity but to save time. In a few seconds, he made his way toward a crowd of protesters, but to him, they were no better than a bunch of baboons screaming in the zoo.

"We want explanations!" the crowd yelled. "We want them now!"

Void pressed his way through the crowd, a gathering of far too many people for his liking, and because people were in his way, he could scarcely see the palace despite its grand size. However, the gate was mostly visible since it was really high.

"We want to hear from the king!"

"We want to hear from the king!"

"What do we want!?"

"We want the king!"

"What don't we want!?"

"We don't want a cripple!"

"What don't we want!?"

"We don't want a cripple!"

"We don't want a cripple!"

Void tried ignoring the screaming. However, his head ached with a ringing sensation as he held his ears. He fell onto his knees, feeling something ominous in the air, and whatever he was trying to find before... well, he found it. He knew he did because he sensed it was close.

"We don't want a cripple!"

"We don't want a cripple!"

"We don't want a cripple!"

Void tried to get up from the floor, but he continued to get pushed, not allowing him to stand. He kneeled. He swayed back and forth as protestors lifted their signs up and down, moving them wildly. They really looked like zoo animals in his eyes.

One protester tried to speak, but he was cut off. "We don't-"

Void forced his way off the ground and grabbed the fish, yanking him by the neck as he stared into the animal's eyes. "Shut the fuck up."

"You're not an... Atlantean..."

"Get back!" a loud yet familiar voice said.

Void let go of the Atlantean, more concerned about what he heard. He grabbed his hoodie off his head to get a better view of the noise he heard, but instead, he started scratching his hair in agony as that same voice rang in his head. The voice echoed an icy stream of air into him. A man with nothing was presented with something. There was something in the void. Fear.

"What the fuck are you?" the Atlantean asked, running and pushing his way through the crowd. "Help! Help!" His pleas were muted by the screams.

However, one voice could clearly be heard throughout the chaos. That same female voice screamed, forcing the crowd to step back. "Get back! Or we'll shoot."

'Let it out, boys.' That line rang in Void's head as he remembered the tart feeling of defeat, a moment that changed everything. He knew it was all because he underestimated her, the bitch that killed him. This misery caused his skin to tear apart, radiating a purple silhouette in the crowd of protestors. He panted, holding his hands out at the Atlanteans, and instead of letting anger consume him, he let it all flow through his hands. The beams shredded the crowd, slicing them into bits. Fish bits.