Like the last time I spent asleep, I find myself in front of the blue star, its familiar heat enveloping me once again, and just like last time, it explodes into a beautiful nebula, but this time, the being born from the burst of the star is changed, half of it I cannot perceive properly, having a dark purple hue.

Instead of it to extend its hand to me, it begins moving toward me forming legs from its form, now I can notice what looks to be glass which the being walks on, looking down, I notice a change in my body, half of it has became the same as the being and another half unperceivable form.

The being stops in front of me, it looks me up and down before putting its left fire hand on my right shoulder, with the other ethereal limb, it grabs my left hand and pulls it apart.

A sharp pain spreads through my middle as my ethereal form is ripped away, it then rips itself apart in two and it attaches itself to my missing half, the ethereal halves combine themselves automatically taking form words cannot describe.

looking back down at my body, it is now no longer two halves combined it's now a single body made out of the blue fire the being was made out of, looking at the ethereal form the nebula implodes but this time my body is the center of it.

A massive heat radiates from me as more of the nebula is absorbed within me, the ethereal form seems to be evolving, forming a black hole beginning to attract me but once the nebula was fully absorbed the black hole is pushed away and we begin to circle one another, a surge of energy bursts in the form of gamma rays, the black hole attracts parts of the beam which begin to circle the hole eventually bursting itself into the same beam I emmit.

The spinning now speeds up to the point I cannot see anything properly and a feeling of falling envelops me, waking me up.

I find myself on the floor upon my awakening, a sharp pain overtaking my

left eye, instinct I gasp and put my right hand over the eye, I let out a groan and a sharp breath as a spike in the pain fills my cranium which then creeps as fast as lightning down my spine then spreads in my left side just as quickly before disappearing completely.

I get myself up in a cold sweat from the pain and question what could have caused this immense pain and if the dream I had previously has anything to do with this.

Looking around I notice a mirror, I walk in front of it and analyze my body, on my neck there are new bandages, I take my jacket and t-shirt off to analyze my body properly, I notice roots spreading from under the bandages down to the left side of my body, looking at the mechanical hand I notice that even a part of my chest is made out of this technology, its almost as if fused to me or as if it has grown with me.

I take the bandages off of my neck to inspect the roots, I stand in shock for a while after noticing engraving on my neck, half of it begins engraved in form of the roots and the other half is written in a similar pattern to my right hand. I look at my eyes, cyan blue with yellow spots in my right eye and a light purple with yellow spots in my left, I notice something growing in both my eyes, it's as if my iris is expanding to form the symbol of the light beacon in my right eye and a different one in my left that my mind can only believe it to be something connected to the void.

I close my eyes and shake my head, opening them again my iris is back to normal with the same color pattern. Am I seeing things? Or just what was that supposed to be? ill take it as a sign, I'm not sure of what but it has something to do with the void roots for sure.

I wrap back the bandages around my neck back as they were and dress back up, hunger makes me decide to leave my room and find Jathorn for some food, as I leave, Laven pushes me back into my room and puts a finger on my lips before slowly closing the door.

"what's the meaning of this?"

I whisper to Laven

Laven looks me in my eyes

"You aren't safe here, don't trust Jathorn he has something planned with you, and I'm not sure what, I can only think of the worst."

I look at Laven back in her eyes

"I have heard what happened yesterday, being curious about my power I made a little ear out of sight to listen and it worked"

Laven sighs relieved

"Good, I won't have to convince you then. Listen, Xavier, I have a suspicion that Jathorn is going to start a crusade against people who don't worship the Beacon while using you for an upper hand against them to use the converted as cannon fodder against the void."

I close my eyes and point my right hand out to the side, I let a small jet of flames spew from there.

"Xavier? What's wrong?"

I hear Laven asking, then I swiftly bring the flames to the bandages on my neck, they catch on fire and my hand snaps against my will to cover my neck.

I open my eyes to a shocked Laven as she notices what I have on my neck, shortly replaced by a sad expression

"No wonder why they bandaged your neck... these engravings... they seek control over you through the usage of the void... I thought the void injured you when they fragmented your mind, but it seems it was all a facade to hide the truth"

Laven closes her eyes as she touches my neck feeling at the roots, she opens her eyes

"And it has already claimed a big part of you, at this phase it's unable to be stopped. Oh Xavier, im sorry you have to endure this"

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I put a hand on her shoulder

"I'll be fine, i dont know what we have been to eatchother but seeing you risking getting caught by Jathorn makes me belive we used to be close. Tell me Laven, what do you know of void manipulation? Harko told me that controlling the powers of the void is possible and i have an idea."

Laven looks down then to the right side and straight into my eyes with a shocked expression

"You don't mean..."

I chuckle

"If they seek to controll me through the void, what if i learn to gain controll over this affliction? Breaking free of its possible controll over me?"

Laven worringly gazes into my eyes

"I...I dont know Xavier, everyone who meddled with the void has faces uncomprehensible loss...! Xavier, your eyes, they're changing!"

Ah, my eyes...

"I know, ive seen them too, im guessing this is not a good sign which may only mean that sooner or later, they'll get full controll over me"

Laven shakes her head in disbelief

"Dammit! I should have known! These fuckers kept you in a comatose state to fasten the process of the infection!"

I shush Laven as i hear walking outside the door

"Xavier! wake up sleepy head"

That's Jathorns voice, shit.

"Laven, hide quickly"

I whisper to her and point to the closet

Laven nods softly and hides within it.

"Xavierrrr"

Jathorn attempts opening the door

"yeah?"

I change my tone of voice to sound drowsy

"Why'd you locked yourself in, Xavier?"

asks Jatohrn

"I've only practically met you yesterday, its only logical to lock myself in not knowing much y'know"

Jathorn sighs

"Xavier, we are in the safest place you can be ive told you, you can trust the Light Beacon's safety, belive me"

He attempts to open the door again

"Now come and open this door already, ive prepared for you breakfast."

I look around in a drawer and find fresh bandages, using those i wrap them around my neck

"In a minute, allow me to dress up yeah?"

"Mmm.. Fair point. I'll wait here."

Jathorn responds to my request.

I finish bandaging while I rustle my clothing to make it sound like I'm dressing up.

"Alright, I'm done"

I go and open up the door with the keys which were in the lock.

"Ah, there we are. May I come in while you eat breakfast?"

I nod to his request while he hands me a plate containing eggs and fries. I go to the table at the bed's right side and sit down to eat while Jathorn picks up a chair from the room and puts it in front of the table where he sits.

"The cook prepared what your past self used to love for breakfast, I hope you'll like it"

I take a bite from the eggs and fries then from the bread

"Mmm, yeah it's fantastic!"

With my mouth full I answer his hopes.

Jathorn smiles

"I'm glad it's still good. Now, Xavier, I wanna tell you what I have planned to do for today."

I make a familiar hand gesture from instinct, did I use to make this gesture often? Jathorn continues as he sees the gesture, I'm guessing it means something along the lines of "continue".

"Well for one, I have good news before the plans. Scouts have seen what we believe to be a part of your fragmented mind, I didn't anticipate finding one this soon but this is a great opportunity to train and recover your mind"

I make a surprised expression, I feel excited about it but remembering what Laven said, it's likely a way for them to use me.

"As for the plans, today we will need you to reinforce some defenses with your fire, then we will assist purgers in purifying void materials, and after that, we will deliver said goods to the blacksmith. When we're finished we shall do some training with your hand in combat, if you manage to scratch me while training we will be going tomorrow for the fragment, how does that sound?"

I swallow the food

"Sounds like work."

Jathorn chuckles

"It does indeed, haha! but its work we must do"

I nod

"Well, I'm quite excited about the fragment, I've been questioning who I used to be for some time now and had no choice but to try to not think about it too much"

I take another bite from the food.

"It's quite confusing, I know, but I'm glad you're managing it, I promise we will get your memories back, who knows we might find Harko too"

now that he mentions it...

"Oh yeah, i've almost forgotten that Harko dissapeared, any news on them?"

Jathorn shakes his head

"Scouts did not report sightings of Harko or their light magic, we are yet to know where they may reside."

Unfortunate...

"I hope we may find something to give us a trail to follow at least."

Jathorn stretches

"Soon enough we should find something, I've dispatched scouts to search for them."

Well, I can only hope the scouts find something useful

"Good to know"

Jathorn gets up from the chair and begins walking toward the door

"That's everything I had to say for now. Finish eating and meet me near the Upbringing fields alright?"

I nod while taking another bite from the food. Jathorn leaves the room and closes the door behind him.

Laven slowly leaves the closet shortly after Jathorns leave, but as her ears and mine find out, Jathorn is coming back. I quickly point to go behind the door, she nods her head and stands behind the door as I snap quickly back to face the table.

Jathorn opens the door.

"Ah, I've almost forgotten Xavier, we will have a guest that would like to see you after we're done, try not to be rude to them if they insult you or make anything to anger you, got it?"

I nod while chewing

"Good, alright, Bon Appétit, my friend."

Jathorn closes the door without noticing Laven, that was very close.

Laven swipes away the sweat building up on her forehead from the encounter. I get up, open the door after some time and look around to see if anyone is nearby.

"Alright, it's clear now"

I tell Laven

"Phew! That was too close... I'll leave before anything else may happen, by the way, Xavier, Before you meet that guest, come to my room, if I am right then I fear the worst, ill help you out with a device."

I nod and look at her

"Very well, I'll be there, make sure you don't have anything bad happening to you in the meantime. Here, if anything goes bad ill help you out"

I create a soft fire to wrap underneath her hand's clothing

"If my guess about my power is right, then this fire will guard you dare someone attack you."

Laven thanks me and scuttles away fast, I go back into my room, finish eating and begin to prepare for the day ahead. There is a lot going on and I'm not sure which to belive exactly, I just hope Laven is the right choice...