"Screaming. Nothing else to note."

-The Siege of Tears Last Wills Report, Page 90

The Voidlands. Hell given form. For some, it is a tale used to scare children into thinking they'll be sent there if they're naughty. For most, it is where the Guild wages war against the accursed redcaps. For few, it is where they spend most of their life, playing a small part in an eternal struggle. For Nynae? It was disappointing.

Coming out of the other side of the Precipice, she was met with dull grey sandy fields, everything in sight ashen and barren. The only exception was the old ruin of a town, centuries old, barely keeping itself from falling apart, that surrounded the Precipice. On this side, instead of marble, the Precipice was constructed with a more volcanic rock than the other side's fine marble, grey erring on black with cracks that glowed red; likely some unknown material lost to time.

With Connor forced to follow her, it was only when he came out the other side did Nynae hear her friend's frantic screams of panic, only stopping when the boy finally found the courage to open his tightly shut eyes and see everyone else staring at him. Connor barely resisted the urge to crawl into a ball and cry right on the spot, only a bright red flush on his face to indicate his embarrassment as he hilariously tried to act like nothing was wrong, rigidly continuing onwards. The rest of her friends appeared on the other side of the portal soon after, Kurai being the only one to show a bit of fright when he emerged. Sid and Seiichi however were on the brink of exploding into uncontrollable laughter. Well, maybe a bit of laughter broke through.

"You should've seen his face when you pulled him through, Nyn!" Sid laughed, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, "He was acting all stoic one moment trying to comfort you, but the second you grabbed his hand and dragged him along with you, he was worse than a baby!"

If Connor wasn't blushing already, then the shade of bright red he turned in that moment? Sure to be a fierce one.

"You good?" Nynae asked, letting go of his hand to get in front of him fully.

"Yeah, ‘was just a little surprised at you pulling me along." Connor whispered, his red face growing a shade lighter, "Didn't really have time to prepare myself for going through."

"Sorry about that..." Nynae said, giving an apologetic smile. "Come, let's catch up with Lanyon."

Through her preparations the last couple days, Nynae learned the maps to navigate the ruins of Old Datrium well enough. As one of the first nations to be ravaged by the redcaps almost a thousand years ago now, its once bountiful sprawling cities have been either reduced to dust or, more fortunately, to mere disrepair. This ruin's name had been lost to time, only referred to as its once greater name of Datrium, or just the first Voidlands outpost. Another peculiarity of the Voidlands was its ash covered sands, where seemingly volcanic ash falls upon the half-desert plains of the lands, even if there were no volcanoes or the like in sight.

Making their way through the outpost, the group of friends caught up with Lucan pretty quickly who was spearheading the overall crowd of porcelains walking through the town. Guild members stationed at the outpost eyed them all curiously, half in realisation of what was happening and half in annoyance at having to deal with a group of new porcelains. However, the Guild members didn't have to deal with them for long, the group of porcelains being led out towards the edge of the outpost, and split into the ones going on the proper expedition and ones only lurking around. Class 1-A and 1-B gathered around Lanyon and 1-A's lecturer, looking more dishevelled than Nynae had seen before entering the Precipice, on a small hill just on the outskirts of Old Datrium.

"For the first day we will simply form small groups and head out within a league's radius of the outpost, returning back at the first sign of sunset. Anyone late will be sent back to Alandriel immediately; this expedition is not a joke. Run away at the first sign of hostiles, and do your best to alert someone. Scream, cry, doesn't matter. Anything to get someone's attention," Lanyon shouted, sounding as serious as something could be when it came out of that man's mouth.

"Should we still go ahead with the plan then? The possibility that this is a trap... it's getting smaller," Kurai whispered to Nynae, a frown growing on his face.

"We keep to the plan and follow Lanyon's orders. We just need to be ready for anything." Nynae repeated more to herself than anyone else, her confidence in their belief that this expedition was some sort of secret training exercise waning.

"Okay, form up groups and start heading out!"

Gathering back up into their friend group, Connor began leading them away from the outpost, looking back at the teachers every now and again in apprehension. They were watching, though, and even if they suspected that 'watching' wasn't as assuring as it should've been, it was something. Once they were out of view of the teachers, they positioned themselves behind a giant tooth-shaped rock jutting from the ground, and prepared.

"So... what are we even doing here?" Sid said, fiddling with a piece of string. "Lanyon never told us to do anything, so maybe just familiarising ourselves with our future battleground, but what else? It couldn't possibly take an entire day to do that, right?"

"Unless they plan on luring redcaps here today," Connor said her and the entire group's fears out loud, eyeing their surroundings with a stern - but more confident than before - gaze.

"Then we just have to stay vigilant. As planned," Nynae reiterated, joining Connor in looking for anything suspicious around them.

A sombre quiet fell upon the air, only the incessant winds and voices from other porcelains helping dampen their fears. Resolving themselves in the awkward pause, they began to make camp under the boulder, ignoring the stares of other groups passing by. They had to be prepared. We have to be ready. Or else.

* * *

Midnight's river was quiet this day, its usually tumultuous currents calm and steady. Gone were the erratic waves that threatened to drag anyone near in, or the man-sized fish that lurk in its depths and the havoc they cause. Daniel stared into the dark of the stream, an empty and distant gaze that greyed his hazel eyes. All of the colour that kept them bright gone, lost in the void that swallowed everything else that kept him sane. He had only beat the void once, and in doing so, earned the distrust of a platinum. Artless. Hopeless. Useless. A label that plagued him for most of his life. A label that was fake. A label that earned him the pity and ire of everyone around him just because he existed. Should he be happy that he wasn't artless? Anyone in their right mind would've been, right? No. Daniel had deceived everyone who loved or cared for him. Daniel had forced them to take pity on him, be friends with him, care for him, and risk it all to interact with an artless, such a useless being that even the dead gods forsook him.

How would they react if they knew the truth? How would Igo react? Frustrated that he had to sacrifice so much for someone who didn't deserve his care? Or disappointed that all the faith he had in Daniel was misplaced? How would Nynae react? Sad that her first Alandrian friend was a liar? Or disgusted that she had let herself be tricked by someone like Daniel? How would Lucan react? Happy that he had found a fellow lying sack of shit who had also pretended to be an artless just like him? Or furious that he fooled Igo into doing what he did for him? How would the Avitsons react? Betrayed by the platinums who had allowed Daniel into their home? Or scared of what else Daniel could've been lying to them about? How would Sun...

Wait. The void was there back then, wasn't it? The memories don't hurt as much anymore, so I can see them clearly. Yes, that was the void back then. The void was what killed Daniel originally. Then-

"What is the void?" Daniel wondered, speaking to the river and the other bugs in the grass around him. The void clearly interacted with his consciousness, being able to make something like Nameless and destroying other versions of 'him'. That made it a thing of the cognitive realm, no? Then how did it exist in the spiritual realm, when the original Daniel and Nameless constructed his soul room? Was the void a spiritual object then, that occasionally interacted with the cognitive realm, or was it the other way around? It couldn't be either, however, there was no reason after all that Daniel's soul would be so... abnormal...

Daniel wasn't artless. Daniel had Arts. Daniel had a Node. Daniel had a god's soul inside of him. Daniel's father had the Thunder Arts. Daniel's father had a soul fragment of a god who was still alive. Daniel's father had a Node originating from Dhalene himself. Daniel's father sometimes talked of him possibly inheriting his Node somewhat. Daniel could've inherited some of that Node. Daniel was abnormal; not because he had a Node, but because he possibly had a Node of Dhalene.

Shooting up from where he sat on the grass, Daniel almost stumbled into the river trying to catch his balance. And this time, there was no Gulliver to catch him. That almost stumbling turned into a falling, as a sudden slosh of the river pulled the previously artless boy into its depths. Daniel should've realised that the river wasn't 'calm' or 'normal', Midnight's river was never like a regular one its size; and just because it had hidden its nature to him in the moments before, it didn't make its true depths any less real.

Water rushing, bubbles streaming, limbs reaching, bubbles escaping, breath leaving, moments to years, years to moments, nothing made sense in the endless time in the river. Chaotic emotions turned stone cold. Rationale fled for instinct to take over. Panicked thoughts disappeared, desperation flooding all. In the river, everything made sense. And yet, Daniel was dying. He was still recovering from the soul link after all, and now he was drowning in a violent rapids. As despairing thoughts of death turned into acceptance, a never-before realised clarity revealed itself to the dying boy with the flash of a strange energy entering his mind.

Daniel's thoughts turned towards early memories of Gulliver's teaching, latching onto any happy memories in his last moments. Barely realised speculations on what the briefly mentioned realm elevation theory was, short lingerings on the meaning of cascading, swam into focus as his body followed the descending river that cascaded into the great forest of Gearmön. Short revelations into what intermediate soul theory was through Gulliver's occasional slip-ups, hinting at the relative nature of the spiritual realms. Reminders of the seemingly entangled cognitive and spiritual nature of the void, ever hungering for anything, as the river devoured Daniel through the jaws of the forest.

And then, it clicked. As the foliage of the dense forest plunged Daniel's sight further into darkness, the light of the barely setting sun fading away while the depths of the river further claimed him, the mysterious clarity became an epiphany. With his sight and hearing gone, and death beginning to claim his sense of feeling and smell, Daniel let himself be taken away by the depths.

But these new depths were not the river's.

Rather, these depths were that of the cognitive realm, and the void was there to welcome him in.

Gulliver was beginning to get impatient waiting for Daniel to deal with the fact he wasn't artless, the horizon beginning to turn purple as the sun set. He had been waiting for hours now, waiting just outside of the Avitson Fishing Shack and trying not to be tempted by Eni's earlier offer of lamb stew. It was only when Gulliver was off in his own world, fantasising about the lamb stew, that something got picked up at the edge of his spiritual vision, something that he had sensed many a time before but didn't take notice of.

"Who are you?" Gulliver said to thin air. "I'm surprised I only noticed you now. I always walked through and past the shop looking for Daniel on occasions, and yet you evaded my notice; my notice."

"I am no one special, Gulliver Harris." A voice spoke, seemingly coming from all directions at once until a figure emerged from behind the shop itself. A figure wrapped in black bandages, covering their armour, hands, and weapons, even hiding their face; everything but those piercing eyes. "Just doing a job. You must understand that-"

"Who. Are. You?" Gulliver asked again, soul energy coating his words and forming a thin mist around him. The figure levelled a dead stare at the platinum, before relenting with a mocking bow.

"Lis, Third Knight of The Inquisitor's Order, at your service." Lis sighed, as they reached down through their bandages and withdrew a scroll. "By the authority bestowed upon me by The Inquisitor, I am commanded to spy on-"

Ducking out of the way and stopping his announcement, a spray of gunfire whizzed past where Lis' head was as they returned the attack with the throw of a dagger. Batting the dagger away, Gulliver charged at and began to draw Lis away from the shack while silently chanting an Art causing the surrounding air to chill. With an inhuman grace, the knight predicted and avoided every swing the platinum threw their way, but still allowed Gulliver to drive him away from possible civilian casualties. Allowing the chant to finish, Lis and Gulliver teleported away from the shack to a small out of the way clearing near the great forest. And now, they could both go all out.

"Assassin Arts: One Mind" Lis cried out, their voice fading into nothingness as their body also vanished into a cloud of cold soul energy.

"Tactical Arts: Omnipresence" Gulliver shouted, a physical shockwave of soul energy bursting out of him in every direction. Residue soul energy coalesced into small darts that shot themselves into Gulliver's eyes, colouring them a deep mystical blue, more complex and mesmerising than humanly possible.

Seemingly swinging randomly with a freshly drawn sword, Gulliver parried an invisible strike coming from the shadows without even looking. Kicking his shoe into the air, and flicking his head backwards, Gulliver broke Lis' nose with a satisfying crunch, the shoe blocking a retaliatory slash as it fell behind him. Realising something too late, a grimace stained Gulliver's face as pre-emptively threw himself forward, followed by a set of miniature blades barely cutting through his back leaving trails of blood.

"T-Tactical Arts: Formulate" Lis' mumbling voice permeated the air, the pair stumbling under the sheer amount of will needed to use FAE on a platinum, and, even so, succeeding. With a jerk, the soul energy infusing his sight left Gulliver's eyes and reformed as small snaking rods, shooting out in every direction. Taking advantage of the backlash from using Omnipresence and the effect of FAE, Lis swung at the platinum's throat. However, what was not expected was the remaining dregs of Omnipresence leaving Gulliver's body and fulfilling the secondary function of the Art: aiding the nearest ally who just so happened to be towards the river. Though brief, the distraction granted by the Art was enough that Gulliver had time to block his neck with an arm, the dagger imbedding itself through the bone of it and becoming stuck.

Pain shooting through the platinum's body, Gulliver stole the stuck blade from his enemy's and bone's grasp, drawing it upwards into Lis' face. The blood trailing from the new wound was enough to reveal the knight once more, his One Mind failing to obscure his form any longer. The pair stood there for a moment, staring into their enemy's eyes. Considering how little damage they had inflicted on each other, they knew this was going to be a drawn out fight whether they wanted it to be or not. And so they struck once more, hoping the next attack was the last.

All was dark for but a moment in Daniel's mind, the previous feeling of epiphany disappearing once he descended into his mind. Then, there was light. Incomprehensible colours painted the new realm to Daniel, in hues too saturated, and shades too dark. Ripples of thought permeated the entirety of the realm, disrupting all that strayed too close to them, ruining the otherworldly landscape and sending waves of pain through Daniel's mind. Every single thought of every single living thing occupied everywhere, all at once: a single thought from a plant of adjusting their leaves; the instinct of a bug screaming warnings of a predator coming to eat them; and the hungry desires of creatures on the prowl. It was too much. Just as Daniel was drowning in the river in the material realm, he was buried under the sheer presence of existence in the cognitive realm. Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!

No matter how much Daniel screamed for it to stop, his own ripples of thought only exacerbated the cognitive realm, as if the realm itself accepted the foolish boy's challenge and made everything worse. Even muted, barely-realised thoughts of microorganisms made themselves aware to Daniel, amplified by his own disruption of the realm. Without any room for his own thoughts, Daniel felt his grip on reality begin to slip away, back into the realm of the physical, back into the clutches of death. Taunting his inevitable demise, the thoughts around his fed on his mind, growing more powerful and louder. Loud enough that the world around him became unmade. Loud enough that his own sense of self began to crumble into pieces. Loud enough that he didn't notice the ever-hungry void reaching out and dragging Daniel into it. Loud enough that-

Silence.

Inside of the void there was nothing. No colours. No noise. Only emptiness and... something unknown. The shadow of something ever present, ever lurking, but never making itself be.

Hanging inside of the macabre comfort of the void was a foolish boy. A boy who couldn't accept the truth. A boy who was so close to being happy. A boy who slipped and fell in his excitement of discovery. A boy who is now dying under the cold, dark gaze of a forest. A boy who tried to escape from death, and only made it worse. A boy teetering along the edge of life and nothingness, playing with something vastly more powerful than him. A boy who... a boy. Daniel was only a boy; a child. Nameless was a husk of a child, barely anything at all. And now, he was an abomination, a mix of two conflicting personalities, a mix that killed him. No. Not 'killed'. He was not dead yet. The void would not claim him again.

Straining his will to its limit, Daniel reformed his broken soul. The pieces strewn across the cognitive realm came back to him, entering the void. The shards that were left inside of the void, the remains of his old personalities and the one he had cast into it when they were barely a moment old, formed the brace that would support the new soul. The fragments of being filled the holes in the membrane as they spun into the void. Solidifying and filling in the imperfections of his soul, the old rushed work of Spirit Healing that had kept him alive during those weeks of torture was expelled, replaced by something stronger. Something that was him. And with it, Daniel was forged anew.

The dark void that had plagued his subconscious for so long was illuminated by the new power he regained, its horrid form revealed. It's terrible hungry jaws, clawing devouring whispers, did not belong to anything at all; the void was only a shadow after all. It made sense in the moment before entering the cognitive realm, and Daniel's theory was confirmed the moment he glimpsed the void's identity. The spiritual realm was a relative one, and this 'void' wasn't some creature, but the shadow of his own Node. A shadow so dark, so meagre in the light that was a living gods' soul, that it needed to be something more. It needed to feast on soul energy, on anything to make it more powerful. Yet, it wasn't enough. The void was almost cast into the cognitive realm, too powerless to stay inside of Daniel's spiritual space, until it caught itself in between the two. The void began to harvest soul energy not just from the spiritual realm, but from the dregs of Daniel's mind, corrupting it. And when Daniel showed a moment of weakness, no matter how brief, the void would consume.

However, there was one weakness with the void. No matter how much power it tried to steal, all of the void's power was Daniel's in the end. It had never ruled Daniel. Daniel was the unwitting ruler of it instead. The only difference from back then, was that now Daniel was aware who was in control; and the void definitely wasn't going to get away so easily.

Feeling where his old scraps of soul energy had been taken by the void, Daniel channelled his will towards those wounds, calling the stray soul energy back to its master. Drip by drip, soul energy leaked out of the void, taking its time. Though weak, the void had usurped his soul for a long time, and it could resist somewhat. Soon, the dripping became a shower. Then, it was a storm.

Rushing out of the void, draining it dry, soul energy returned to fill the gaps of Daniel's soul, weakening the void further. As the intensity of the soul energy transfer increased, the void shrank. Soon, it was a darkness. Then, it was only a shadow. A plague on his being for long enough, it had overstayed its welcome. Terrified at the fate it was about to suffer, the void desperately tried to escape. Jumping back towards a small gap in Daniel's vision that seemingly hadn't been there before, it tried to sneak through. If it was the material realm, then something as small as the void was now could've easily fit through that gap. This was no material plane though, and the gap shut most of the void out, only allowing some of it to escape upwards.

Like a great sun, Daniel illuminated the void and banished it, its sickening abyss reducing into a sludge sticking onto the walls of his mind begging escape. Begone!

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The void vanished from sight, evaporating into particles of soul energy that shortly dissipated. For what felt like the first time in his entire life, Daniel became able to think freely. It was as if an entire portion of his brain that was locked out from him had opened its gates, returning to him thoughts that were no longer coated in darkness, and sight that no longer made him see the worst in people. All of the thoughts and personality he had during his life that the void had altered and stolen were returned, no longer limited to the worldview that the void thought best for him. The original Daniel? Nameless? The short-lived replacement? Him as the mix of two personalities? All returned, and finally displaying the full picture of who Daniel really was. A foolish boy, yes, but a boy. A child who could finally think for himself. And his first thoughts? His first thoughts as a free person?

To escape. Swim out of the depths of the river that dared to claim him, and breathe. Shocked out of the cognitive realm, his body worked with what little life was left in him and swam. Barely enough to surface, his head broke the top of the water and drew in the deepest breath he had ever taken in his life. Rejuvenated by the sweet nectar of air, feeling in his limbs returned alongside other sensations that had been lost, allowing him to finally see where he should swim to and angle himself so that he could escape the river currents. With a few adjustments, Daniel collided with an overhanging tree branch, a lifeline he clung onto with all of his returning strength. Resisting the battering of water threatening to claim him once more, Daniel lifted himself out of the river and onto the branch itself. Trying not to collapse from relief, he shuffled along the tree branch just a little bit, until he was over ground once more. Only then did he fall, feeling the light touch of grass on his face once more. Though the grass did cushion his fall slightly, Daniel did fall hard and his weakened body felt pain. Good pain, pain that reminded himself that he could feel once more, but pain nonetheless.

Daniel was out. Out of the river, and out of the void. Daniel didn't notice when tears began to fall from his eyes, or when he started to cry with everything he had left in him. Daniel simply didn't care. Not because he couldn't, but because he was free; and nothing more mattered to him in that moment than that.

Daniel was free. Daniel was alive.

The moon high in the sky, Gulliver and Lis stood still, simply staring at each other in the miniature crater they created with their attacks. They breathed hard from their wounds, their various discarded weapons strewn everywhere. No matter how many Gulliver had deflected or blocked, Lis seemingly had an endless supply of blades, continuingly pulling dagger after dagger from their black coverings.

"Surrender Gulliver, you know by now I can keep going at this all night. You? Your old, already huffing and puffing with mild wounds like those. Give up, and tell me where the boy is." Lis gloated with a harsher edge than before, their laid back pre-battle personality gone.

"You know, you made one mistake in all of this." Gulliver found himself saying, almost accidentally until realising that this contributed even more to his formulated plan.

"Why should I entertain the musings of a dying man?"

"Why not?"

"...Fine. What mistake did I make then?" Lis sneered, not hiding the malice in their eyes. The drawn out nature of the fight clearly irritated them, with Lis probably expecting this to be short and sweet.

"You used FAE on me. You used FAE to cancel my Art and force me to use another Art."

Without saying a word, Lis readied a new set of blades, eager to throw.

"Specifically, you made me use Formulate. An Art that you knew the use of, especially if you used it for FAE."

Panicking that they had missed something, Lis began to throw their dagger straight at Gulliver's face. Until a gunshot blew their brains to bits. Lis' dead body fell to the ground with a soft squelch, their head's insides spraying over the ground. Shuffling over to their body until he was directly over it, Gulliver fired two more precise shots; one in Lis' heart, the other in their intestines.

"Even I forgot I had a gun for a little while before Formulate reminded me of it. All it took was a little while of not using it for you to forget about it too. Handy how that worked out, eh?"

Gulliver's wounded body collapsed to the ground. The gunshots he fired should have been enough to notify the fraeru something was up, in case of them thinking that the spray at the start of the fight was something not out of the ordinary. Gods, am I really this tired from only this?

Then all went black.

Daniel was free. Daniel was alive. And Daniel was lost. It seemed that he had been flushed downstream for longer than expected, and the dense foliage covered the sky, blocking most of what little light the cloudy night offered. Every muscle and bone in his body ached, battered after his trip in the river, and the lack of a good meal in him only made everything worse.

Despite what the inhabitants of Midnight said about their previous home, tales didn't do this jungle justice. Half the time, the forest was so humid and dense that Daniel found it hard to think, even in the low temperatures of the night, while on the flip side, parts of the forest were unbearably dry; a by-product of the magic fraeru elders conducted to escape their lives as elves. In the dry spots, the trees and thick grass that rose up to his chest had turned yellow, and whatever water dropped onto the parched ground was instantly absorbed. Just by being in the dry spells did Daniel feel drained. There was no way the ground was absorbing his body's water, right?

Perturbed by the thought, he made sure to pass through dry areas of the forest quickly. Avoiding them was hard, with it being impossible to tell where one was until you stumbled upon one, but navigating around them was easy and only added a few minutes to his journey. The humid sections were almost as bad though, the energy-sapping feeling of the forest only slightly better here than the dry areas. And by Elase was Daniel's energy running out. It seemed he would have to stay the night. In the forest. Alone. Fuck.

Daniel eventually found a nice clearing in the forest, less humid and dense than its surroundings, but the lack of light was still a problem alongside the little space he had even here. Leaning and sitting down against a large fallen log that spanned the clearing, Daniel finally shut his eyes, sleep calling to him sweetly. There was something else on his mind though. When he was in the river, struck with that strange feeling of enlightenment, Daniel figured out how to enter the cognitive realm. If he did that once, why couldn't he do it again? The only problem with that was he couldn't remember how he actually entered it. The void certainly had helped him to enter, but it couldn't have been all the shadow's fault, right? Guess I can only try.

Daniel began by trying to clear his mind, similar to when he tried to calm down during his previous panic attacks. He was floating inside of an endless nothing, no body, no mind, no thoughts; only his being. Slowly, Daniel began to grasp at what he assumed to be the second step. It seemed that he was supposed to begin to fall into some sort of sleep-like state, like how he drifted off in the river. Somehow all while conscious.

In an attempt to replicate the conditions he had in the stream, he first tried to shut off his senses. One at a time, Daniel worked through them, snuffing them out. The blades of grass underneath him no longer existed, their sharp jabs and cushiness, gone. The humid air smothering his lungs, draining him of what he had left after the rapids. The strands of hair on his head that he pretended hadn't turned white at the tips long ago. The slightly wet smell and feel of his clothes, now practically dry of the dirty water they had been drenched in. And then it revealed itself to him.

A small sixth sense that never before existed. A thing he hadn't tuned out quite yet. It was a mix of all senses at once: a buzzing sound; an intriguing taste; a colourless colour; an appetising smell; and a coarse feeling, all at once. Even to ascribe those senses to this new one would do it a disservice. It was new. It was fascinating. It was... it felt like a dream. Yes, that's what it was. A dream given physical form. With the epiphany in mind, Daniel racked his memories to try and figure out what he did next. No matter what he thought or started to do, it didn't seem right, as if this new sense was rejecting whatever idea he had in mind. Maybe I should listen to it? Try and figure out what it wants instead?

Of course, Daniel didn't physically try to listen to the new sense, he couldn't after all without ruining what state he had brought himself into. Instead, he asked a question. What do I do?

...

Silence. As expected. What did I think it was going to do, speak to-?

Shooting through his mind as a shock of pain and electricity was an intense instinct, something unlike anything he had felt before. Well, maybe not comparable to his time back... then... but it was... odd, for lack of a better word. An odd instinct that told him to speak the truth. Odd, like a dream.

This is... you aren't like a dream, are you?

You are a Dream.

Colours. Bombarding his vision once more, the cognitive realm's psychedelic view of the world threatened to split Daniel apart. Without any void to save him, his only choice was to find a way out of his fresh hell. He first tried to think of how he got out last time, but found himself unable to make any coherent thought before it was snuffed out by the pressure of every other living thing around him. He then brought his breaking mind to how the void escaped, and found the way out almost immediately. Just like how he found the entrance to the cognitive realm, he found that this exit had always existed for him, with it being only now that Daniel noticed it when the void fled. This exit was different though. It was not a new sensation, rather, it felt like a solid object. Immutable. Unyielding. And most importantly, safe.

It was a gateway that bridged the gap between the chaos of the cognitive realm and the serene calm beyond. Yes, that's what it was. A bridge. A spiritual bridge. A bridge that, unlike the sensation that allowed him into the cognitive realm, could let him through as he wished. So, Daniel wished.

Ushering him in was an endless nothing, as far as the eye could see. This nothing was not a darkness. In fact, this had no colour at all. It was simply empty space, unimaginably wide and deep. The majesty of the cognitive realm was long gone in this place, a distant, insignificant memory compared to the absoluteness of this new realm. An incredibly familiar realm. The spiritual realm.

Time and space slipped away, it being unable to fully comprehend and describe what was happening to Daniel in that moment, and all concepts of reality the boy thought he knew became irrelevant. Those constricting rules of reality could not cage the spiritual realm anymore than an ant could try caging the sun. Yet, for this space of his, this portion of the entire spiritual realm that belonged to him, Daniel was in control. His will extended far and wide, filling the space like an unlimited ocean, only coming to stop against a similar barrier of will; a void, a Node. Memories from the epiphany returned again, emphasising the relativity of the spiritual realm, and how 'the concept of space itself broke down', in the words of Gulliver at least. If space doesn't matter here, why can't I simply be wherever I want to be?

With that simple stray thought, Daniel, for the first time, shifted.

Daniel appeared in front of his Node, leaping over the infinite space that spanned between them in but a moment, breaking all concepts of reality, and violating none of them at the same time. Covering his entire vision was a perfectly smooth glass-like ball, filled with rumbling clouds of grey and brief flashes of angry yellow lightning. Hovering around it was the void, the creeping shadow that now tried to hide behind the Node itself from Daniel when he noticed it. As if trying to threaten Daniel, the Node flashed bright with a thundering blast of lightning, the ripples of soul energy coming off of it permeating through Daniel's very being. The shockwaves vibrated the current image of Daniel present in the spiritual realm, not exactly his soul, but something like a representation of it; and that shockwave hurt it. Cracks blasted through the boy's crystal form, marring his will and control over his own spiritual space.

No. Stop thi-

Unlike the void that had cowered in front of him when he showed his true might, his Node was not afraid of Daniel. Why would it be afraid? This soul was that of a gods! And even if it was only a fragment of it, it contained more soul energy than Daniel could even dream to wield in his current state. Unafraid, a spike of lightning struck Daniel from the Node, burning his glass body further, almost completely breaking it. Harnessing the excess soul energy was a hopeless struggle against a gods' will, and Daniel tried nonetheless. Only managing to scrap together a few small sparks of the energy, he began to concentrate it towards not himself, not repairing his spiritual body and not towards retaliation. It was towards something impossible.

It began as a small tendril, stretching back into the non-existent horizon behind Daniel, towards some unknown goal, with its end sitting nicely in Daniel's grasp. Gathering more of the ambient soul energy of the realm, he transferred it to this infinitesimally wide pipe, widening and strengthening it. Extending it further, the pipe collided with something all that way away from the boy. A soul. His soul. Grinning, or doing the equivalent of that in his spiritual form, Daniel instinctively knew what he was doing was the right thing to do. Almost exactly how it was when creating a soul room, instinct started to guide his will.

Penetrating his soul membrane, the pipe formed an exit tube for the inside of his soul with a vague sense of a valve system, allowing the soul's membrane to slide open and close at will at the entry point. Stopping the widening of the pipe - no, not a pipe, a link - Daniel extended it towards his Node, much to the dismay of the soul fragment, its simmering anger boiling the very soul energy around it, transforming it into crackling shocks of electricity. Booming with soul energy, a single lightning bolt whipped towards the link in an attempt to destroy it, but Daniel was faster. Shifting into the way of the bolt, his swiftly dissolving form took the brunt of the force, mitigating all of the soul energy he could away from the actual damage done to his body. If he was beginning to run short of the soul energy gained from the first couple attacks, he was certainly refilled now. Although most of the soul energy got unconsciously redirected to filling the gaps of his form, a sizable amount of it, which, to Daniel, was more he than could imagine to create, went into the growing shape of the link. Previously a slow and steady expansion, the link burst with life upon receiving the new gift of soul energy, rushing towards its target at dramatic speeds.

Despite being hostile to Daniel, the Node itself couldn't exactly kill its host, as it would most likely end in its own death as well. That didn't mean it couldn't do something extreme though. A crippled host was no different to a healthy one at the end of the day, as long as it stayed alive. Only, if the link was completed, the Node couldn't fight back anymore or it would jeopardise the safety of itself as well. So, as a last ditch effort, it prepared to attack. Properly this time.

Almost immediately Daniel could tell something was wrong. A sense of dread only comparable to his last moments under Ellis' gaze consumed the entire spiritual space. Looming over all was an axe ready to chop off a head. Relief filled Daniel upon realising that this attack wasn't aimed at him, before despair ran rampant upon realising what it was attacking instead. Conveying a single, morbid concept, this attack struck.

Execute.

Light. Pain. Everything's gone. Everything hurts. Vision gone. Unable to control a thing. Spiralling. Shifting. Running. After what felt like years of fleeing did Daniel finally regain his sanity. Looking back on the remains of the attack, Daniel saw death. Everything surrounding the Node was obliterated by simultaneous lightning strikes followed by the loudest thundering shockwave Daniel had ever heard, even if it was for only a moment before he was torn apart. Only, the attacks didn't stop there. Strike after strike, the attack didn't stop, barely moments between each thunder wave. It had taken every bit of will and soul energy in him to resist the temptation to return to the physical realm and try not to shatter under the pressure of it all, and it had been worth it. Though powerful, each subsequent flash was weaker than the last, it being the only reason Daniel could've even contemplated shifting out of the way. Even though the soul link had been severely damaged in the attack, it couldn't reach across that endless distance and damage his soul. Shifting all the way back to the Node in an instant - strange how the distances covered by shifting varies - Daniel's suspicions were confirmed. The Node's permanent flashing of lightning had ceased, the soul fragment turning a deep grey, still rumbling with power and soul energy, but, ultimately, drained.

Feeling at the ambient soul energy left behind by the attempted execution, despite all of the surrounding's original soul energy being seemingly evaporated, the attack's residue left a figurative treasure trove of soul energy to use. With the Node being drained, it didn't even have the will to resist as its soul energy was taken control of with Daniel's will and used for recovery and the soul link. Twisting into shape, the link stopped short of the Node's own membrane when it reformed and continued to grow with Daniel's help. He taunted his Node slightly, the link prodding the strangely flexible membrane that separated his spiritual space and the Node, all the while with a slight smile on his own figurative face. In response, the Node could only grumble, offering a slight flash of colour that died down almost immediately after. Daniel couldn't deny that it gave him a bit of a fright, so he continued on without reserve.

Instantly, upon connection and penetration of the membrane, all opened up to Daniel. The hostile will of the void and Node disappeared, or rather, hid from his sight as his will partially joined with the soul fragment's own will. The void retreated away and completely into the Node itself, somewhere that couldn't be seen, somewhere strange. Without the shadow obscuring all, the uncovered nothingness of his Node's surroundings finally felt open to Daniel, instead of cold and oppressive. Another boon of his soul link was what he could finally see. Before, Daniel had been feeling out soul energy with his will, mentally, and had never actually seen it. Up until now, he had thought that was what he was supposed to do. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Streams of soul energy revealed themselves to Daniel, floating around the entire realm, with the exception of the obliterated surroundings of the Node. When Daniel had tried physically reaching out to the soul energy before, it had always seemingly slipped from his grasp. Now? It came to him, instead. Caressing the colourful amalgamation of soul energy that began to orbit around his spiritual form, Daniel drew it in and focused it towards the new task at hand. Finding a way out.

Though he was ecstatic at all the power he now held in his grasp, Daniel had suffered a lot of damage at the hand of his Node and he doubted his own body in the real world fared any better. It turned out that Daniel found the spiritual bridge again even easier than he found it in the cognitive realm. Allowing the cloak of following soul energy to guide him, he shifted himself over to the spiritual bridge, mesmerising soul energy trailing in his wake like a great mantle alight with royal colours. Daniel reached forward towards the tear in the spiritual realm, the soul energy he had gathered dissipating and returning back from where it came from. Finally shattering, the remains of Daniel's form drifted into the spiritual bridge, exiting the spiritual realm, tumbling through the cognitive realm, and returning to his real body in the physical realm. It hurt.

Morning light from the sunrise streamed through the tree cover and into the clearing, making Daniel's blaring headache worse. Body hurting and begging for food in any form, Daniel was barely able to drag himself up and look at the sky. The sun rises from the... east, yes the east. The towns south of the forest, so I'll travel with the sun on my left. Too tired to double check his reasoning, Daniel stumbled his way through the forest, not caring when barbs or tree branches added to his quickly accumulating wounds, both physical, mental and spiritual. The only reason that made Daniel continue onward was the thinning of tree line and shortening of the grass, giving Daniel some hope that this was the right way. There! The sound of running water to his side. Looking to his left, Daniel saw the edges of the river that almost drowned him, flowing the opposite direction of where he was going.

With more than enough confirmation, Daniel's stumbling turned into a sprint, caring not for his regular tripping and scratching, running further and further from the depths of the forest. Each fewer tree, and each shorter blade of grass, lit the last flecks of hope in Daniel's heart on fire, spurring him onward, faster. Faster. Faster! And then, light.

Seeing the first proper rays of light for over a day almost blinded Daniel. It was worth it though. Daniel was out. In front of him, separated by the deceivingly thin river, was the town of Midnight, in all of its morning hustle and bustle. Happy tears fell from Daniel's face, catching on the edges of his ear-to-ear smile, only an exhausted laugh escaping from his lips. The last thing he saw before collapsing was a familiar face walking around town before his wandering gaze found Daniel, eyes filled with recognition.

Then all went black.

* * *

It grew cold fast in the Voidlands, not even the sun at almost midday adding any heat to the dead land. Nynae had set up a small campfire for her friends while they prepared their own supplies. She had been sitting in front of the fire, staring into its dancing flames, for almost an hour now. Looking away every now and again to get rid of the spots in her vision, her gaze landed on her friends. Many of them sat idle too, either joining her in staring at the fire or, in Seiichi's case, carving away at a piece of firewood with a knife. When they left the outpost behind, they expected their teacher's 'ploy' to start immediately, ready to be attacked by a redcap force at any moment. There was no redcap force yet, and their supposed 'smart' idea that this was some sort of test was beginning to further fall apart.

"How does using our first day productively sound?" Nynae asked, her voice little louder than a whisper. "It's unlikely that we'll be attacked now, right? We would've heard things from other groups passing by, or screaming at the very least."

"But what if this is still a trap?" Kurai said, brow furrowing. "What if letting our guard down is exactly what they want? And then they'll get us?"

"No, I agree with Nyn here," Connor grumbled, sitting sideways to the rest of the group. "We would've been attacked by now. And letting other groups explore without us on the first day leaves us at a disadvantage. We need to do something other than hunker down and camp."

"Fine. But then what?" Kurai retorted, confliction showing in his nervous gaze.

"We deal with it. That's the best we can do," Sid said. She hadn't done much since they set up camp, and was clearly growing bored.

Silence dawned on the camp, everyone unsure of who would take charge. Damnit, I should probably lead considering it was me who brought it up. Standing up and picking up her supplies, Nynae gave everyone a questioning stare, as if asking why they hadn't started to prepare either. Not wanting to suffer Nynae's stare any longer, the others joined her in packing, with Connor taking on the duty of putting out and hiding the fire. With most of their supplies being still packed due to the length of their rest, it didn't take long for them to march out of the safety of the boulder's shadow and into the somehow even cooler air of the plains around them, despite the sun above.

Getting into some semblance of a formation, the group walked straight ahead and didn't veer from their course barely at all. With Connor counting how much distance they crossed, they stop the instance he indicated that they passed a league.

"Well now what? We found nothing. Should we go around in a circle or something, or just go back to the safety of our camp, which, mind you, we just dismantled?" Kurai complained. Nynae couldn't help but grit her teeth, trying to avoid the uncomfortable look he gave her. I let him down. Just like everyone-

"Oh shut up, Kurai, stop throwing a tantrum," Sid said, breaking the silence she held for the entire walk, entirely abnormal for her. "You agreed to do this too in the end."

"Pressured more like it! I certainly wasn't going to stay alone at camp while everyone else went off and-"

Kurai's continued outburst was stopped by the trembling hand of Seiichi on his shoulder. Whipping around, his brother saw a terrified, pleading gaze seeing past him. Kurai followed Seiichi's stare and his face soon turned to shock too.

It sat on a rock nearby, hunched over and crouched, staring over the party with an insidious glare. Its skin was on the lighter side, but often stained and dirtied, mud and blood caked onto it. Licking a dagger dry of old, but still somehow wet blood, its long hissing tongue flicked over the sharp edges of its barbed blade. The thing wore little armour, but the armour it wore was more than enough, for the crimson cap that sat on its head indicated what kind of thing it was, and it was a terrible thing. It was a redcap.

"Oblyet? Keh. Kwatch! Obl Esk: Eirtyr," The redcap spat, its strange words laced with an unusual edge, an edge that seemed to permeate Nynae's entire being near the end. A familiar edge that she herself had sometimes spoke with. It was an Art.

Then all went black.