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Asleep again and thrust into the abyssal Void, Cass was panicking. He could feel cold entropy and hungry annihilation mixing in the depthless darkness. It was coming for him, surrounding him, washing over him in an unstoppable tide that could wash away reality like it was nothing more than a few grains of sand on a beach. Expecting obliteration Cass was met with something he thought impossible from this unyielding maelstrom, he felt ... welcomed. The Void surged around him; he could feel the overwhelming presence of oblivion caressing him with the care of a mother holding her newborn. What should have been his end, instead felt like a long-awaited reunion with a lover. The Void pulled his consciousness further into its embrace, he could feel absolute destruction touching every part of him, but instead of erasing him, it suffused him. Treating Cass like a newly returned son the Void poured an infinitesimally small amount of itself into him. He now understood that the Void wasn't an entity like a god, but a kind of developed instinct that was a manifestation of the Void's power. This instinct saw him as compatible, in a way that it decided was close enough to itself not to annihilate and assimilate, but embrace. The Void is energy incarnate, with a hunger to grow, it consumes reality, producing more void energy through the annihilation process, a sustainable energy reaction that produces more of itself by assimilating the energy produced during the process of obliterating whatever it touches. Recognizing in him the same hunger to grow as it saw in itself, the same unrelenting drive to become greater, the Void welcomed him into its cold, dark, hungry embrace.
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I wake up remembering the caress of absolute destruction. Today I can recall my dream, it's insane but it feels so real. I feel like I had one of those waking dreams people talk about, like I was conscious for the dream and truly experienced it. The dream didn't make any sense to me though, why would such destructive force not just obliterate me on contact. Shaking my head and chuckling a little at myself, I went through my morning routine of preparing my gear and having breakfast with Andy and Lilly. We bantered back and forth, Lilly joining in more now that she was starting to get comfortable with us. We speculated on what happened to most of the people in our small city, and what the future held in store for us.
Exiting the lobby of my apartment building it takes only a minute or two for me to spot the first group of monsters today. It's a group of beetles and I start in on my deadly work. Immediately upon my first kill, a decently placed shot of an energy blade into the foremost beetle's head, I feel the cold energy flowing into me along with the standard class energy I receive for my kill. The energy feels more tangible now, it's not an increase in amount, but an increase in potency.
Methodically killing the remaining beetles with energy daggers and swift cuts of my energy blade, I ruminate on why the cold energy has suddenly become more potent than yesterday. With a final energy dagger landing squarely between two compound eyes I receive the last jolt of both types of energy. Finding a spot nearby to safely regenerate energy, I consider the cold energy, and it reminds me of something. It reminds me of the darkness from my dream, although astronomically less potent than what I felt from the endless abyss I witnessed during my slumber. Thinking back, I remember waking up the past few mornings feeling odd each time. I wonder if I've had more dreams like the one I had last night, and just don't remember them. If that is true maybe the energy phenomenon is becoming stronger with every dream I have. Is this normal, have other people been having odd dreams that affect them or their energy. I need to talk with Andy and Lilly tonight and ask if either of them has been having strange dreams.
Assuming that my dreams are the reason for this energy I'm receiving, and that I am correct in equating said energy with the Void in my dream, what does this mean, for me, for everyone else if this is a common occurrence. I'd like to think that I'm special, but I can't allow myself to be arrogant, and presume this is only happening to me. What I need to do is ask my companions, watch for it in others, and keep an eye on what it's doing to me. That said, I'm extremely excited about what this could mean for me. If I can become even one millionth of the power of what I dreamt, I would be like some demigod from the ancient Greek pantheon.
With my thoughts in order, I got back to hunting monsters. Throughout the day, as I killed monsters, I would focus on the feeling of what I now called Void energy, seeping into my body. I would focus on how it felt when it entered me, and the amounts each strike to a beast would net me. In between fights while I regenerated, I focused on studying my energy, and how the Void energy mixed with it, combining to alter my energy. I don't understand what my energy is becoming, I can't even tell any difference between my old energy, and what it is now, aside from coloration and odd feelings of cold and hunger. It still answers my call with ease and kills with impunity, it is still mine, which comforts me.
Continuing to practice my skills and observe the Void energy throughout the day, I realize as it's getting late that I am close to my next class energy threshold. If I had to guess how close, I would estimate about 90-95 percent, but that's just a guess based on what I feel. I decide to be smart and pack it in as night falls, I'm tempted to stay out and reach the next threshold no matter what, but I won't reach anything if I'm dead from a lack of caution, or a mistake due to being tired. Ascending the stairs of my apartment building to the 5th floor as night truly falls, I gather my companions for dinner.
Giving it a few minutes and being subtle I decide to interrupt the silence between light conversation topics with my question.
"I had this weird dream last night; it was like one of those waking dreams that feels like you're actually there. Have either of you had any dreams lately." I internally scoff at myself. way to go Cass, so much subtlety.
They both think for a second.
"Nah Cass I don't really remember dreams, or I just don't have them very often." Andy replies.
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"Nope, the last dream I had was your standard falling dream a few weeks ago." Lilly takes longer and seems both confused and a little agitated by the odd course the conversation has taken but moves on quickly.
I move the conversation along after that, talking about how much supplies we have left, and our conversation quickly returns to our normal evening discussions, which center around guesses at what changes have occurred across the world, and other such inquires relating to our predicament. As the night wraps up, and having not so subtly questioned my companions about dreams, I was about to bid Lilly a good night as I split from her in the hallway to return to my room, when she grabs my arm and asks me to wait.
Turning to face her, I ask what's wrong.
"It may be nothing, and I don't know if this really applies, but you asked us if we have had any odd dreams, and well ..." Lilly pauses for long enough I say something.
"Are you okay? You can tell me whatever it is you want to say." I try to coax her into speaking with a soft voice.
"Well, I've had a few um.. nightmares about what almost happened ... in the alley." She speaks haltingly, and I see a tear run down her cheek.
"I wasn't sure if that was the kind of dream you were talking about, but I wanted to let you know, just in case." Lilly finishes and looks down, not meeting my eyes.
I feel like someone punched me in the gut, I want to hug her and tell her I'll make it all better, but I know only time can do that for her. I let some of my protective instincts show and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you for telling me. I know that took a lot of courage." I start in a reassuring voice.
"I want you to know that I will do my very best to keep you safe, okay, and if there's anything you need, or that I can do for you just tell me. I'm here for you, and those men can't hurt you anymore." I lean down to catch her brilliant emerald green eyes as I say the last part, I put as much conviction and assurance into my voice as I can, hoping to show her my absolute sincerity in doing my best to keep her safe, and to remind her that she doesn't have to fear those bastards who hurt her any longer.
She nods and gives me a small smile that reaches her tear-filled eyes, before thanking me and bidding me a goodnight, after which she walks into her apartment and shuts the door.
Leaning back against the hallway wall, I look up and sigh, sad for Lilly and what she has gone through, and wishing I could have done more. I gather myself and return to my apartment, tired in mind, body, and soul tonight. Going through my nightly routine of giving myself a quick wipe down for blood and grim, and then dressing in case I need to get up and go quickly, I retire to bed, out before I can do a mental recap of the day.
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I know I'm asleep, but I'm aware, and I'm standing in my bedroom. There's no hole in the wall, and I can see text hovering in front of me. The same text that initially clouded my vision on the day this began. Before I can do anything besides wonder what's going on, I feel something pulling at me. In moments, the walls and everything around me start to elongate, to stretch into the distance. I can feel it starting to affect me, I'm being stretched and pulled, I can feel reality around me bending, warping in intangible ways. I'm flying along at speeds faster than light. In this tunnel of warped reality, it feels like time is moving slowly, but I'm sure all this is happening near instantaneously to anyone outside of the phenomenon. As I'm being pulled along incomprehensible distances, suddenly reality around me shatters like glass being struck by a wrecking ball, and I'm instantly sucked out into absolute darkness. It takes me a second, but I know this darkness, this unimaginably vast inky nothingness stretching to infinity. This is the Void, and like in my dreams, it notices me, it realizes that I have noticed it as well, that I have seen the imperceivable incarnation of oblivion. I can feel the abyss racing towards me now, and as it nears from universes away, I start to notice the absolute cold of entropy, and the roiling waves of hungry annihilation. They grow as my destruction nears, however as in my dream when it finally crashes over me, I am welcomed as kin, and instilled with a miniscule portion of its vast power. The Void holds me for seconds that seem like days, caressing its newly found brother with the destructive tendrils of oblivion, never hurting a single hair on my head. After this embrace with the Void, it gently places me back into the moving stream of reality, the thread of existence that is my old universe being pulled across planes and into the Prime Material. The process of being ripped from reality as it shatters, having the Void embrace me, and being shunted back into reality to be dropped off in the Prime Material with the rest of my universe, put such pressure on my mind and will that to protect me, my mind erased what had happened and fed it back to me in pieces, allowing me to process what had come to pass without shattering my will. Finally understanding what had occurred and remembering all of the dreams I had over the past few days, I know that during the initialization process I fell through reality and into the Void. I would have been utterly destroyed if not for the Void recognizing one of its core instincts inside of me and helping me back into reality.
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Jerking awake I was stunned, absolutely baffled by what I now remember transpired during the shifting of my universe into the Prime Material. The thought that I was so close to oblivion, and only saved by a rising desire to grow stronger during the seconds before initialization, was hard to come to terms with. Setting that aside to deliberate on later, I turned to considering the implications of being accepted as I was by the Void. Firstly, I was definitely receiving void energy when I attacked monsters, and being touched by the Void was why it was happening. Secondly, I needed to figure out if the Void was affecting my mind or body in any other ways, and if so, what were they and are they beneficial or detrimental to me. I didn't feel any different, and I noticed the void energy fairly quickly, but I still wanted to keep it in mind going forward.
Considering what I now know of the Void, I think I know what's transpiring to produce void energy when I attack. The way the Void grows is by consuming, and in the act of doing so, producing more of itself through the complex annihilation process unique to the Void. With my energy being touched by the Void, whenever I use it to strike at creatures, that reaction is occurring on a small scale and the excess energy produced by the attack is being sent back to me. The reason the amount is so small, is that my energy isn't the Void itself, meaning there's only so much void energy mixed with my own, and there for a much smaller reaction. However, with each reaction the void aspect of my energy is producing pure void energy, which is then being sent back and mixed with my energy, slowly increasing the mix of void and my initial energy into what is now my current energy.
With an initial understanding of what happened to me and what that experience did to me, I settle my mind, and begin my morning routine.