The midday sun beat down on the Argent family's training grounds, a harsh spotlight on Valen's fifteen-year-old shoulders.
He remained in the cool shadow of the armory, watching his older brother, Kael, and sister, Lyra, spar.
Their swords flashed like streaks of lightning, each parry and thrust a symphony of controlled power. The air around them thrummed with mana, a beautiful, invisible force that Valen could sense with perfect clarity, yet could not command.
Kael, his brother, was a master of speed. With every strike, his blade left a faint afterglow, a shimmering echo of concentrated mana.
Lyra, the second-born, was a genius of pure force. Her blade didn't just cut; it shattered. With each downward strike, the very earth seemed to tremble.
They were the Argent family's pride, the inheritors of the legendary Argent Blade technique, a form of swordsmanship passed down for generations.
Valen, however, was the exception. His mind was a steel trap, a perfect library of swordsmanship theory. He could analyze his siblings' movements and pinpoint a flaw in a complex sequence that even their master would miss.
He knew the precise angle for a lethal strike, the subtle shift of weight that created an unbreakable defense. But his body was a fragile cage, a mana deficiency leaving him unable to channel even the smallest trickle of power.
He was an Argent in name only, a spectator to his own lineage. A familiar knot of frustration tightened in his chest. A flawless mind in a broken body. A useless genius.
Suddenly, a shift in the air silenced the ring of steel. The sky, a perfect, cloudless blue just moments ago, began to crack. Not like glass, but like a vast, invisible membrane being torn apart. A jagged, brilliant light pulsed from the fissures, followed by a chorus of whispers that echoed not in the air, but directly in everyone's minds.
[Universal System Initializing…]
[Mana Density Surging. World Evolution Commencing.]
[Gates Opening. New Realms Detected.]
Floating text, shimmering with a faint light, appeared before everyone.
For Kael and Lyra, it was a moment of excited confusion. They were already mana users, their talents a known quantity. But for Valen, it was a moment of profound, bitter irony.
The world had just validated every warrior, every mage, every person with even a flicker of talent.
The System's notifications were just another reminder of his own deficiency.
The excitement turned to terror when a Gate tore open less than a mile from their estate. It was not a grand, spiraling portal like the ones in the sky. This was a ragged tear in reality, a gaping mouth of swirling, absolute darkness.
From the void, a creature unlike anything in their world emerged. It was a shifting, indistinct thing, a living shadow and light that defied the eye. It screamed, and the sound was a physical blow that sent mana users stumbling back.
The Argent patriarch, a man who had faced dragons, immediately took a defensive stance, his blade glowing with mana. Kael and Lyra followed suit, their faces grim.
Valen's mind, however, was already racing. He saw it. Not the beast itself, but the void it carried with it. He saw the way it twisted the very mana in the air, a constant paradox of existence that would render his family's techniques useless.
He shouted, "Don't use mana! It feeds on it!" But his voice, a weak cry against the roar of the monster, was drowned out.
His father, driven by instinct and years of training, lunged forward with a mana-infused strike. The blade sliced through the creature, but instead of being wounded, the beast seemed to drink the mana from the strike. It grew larger, its form solidifying. Valen watched in horror as his family was overwhelmed.
Adrenaline surged through him, an emotion he had never known. The genius who knew the perfect counterattack was useless unless he could do something.
Anything.
He grabbed a forgotten practice sword, a dull, heavy blade that couldn't hold an edge, and ran toward the fray—a foolish, desperate attempt to create a distraction.
It wasn't enough. A whip of void energy lashed out. It didn't feel like a physical strike. It felt like an erasure.
The energy passed through his chest, and Valen's consciousness began to unravel.
He felt his body cease to exist, his mind floating in a dark, silent space.
[Universal System: Subject Valen Argent.
Status: Deceased.
Categorization Failed.
Anomaly Detected.
Processing…]
The System's mechanical voice was an annoyance, a useless drone in the darkness.
Then, a new voice spoke. It was calm and cool, a tone of absolute, arrogant confidence.
"The System is quite… inefficient. It sees a flaw where there is an opportunity. A void where there is a vacuum."
Valen's consciousness latched onto the voice. Who are you? Where am I?
"You are a paradox. A singularity. Where the System sees failure, I see potential. You are a genius without a body. I am a System without a purpose. We are the perfect match."
The voice offered no promises of a "second chance" or "rebirth."
It simply presented a choice: accept the paradox, and become the void.
Embrace the rules, but only to break them.
Valen didn't hesitate.
He wasn't a hero, but he was a survivor.
He had never been given a choice before.
This time, he would take one.
The first thing Valen felt was the solid earth beneath his hands. The second was the cool, crisp air of the training grounds. He was back. The void creature was still fighting his family, its form slightly larger now, but the attack that had killed him had never happened.
His vision, however, was different. He saw the world in a new way. Floating before his eyes was a different interface, not the generic text everyone else saw, but a sleek, dark-blue one, its information organized with impossible clarity.
[Welcome, Valen.
The Paradox System is now active.]
[Void Bloodline Activated.
All Stats Reset.]
[New Skill Acquired: Void Blade (Rank F). Can be upgraded through Paradoxical actions.]
He could feel it now; the emptiness inside him wasn't a flaw, but a power source.
The void he had been consumed by was now a part of him.
He stood up, no longer feeling the weakness in his bones.
He still had the brilliant mind of an Argent, but now, he also had a power that no one else in this new world could ever hope to understand.
The genius who had always been a spectator was now on the stage.