[STATUS: Damien Karyon]
[Cultivation: 4th Order, 2nd Rank (Solid)]
[Physique: Glacial-Phoenix Constitution (Stage 2, 8% Integration) - Abyssal Entropy Edge Active]
[Mana: 2,100/2,800 (Recovering from injuries)]
[Injuries: Multiple lacerations (healing), Spiritual fatigue (moderate), Left arm weakness (residual nerve damage)]
[Weapon Proficiency: Twilight Rend Daggers - Frozen Eclipse Dagger Art (Advanced)]
[Bloodline: 70% (Essence-Sight + Storm-Eyes Active)]
[Current Directive: 1. Secure safe healing location for Kiran. 2. Scout Void-tainted zone. 3. Maintain team operational capacity.]
They carried Kiran for three days through increasingly unstable terrain. The Shattered Lands' western reaches were worse—gravity shifted directions hourly, and patches of dead space appeared where sound and mana simply ceased to exist. Kiran remained unconscious, his void aura flickering weakly. Lyra's foxfire could only stabilize him; the damage from Silent Maw's blow and his own void overexertion required proper rest and rare medicines.
Brom found the cave on the fourth day—a fissure in a cliff of black glass that resonated with steady earth-energy, a rare anchor of stability. Inside, it opened into a cavern with a natural hot spring whose waters shimmered with healing minerals.
"He'll live," Lyra confirmed after immersing Kiran in the spring, her own face drawn with exhaustion. "But he needs at least two weeks of uninterrupted rest. His void core is cracked."
Damien nodded. Time was a luxury they didn't have, but losing Kiran was a daunt to his plans. The void-user was their most potent weapon against spatial and energy-based threats.
"We'll establish a perimeter," Damien said. "Brom, reinforce the entrance. Lyra, layer illusions and detection arrays. I'll scout ahead—the Void-tainted zone is close. We need intelligence before we engage."
Lyra looked at him, worry in her amber eyes. "Alone? In your condition?"
"I am functional that any of you right now," Damien said, his tone leaving no room for debate. "The zone is five miles west. I will observe only. If Kiran's condition changes, use the emergency spatial anchor I gave you."
He didn't wait for a response. Cold efficiency dictated the next move: secure the asset (Kiran), gather intelligence (the Void zone), prepare for acquisition (devouring the manifestation). Emotions were irrelevant.
He moved west, his Storm-Eyes cutting through the visual noise of the Shattered Lands. The Void-tainted zone announced itself long before he reached it—a perfect circle of absolute stillness. No spatial warps, no chaotic mana, no sound. Just... emptiness. A hole punched in reality. It was eerily beautiful and profoundly wrong.
From a vantage point on a crumbling archway, Damien observed. The zone was about a mile across. At its center stood a single, twisted spire of black crystal—a Void-Nexus. Around it, the landscape wasn't destroyed; it was erased. The ground became smooth, featureless gray. Plants ended in clean cuts at the border.
And there were creatures. Void-Stalkers. Humanoid shapes of condensed nothingness that drifted soundlessly, their forms flickering at the edges. They were mindless cleaners, erasing any energy or matter that drifted into the zone. Damien watched as a chaotic mana flare from the Shattered Lands touched the border and was silently unmade.
This wasn't hunger like the Abyss. This was perfection through absence. The Void sought to make everything like itself: pristine, empty, silent.
[Analysis: Void Singularity Manifestation (Minor).
[Core: Void-Nexus Crystal (Grade 3).
[Defenses: Void-Stalkers (4th Order, 1-3 Rank equivalent), Zone of Erasure (nullifies most energy-based attacks), Spatial Lock (prevents teleportation in/out).
[Weakness: Physical disruption of Nexus. Void is antithetical to Creation/Substance—overwhelming material force or chaotic creative energy may disrupt it.]
Physical disruption meant Brom. Chaotic creative energy meant Lyra's foxfire illusions given reality. But they needed Kiran. His void could interface with the zone, could potentially disrupt the Stalkers or even the Nexus itself from within.
A two-week wait was optimal but dangerous. Hunters would be searching.
As Damien turned to leave, he saw movement at the zone's southern edge. Not a Stalker. A person.
A young woman, maybe a year older than him, dressed in patched, practical leathers stained with dust and what looked like old blood. She had close-cropped silver hair and moved with a hunter's fluid grace. But what caught Damien's attention was her method: she was hunting the Stalkers.
She didn't use flashy techniques. She used a weapon—a chain-sickle with a blade that shimmered with unstable spatial energy. She'd lure a Stalker to the zone's edge, then with precise, brutal efficiency, she'd entangle it with the chain and pull it partially out of the zone. The moment it left the erasure field, its form destabilized. She'd then strike with a dagger made of glowing green crystal, shattering its core before it could readjust.
She was farming Void-Stalker cores. A reckless, deadly profession.
Damien observed her take down three Stalkers over an hour. She was good. Her cultivation was solid 4th Order, 3rd Rank, and her fighting style was pure, refined lethality—no wasted movement, every action serving kill or survival.
On her fourth attempt, she misjudged. Two Stalkers converged. Her chain entangled one, but the second closed in behind her. She tried to dodge, but her foot slipped on the eerily smooth ground at the border. The Stalker's void-claw reached for her back.
Damien calculated. Intervention revealed his presence. Non-intervention meant losing a potential asset with unique knowledge of the zone. The asset's survival probability without help: 23%. Unacceptable waste.
He Rime-Slipped, appearing between the woman and the Stalker. His Twilight Rend daggers crossed, not to block the claw, but to create a localized spatial shear. The Stalker's limb passed through the shear and was severed, dissolving into motes of nothingness.
The woman rolled, recovered, and with a furious yell, yanked her chain. The entangled Stalker was pulled fully out of the zone and shattered with her green crystal dagger.
Silence fell. The remaining Stalkers retreated deeper into the zone.
The woman turned to Damien, breathing hard, her eyes—a sharp, piercing blue—scanning him. She didn't thank him. She assessed.
"You're new," she stated. Her voice was rough, like gravel. "Not from any hunter team I've seen. And you use spatial tricks. Dangerous."
"You hunt Void-Stalkers," Damien replied, equally blunt. "Why?"
"Cores sell. To artificers, to madmen. Also," she kicked the dissolving remains of a Stalker, "they're expanding. Every month, the zone grows ten feet. If no one culls them, eventually they'll erase the whole Shattered Lands. Not that the world would miss this place, but it's my hunting ground."
Practical. Survival-driven. No allegiance to factions.
"I need information about the zone," Damien said. "The Nexus. Its patterns. Defenses beyond the Stalkers."
Her eyes narrowed. "You want to kill it. You're either suicidal or powerful. Which is it?"
"Efficient," Damien corrected. "I will destroy the Nexus. Your assistance would increase probability of success. Payment: half the Nexus core, and whatever Stalker cores we collect."
She laughed, a short, harsh sound. "Bold. I'm Sylvia. And I don't work with strangers. Especially not pretty boys with clouded eyes who appear out of nowhere."
Damien didn't react to the insult. He reached into his spatial pouch and pulled out a Chimera Core fragment—the pure beast-kin vitality portion, glowing with potent life energy. "Advance payment. For answers only. Where is the Nexus most vulnerable?"
Sylvia's eyes locked on the core. That much vitality could heal serious injuries or push her cultivation forward. Greed warred with caution. "Sunset and sunrise," she said finally. "For about ten minutes, the zone's erasure field fluctuates. The Stalkers become sluggish. The Nexus... it pulses. Like it's breathing. That's when it's most connected to whatever Void it's drawing from. Might be a weakness. Might also make it more dangerous."
Valuable intelligence. Damien tossed her the core fragment. She caught it, suspicion still in her eyes.
"We'll be at the black glass cliffs, five miles east," Damien said. "If you want the other half of the Nexus core, be there in thirteen days at dawn." He turned and Rime-Slipped away before she could reply.
He left her standing there, a potential new piece on the board. Ruthless, independent, skilled. She could be a useful temporary ally. Or a threat to eliminate later.
Back at the cave, he reported to Lyra and Brom. "Kiran's recovery timeline stands. The Void zone has a vulnerability window. And there's a local hunter—Sylvia. She may be an asset or a problem. We monitor."
Lyra looked troubled. "You invited a stranger to our location?"
"It is a calculated risk. She wants the Nexus core. We need her knowledge. If she betrays us, we kill her." The statement was delivered with the same tone as discussing the weather.
Brom grunted approval. Lyra bit her lip but nodded. They were learning to navigate Damien's cold calculus.
Over the next thirteen days, they fortified the cave. Brom expanded it, creating hidden tunnels and deadfalls. Lyra weaved her most potent illusions yet, making the cliff face appear as a seamless, unstable mana-vent that promised instant death to anyone approaching. Damien practiced merging his Abyssal Entropy Edge with his Frozen Eclipse Dagger Art, creating techniques that not only cut but made what they cut decay and unravel.
Kiran woke on the tenth day, weak but aware. His void aura was subdued, the crack in his core healing slowly. "I heard," he rasped when Damien briefed him. "A void-zone. I can feel it... calling. It wants to make me empty. Perfect."
"Can you resist it?" Damien asked.
Kiran's pale grey eyes held a new, hard depth. "I don't want to be empty. I'll use its call against it. When we attack, I can... siphon its power. Feed my void with its own essence."
A dangerous plan. But Kiran's will had been tempered in their battles. Damien trusted his hunger.
On the thirteenth dawn, Sylvia was there. She stood a hundred yards from the illusory cliff, arms crossed, watching. She'd found them despite Lyra's illusions—a testament to her survival skills.
Damien emerged alone from a hidden fissure. "You came."
"You have the other half of my payment," she said, not bothering with greetings. "And I want to see if you're actually crazy enough to attack the Nexus."
"We attack at next sunset," Damien said. "You will guide us through the Stalker patrol patterns during the fluctuation. You will not engage the Nexus itself. Your role is support and containment."
Sylvia smirked. "Bossy. Fine. But if this goes to hell, I'm leaving you to be erased."
"Acceptable."
She was added to the operational roster. A mercenary, not a member of the Quartet. Damien's status updated:
[Temporary Asset: Sylvia (Void-Zone Hunter)]
[Cultivation: 4th Order, 3rd Rank]
[Weapon: Spatial Chain-Sickle, Crystal Dagger (Anti-Void properties)]
[Motivation: Profit, Survival. Loyalty: None. Threat Potential: Medium.]
The team was now five, if only temporarily. Kiran could walk but not fight at full strength. Lyra and Brom were ready. Sylvia was a wildcard.
As the sun began its descent, Damien gathered them. "Primary objective: Destroy the Void-Nexus. Secondary: Collect all Stalker cores. Tertiary: Test Kiran's void-siphoning. Sylvia, you have the perimeter. Lyra, you create chaotic reality edits to disrupt the erasure field. Brom, you are the physical disruptor—break the Nexus crystal. Kiran, you siphon and counter any void surges. I will handle coordination and eliminate high-value targets."
It was a cold, surgical battle plan. No heroics. Just assigned functions.
Sylvia watched him give orders, a strange expression on her face. Not respect. Not fear. Recognition. She saw in him what she was: a killer who saw the world in terms of objectives and obstacles.
The sun touched the horizon. The Void-tainted expanse began to shimmer at its edges.
"Move out," Damien said.
The hunt for the Void was on.