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Three weeks after meeting Seraphine, Kael had learned several important lessons:
1. S-Rank warriors do not believe in "rest days." They believe in "different kinds of pain."
2. When a pretty girl says "make me your project," she means "I will torture you until you become useful, and you'll thank me for it."
3. His power—Understanding, as he'd started calling it—came with a side of "cosmic horror" if he pushed too deep.
4. Nully had discovered internet slang from somewhere and was now unbearable.
[YOLO,] said Nully, currently displaying as a pixel art dog wearing sunglasses. [SWAG. HASHTAG BLESSED.]
"Where are you getting this?"
[I DON'T KNOW! I JUST KNOW THINGS! IT'S WEIRD! (⊙⊙)]
Kael was currently dangling from a training apparatus, muscles screaming, while Seraphine critiqued his form.
"You're thinking too much," she said. "Combat isn't analysis. It's instinct."
"My instinct is to run away."
"Then train better instincts." She cut the rope. He fell. "Again."
They were in a private training room—Dusk Guild property, because apparently Seraphine was guild royalty, third daughter of the Dusk family, raised from birth to be a weapon.
She was also, Kael was learning, deeply lonely.
"Why me?" he asked, during a water break. "You could train anyone. Actual warriors. People with Classes."
"People with Classes are boring." She sat cross-legged, sword across her knees. "They follow paths. [Warrior] becomes [Knight] becomes [Paladin]. Predictable. Efficient." She looked at him. "You're a glitch. A wild card. You could become anything."
"Or nothing."
"Or everything." Her eyes were bright, hungry. "Don't you want to find out?"
Kael thought about it. Six months ago, he'd wanted to be normal. Three weeks ago, he'd wanted to survive. Now?
Now he wanted to understand. Everything. The System, the Glitches, the power that lived in his head and talked in memes.
"Yeah," he admitted. "I do."
"Good." Seraphine stood. "Then let's find your limits. Tonight, we dungeon dive. Real combat. No holding back."
"That sounds dangerous."
"Everything worth doing is dangerous."
[SHE'S SO COOL! (♥ω♥)]
"You're not helping, Nully."
---
The dungeon was called the Whispering Warren. K-Rank, suitable for C-Rank certification. Kael was technically D-Rank at best, probably F, possibly just "miscellaneous."
He was going anyway.
"Stay behind me," Seraphine ordered. "Analyze. Predict. Don't die."
"Comprehensive strategy."
"I'm a comprehensive woman."
They moved through the dungeon like shadows and starlight—her all violence and grace, him all observation and near-panic. The monsters were standard: giant rats, trap spiders, one confused slime that Seraphine adopted and named "Sir Bloopington."
"You're not keeping it."
"He's cute!"
"He's acidic!"
"He's enthusiastic!"
Sir Bloopington bounced happily, dissolving a nearby rock.
The boss chamber was where things went wrong.
Not because of the boss—a standard [Cave Troll], big, dumb, easily outmaneuvered—but because of what was with the boss.
A girl.
White hair. Pale skin. Violet eyes that turned black as Kael watched. She was kneeling in the center of the chamber, surrounded by Void—that impossible darkness that ate light, sound, meaning—and she was smiling.
Peaceful. Resigned. Dying.
"Void Caller," Seraphine breathed. "Forbidden Class. She's lost control."
"We have to help her."
"Kael, no—she's beyond help. The Void consumes everything. We need to—"
He was already moving.
Understanding screamed at him, showing him the pattern: the Void wasn't attacking her, it was protecting her. A shell around trauma. A defense so absolute it became a prison.
He touched the darkness.
Oh.
It was like touching [NULL], but hungrier. The absence of existence. The hunger of empty space. It tried to eat his Understanding, his self, his soul.
But Kael had practice with nothingness. He pushed back—not with power, with definition. He gave the Void a shape. A boundary. A name.
"Stop," he commanded.
The Void paused.
The girl gasped. The consumption halted, inches from her heart.
"What—" she whispered.
"Don't talk. Don't move. I'm holding it, but I can't... I can't do this forever."
He was lying. He couldn't do it for more than minutes. The strain was blinding, burning, breaking. His nose bled, his ears rang, his vision went grey.
But he saw her. Mira. Eighteen. Escaped experiment. Dying slowly because her power was too strong and her control too weak.
"Push it back," he told her. "You're stronger than this."
"I can't—"
"You can. I've seen your pattern." He met her black eyes and believed at her. "Push."
She pushed.
The Void retreated. Slowly, painfully, it receded, reforming as tattoo-like marks on her skin rather than consumption.
She collapsed. Kael collapsed too.
They lay side by side, breathing hard, strangers who'd shared something intimate and terrifying.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Kael. Professional idiot."
She laughed, weak but real. "Mira. Professional monster."
"Nice to meet you, Mira."
Seraphine arrived, sword drawn, expression complicated. "You saved her."
"Seems like."
"You could have died."
"Seems like."
"You're impossible."
"You mentioned that."
Mira sat up, looking between them. "You're... together?"
"NO," they said simultaneously.
"We're training partners," Seraphine clarified.
"We're figuring things out," Kael added.
"I'm adopting him," Seraphine decided. "He's my stray."
"I'm not a pet!"
"You're worse. You're a project. " She smiled, sharp and fond. "And now we have two projects. Wonderful."
Mira looked at Kael—really looked—and something shifted in her expression. Recognition. Hope. Interest.
"You touched the Void," she said. "No one touches the Void. It eats everything."
"It tried. I told it no."
"Can you... can you teach me that?"
Kael considered. His power was Understanding. Her power was Absence. They were opposites. Complements.
"I can try," he said.
"Then I'm coming with you." Mira stood, shaky but determined. "Wherever you're going. I won't be a burden. I can fight. I can... I can be useful."
[NEW FRIEND ACQUIRED! FRIEND COUNT: 2! HAREM PROTOCOLS ENGAGING! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
"Nully, what? No!"
Both women looked at him.
"Talking to myself," Kael explained. "Coping mechanism."
"Right," Seraphine said, clearly not believing him. "Well, coping mechanism, meet your new team. Try not to die. Any of you."
They left the dungeon together: the warrior princess, the void girl, and the error message who talked to himself.
It was, Kael thought, the beginning of something ridiculous.
And possibly wonderful.
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