What could this be, the way to destroy a mock soul…
When fighting the spirits and elementals, the Knight still pulled out their souls all the same. Even the undead were no different. Even if the Knight managed to remove the soul, void beings had no need for bodies, as evident from itself and its original followers.
The Knight was strange, so the solution would not work on it, but it had to take inspiration from its own simulation of how to destroy itself, great considering that the Knight had come close to eradication itself, death was just a passage. Eradication is an end. An irrefutable one.
'Whisper – carry all the details of the form of my soul!'
Really? Confirm the use of 1000 slaughter points?
'Yes!'
… Done.
Then the Knight slowed down allowing the man like void being to catch up. It was just as repulsive as the Yiril, but the Knight still took home the trophy… for now. It then reached for the soul. Somehow the Knight could not grab it, even with soul touch. Meaning these are really not souls. Soul damaging techniques have no effect.
The Knight had already known that. The thing is that it did serve to distract from the other arm. The being was submerged in the Knights own void, just like past adversaries it had allowed it in.
Its powers, whatever they were, were instantly pacified. Then the Knight absorbed the piece of its soul, and mixed it thoroughly its own soul, then the Knight grabbed onto that part of its soul and eradicated it.
'Come on…'
…
The piece of the void being's mock soul then vanished…
'Now comes the hard part, come on, come on, just a bit further…'
Then the Knight focused, extremely hard. Using a piece of its void, it did the unthinkable. The Knight had just sent something into nothing, and just now, pulled from that nothingness and created something-nothing as one – an original mock soul, an incredibly small piece though. Since it could re-create its own soul using the blueprints from whisper.
'Yes! It work… e…'
Suddenly the Knight went blank. But just before blanking out, the Knight teleported extremely far, incredibly far away. The knight had anticipated something like this this. It remembered something similar when it fought Avarice. It had not accomplished this, but it had felt eradication before. So, while anticipating this, the knight was already mid-teleportation when it blacked out.
The Knight had timed everything – even leaving something it had prepared. Day arrived and those of the void vanished. Along with those it had taken. The paladin legion had survived yet another night. Then in an instance, a flame arose, where the Knight had stood, growing to a hundred metres as well.
It had been equipped with armour the Knight already had that almost looked like its own. There was something else they were all staring at though. They all looked at where the Knight stood. The Knight had seen it too, before blanking out.
The minor changes to the armour was still not their first thought. What was, was the missing area. It was a section of warped space. It was strange because nothing was there. No crater, no air, no land, nothing itself.
It was impossible yet it was. All who glared at the blemish were confused, because for the life of them they could not understand it. Not in the typical sense. What they looked at was not real. It was something that was nothing. Not a paradox, just nothing. They looked but they instantly forgot what they saw because it did not exist.
Each time they blinked they were welcomed to a new sight. No-one would ever be able to explain this because, even as one looks at it, they forget it, because there is no remembering nothing. They know they looked at something, but what exactly? Nothing. It was a madman's dream.
Imagine trying to explain to someone that you saw nothing. What do you think you would say. It really was nothing. Not the absence of something, nothing. Then a few hours passed, everyone kept starring at the blemish. For all of them a second had just passed. They were caught in a cycle of experiencing and forgetting, thus perpetually getting interested in nothing.
It was a stranger thing than when the darkness disappeared without a trace, because the trace this time was nothing. Time flowed, but not for the statues that stood there. Paralysed as they stared at nothing.
Then the opposite of vanishing happened. I would like to say it vanished, but it is more like something appeared, which is what has always been there. The ripples of the appearance of literal something that had been nothing, could be felt by all. They even somehow knew that, that instance of looking had been a couple of hours, they all knew time had lapsed but not how.
This was because their memories were not being altered, it was just impossible to remember nothing, but their sense of time had not been distorted. They knew how hours had passed but not really. It was like being close to a black hole, as time for you and those outside flowed different. This time, time had not been bent, rather conceptualisation itself had failed, creating the feeling similar to warped time.
Soon, they realised just how much time had passed. They knew of the horrors that be. This is why they hurried the usual preparations. They were healed, armour and weapons restored, even their mental assessment taken. The only thing they compromised was rest, but at their level, they could go on for a few more days.
Once the night was nigh, they began searching for the Knight. This was because all were curious.
"Just what kind of battle were you in hero?" said the carefree knight commander, Callen. More of such questions came from the crowd.
The Knight looked at them. Of course this was not the Knight, it was a flame in armour. They did not know. This also meant they expected this flame to speak. The figure arose from where it sat and spoke.
"I was attempting a new technique."
Wait? I didn't miss that, the fire spoke?
Well, this was because on the same plume burned the same soul, Mugaw. It spoke with an empty grumpy voice, trying to imitate the Knight.
Then came the paladin, "Ready yourselves for battle. Knight can issue a proper report later, and the rest of you will be notified."
She then sent all towards their post, night was only an hour away.
After two hours of no show, they thought there was a delay, one they welcomed with joy. After the fourth hour, they were terrified. The darkness acting up was even more terrifying. Soon daylight came and passed. After three days of this no show, only then they began to change.
The darkness could be kept at bay, sometimes it could be diverted or forced to withdraw, but never has it vanished, even for Maroon city there was no army. Maybe in ancient lost history, but not at this scale. This was an event that had not been recorded. This is also why they spent three days motionless, tortured by their readiness for battle.
They had thought their sense of reality was distorted. Then they thought it would come the next night. Since no-one had fought, they all remained there ready. But today on the morning of the third day, they were baffled. Though they were still, their minds did not remain idle, and through their individual deductions, they all eventually came to stare at the Knight as they had that thing they had seen before.
They all took different paths to conclude that whatever is wrong with the void has something to do with the Knight. What none knew though was why. He had just arrived, and the darkness retreated completely. An almost unheard-of occurrence.
Everyone here had a good head on their shoulders, otherwise they would have died in battle ages ago. But for those who already had a high image of the Knight, they could not help themselves but to jump to conclusions. The most popular conclusion came in the form of one word – Hero.
***
One day ago, far away, near a small town, appeared out of nowhere, a shady but dangerous set of armour. It appeared out of thin air – the Knight. The Knight had absorbed all the void domain.
A little boy was staring at the hill like figure, a dead one. The thing was a few hundred metres big. He then ran to town. A few hours later he came back with the other boys.
"Guys, I'm telling you, its big, and dead."
The oldest, "You expect me to believe a 'Knight' shaped mountain of steel appeared out of thin air? Even you…"
Upon witnessing it he was at a loss for words.
"You see! I told you guys. And I remember saying a big knight, not a mountain of steel."
The other kids were moving around it, then started climbing. The eldest had a strange look in his eyes. They were all orphans, as such, the most prominent thought to himself, is how much the metal like armour would cost.
'Those brokers in town would probably not pay me. They would claim it as something for the town. Maybe I could sell the metal in parts myself.'
He held a stone in his hand, and when he bashed it into the helmet to which it shattered. The ringing had alerted the other kids.
"What are you doing Darron?"
"Yeah, what are you doing."
"Leave me alone you twerps."
He scratched his head, then found a course stone, and began sanding the metal, to try and collect the shavings. The armour held onto all of its atoms, and by the end he was left with a fine powder made from stone.
"I give up, maybe I should just sell the information about its whereabouts. Wij, did you tell anybody else about this place?"
"Nope."
'Good.'
Later they all left, some scared by the fact they could not see into the armour and were too terrified to try. Then later in the day, Darron came back with a few reluctant dealers.
"Are you sure about this kid."
"Yes. It should be right around the corner…"
"You see boss, I told you he was pulling our leg."
The boss looked at the kid and didn't bother with the normal rough housing. He just let it be; he just wasn't feeling it today.
"I promise it was here" he said as he followed them.
He looked back in disbelief one last time and just went back to the orphanage.
***
This time the Knight had only been out of commission for a few hours, and right when the nothingness vanished, the Knight came back. The void armament had remained active, as such the Knight had not fallen into deep slumber.
'It happened just as calculated. Seems like creating something out of nothing is more draining than creating nothing out of something. No wonder the thing of the void could not create souls, because they would be something, and it needed nothing centred souls anyway.'
The Knight had teleported near a town, but after coming back, it teleported away, it had heard humans approach. However, it was still nowhere near the battle, it was still going over the events, as it was going to substitute back with the flame voiced by Mugaw, as soon as the void came back at night.
'The nothingness, I did it. I managed to erase the piece of my soul mixed with the void beings one, and by only bringing back my own it effectively eradicated nothing itself.'
The Knight had actually relied on its level of power to accomplish this. It knew that it knew the exact existence of its soul, thus be able to reform it from nothing. But it knew it was nowhere near powerful enough to recreate the mock soul mixed within. As such when the mock soul was brought back, it was brought back as nothing, the nothing without will.
A mock soul can be described as follows. It is not a soul; it is actually nothing that has been given will – just as the Knight had learned in the book of souls. It is the same with the void, it is nothing given will by those of the void, mostly the void lords, one's powerful enough to command this much external nothing.
Even though the Knight described these as souls, they aren't, they just happen to be the closest parallel when comparing those of the void to those of the living.
And what the Knight did was effectively eradicating will itself. Even in the end, the Knight had only eradicated a fraction of the void being's soul. Not worth it when compared to the backlash. The Knight had to sacrifice part of it soul to do this, and the resulting reaction from bringing back its soul creates nothingness, the same one as the void.
The only difference is this one is made from the surrounding something that is fighting to became something once more.
'I guess I won't be doing that anytime soon.'