Arthur tensed as he heard those words. "What do you mean you found me?" he demanded, his voice cracking with fear. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The wall of shadows, instead of the cave, didn't speak. Jack stopped shooting purple beams from its bony dark fingers and transformed into purple mist. The mist flew toward Arthur, turning back into the black skull marking on his skin.
"I found you," the shadowy voice inside the wall repeated, each word dripping with malice.
The shadowy wall began to warp and distort. A hand—or a tentacle, Arthur couldn't tell which—broke free from the wall and reached toward him with deliberate intent. Arthur's seven-year-old body tensed as he leaped back, his heart hammering against his ribs. He didn't want that thing touching him. The very sight of it made his stomach churn with dread.
"It is already too late," the shadow wall said, its voice echoing through the cave. "Now that I've found you, there's no escaping me."
The hand-tentacle appendage shot toward Arthur at a frightening speed. It pierced through his chest, and he gasped in shock. The thing began to drain him—not his blood, not his internal organs, but his magic. Arthur fell to the ground, writhing in pain from the wound that sat dangerously close to the black skull marking. His whole body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside. He nearly screamed, but suddenly the pain just disappeared. It was as if someone had flipped off a light switch. In its place came a different sensation—the feeling of his body being drained, hollowed out.
Arthur's mother, Mary, tried to run toward him, maternal instinct overriding her fear. A dark tendril quickly bound her legs, sending her crashing to the ground. She struggled against the shadowy bonds, her face twisted in anguish as she watched her son suffer.
The woman who had been about to leave grabbed her greatsword. She knew she couldn't damage this thing, knew it would only grow stronger, but she had to try. She swung the sword toward one of the appendages that held Mary's feet and arms. When the blade hit the shadowy appendage, nothing happened. In fact, the woman felt her blade diminishing in power. Her face went pale. No one had ever diminished a weapon's power before. A weapon wasn't a person—it didn't have any magical source unless someone placed some type of marking or imbued their magic into it. She hadn't imbued her magic into the weapon, so how was it losing striking power?
She swung again with less force, then again. Her blade was being siphoned of its power with each strike. "I can't keep doing this," she muttered through gritted teeth. "If I keep doing this, this blade will be useless."
The shadow wall laughed darkly, the sound reverberating through the cave like thunder. "I cannot be hurt. I cannot be stopped. Your magic is feeding me. I need more of it—more of your magic," the wall said, directing its attention toward Arthur.
Arthur had a lot of magic within his young body, but that magic was diminishing rapidly—too rapidly. His vision began to blur at the edges, and his thoughts became sluggish.
The woman rushed forward and grabbed Arthur, trying to rip him off the appendage that was piercing through his chest. When she pulled, nothing happened. Arthur's body was stuck, as if glued in place. She couldn't make him budge one inch, no matter how hard she strained.
"You're ruining what I have going for me," the dark wall said. Two appendages shot out from it and grabbed the woman, wrapping around her arms and legs and binding her to the ground. She fell hard, completely helpless as the dark appendages forced her body down. Unlike with Arthur, it wasn't siphoning her energy or her magic—it was simply restraining her, making her watch.
"I can't..." Arthur had a hard time thinking, a hard time seeing. His vision was blurring at the edges, darkness creeping in from all sides. He had never lost this much magic before, and he was afraid. If he lost all of his magic, would he die?
"Someone help me," he thought desperately. "I can't die like this. I only just started existing—only three years ago. I only started existing in that void." He paused, a thought striking him like lightning. "Wait a minute. The void. If I can go in there, if I can see if Lenny or those other two people are in there, then maybe I can escape this thing."
Arthur tried to enter the void. Nothing happened. As usual, nothing happened. The void had always taken over him randomly, at unpredictable points in time. He would always be consumed by it and thrown into that strange space. It happened at the school when he was thrown into the void. It happened while he was sleeping—he went to the void, and when he fell asleep again, he entered the void. That was the last time he ever entered it. Now he needed to enter the void more than probably ever before. He was about to die, and the void was his only hope.
A black screen materialized before his fading vision:
*All magic has been drained. Zero magical energy has been detected in your body.*
*Zero.*
*-1.*
*Your magic has been reduced to a negative number. You have broken your body beyond repair and are unable to restore it back to normal after this devastating state.*
*Achievement: The first known human to have their magic levels reduced to a negative number.*
*Award: New power unlocked. You now have the true essence of the void.*
*Quest: Find your reason for existing.*
*Penalty: You shall no longer enter the void, and your void powers will be locked for all of eternity.*
*Quest time: 100 years.*
When Arthur saw all of this information floating in front of him as a black screen, he was shocked to the point where he nearly passed out. "What is this? I don't understand." His brain couldn't comprehend any of it. He tried to hold his head, but his hands wouldn't move. Nothing would move. Fear gripped him more tightly than any shadow tendril ever could.
"This is interesting," the shadowy wall said, its tone almost curious. The appendage ripped out from Arthur's chest, and the wound healed up nearly immediately. "It seems like I have taken all of your magic. Don't worry, that was all I needed. I'll see you again, Arthur."
The shadowy wall disappeared. The outside area of the cave was revealed—nothing but a large field with a few buildings visible in the distance. All of the shadow tendrils that had been holding Mary and the woman were gone, and they could finally move.
Arthur could finally move, but something felt terribly wrong. "My magic... my magic, it's all gone. What is this? What's going on? Am I hallucinating from my magic loss? Am I schizophrenic? Was that screen real? There's no way it could be, right? It just has to be a figment of my imagination from how much magic I lost." He paused, confusion washing over him. "But why don't I feel anything? It's like having my magic siphoned away from me didn't do anything permanent. I felt like I was going to pass out when it was getting taken away from me, but why am I not feeling that way now, now that it's all gone?"
Arthur held his head. His brain was hurting from seeing that black screen, from trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"Tired," he said, mumbling to himself, to no one in particular. His legs gave out, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Mary quickly picked up her seven-year-old son, cradling him protectively against her chest. Her heart ached as she looked at his pale face. She walked out of the cave, her steps unsteady. The woman followed behind her, dragging her greatsword.
"All right, see you later," the woman said, her voice weary. She walked off into the distance, disappearing beyond the horizon.
Mary didn't know where their home was now. It seemed too far away. This place, this cave, seemed too far from anywhere safe, and she didn't know where to go from here. Desperation clawed at her chest.
Mist began to rise from Arthur's chest. The purple mist soon formed into the shape of Jack. Jack's black robes, bony fingers, and the rest of his skeletal body materialized before them. He held out a black bony finger and drew a circle in the air, which created a shimmering portal.
Mary's eyes widened in shock. "How—" Before she could finish her sentence, Jack walked into the portal, grabbing her and throwing her in with him. The portal swallowed them whole—Jack, Mary, and Arthur disappearing with him in an instant.
Deep in a castle far, far away, a shadow wall opened up in front of a large throne. Upon that throne sat a man with pitch-black hair and dark armor. He had blood-red eyes that gleamed with malevolent intelligence. He looked up at the shadow wall with interest.
"Did you siphon all the energy that you needed?" he asked, his voice smooth and commanding.
The shadow wall spoke with a deep, dark tone. "Indeed. All of it was drained from him."
"Oh, you took it from a male," the man said, leaning forward slightly. "Was he powerful? Did you get enough energy to accomplish what we need?"
"Indeed," the shadow wall said. "He was extremely powerful for his young age. But don't worry, I shall get more magic from other people, as that is not enough for you to break through your seal and regain your magic."
The man nodded, satisfaction crossing his features. "Do as you wish. Just give me as much magic as I need. That's all I ask of you."
The shadow wall disappeared. The man laid his head on the armrest of the throne, his expression thoughtful. "How long is this going to take?" he wondered aloud. "I know this is the first victim who got their magic taken to be added to me, but still, how long will this take? I'm getting impatient, and I need my magical power back. I just hope that shadow wall doesn't take too much time."
He drummed his fingers on the armrest, his jaw tightening. "And if it does, I'll have to go after it and end it. Because after all, if someone that you send to do your dirty work fails you, you have to do it yourself. I gave the shadow more than a week to finish this task—two weeks, actually. It better give me my magic. I need it."
His eyes flashed with dangerous intensity. "And if I don't get my magic..." He paused, letting the words hang in the air like a threat. "Then no one does."