SSS Void Ascension: I Devour All Elements

"A very… interesting question, Killian." The Void sounded absolutely humored by his question.

"Why don't you find out?"

Killian hummed. 'Tempting. But it could make a mess, and make me lose my appetite.'

The entity above him leaned downwards. Killian snapped his head to his back immediately, and just in time to dodge the staff descending on him.

"What…?" He frowned, first at the outcast leader who still had a shadowy arm around her body, and secondly at the entity.

The leader raised a light staff, a glowing orb resting above on the head of the staff, in her shaking hands.

The moment it glowed the entity's arm on her body began to fade.

Killian's eyes narrowed at the staff. He recognized it as the staff belonging to the realm guard wolf that had attacked him and his sister.

The realm guard wolf that he was yet to digest because of high capacity. He scoffed, and raised his hand when the entity tried to move.

"Wait," Killian said quietly, lowering his headphones.

He watched the fading hand return again, refusing a reality where it lost. "So that staff is weak to Dawn of Death? Interesting."

The entity lowered itself towards Killian, as if pleased by the compliment. Having a skill that withstood a Light attack first felt like a birthday gift for Killian.

The leader's face twisted as she realized her staff was not enough. She stepped back as Killian stepped forward slowly.

A faint smirk pulled at his lips as he looked at her trembling grip on the staff. "Is that really all you can do to kill this 'fifteen-year-old newbie'?" he said, his voice low and almost bored.

The leader gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand straighter.

"You have to die. You are nothing holy," she whispered, clutching the staff like a holy relic, and sounding like a religious fanatic desperate to reject anything they don't understand.

"The world does not need another one like him. You need to be the last and never again."

Killian paused, his expression flattening as if he had heard that kind of sentence before.

He nodded. "Yes, the 'Him' I keep getting compared to. Did you try and fail to kill him too?"

The entity behind him gave a deep sound, almost like it answered him.

Killian glanced back at it for a moment, then at the Crafter still trapped in darkness above them, and finally at the leader holding the glowing staff.

"So that is what they think I am," he said quietly. "And you guys succeeded in killing him?"

The entity answered in his subconscious, and he scoffed. "Pathetic. You all are."'

How many losing streaks would they have before they stopped chasing? 'I have to respect the resilience at least.'

"Kill her," Killian ordered, and walked ahead to the Crafter.

The entity's right hand slowly lowered the Crafter to Killian, while seven dark swords rose from the vortex to handle the leader.

The Crafter avoided eye contact, his arms flexing instinctively.

"Dissolve the realm, and I'll hand you over to the academy—"

The screams from the leader interrupted him, and he turned to the entity with a frown.

"I'm talking here."

The entity pushed the mangled leader into its body, absorbing her screams and blood.

"Thank you." Killian returned his gaze to the Crafter. "What do you say about my offer?"

Nothing. The Crafter glanced at the ten foot tall dark entity moving towards them, and his eyes tiredly returned to the young man standing in front of him.

"Kill me as you did our leader—"

"No." Killian rubbed his face. "Your Realmcraft has the sleeping agent active from the moment I got in. I need to dissolve the realm without your death."

"There's no sleeping agent—"

"I am not taking the chance that you are lying to me. Dissolve it or I'll start torturing."

Killian traced the daggers across his face, and pointed at the skin close to his glowing red eyes. "And I already have my targets, you see."

The man's eyes lowered to the ground, and he nodded once. "I shouldn't try to reason with you like a person. But the academy has an idea of what you are."

"Everyone in the academy?"

The man hesitated before answering. "No, just the ones who should."

Killian waved his hand in dismissal. "Of course, I expect them to," he sighed.

Every day, the fear that he would be publicly humiliated or hunted gnawed at him, but never had he ever thought his secret was a completely safe from everyone.

The fact that angels and possessed orcs could tell with a glance that he was a Void-Born meant that High-Ranked Wardens with a connection to Light of Holy Elements would as well.

And while they haven't targeted him for elimination yet, he wouldn't want to be reckless and let more people discover his secret.

"Will you kindly give me the name of the one who sent you?" Killian softened his tone.

The Crafter looked at the blood splattered on the ground, and back at Killian. The gesture clearly answered Killian, so he sighed.

"Forget it. Take this down now."

The glowing red eyes faded, and just before it did, the Dawn of Death returned into its vortex. Killian didn't hide his tendrils until he was sure that there wasn't any backlash for asking for the Realmcraft to be dissolved, or any other assailants waiting.

He stared down at the man on his knees, crouched to the ground, with one hand holding his bleeding side. Cheering sounds came from the farther room where the arena was.

There was no one at the training area but a backpack that suggested someone had been.

"It's almost comical to think that for the last hour I've been fighting, someone had been in the same environment but never realized because we were in different realms," Killian spoke to himself out loud.

He saw the man trying to crawl away.

"You know I lied about giving you to the academy, right?"

The man's breathing hitched, but his body slowly loosened up.

"I know." His voice was quiet.

Killian kept his eyes on him.

"Good."