As his body was pulled to shreds, sucked down towards the incarnation of the Void before him, Jonathan felt a subtle sense of wrongness. What was he doing? The millions of whisperers in the dark had warned him about this. The dangers of losing oneself in an element. Jonathan looked at his body, fully looked, and realized that his very soul was being torn apart. A wave of dread rushed through him, the previous euphoria vanishing into the embrace of fear. With a primal roar, Jonathan stopped his forwards momentum, holding his body back with his will.
“No!” he screamed. “You won’t break me that easily!” Reaching out with one tattered hand, Jonathan clenched his fist, and on the universe sized orb hanging in the darkness before him, fingerprints formed, longer than galaxies, longer than imagination. “You do not control me! I am the God of the Void!”
The sphere started to spin, shrinking in on itself, its previously impossible size vanishing as it turned into an orb the size of a baseball. Emitting the purest, most blinding light Jonathan had ever seen, it represented the true nature of the Void. He instantly knew that it was beyond him, to such an extent that even touching it would kill him. Instead, he did the only thing he could.
With a snap of his fingers, a tiny speck of Void energy broke off from the orb, and floated over to him. It slammed into his forehead, and with a supernova-like explosion, his consciousness shattered, spread to the far corners of Infinity by the power of his element. Just that fraction of a fraction of the element represented more power than he had ever channeled in his life, far more.
Jonathan’s Void body expanded outwards, growing and growing until he was larger than a planet. He towered over the tiny ball of Voidlight, yet felt immeasurable dwarfed by its presence. Pain ripped through his very being as he tried to wrangle the meaning of the Void that he had incorporated into his being. It felt like he was wrestling with a serpent the size of a city, its coils crushing his will and very being into submission. Only, Jonathan was better than that. He was greater than that. Countless wounds suffered during battle had inoculated his psyche against pain, even that of the soul. Howling in rage, he grabbed the conceptual meaning of the Void within him, and crushed it with his will. His body burned like a dying star as he forced his sense of self to merge with the Void. Even then, he was tearing himself apart. Fragments of memories vanished from his mind as he used his soul like a currency, buying his own survival. In this place, where the Void reigned supreme, its all consuming nature had no bounds, not even those of the mind. Jonathan had everything to lose, while not even knowing the game he was playing.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
His body warped as explosions of the Void tore through his skin, and attempted to overcome his control. His mind felt like it was in the middle of a hurricane, assailed on all sides by a relentless, unstoppable force. Jonathan’s mind, despite his temporary resistance, was being ground down. Then, deep within himself, a flame of pure gold flickered into life. It was tiny, a mere speck in comparison to the oceans of Void energy raging within Jonathan’s body, but it continued a solidity that the element did not. With potential salvation in front of him, Jonathan didn’t hesitate. He reached out with his mind and grabbed the flame of his Divinity, dragging it into the real world. His right fist lit up with a pure golden brilliance as he clenched it around the very marrow of his godhood.
The Void, for the first time, was beaten back. With a shout of triumph, Jonathan dragged every drop of power out of his Divinity, before using its metaphysical weight to establish his dominance. He was the Void Hegemon, according to his status sheet, and it was high time he acted like it. His true path was not, as previously suggested by the voices, that of a prophet. Neither was it that of a slave. It was that of a ruler. The ruler of the Void.
