Chapter 51 - A Contract Made Of Potato Paper

I landed on the floor with a thud. The emotions that threatened to consume me were no longer there. The darkness was gone too.

“That was not what I was expecting.” Red said from behind me.

I spun around, infinitely relieved to see him actually standing there.

“Well I wasn’t either, alright?” I said, slightly annoyed.

Gently, I used telekinesis to float myself up onto the stone bench. Red stood to the side, fumbling with something I was too stunned to care about.

‘It spoke.’ I whispered.

Red stopped whatever he was doing and suddenly spun around. “It… spoke?”

‘I think so.’ Unless I’d been hallucinating, at least.

“And what did it sasy?”

I leaned back against the wall, feeling the hard points poke into my knobbly potato flesh. ‘It said it was hungry.’ As soon as the words came out my mouth- no, mind- I felt stupid. ‘I don’t know.’ I muttered. ‘Maybe it wasn’t real. Maybe I-’

“Did it say anything else?” Red asked intently, now staring down at me.

I looked up into his clear, cold eyes and instinctively moved back. ‘Well, yes. But not much. It said it was ‘the void’.’

I stopped myself before I could say anything else. This… void knew the Maker. The Maker was the one who’d updated my system. The one that seemed to look down on God himself. For some reason, a part of me didn’t want to tell Red.

“That, we already know.” He affirmed and turned away.

“Has your xera recovered yet?”

‘Uh, yeah… why?’ I asked hesitantly.

Red stepped to the side, revealing what he’d been working on before.

It was a smaller portal, leading to the exact same room we were standing in. It was just big enough for me to fit through.

‘You’re kidding.’ I said blandly. ‘There’s no way in hell that I’m going in there again-’

Red lifted his arm and pointed a finger towards me.

‘What are you doing?’

Slowly, I felt my body rise up.

‘Hey! Stop! I said I don’t want to go!’

“This time, try to stay a little longer. Use your other spell. The one that sucks things in. Don’t let it control you.” He said calmly, and levitated me into the portal.

I tried using my telekinesis to pry myself from his, but it was all for nothing. He was the Great Beast of space, after all.

Within moments, I was back in the infinite dimension, a replica of the cave. However, this time it seemed slightly different. The pool of water was a little less luminescent. The glowing ores were all bunched up instead of perfectly spread apart.

I faced the wall and didn’t waste anymore time, unleashing my newly regenerated xera.

‘You.’

The deep voice sounded loud and clear, echoing all around. I knew it wasn’t real and it was just in my head, but I could feel its intimidating presence as if it were right beside me.

This time, I didn’t let my xera simply go to waste and allow the void to transform into whatever form it wanted to. I focused it into the centre of the room, directing it to the space like I’d do with a normal spell.

It collected into that familiar ball, but not without some struggle. I could feel it trying to break away from the spell. After a few moments of intense concentration and willpower, the orb finally formed and settled. It longer tried to move, only to suck the objects around it into its core.

“That is… expected.” Red said, his voice strangely distorted. It broke up as he spoke, causing me unable to understand what he was saying.

I chose to ignore it and instead directed my thoughts toward the sphere which had just begun to destroy the cave.

‘You.’ I declared, trying to seem stronger than I really was. ‘Tell me everything you know about the Maker.’

A high pitched, hollow voice replied immediately. ‘You think you can command me?’ It let out a noise similar to a cackle. ‘You do not know what I am.’

I refused to back down. ‘Yeah. But I know that you need me to survive.’ Even saying this, I could feel the pull on my xera tighten. Ironically, I knew it already had enough power to take without my permission.

‘It is the same for you.’ It hissed back. ‘You are nothing without me.’

I scoffed. ‘Yeah, right. I am the Potato God. Maybe when I was just Winston June, I was nothing. But after I picked up that magic stone, I changed.’ Now that I was talking about it, I realised just how far I’d come from being the baron of a small territory. I had power now. Real power.

‘Foolish human. You haven’t changed at all. Let me tell you one thing. You did not choose the stone. I. Chose. You.’

The void ball suddenly shot forward, stopping millimetres away from my body. Stones and crystals flew ferociously into its core, never to be seen again. I stood there, frozen in fear and shock, barely able to register the warning texts flashing in front of me.

‘Y-you…’ I mumbled, desperately trying to regain control of the situation. ‘Can’t hurt me.

Slowly, the tremendous pressure and sound of rushing air subsided. ‘Correct.’ It said bluntly.

‘But I can do this.’

As it spoke, the ball dripped a black liquid, seemingly melting away into a small puddle on what was left of the floor. Without warning, the puddle jumped up and literally flew at my face. I didn’t have time to react before it completely consumed me. In the blink of an eye, my entire area of awareness had been replaced by empty darkness.

‘Where am I?’ I shouted. I tried reaching out with my telekinesis, but couldn’t feel anything.

‘This is me. My true form.’ The void’s voice had changed. It was now deeper, and it came from all around me. ‘I want you to form a contract with me.’

‘A… what?’

‘A contract.’ It repeated, hissing. ‘I will lend you some of my power to bend to your control.’

This sounded incredibly suspicious. ‘First of all, what the hell do you mean by contract? And second of all, how can you talk like this? Just a few minutes ago, you could barely get a few words out.’

‘The Maker’s bind limits my power. It renders me unable to speak, unable to move unless under someone else’s authority. But every time you feed me xera, I grow. Inside you.’

‘So you’re a baby. I mean parasite.’

Out of the darkness came a light figure, though only bright enough for me to make out the figure of a potato. I expected it was the same thing it had created back then.

‘I am the truth nobody tells you about. I am the one responsible for holding your fragile world in check. I am the second part of the pair. I am the one who created death magic, dark magic, and space magic.’

‘That’s… impossible! The Great Beasts are the one who created the-’

Before I could finish, the darkness flickered and revealed a white light. The world turned into a rolling ocean, fragments of light breaking through the darkness.

‘I will see you again. If you want the power, do not reveal me.’ The voice said, growing softer with every second.

And then the darkness disappeared, revealing a curious and slightly concerned face looking down at me.

“What happened?” Red asked.

I was too confused and stunned to do anything other than stare. Then the Void’s words echoed in my mind once more.

‘Nothing.’ I whispered.