Francis gave Talvara a weird look as he rubbed her feet. She had finally beaten him. Only… something had felt off. Francis was no stranger to manipulating games in [Sleep Learning], or he wouldn’t have been able to truly practice by himself to a competitive level. So when Talvara won in a series of events that a god of luck would find hard to match, he of course wondered about it.

But he wasn't a sore loser. And her failing to hide her guilty look was worth the price of having to rub a pretty woman’s feet. Really, why did she just copy his own first bet? Did she actually think this was even remotely embarrassing for him?

“Talvara, I’ve been thinking of getting more Void Will.”

“Getting?” the Void Pseudo-Goddess asked with a raised eyebrow. Did he think she could just give it out indiscriminately?

“On the planet there’s a Divine Theocracy. And I’ve hit a wall in improving my [Void-walking], so there really isn’t much else for me to do during the day.” That he was looking for some excitement went unsaid. He didn’t feel the need to talk about his fatalistic leanings.

“It seemed like you had plenty of things to do.”

“Well, I’ve grown bored of it,” Francis said, wondering if he imagined that tinge of jealousy in her voice. Was it because he never went to her? “So?”

“Even if I could give you more Void Will, you wouldn’t be able to support it.”

“What do you mean?”

“As you are no doubt aware of, the strength of the Soul is mostly related to the size of one’s energy pools. You could say energy pools make your Soul larger, but it is something that goes both ways. It makes your Soul larger, because you need a larger Soul to support those energy pools. But unless it is aided by the system, the process isn’t instant.”

“So I’m ‘full’?”

“Yes.” Though it went unsaid that he was ‘full’ because he wasn’t the original. “It will take awhile for your Soul to fully adjust to your current pools, only then could I give you more. But there are other factors at play.”

“Was Rainer ‘full’ when his Void Will and Arcane Power collided?” Francis asked archly. It had happened shortly after she gave him more Void Will after all.

“No. I wouldn’t make such a mistake. The original you had more than enough room in his Soul. And I had said from the start about how strange it was you could have both Void Will and Mana, let alone anything else in the same body.”

“Well, consider it a gift then. Teach me how to sacrifice Divine servants to the Void.”

“Just like that?” Talvara was confused. He wanted nothing in return?

“We are friends, aren’t we?”

Talvara seemed to think that over, before the pleasant mood of before vanished from her voice.

“Would you like to see my real self?”

Francis was confused at the sudden change of subject, but motioned for her to go on. His eyes widened as he felt something enter this space. He slowly turned around trying to understand the presence that reached out towards him.

Tendrils that seemed to be made out of smog reached towards his face. The thing in front of him seemed both like the Void itself and not. But whatever it was… it felt wrong. Like something that didn’t belong in this world, or in any. An abomination. The tendril lightly brushed against his face and that feeling was only amplified. A rejection at the deepest level. It was nothing like the first time he received Void Will from her so long ago. Was it the difference between her true self and any Avatar she made?

It must have showed, because the tendril reaching out towards him paused and retracted. Francis only chuckled as he reached out instead, letting the smog-like being twist around his arm. Was she an abomination? A perversion of nature Divinities refused to allow, perhaps? A competing power that threatened themselves?

Did it matter to him? Of course not. If he was bothered by her, then did his own self - a perversion of nature in his own right - even deserve to return to Rainer’s Soul?

The moment he accepted her, the natural rejection he felt towards this Void-being seemed to fade. He turned back around to face the more human-like Avatar even as the Void-being wrapped around him.

“Well? Are you going to teach me the ritual?” Francis said, awkwardly scratching his cheek as he faced the radiant smile on her face.

“Yes, let’s begin. It isn’t too complicated.”

Outside his beach house, Francis stared at his blade made of Void Will as he tried to Void-Travel yet again. His old self had wanted to learn Void-Traveling long ago, but could never manage it. And now that he had plans to travel halfway across the world, Francis hoped his Void Talent would be enough with the usual addition of the [Archon]’s bonus for the first two levels of a skill.

He was using his newest Void skill to try and get a closer feeling for the Void.

[Void-walking] was like tunneling through the Void, using it as a bridge, where as Void-Traveling was truly navigating its depths to get to where you wanted to go.

He had been at this for weeks, wondering if the discovery would help with [Void-walking] away from the Mana-filled planet, family in tow. He had finally managed something he thought was close to it in Talvara’s space, but it seemed her rendition of the Void wasn’t accurate enough to get a skill. She stuck to her guns that it was his fault, not her knowledge of the Void’s fault. Whatever the case, her space had provided him plenty of practice to avoid any life-ending accidents.

Francis’ eyes seemed to grow darker as he changed his Void Will blade to something far stronger, his mind sinking deeper into the Void. Standing in place his body suddenly vanished. A flash of the Void appear in front of him, as expected, a strange force kept him inline with the planet as he traveled through the Void for a fraction of a second.

[Skill Gained: Void-Traveling lvl 1/10]

He collapsed onto a stone road, not even paying attention to the strange gasps and screams of fear in his surroundings.

That was unpleasant…

He thought to himself as he slowly stood up. An unshakable chill pervaded his body. Very unpleasant. Not having the slightest clue where he was on the planet, Francis slipped into the Void again. He’d figure it out eventually.

Every journey in the Void let him become more and more familiar with navigating through it. It was only with a boost from his [Archon] leveling bonus, however, that he could truly take in what he felt and choose the places he wished to go. As if he had gained instinctive understanding whenever he used [Void-Traveling].

[Void-Traveling has reached level 2]

[Experience gained: 7%]

After a few close misses, he managed to end up back at his house.

The Divine followers of this world were now only a second away.

Francis hovered over a massive city. If he wanted someone worthy of his attention he needed to do some scouting or spying. But how could he have the patience for this?

Instead, he scanned the city with [Arcane Revelation] and decided he’d take the first person he could find with enough Divinity to have his or her mind rummaged through by his grandfather. When forcefully using mind magic, as opposed to slowly getting their mind used to your presence, the first attempt was the most effective. So the previously captured Mage that infiltrated their ranks was already useless for this unless Francis was willing to wait weeks if not months.

He wanted to pit his life against someone, not casually waste his time picking out low-leveled followers to sacrifice to Talvara. For that he needed information. But a telepathic message from his grandfather interrupted his search.

It was time for war.

Francis stood on the edge of the flying Fortress, his grandfather and a few of the stronger Mages by his side.

Out in the distance, still out of range of the Fortress’ cannons was a massive ground army, an assortment of vehicles meant for transportation and war machinery with them. Their numbers easily surpassed twenty thousand, and they had far more Mages than Francis’ side.

“So where will we take them after I knock them out?”

“Where will we take them?” his grandfather echoed in confusion, “This is war, Francis. We’ll burn and bury the bodies.”

Francis was taken back. He hadn’t even considered that.

“But they…”

“Are innocent?” his grandfather filled in and jabbed a finger towards Francis’ head.

Francis felt a foreign magic but didn’t resist. He looked at the scene he now saw with confusion. Why did his grandfather want him to see a well-dressed man talking with what looked like a commander of this force?

“That right there is their guide. To help avoid poor terrain, monster’s habitats, among other things. There are numerous others who could have done this job. So you could say he’s done us no real harm. Are you saying we should spare people like him? And the common soldiers only following orders? Because they are innocent?”

“It’s within our power to,” Francis answered, knowing that was the crux of the issue.

“I once thought the same. To only punish the masterminds after me. After my family. They were the truly guilty. But then I realized, as I dealt with the same organizations over and over again serving as trackers, as guides, as suppliers, and arms dealers, there wasn’t innocent and guilty. Not in battle, not in war. There is only those who are and are not my enemies. Nothing else.

“If we do not show people that there are consequences to their actions, what then? Those who are neutral will only become more bold. Perhaps mercenaries will see this conflict as easy money if we repeatedly only kill the leaders of the army. Perhaps merchants who sell floaters and other such things will offer even more supplies. Perhaps more soldiers will enlist and scouts will act more bold.

“We are not invincible. What if one day they master a way to fight against your technique? You have yet to experience just how strong their anti-magic weaponry is. They already have cast numerous anti-mind magic techniques on their army, not that it’ll help. We must stop their momentum before they get a chance.

“You see those floater-like vehicles,” Frederick said as Francis’ vision changed again. “They were sold in bulk a few towns over when this army lost part of theirs to a monster encounter. Typically such an organization which didn’t deal with military-type goods would stay out of blatantly funding one side of a war. But we are just a rebellious ragtag group of Mages aren’t we?

“I slaughtered the entire merchant’s union responsible. And I made it quite clear why.”

Not only Francis, but the rest of Mages standing by looked stunned at the revelation. He had forgotten that this wasn’t just his grandfather; to most Mages on Earth he was a millennia old evil, known for taking revenge for even the slightest grievances.

Francis swallowed loudly, a bit stunned as he looked over the twenty-thousand strong army that wouldn’t be alive by the end of the night. However, no matter the major flaws in his grandfather’s argument, he found himself agreeing. Who would dare attack him, or even help his enemies, if their actions carried weighty enough consequences?

“But shouldn't we leave some alive, to spread the news?” he argued, a last ditch effort to change his own mind. Void-deadened or not, this seemed a bit much when they had the power to spare many.

“Which is why I’ll only ‘discover’ half the scouts that numerous interests have stationed away from the battlefield.

“Will you help or not?”

Francis nodded. Of course he’d help. No matter his moral issues, he valued his family’s lives, and even the lives of the Mages on his side more than any in the opposing army. He sank into his Void Will and found his last complaints and issues fading. There hadn’t been that many in the first place in his Void-deadened self.

Frederick traded words with the rest of the Mages before the 30-strong group flew towards the distant army camp, Francis and his mother included.

Francis led the charge as he spread out his [Void Descent]. Any non-Mages he flew towards passed out. He swept forward, those below him collapsing in waves as magic lashed out towards them. Enemy Mages rushed to attack, but even just Frederick alone could match dozens. And Francis would be joining him soon, a [Void Call] to quickly break collars at the ready. The collared Mages would be spared when possible but for the rest...

This wasn’t a war, but a massacre.