Xero looked around him and saw nothing but pure white. 'I've been getting into these situations lately,' he thought, remembering the time his souls were fused, already it felt like a distant memory.

"Is the host going to reveal themself, or shall I drag you out into the open? Someone from the outside is most likely getting worried about me right now, so I don't really have much time to play," Xero said, his tone turning cold.

A haughty laugh resounded in the empty whiteness.

"Hmm... you're a lot more composed than the other heroes who have come here in the past, I was hoping to see a bit more reaction out of you..." A disembodied voice akin to that of a female child said, her words resounding everywhere.

Xero grinned arrogantly, "did I destroy your expectations?"

"Ha! Child, why don't I put that arrogance of yours to the test?" The voice replied.

Then suddenly from out of nowhere, hundreds of golden swords that had forms that made them look like they were forged purely from crystal, appeared from above and started to rain down on Xero who continued to keep an impassive look on his face.

On the part of the realm Xero stood on, cracks started appearing. And from those cracks seeped in a black mist that surrounded his form like a protective cloak.

As the crystal swords touched the mist they would turn grey, and as if rotting, began to immediately dissipate--their form ending up as flakes of ash.

When the ash converted from the golden blades touched the white realm, more cracks would start to appear and repeated the cycle.

"W-what?!" The voice cried out in a mixture of shock and confusion.

"Is that all?" Xero asked with a bored look in his eyes.

Then as if to answer his question, a surge of mana appeared in front of him, and from it formed a phantom image of a man---golden-haired, tall and handsome with sharp features, donning stylish armor complete with a cape, and finally, it was armed with a replica of the ornate sword that sucked Xero into this realm and started this entire thing. 'It's basically a generic protagonist type character under the lawful good alignment!' He reacted in his mind but kept his outside emotions unreadable.

"This is a phantom of the last hero that has held my power, he was one who was nearly able to achieve divinity and had unmatched battle prowess during his time. Let's see how you hold up now," the voice explained, returning to her earlier haughty demeanor.

Xero sighed and stepped forward, but before he could make another move, he felt a sudden disturbance in the pocket realm. The sound of a shocked gasp from the disembodied voice indicated that she had also felt the disturbance.

He felt a familiar presence spawn in from behind him and quickly realized what the true nature of the disturbance was... he smirked.

"That's Silith by the way," Xero said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and towards the girl with ash-colored hair.

Silith quickly dashed forward, in the same manner she did when she brutalized the golems earlier, her hair once again growing in length, but this time instead of spear tips, the grey locks turned into something resembling long axe heads.

Wasting no time, she went on the offensive and spun around gracefully as if dancing, with her sharpened hair spinning outwards with her. An endless wave of hair blades slashed at the phantom image, but it was able to act fast enough to protect himself with his sword, though the unique form of attack had left no openings to perform a counter.

Xero couldn't help but compare Silith's battle tactic to a Beyblade as he watched from the sidelines.

Realizing it had no way to counterattack, the phantom image jumped away from the range of Silith's unrelenting attacks.

The grey locks of hair were able to change their forms almost spontaneously, it hastily changed into a familiar spear tip and struck out towards the escaping phantom---keen to fill it holes, refusing to let it escape.

Silith looked somewhat dazed when the phantom image was able to smack away most of her attacks with his sword, just enough to keep any detrimental damage from being done, leaving only several minor cuts and lacerations.

In the corner, Xero also felt somewhat surprised that the phantom was able to keep up for this long against its opponent.

Then, a sharp glint of murderous intent appeared Silith's eyes as her expression turned completely blank. The change in Silith's attitude seemed to have an effect on her hair as well as it started growing even longer, much, much longer.

During this time, the phantom image found his opportunity to attack and dashed forward, his speed seemed to be even faster than what his opponent displayed earlier.

He jumped up and spun in the air to gain momentum with his swing, before bringing his blade down on the one he sought to strike down.

With one single attack, he held nothing back, swinging diagonally at the girl's shoulder. Expectedly, he felt the blade cut through all the way to the middle of her chest without any resistance but made an expression of shock as that was all he was able to reach, his sword suddenly refusing to budge.

Silith stood in silence, without any cuts, without any blood, or even a minor scratch on her body for that matter, even her clothes were unaffected by the phantom's attack. She simply stared at the phantom with cold, violent eyes, seemingly unaffected by the blade stabbed in the middle of her chest.

Even the soulless phantom had a look of disbelief as the sword he used to pierce the grey-haired girl started fading out of existence---the structure of energy that made up its physical form quickly collapsing. Soon... the once elegant and ornate blade was nothing more than wisps of golden embers.

Feeling a sense of impending danger from what he saw, the phantom dashed away to get some distance between him and the girl.

Not giving the phantom a second chance to escape, Silith's hair shot forward and created a web-like structure surrounding both her and her prey.

The phantom image struggled as he was caught in the trap, but found it inescapable as his limbs refused to be unstuck from the hair.

"Looks like this is finished," Xero commented, smiling.

Silith stood in front of the phantom stuck in her web-like hair trap, and with a casual motion, she reached out towards its forehead and phased her translucent hand through its physical body.

A small object emitting powerful energies met Silith's hand while she dug around the phantom image's head. She ripped away the object from the phantom and watched as its body suddenly turned limp---like a puppet with its strings cut.

In her hand Silith now held a small diamond-shaped golden crystal, it emanated thick holy energy. She took one more glance at the phantom image before crushing the crystal in her palm, and as it shattered, so did the phantom's physical body.

There was a silence in the realm.

Xero moved towards the victorious Siliith and patted her head. "Good job," he told her with a small proud smile.

With her master's touch, Silith's cold eyes and murderous intent immediately vanished---reverting back to her original meek self.

"T-this power is unnatural, how could-" The voice spoke out, based on her tone, she was shaken by the result that unfolded.

"You see, an integral part of fighting is being able to gauge your enemy's strength," Xero said, interrupting the disembodied voice's words.

*Snap!*

There was an unfathomable surge of power as Xero snapped his fingers---the crisp sound echoing in the entirety of the pocket dimension, and for a short instant, the sclera of his left eye turned pitch black.

A circle of what could only be described as pure, unfiltered darkness appeared below Xero's feet and spontaneously grew in size. It got to work quickly and started eating away at the white realm like starved locusts gnawing at fresh crops.

The very foundations of the dimension shook as it was broken down to even the very base of its core.

Now an ominous black, the realm was completely reformed into Xero's own domain. And as she was no longer in control of her realm, the curtains were raised on the mastermind, revealing a little girl with a stature that was even shorter than Silith's by a small margin, cute face, white skin, golden hair reaching all the way to her ankles, and matching gold eyes that had strange cross-shaped pupils, she was also dressed in nothing but a pure white robe too big for her size.

"H-how could this be... A mortal with the power to overrule the power of a god's creation, even if you are a chosen hero, that's just..." Said the girl as she stared at Xero, wide-eyed in disbelief.

A grin appeared on Xero's face at the girl's reaction and replied, "I might have been mortal once, but now I'm something else... something unbound by the rules that fate dictates."

Xero actually found it a bit weird... his almost instant adaptation to the new world.

Despite his mental age of 21, his new body was completely different from that of normal human physiology, and the hundreds of years worth of memories from the Xero avatar... there was just something that made adapting to the strange new world as natural as breathing, almost like he was born on it.

Beside him, he felt Silith getting revved up and was preparing to lunge forward. He gently grasped her shoulder---a gesture letting her know that he could handle it. Silith nodded in understanding and stepped back.

The robed little girl slowly walked closer towards Xero, her big golden eyes glowing as she scrutinized him, and afterward asked a single question, "Who are you?"

The grin on Xero's face grew as he replied, "I am... Xero, Overlord of the Void."