Here's the next chapter as promised! This also begins the shorter chapters, though they aren't THAT short. 1800-2100 words hopefully, and this one is a bit more than 1800 words. One of my shortest, but I'd rather have more chapters out for you guys than sitting on a giant chapter for a whole week. It's quite rare for me to get into that sort of power-writing state, like when I finished chapter 34 one day (chapter 34 was about 3800 words). It still took me several hours though haha.

Anyway, enjoy.

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Last but not least was skills. There was only one skill that Kyte gained from reaching the seventh stage. The skill’s name is Dementia. Basically, Kyte injects his Spiritual energy inside a target and lets it go out of control. Kyte had already experimented on an ability similar to Dementia, however, the actual skill was a lot better. It minimized the amount of Spiritual energy while giving the largest reaction. Not only that, but it gives the ability to inject several targets instead of just one.

There were three different levels of Dementia, and the first was just explained. The second level would allow Kyte to just release a wave of Spiritual energy that disturbs targets rather than directly injecting them. The third layer allows Kyte control targets and or kill them with his Spiritual energy. This is actually a great asset to Kyte, especially because his Spiritual energy was so much stronger than his Internal energy.

That is basically the end of what Kyte had gained. Now, he assumes that he has other secret abilities because of the black light, but he has no idea how to find them. Let alone finding them, creating a skill from scratch is significantly difficult. Finding someone to teach you everything would be faster and easier, of course. However, you can’t have everything done for you. Besides, Kyte wouldn’t be able to find anyone that has the black light anyway.

Ktye put that thought to the back of his mind and decided to test his new equipment. The first thing he did was equip the Bloodcursed armor. Fortunately it worked exactly like Shadow Twins in the fact that it can be absorbed into Kyte’s body and appear at will. The entire appearance of the armor was what you would expect. The whole thing was a deep crimson color. The appearance reminded Kyte of a type of armor in a game he used to play called The Older Scrolls. The armor in that game that resembled the Bloodcursed armor is the Zaedric armor.

However, instead of a light-type build, the Bloodcursed armor was bulkier. The design was similar enough right down to the gauntlets and boots. Well, the torso actually quite different. The torso had tight but bulky layered plating up to the shoulders, where, instead of spikes, the shoulders were only slightly enlarged. Not too much to cause vision or mobility trouble, but there was definitely some extra armor there.

Instead of a helmet, there was a hood instead. Of course, the hood was also crimson in color, though it was a slightly lighter shade. There were a few symbols that ran down the middle of the hood, which activates a function called Overdrive. The user can only last at most fifteen seconds with it active because it causes the armor to absorb almost all the blood in the user’s body. After Overdrive stops, the user is usually just barely stepping over the line into death.

Kyte doesn’t know if he’ll ever use that because it doesn’t sound like such a good thing. The increase in power was about half as powerful as the Inner Demon Pill, so it wasn’t that bad. Taking that pill and activating Overdrive...it would be certain death.

Since Kyte doesn’t have a weapon because Heavy Air was destroyed in his fight against Jill, he could only use Energy Manipulation. It’s not like his energy is weak, especially with Spiritual energy woven into the weapon, but Kyte would rather have a physical weapon.

He stood there in the Bloodcursed armor that brightly reflected the light. He simply looked like a blood angel, if there was such a thing. The only thing he needed were wings and it would be perfect. The hood naturally darkened the space within it, which made it quite hard to see the face of the person inside. Kyte created an energy sword within his right hand. Its aura spread around him, enveloping the entire area within a black mist.

Wait, what?

The color of the energy sword was completely black. The light around it seemed to bend. When Kyte swung his arm, he felt no air resistance. The black energy itself seemed to cut apart the space it passed through, completely unhindered.

Kyte released some of his Internal energy around him and was surprised to find that it too was black. Its “texture” was slightly different, however, it was definitely black. Just like the energy sword, the Internal energy seemed to be unimpeded by the space around it. Seeing and feeling this, Kyte shot out a Raging Palm. The blast of energy swept through the space without any resistance, as if it wasn’t even within this space itself.

So...the black light really is something that transcends this space. Does it transcend it or is it just something that doesn’t belong in this space? Should I call it a dimension in this case? Are there even layered dimensions? I want to find out so badly.

Kyte released several Sonic Waves which all acted the same way. They all moved without being impeded by the space around it. There were no spatial fluctuations or distortions. It was as if they weren’t even there. But Kyte clearly saw the damage that was caused by these attacks. The ground was cleanly sliced through. There were no cracks created by the Internal pressure given off by the attacks. The energy was clean and precise.

This is too weird. What does this mean?

Kyte retracted his energy sword and the Bloodcursed armor before he sat on the ground. He began to go through what he’s learned about the black light so far. Its properties include distorting light, it’s able to be converted into different forms of energy, a type of mind-control ability, powerful healing capabilities, potential defensive and offensive capabilities, and now the ability of being unimpeded by the space around it. What is this stuff?

Kyte brought forth the very thing he was questioning: the black light. It smoothly exited his body, and Kyte gathered it in his palm. Now, it took about three seconds to form a complex shape out of it. It used to take him nine minutes after he practiced for several weeks just to form a single complex shape. Now it only takes three seconds?

Kyte was stupefied. Such a thing was actually possible. Though, it did make some sense. His soul and body were completely reformed because of the black light.

If anything, my body should be able to move through space like my energy can-....Wait...what if that’s possible?

Kyte instantly stood up and tried to think of ways to accomplish what he thought of. First, he enveloped his entire body with black light. He normally walked in the area, waving his arms around. He felt somewhat comical while doing so, but it was necessary.

After moving around for a bit, Kyte concluded that he was, in fact, not impeded by the space around him. That’s while being covered with black light, though. After he took it off of him, he felt the air resistance when he moved his arms.

What?...Maybe, instead of absorbing black light into my energy center, I use it to train my body?

Kyte suddenly thought of an idea. He controlled some black light and made a giant sphere casing with a diameter of forty meters around himself. Kyte stood inside the sphere where no light could penetrate through. Because of this, Kyte spread out his Spiritual energy to “see” everything around him. He swung his arm in-front of him, completing a part of his theory. He felt no resistance when he moved. He walked to the edge of the sphere and extended his arm halfway outside of it. His forearm was outside while the rest of it was inside the sphere. He only felt resistance on his forearm, not his upper arm.

I see...I see! The black light isn’t being impeded by space because it eliminates the space around it! Any space it passes through is either destroyed or rendered non-existent.

He had only answered half of the “how” and “why” questions about the black light. The other halves are questions like: ‘How does the black light do this?’ and ‘Why does the black light do this?’ These two main questions completely confused Kyte.

He thought back to what the black cloud had said inside his consciousness. It mentioned something like a Void? Kyte’s memory of that time wasn’t fully complete, mostly because his soul was on the very verge of collapse during that event. However, he definitely remembered a Void being mentioned. Kyte then thought back to what David had said about what was happening around Kyte. David had stated that it was like reality itself was broken apart around Kyte’s body while a large sphere of spatial distortions and black lightning surrounded him.

If what David said about reality breaking and that black light was pouring from those cracks was true, then that means...the black light really is from somewhere else. However, that doesn’t explain why it had showed up the first time Kyte had compressed the air when he was absorbing world energy. Maybe it had something to do with the black cloud within his consciousness? What exactly was that anyway?

It seemed to be sentient, so what could it be? It said it was me and that I betrayed it? Why did it say we would mutate? If...if that thing was inside me my whole life, wouldn’t that mean that I’m a Gifted? Aren’t Gifted powers’ hereditary? What the Hell…

Kyte deeply sighed at that thought. If he actually was born a Gifted, that would mean one or both of his parents were Gifted. But that only brings up more questions. Too many, in fact. Kyte wasn’t in the mood to brood about these unanswerable questions. It was simply too much to think about. If all that was true, it would flip his understanding of his parents and grandparents completely.

Kyte just focused back on the questions about now. The black light sphere was still up, so Kyte wanted to experiment on several things. Since he now knows that he can create a sort of Domain with the black light, he wanted to be able to use it to his total advantage. The first advantage that’s, ironically, clear as day is that the visibility within the black light domain is absolutely non-existent. It also isolated the space within the sphere, making it completely separate from the outside. Kyte began to experiment within the sphere, intent on fully controlling the inside.

With all these questions about the black light and the origin of the black light, as well as separating from the Bloodrage Technique, Kyte decided that he needed new names for the new stages. He put everything together, but what stuck out to him the most was what the black cloud had said. Therefore, he named the new seventh stage the Void Seeker stage.