Chapter 125 The Void

A sad but proud feeling radiated off the presence assumed to be Evernya’s mother as Evernya writhed in pain for what could be minutes or years in the timeless void.

Unable to cope with the soul deep pain, Evernya’s mind withdrew.

She blinked awake to find herself in a pitch black void once more. Shaken from whatever happened to her body, Evernya stared blankly at the void when something wrapped her in a hug, though this time feeling much more physical.

Assuming her so-called mother decided to pay a physical visit, a scowl formed as she snapped back to the present. She tried to pry the pair of arms from her waist, only to find she didn’t have any arms. Panic ensued when she realized she could see in every direction at once, as if she was one giant eyeball.

The arms hugging her retreated upon sensing her panic to reveal a familiar purple eyed and horned person.

Evernya’s panic receded upon recognizing the person as said person spoke. “Calm down, my lady. Everything will be fine.”

“Fine? I’m an orb!” Spat Evernya, despite her lack of mouth.

Kya’s typical formal demeanor cracked as a giggle reverberated through the void, somehow echoing despite no visible walls. “You aren’t an orb, my lady. We aren’t in the physical world we are in your soul space. You can be anything you want to here.”

Evernya flashed back to distant memories of reading many stories before picturing her body. A moment later, the brightly shining blue orb morphed into the appearance of her body. “Really? Could you at least put on some clothes?” Commented Kya with a straight face.

With a shrug unbothered by her lack of attire, Evernya attempted to shift her natural armor, only to find she couldn’t. She panicked for a moment before remembering what Kya just said. A quick mental command morphed her body once again, now clad in her natural armor and wings.

Kya nodded her head with a smile on her face. “Looking majestic, my lady.”

Instead of commenting, Evernya scanned her surroundings before asking, “if I can change my appearance in my right in assuming I can change everything else?”

“Affirmative, my lady. Here you are god. Everything is under your control here.”

Evernya raised eyebrow as she glanced at Kya. “Even you?”

Kya’s face reddened, but Evernya missed it as her thoughts spun out as panic resurfaced. “Are you really Kya or just a hallucination? Am I really in my soul space? You could be that presence claiming to be my mother.”

Tears formed in Kya’s purple eyes before she shot toward Evernya at impossible speeds, practically teleporting in front of her.

Even with Evernya’s superhuman reaction time, she failed to react before Kya engulfed her in a hug. “I’m sorry I failed to protect you when you needed me most! I’ll never fail you again.”

At the physical contact, Evernya had a realization dousing her panic in favor of confusion. “Wait, if you are Kya, how can you hug me? You don’t have a physical body.”

Kya hug to her tighter in response, savoring the physical contact before abruptly retreating with wide panic filled eyes as she performed a deep bow. “I’m sorry, my lady. I don’t know what came over me.”

Taken aback by the sudden change, Evernya stared at Kya for several seconds in silence.

Assuming Evernya was angry at her based on the silence, Kya peeked up through her hair while still in bow only to find Evernya staring at her with a confused expression no anger visible.

Kya straightened as she stealthily smoothed out her uniform even though it was already flawless, pretending her outburst never happened. “To answer your question, my lady, I do have a body here. When your seals broke, something happened to me. I no longer reside on a computer chip but instead in your soul. I’ve been here ever sense.”

While nodding along with a dumbfounded expression, Evernya stared at Kya. Her mind suddenly snapped back into focus with wide eyes. “Am I dead?”

With a chuckle, Kya responded, “no you are not my lady. If anything, you are more alive than ever.”

Evernya narrowed her eyes. “Explain.”

“I don’t know much myself, but something is happening to both your body and soul. Before, they were separate entities, but now they are merging together.”

“Merging? That doesn’t sound good.”

“On the contrary, my lady. I think it’s a very good thing, at least based on my scans, though I can’t say for sure.”

“What to the scans show?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure, but every parameter seems to be skyrocketing despite your missing mana system. No mana system should be a death sentence for a Draecath, but for some reason, your body is as healthy as ever. There doesn’t even appear to be mana surrounding your body. When you destroyed the crystal sealing off the corrupted mana, the resulting clash did something to your body.” Kya paused before dropping a bombshell. “Every cell of your body seems to be producing a changed form of mana.”

“Wait, I don’t live on mana anymore?” Questioned Evernya in disbelief.

At a loss, Kya explained, “Not quite. Your body appears to still need mana to function, but the source appears to be internal.”

“So no more passing out from lack of mana? How does that work? I thought mana only came from the world.”

“I have no idea. None of the information they provided me says it’s possible. My best guess was you became some sort of portable lay line by absorbing large quantities of two types of mana directly from the source, but I can’t say for sure.”

Kya’s eyes widened a moment later. “Oh no, I think I know what is happening. There were several references to something called the ascension in the archives. It alluded to the joining of body and soul, but no specifics.”

Crap, please tell me I’m not turning into some godly presence like those things in the void.

“From what I can tell my lady, no. Your body appears to be retaining its shape, though internally I wouldn’t call it alive in the traditional sense. Nobody could survive the full power of two major lay lines clashing without changes. In your case, you took the final step into being a true mana being without the need of organs. There were mentions of the third and final evolution of a Draecath being becoming one with mana, and I think something similar happened to you. Though I found no mentions of any Draecath producing their own mana, so I’m not sure.”

“So we both are in the dark? Wonderful.” Evernya shrugged before commenting. “I guess we will just have to find out. I doubt we could stop it if we tried. I feel like all I’ve been doing lately is evolving.”

“Actually, my lady, it’s been over a year since you involved into a Draecath.”

Evernya’s eyes widened, staring at Kya in shock. “A year!? How?”

The desire to return to seek vengeance flared before stuffing out as her emotions and memories of what happened became blurry. This only fueled her anger, causing the void to rumble.

With a panicked expression, Kya shouted, “Calm down, my lady! You will have your vengeance, but please calm yourself until after you return.”

“Why? Everyone is so vague about what is happening. Why won’t anyone tell me what is going on? Instead, they dodge my questions or mess with my mind!” Growled Evernya.

“I don’t know, my lady. All I can tell is it’s a delicate process and your emotional outburst strained it. There’s no telling what would happen if you lost control, so I suggest keeping calm. Maybe we can build your soul space while we wait.”

Evernya took a deep unneeded breath before nodding her head. “Yeah, you’re right. There is no point in raging about something I can’t control.”

To take her mind off her increasingly volatile emotions, Evernya focused on the void surrounding them. “So just how big is this place?”

“I don’t know, my lady. Whenever I tried moving, it felt like I was moving in place. The only point of reference is Nekomata floating somewhere to our right.”

Curious, Evernya turned to the right, looking for Nekomata. The simple thought caused the weapons to appear in front of them, but without any other point of reference, there was no way to tell if she teleported to them or they teleported to her.

Suddenly, a horrible thought came to her. Her eyes shot to Kya with a saddened expression. She twitched to hug her AI as she asked, “you said it’s been over a year since my Draecath evolution. Does that mean you were stuck here all this time?”

Kya gave a slight nod of her head with a polite expression in response, but tears forming in her eyes gave away her true feelings.

Unable to resist any longer, Evernya shot toward Kya, wrapping her in a hug and tail hug simultaneously.

Trapped in Evernya’s embrace, Kya finally broke down. The muffled sobs echoed through the void as Evernya silently held her companion while rubbing her back.

A few minutes later, Kya stiffened before pulling away. She wiped her tears away before returning to her usual professional demeanor with her ears forward and tail half raised. “I’m sorry, my lady. I don’t know what came over me.”

Evernya scowled as she stared into Kya’s eyes. Kya tried to look away, but Evernya lifted her chin, forcing her to make eye contact. “Don’t ever apologize for showing your emotions! I don’t know what my stupid mother programmed into you, but you earn the right and then some to break down. I would go insane being trapped here for so long. Your reaction shows you are your own person. I don’t want some emotionless robot as my companion, so never hide your emotions from me.”

With a smile, Kya nodded her head as she took a step back. “I’ll try, my lady. While I’m not under any restrictions any longer, it’s hard to shake off my former programming.”

Kya’s eyes widened as she quickly added, “don’t worry, I wouldn’t ever hurt you nor could I if I wanted to. I am essentially part of your soul now, so if you die, so do I.”

Blurry memories with detached emotions flashed through Evernya’s mind at Kya’s words. “That didn’t stop Aya from hurting me. I thought we were connected for life, yet she snapped our connection like I didn’t matter.”

Kya gave a reassuring smile as she revealed, “She didn’t break your bond, nor could she if she wanted to. Your bond is still active, just smothered somehow. My pre-installed knowledge didn’t delve into soul bonds, but from what little I downloaded, even a basic soul bond can’t be broken without consent from both parties and a powerful soul mage.”

The more Evernya focused on the specific memory look clear it became, though her emotions still remained detached. “Why did she do it? She could have helped me. None of this would’ve happened if she supported me instead of abandoning me.”

Evernya’s emotions flared the longer she focused on the memories, causing the void to rumble once more. With a deep saddened sigh, she banished the memories, causing them to become vague once more, taking her emotions with them.

Kya tried to give Evernya an encourage smile as she added, “Maybe she thought she was helping. We won’t know until we find her.”

No longer feeling strong emotions on the matter, Evernya moved on for now. Instead, she refocused on the surrounding void before asking, “so how do I change the void? Do I just picture it like with my body?”

“Affirmative, my lady.”

The thoughts of wandering a majestic woods like what surrounded Meira’s home formed.

Evernya turned her focus to the surrounding black void, picturing a forest instead. A moment later, the void transformed into a lush forest with several meter thick tree trunks extending a hundred meters into the sky, which wasn’t visible through the canopy.

Next, Evernya created a grassy clearing and a small log cabin with a mossy roof. Satisfied with her creation, floated down, followed by a brightly smiling Kya.

Defying logic, the inside of the cabin was several times larger, with one main living area with comfortable rustic looking seating consisting of a wood-framed leather couch and recliner in front of a lit fireplace. With the assumption of not needing to eat, Evernya skipped the kitchen. Instead, she added two sizeable bedrooms with king-sized beds. Between the two bedrooms was a bathroom with doors allowing access to both bedrooms. The bathroom lacked a toilet but had a large hot tub, sauna, and surround spray shower, all big enough for several Evernyas at once for relaxation.

Evernya happily trotted toward the couch in front of a crackling fire burning in a stone fireplace and sat down.

Unfortunately, her happiness was short-lived as just as they sat down, her soul space began to rumble once more, this time not because of her emotions.