Within the hovel, all I could see Stepping through the hovel it was almost like stepping through a portal. Strong Void energy was swirling within the hovel, not aggressive or destructive like was found within me, nor was it curios like the Void in between portals. Instead, it seemed to be a lethargic, tired Void. Sensing me, it seemed to coalesce around me, wrapping me in a sea of fog. When done with my own Void this process was always a chore, with the Void resisting me, wanted to be let of its “leash” and let out to destroy the world and free its inhabitants.

The Void in this hovel seemed to want to do the opposite and curl back up inside of me. I could feel it pressing up against my skin, it was less of a cool feeling, but instead seemed to both burn and soothe, like the mixture of menthol and clove oil. It was an unsettling feeling, but not an uncomfortable one. Expelling some of my own Void from within me, I watched it mix with the Void within the air. Void is light purple in color, but as more and more Void is condensed it becomes darker and darker until it becomes matte black that seemed to eat any light that is poured into it. Conversely, if I only release a little the Void is clear and transparent, invisible to the naked eye. The Void in this hovel was dense enough that there was a haze within, yet when mixed with my own Void it quickly became a matte black tendril yet was still lounging around. Soon the tendril began to twitch, almost like it was waking up from a deep nap. Soon the tendril was lashing out once again, ready, and willing to fight the world.

Chuckling to myself, this Void just needed some time to wake up, but that was ok. I had more then enough time and stimulants to let it wakeup from its slumber. Wrapping the “slumbering” void around me like a soothing blanket my vision warped as I shifted my mask into the Herald of the Void form and peered into the darkness that laid behind the Void.

On the ground was a girl, shivering in the cold. She was wearing a light blue robe that was dirtied and smeared. Underneath the dirt you could see that it was in good shape, like it had been cared for a long time before it reached this sullied state. There was a pool of dried blood, and the girl look pail and deathly anemic, probably from blood loss.

Peering down at her, I face flashed into my vision. She was the girl from the yard who stood next to the warden. Surprisingly though, a second, younger face appeared in my vision. It was a girl I had seen in passing at the academy, and the cold look she had given me at the time was apparently enough for her to be plastered into my memory.

Pushing back the hood part of her robe, long silvery hair seemed to flash in this stunted light. There was no internal light source in this hovel, the only light peering in slightly through the mangled door. Yet her hair seemed to glow with a holy radiance, moving her over onto her back I viewed the extents of her injuries. Her right arm (my left) was shorn clean off, it was an oddly angled cut as everything from the left of her arm was cleanly cut off. It was such a smooth cut, whatever had shorn through it was sharp, so sharp that not even the edges of the clothe smooth, not having been turn but had been cut.

The wound wasn’t bleeding, it had been cauterized, but it was impossible to tell whether the weapon which had caused the damage was also the thing that cauterized the wound. If it was the same though, then the person who inflicted this was most likely a sainted, and even more likely to being a seer, as seers loved their energy attacks.

I’d never fought a seer before, but I’d love to see the interaction between their godly powers and my all-consuming Void. It would be an interesting battle for sure and something I would have to try at some point in time.

Reaching into her mind, her mental walls were very high and very deep, and while I couldn’t look inside, I was able to tell that there was a storm of thoughts banging on the inside of her brain, hitting on the sides of her mental walls. They were smacking into the mental walls so hard that I could hear the sounding of the banging on the other side of the impenetrable wall.

Placing my hand on her head, I put some force into my mental tendrils trying to see just how thick this mental block was, and to my surprise I was able to get in. Instead of crumbling, the wall opened into a door and let me into her mindscape.

My mind was now within hers, with her thoughts whistling past me at speeds that indicated that her unconscious mind was now in charge, and her conscious thought were fading. In other words, her mind was dying, and her soul was looking to leave her body. This wasn’t uncommon, it was discussed in school, described as a high-level technique a seer could invoke on others, but it wasn’t something to my understanding, could be done automatically by a soul to try and save itself.

I could feel her soul trying to force its way into my mind, trying to hijack my body. I didn’t resist, but I didn’t allow it to run amok within me. Instead, I captured some of her soul within mine, and spat the rest back into her mind.

I tucked the piece of her soul that I captured into the deepest recesses of my mind, trapping it there. This sliver was so miniscule unless she was someone who focused within herself a lot it would be near impossible for her to notice it was missing.

Looking around me, thoughts, feelings, and memories were flashing past me in an almost psychedelic dream, whizzing past me at speeds that were hard to follow. Capturing one, I peered into it, and it was a memory. It was from the eyes of someone very short, and they were looking up at someone, but their face was obscured by a weird fog. I couldn’t tell if this fog was part of the memory or due to the degradation of the memory. Losing interest, I tossed it to the side and peered into the abyss of her mind, looking for the last vestige of active thought.

Spotting a light receding into the darkness, my mind shot out like a cannon and latched onto it. Her consciousness surprisingly fought back, instead of wanted to live it seemed that it was striving to recede in the recesses of her mind. If I allowed this to happen, she would become functionally brain dead, and soon die afterwards due to dehydration.

Firmly grasping her failing consciousness, I lugged it back into the center of her mind. Once her consciousness and mind calmed down what surprised me the most was there were traces of Void scratching her consciousness. Instead of burning her up it was just laying dormant within her mind. Intrigued, I injected her consciousness with some of my Void, and the Void within her flared to life.

Her consciousness screamed, and I was pushed back into my own mind by the psionic winds generated by her mind. It seemed that she was a very strong seer, but now I wasn’t sure what she would become.

Either the Void would consume her mind, or she would become something like me. But I could tell that she wouldn’t become me. My mind was an inky black, it was made of the Void, my mind was the void.

Her mind on the other hand was peppered with Void, but it was trapped within her mind, her mind and the Void were two different entities. It truly was an interesting thing to witness.

Opening my eyes, I glanced down at her lying by my feet. Her face was no longer passive, it was now contorted and seemed to be in great pain. Picking her up, I brushed off the dirt with one hand and made my way outside to where my praetorians stood regally overlooking the hovel with a seemingly grim determination.

I made sure to send a word of thanks over our mental connection, then instructed them to lead me out of the slums and to the outskirts of the wilderness. I didn’t plan on going in and ruin my army’s fun, I just needed a place outside of prying eyes to witness what would become of my little experiment.

At some point a vicious grin had spread across my face, and it felt good. Discovering new things was never a dreary experience!

They of the Broken Cross

They of the Broken Cross are the private elite troops of the emperor. They are either used as escorts, but during wartime they might be mobilized into a proper fighting unit. They are usually arranged into squads of sixteen sainted knights, four seers, and a commander which could either be another sainted knight or a seer. There were other specialized squads, but for the main portion of the order was organized as such. There true strength was unknown, but their official strength was of a level five knight or seer. But many of them had demonstrated powers well above level five, and their official numbers were also unknown. Where they were trained was also unknown and the only known way to join is to be selected in their decennially selection process. The interview process was unknown, as the ones who failed never returned alive.

It was a dangerous interview process, but across the empire millions of people still went out and attempted the interview process. The official number of who was accepted wasn’t known, but regardless all who were interviewed were assumed dead anyways. When they returned into the light it was with a new name and no fewer then another ten years had passed. These cycles of ten were common within this order, as active duty lasted ten years before they were reassigned.

Supposedly, this order had their roots established as the personal bodyguards of the Martyred God, and after his ultimate sacrifice this bodyguard unit was reformed as They of the Broken Cross. Why a living God needed bodyguards is to this day unexplained. Those we dared question this openly are no more, and those who question it silently are disappearing one by one…