Eldric's boot met the gleaming roof of the mansion, and passed straight through. His Ether barely flickered, the drainage was faint, similar to what he happened when he slipped through normal inanimate objects.
It took less than a heartbeat to phase through, yet he could feel every sliver of Ether leave his veins... He'd been a little worried that his phasing would fail at the last second, but it all seemed to work out in the end.
He expected to hit the floor within seconds. Instead, he found himself suspended midair, weightless, drifting in a space without walls, without up or down. There was no ground, and no ceiling. Only a vast ocean of darkness stretching infinitely in every direction.
A cold prickle crawled up his spine. The air—or whatever passed for it here—was thick, heavy, and still. Then suddenly, a sense of deja vu enveloped him.
An impenetrable dread seeped into his bones, his thoughts dissolving one by one until nothing remained but a hollow awareness. 'Why was I here again?'
He tried to remember. The Garrison? His plan? His family? The answers slipped through him like water through open fingers.
'What did it matter?'
Meaning was an illusion. Goals, people, even his own existence... All of it was dust on an empty canvas. His chest grew cold. His will flickered.
Then... came eternal silence.
---
Oblivion consumed the boy's thoughts first, then started picking apart his body. His legs and arms dissipated into nothingness, his head followed soon after leaving his torso as the only evidence of the child's existence.
First his skin, followed by his muscles, then his intestines, pancreas, liver, lungs...
They were erased one after the other, until all that remained was his heart.
It had almost no resemblance to a normal human heart, it had no color, and no shape, yet it was there, undeniably.
The darkness convulsed around it, attempting to destroy it time and time again. After failing once more, it shuddered. Oblivion itself reeled around the formless heart, as if realizing the transgression it had committed.
It quickly scrambled to form the boy once more, but all that was lost to it, would never return. So it would fashion him a new vessel, yet it's purpose was not to create, but to destroy. And so it sacrificed a part of itself, forming skin and bones, muscles and organs, brain and mind, all to adorn the lonesome heart.
Amazingly, nothing had become something. The boy's vessel was identical to his first, yet intrinsically different. Slowly, his Ether permeated through the vessel's veins, his soul taking residence within.
---
Eldric's eyes opened to darkness. "What the…"
He blinked several times, steadying his breath. He knew this sensation—had felt it before. Death, life, the quiet between existence and erasure. But this time, it felt a little more... final.
And yet here he was, still kicking.
He exhaled softly, half a laugh, half a sigh. Maybe he really was getting that third chance after all.
Suddenly, he heard a voice. It startled him at first, but then he realized what it was. An old friend by now.
But it wasn't the faint whisper he'd grown used to, slithering in the corners of his thoughts. This time, the angelic voice filled the space around him, echoing through the dark like a divine decree.
"You are he who has engulfed void itself, making it reel against his presence. He who has been born from nothing, who has bonded with oblivion. You have performed an impossible task, and shall be rewarded with an epithet."
Eldric blinked. 'An epithet?'
The world spoke once more, reverberating through his very being.
"The world dubs thee… Eldric, the Pale."
He stared blankly into the black. 'The Pale?'
'Really? I mean, sure, I could use some sun, but come on…'
It was quite a strange epithet, considering the situation. He had seemingly been erased by the void he was currently submerged within, only for it to discover his nature as a Voidborne, and recreate his body from... nothing. One would expect to be dubbed 'the null' or 'the empty', yet instead he'd been called 'The Pale'.
On second thought, it did make some sense. Paleness, or the color white specifically, could be used to refer to the absence of color, or the emptiness of a page. But if that was the case, based on the words of the world themselves, he was currently within the 'void', so why was it black, and not white?
He exhaled. 'Strange… '
Actually, considering his current situation, it was the least strange thing he had going on.
He glanced around. "So, where the hell am I? The Garrison's attic?" His voice echoed through the nothing, which made him flinch. That shouldn't have been possible. Sound needed matter to travel through.
Which begged the question—how could something exist in nothing?
Then, he felt a small shift within the abyss. Barely perceptible at first, but undeniable. The void itself trembled. Something vast stirred within the black.
A shape emerged from the void—an abomination of flesh and shadow. Its skin was the color of drowned wax, stretched too thin over bones that looked sharp enough to tear through their own casing. Its mouth split its face in half, a gaping crescent lined with translucent fangs that shimmered faintly beneath the ghostly glow of a lure that dangled from its brow.
Its eyes were two impenetrable pearls of darkness, they seemed to look beyond Eldric, into the stretch of black behind him, yet it's unyielding presence was entirely focused on consuming the small, miniscule human.
The sheer size of it dwarfed him. Even half-open, the monster's cavernous maw could swallow him whole.
Eldric floated within the nothingness, powerless to escape its inevitable pursuit. The anglerfish-like monster drew closer, before coming to halt in front of him.
He couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't even think. His hairs stood erect like those of a cat.
Then, it stopped.
It's lure dimmed slightly, as it slowly closed it's jaw. Then, it lowered it's massive head in front of the powerless child.
It was... bowing?
Eldric blinked once. Then twice. "Y–Yeah. That's right," he muttered weakly, forcing a grin. "I'm the damn Voidborne, whatever that is. You better bow."
It's head sank lower, as though apologizing for its earlier transgression.
Eldric hesitated, then frowned. "Wait… you can understand what I'm saying?"
The leviathan looked at him, it's grotesque features illuminated by the green glow of it's lure. It's eyes were still as lightless as ever, but Eldric felt a faint emotion permeate through the surrounding abyss, before fading as if it never existed.
'Affirmation.'
It completely understood him, not only that, it was capable of communicating with him as well. He stared at it in disbelief, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright then… let's try this."
"Am I in the Garrison's base?"
The monster remained still as the void pulsed once more.
'Confusion.'
Eldric narrowed his eyes. 'Maybe it doesn't know what the Garrison is?'
He didn't really understand how he was capable of differentiating between the creature's emotions, he just was. He thought for a moment, then tried again.
"Are there… other people here? Like me?"
This time, the void stirred more noticeably. The creature shifted, the shadows rippling with its movement.
A single emotion followed.
'Affirmation.'
Eldric exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing in the pale green light. "Then it looks like I might be on the right track after all."