Date: Monday, February 27, 2025.
Time: 7:45 AM.
The mundane sound of the school bell—a harsh, digitized chime—was a violent contradiction to the conceptual roar that still echoed in Null's mind. Two days had passed since his forced interaction with Umbros (the God of Darkness and Death), and the traumatic revelation of his lineage as a five-element King.
Null stood leaning against the cold metal lockers of Northwood Academy, attempting to look like a normal high school senior. He was physically restored thanks to the new Void King Regeneration—his cracked ribs and damaged organs were perfectly healed—but the recovery had been conceptually exhausting. This healing was not just brute power; it was the tiny, yet potent, Light Stone percentage within his Shadow Code asserting the concept of Life against the overwhelming, destructive Darkness.
His hair was the immediate, terrifying monument to the trauma: thick streaks of stark white now sliced through his usual gold-yellow. They were the absolute absence of color, pulsing faintly with the residual psychic pain of Soren's flooded memories. Every flicker of the fluorescent hallway light felt like a probe into his fractured identity.
He glanced down the hall at Kai. Kai looked physically weary, the sheer exhaustion from using the Soulbond copy of Aris's Kinetic Control still weighing on him. Kai knew the secret—the terrifying truth that Aris was his father and his enemy. He was now the only defense between Null and the King of Stone.
Fang, disguised flawlessly as a quiet, exceptionally tall new teaching assistant, leaned casually against a wall a few yards away, observing the traffic flow. His striking blue eyes were cold and vigilant, watching for any sign of a dimensional ripple or a King's Guard operative.
The contrast between the sterile normalcy of the school and the crushing weight of their conceptual burdens created an almost unbearable tension—a constant, low-level conceptual static that only the three of them could perceive.
First Period: The Pressure of the PastNull found himself staring at the back of his textbook, but his mind was elsewhere, tracing the invisible line of the Void that now connected him to Umbros.
Twenty percent. I wielded the power of a God just to access twenty percent of what I was.
The memory of the five elemental lights dancing on young Soren's fingers was now fused with his mind, a constant reminder of how diminished he was. He felt the terrifying possibility of becoming a full, true sovereign, but the knowledge was locked behind conceptual defenses—defenses put there by Umbros to save his life.
Kai sat two desks over. He was listening to the teacher, but every single motion around him registered as a threat. The Soulbond ability, now activated, was like a constantly running scanner. When a student tapped their pen, Kai didn't just hear it; he felt the micro-kinetic energy of the impact, registering the force, velocity, and vector—a chilling reminder of his father's precise, destructive Kinetic Code.
He looked at Null's new white streaks. I know what that means. I know that cost him his mind, and he still doesn't know. Kai carried the full, agonizing story—Aris's sacrifice, the amnesia, Umbros's true role. The weight of that secret threatened to break his focus.
Gym Class: The God-Bound Sparring TestAfter enduring four periods of agonizing conceptual normalcy, they arrived at the gym. Gym was mandatory, but it was also the designated location for controlled Codex Sparring. The gym floor was equipped with subtle energy dampeners and specialized conceptual boundaries to prevent any accidental universal collapse, as even a minor Prime Stone clash involved concepts controlled by Gods.
A group of high-Sequence students gathered on the observation bleachers. Among the spar participants was Leo, a powerful but arrogant user of the Earth Stone. Leo's strength lay in raw density and predictable defense—a fraction of the God of Earth's conceptual dominion over structure.
"Null," Leo called out, his voice thick with condescension. "You've been out for days. You must be rusty. Or did the darkness finally claim your sanity?" Leo nodded toward Null's white streaks.
Null stepped onto the mat. He wasn't rusty; he was hyper-focused. This wasn't a fight; it was a diagnostic. He needed to test the new Shadow Mastery and RegenerationUmbros had enabled.
The referee started the match.
Leo didn't waste time. He slammed his foot onto the mat, and the gym floor—ignoring the dampeners—rippled. Massive, jagged spikes of compressed, dark Earth erupted from the ground, channeling a sliver of the God of Earth's fundamental power.
Null stood still. His instincts, now informed by the new 20% Shadow Mastery, were flawless.
He didn't dodge the spikes. Instead, he allowed the concept of the Shadow beneath his feet to deepen. The shadow wasn't just a lack of light; it was a conceptual Absence, a touch of Umbros's domain. As the Earth spikes hit the shadow, they seemed to sink into nothingness, losing their geometric definition as they touched the Void.
Leo stared, bewildered. His spikes melted away into Null's shadow. "What was that? Your defense used to be clumsy!"
Null advanced slowly, his gold eyes cold. "It's called efficiency, Leo."
Leo roared, changing tactics. He concentrated the Earth Stone into his fists, cladding them in thick layers of solid, black Basalt Armor. He charged Null.
CLANG!
Null simply let Leo punch him square in the ribcage.
A sickening crack echoed slightly off the dampening fields. Leo staggered back, expecting Null to drop.
Null stood there, looking mildly inconvenienced. There was no blood, only a slight ripple in the air where the damage had been. The new Regeneration, fueled by the constant, conceptual war between the Shadow Code and the Light Code fragment within him, was instantaneous. Null had used his body as a measuring tool.
Confirmed: The Light-Code offset ensures passive, immediate Regeneration at this level. I can take the hit.
Leo attacked again, faster, heavier, aiming for Null's head. Null finally moved, not with the frenetic speed of his old chaotic self, but with the cool, conceptual precision of a master. He slipped into the Basalt Armor's shadow—the single greatest flaw in Leo's concentrated power—and delivered a focused, precise Shadow strike to Leo's lower abdomen.
The Shadow strike was small, perfectly placed, and designed not to injure, but to conceptually nullify Leo's control over the Earth element. Leo gasped, his Basalt Armor collapsing instantly into dusty pebbles, leaving him exposed and defeated.
The referee called the match.
The AftermathIn the bustling locker room, Null wiped his face, trying to suppress the flicker of pain that shot through his white memory streaks. The regeneration was physically free, but the constant conceptual fighting within him was draining.
Fang entered the locker room. "A good test," Fang murmured, addressing Null telepathically. "The Shadow Mastery is refined. You tested the Regeneration too aggressively. The Void demands respect, Soren."
"I needed to know my limits, Fang," Null replied mentally. "I'm testing my body's new Code."
Kai walked past, his shoulders hunched. He paused near his locker, his voice a low whisper only Null could hear. "You took that hit on purpose. I felt the kinetic wave. It was reckless."
"It was necessary," Null replied softly.
Kai opened his locker. "We need to get Vane out of the hospital tonight. The King of Stone will have already calculated your power surge and Aris's failure. They will be moving to secure the Space Stone."
Null zipped up his bag, the weight of the Shadow Prime Stone feeling heavier than the entire universe. "Tonight. We meet Fang at the old rendezvous point after curfew. We secure Vane and we run. We can't stay on this conceptual plane for long."
I've ensured that the references to Prime Stones now reflect the God-Stone linkage and that Null's regeneration is tied to his hidden **Light Stone** percentage, creating that perfect internal conflict.
What will be the primary obstacle during the extraction of **Vane** and the **Space Stone** tonight? Will the King's Guard be waiting at the hospital, or is a new, single antagonist sent to deal with them?
End of chapter 56
See you next time