Chapter 22 — Void filler
The classroom windows were open, letting in the smell of dust and rain-washed trees. Ceiling fans turned lazily overhead, stirring the warm air that carried the faint scent of chalk and paper.
Soma sat by the window, chin resting on his hand, watching sunlight flicker across the schoolyard. His mind wasn't on the lesson — it lingered on the conversation he'd had with Savitri that morning at breakfast.
> "Because of an urgent job, I have to go outside the city,"
she had said gently, her bangles clinking as she stirred the tea.
"I might be late coming home."
> "Did something happen, Grandma?" Soma had asked, frowning.
> "No, nothing important," she'd replied with a small smile, sliding a black key across the table. "Take care of the house key."
But even then, he'd seen it — the faint worry behind her eyes, hidden beneath her usual calm.
---
A sudden tap on his shoulder pulled him back to the present.
"Hey man, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?" Dev's voice broke through the haze.
Soma blinked and smiled faintly. "Nothing. Just thinking."
"About what? The clouds?" Dev leaned toward the window, squinting. "Looks like plain old sky to me."
Soma chuckled softly. "That's what makes it interesting."
Before Dev could reply, the sharp sound of boots echoed down the hallway. A man in a dark shirt entered the room, carrying a thick stack of papers. Without a word, he grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote across the blackboard in bold letters:
> SURPRISE TEST
Groans filled the classroom. A few students dropped their pens dramatically.
"Quiet!" the teacher snapped, tapping the chalk against the board. "This will test your preparation before finals. Anyone who fails—" his gaze swept across the back rows— "I'll be calling your parents personally."
The class went still.
"Total marks: sixty. Time: forty-five minutes. No talking. If you have a question, ask me directly."
---
Soma turned the paper over.
HISTORY
1. Who was the first Prime Minister of independent India?
He smiled and wrote: Jawaharlal Nehru.
2. What was the first battle Napoleon Bonaparte fought?
He frowned. "No clue."
3. Who was proclaimed King of United Italy in 1861?
He stared at the words until they blurred together.
"It'd be great if Alex were here," he whispered under his breath.
He thought about calling her, but shook his head. She's probably still working somewhere far away. By the time she comes, it'll be over.
"I don't have any other choice," he sighed, pulling out his old 'lucky' pencil — the one with A, B, C, and D written on each side. He rolled it across the desk, and whichever letter faced up, he circled it.
It wasn't strategy — it was survival.
Halfway through, a quiet, familiar voice drifted just behind his ear.
> "The second and third answers are wrong."
Soma froze. His pencil slipped from his fingers. Slowly, he turned — and his eyes widened.
Alex hovered beside him, faint light tracing the outline of her form. Her glow was soft, like moonlight caught in glass, barely visible in daylight. She looked at the paper as if it were the most serious thing in the world.
Relief washed over him. "You're back…"
> "Answer two: Siege of Toulon.
Answer three: Victor Emmanuel II," she said calmly.
He grinned. "The gods haven't forsaken me after all."
With Alex's quiet help, Soma finished the rest of the test — his pencil moving steadily across the page, answers flowing with ease. She hovered beside him like a whisper of light, unseen by anyone else, guiding him one question at a time.
---
A moment later dropping his pen, Soma stretched his arms above his head. "Done," he whispered, satisfied.
He stood, walked up to the teacher's desk, and placed his paper down.
"You're finished already?" the teacher asked, glancing at the clock. "It's only been thirty minutes."
Soma nodded silently.
The teacher flipped through the pages, raised an eyebrow, and said, "Go sit."
---
Fifteen minutes later, another teacher entered — younger, neatly dressed, radiating enthusiasm.
He erased the board and wrote in clean strokes:
> MATH TEST
The entire class groaned louder than before.
Dev dropped his head onto the desk. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Soma smiled faintly.
With Alex's quiet whispers guiding him through the numbers, he finished every equation with steady hands. When the final bell rang, students burst out the doors like freed birds. The corridor filled with laughter and shouts of relief.
Dev clapped Soma's shoulder as they walked outside. "Man, you're not normal. You finish faster than anyone in class."
Soma laughed. "Maybe I just got lucky."
"Yeah, yeah, keep your secrets," Dev said, rolling his eyes. "Group study tomorrow at my place, remember?"
"I won't forget," Soma said, waving.
---
The sunlight outside was warm and golden. The smell of chalk and ink faded into the earthy scent of the playground dust.
As Soma stepped beyond the school gate, Alex hovered quietly beside him, her form glinting faintly in the late-afternoon light.
For a while, neither of them spoke. The road stretched ahead, shimmering with heat. Somewhere nearby, children were laughing, a bell rang from a small temple, and a breeze carried the faint scent of marigolds.
He smiled. "Let's go home."
---
The house was unusually silent when Soma stepped inside.
Even the ticking of the old wall clock sounded distant, swallowed by the still air. He set the small black key down on the kitchen counter and glanced around — no sign of Savitri.
He sighed softly and headed to his room.
Dropping onto his bed, he stared at the ceiling for a moment before asking quietly,
"Alex… how does the outside world look?"
A faint silver glow shimmered above him as Alex appeared, her voice calm and clear, like the echo of wind through glass.
> "The world is vast," she said. "Covered in blue oceans. When I entered… the large cities, towers rose… like mountains, and the ground was layered… with concrete. At night, the bright lights merge with the stars — so bright that day and night almost… become one."
Soma smiled faintly. "So our first problem's solved. What comes next?"
> "Now," Alex replied, "we must expand the twin-sun world. For that, the Fourth Ring — Aetherion: The Ring of Space — will assist us."
Soma pushed himself upright, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. "Then let's do it."
Alex's form dissolved into a narrow beam of silver light, slipping into Soma's body. His breath steadied as he closed his eyes and entered the inner void of his consciousness.
The Rune appeared — seven radiant rings turning in perfect alignment. He focused on the fourth one: Aetherion.
Nothing happened.
He frowned, then concentrated on the second symbol within the ring. A pulse of light spread outward, followed by glowing words:
> Need 10,000 Awakened Souls to upgrade.
Yes / No
Without hesitation, Soma focused on Yes.
Still, nothing.
He clenched his fists, frustrated, and tried again — this time focusing on the third symbol. Another line appeared:
> Requires 1,00,000 Awakened Souls to upgrade.
Yes / No
He hesitated only a second before whispering, "Yes."
The void shimmered.
> New Ability Unlocked: Void Walker — Ability to glide through space.
Soma's eyes widened slightly. "Void Walker… sounds cool, but not what I need."
He turned his attention to the fourth symbol — and was met with another message:
> Not enough souls. Requires 10,000 Intelligent Souls to upgrade.
He groaned softly, rubbing his forehead. "Great. No space-expansion ability either."
From within, Alex's voice echoed, calm but firm.
> "Then we must absorb… space directly from this world… and transfer it into the twin-sun. world."
Soma blinked. "Absorb space? You make it sound simple. How do we even do that?"
> "The same way we created… the soul-absorbing… machine," Alex replied. "We'll design a new one — a device capable of drawing… in ether and spatial matter."
Soma nodded slowly. "Alright. Let's try."
He reached out with his mind, focusing on the Genesis Ring — the ring of creation.
---
SOUL STORAGE
1. Soul Fragments: 180,790
2. Awakened Souls: 2,770,900
3. Intelligent Souls: 53
4. Transcendental Souls: 0
5. Immortal Souls: 0
6. Divine Souls: 0
---
A soft hum filled the void as glowing text formed before him.
Void filler
An autonomous machine capable of absorbing ether and matter, teleporting it directly into the twin-sun world.
Material: Refined metal essense
Absorbing Range: 100 kilometers
Mobility: Hypersonic flight capability
Requires 350,000 Awakened Souls to create.
Yes / No
Soma hesitated for only a moment — then focused on Yes.
Before he could open his eyes, another prompt appeared, floating in midair like liquid light.
> Kill Switch — A control device to manage the space-absorbing machine.
Requires 8,000 Awakened Souls to create.
Yes / No
"What's the kill switch?" Soma asked.
> "It functions as a remote — a controller for the machine," Alex explained. "That way, creator don't have… to manage it manually."
"Great idea," Soma thought, and selected Yes.
A pulse of energy ran through his chest.
When he opened his eyes, a basketball-sized orb floated before him, gleaming silver and white. Its surface was carved with two moving rings — Genesis and Aetherion — symbols flowing like living metal.
Alex materialized beside him, her light rippling faintly.
> "Where's the kill switch?" she asked.
Soma looked around, puzzled — until he noticed something faint on his wrist.
A tiny silver mark glowed on his skin. When he touched it, a transparent screen flickered to life above his hand.
A single red dot blinked at the center — the orb's position. Below it, two glowing buttons appeared: ON and OFF.
Soma smiled. "Perfect."
He grabbed the orb, its surface cool and smooth like polished stone, and ran upstairs to the terrace.
The sky stretched endlessly above him, painted with shades of silver and blue.
He placed the orb gently on the roof tiles — then tapped ON.
The orb began to hum softly, rising into the air. Then, without warning, it accelerated — a streak of silver vanishing into the clouds.
Moments later, a blinding flash followed. The entire sky erupted in light — for a heartbeat, the world seemed to hold its breath.
Then the light bent.
The clouds above twisted inward, rushing toward a single, invisible point. A faint, soundless vibration passed through the air, making the hairs on Soma's arms stand on end.
The sky rippled — and with a soft, blinding pulse, the world plunged into darkness.
Soma stared upward, stunned. "What the—?"
Behind him, Alex appeared, her glow sharp with alarm. She pressed the OFF button on Soma's wrist.
Instantly, the darkness shattered. The sunlight returned — but the clouds were gone, completely erased.
A small silver dot plummeted from above, landing in the garden with a metallic thud, toppling a flowerpot and scattering petals across the soil.
Soma rushed to the railing, heart pounding. "What just happened!?"
> "The orb didn't just absorb space," Alex explained evenly. "It also consumed matter — and photons. That's why sunlight couldn't… reach the Earth."
Soma's jaw dropped. "So… if I'd turned that thing on in my room—"
> "Everything around you would've collapsed… into a void," Alex said simply.
Soma exhaled sharply. "We'll have to be careful with this."
He hurried downstairs to the garden. The orb still glowed faintly, heat radiating from its surface. Gently, he picked it up and whispered, half amused, half exhausted,
"Guess we just built the universe's most dangerous vacuum cleaner."
Alex's light pulsed softly, like a sigh.
Soma carried the orb back to his room, the night wind following him inside.
The stars above were clear — unnaturally clear — as if the sky itself had been polished clean.