“As you all know, the System appeared sometime between the first and second true Outbreak. Not much else was found about this powerful entity’s origins. Yet, our academy is sure that somewhere out there, an individual exists that can answer those questions… However, for now, the System remains a mystery, even if we all know how to use it without a second thought.”
–Westside Academy, Ger
His eyes never left the double-colored shard; it felt as if the object was staring back, and he just couldn’t turn away. Then there were the whispers. Soft and sweet, echoing in his ears as his foot took an instinctive step toward the shard.
Leo tried to stop his body from obeying the dark whispers, but no matter how much focus he put into this seemingly simple task, his legs never stopped moving. They proceeded on their own as he was bombarded by one memory after another.
The Old One of Creation and Light sighed, taking a few steps toward his twisted sister. “It’s partially my fault that billions died at the hands of your shadow constructs. It is only fair that I will be the one to put an end to this.”
The entire fight between the two godlike beings fast-forwarded in front of his eyes as he screamed at his body to stop. Colors exploded around him, and a clash of steel banged against his ears, yet it all wasn’t real.
Focus, for fuck’s sake! Leo growled as he stepped on the narrow, rocky bridge that connected the two plateaus. Endless nothingness surrounded him from every side, and with only one wrong move, he could become a part of it.
Maybe he should have been more distraught about the potential fall to death. Yet, with all the visions playing out around him and the trapped-in-his-own-body experience, he had much better things to worry about. At least, that was until the images changed again.
“It’s the end, Nikra. Goodbye…” A whisper was all Geron could get out as transparent golden walls slid into place between the pillars. They shone brightly, illuminating the area like a star. He quickly averted his gaze, refusing to look at what was essentially his fault any longer.
All of my dreams. They were real. Leo clenched his teeth, some semblance of control of his body finally returning.
Not that it mattered. After all, his feet had already managed to carry him to the same spot that the old god—Geron—from his dreams was standing in. Hell, Geron’s form pretty much encompassed his own body in a soft white glow.
“No!”
The sudden shout rang through the area, and he instantly snapped his gaze back to the pentagon or, more precisely, to the figure in the middle.
The monstrous woman kneeled right below the shard, her form pulsing with a crimson glow. She glared right at him, and even though he understood this hate wasn’t directed at him, he felt its weight nonetheless.
“It’s just the beginning, brother. After all, what is the point of my fear if I have nothing to lose anymore?”
As soon as those words left Nikra’s mouth, the visions exploded in a flash, bathing the world in bright light. Leo shut his eyes but gasped when a sudden pain shot through his chest, right in the place of his heart.
“Shit!” The curse slipped past his lips, along with a handful of blood. Even True Stealth faded away as he fell to his knees, suddenly drained of strength and Essence.
What is going on?! He gasped again, eyes opening and lowering to the source of pain. H-how?
There, in the place of his left breast, a very familiar shard tried to drill its way into his body. Blood flowed out all around the crystal as it pushed forward, sinking deeper and deeper into his heart.
Leo tried to fight it, tried to grab the object and push it out, but it was all for naught. In a matter of seconds, he collapsed to the ground as the crystal fully entered his chest, leaving only one fist-sized hole behind.
“Thank you…”
He heard the soft whisper again, and even as darkness once more tried to consume his mind, he wasn’t scared of dying. For some reason, it all made sense, and he welcomed the embrace of sleep with open arms.
Consciousness came back to him slower than ever. Every portion of his body burned with a freezing inferno, while the ringing in his ears just wouldn’t stop. Even his attempt at opening his eyes ended with a sight full of blurry images and text. It didn’t help that his head felt like it had been bashed against a wall.
“Keep sti… …ull your Essence… slow brea… …me on!”
His breathing grew more labored with each second, and Leo couldn’t do anything about it. Not even his closed eyes could save him from the assault of dozens of System messages. They popped up in every corner of his mind, surrounding him as he tried to escape from the pain and the chaos.
STOP! P-please stop! He cried out, writhing on the hard ground as multiple small objects stabbed his body.
“Force the System away! Pull your Essence back!” The sudden shout reverberated through his mind, quieting the other noises for just a moment.
Leo didn’t question the voice for even a second. Instead, he followed its instructions to a tee, pushing and pulling. It hurt more than anything in the world, almost as if his body, mind, and even soul were being stretched from the inside. Yet, for some reason, it helped, and slowly the notifications disappeared while his Essence stopped raging like an angered bull.
“Good. Now keep still, and don’t let go of your Essence. I will do the rest.”
Not even thinking about disagreeing with the voice, Leo curled into a ball, doing his best to ignore the inferno raging through his body. He clenched his teeth and put all of his wavering focus on the task of keeping his Essence under control.
“Almost there. Now!”
The moment those words entered his mind, warmth surged into his body, encompassing the freezing inferno. He gasped and rolled onto his back, his muscles finally relaxing after the continuous abuse.
What the fuck just happened?
He drew one long breath after another, his eyes remaining closed. Most of the pain may have subsided, but it did not result in immediate recovery. The System was still trying to push its notifications to the forefront of his mind, and his Essence could not stay put.
The shard… How am I even still alive? Whose voice was that?
Quick to answer his question, the voice—definitely male—spoke again. Only this time, it came from his left instead of echoing in his mind.
“If you are thinking so loud, you must be better now. Very good… I have to say, I didn’t expect you to pull through. Glad you did, though,” the being finished with a chuckle.
Fuck! His eyes snapped open, and Leo immediately scrambled back even as his body screamed against every move.
Nothing changed from before his blackout. He was still on the small, rocky plateau, and the world around him was still filled with red and black nothingness. Only now, he wasn’t alone.
A single figure stood some distance away, leaning against one of the five pillars. His form was shrouded in a simple yet elegant black coat, leaving only the head uncovered.
Leo reached for his belt, only to be stopped by the man’s raised hand—a human hand.
“Now, now. There is no need for that. We’re all friends here. Although, I got to say—that’s a good reaction to anything in the Void. You can never know who is waiting around the corner, ready to slit your throat.” The man grinned, glowing violet eyes peering down at him.
Never moving his hand away from the knife’s handle, Leo narrowed his eyes at the complete unknown. Even if this person helped him, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.
“Who are you?” Leo stuttered out, hating how weak it sounded. No matter how much he tried to put up a strong front, he had no way of backing it up. Not after the ordeal he just went through.
The other man quirked an eyebrow, running a hand through his shaggy black hair. “Hmmm, that’s a good question, my friend. I have been called many names throughout the ages. Some of them accurate, others not so much.”
He shrugged. “As for what you may call me? Well, the Lone Traveler or just Traveler is what I go by nowadays. Feel free to call me as you want; just try to remember that I’m the one who has kept you alive during the mutation. And no, I’m not a human, so don’t ask.”
The Lone Traveler then nodded to him. “Now that I introduced myself, why don’t ya return the favor? We’re gonna be here for a while, and I’m curious about the name of the new Legacy.”
What? Mutation? Legacy? Leo blinked, repeating the long speech and jump-starting the pounding inside his head.
Shit! As fast as he could, he squashed the panic away and slowed down his breathing. Calm down, don’t panic. He seems friendly for now. It can’t hurt to try to get some answers without panicking.
“Leo Hale.” He grimaced, struggling with each word. “Why did you help me? What do you mean by mutation or Legacy?”
The Traveler raised his hand. “Easy there. You are far from recovered. For the Void, you probably shouldn’t be awake now.”
The man sighed and slid to the ground, still leaning against the pillar.
“Before I even say anything, please just confirm one thing for me. Are you from Earth? The planet, I mean,” he asked, and Leo nodded after a moment.
“Of course you are. How I sometimes hate that place,” the Lone Traveler grumbled before his expression did a complete one-eighty. “Anyway, mutation, Legacy. Both connected to what happened to you, so why don’t I just start with that, eh?”
Confused but still curious beyond measure, he nodded again, receiving a small smile in return.
Weird guy.
“All right then,” the mysterious man began. “Somehow, and I won’t even question how, you arrived here at a location lost to time. And trust me when I say that I spent ages trying to find it only to come up with nothing.” He sighed at that. “Now, this little Void dimension housed a very powerful artifact. A shard of an even more powerful entity.”
“Nikra’s,” Leo muttered, the woman’s face flashing in his mind.
The Traveler’s gaze snapped to him, eyes narrowed. “How do you know that name?” he hissed out.
Leo stiffened, his grip on the knife tightening.
“Dreams,” he stated quickly, ignoring the burning in his throat. “They came a few weeks before the Outbreak. I saw the war and this place where she unleashed something upon the world.”
The pressure of the Traveler’s stare suddenly disappeared as the man nodded and leaned his head against the pillar. “That explains a lot. Your world experienced what we call echoes of the past carried by Essence of universes long dead. Or, in short, Void Echoes. With an Outbreak so strong, I should have expected them to happen.” He clicked his tongue. “Still, no Universe in the past experienced the whole history of Nikra’s downfall.”
“It wasn’t whole,” Leo quickly denied. “Only snippets and, well… the ending.”
The Traveler shook his head. “It doesn’t really matter. Even with those fragments, you now know more of the multiverse’s past than most of the Void’s denizens. And trust me, despite what you may think, the Void’s population is not small. Quite the opposite, in fact, and I’m not talking about Voidlings.”
Leo froze, for a moment forgetting about his dire situation. “Population. There is a chance to survive this mess after all? How? The System said that with every Outbreak, a Universe dies.”
“That’s true.” The Traveler nodded. “It just doesn’t mean that all survivors die with it. The Void has plenty of free space for those that want to live. More factions and habitable planets appear with every Outbreak, so really, you have nothing to worry about when the next one comes. Just make sure that you are strong enough to get there. The System will explain everything as you progress, so let’s not waste more valuable time now.”
He wanted to argue, to find out more about ways to keep his family safe in the future, but he was at a disadvantage here. The Traveler had been helpful until now, and he would rather not force his hand. Especially when the other man seemed to have closed this subject with his last sentence.
Just then, the Traveler clapped his hands, bringing him back to reality. “Back to the topic. You found Nikra’s shard, which, as you probably remember, slipped into your body, thus starting a forced mutation. A process that, as the name implies, mutated your body or soul in some way. I’m betting on both here.”
Leo’s human hand drifted to the skin above his heart, searching for any signs of the intrusion, only to find none. “It hurt like hell.” He winced.
The Traveler snorted. “As it should. Even if you don’t show or feel it yet, you were mutated by an artifact that would have killed any other average human. You are now Nikra’s Legacy, with a part of her power living inside you, so consider yourself lucky… At least for now.”
Lucky my ass, Leo scoffed as a vital question rushed to the forefront of his mind. “Are there others like me?”
“Nikra’s Legacies? No, and thank the Void for that.” The Traveler shook his head. “Legacies of other powerful entities? Yeah, a few. You will meet them one day or another, I’m sure about that. However, like I said, don’t worry about anything just yet. No one knows about you for. It would be best to keep it that way for as long as we can, don’t you think?”
Leo nodded at the Traveler. Can’t argue with that. He had enough to worry about as it was. People chasing him due to a shard of a dead goddess was the last thing he needed.
“Great!” The man smiled. “Now tell me, how is your Essence doing? Still raging, or did it calm a bit?”
He blinked at the sudden change of subject. “It’s not too bad.” He shrugged after inspecting his Essence for a moment. “It feels stronger, and the control I gained lately is almost gone, but at least it isn’t trying to burst out of my skin every second.”
The Traveler furrowed his brow. “Not what I hoped to hear, but better than I expected. Your control will come back with time, but for now, I need you to clear your mind of any unnecessary thoughts and place all of your focus on keeping your Essence controlled.”
“Why?” Leo frowned.
“Because,” the man began slowly, as if talking to a child, “you need to find out what happened to you after the mutation, and only the System can tell you that. Usually, notifications wouldn’t have any impact on Essence in your body. But as they appeared due to a forced mutation, they might overwhelm your mind again because of their sheer number. So please, follow my instructions and bring them out. I will help if needed.”
He gulped and nodded. Like the Traveler said, he had to find out what Nikra’s shard did to him.
All right, let’s do this. With eyes closed, Leo took a series of deep breaths, calming his raging heart. In and out. He sat like that for minutes, keeping his mind as empty as he could, and when he could do nothing else to help, he pulled.
Instantly, notifications spilled into his head, his vision, almost drowning him. Yet, even as the assault continued, he kept a steady grip on his Essence, a single thought forming in his mind.
Holy shit…