“Please hold still. Regrowing limbs perfectly is not an easy feat,” the Elven Priest muttered through gritted teeth, eyes furrowed. Cold sweat beaded on his brow as he let his magic work, his full attention on Zachariah’s arm. “You lost your arm not too long ago, which is good, but you shouldn’t strain it too much for a while. The Energy Pathways may itch, and your muscles might feel odd, but that is normal.”

“Stop spouting nonsense and heal me,” Zachariah snapped at the older elf, barely holding onto the last remnants of restraint. “If you can’t do it, I will ask someone else!”

Bright eyes met Zachariah’s, but the Elven Priest could only shake his head. “Perfect regrowth is not something anyone can rush. The life energy and nutrients required to regrow your arm perfectly are gargantuan. You may have never lost a limb, or you would know how difficult it is to train your muscles and Energy Pathways if your arm is not perfectly regrown. It may take weeks depending on the Healer’s work.”

“I did,” Zachariah growled, looking away. He knew he was irritated with the wrong person, but what else was he supposed to do?

Ask the Saintess to heal his arm? That idiot wasn’t in the right headspace to heal him… or to do anything, to be precise. He had every right to be angry at them.

How useless could someone be?

On a scale from one to ten, the Heavenly Champions would have reached a clean 20. That was how useless they had been. Their mentality and power were insignificant. It was nothing like he remembered.

Zachariah had been forced to protect the Heavenly Champions when the Voidre released a projectile of pure Void. He cleaved through the projectile but opened himself to the Voidre’s attack, resulting in a small cut in his arm. There hadn’t been a need to worry about the cut with David by his side, but it had been enough to show how dangerous the Voidre was, even after months had passed.

Zachariah didn’t have the time to retrieve and consume several potions, making it impossible to trigger [Lifeline]. It was hard to fight the Voidre while being weaker than he could have been—especially since the Voidling was much stronger than it had been months ago.

So… why hadn’t it continued attacking him, and why had it turned to David instead, leaving itself open to a deadly attack? What happened out there?

“What do you mean? [Ritual of Examination] doesn’t show the usual signs of an imbalance. There is no divergence in your body,” the Elven Priest pointed out, lifting an eyebrow at him.

Zachariah shrugged absentmindedly. “David would have restored this arm in a minute. Probably less if he actually paid attention. And I never had to re-train these body parts. He restored them properly.”

“Are you sure?” the Elven Priest asked, a tinge of excitement reaching his worn-out voice. “Can I meet this Da-vid? Where is he?”

I would love to know that too… Where the hell are you, David?!

Zachariah had to suppress a curse and the desire to squash everything as he thought about David. No matter how annoying that guy was, he should never have left him like that. But what could he have done? The Black Rift collapsed before he reached it, and the Rift Key didn’t trigger anymore.

A commotion from outside pulled Zachariah out of the train of thought, and the tent to the infirmary was blown apart. The Elven Priest yelped and scrambled to his feet as black lightning struck the ground beside him.

Zachariah stared at the source of the lightning, and a faint smile blossomed on his lips. A ray of hope replaced anger and irritation as a familiar crimson-red serpent shot toward him. It slowed and towered before him, a furious hiss resounding as the presence of the Sacred Beast descended upon him.

Good. Electra didn’t dissipate. That means David has to be alive.

“Can you sense your Core? Where is David?!” Zachariah asked, though he expected nothing.

Electra hissed loudly again and released more black lightning bolts into the sky. Fury, uncertainty, and fear were all Zachariah could sense and see.

“I see… you don’t know either.”

It was good knowing David was alive, but if Electra was here, that could only mean David was alone.

He was all by himself, forced to fend off the Voidlings in the dark place beyond the Black Rift.

You better stay alive!!

***

David tumbled through the Black Rift and landed hard on the ground beyond. His danger sense perked up, and he would have leapt to his feet if the Voidre’s corpse hadn’t swallowed him.

A groan escaped his lips, but he didn’t push the corpse aside right away. He allowed the Void Wolf to hide him momentarily and looked up. In an attempt to keep his motions limited, David moved the carcass, but it didn’t seem to attract the attention of the four life signals he discovered.

The life signals moved around seemingly without any worries in the world and approached the Voidre after a moment. Yet as all life signals neared the lifeless body, one of the life signals—the most potent signal—snarled at the others and pushed them away. Its claws dug into the Voidre, slowly draining lifeforce and Nihilum to consume and annex it.

The other life signals surged toward the strongest life signal and retaliated, creating a commotion.

Now! David shouted in his mind, overclocking [Herald’s Blessing] on himself before kicking the Voidre’s corpse away. He jumped up, pure Blood circulating through his body as he conjured the Obsidian Blade.

David wasted no time. He willed Lightning Rend to life and slashed twice at the weakest life signals.

He didn’t even look at the pristine-white crescent blades as they whipped through the air and charged toward the brawling Fragments instead. The strongest one was busy blocking the other Fragment, with one of its claws still embedded in the Voidre’s corpse. David closed the distance using the moment of surprise while unleashing [Primeval Pulse] empowered with Vitae.

The spheric beam was not stable and would have collapsed if David had attempted to maintain it for an extended period, but that had never been a consideration. He released the Advanced Class Skill for a quarter of a second, bursting Void Barrier and Skull in one go, and let the beam dissipate.

Vitae did a phenomenal job at weakening the Fragment’s Void Barrier just enough to let [Primeval Pulse] through.

Then again, things would have been a lot more difficult if the Fragment had paid more attention to him. But being busy fending off a competitor and simultaneously greedily absorbing the Voidre’s Nihilum and lifeforce turned out to make it increasingly difficult to defend against a swift and deadly blow.

The strongest Fragment collapsed dead to the ground; however, the weaker Fragment turned out to be the real problem. It noticed how dangerous David was right away and shifted toward him, its claws piercing through Scalemore and chest. Nihilum flowed into the bound armor and his body, only to be consumed as Vitae burst forth.

The Obsidian Blade, coated in half of his Vitae reserves, thrust forward and pierced easily through the Void Barrier. It bypassed the Voidling’s strongest defense and plunged into its chest. David’s thrust was fierce but precise as the soulbound blade came to a screeching halt beside the Voidling’s Maelstrom. The blade’s edge greeted the Maelstrom, which was all Vitae needed to infiltrate and consume. At the same time, the Obsidian Blade did what it was best at; it drained the target’s lifeforce.

He shouldn’t let the soulbound weapon consume too much lifeforce since it seemed like he would need a lot to keep his energy storages filled. David didn’t have a chance to examine his surroundings in detail, but the things he saw in his periphery were enough to tell that he was going to have a hard time collecting—just about anything.

Neither life nor Aether seemed to be present in this place, which would make the production of pure Blood very interesting.

I hope the Source will produce Origin Essence… or I’m fucked. He grimaced, twisting the Obsidian Blade in the Voidling when it did the same with its claws. David should be bleeding like a stabbed pig, but he used [Blood Manipulation] to keep the blood in his body. At the same time, he used [Herald’s Blessing] on Vitae, yet all the Nihilum in the Voidling made it difficult to work things out.

But Vitae was not in need of empowerment. It thrashed within the Maelstrom and weakened the Voidling. David was unwilling to waste too much energy, but he blasted two blades of Lightning Rend through the Obsidian Blade, which carved into the Maelstrom.

David growled and pushed the Voidling back as the strength left its body. He attacked again, ramming the Obsidian Blade coated in Vitae into the Fragment’s skull.

It crumbled before his feet, writhing on the ground for some screeching long seconds. No System message popped up even after the last Void Fragment had died. While that was weird, David was certain the four Voidlings were dead nonetheless.

“What a mess,” he muttered through gritted teeth, casting [True Restoration] on his chest.

David made it a mission to use as little energy as possible to heal the wound and dropped [Blood Manipulation] once he was not at risk of bleeding to death anymore.

“So…” He retracted the Obsidian Blade back into his mind space, double-checked his reserves, and grimaced once it was clear that the Sacred Beast Core was… without any of Electra’s remnants.

It infused its entire Will into the Echo? Good for Electra, I guess…

He ruffled through his hair and looked around. His eyes landed on two lone Maelstroms, presumably belonging to the weakest life signals he’d killed with Lightning Rend, and picked them up for Vitae to consume within the next two minutes.

“Where the hell am I?” David asked in a whisper.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

While it ought to be obvious where he was, the question remained valid. Sure, he was wherever the Black Rift brought him, but where exactly was that? Other than the obvious; in a dark place void of life and Aether. A place overflowing with nothingness and Nihilum.

Nihilum was everywhere. In the air, the ground, and in the buildings that were already brimming with nothingness.

The Heavenly Champions didn’t exaggerate when they talked about the dark place, but that was all the more reason to wonder how they survived this long.

David looked around but couldn’t find Zachariah either.

“I hope that voice will be fine with a little switch-up,” he muttered. After all, he was not a sword-wielding fool. Or so he hoped.

A quick scan of the surroundings showed that he was in a small town. Or something that resembled medieval towns as they’re shown in movies. The only discrepancies were the lack of life, people, and the hard fact that every structure was either destroyed or too brittle. He touched a grayish-pale wooden pillar, which collapsed as his fingertip tapped it lightly.

The entire building rumbled and crashed to the ground.

“That’s worse than a card house,” David muttered, backing off while his eyes darted left and right.

He sighed in relief when none of the faraway life signals approached, and a faint smile grazed his lips as he realized that Origin Essence was still being produced by his Source. That meant he could replenish his depleted Blood, replacing Aether with more lifeforce and Origin Essence instead.

Good news. Exactly what he needed right now.

David never stopped consuming the Nihilum within the Fragments, though his primary focus remained on the lifeforce seeping out of the corpses. He unleashed [Vitael Weaving] and infused the lifeforce back into the bodies, creating a weave that preserved the lifeforce much longer than should have been possible.

It was far from perfect and might have needed some upgrading—modifications to weave lifeforce into other objects or organic matter—but anchoring the lifeforce to the corpse worked reasonably well. He could always modify the Spark of [Vital Weaving] later, when he wasn’t busy struggling to survive in the realm of the Voidlings. Or wherever this was.

Good thing I have some lifeforce packages with me, he grimaced.

It wasn’t the first time he used [Vital Weaving] on corpses to preserve their lifeforce, resulting in a few bodies stored within the defective storage device. However, there were only a few—definitely not enough to keep his energy reserves filled to the brim for extended periods. But that might change with enough Fragments and other Voidlings with preserved lifeforce to store.

As long as I don’t encounter any Voidre, I should be fine. The more Nihilum and nothingness I absorb, the easier it will be to deal with Fragments.

Maybe if he remained long enough in the Void’s realm, he could absorb enough nothingness and Nihilum to deal with a Voidre, though he doubted it would be easy to do so.

Thinking about the Voidre, David started to work on the wolf-like corpse. He began to consume it after creating an anchor into which to weave the lifeforce. Once that was done, Vitae surged forward to consume its Nihilum and the Maelstrom. David had to tread carefully with the Voidre. Its Nihilum was incredibly potent, and it came as no surprise when it nearly devoured his Vitae instead.

Fortunately, the Nihilum in a dead body did not contain much of the Voidre’s Will. It was the complete opposite of Electra, whose Will had somehow prevailed even after its body succumbed to the eternal embrace of death.

David felt his Vitae increasing rapidly, which in turn strengthened and refined the Maelstrom. As more Vitae entered his body, greatly augmenting his natural resistance to Nihilum, the intensity of the pitch-black veins spreading from Deryadus’ Arm skyrocketed as well. The darkness seemed to spread to other veins, dyeing them as black as the all-consuming void that formed the Void Barrier.

It didn’t hurt, nor did he feel threatened by the changes. If anything, they made him stronger and seemed to strengthen his attunement toward Vitae. But how was he supposed to explain all that to Zachariah once he returned?

Is that really important right now? David grimaced.

Explanations could wait. They were a thing for the future. He should prioritize surviving instead. And once he was back, Zachariah would surely understand.

He looked around and detected countless life signals. However, he didn’t dare close in on them. They could only be Voidlings. David was certain of it. Nothing but Voidlings could survive and prosper in this place… Well, other than him apparently.

The feeling of alienation in the unknown place weighed hard on him, but he did not realize how heavy the weight was until the first bit of familiarity returned to him. A holographic screen materialized before his face. A second followed shortly—this one red and ominous—and it was not long before several notifications of the system, both red and blue, filled his vision.

[System has reconnected to the User. Restriction of the Nemesis has been removed: partially.]

[Unable to escape the trap of the Nemesis, you were dragged into its Realm.

Error! Error!

Access to the User was only temporarily lost. User is still with the Origin.

Error!!

Unknown Realm under the influence of the Nemesis has been detected within the Origin.

Error!

System cannot access data of the Realm. Access denied! Access denied!]

[A Realm containing nothingness and Nihilum, containing an unknown number of the Nemesis’ spawn, has been discovered.]

[Aid the System in the recovery of data through research and adventuring.

Analyze the surrounding land to seek similarities with known Lost Realms and Dead Worlds.

All collected information will be forwarded to the Host upon discovery!]

[Error! Error!

Host cannot be reached within…

Assigning temporary name to the Realm claimed by the Nemesis.

Naughtrealm has been selected.

Host cannot be reached within the Naughtrealm.

Survive and return from the Naughtrealm to regain communication with the Host.]

As grateful as he was for the system messages—for having some sort of familiarity to hold onto—the content of the notifications was just as bothersome.

The system was still working, but something was clearly wrong. However, as confusing as it was, it made sense to him.

The Void must have claimed a Lost Realm or Dead World from the cosmos. Something that didn’t really get much attention from the System, the Pantheon, or… anyone really. It stayed far away from their radars—until now, that is. But before that, and even now, it was using this place as a breeding ground for Voidlings to infiltrate and consume the Earthen Union once its full integration was complete. In the meantime, it created small Rifts to nurture the few Saplings, Fragments, and Void-infected Nests that formed under the influence the Fissure could spread on the Earthen Union—which wasn’t unlike how the Pantheon and other gods worked.

That was mad. But with the few pieces of information in his hands, it made sense.

“But how am I going to leave the Naughtrealm? Telling me to return with research data without telling me how to leave a damn realm filled with god-forsaken Voidlings is not exactly nice, you know?” David cursed, hoping the System could hear him loud and clear.

If it could hear him, it gave no sign. It remained silent, leaving him to fend for himself.

The surrounding Nihilum pressed against his skin as he stood there, unmoving. It sought pathways to seep inside and devour him, but it was devoured instead. David opened his pores to the Nihilum but quickly noticed that the Nihilum in the air was not the same as he knew. It was light and flowed seemingly harmlessly into his body, only to grow heavy and lethal once it bypassed all defenses. If he didn’t have Vitae and a decent resistance to Nihilum, he would already be dead.

This feels like raw, completely unrefined Nihilum.

He tilted his head and focused on the power entering his body. Although it was quickly consumed and transformed into Vitae, David noticed two interesting facts. First, raw Nihilum was deadlier than the Nihilum refined by Voidlings. His theory was simple: refined Nihilum was not only destructive but also possessed healing properties. After all, it did not only end lives but created as well. It was comparable to the Cycle of Life and Death. Though… it created and destroyed life at its will—selfishly, destructively, ignorantly.

The Maelstrom created only one body with refined Nihilum. And it only restored that same body. That was all it did.

Second, raw Nihilum was easy to devour. As deadly as it was against the living, it was harmless to those possessing Nihilum—or Vitae, in David’s case.

A trace of Vitae was all he needed to consume it. Circulating some Vitae through his entire body was enough to absorb the raw Nihilum seeping into him, which jump-started the production of Vitae. David didn’t do anything strenuous; the increase in Vitae happened steadily on its own.

[Vitae Nihilum]: [5.53]

He’d crossed five units and wasn’t even done consuming the Voidre. If the progress didn’t slow, he’d surpass ten units before it would be dark.

“Dark? This whole place is already dark and gloomy enough,” David grumbled, hoping to see something at night—if there was a day-night cycle in the Naughtrealm at all.

The future would tell as much.

For now, he had to make sure he wasn’t in immediate danger.

I have enough water and food in the storage to survive for a few months. In the worst case, I can keep myself alive with the Voidlings’ lifeforce. Sleeping… well, I’ll see about that.

He didn’t believe for a minute that the Naughtrealm was always this quiet. The silence around him was not something he should get used to—not if the voice that rescued the Heavenly Champions was against them and had schemed to capture Zachariah. If that was the case, the Naughtrealm would transform into a living hell in no time.

That left him with few options. He could face the Voidlings head-on and fight them all at once. That option promised a quick death and was discarded after a moment. David considered lying low, drawing strength from the nothingness and raw Nihilum of the Naughtrealm until he was discovered. However, it was unknown whether the Voidlings or the voice knew that he was there. Furthermore, Voidlings ought to be able to sense strong sources of life.

They should have already taken note of him.

Maybe circulating Vitae through my body makes them think I’m one of them, he theorized, but shrugged.

It was a possibility, but David couldn’t be certain. Thus, he told himself that the voice was their enemy and that the Voidlings knew about his entrance.

The worst-case scenario didn’t leave him with many options, but he wasn’t helpless.

He accessed [Bloodlife Echo] and removed 100 Blood droplets from Electra. The Sacred Beast was certain to hate him for that, but survival was more important than comfort. David didn’t have access to the pure Blood drained from Electra, but he could use his Blood storages, Source, and the Blood within the Sacred Beast Core to conjure 50 sparrow Echos using one Blood droplet each, which were commanded by five hawk Echos using ten Blood droplets each. Each Echo was mantled in Vitae, which would absorb the nothingness and raw Nihilum before the latter could disintegrate them. It was not a permanent solution, but it would camouflage the Echos from the Voidlings temporarily and feed David with more Vitae as long as the Echos returned safely. Though he did not expect them to return safely.

David spent a few minutes ushering orders to the Echos before he sent the five reconnaissance units in different directions.

Their mission was simple: to collect information.

100 Blood droplets were a lot, given the increased difficulty of producing pure Blood in the Naughtrealm, but gathering information about the enemy’s realm, strength, number, movements, and the surrounding terrain was crucial. It would be well worth the price—provided his plan succeeded.

And then there was the Divine Compass.

It ought to show him a way out of this mess. After all, that was what he desired the most. To find a way out… after having some fun.