The Void: Day 1

  Five days. That was all the System allotted. But the more immediate pressure was the punishment she faced if she failed to find an exit today. What kind of sadistic mechanic was this? My Stolen System Wants to Kill Me. The title suited it perfectly. Yana frowned, the thought bringing her mind to an abrupt halt. Was she born with this System? Or had she transmigrated here, remembering nothing of her supposed "death" or previous life? She sighed. Well, hell couldn't be much worse, so she wouldn't dwell on death anymore.

  She looked at her pets and familiars. They were a pretty interesting crew. Maybe people always walk around surrounded by a group of... she didn't even know what to call them.

  She stood up. "I have a task." Everyone perked up and turned to her at this announcement. Okay, maybe they are used to this.

  "How long do you have?" Tasha asked.

  They really do know. "Five days, but I get punished each day I do not make it out."

  "The severity of the timer implies she has an innate means to leave," Alisha stated, her voice sharp as glass as she addressed the others, effectively ignoring Yana. Yana found she didn't mind; she truly could not be any help right now.

  "It won't actually punish her," Tasha scoffed. "It is trying to push her to find what she needs."

  Demon Dust shook his massive head slowly toward Tasha. "She has completely lost her memory. The so-called punishment won't be pain, Tasha. It will be the forced retrieval of a memory fragment."

  There was a mixture of grimacing and head-nodding among the crew. Yana did not like that. So, the gist of it was, gaining a fragment of memory was like being punished. Why the hell did she think a System reset would be a good idea?

  Yana looked into the distance. She understood, with an innate certainty, that light was attracted to her. This innate knowledge became terrifying reality as a brilliant, searing stream of light pierced the Void. It didn't just hit her; it sliced into her chest like white-hot metal. Searing pain erupted, leaving her body on fire. The agony was blinding, overwhelming her senses until she swore she could smell the light: ozone and incinerated shadow.

  It felt like an eternity before the agony subsided. The light coalesced, swirling deep within her chest cavity before plunging into her Void Soul. Yana frowned.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  "You don't even remember what you are, do you?" she looked to Tasha.

  Tasha sighed. "You are a Shadow. An Oracle of the Void. This is how you were born."

  Demon Dust moved closer to Yana, his dusty presence grounding. "She is not going to understand you right now. Let her experience for a while, and it will come clear."

  Amber looked to Demon Dust. "I keep forgetting you have a bit of oracle in you." The demon looked down as if he were ashamed.

  Yana looked to Amber, who almost instantly pursed her lips and apologized to DD.

  "I am a Shadow that attracts light?" Yana asked, trying to process the pain and the words.

  "You remember that, but you still allowed the light to hit you?" Amber challenged.

  "I didn’t think about it actually making contact." She was suddenly alert, and all of her companions tensed, ready as if about to fight. A piece of information, newly unlocked, slipped into place in her mind. "The Void is devoid of light, but there was just light. Does that mean that a door was opened?"

  "It very well could have been."

  "Except for your last great idea, you have always been very smart."

  A scythe as black as the darkest night instantly materialized in Yana's hand. "Let's go see what we can find."

  "It allowed you to remember your shadow weapons," Tasha noted.

  Yana looked at the scythe like she didn’t realize it was in her hand until Tasha spoke.

  With that, Alisha was on her shoulder, Amber moved to her right, Tasha moved to her left, DD moved behind her to her right, and Starlight and Jasmine entered her soul.

  Yana initiated the Dimensional Step, dragging the group along the light's path. They flashed through the Void, but two seconds from their target destination, a feeling of absolute annihilation slammed into her. She abruptly aborted the Step, gasping for breath.

  They materialized one hundred meters outside a circle of darkness—a void within the Void—that was so black it seemed to pull at the surrounding shadows. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and she felt the others, except for Alisha, use her shared vision to see.

  She focused on it for a while and felt her Seer ability awaken within her. Her vision changed, showing layers of time before her. It seemed like there were over one hundred years of activity layered before her. She focused on one layer at a time and understood it to be a ritual conducted over and over again. A door opened, and light spilled forth, releasing beings of darkness who thrived in the light. They were released here as sacrifices, and ultimately became Void Beasts.

  This circle of complete darkness was their home, and Yana understood that if they entered, they would see a vast land and not this small two-meter circle.

  Her vision cleared, but her mind did not. She knew the circle was danger, but she also knew she could leave the Void if she entered. She focused on her system.

  TASK TIMER

  4 days 10 hours 5 minutes

  What the hell! It hadn’t been that long, had it?!

  She spoke to everyone through soul speech. ‘There are only ten hours and five minutes left in this day. I feel we should enter the circle, but I also feel it is dangerous. I do not want to enter and be punished and give away our position.’

  Silence. Then, Demon Dust replied, his rocky voice projected directly into her mind, oddly smoother in soul-speech. ‘The danger you feel is probably you being punished again. We can protect you during that time, because I agree: we will find a way out if we enter the circle.’

  ‘You do know that there are Void Beasts inside there?’ Yana pressed.

  ‘Void Beasts?!’ They all felt Demon Dust’s palpable excitement. More information slotted into place for Yana, courtesy of Alisha: Marked Demons were the natural enemy of Void Beasts. All Yana had to do was think on a topic, and if the information was incomplete or wrong, Alisha's knowledge magics would instantly fill the gap.

  ‘We will enter. Since the ring is darker than the Void, I will use Shadow Walk to enter.’

  She got nothing but silent nods, and her discernment did not kick in—a sign that the plan was sound.

  She stepped everyone next to the ring. Then, she used the Adept-level ability Shadow Walk to pull them all into the two-meter circle. The instant they crossed the threshold, the view changed from an abyssal void to a vast, shadowed, desolate land.

  And then, Yana was hit with an inexplicable, searing pain—not in her chest this time, but deep within her Void Soul.