A/N: Had blackouts for 2 days so I couldn't upload. Enjoy the long chapter! Check out my Patre*n for more! AND LEAVE A REVIEW!!
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[Ishtar Academy, Venus — Inner Grounds]
Void kept moving.
He tore through the battlefield, akin to a thunderbolt, looking for a place to land, jolts flickering underfoot. He circled the Vex at breakneck speeds, conjuring a ball of lightning that coiled around his hand.
A Fallen Captain felt a shiver down its spine. He lunged at the blue comet with a shock blade. But Void's speed was simply imperceivable. He brazenly slid under the blade, its edge kissing the hem of his cloak. Void's eyes flicked back, and he quickly lined up his next step.
Sweeping in with his foot, Void angled his body behind the Fallen captain. He pulled back his fist, and lightning roared. Void's lips curved into a smirk.
He leapt, and light erupted.
Void punched.
A blue star flashed, its light engulfing every inch of the courtyard for a fraction of a second. Void's fist jittered, sparks crawled between his knuckles, and smoke rose from his armour.
As the dust settled, a gaping maw was all that was left.
Akin to a ferocious tiger that had taken a clean bite out of the world.
Vex Minotaurs, Fallen Captains, Harpies, Hobgoblins, anything within the line had been drilled through and hollowed out.
The air went metallic as the charge dispersed. The jungle's damp air had turned conductive. Lightning scattered around Void, scorching the air itself. Finally, a wet plume of steam bubbled and rolled out across the courtyard.
For a heartbeat, the jungles of Venus held its moist breath.
Void dropped to the ground and heaved a breath. "That....Took more than I expected," He rolled his shoulder and curled his fingers.
The battlefield was gripped by a silence. Only the faintest cries of the Fallen and the dying shrieks of the Vex could be heard.
Void walked forward, glaring at both sides, gauging for reactions. But the damage he'd inflicted was severe. Neither the Vex nor the Fallen could afford to attack him, let alone each other.
Obsidian urgently spoke up, " I'm getting rapid scans by the City's orbital sensors! Looks like the Fallen are slowly withdrawing."
"Damn right they are, if I got rocked like that I'd leave too." Void chuckled, watching the House of Winter squads scurrying to carry their injured as they scampered out to the exit.
"About that." Obsidian cleared his throat, "I don't think they're running from you."
Void paused and raised a brow, "Huh? Well, who the hell else are they running from?" He turned back, but just then.
The ground shook.
A ripple ran through the space around the academy's courtyard. A wide data matrix appeared, forming into a three-dimensional lattice that crumpled the very fabric of time.
Something shrieked. The wails sent tremors across the courtyard, as if announcing its arrival.
A swarm of radiolaria tentacles punctured through space and tore open the lattice. The tentacles pulled, tugging along a gargantuan Vex Wyern. The bipedal Vex Wyern coiled the tentacles, like pseudo wings, at the peaks of its frame. Its eye glowed, embedded with a single crimson core.
It hunkered through the lattice.
The ground shook again.
"It's right behind me." Void facepalmed and groaned. "It is, isn't it? For f*cks sake, I can even feel its weird breath." He heaved another sigh and sneakily glanced over his shoulder. "A goddamn Wyvern." Void cursed under his breath.
The Wyvern unfurled its wings.
"Don't do it. Please, don't do it." Void tapped his foot on the ground and rubbed his forehead with clenched teeth.
As if sensing his fear, the Wyvern leapt and hung in the air. Its core trembled with energy as it angled its hull into the ground, and the tentacles coiled back, ready to slam.
"Son of a-"
Void didn't hesitate and bolted. The Wyvern's entire figure shook as it crashed down. The impact rippled across the academy, fissures cracked open the ground.
The tremors erupted outwards, and a crater of debris spread, biting at Void's heels. But he was already past the eruption's reach, akin to a blur that had raced to the impact's edge.
A shriek echoed again.
The Wyvern shook its hull and clawed out of its own crater, its crimson frantically scouring the surroundings.
"See, this is why I was never a big fan of you guys." Void flickered back in, his hand came up, fingers sparking. Arc gathered round his fist—clean, sharp, eager—bolts crawling from wrist to knuckles, braiding themselves tight.
"Not then, and certainly not now."
The Wyvern stomped and trudged out to face Void, its eye locking onto the target had already turned a bloody red. Seeing Void's charged fist, the Wyvern was already on the move.
It leapt again. Coiling the air around itself, like a catapult ready to be fired. The Wyvern coiled back its tentacles and compressed its energy to the limit.
Void deftly sauntered forward, looking up at the gargantuan Wyvern. He unsheathed his blade with his left hand and took a sharp stance.
The air snapped. A crushing shockwave reverberated.
The Wyvern had shot forward, and so had Void.
Strands of lightning and radiolaria clashed, Void swung his blade, but the Wyvern shifted, angling its hull to deflect its edge, ensuring the two would collide head-on.
"As expected," Void muttered.
His grip on the blade loosened, and it flung out of his hands. Void jerked and twisted in the air. The Wyvern came crashing down at him, facing its unstoppable momentum, Void had decided to use it against his enemy.
Void drove his fist forward, and it drilled through the glowing heart of the Wyvern.
Lightning didn't flash; rather, it bit.
Void shifted all his weight through the shoulder, drove his fist deeper into the core and at the last second, he let go and flickered.
The Wyvern shook erratically. Its core cracked open, and a terrifying burst of energy swept the courtyard. An azure ball of fire began to eat away at its centre till it destabilised. As the core fractured, the world turned bleak, and a pulse of white flashed, pushing away everything in its path.
An expanding eruption consumed the courtyard, collapsing into a bright, quivering pillar of energy that pierced the clouds above.
A figure blurred at the stem of the pillar. Void raised his hand to shield his eyes. He straightened, breathing hard. "Status?"
Obsidian popped into the air beside him, shell dimmed to a low amber. "Fallen have withdrawn beyond the outer boundary of the academy. And with that Wyvern gone, Vex numbers are plummeting. I guess they don't have more stationed here."
"Good." He rolled his neck and watched the pillar slowly fade away. "We're done."
"Are we?" Obsidian whispered back, eye gleaming with suspicion. He pinged Void's radar with an energy signature.
Void glanced at his radar, and his gaze immediately snagged on a prickle at the edge of his awareness—deliberate, neat. A set of eyes was watching him. But this sensation felt strange.
He let his eyes go thin. Blue curled at the iris, pupils pinning the thread. It ran like a hairline crack through reality to the edge of the ruins, past the jungles and above the ivory cliffs that wrapped around the edges of the Jungle. He followed it with a thought, and then saw a figure looking back at him.
She stood on a ridge overlooking the chasm opposite the academy.
The Stranger.
When Elsie confirmed Void had seen her, she gave back a simple nod and then vanished.
Void exhaled through his teeth. "You seeing this?"
"I detected her presence and matched it to the signature we got last time. She's been watching us for a while." Obsidian frowned. "But, there's still no way to track it. I know it doesn't make sense, but it's like she's not even there."
"Someone we can barely track has decided to show themselves so openly," Void said. He stepped to the edge of the courtyard, past a discarded House of Winter banner.
Obsidian flittered beside him, "She's inviting us."
Void watched the traces of her strange energy form a path that led towards the outskirts of the jungle.
«How curious,» Zamyr murmured in Void's mind. «She, like us, is treading through the twisted timelines of fate. Except she's not like us. No, her power is far more subtle.»
Void didn't answer. He stepped into the green and flickered away.
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[ Ishtar Sink ]
Shiro-4 finally coughed and dusted his cloak. "Vanguard, this is Shiro. Spiking activity resolved—Ghostsword cleaned the board. Vex are pulling back; House of Winter is out."
"Copy," Ikorra said, crisp and lighter by a degree. "Status on Void?"
Shiro-4 shook off the rest of the dirt and scoped back into the courtyard. "He disappeared after taking out the Elite combatants," he said. "No sign of him."
A tiny pause. "Understood. Leave trackers near the combat site." Ikorra replied. "I'll be expecting a full brief from you soon."
"Roger." Shiro-4 cut the call. He searched through his belt and took out three intricate discs. A portable tracker that the city had provided him. Shiro-4 set the trackers around the perimeter of the academy and then promptly transmatted back to his Jumpship to return to Earth.
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[Ishtar Sink — Verdant Edge]
Elsie waited at the furthest edges of the jungle where the wilderness merged into the ivory hills that cupped the Academy's plateau. Beyond the cliffs was a chasm that seemed to cut a long black seam into Venus; no light could penetrate this abyss, the only thing that signalled it wasn't endless was a gentle and cold breeze that crawled up to the tip of the cliffs.
She felt him arrive before she heard him. A twist in space, or rather a twist in fate. Her eyes narrowed. Elsie's grip on her rifle tightened, and a faint shiver ran down her spine. One she quickly masked.
The tall grass rustled.
Void took a step forward with his head level and his hands empty, boots digging into the moist, gravelly cliff rock. He stopped a step back from her shoulder line and then glanced across, as if watching her gaze.
"Didn't think I'd see you after what happened last time," he said.
Elsie shot him a look over her shoulder, then turned her face back to the cut in the world. "I didn't think so either."
Cold gusts of wind whistled past the cliff face, fluttering the trees around the cliff's perimeter. A brittle silence gripped the two. Void pursed his lips, unsure of what to say. He walked closer to the edge and peered down at the abyss.
"So what changed?" He uttered and looked ahead, "Why show yourself now?"
"I'd ask you the same thing, but neither of us has the answer." Elsie wryly chuckled under her breath. She heaved a sigh, her eyes slowly flicked to Void, analysing him from top to bottom. "I saw you. Trapped in Hellmouth, drowning in the dark."
Void raised a brow as he heard her and slowly crossed his arms as he sucked in a breath. "In that case, I'd have appreciated some help."
"How did you execute a plan to get out so fast?" Elsie cut in.
"Me?" Void shook his head, "You're mistaken there. Heck, it wasn't me at all. A couple of my guys knew I didn't make it back. From there? The City got involved, and that's all there is to it. If anything, I got lucky."
Void laughed; he knew that the whole situation was risky. And frankly, the fact that he had made it out that fast was entirely thanks to everyone contributing.
"Luck."
Elsie mouthed, she tilted her head and shot Void a curious glance. Then she muttered it again, as if it didn't sit right with her. "You believe in that?"
"Doesn't everybody?" Void replied casually.
"No." Elsie turned back to the chasm, "I know someone like that. Or rather, knew. Did everything with a plan, down to the letter. Luck, chance, none of that stuff ever mattered. There was always a contingency, always a plan."
Void listened with intent, "He sounds quite meticulous. But the way you're saying it, I am guessing you weren't a big fan?"
"When a plan supersedes chance itself, that just means there's no room for error. No risk too fatal, no fight too grave."
Elsie paused as if a memory flickered before her eyes.
"No cost too great."
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