Chapter 13
The Null-Guard didn't move like the soldiers I had crushed before. There was no clanking of plate armor or the frantic beating of mechanical wings. They glided. The humming rings on their backs. Singularity Harnesses, distorted the air around them, creating a shimmering blur that made it impossible to pinpoint their exact positions.
"Target identified," one of them spoke. The voice was synthesized, cold, and stripped of gender or emotion. "The Defect has achieved Stage 3 Density. Initiating Mass-Suppression Protocol."
"Stay down, Silas!" I roared, but even my voice felt heavy, as if the air was trying to swallow the sound.
Three of the guards raised their hands in unison. From the palms of their silver gloves, beams of negative-pressure light shot forward. I didn't dodge; I didn't think I needed to. But when the beams struck my chest, I didn't feel the impact of a blow. I felt a sickening, hollow sensation.
[ Warning: Localized Gravity Inversion ]
[ Current Mass: 4,200 lbs —> 1,200 lbs —> 400 lbs ]
My feet, which had been anchored to the mountain as if part of the tectonic plate, suddenly lost their grip. The sheer density that was my greatest weapon was being bled away into the atmosphere. For the first time in six years, I felt light. And I hated it. It felt like dying.
"What... what are you doing?" I gasped, my voice thin. I tried to swing Calamity's Edge, but without my weight behind it, the blade felt like a toy, a piece of balsa wood in my hand.
"We are the Null-Guard," the lead soldier stated, gliding toward me. "You are a creature of gravity. We are the masters of the Void. In this dome, your weight is a lie."
He kicked me. It wasn't a powerful strike, but because my mass had been suppressed, I was sent flying like a dried leaf. I tumbled across the frozen ground, sliding toward the edge of the plateau.
[ System Alert: Internal Equilibrium Destabilized ]
[ Core Mass failing to anchor to the World-Soul ]
"My Lord!" Silas cried out, crawling toward me. One of the guards simply flicked a finger, and a wave of pressure pinned Silas to the ground.
"Do not interfere, mortal," the guard said. "The Defect must be neutralized and returned to the Zenith. The Father has more use for his marrow than his corpse."
I struggled to stand. My knees felt weak, not from exhaustion, but from a lack of resistance. My whole life, I had fought against the earth, pushing back against a world that wanted to crush me. Now, with the resistance gone, I felt like I was drifting apart. My atoms felt loose, disconnected.
Is this how Aurelia feels? the thought flashed through my mind. This terrifying, empty lightness?
The three guards surrounded me, their harnesses humming at a high frequency. They began to circle, their hands glowing as they prepared a "Void-Cage" to transport me.
"You think..." I started, coughing up a spray of dark blood that floated in the low-gravity air like rubies. "You think you can just turn it off? Gravity isn't just a number on a scale."
I closed my eyes and reached deep, not into my muscles, but into the World-Soul connection I had forged during my four years of suffering. I didn't try to fight their suppression. Instead, I looked for the Anchor.
If they want to take my weight, I thought, I'll give them the weight of the entire world.
[ Skill Evolution Triggered: Absolute Center of Gravity ]
[ Concept: The Singularity ]
"I am the Anchor," I whispered.
I didn't try to regain my 4,000 pounds. I did something much worse. I focused all of my remaining mass—every ounce of it—into a single, microscopic point in the center of my palm. I created a Singularity.
The humming of their harnesses changed from a smooth drone to a frantic, screeching wail.
"Warning!" the Guard's voice glitched. "Mass density spike detected. Range: Infinite. Probability:impossible"
I slammed my palm into the center of the "Void-Cage."
The explosion wasn't made of fire; it was made of implosion. The light of the dome was sucked toward my hand. The silver armor of the Null-Guard began to peel off their bodies, drawn toward the point of infinite density I held in my fist. The stones, the air, and the very light of the Sanctuary were dragged inward.
CRUNCH.
The three guards were jerked together as if pulled by invisible chains. Their harnesses exploded, unable to compensate for the sudden, absolute pull. I watched, cold and detached, as their "Divine Silver" armor crumpled into tiny, dense balls of scrap metal, with the men still inside them.
[ Protocol Overridden ]
[ Mass Restored: 4,500 lbs ]
[ Bonus: Absorbed Void-Essence ]
I stood up. The ground beneath me didn't just crack; it shattered into a crater ten feet deep. The "lightness" was gone, replaced by a weight so profound that the air itself began to shimmer with heat around me.
I looked at the remaining Null-Guards who had stayed by the entrance of the Sanctuary. They weren't gliding anymore. They were trembling.
"My Father sent you to teach me about the Void," I said, stepping out of the crater. Every step sent a shockwave through the mountain that Silas could feel in his teeth. "But he forgot one thing."
I raised Calamity's Edge, the blade now dripping with a dark, gravitational aura.
"The Void is empty. I am full."
With a single, blurred motion, I covered the distance. I didn't need speed when I could warp the space between us. I appeared in front of the lead guard and gripped his helmet.
"Where is the girl?" I demanded.
"The... the Aether-Tether... is at the core..." he wheezed, his silver visor cracking under the pressure of my fingers. "But you... you can't touch it... it will vanish you..."
"I've been 'vanished' my whole life," I said, and crushed the helmet like a grape.
I turned to the shimmering entrance of the Sanctuary. The door was made of solid Sun-Glass, reinforced with divine seals. I didn't look for a key. I just leaned my shoulder against it and let my 4,500 pounds of divine spite do the talking.
The door didn't open. It disintegrated.
"Silas," I called out without looking back. "Stay close. We're going to get my Kite."