#void voidverse is now REAL

[laikahh]

theres a fan emoji 💖💕💗 eheee 🪭

[creators-novel]

“How much do we wanna wager that we’re close?”, Amadi wonders out loud.

            One by one, the group jumps off the rocks and onto the new, more stable path. This one is fairly simplistic, it seems to be just a straight shot; the way forward is illuminated by purple lights in the air and through the ground.

This seems too easy.

“Did anyone notice how quiet it is?”, asks Nathaniel.

“It’s…too quiet.”, Exisite observes.

But the silence is soon broken by Kali’s continued shivering as she slips on her coat; as well as

“AZH-YOO!”

…Uriel sneezing.

“Let’s keep our guards up, everyone.”, says Koto as she adjusts her sweater, “This place is freaky…”

“It’s like nightmares made real.”, says Exisite, recalling the dream that, from his perspective, started this whole mess.

“That’s- an interesting way to put it.”, Straus agrees but feels it’s not the best time to mention he watched the dream happen.

Kali crosses her arms and feigns a smile, “You think this is what goes on inside the heads of everyone we’ve had to beat up to get here?”

Azura shudders, “Yep- maybe.”

“Incoming!”, announces Amadi. Right on cue, several hordes of voidlings begin to surround everyone, blocking them from moving forward.

            Moving down the winding, bending corridors of Voidverse, at the end of it all we see Vyz and his legions of Stygians. One such walks up to Vyz and hisses, “They’re here, Masssster…”  “Delay them.”, Vyz commands, “I still need time for our darkness to cover more ground.” And so, they follow their leaders’ command and move towards the inevitable.

“And so, it begins!”, Koto declares, summoning her knife, “Get ready!”

“On our marks…”

Energy builds up, and weapons are drawn.

“Get set….!”

The enemies begin to close in.

“…GO!!”

And they’re off! It doesn’t take long for the heroes to begin laying waste to the opposing forces. After everything they’ve been through up until now, this is nothing! Child’s play, even! Purple and black gore paints the ground as a comparable fireworks display of magic and melee tears through the endless pawns. “Keep it up, everyone! We’ve got this!!”, Koto shouts to encourage the others. “DO IT TO ‘EM!”, chants Ex, almost dancing as he speedily rips through the opposing force.

            “They’re turning us into passsste, master! We’ll be lucky to sssucceed without further delays at this point.” Vyz holds out a hand to silence his panicked underling. “…We’ll have to throw them off course… and it starts with our little friend.” He snaps his fingers, the sound of the click ringing out. Then, after a moment, out from behind Vyz two particular figures come forth. Both seemed to sport blue clothing at some point, perhaps their hair was brown and their eyes were a delicate green. It’s difficult to tell given how much they’ve been corroded by the void. Vyz turns to face them both and grins confidently, “It’s time for you both to make use of yourselves. Now, go.

Show your daughter what you’ve learned.”

"̸A̸s̷ ̵y̶o̷u̵ ̶w̷i̶s̴h̵,̸ ̴M̶a̶s̶t̸e̸r̵.̸"̴

            “Yeah-heah! We did it, everyone!”, cheers Koto as the last of the stygians are finally defeated. Straus goes to everyone on the team and high-fives them for a job well done. As everyone is taking a moment to breathe, and as Koto steps forward to regroup with the others, she suddenly feels a sharp pang in her chest. It knocks the wind out of her and makes her see stars. She doesn’t know who or what is approaching but she knows that this fight is not over. “There’s someone else here!”, she breathlessly calls out. “Huh?”, asks Straus, turning to face her. Just then, Uriel’s ears perk up, “Footsteps! Fast approaching!” Red points towards the edge of the path ahead, “Up there!” Koto moves to the front of the group, still clutching her shirt, “But who are-…they…”

…

No hesitation, no one can reach out and stop her in time, she’s already gone. “KOTO!!”, Uriel shrieks, trying to catch up to her. When did she get so fast? It’s as though she’s moving on pure instinct alone. There’s something about these two, something that’s drawing her in; but what is it? “Sis?”, nervously says Straus as he follows. As the two try to reach Koto in time, she does not hear them. She doesn’t realize she’s in danger. All she sees in front of her is what she’s been waiting and hoping for since the moment her journey began.

Oh no.

Straus nearly trips over himself as the realization sets in. Even Red, who didn’t speak a word of Cosmic, could tell what was happening now.

“Dad! Mom! It’s me! It’s Koto!” Fueled by pure delusion, Koto presses on, her parents nearly within arm’s reach. “Koto, wait!!”, yells Straus. Summoning every bit of strength within herself, Uriel zips towards Koto and grabs her shoulders to stop her!

“Koto, listen!!”

“But-! They’re right there! This is what I’ve wanted for so long, for everyone to finally be together! And to be happy together! Why are you stopping me from having that?! Why are YOU of all people trying to take this from me!?”

“WILL YOU JUST LOOK AT THEM!?”

“Let me go, Uri! Let me have this, I beg you!! I want all of my family to be together! I want-…I… I want…”

She looked. She sees them properly now, she sees everything. Koto’s knees buckle and she slightly falls into Uriel’s arms.

“I know, I know.”, says Uriel as she holds Koto up. “This is exactly how I felt when DarkClaw was taken from us.” She holds Koto’s face and makes her maintain eye contact. Her voice shakes slightly as she tries to comfort her and snap her back to her senses. “I know it hurts, but we gotta save them first, then we’ll have that happy ending. Ok? Can we do that?”

Koto swallows hard and takes a breath in, allowing herself a moment to recollect herself. “Yeah…we can!”

Uriel sighs with relief and gives Koto a playful hug. “Good! That’s my Creator!”

“Let’s do it, then.”, says Azura as everyone else catches up with them.

Nathaniel crosses his arms and scoffs, “Vyz must know by that we were coming here to kick his hide.”

“So, he drops this bombshell to distract us.”, adds Amadi, “pitiful…”

And said bombshell is still coming towards the party at an alarming rate.

Koto shakes her head to focus and starts planning, “We’re just going to have to- … wait- how are we supposed to save them this time? We were able to save the others back in Lightverse only because Straus hit Vyz really hard-!”

“Uhhh… beat ‘em up a little?”, shrugs Red, “Shouldn’t be that hard.”

Koto looks exasperated, that response is the last thing she wants to hear. But if it’s their best shot at saving her parents, for her to finally have what she lost all those years ago, then it’s unfortunately what needs to be done. She sighs, “Ok…!”, then points her knife out towards her parents, who are closing in.

“FOR MY FAMILY!”

And, cue the charge!

            Vyz watches from high above, satisfied with this result so far. “Perfect. They’re fulfilling their job.”

“What comesssss next, massster?”

“…Corruption. And from that corruption will bring in a new age of Chaos. And then, people will finally know what it feels like to suffer as much as I have.”

            Strike by strike, the party tries to find any sort of opening on Koto’s parents to get in that precise hit they need. But those two are tricky, where one of their attacks ends another begins; both fully utilizing the skills of the Cosmic race to their advantage to create swift combos that keep everyone back. The diversion is working.

“Ugh-! Come on, snap out of it!”, Koto tries to call out, but still gets no response from them. Exisite takes note of a dark aura flowing through the air, “This is distracting. We’ll never get to Vyz like this.” “You’re right!”, agrees Uriel, “Should we split up?” “Split up?! That’s crazy!”, Nova and Luna oppose in unison. Kali ducks as an attack comes her way, “It could be crazy enough to work at this rate-!”

 Looking ahead, Straus’ eyes follow the path. There’s not that far left to go until they all reach the end. At the very least, he can halt Vyz’s takeover of everything for just a moment. “You guys keep them restrained.”, he states, “I’ll get to him.”

“Wait- you’re going by yourself?”, asks Koto.

“You’ll need everyone to help your parents. I can handle Vyz. We can make this work.”

“Are you sure?”, asks Red.

Straus nods, defiant in his decision.

“Just-…come back safe, ok Brother?”, Koto pleads.

Straus winks and answers, “You got it.”, before taking off. Koto gives him a thumbs up and smiles as he leaves, she then returns her attention to the problem at hand.

            Vyz is alarmed by Straus’ sudden approach, but quickly regains his composure; albeit his anger is quickly rising.

“Maaassssterrr! He’ssss coming!”

“Stop. Him.”

“But-!”, his servant whispers, “He’sss ssstrong…!”

“DO IT.”

To which they do. Even though Vyz’s forces are dwindling severely now, he sends out whatever voidlings are still walking to go after Straus. “YOUR TRAIL ENDS HERE!”, one particularly literate Stygian roars as it lunges at him. Straus simply sighs and summons his claws as he speeds up towards them. The small group doesn’t even have time to blink before he tears through them all, splitting them in two. He skids to a stop for just a moment to watch their bodies dissipate into a fine, purple mist. “Your service is forfeit.”, he lingers only a second more before advancing to the edge of the path.

            Koto’s parents stand shoulder to shoulder, quietly hissing as everyone surrounds them in a tight circle, also trying to catch their breath. “What are we supposed to do?”, wonders Melanie. “What’re we supposed to do!? They’re not stopping, and if we kill them then all of this is for nothing!!”, Kali snaps. “It’s like Straus said. We have to restrain them.”, Exisite reminds everyone. “So, we gotta make them completely stop somehow.”, Ex concludes.

The question is, how? No one among them has a spell to lull them to sleep. Every bit of magic they have would either heal them, make it so they can’t get near them, or critically injure them in the worst case. And Cosmics, as we know by now, are a very delicate people. What haven’t they tried? What else CAN they try? Think, think! If they don’t figure something out now, then everything they know and love will be gone forever! Vyz will take over and there’ll be nothing left that anyone can do to help everyone. C’mon…! Just think of something, anything!

THINK KOTO, THINK!!

Uriel, not taking her eyes off Koto’s parents, gently bumps Koto’s shoulder, “Hey? Still in there?”

No response.                                                                                                                

“Oh, come on, not again! You gotta snap out of it! We need you, Koto!!”

The cries of her friends can barely break through the dissociative state she’s in. In trying to come up with a solution, her mind only presents more problems. She spirals further and further into the depths of her mind... Thankfully, there’s still one more being who can help her.

Illumi reaches out, “(…Mistress?)”

“(…I can’t focus, I can’t think. What is left to stop all of this? Straus is alone and we can’t keep this battle up forever. But…Mom and Dad…! I don’t know what to do this time…I’ve run out of every option in the book…. it’s hopeless.)”

Illumi takes a deep breath before continuing, “(…Mistress, I have watched over you for many years now. And although some of your ideas have failed, there is no denying that you have grown into someone capable of amazing things. Do not think that this is the end. There’s always light to shine through the darkness…)” She thinks to herself for a moment and warmly smiles. “(You helped me see the light after all, did you not? And I know you can do it again for them. You can help them. Everyone believes in you, Koto.)”

“(Illumi…!)”, Koto, within their shared mindscape, embraces her. “(That’s it, Illumi! I’ve got it! And- …Well, I’m kind of embarrassed I didn’t think of it sooner.)”, she chuckles to herself, “(But thank you, for everything…And boy, I hope they’ll be proud of us for this one.)”

            Red is the last one to try and get her attention, “Koto-? Any day now-!” Koto shakes her head and feels sensations return to her, “I’ve got it, everyone! I know why Vyz wanted to keep Straus and me away from everything!” With a wave of her hands, she summons a barrier around her parents, who immediately break out of it. Koto jolts, surprised that didn’t work. “Help her out, guys!”, Nova chimes. Koto tries again, this time aided by everybody else with defensive magic. With that extra boost, the barrier holds. “Yes!”, Exisite cheers. Koto shifts her footing and holds both her hands out, as Cosmic energy swirls and gathers through and out of her fingertips.

“(Alright, I can do this…! This is it; this is everything I’ve worked up to! Dad, Mom…I’m sorry if this hurts you-!)”, Koto waves her hands out, sending everything she can muster towards the barrier, and shouts,

A bright flash. And it’s done.

Koto regains her balance, supported by Uriel and Nova. When her eyes readjust, she looks into the barrier to see her parents sleeping peacefully, as the void’s corruption burns away. Uriel blinks, “…Why DIDN’T we think of this sooner??”, she asks matter-of-factly. Koto stands up and releases the barrier as tears begin to trickle down her cheeks.

“Mom!! Dad!!”

Koto’s father, a strong Cosmic named Kilgore, grumbles as he looks towards his daughter for the first time in ages.

“Koto…?”

“Oh, my baby! There you are! Look, honey, I knew she’d be ok!”, says Koto’s mother, a gentle Cosmic named Lazuli. Koto runs into their arms, her mission complete. The others watch as magic from all three of them sparkles and surround the family, the purest form of magic for all the Cosmic race: the bonds that tie them together; are finally restored.