Chương 127: Hunger

Joe didn't know whether what he was doing was wise, foolhardy, or the act of a suicidal madman, but he knew he could no longer put off this confrontation. The last vine he had absorbed had been like a beacon of understanding, leaving him with knowledge he never wanted and truths that chilled him to his core. That day, the day he danced and created the mana convergence, the day he accidentally tore into the void and allowed the void cell to enter his arm, had changed everything.

He didn't know what a void cell truly was. He only knew its name because the thing inside had told him. He didn't hear its voice in his mind the way he heard Uriel; this was different. This was more like a vibration travelling up his arm from the void cell, something he could decipher instinctively, like a living form of Morse code. He didn't know why he could understand it. Maybe a connection had formed between him and the being inside.

Maybe that was why it released those vines that fused with his body, altering him on a sub-atomic level and making him stronger. Steam began to rise from his skin as he pushed his awareness inward, seeking the void cell. It was time for answers. As he closed his eyes and focused, an imprint of the swirling cell formed in his mind. It looked exactly like how he imagined a black hole would appear, except that at its pitch-black centre there was a tiny hole.

He concentrated on it, trying to see more clearly, but all he could make out was white. Then the white within the hole shifted, as if something inside had moved. There it was. Without fully understanding how, he reached out with his mind, pushing through the swirling haze until he felt himself at the edge of that hole. No matter how close he felt he was, it remained impossibly small, and he wondered how those thick vines ever squeezed through it. As he stared, the white mass pulsed and shifted again. It was alive.

It could sense him. That bulging mass of white was the same presence he had felt every time a vine erupted from his elbow. Five long minutes passed before the movement stopped, and then he saw it: an eye within the hole, or at least part of one. As his gaze met that partial pupil, his mind collapsed inward, and he screamed. __ Rose, princess of Eludia. Daughter of Catalina and Aqua Terravignion. Sister to Alkaios, Barato, and Varesi.

Shansara, to those she held closest, walked through the palace with Daisy at her side as the bond of fate on her chest pulsed. She froze as a lance of pain tore through her mind, and she raised a trembling hand to her temple before her legs gave way and she crashed to the floor. Her vision swam as Daisy and Alkaios appeared above her, shouting for help and calling her name. She tried to speak, but before a word could form, the bond flared again, burning white-hot as if her skin itself were melting.

She clenched her teeth as the pain surged to a brutal crescendo, and as darkness claimed her, she felt it clearly. Joe's mind was breaking. __ Corel slammed to the ground as a bomb detonated against her chest, and she screamed until her throat burned raw and her voice finally failed her. What felt like an eternity later, she dragged herself into a seated position, her horns blazing with searing heat as panic clawed through her.

She tugged her top down with shaking hands to make sure her chest hadn't melted away, but the light blazing there was so bright it hurt to look at. Two sets of hands caught her before she could collapse again.

"Corel? What happened?" Alice asked urgently.

"What is that bright light on your chest? It looks painful. Felicia, do you have anything to help her?"

"I have a salve that might help," Felicia said quickly.

"Did she take a pill?" Corel shook her head weakly.

"It's… okay… It's the bond," she managed to say through clenched teeth.

"The bond?" Alice asked sharply.

"Is Joe in trouble?" Another wave of pain crashed through her, forcing Corel to brace herself until it passed. When she finally looked up again, her eyes were glassy but focused.

"He's doing… something stupid again," she said hoarsely. Alice and Felicia exchanged a grim look, but neither of them moved away from her side.

"What can we do?" Alice asked.

"Help me up," Corel asked, forcing herself to straighten. With their support, she rose to her feet and pointed shakily toward Yggdrasil.

"Bring me closer. I need to see him." It took nearly ten minutes for the two women to guide her close enough to the great tree for Corel to feel Joe's presence clearly. She lifted her gaze to the branch where she knew his body lay and raised a trembling hand, about to ask them to help her up, when her breath caught in horror. A long white vine surged upward above the branch, and the air itself shook as if the world were shifting, just as Joe woke and roared.

__ Joe tore his mind free from the void cell and slammed his awareness back into his body, his breath coming in ragged gasps as raw panic flooded him. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he knew one undeniable truth with terrifying certainty: he was in danger, and so was everyone he cared about. When he had passed out, a feeling had flowed into him from the thing inside the cell, a single, pure, primal desire that drowned out all others. Hunger.

As his muscles locked and his consciousness snapped fully awake, a new vine forced its way out of the hole in the void cell and surged upward above him. This one felt different, wrong in a way he couldn't describe, and the sensation sent a chill racing through his soul. Then a voice echoed in his mind, calm and patient.

'Ah, almost ready.' A roar of fury ripped from Joe's throat as the vine abruptly vanished back into the hole, disappearing so quickly he barely felt it happen. The sudden absence left him off-balance, and he rolled too far, slipping free of the branch beneath him. A heartbeat later, he slammed into the ground, the impact blasting dirt and dust outward as his body carved a small crater into the earth.

'I'm here.' Corel pulsed. The relief of her presence hit Joe like a physical touch. She was very close, close enough that he could feel her pain through their bond, and that made his heart ache. He felt Rose, too. He had a strong and constant connection to both of them, and they must have felt everything he had just endured. He was used to unbearable pain and recovered quickly, but instinct drove him to send something new through the bond, something he didn't consciously understand.

Whatever it was, it worked, because the agony pulsing from Corel and Rose faded, replaced by a warm wave of relief that flowed back into him.

'What was that pet?' Rose asked, her presence steadier now.

'Why?' Corel echoed, confusion threaded through her pulse.

'Sorry. I'll explain later. It's not over,' he sent back to Rose as he dragged himself upright and met the worried gazes of Alice and Felicia, who were supporting Corel between them. Corel shifted, and in the next moment, she was in his arms, held tight against his chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered aloud, the words barely leaving his lips. Then he felt it again. This time, he reacted instantly, slamming shut the connections through his bonds of fate just as a fresh wave of pain tore through his mind. His teeth clenched hard enough that blood ran from his mouth where he bit down on his tongue. His muscles convulsed violently, and he barely registered Corel moving until a steady wash of calm poured into him through her touch.

The pain didn't stop, and neither did the spasms, but the calm steadied his thoughts and anchored his mind.

'Follow my voice. Stay with me,' Corel said, her voice clear and unwavering inside his head. He became aware of solid ground beneath his back and realized he must have fallen at some point. Corel's weight settled against him as she continued to pour calm into his mind, grounding him enough to focus inward. His internal sight snapped to his arm, and horror flooded him as he saw the tiny hole within the void cell beginning to fracture.

He didn't have a formal danger sense skill, but his instincts were honed enough to know when death was close. And at this moment, every nerve in his body screamed at once as an overwhelming sense of impending doom crushed down on him. No matter what happened, he could not let that thing escape. For the first time in a very long time, he was completely at a loss. This was his fault.

He had reassured everyone that it was under control and that there was no danger, and he realized now how disastrously wrong he had been.

'What do I do, Rel? It's coming. And I don't know how to stop it…' he sent, fear bleeding through the bond.

'What is it? What do you see?' Corel asked, her concern sharp and immediate. A third presence joined the exchange.

'It is a mana eater,' Uriel said quietly. For a heartbeat, Joe's mind went utterly silent.

'Who are you?' Corel demanded.

'A friend,' Uriel replied.

'Joe? What is going on?' Corel asked, confusion and fear mixing in her voice. Joe didn't know how to explain how Corel could hear Uriel now, and the effort of trying was drowned out as the void cell cracked again. A low groan tore from his chest as more blood spilt down his face, and the sense of something vast and starving pressing against the fracture made his vision swim.

'Now is not the time for explanations,' Uriel said calmly.

'Joe needs your help.' Joe forced himself to speak through the pain and explained what he felt, describing the hole in the void cell and the cracks still spreading outward. He told them how close it felt to breaking, how the pressure inside was growing stronger by the second.

'How do I block it? How do I stop it from escaping?' he asked. The bond pulsed as Corel fell silent, her mind clearly racing. The seconds dragged on, the pain spiking again in sharp waves, until Joe felt the instant her thoughts snapped into focus.

'I have an idea,' Corel said. Joe listened closely as she explained. The core problem was obvious: they couldn't seal the void cell using mana because whatever was trapped inside devoured mana completely. Any attempts to patch the damage with mana alone would only feed it. Corel's solution was brutally simple. If mana couldn't be used, then the cell itself had to become the seal. If Joe could reshape it, compress it, then the hole could be closed using whatever substance the cell was made of.

The concept sounded almost too straightforward, like carving away a fragment of the cell and using it to reinforce the breach. The difficulty, of course, was how to actually do that.

'Can you see what it is made from?' Corel asked. Joe turned inward again, diving into his own mind despite the agony. As he did, Uriel's light flared softly, and for the first time her presence felt substantial, as though she were standing beside him rather than whispering from a distance. Her support steadied his thoughts.

'Focus!' she chided. Joe flushed at that and pushed the distraction aside. The void cell came into view with startling clarity: a ring of strange, metallic-black material, utterly devoid of mana, dense and absolute. It felt ancient, heavy, and unyielding. He tried to probe it with his mind and met complete resistance, like pressing against solid stone. Changing tactics, he extended a single, delicate thread of mana and brushed it against the surface.

The sensation was unmistakable, as if his mana were gliding along a hard, invisible object. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

'I can touch it with mana,' he sent.

'I can feel it.'

'Good,' Corel replied.

'Try pushing harder. See if you can move it.' The idea felt reckless, but he obeyed. He pressed, increasing the force, holding it for several long moments before stopping. The cell didn't shift at all. It was like trying to shove a dam with bare hands.

'Nothing,' he reported.

'Try using your second mana bar,' Corel suggested. That sparked an idea. Joe switched to his enriched mana and tested the cell again. The result was the same at first, but instead of withdrawing, he began to wrap the void cell in mana, careful to keep his control precise and to avoid the cracked hole entirely. Slowly, methodically, his mana spread across the surface, encasing the cell like a sheath. When nearly ninety per cent of the void cell was covered, he halted the expansion.

Instead of spreading further, he began to compress the mana layer, thickening it and preparing for the next step'Is it working?' Corel asked.

'It might be. I have it wrapped, and now I'm pouring more mana in. Once there's enough pressure, I'm going to squeeze it shut.'

'Be careful,' Corel warned.

'What if there isn't much space inside? What if it notices?'

'Should I check what it is doing?' he asked.

'I can check. It won't sense my presence,' Uriel said calmly. Joe held his breath and kept feeding mana into the shell he had formed around the void cell. Minutes passed in tense silence, his control stretched thin as the pressure built. After roughly five minutes, Uriel's presence surged back into his thoughts.

'It's completely focused on widening the hole,' Uriel reported.

'It hasn't noticed what you are doing. I don't think it can actually see out of the breach.'

'Wait. Really?' Joe asked.

'Yes,' Uriel confirmed. Joe smiled despite the pain as a sudden image formed in his mind.

'That… gives me an idea,' he said.

'Have either of you ever seen what happens when you squeeze an egg between your palms with all your strength?'

'I imagine the yolk would squirt out between your fingers,' Corel replied.

'It would explode,' Uriel added flatly.

'Precisely!' Joe said.

'Now imagine there are no gaps between the fingers, only one tiny opening, and that opening snaps shut the moment a small piece has been expelled.' Silence followed his explanation.

'That might be the stupidest idea I have ever heard,' Uriel said at last.

'It could work,' Corel countered.

'I've heard worse ideas from him.' Joe chose to ignore the tone and pressed on.

'Tell Alice and Felicia to move back, and you should as well,' he said.

'This could get ugly.'

'I already sent them away,' Corel replied firmly.

'I'm staying.' Joe felt Uriel's quiet approval, though she said nothing.

'All right,' Joe said.

'I'm going to push as much mana as I can into this. Be ready for anything.' Doubt crept in, but he pushed it aside. Over the next few minutes, he transferred nearly all of his enriched mana into his arm. The strain was unbearable, his muscles screaming as they swelled with power, but he ignored it and focused. He closed his eyes, drew a slow breath, and steadied his thoughts.

'Three… two… one…' Joe's thoughts sharpened as a moment of calm and clarity settled over him, and for a heartbeat he believed this might actually work. He pushed with everything he had, driving his mana hard against the void cell and squeezing with ruthless focus. At first, nothing happened. There was no movement at all, only the crushing pressure of his enriched mana bearing down on the cell. He refused to relent, continuing to squeeze as time stretched thin and his awareness narrowed to a single point.

Then he felt it… a minute jolt, so small it was almost imperceptible, as the void cell collapsed by the slightest fraction imaginable. The tiny hole vanished, replaced by a violent eruption as a massive gout of vines was expelled and severed in an instant. Joe felt a sharp pulse of surprise from within the cell, followed immediately by raw, unfettered anger as it slammed shut, whole once more. He would have celebrated if he could have. He would have laughed or cried in triumph. Instead, he screamed.

__ Corel felt Joe's body convulse violently, and she clung to him with all her strength, barely managing to keep hold of him as the force threatened to tear them apart. Then it hit. A sudden, overwhelming blast of wind slammed into them, powerful enough to hurl them both through the air and straight into Yggdrasil.

They struck the great tree with such force that a shallow crater formed on impact, and the entire trunk shuddered, sending a rippling wave outward across Landradad as an avalanche of leaves rained down from above. It took several long moments for Corel to pry herself and Joe free from the bark. She landed lightly on the ground with Joe slung over her shoulder, his body limp and unconscious, exactly as she had expected. She even let out a small grunt as his weight settled on her.

By the spirits he is heavy, she thought, shaking her head. As she steadied herself, she tried to make sense of what had just happened and what kind of force could have thrown them like that. Then Joe's explanation returned to her mind, the image of an egg forced shut until its contents were violently expelled. Her eyes widened as she looked up. A fountain of pure white liquid was spilling from the sky, cascading downward in a blinding torrent.

__ Samira stood on her balcony, one hand resting on her swollen belly as she gazed up at the sunlit sky. It was midday, clear and bright, save for a single cloud racing across the horizon far faster than any cloud had a right to move. Her brow furrowed as she activated her eagle's sight, and she blinked in confusion. What she saw made no sense. It looked like a massive cloud of tangled white vines tearing through the sky in the distance.

Slowly, she turned her head toward the direction it had come from, knowing Landradad lay thousands of miles that way. Her lips parted as an uneasy thought formed.

"No," she whispered. Not even he could be responsible for something like that… or so she desperately hoped. __ Joe coughed violently as he spat out a mouthful of liquid, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath.

"What happened?" he managed between coughs and gags.

"Check the cell. Is it closed?" Corel asked as she wiped some of the sticky substance from his face. He willingly closed his eyes and let her continue, turning his attention inward as Uriel's light still glimmered within his mind. He plunged deep into the swirling imprint and examined the void cell. He blinked internally in surprise. The cell had warped and now resembled an egg. He circled it again and again, probing every part of it, searching for the hole he had feared, but there was nothing.

No crack, no weakness, no opening of any kind. It was completely sealed. Joe opened his eyes and let out a slow breath of relief, only to realize the ground was moving beneath him. Confusion flickered across his face before he understood he was slung over Corel's shoulder as she carried him away. He sincerely hoped their destination involved water, because the white substance coating both of them smelled absolutely foul.

"It's sealed," he said with a tired but genuine smile as they bounced along.

'I can't believe that worked,' Uriel said, her disbelief echoing clearly in his mind. Joe laughed, feeling the lingering shock in her voice. Corel shot him a sideways glance and shook her head.

"I knew it would work," Joe declared confidently, earning another head shake from her. Once they had washed themselves clean, Joe stood there, still sore but upright, staring at the aftermath of his little experiment. It looked as though someone had dumped an enormous bucket of white paint down one side of Yggdrasil, which splattered everything beneath it. Thankfully, it hadn't reached his house or the lake, which he was immensely grateful for. Perhaps his absurd luck wasn't completely useless after all.

Chuckling to himself, he pulled a massive mop from his storage ring and got to work cleaning up the disaster he had caused. As he stepped forward, he noticed four familiar brats staring at the scene in stunned disbelief, and his grin widened immediately __"Everything is sore," Shanna complained as she rubbed her aching legs.

"Four-eyes. Are we done yet?"

"We only have one square mile left to clean," Travis replied.

"In English?" Shanna demanded.

"Two hours. Maybe three." Shanna groaned loudly. They had been scrubbing white sludge for two full days now, and Joe still refused to explain where it came from, muttering something about a squeezed egg before vanishing with his oversized mop. Still, they were almost finished. Just a couple more hours, and she could finally collapse into a long, well-earned nap. She turned to her right and saw Locke, and she found herself smiling as she watched him stare up at the great tree.

From the side, she could see his strong chin, and his horns caught the sunlight faintly as they gleamed. He must have sensed her gaze, because he turned his stony, emotionless face toward her, and his features softened as he smiled. She blushed furiously and looked away. He was quite handsome, though not as handsome as the Progenitor… no, as Joe. She had to remind herself not to call him Progenitor, because he thought it too formal, even if she didn't fully understand why. To her, he was a hero.

Once the heat faded from her cheeks, she stood up and grabbed one of the oversized mops they had been given.

"Get up, Four-eyes. Time is ticking, and I can't wait to take a very long bath." Travis groaned, but he stood without complaint. After two more gruelling hours, Shanna, Travis, Locke, and Meris stumbled back toward their home, exhausted and sore.

"I am never mopping up another puddle of paint for the rest of my life," Shanna complained.

"Now, who's joining me for a bath?" Once upon a time, the idea of bathing naked with others, especially boys, would have been completely unthinkable, almost anathema. However, during her stay in Landradad, her sense of propriety had changed dramatically. The Voldura, sometimes three or four at a time, had absolutely no shame when it came to nudity and treated washing as a purely practical joint affair. Often helping one another clean regularly.

On top of that, Joe's habit of insisting on washing whenever she did had resulted in her seeing him unclothed far more times than she cared to count. Eventually, she had simply let go of her embarrassment and joined in.

"If you can't beat them, join them," she muttered as the group headed straight for the pond. Even Travis didn't complain, as they were all covered in sticky residue and desperately needed to wash. When they reached the pond, Shanna felt a flicker of disappointment when she realized Joe wasn't there, and she quickly scolded herself for the stray thought, even if he had the body of a Greek god.

She stripped along with the others and waded into the pleasantly warm water, letting it wash away two days of sweat and grime.

"Your body is filling out nicely," Meris commented as she floated closer.

"Thanks. Yours is still amazing," Shanna replied, feeling only a small pang of jealousy. It was true; Meris had beautifully defined muscles that didn't detract from her natural curves at all. Shanna almost cursed the fact that both Meris and Corel seemed to possess nearly perfect physiques. Still, she patted herself with a quiet nod of satisfaction. She really was filling out, just as Meris had said.

She had gained muscle, which was still a strange realization, and she could feel that her figure had grown fuller as well. All the constant training and sparring were finally paying off.

"Do you think we will change much when we reach the E-Grade?" she asked as she gazed up through the tree branches at the sky above.

"I'm not sure. The Seeker said she didn't notice much of a change when she reached the E-Grade. But even before that, she was always the most beautiful of us," Meris replied.

"And most of the changes in appearance came from her class upgrading. I'm a little jealous of her new hair colour."

"I bet she was. Just looking at her makes me jealous as well," Shanna said with a light smile.

"I like your plain face," Meris commented. Shanna wasn't sure whether that was meant as a compliment or a jab, as she was still learning Meris's humour.

"Thanks. Can I feel your muscles once more?" Shanna asked as she bumped shoulders with Meris.

"Go ahead," Meris said as she floated with her eyes closed. Shanna giggled as she gave her a thorough feel before returning to the same relaxed, floating position while the last of the paint washed from their bodies. An hour later, Shanna stood fully dressed in a fresh brown toga, staring up at the now almost completely clean great tree. She spotted movement several miles overhead, where Joe and his oversized mop were still hard at work.

"Do you think he really does have two hearts and four lungs?" she asked.

"Where did you hear that?" Travis asked with a sigh.

"That's what Esha always says about him, and he does have that strange race he refuses to explain, so maybe he really does have extra organs."

"I don't think it works that way," Travis said, shaking his head.

"I think it does," Shanna replied with a firm nod. She turned away from the tree and paused when she noticed Locke sitting nearby, once again wearing that distant, smouldering look as he stared into nothing. Without realizing it, she found herself watching him until a cough at her side snapped her out of it.

"Why don't you go talk to him?" Travis asked casually. Shanna turned away, her cheeks burning.

"What would I even say?" she mumbled.

"All the time I've known you, you've never stopped talking. Just do what you always do." Travis replied. True to form, Travis was far too slow to dodge as her fist slammed into his shoulder, and he winced in pain. As she withdrew her hand, she hesitated. Was he right? Should she really just talk to him? While she stalled and made excuses in her head, Meris walked over and slapped Locke on the shoulder. He barely reacted as the two of them leaned in and began whispering.

Shanna sighed as the moment slipped away once again, and she turned back toward the house, already thinking about finding a book to distract herself.

"Shanna!" Locke's deep voice stopped her in her tracks as she turned to see him walking toward her. __ Meris smiled as she watched Locke and a vividly blushing Shanna walk off together for some long-overdue one-on-one time. She still couldn't believe how oblivious Locke had been to the obvious attraction between them, especially when even the bookworm Travis had eventually noticed it, well, only after she had spelt it out for him, of course.

She chuckled softly as she spotted that same bookworm attempting to sneak away on his own. Humans were strange; she still didn't understand their obsession with books, nor how they managed without the ability to share memories through touch. Such a primitive race.

"Where are you going?" she asked lightly. Travis blinked at her, adjusting the frames on his face.

"I was just going for a walk," he replied.

"Great. So was I," Meris said with a smile as she wrapped her arm around his and pressed herself comfortably against him. His face flushed almost as red as Shanna's had earlier, which made Meris laugh outright.

"I'm feeling a little stiff," she began.

"Why don't we go somewhere private and give each other… massages, as you humans call them?" The look of pure shock on Travis's face made her stomach flutter. He was kind of handsome in a strange, plain, endearing way, which suited her just fine. She had always had a taste for unusual things. Leaning in close, she lowered her voice and whispered into his ear, "If you impress me enough with your technique, I might show you something… amazing."

Laughing once more, Meris tugged the thoroughly confused Travis along, leading him toward a quiet little spot she knew well.