Chương 321: Chapter 320 - Void Hunting

"The main passenger doors are sealed securely against the void pressure. The rear hatch possesses a manual airlock. I will construct the platform directly behind the carriage. You will use the tether lines."

"Got it," Lucid said. He followed her toward the door. Ayame stopped just before her hand reached the brass handle. She turned her head slightly, looking back at him over her shoulder.

"Do not tell Valen about this arrangement," she stated firmly.

"I have no intention of discussing my blood with an auditor," Lucid assured her. Ayame nodded once. She grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. The bright, artificial light of the corridor spilled into the dark room. The sudden shift in illumination forced Lucid to squint. The door swung outward. Lucid stepped into the lounge, raising his right hand to massage his throbbing temples.

The intense strain of processing the feeding on his blood supply and as well as the continuous regeneration from the chain of heart. Valen lay stretched out across the cushioned couch, resting his head on the side of the sofa. Arthur sat upright on his usual wooden stool near the central table. Both men turned their heads immediately, watching Lucid and Ayame step out into the hallway. Ayame adjusted the front of her dark robe, pulling the collar tight against her collarbone.

Lucid smoothed down the wrinkles in his shirt. The double adjustment drawn from the private room created an immediate aura of heavy suspicion and confusion. Arthur stood up so quickly that his stool rattled against the floorboards. He marched across the room toward Lucid, his face flushed with indignation.

"Lucid!" Arthur shouted, halting a foot away.

"You do not just open the door of a woman without knocking! Do you not have any manners?" Arthur leaned closer to deliver a further lecture, but his eyes dropped to Ayame. She was still adjusting her dark robes, momentarily revealing the pale skin of her upper chest before securing the fabric. Arthur froze mid-sentence. His eyes widened, and he stammered incoherently. He backed away half a step, completely lost for words.

"Geez, move, nothing happened," Lucid grumbled, stepping past the stunned young man. Arthur cleared his throat and shook his head, trailing behind them toward the central table.

"Ayame, you were rough," Lucid muttered under his breath, his cheeks red. Ayame offered no verbal reply. She walked past Arthur with complete silence, her expression unreadable. Valen sat up on the couch, sliding his feet to the floorboards. He leaned toward Arthur and gestured toward the pair.

"Is this a normal occurrence with them?" Arthur let out a heavy sigh, watching Lucid stretch his arms over his head.

"It seems so, looking at the two of them." Lucid rotated his shoulders to work out the stiffness. Ayame stood near the wall, raising her right hand. A small droplet of crimson liquid rose from her palm, shaping itself into a miniature spinning sphere that mimicked a solid marble.

"Can she control another person's blood?" Valen asked, leaning forward with genuine curiosity.

"Yes," Lucid answered, lowering his arms.

"From what she told me, she can make small manifestations that imitate real-life objects, but it requires a lot of concentration." Valen watched the red sphere dissolve back into her skin.

"Where are you two going?"

"To the void," Lucid stated plainly. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Why?" Arthur asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"To hunt void creatures," Lucid replied. He motioned toward the window.

"We can also sell their parts in Port Vexis. Aren't they worth a lot of currency?" Arthur frowned, stepping forward to argue against the sheer stupidity of the plan.

"Yes, they are valuable, but what if something goes wrong with the train? We have no repair equipment on board. And I am not a technician" Lucid shrugged his shoulders casually, keeping his inner thoughts to himself.

'Yeah, well, I will make sure that does not happen. And you aren't a knight either...' Valen leaned back against the couch cushions, crossing his legs.

"Are you absolutely sure about this? Void Travel statistics indicate that the number one cause of vessel breakage is not bad conduct but void creature encounters." Lucid looked back at the merchant over his shoulder.

"Well, I have lived through one already." Valen fell completely silent, offering no further objections. Lucid moved down the narrow corridor toward the ladder leading to the roof hatch. Arthur followed close behind, carrying a pair of safety ropes. Valen stayed in the main lounge, declaring that he suffered from severe Voidphobia and had no interest in standing on top of a train carriage. Lucid pushed the iron hatch open, climbing out into the rushing atmosphere above the train.

He turned around and reached down through the opening, taking hold of Ayame's heavy frame. He pulled her upward onto the roof plating. She did not utter a word of thanks, giving him only a brief nod of acknowledgment. Lucid reached back down into the hatch for Arthur.

"Careful there," Lucid said in a strained voice, pulling the heavy knight up onto the metal roof. The three of them stood atop the Starlight Carriage, balancing against the vibration of the iron wheels below. The vast purple expanse stretched out infinitely around them in every direction.

"So," Lucid began, scanning the empty violet sky.

"It is not like I see any void creatures out here." Ayame nodded slowly in agreement.

"How do we even do this?!" He panicked. Arthur reached out and grabbed Lucid's shoulder to steady his balance.

"Well, it is like fishing without a rod and bait."

"You are the bait. All you have to do is stand here and see if any pass by or aim toward you." Lucid turned his head to glare at Arthur.

"Come for you?"

"Yes," Arthur replied plainly.

"Well, that sounds dangerous. So when we travel through the Void, can we actually be attacked?" Lucid asked.

"It is," Arthur admitted.

"But since we move at a constant speed, there's little reason to worry about Void creatures catching up to us from behind." Lucid grimaced as a sudden memory flashed through his mind. He remembered a massive void narwhal shattering a railway line and crushing a carriage during a previous transit. He clutched his forehead with his left hand, wincing from the sudden mental phantom pain.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked, observing his sudden tension.

"Managing," Lucid grunted, lowering his hand.

"Not surprising," Arthur remarked, his gaze drifting toward the floating rocks outside.

"We've been traveling for two days straight. And with the entire Church descending on Port Vexis, we never had much of a chance to stock up before leaving." Lucid nodded hoping that would at least shake of the weariness.

"Yeah." Ayame stepped closer to Lucid and wrapped both arms tightly around his left arm. Arthur immediately shifted his gaze away, visibly uncomfortable with the display of affection.

"It is cold," Ayame murmured.

'She needs more than blood. She needs warmth, too. I thought Oni could withstand extreme cold and high temperatures without much trouble,' Lucid noted, feeling the chill of her skin even through the fabric of her sleeve. Lucid focused his mind and activated the Chain of heart His perception immediately shifted, altering how the void appeared to his eyes. The physical purple sky faded into a complex matrix of particle threads crossing vast distances.

Strands of bright energy intersected across floating landmasses, while unattached threads drifted aimlessly in the purple abyss. It was a beautiful sight, yet terrifying when viewed in its true state. Lucid looked down past the edge of the carriage roof. Below the floating debris and swirling purple clouds lay an infinite drop. Far down in the depths, a swirling orb vortex churned endlessly. It functioned as the black hole of this realm, harboring absolute destruction inside oblivion.

There was no true sense of up or down in the void, but falling below meant entering oblivion. Lucid looked upward into the purple sky. A distant sun flickered as a tiny speck among swirling star clusters. The twin moons, Sellenia and Morwen, hung larger than usual against the horizon. The two moons never moved in sync, but when their paths aligned, a blood moon occurred. The rarest astronomical event was an eclipse, occurring only when Sellenia and Morwen aligned perfectly with the sun.

During an eclipse, a crimson and orange-red light enveloped the entire Scattered Realms, granting immense destructive power to the children of Mother Fate. Whatever that meant. Lucid observed the celestial bodies, unable to suppress his growing curiosity. When he had first arrived in this world, he had not cared about its lore or geography.

'Maybe because when I found out about remnants of Earth, that is why it became interesting,' Lucid thought to himself.

'Well, who can say for sure.' Arthur raised his right hand and pointed toward a cluster of floating boulders a hundred yards away.

"Found one." Lucid stood up taller on the roof, Ayame maintaining her firm grip on his shoulder. A slight feeling of discomfort settled in his chest as he prepared for the encounter.