CHAPTER 63: VOICE IN THE VOID

Arthur stood alone in the tent long after the others had left, staring at the space where Lyralei’s hologram had shown Marcus Chen’s transformation.

The magical recording crystal lay dark on the table, but the images burned in his mind—human flesh dissolving into living shadow, reality cracking like broken glass around a hunger that couldn’t be satisfied.

*Two months. Maybe less.*

His hands trembled as he picked up the crystal, feeling the void resonance pulse stronger in response. The System warnings kept flashing at the edge of his vision:

[WARNING: VOID RESONANCE DETECTED]

[EVOLUTION PROTOCOL: 15% UNSTABLE - RISING]

[RECOMMENDATION: SEEK IMMEDIATE CONTAINMENT]

"Containment," Arthur muttered. "Right. Lock myself in a cage and hope I don’t eat everyone I care about."

The shadows in the tent seemed to shift despite the steady magical light. Arthur’s eyes tracked the movement, noticing how the darkness bent toward him, drawn like iron filings to a magnet. When had that started happening?

He thought about the hunger Lyralei had mentioned. That gnawing need he’d felt when creating the shadow realm, the urge to pull Lyralei’s phoenix fire into himself. He’d dismissed it as battle-lust, but now...

*Now I know better.*

Arthur closed his eyes, trying to center himself. The meditation techniques from Earth seemed laughably inadequate for this situation, but he had to try something. Count to ten. Breathe deeply. Focus on—

*"Finally. I was wondering when you’d stop fighting me."*

Arthur’s eyes snapped open. The voice had come from everywhere and nowhere, echoing inside his skull rather than through his ears. The tent looked the same, but the shadows had deepened, reaching toward him with unmistakable intent.

"Who’s there?" he demanded, hand moving instinctively toward his sword.

Laughter rippled through the darkness—the same cold, patient sound he’d heard at the end of Lyralei’s warning. *"Oh, Arthur. You know who I am. You’ve been hearing my voice for weeks now, haven’t you? In the quiet moments. In the spaces between thoughts."*

The truth hit him like a physical blow. Those impulses during battle, the whispered suggestions to push his power further, the hunger that felt almost like guidance—none of it had been his own thoughts.

"You’re Marcus’s student."

*"Student. Partner. Heir. So many labels, so little time."* The voice carried amusement now. *"Marcus was brilliant, but he lacked patience. He gorged himself too quickly, drew too much attention. I learned from his mistakes."*

The shadows coalesced, taking shape in the center of the tent. Not solid, but visible—a humanoid outline of living darkness with eyes like burning voids. When it spoke, reality rippled around the words.

*"Thirty years I’ve waited. Thirty years of watching transmigrators stumble through this world with their precious Systems, never understanding what they truly possess."* The shadow-figure circled Arthur like a predator. *"Until you. You’ve shown such promise, such beautiful hunger."*

"I’m nothing like Marcus." Arthur’s voice came out steadier than he felt. "I won’t become that thing."

*"Oh, but you’re already becoming it. Every time you use your shadow powers, every time you feel that pull toward other Systems—you feed the evolution. It’s inevitable now."*

The figure stopped directly in front of him, close enough that Arthur could feel the wrongness radiating from it like heat from a forge. *"But I’m not here to gloat. I’m here to help."*

"Help?" Arthur laughed bitterly. "You’ve been manipulating me from the beginning."

*"Guiding. There’s a difference."* The entity’s form solidified slightly, revealing features that might have once been human. Asian, young-looking, with Marcus Chen’s face but wearing thirty years of void-touched evolution. *"The shadow realm you created—that was my gift to you. A taste of what true power feels like."*

"Bullshit. Beatrice created that with her research—"

*"Research I inspired. Dreams I sent. Calculations I whispered while she slept."* The thing that had been Marcus’s student smiled, and the expression was wrong on every level. *"Did you really think a mortal mage could devise System fusion techniques on her own? Even one touched by divine power?"*

Arthur felt sick. Every triumph, every clever solution, every moment he’d thought he was outsmarting his enemies—how much of it had been real?

"What do you want?"

*"To complete the work. To show you what you could become."* The entity gestured, and the tent’s shadows deepened impossibly. *"Watch."*

The darkness around them shifted, becoming a window into somewhere else. Arthur saw himself—or something wearing his face—standing in the ruins of Lyranth. His wives knelt before him, their eyes empty, their Systems drained. Urzara’s massive frame was withered, Isolde’s silver hair turned grey, Beatrice’s divine glow extinguished forever.

But the Arthur in the vision was magnificent. Power radiated from him like visible light. Reality bent to his will. He was everything a king should be—strong, beautiful, eternal.

*"This is what Lyralei fears. What the gods themselves cannot stop. You, perfected."*

"I would never—"

*"You wouldn’t mean to. That’s the beauty of it."* The vision shifted, showing Arthur embracing Beatrice, then pulling back in horror as her life force flowed into him. *"The hunger takes what it needs. Your will becomes irrelevant."*

Arthur forced himself to look away. "The proxy restoration. Lyralei’s safeguards—"

*"Will delay the inevitable by perhaps a month. Maybe two."* The entity dismissed this with a wave. *"The phoenix’s techniques were designed for natural System evolution, not what you’ve become. Not what I’ve helped you become."*

"Then why are you here? If it’s inevitable—"

*"Because there is another way."* The shadow-figure leaned closer, its voice dropping to a whisper. *"Willing evolution. Controlled transformation. Instead of fighting the hunger, embrace it. Learn to feed safely, sustainably. Become the apex predator this world needs."*

"Safely? You want me to eat people’s Systems!"

*"Not people. System users. There’s a difference."* The entity began pacing again, its form flickering between human and void. *"Tyrants like Lyralei. Divine zealots like Celestine. Corrupt nobles who abuse their power. Feed on those who deserve it, and you’ll never need to harm the innocent."*

Arthur wanted to reject the offer immediately, but the logic was seductive. How many people had suffered under System-enhanced tyrants? How many wars had been fought by those drunk on supernatural power?

*"You’re already feeling it, aren’t you? The righteous hunger. The knowledge that you could make things better if you just had enough power."*

"Stop."

*"Your wives would understand, eventually. They love you. They’d want you to become everything you could be—"*

"I said stop!" Arthur’s power erupted, shadows lashing out at the entity. But the tendrils passed right through it, striking nothing but air.

*"Anger. Excellent. The emotion feeds the evolution beautifully."* The figure was laughing again. *"Three more outbursts like that, and you’ll drain someone without meaning to. Probably whoever comes to check on you first."*

Horror crept up Arthur’s spine. He could feel the truth in those words, could sense how his power had spiked with his anger, reaching hungrily toward any System it could sense.

"What do you really want?"

*"Partnership. You handle the visible threats—the kingdoms, the gods, the obvious enemies. I handle the shadows, the subtle manipulation, the long-term planning."* The entity’s smile was patient, ancient. *"Together, we reshape this world. Make it better. Make it ours."*

"And if I refuse?"

*"Then in two months, you become Marcus. A mindless devourer that consumes everything it touches until the transmigrators band together to destroy you."* The figure began to fade. *"I’ll leave you to consider. But Arthur... time is running out. The hunger grows stronger with every hour."*

The shadows snapped back to normal, leaving Arthur alone in the tent. But he could still feel the entity’s presence at the edge of his consciousness, waiting patiently in the void between dimensions.

His hands were shaking again. Not from fear—from hunger. Even now, he could sense Urzara approaching the tent, could feel her System’s energy calling to his like a feast laid out before a starving man.

*Three days to the restoration. But how many hours until he slipped and drained someone he loved?*

Arthur clenched his fists, forcing the hunger down. Outside the tent, he heard Urzara’s heavy footsteps pause, as if she’d sensed something wrong.

"Arthur?" Her voice carried concern. "Your bond feels... strange."

He closed his eyes, fighting every instinct that screamed at him to feed. "Stay back, Urzara. Please. Just... stay back."

Because if she came in now, if she got too close while his control was this fragile, Arthur wasn’t sure he could stop himself from taking everything she was and making it his own.

And in the void between realities, something that remembered being human smiled and began counting down the hours until patience was finally rewarded.

"Arthur?" Her voice carried concern. "Your bond feels... strange."

He closed his eyes, fighting every instinct that screamed at him to feed. "Stay back, Urzara. Please. Just... stay back."

Because if she came in now, if she got too close while his control was this fragile, Arthur wasn’t sure he could stop himself from taking everything she was and making it his own.