The silence in the Whisperwind Woods, post-Shadow Hound decimation, was a living entity. It pressed against us, thick with unspoken questions and the lingering ozone tang of… well, whatever it was I'd done. Elara was still on her knees, looking like she'd witnessed the birth and death of a star in rapid succession, which, metaphorically speaking, wasn't entirely inaccurate. Seris, on the other hand, was a coiled spring of suspicion and dawning, terrified comprehension. Her silver eyes hadn't left me, not for a second.
"So," I began, aiming for casual but probably landing somewhere near 'cosmic entity trying to impersonate a nonchalant teenager'. "Goblins. Right?"
Elara flinched. "G-goblins? Are you… are you sure you're an E-Ranker, Rael? Because I've seen S-Rank Archmages struggle with one Void-touched creature, and you just… poof!" She made a vague, explosive gesture with her hands, nearly toppling over.
"Beginner's luck?" I offered, knowing full well it was a ludicrous statement. The universe rarely operated on luck, at least not where I was concerned. I was the operating system.
Seris finally spoke, her voice tight, controlled, yet threaded with an undeniable tremor. "Luck doesn't unravel reality, Rael. It doesn't silence the Void. What you did…" She shook her head, searching for words that simply didn't exist in her mortal vocabulary. "That was anathema to its very nature."
Insightful. She was grasping at the edges of a truth far vaster than this world. "The Void, in its corrupted state, is an imbalance. Sometimes, a gentle nudge is all it takes to restore a semblance of order." A 'gentle nudge' from me was, of course, akin to a supernova correcting a flickering candle.
"A gentle nudge that vaporized an Alpha Shadow Hound," Seris muttered, then seemed to collect herself. The pragmatic warrior resurfaced, albeit shaken. "Alright. Goblins. You still intend to proceed with this… farce of a quest?"
"The guildmaster expects a report," I said mildly. "And as Elara pointed out, there's a bonus involved. Wouldn't want to disappoint." My reasons, of course, went far beyond a few paltry gold coins. The Void taint I'd sensed from the hounds wasn't an isolated incident. It had a source, a focal point, and the goblin nest was suspiciously close to its epicenter. Annoyances needed to be pruned.
Elara scrambled to her feet, still looking at me with wide, cautious eyes, but a spark of her usual effervescence was returning, now tinged with something akin to hero-worship. "Well, if Rael's going, then… then it should be super easy, right? Maybe he can just… point at the goblins and they'll all turn into… into cute fluffy bunnies!"
I chuckled. "I doubt the local ecosystem would appreciate a sudden influx of Void-mutated rabbits, Elara. Let's stick to conventional methods for now. You two are the B-Rank professionals, after all. I'm just here to observe." And, if necessary, prevent this planet from becoming a minor footnote in the annals of Void-consumed realities.
Seris snorted, though there was less bite in it now. More… resignation. "Observe. Right. Try not to 'observe' too hard, Rael. My nerves can't take much more."
The path to the supposed goblin nest wound deeper into the woods, the trees growing gnarled and ancient, their branches like skeletal fingers clawing at the sky. The air grew colder, and the subtle dissonance in reality intensified. This wasn't just a few goblins who'd stumbled upon a cursed artifact. This was… intentional. A deliberate pocket of corruption.
"Smell that?" Seris murmured, her hand instinctively going to her rapier. "That's goblin alright. And something else… something rotten."
Elara wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Definitely worse than usual goblin stink. It's like… despair and old socks."
Apt. Despair was a favored seasoning for Void entities.
As we rounded a moss-covered boulder, we saw them. A cluster of goblins, easily two dozen, milling around the entrance to a dark cave. But these weren't the scrawny, cowardly creatures of typical adventurer tales. They were larger, their skin a sickly, bruised purple instead of green, their eyes glowing with the same malevolent red light as the Shadow Hounds. Some wielded crude, jagged weapons that pulsed with faint, dark energy.
"Void-touched," Seris breathed, her stance immediately shifting into combat readiness. "The entire nest. This is… this is bad. This is beyond a simple subjugation."
"Looks like the 'unusual activity' Garon mentioned was a slight understatement," I observed dryly.
Elara, despite her earlier fear, gripped her staff, her knuckles white. "Okay, okay, B-Rank party, we can do this! Seris, standard pincer? I'll provide covering fire and buffs!"
"Rael," Seris ordered, her voice sharp, "stay back. This is leagues above your pay grade. If things get too hairy, run. Don't try to be a hero. We'll handle this."
I gave a noncommittal nod. It was amusing, her earnest attempt to protect me. Like a dust mote trying to shield a star from a solar wind.
Seris was a blur of silver and crimson as she engaged the first wave. Her rapier flickered, each thrust precise, aimed at vital points. She was fast, agile, a true sword master in the making. Elara, meanwhile, chanted, her voice surprisingly steady.
"Fortifying Aura! Haste! Arcane Javelin!"
A golden light enveloped Seris, and her movements quickened noticeably. Spears of pure mana, larger and more potent than her earlier bolts, slammed into the mutated goblins, sending them sprawling.
They were good. Very good, for their level of development. They took down half a dozen of the creatures in the first few moments, a testament to their training and synergy.
But the Void-touched goblins were relentless. They shrugged off wounds that would have crippled normal ones, their red eyes burning with mindless fury. And there were more emerging from the cave.
One particularly large goblin, wielding a crude axe dripping with dark ooze, roared and charged Elara, who was focused on supporting Seris.
"Elara, left flank!" Seris cried, parrying a blow that would have caved in her chest.
Elara yelped, spinning just as the axe swung. She threw up a desperate mana shield, but the corrupted weapon slammed into it with unnatural force, shattering the barrier and sending her stumbling back, her staff flying from her grasp.
The goblin loomed over her, raising its axe for a killing blow.
Seris screamed Elara's name, trying to disengage, but she was pinned by three other goblins.
This was the point where I was supposed to step in, I mused. The script of countless heroic tales demanded it.
I sighed internally. So much for observation.
I didn't move with overt, reality-bending speed. To Seris and Elara, it would have looked like I simply took a very quick step forward. But in that step, I'd covered the twenty feet separating me from the goblin threatening Elara.
My hand shot out, not to strike, but to simply… intercept.
My fingers closed around the haft of the descending axe, inches from Elara's wide, terrified eyes.
The goblin, fueled by corrupted strength and mindless rage, strained, muscles bulging. The axe, however, didn't move. It was as if it had struck an immovable object, something that defied the very laws of force and motion this world adhered to.
I looked at the goblin. Its red eyes, for the first time, flickered with something other than rage. Confusion. Perhaps even a dawning, primal fear.
"Naughty," I said, my voice calm.
Then, with a casual twist of my wrist, I snapped the thick, iron-banded wooden haft of the axe as if it were a dry twig. The sound was sharp, final. The axe-head clattered uselessly to the ground.
The goblin stared at the broken weapon in its grasp, then at me. Its rudimentary brain seemed to be short-circuiting.
I gave the creature a gentle push. Not with physical force, but with a mere whisper of intent. The goblin stumbled backwards, then tripped, then simply… kept tumbling, as if the ground beneath it had suddenly become a frictionless slide leading away from us. It vanished into the gloom of the deeper woods, its bewildered howls fading.
Elara stared up at me, her breath catching in her throat. Her amethyst eyes were vast pools of disbelief.
"You… you just… snapped its axe? With your… hand?" she stammered.
"It was poorly made," I replied, flexing my fingers. "Inferior craftsmanship. Really, if you're going to corrupt a species, at least ensure their weaponry is up to par."
Seris, having dispatched her opponents with a series of vicious, precise thrusts, was now staring at me, her rapier held loosely at her side. The earlier shock was back, tenfold. "Rael…"
"Problem seems to be escalating," I noted, gesturing towards the cave mouth, from which an even deeper, more guttural roar echoed. More goblins were emerging, but these were… different. Larger still, armored in crude, black chitin, their eyes burning with a more focused, intelligent malice. And behind them, I could sense it – the true source of the local taint.
"That's… that's a Goblin Mauler!" Elara whispered, scrambling to retrieve her staff. "And those are… Hobgoblin Void-Shamans! But… how? This is supposed to be an E-Rank zone!"
"Clearly, someone didn't get the memo," I said. "Seris, Elara. Perhaps it's time for a tactical re-evaluation?"
Seris gritted her teeth. "We can't let them reach the village. Rael… whatever you are… can you… can you do that again?"
I tilted my head. "Do what, specifically? The finger-pointing? The weapon dismantling? I have a fairly versatile skillset."
A low chuckle, laced with something cold and ancient, rumbled from the cave entrance. A figure emerged, taller than the Maulers, its form cloaked in tattered black robes. It carried a gnarled staff topped with a pulsating, black crystal – a shard of solidified Void. Its face was hidden in shadow, but two pinpricks of intensely malevolent purple light gleamed from within the hood.
"Insolent mortals," the voice hissed, grating and unnatural, like stones grinding together. "You trespass upon the sacred grounds of the Awakening. Your insignificant lives will fuel its glorious dawn!"
Elara gasped. "A Void Herald! A true Void Herald! Here?!"
Seris's knuckles were white on her rapier's hilt. "This… this is a B-Rank extermination mission now. Minimum. We need to retreat, report this immediately!"
The Void Herald raised its staff. "Retreat? There is no retreat from the embrace of the inevitable." Dark energy coalesced around the crystal, crackling with malevolent power.
"Ah, a monologue," I said, a faint smile playing on my lips. "They always love a monologue. Terribly inefficient, if you ask me. Wastes so much time that could be spent on, say, proactive annihilation."
The Herald faltered, its purple eyes focusing on me. It seemed to assess me, a flicker of surprise, then anger, crossing its shadowy features. "You… you reek of… of the Opposition! An anomaly! You will be purged first!"
A beam of concentrated dark energy, thick as a tree trunk, erupted from its staff, screaming towards me. It was potent enough to vaporize a small building, to say nothing of a seemingly unarmored young man.
Seris cried out a warning. Elara squeezed her eyes shut.
I simply raised my hand, palm open.
The beam of pure destructive Void energy struck my palm and… stopped. It didn't explode. It didn't deflect. It just… ended. Like a river encountering an infinitely absorbent sponge. The roaring energy dissipated into nothingness, leaving behind only the smell of burnt ozone and the Herald's stunned silence.
"My turn," I said pleasantly.
I didn't move. I didn't chant. I simply… looked at the Void Herald.
But this was not the casual glance of a commoner. This was the focused gaze of the Creator. In that instant, I allowed a sliver, a mere photon's worth, of my true perception to channel through my eyes. I saw the Herald not as a robed figure, but as a tangled knot of corrupted energy, a parasitic blight on the fabric of reality. I saw its origins, its stolen power, its pathetic aspirations.
And with that look, I unmade its stolen power. I didn't destroy the Herald. That would be too… messy. I simply… edited its connection to the Void. Severed the unholy tether.
The pulsating black crystal on its staff sputtered, flickered, and died, turning into a dull, ordinary piece of rock. The purple light in the Herald's eyes winked out, replaced by a look of utter, soul-shattering terror and confusion. The dark aura surrounding it vanished like mist in the morning sun.
"My… my power…" it stammered, its voice now weak, reedy, and unmistakably goblinoid. "It's… gone? What… what ARE you?!"
The Maulers and Shamans around it, sensing the abrupt power vacuum, began to falter, their aggressive postures deflating into confusion. The red glow in their eyes flickered uncertainly.
"Just a traveler," I repeated, my voice echoing with an ancient, almost chilling calm that resonated deep within the very stones of the cave. "And you, little echo, were an impediment."
I made a small, dismissive gesture. "Be gone."
It wasn't a spell. It wasn't a command backed by mana. It was a simple statement of intent from a being whose intent shaped realities.
The former Void Herald, now just a terrified, unusually tall goblin in a fancy robe, shrieked. Not in pain, but in sheer, existential dread. It turned and fled, scrambling back into the depths of the cave, its Maulers and Shamans following in a disorganized, panicked rout.
The clearing fell silent again, save for Elara's ragged breathing and the faint tremor in Seris's hand as she slowly lowered her rapier.
"Okay," Elara said, her voice barely a whisper, after a long, charged moment. She looked from me to the empty cave entrance and back again. "I am definitely not dreaming. And you, Rael, are definitely not an E-Ranker. Or an S-Ranker. Or… or anything that fits on the Guild's ranking chart."
Seris just stared at me, her silver eyes wide, luminous in the dim forest light. The fear was still there, but it was now overshadowed by a profound, galaxy-sized awe. And something else… a desperate, burning hunger for understanding.
"The bonus," I said, breaking the spell, my tone returning to its carefully constructed neutrality. "We should probably make sure the nest is actually clear before we claim it. Don't want any stragglers."
I started walking towards the cave, leaving two utterly flabbergasted B-Rank adventurers in my wake. This 'vacation' was certainly keeping me on my toes. And the Void's little tendrils in this world? They were becoming less of an annoyance and more of a… personal project. A very, very minor one, of course. But a project nonetheless.