[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 231 – Branded

Sam gritted his teeth and let out a low growl in the back of his throat, but otherwise didn’t make a sound. The pain vanished a moment later, as if it had never happened. He felt tempted to check if his wrist was burned or not.

“Now, we can proceed to the nexus,” Zarishna said, as if she hadn’t just afflicted him with magical scarring.

“A warning would’ve been nice,” Sam said with a grunt.

Komachi yowled threateningly at the Empress.

She looked over curiously. “What’s wrong?”

Claws out, Komachi swatted aggressively at the space between them.

“That’s…not explaining much.”

“She’s angry at you,” Sam told her, shaking his wrist out. “For hurting me.”

The Empress looked upon him with true confusion. “Are you permanently wounded?”

“I don’t think so.” Sam moved his wrist around. It seemed to have full range of motion, and it didn’t hurt at all.

“Is your capacity to operate at all impaired?”

Sam shrugged. He had no idea how to respond to that.

“You’re fine, then.” She spread her arms. “In my culture, where Beast Magic and Alchemy are constantly pushing the envelope, pain is a familiar companion. Not actively sought out, but merely the nature of doing business, as it were.”

“Sounds lovely,” Sam said dryly.

“It is what we had to do to steal power from our enemies. Something, I suspect, is not entirely unknown to you with that dark magic.”

Sam looked at his hands. “I didn’t take it willingly.”

“But you have it all the same.” She cocked her head to the side. “What you do with it, that is what truly will mark you. Simply possessing the power, no matter how you attained it, is nothing if you allow it to languish.”

Komachi grumbled, displeased.

Despite what the Empress said, she saw fit to smooth things over with another parcel for his cat.

Komachi was not so easily bribed, but she did peek inside the packaging. It was some kind of purple-blue giant berry.

Komachi’s eyes went wide. She always wanted to try sweet things.

She leaned in and sniffed it, then her ears went flat and she put the parcel away with no small amount of disappointment.

“What is it?” Sam asked.

“[Spice Riot Berry],” Komachi said, excitedly for a moment as if she forgot what had disappointed her, and then continued on with significantly less energy. “But I can’t smell it. Probably won’t be able to taste it either.”

He took out the first parcel. The one he intercepted and handed it to Komachi. “Even if you can’t eat it now, we can once we get back home.”

Sam didn’t like the doubtful expression the Empress shot him. “This way,” she said, turning back and leading them through the gloom.

It took a while to arrive at their destination. At least, it felt like that. He couldn’t tell how long had truly passed. In the darkness, it was hard to tell just how much time was passing.

I suppose it might as well be the same moment, Sam thought. If time really doesn’t move here, an hour might as well be a year.

Sam looked around.

Is it my eyes, or is the pool of light around us larger? Sam thought to himself as he was led toward a raised platform edged in gold worked machinery.

“While I cannot return to the Empire, you can. And that is how we might change things.” Zarishna said. “Repeat after me.” She raised a hand to the machinery. “Travel. Nexus Core.” It began to whirr and spin at her command.

The circular surface of the platform, covered in frosted glass, pulsed with the same faint azure hue as the brand had.

Sam watched as the Empress strolled up the slight ramp and onto the glassy surface. A swirl of argent light wrapped her up in a bubble and with a faint whirring sound, she disappeared.

Still staring, the platform eventually went dark when no further commands were issued to it. “We could try going home,” Sam told Komachi. “Or maybe there’s a vault here?”

She looked up hopefully. “Another Dark Vault, ya mean?”

Sam grinned and shook his head. “No, I mean a treasure vault!” He cleared his throat. “Travel. Treasure Vault.”

Nothing happened.

“All right, fair enough. Hmm. Travel. Dark Vault.”

“Maybe those things are locked down for now?” Komachi suggested.

Again, nothing happened.

“Or the brand I’ve got is only good for this nexus core place,” Sam offered.

“Could be. Not sure she covered all her bases. Seems a little out of it,” she said. “I’m already gettin’ a little stir crazy without being able to snack!”

Despite the hospitality shown by the Empress–not that there was much–Sam continued to try for different areas for an unknown amount of time. It felt like only a few seconds, but he was already becoming keenly aware that his own internal clock was going haywire.

Maybe I can use my heartbeat to keep time, he thought to himself. It was the only thing he could think of. Not that it would be very reliable during combat.

“What do you think will happen if we save the Empire?” Komachi asked. Despite their circumstances, she sounded optimistic. Like what they were going through wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary. “That must be what she wants. Who else could do it but you and me?”

“Something good, I hope.”

He supposed, to Komachi, this wasn’t that unusual. Just yet another adventure.

Except without any of his friends. Sam always imagined when he explored somewhere else, he’d be with his group. Like one of those quintessential parties in Dungeons and Dragons, camping by the road, getting ambushed by bandits and picking up contracts in various villages. All that kind of fun stuff.

Still, this was far better than being dead.

Or stuck inside the Maelstrom for eternity.

All things equal, this wasn’t that bad. Perhaps if he thought about it like Komachi seemed to, as just another adventure, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

It’s not like I have any other option, Sam thought as he spoke the command phrase and stepped onto the illuminated platform.

Between one eye-blink and the next, he was in an entirely different room.

Where the previous one felt unending, this one was much smaller and cozier. It felt lived-in. And there was light.

Not much of it. The ceiling was still a shadowy gloom, but he could see all the walls and the strange darkness that pressed on the open air between the thick pillars on the far wall.

The entire room was shaped like a half-circle, with the platform he came in on at the dead center.

Arrayed around the room were several other platforms of similar style, but what truly held his eye was the darkness. Sam stepped off the platform, his metal boots ringing on the worked metal flooring as he came up beside the Empress.

The Empress stood near one of the fat pillars of streaked white stone as if she could see into the lightless murk. “Somewhere out there is my home,” she said casually. “I can’t even remember which direction it is anymore.” The Empress turned to him, her face a stony shell but her eyes sparkling. “Isn’t that funny? The things you forget. No matter how important or life-changing, they all fade away eventually.”

She chuckled darkly. “Turns out, you don’t need the slow march of time to make faces and voices fade. You don’t need time at all.”

Sam’s first instinct probably should have been to comfort the Empress. Alone and without hope for who knows how long.

Most people would crack under that. He probably would, eventually.

Instead, he was struck with bone deep fear. That the very same thing would happen to him. That he would forget Raiko, Kale, and everyone and everything he cared for.

Would Sil’mara just be a faded memory, too?

It was the first time he felt truly threatened by this place. This Dead Echo.

It could take everything away from him.

At least I have Komachi.

It was a small consolation. Not that he would ever tell Komachi that. He loved his cat dearly. She was more like a daughter sometimes than an ally or companion, but there was more to life than that.

There were people on Sil’mara who counted on him. The dullahans, so recently repaired, were now without him. Would they care?

Worse, would the others care that he was gone?

Sam didn’t know which would be worse. If they didn’t care and went on as usual, at least he felt they might actually survive. And if they stayed? How much worse would it be for his friends to be so distraught they spent too long looking for his body, only to wind up dead by some other threat?

Would Raiko find someone else? The thought of that tore him up inside. More than he ever expected.

He wanted more time. No, he needed it. He wasn’t dead yet.

“Tell me how I can save your Empire,” Sam told her with burning conviction.