When Arjun opened his eyes, he found himself engulfed in a deep, endless darkness — a void with no visible end, no sense of direction. He stared into the abyss, confusion flickering across his face as he murmured to himself, "Where am I? And how did I get here?"
Turning around, he tried to make sense of his surroundings, but there was nothing — just the oppressive blackness stretching infinitely in every direction. His mind raced, unable to comprehend how he had ended up in this place. Panic setting in, he chose a random direction and began running — fast, desperate, wild.
He ran for what felt like hours. But the more he ran, the more familiar everything began to feel. A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him.
"Why does this place feel so familiar?" he whispered. "As if... I've been here before."
He glanced around again, trying to force a memory to the surface. Something about this emptiness stirred a haunting recognition within him, but he couldn't quite grasp it.
Then suddenly, a strange but unmistakable sensation rippled through his body — something he had felt once before. It was as if the darkness itself was slowly consuming him, inch by inch, drawing him in like a living entity.
And then it hit him.
"This feeling... it's exactly like what I felt during the Void Trial," he said, eyes widening. "But that's impossible. My path to the powers was completely destroyed. How can I be here again?"
His heart pounded. He didn't understand what was happening to him — or why. But there was no time to reflect. The darkness was creeping faster, crawling over his skin, swallowing him whole.
And then… a strange light flickered in the back of his mind.
A glow.
Ancient.
Primal.
He closed his eyes and focused, peering deep into his consciousness. There it was — a radiant spark glowing within the shadows of his mind, pulsing with a power unlike anything he had ever known. It was old... impossibly old. The same ancient energy he had sensed before entering this realm.
Driven by instinct, Arjun reached for it.
The moment his mind brushed the light, a violent jolt surged through him — like lightning ripping through his soul. He gasped and staggered, thrown back out of his inner world and back into the suffocating blackness around him.
He stood there, dazed and breathless, struggling to steady himself.
"What's happening to me?" he whispered. But there was no time for answers.
The darkness — it was accelerating now, closing in faster, consuming him.
Arjun's eyes widened in horror.
"This darkness… If it keeps devouring me like this, I'll end up worse than I did last time." His voice trembled. "I have to escape it. No matter what… I can't let it destroy me again!"
Arjun moved forward with urgency, each step heavier than the last. But with every stride he took, the darkness seemed to consume him faster — swallowing him whole. Panic surged through him, his breath quickening as a cold realization settled over his heart.
"This darkness... it's trying to erase me completely!" he gasped. "If this keeps up, I'll fail the Void Trial again — just like last time! No… I can't let that happen. Not when fate has given me one more chance. I can't afford to fail now. No matter what it takes, I must survive this trial!"
Driven by desperation, Arjun looked around frantically, searching for a way out of the suffocating void. But no answer came. Nothing made sense. So, defeated yet determined, he dropped to the ground and sat cross-legged, closing his eyes in silent meditation.
And yet, even as he tried to calm his mind, he could feel the darkness continuing to gnaw at his very being — stripping him away piece by piece. But this time, Arjun did not run. He stayed still. Focused. Determined to understand the void.
To become the Void, a warrior had to first comprehend it. That was where he had gone wrong last time. In his fear, he had panicked, run in every direction, searching for light… and in doing so, he was swallowed whole — not just failing the trial, but sustaining grave injuries that nearly ended his journey.
Now, sitting in silence, Arjun whispered to himself, "Void… means nothingness. It means annihilation — complete erasure. Does becoming the Void mean I must be completely destroyed myself?"
He trembled as memories of his last failure resurfaced. "But the last time I was erased by the void, I failed! So what… what does it truly mean to become the Void?"
He kept probing the idea, his mind diving deeper and deeper into the abstract concept. All the while, the darkness continued to devour his body. A searing pain shot through every nerve, so intense that it felt like his very soul was being torn apart.
"Aaaahhhhhh!" he screamed, the agony unbearable.
His cries echoed through the dark emptiness — sharp, heart-wrenching, filled with torment. His body began to dissolve, melting into the void. He writhed in pain, his voice growing hoarser… until, suddenly, his screams stopped.
But not because the pain had ended — no. The darkness had reached his throat. It had burned away even his ability to cry.
Arjun felt despair creeping in, the same crushing helplessness that had destroyed him before. He was failing again.
But just as the void prepared to consume the last of him — a faint flicker stirred within his mind.
A forgotten light. Ancient, warm, and steady.
And with it, a sudden clarity bloomed.
"To become Zero, one must first erase themselves. And only in complete erasure… can true power be born."
"What if the path to becoming the Void… is through surrendering to it?" he thought. "What if only by dissolving completely into the void can I truly become it?"
As he spoke the words within himself, a strange brilliance sparked in his eyes — not light, but understanding. Revelation.
And with that, Arjun did the unthinkable. He let go.
He surrendered his fear. His struggle. His very sense of self.
And embraced the darkness — not as an enemy, but as a part of him.
He became the Void.
The moment he stepped forward, the darkness engulfed Arjun completely. But this time, unlike before, he didn't fail the trial. Though the void had swallowed his body whole, Arjun could still see—not just see, but feel something extraordinary awaken within him. A sensation unlike anything he had ever known surged through his being.
A smile crept across his face.
"These powers...!" he whispered, breathless. "They're Zero Powers! That means... I've succeeded in becoming the Zero. And the meaning of Zero—it's destruction. Absolute nothingness!"
His heart swelled with a strange euphoria. But that elation was short-lived. Within moments, a grim realization struck him—he had no physical form left. No body. No soul.
"If I truly became Zero," he murmured to himself, "then why am I still here? I should've returned to my body by now. This can only mean one thing—I haven't fully understood what Zero truly is."
With that, Arjun began observing his surroundings once again. He had no idea how he was able to see in this void, but this time the space around him felt clearer, more comprehensible. The darkness wasn't just a shapeless shadow—it was a force of annihilation, devouring everything in its path. But then, he saw something unexpected.
Amidst the consuming blackness... something was being born.
Arjun's eyes widened. "So... the meaning of Zero is the silence before creation. It's the stillness that exists before anything begins. That's what Zero truly is."
The instant he uttered those words, the darkness vanished without a trace. When Arjun opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in the middle of a blinding white light. He could feel the presence of the Zero Powers flowing around him—calm, yet unimaginably potent.
Before him now were two distinct worlds.
One was a world engulfed in absolute darkness—devouring, erasing, ending.
The other... was a world where creation was being born from that darkness.
Staring at them both, Arjun spoke softly, as if uncovering a forgotten truth:
"If a warrior is to truly become the Zero, he must first destroy himself… and then recreate his body and soul. The space between destruction and creation—that hollow silence—is what we call Zero."
As this truth dawned on him, the surrounding light intensified, and from within that brilliance, Arjun's rebirth began.
First came his soul—pure, untainted, remade.
Then followed his body—stronger, far more powerful than before.
Arjun had now fully embraced the meaning of Zero. But something else had changed.
The ancient light that once radiated from his body was now gone. In its place, a new kind of power surged outward—foreign, raw, and immeasurable.
A few feet away, the old sage watched in stunned disbelief. "Zero Powers…?" he whispered. "Was this boy undergoing the Zero Trial? But… how? His entire power source had been destroyed!"
Even as the elder spoke, the Zero Powers erupted again from Arjun's core. A multicolored light shimmered from his chest, slowly forming into a swirling energy ring.
The old man's eyes widened in awe.
"His power source… He's created a new one! But how is that even possible?!"
No answer came. Only more brilliance.
The radiant energy expanded from Arjun's chest, flowing into every corner of his body, reigniting what had been broken. The destroyed channels within him—once the veins of his strength—began to rebuild themselves under the touch of that rainbow light.
As the energy completed its task, mending wounds and reweaving his power pathways, it gradually faded, retreating inward until it fully merged with his body once more.
Arjun, reborn in the silence between destruction and creation, had become the embodiment of Zero.
The moment the seven-colored light vanished, a thunderous explosion shook the air. From Arjun's body erupted a torrent of energy — not ordinary energy, but pure, refined Void Power, radiating with an intensity that made the very atmosphere tremble.
The old man, who had been watching in silence, widened his eyes in shock. He could feel the energy wrapping around him, ancient and untainted.
"So much pure Void Energy!" he gasped, staring at Arjun in disbelief. "I've never sensed this level of purity from anyone before… not in my entire lifetime."
Before he could gather his thoughts, Arjun slowly opened his eyes.
And in an instant — as if summoned by his will — the raging storm of Void Energy vanished without a trace, absorbed back into his body like it had never existed.
A quiet smile formed on Arjun's lips as tears welled in his eyes.
"At last," he whispered, voice trembling with emotion.
"I've done it… I've finally become the Void."
He let the tears fall freely, unashamed. He, who had spent an entire lifetime powerless in a world ruled by strength, knew better than anyone what it meant to live without power… and what it meant to finally rise above it.