Heart racing, senses high, they were extra vigilant. The place they had just entered was dark, only a little light made its way through very dim windows.
There were a lot of military cars around, the place was wide and pillars made a line from start to end on both sides of the large hall, their shadows stretching across the cracked floor like black bars.
They saw a door at the other side of the place and they all went towards it. Belle hesitated for a while before pushing the door open, their eyes all opened wide seeing what was inside.
The long path was a hallway, but it was covered in thick vines creeping all over the walls, some coiling tightly like snakes, others dangling from the ceiling.
The rooms along the hallway were swallowed too, doors and windows buried beneath twisted layers of vines.
The vines were black with glowing purple lines running across them like veins. They could feel a faint pulse of energy flowing through, almost pulling them closer against their will.
They walked slowly, stepping carefully to avoid the vines spread across the ground, all of them moving toward the place where the energy felt strongest, where all the vines seemed to lead.
The toxic air stung their throats and noses, forcing them to cover their faces as they approached another entrance.
They stepped in and saw Sofia lying on a metal stool. Most of the vines were connected to it, stretching and pulsing as if feeding on her.
Her markings glowed faintly, and her body didn't rest on the stool, she was hovering slightly above it. Purple streams of light coiled around her, linking her body back to the vines, as if her very energy was being pulled out of her.
Belle's eyes widened the moment she saw her, and she ran forward without thinking, ready to hold Sofia, but John grabbed her arm.
"Belle, wait."
His voice cut sharp, urgent.
"The vines… they're doing something to her. Whoever that man was,he was after Sofia. We need to find his body. This looks like some kind of transfer."
"He's taking her energy?" Belle asked, half in shock.
"I'm certain."
They all froze. They knew they had stepped into the void's territory. John could read what was happening, the vines were connected to Sofia, feeding her energy into the void's real body. They had to find it, and fast. But none of them knew that half his consciousness was already inside Sofia.
Sofia's eyes snapped open. She turned her gaze on Belle. Belle's heart leapt at first, joy rushing through her, a smile breaking across her face.
"Sofia, are you alr...."
Her voice cut short as Sofia's hand shot to her throat, gripping it tight. Belle was lifted clean off the ground, choking. John and Dorothy froze in shock, staring as Belle dangled helplessly in the air. John's chest locked, panic hitting him, his hands shaking without knowing what to do.
"Oh shit! Dorothy, you got any weird thing to do?"
John blurted, his voice breaking as he tried to hold his fear together, eyes darting between Belle and Dorothy.
They all knew she wasn't herself, not fully but harming her wasn't an option. Belle's face reddened, her hands clawing at Sofia's grip, fighting for breath, but she couldn't break free.
Dorothy's eyes suddenly glowed bright green. With her vision she saw beyond the vines, she saw where they ran, twisting through the walls until her sight locked on him. The void. Lying half-conscious but awake enough to feed.
"Found him."
She raised her hand. Three glowing rings spun into place, and a green circle covered in runes lit up before her palm. A burst of raw energy exploded forward, tearing through wall after wall until it hit him directly.
Sofia instantly dropped Belle, clutching her chest before falling to the ground herself. Belle collapsed, coughing hard, gasping for air, while John dropped to his knees beside her, trying to steady her breathing.
From the distance, the void rose, its gaze locked on Dorothy. Before she could cast again, it was already in front of her. His dark presence drowned her senses.
She hadn't noticed his hand until it was already beneath her chin. Then an explosive punch. Dorothy was hurled upward, her body bursting through layers of ceiling until she broke out into the open sky.
Belle's fear burned away her pain. She dug her feet into the ground and launched herself at him, forming an ice dagger in her hand.
She aimed for his chest, but he caught her arm with ease. The ice melted instantly under his grip, and then he bent her hand back slowly, mercilessly. Belle's scream filled the hall.
John fumbled at his waist, yanking a device from his bag. It was small, metallic, shaped like a wristwatch but heavier, built with rotating pieces along the edges.
He strapped it onto his arm and twisted it, instantly the metal shifted, reshaping, lengthening into a compact laser gun brimming with energy.
"Been waiting to use this," he muttered, more to himself than anyone.
He fired. A brilliant beam tore forward, searing the air, but the void raised a hand and a dense wall of force appeared, bending the blast away. The redirected beam pierced the ground, drilling deep until it struck something buried.
Underground, an entire chamber full of ammunition waited. Bombs, missiles, and crates of bullets.
The beam hit, and a moment later the earth itself roared. A monstrous explosion erupted sky-high, flames and smoke climbing into the clouds.
A shockwave ripped outward, flattening mountains and melting stone as if they were wax.
Miles away, Deborah saw the blast rising in the sky. Her eyes went wide as the sound and pressure rushed at her. She slammed her hands forward and summoned a massive frost shield, thick as walls of ice.
The shockwave hit, shaking her footing but the shield held. She didn't wait, she carved a slide of ice beneath her and began surfing toward the explosion site at breakneck speed.
In Galaxia, the sector unit blared with alarms. Red lights flashed across the command center as operators scrambled at their stations, their screens filled with readings.
The satellite cameras locked onto the explosion site, and it wasn't just the fireball that had triggered the alarms.
"We're having visuals! Tell the strike units to prepare for deployment!" one operator shouted. Fingers flew over consoles, rerouting feeds to strengthen the view.
"Wait… Deborah's in the area. She'll call for backup herself," Terry said as he entered, staring up at the massive plume of fire still climbing in the visuals. The black and yellow haze swirling in the blast made his stomach tighten.
Then the video feed began to distort, static tearing across the screen until it cut out completely.
"Oh no. Cosmic interference. There's something inside that explosion," another operator said.
The words froze the room. They all knew what it meant. For cosmic energy strong enough to disrupt satellite visuals, the scale had to be enormous.
A tech pressed across a holographic scanner, reading the energy pouring from the site. Numbers began to form.
[20,000 meganuwits].
The operator's eyes widened, her voice breaking. "Impossible…"
The room fell silent. They had seen cosmic spikes before, five, maybe ten thousand at the worst. But twenty? That was unheard of. Terry's jaw locked as he stared at the readings.
"Run recognition. Now!" he shouted.
Screens lit up as everyone scrambled through archived data, matching energy signatures from the database. Seconds ticked away, tension mounting, until one operator at the far end froze. His face went pale.
"Match found, sir…" his voice trembled. He turned slowly to Terry.
"It's the void."