“…not good.”

  Azrael gained consciousness, with the God of Mischief’s last words still fresh in his mind. He felt something digging into his back and tried to grab it without opening his eyes. His hands found it. It was a stick. Why was there a stick in his bed?

  His eyes opened. He didn’t have any plants in his room either. So, why were there leaves above him? Actually, what had happened to his roof? Beyond the leafy canopy above him, there was only blue sky.

  Azrael sat up and looked around. Where was his bed? Why was he on a forest floor? Which forest was he in anyways? Unlike the trees that surrounded the lake these were easily four or five times the size, stretching between 50 or 100 meters in height.

  Before he could start getting his bearings, far too many blue boxes flashed into his vision in rapid succession.

  Absolutely overwhelmed, Azrael opened his [Status] in the hopes of getting a clearer view on what he’d just read through. It was all too much to process.

  Even after looking at his entire [Status] he couldn’t quite comprehend anything. The meeting with the Void primordial and the God of Mischief were still too prominent in his mind for him to try and think of anything else.

  Slowly he began sorting through the notifications. The first notification seemed to say it all; ‘Void Touched’. He could feel it. After being torn apart and put back together by the void, he had gained a finer sense for anything that had to do with him. This included such changes.

  The touch of the void seemed to slightly infuse his very being, as if it had stuck to him when he’d been torn apart. It had changed him, becoming a part of him.

  He looked at his [Status] – Race: Human (97%). He hadn’t really paid much attention to this bar and the change scared him a little. He was sure that those missing 3% had either been taken, or changed by the void.

  He looked down at his body. He was still human, at least mostly, according to the status. He wondered if the change was a onetime thing, or if the percentage would continue to change.

  Cautiously dropping into [Meditation] he gave his body a quick once over. He wasn’t sure that he liked what he found.

  The feeling of the void was strongest in the core of his soul, in his divine spark, where he could feel a direct connection to the void. It wasn’t connected to The Primordial of the Void, but the void space he’d been in. He just hoped some ancient eldritch horror didn’t use the connection to enter the world.

  In a way the connection seemed much like Sophie’s connection to Purity, where she drew upon her goddess’s power to influence the world.

  Azrael knew that if he tried, he could draw upon the paradoxical powers of the void through [Void Shaping]. He didn’t though. The memories of the void were too fresh in his mind for him to try and summon it through his soul. The possible risks seemed equally dangerous. Afterall, it had changed his skills and his very being.

  Despite being able to draw on this connection to the void he hadn’t gained a related class, like Sophie’s [Advocate of Purity], or even a title like he had from the ‘Trickster’s Blessing’. It seemed that there was something he wasn’t understanding;

  Would he have to find ‘that place’ in order to accept the Void’s offer, or was it tied up to something else. Did primordials even need champions? He could understand a god needing one, to fulfill their agendas, but what about primordials?

  What would the Void Primordial require from him? Afterall, it was the personification of all possibilities – the potential of everything.

  Leaving the mystery, he turned his mind to one of his skills which had evolved in the void. [Mana sense] had evolved to [Mana Sight].

  While being torn apart by the torrents of the void he had seen and passed through countless streams of mana, gaining an intrinsic understanding of how mana interacted with the physical realms and itself.

  He had realised there was no ‘one’ mana, but many types of mana which were ever changing and formed a complex spectrum. His four mana types, [Fire], [Earth], [Water] and [Air] were only a few of many.

  Curious about the change in one of his oldest skills he was about to activate it when he felt something small impact him in the neck from behind.

  Reaching his hand back, Azrael pulled out a dart. He looked at it confused. There had been no pain when he pulled it out. No, that wasn’t the problem. Where had it…

  Azrael frowned as an unfamiliar notification popped up.

  It was followed shortly after by a second notification, but Azrael never saw it.