Over the years, Resker played his role as the alliance family deputy leader of the Ranjit clan. A title meant for politics, but he used it like a leak in a vault—slowly draining resources, both from the Ranjits and their other puppet families. Nothing aggressive. Just careful enough to stay under the radar, and just greedy enough to make it worthwhile.
⸻
Ten Years Later
In the blink of an eye, a decade passed.
"It's already been ten years," Resker muttered, seated across from Anna. "Since we allied with the Ranjits. The Rame family's grown stronger, richer, more… dangerous. But we're burning through resources faster than we can restock. And Void—he's almost there."
Void, the not-so-little child anymore, had recently reached expert-tier Life Knight. No one said it out loud, but everyone felt it: something ancient coiled beneath his skin, just waiting.
To say Void's talent was discovered would be misleading. It was caught—the way you catch someone secretly using royal treasury funds to train like a demigod. The resources he used were… not subtle.
Resker had kept the secret tight. Why? Because Void wasn't a genius. He was a ticking apocalypse with potential that made kings nervous.
If the royal family found out? They'd try to erase him from the story—permanently. Best case, they'd force him into servitude. Worst case? A blood-soaked wipeout of the Rame family, just to own him mind, body, and soul.
There were rumors of that, after all. Families who captured gifted children—some through arranged marriages, others through less romantic means. But Resker wasn't letting that happen.
Void, for his part, kept it cool. Mostly.
He didn't need life-and-death battles like other knights. His path was… different. He trained with Resker and Lucius occasionally—just to keep up appearances. But in truth, if he had the right resources, he could've gone from Apprentice to Legendary Knight in one afternoon and still had time for a nap.
Instead, he took it slow. He knew what would happen if he broke through too fast—his dad would freak out, the kingdom would implode, and someone would probably try to stick him in a dungeon with runes and regret. So he played the role of the prodigy. Just… not the god-tier destroyer that he really was.
The only reason he trained at all was to prepare his mortal body for the baptism of principles. His ancient grey dragon bloodline was dormant—for now. But he needed to temper himself to survive the eventual conversion.
Void didn't just want to break limits.
He wanted to consume them.
⸻
What no one knew—what Void barely remembered—was what had happened years ago, on his naming day.
That was the day his consciousness had been dragged into his Void Territory, triggering a ripple that shook both the god and inferno planes. Not enough to spark war, but enough to make the higher realms glance nervously at the mortal plane, like someone had just turned on a forbidden machine.
Void decided to take things slow. He needed time—time for his clones, scattered across realms, to finish comprehending all the laws.
But peace? No. That was too much to ask.
⸻
The Rame family began gathering its forces.
They were preparing for war.
Resker and Lucius, now both True Knights, had grown strong enough to fight toe-to-toe with Frista himself—if they fought together. Other Rame elites were primed and ready to counter the remaining Ranjit forces.
But Frista, cunning rat that he was, didn't wait for the battlefield.
He sent a knight to kidnap Void and Anna.
And it worked.
They were taken—under Resker's nose. Literally. He was one courtyard away when it happened.
Void was gassed, knocked out cold, and dragged off. The gas could suppress even a Life Knight, and Void had been caught off guard.
He woke up hours later, bound, disoriented, and alone in an underground chamber.
⸻
"Ugh… where am I?" he muttered, blinking into darkness. "Damn… these scheming mortals…"
His body felt heavy, but that weight was nothing compared to what came next.
Whispers.
Outside the room, guards were talking. Loud enough for Void to hear. Unfortunately for them.
"She was a pretty one," one muttered. "Put up a fight. But in the end, she gave in. Got on all fours for Lord Frista. Screamed like she enjoyed it."
Void's heart stopped.
"Didn't know we were lying. Told her he'd let the kid go. Poor woman. She doesn't know the kid's still locked up in that cell."
Void's body froze. Then something inside him snapped.
The red in his veins turned light grey. Then dark grey.
Muscles expanded. His frame shifted. Power surged. A boy's body was replaced by a man's—tall, silver-haired, and glowing with raw, divine malice.
The world realm trembled.
In the god plane, eyes widened. In the inferno plane, demons paused mid-feast.
Something ancient had awakened.
Void's eyes flared open.
⸻
He rose from the shadows and walked into the next room.
There, in the center, was Frista—with Anna beneath him.
Void watched. No expression. No emotion.
Just… judgment.
He let it happen.
For a moment.
Then, with a whisper, he released the Principles of Destruction. His body burned silver, his presence blanketed the estate like nightfall. Mortals couldn't sense it. But gods? Demons? They trembled.
Frista, mid-ecstasy, paused. The temperature dropped. The woman beneath him—the one he thought powerless—vanished like mist.
Then: darkness.
He barely had time to scream before the destructive aura engulfed him.
Void lifted a hand.
"Imprison."
One word. Frista collapsed, frozen in place, his body seized by destructive laws. His soul was shattered. Screams choked in his throat.
Void glanced at Anna. Her eyes—listless, lost—flickered when she heard his voice.
Her body reached toward him on instinct.
Void raised a finger.
A gentle wave of destruction flowed over her.
It was soft. Peaceful.
Final.
"Rest," he said.
⸻
Then he rose into the sky.
Grey City watched, helpless, as the world darkened.
Kneeling. Praying. Trembling.
"Lucius," Void said calmly.
A figure rose beside him—one who had stood loyally for years.
"My Lord," Lucius said, bowing midair.
Of course. Lucius was one of Void's clones, released long ago to study the laws while the main soul slumbered.
"How are the others?" Void asked.
Lucius hesitated. "Progress on creation principles is… slow. But the laws are nearly mastered."
Void nodded. "Then it's time."
"Devour."
With that, beams of light pierced the sky. All his other clones—spread across the world—merged back into him.
A chaotic aura erupted.
The Zrafin Continent vaporized. The Forbidden Zone expanded.
He turned, facing the heavens.
"I'll be sleeping now," he said. "You can bother me—if you have the power."
He paused.
"I have mastered your laws. I just need to fuse them."
"To the god plane… the inferno plane… this is your warning."
"I'm leaving your realm soon."
"I am going to the Nothingness."
And with that, the world fell silent.
⸻
The End of Book One.
(Or the beginning of everyone else's problem.)