Passing through a void unfamiliar to him, Xyn appeared with a pop like a soap bubble bursting.

  Dozens of metres above an alien forest, bright light bathed the world in gold. Silvery clouds were sparse, offering little resistance.

  The vibrancy and vigour of the surroundings were lost to Xyn at present. Tense. He was a taut rope. Upon arrival, he had abandoned his mundane senses in favour of his extrasensory ones.

  The world was monochrome and frozen in his perception.

  Void Sense.

  Thoroughly unbalanced by the sequence of events, Xyn scanned his surroundings with a feverish intensity. His senses rushed out in pursuit of the one who forcefully translocated him. The psionic’s radar pinged no less than a thousand curiosities, but no orange energy. Failing to find that, he focused on possible threats.

  None pricked at him.

  Registering no danger in his immediate surroundings, relief surged within him. Panic receded, and the royal of the Void returned to his usual calm. It took nearly a minute to compose himself. Once he did, several emotions rose in union. A cocktail of shock, awe, wonder and fascination flooded his system. He let gravity pull him down and noted its strength. He dropped into a circular clearing, landing on the untamed grass with a feather’s grace.

  Transported to another world.

  Another world, as in another universe, not just another planet. There was no mistaking it. Xyn was certain. He had thoroughly explored the black sphere that held his home universe and knew he was not within its confines.

  Captured through mundane senses or a video camera’s lens, the forest wasn’t anything noteworthy. It was stereotypical from a visual standpoint. A bit more colourful than usual. A product of nature’s craftsmanship, wild and seemingly random in its arrangement.

  What separated the forest from any that could be found in his home universe was the presence of magic. In the trees, grass, dirt and in the atmosphere, mana was all around him.

  His home universe held magic, but it was far more limited. And more importantly, all mana stemmed from psionics. None could be found in nature. The White Pyramid and every other enchanted tool or structure were a product of human mages.

  This place was different.

  Magic, both powerful and queer, was noted. The staggering variety was only outmatched by its overwhelming abundance. Never had his senses been so stimulated.

  The best way to explain it was to compare mana to water droplets. If he was previously roaming a desert, he was now in a raft in the middle of nowhere ocean, storm overhead, raining down cats and dogs.

  The difference nearly overwhelmed the psionic initially, and even now, he had to greatly limit his radar to avoid his consciousness from fraying or shutting down outright.

  Thankfully, all of me was brought over. If I were less than whole, I’d have become a pancake, Xyn concluded with a frown. It had been a long time since he was one entity. His displeasure reversed course as he recalled the obvious.

  He was in another world.

  A smile rushed onto his face as excitement and anticipation filled him.

  “Fuck yes!”

  His fist rocketed towards the blue sky, and maniacal laughter escaped him for the second time that day.

  A fresh start. New game plus - no, this is an entirely new game. A much better game, Xyn thought, showing a silly grin.

  His limited inspection revealed countless novelties. Just that alone surpassed the entirety of his home universe by several orders of magnitude in the psionic’s mind.

  Xyn had no doubt that the unknown beyond his radar held many more fascinations for him to dig into. Anticipation burned hot in the youth. He didn’t rush to explore, pushing the urge down as another obvious fact was recalled.

  He was transported here by a sentient being.

  That’s right. Xyn glanced around. The orange energy remained elusive to his senses. I couldn’t sense it back then either. The Vanishing. To think it was real.

  The Vanishing.

  Superstitious and fantastical beliefs were extremely rare in the Rose Union. The empire was allergic to mysticism. Rationalism dominated the culture. Thus, appeals to the supernatural and mystical were almost non-existent.

  The Vanishing was one of the few exceptions.

  It was thought to be a force of nature. Invisible and undetectable, it came and went without rhyme. Its target was powerful psionics. They would disappear without a trace. Dozens had been gobbled up by the mystery. Some believed even the Void Empress was a victim of the phenomenon, her sudden and unexplained parting from the spotlight adding credence to that rumour.

  The Vanishing and its supposed victims naturally crossed into Xyn’s path. It enticed him. A bona fide mystery. It smelled delicious. He took a sniff and then sank his teeth in. But after a year of trying and failing to find anything concrete, he gave up, thoroughly disappointed.

  I’m the latest victim. No, not victim, benefactor. Speaking of that. Xyn’s head swivelled for a few seconds before stilling. He shut his eyes. There was no wrong direction to look. If the Vanishing was present, it would be all around him.

  “I don’t know if you’re there, but I thank you, nameless one, wherever you are. You have my eternal gratitude.”

  Xyn listened for a response. None came. The winds whispered nothings in his ears as he waited. After ten seconds, he spoke again.

  “I am in debt and am open to repaying it in kind. If you hold a wish, please speak it.”

  Again, he met with silence.

  He shrugged after a while.

  Guess I’m alon- A distant roar resounded from the north. Well, not quite, Xyn chuckled as his eyes gleamed with pure delight.

  The desire to explore grabbed him. His body swayed forward, but he came to a halt not three steps later. A pensive expression surfaced on his handsome face.

  Different games, but same player. We can’t have a repeat. Let’s think this through.

  He did a one-eighty. The empty patch of grass welcomed an ivory throne a blink later. His sweat and blood were absent in the chair’s makeup, but not his bones. Rather, it was nothing but.

  A bone throne.

  The description invoked thoughts of a jagged, rough and asymmetric construct. Xyn’s chair was the opposite. It was elegant in its design and smooth to the touch. If not placed in the shadow of a tree, it would shine like a spotlight.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Neat and tidy was the Rose Union’s way, and while he didn’t take pride in his citizenship, the empire’s culture had been ingrained into his being. The psionic dropped down in his rightful place. An elbow found an armrest and a cheek, a palm.

  Like this, the royal of the Void delved into thought. He contemplated deeply about his new reality and the possibilities it held.

  Time ticked by.

  Forty-three minutes. If one told the Void Prince he had been seated for that long, he wouldn’t believe them. Dignified rear parting from the hard bone, he rose to his full height.

  Okay, he slapped his cheeks and let the sting liven him up. First things first. Stocktake.

  Xyn’s attention narrowed on his left hand, on the fingerless glove, on the spec of darkness that blended in perfectly into the black fabric. The spec appeared to be a sphere at a glance, but it was, in fact, a disk. His mind’s eye plunged into the darkness and examined the compressed space and the contents within.

  Void Vault.

  It was Xyn’s lone enchanted tool, a product of his powers and ingenuity. The fabric of space had been carefully woven and twisted by his blackened hands to achieve the miraculous artefact. It was a long process, only partially aided by artificial intelligence. Xyn was rather proud of it.

  Clothes, clothes, more clothes, milkshake…

  There was a hill of items. They could be divided into two categories: things to consume, and things to wear. Weapons and tech were wholly absent from his arsena-

  Ah, I still have one left.

  Surprise played across the psionic’s face before glee overshadowed it. Xyn flipped his palm, and the object in question appeared with a wobble of space. The device was lightweight and small, the size of the young man’s palm, and could be mistaken for an egg at a glance, which was by design. The creator had an unexplainable attachment to the animal product.

  Malconi’s Egg.

  It was a unique graviton bomb. Where all others carved a spherical hole of destruction after detonation, Malconi’s Egg left, you guessed it, an egg-shaped void in its wake.

  After learning of their uniqueness, a bored Xyn decided to see it for himself. He procured a few dozen of these bombs from Rose Union’s military bases, went to an inhabited planet and made an omelette, so to speak. The bombardment made for a neat spectacle.

  Xyn smiled, recalling the experience.

  The devices weren’t a substitute for fireworks. They were incredibly devastating, as all gravitation bombs were. Detonation created artificial black holes. Intense gravity would destroy everything within its predetermined range.

  I don’t think I’ll need it, but it can’t hurt to have.

  He thumbed over the smooth surface. He didn’t fear accidentally setting it off. That was nearly impossible. The activation mechanism was at the Egg’s core and required a fair amount of precision to activate. Xyn mentally ran through the sequence of steps. Done, he returned the device to Void Vault. He continued his stocktake but found nothing as surprising or useful.

  Not the best starting gear, but I’ll survive, Xyn said, unbothered by the lack.

  Frankly, even without Void Vault, he was supremely confident in overcoming any challenge. In his mind, his powers and their numerous applications were the perfect fusion of versatility, practicality and lethality. No wall was too sturdy to shatter or too high to scale.

  Believing this, the Void Prince took his first steps on a journey that would change his life.

  His destination: north.

  The bestial roar promised an interesting experience.

  Xyn rubbed at his chin as he walked. Curious, he thought, his eyes darting about hungrily.

  The variety of mana was a subject of interest, but even more arresting at this moment was its distribution.

  His prodigious mind attempted to find a pattern, but there was none. It was random. The concepts also didn’t jive together coherently. Not in a way that made sense to the psionic.

  Case in point, a slender maroon tree’s branches bore flower-like crimson fires while the beige tree, not a half metre away, radiated frost. The two energies collided and produced a steam that was carried away by the gentle winds.

  Xyn watched it pass by.

  And that is…

  A gust caught his eye. The air was magical, glowing with a green tinge. Enough to fill two exercise balls, the wind moved like an amoeba, its trajectory equal parts slow and bizarre. Xyn had a tough time reading the concept embedded within the gust. However, that became clear once it passed through a Y-shaped tree. It became a trident as a third branch jutted out rapidly.

  The same thing happened to a patch of grass, which tripled in length during its brief stay. Xyn expected to see the same thing happen when it met a tree that danced with silvery lightning. The tree resisted the cloud’s effect. The green energy bounced away and continued forward. Xyn understood the why after a moment’s contemplation.

  It’s not a Soul Shroud, but something similar. A domain.

  Xyn approached a skeleton-like tree. It was dense with mana; however, it held no affinity. His right hand closed around a wiry branch as thick as his finger. He tightened his grip and attempted to snap it off. It didn’t budge. His left hand got involved, and the result didn’t change.

  The psionic wasn’t upset - the opposite, in fact. He upped his efforts. His arms swelled as though balloons filled with air. His bulging muscles flexed with hysterical strength…and the branch remained intact.

  Oh, how tough, Xyn thought, pleasantly surprised.

  His words were an underestimation. He didn’t value physical brawn, but his current strength wasn’t anything to scoff at. Inch-wide steel could be bent like hot tofu in its grip.

  Xyn deflated himself, and his flesh returned to normal. Failing with pure physical strength, he resorted to magic. His pointer finger blackened as the destructive Void, Endera, wrapped around it. He sliced at the branch, and this time met with no resistance.

  There’s some mana leakage, but at this pace, its effect will last for a while. How fascinating. You could build a rather sturdy structure with it. Or with any of these enchanted trees. What if I burn it?

  In scholar mode, Xyn didn’t let his questions remain that. He summoned a lighter from Void Vault and brought the naked flame to one end of the branch. It burned as a normal branch would. Xyn watched with glittering eyes as the magic dispersed with the black smoke.

  Interesting.

  The roar was forgotten as Xyn continued experimenting, guided by his studious and curious heart. He couldn’t help himself. Another branch met with his lighter’s flame. It burned but didn’t crumble.

  Fire trees are immune to flames. To what extent, though? Ah, I should have brought a plasma sword along. Regrets are behind us - oh, what’s that over there?

  Xyn was a country bumpkin on his first visit to the big city. Giddy and starry-eyed, he zigzagged from place to place while maintaining a northward drift. He would appear careless to an onlooker. But the reality was different.

  Xyn was in unknown territory. He recognised that and applied a certain level of vigilance. Half of his attention was scanning the surroundings with his Void Sense. It was through this magical sense that he captured the creature.

  What am I looking at? The Void Prince’s brows knitted together as he observed the humanoid sprawled on the grass.

  An ogre was the first idea to spring up. There were a lot of similarities between it and depictions in the media he was used to.

  The creature was a specimen of power. He was seven feet tall, from bald head to four-toed feet. Lanky, he was not. Rather, he was a mass of muscles. Even relaxed as he was, they remained prominent and flexing as though countless worms were beneath his skin. Xyn labelled the creature as male, but he wasn’t certain it could be regarded as any sex. Nude as it was, its lack of either genitals was made apparent. It was not a case of castration either, at least, Xyn didn’t believe it was. The area was flat, like that of a doll.

  Is this an artificial life form? Or maybe a mutation? Something brought about by the same magic that altered this forest?

  Xyn pondered as he rubbed his hairless chin. By now, his wayward travel was no more. The psionic’s steps moved one way, toward the resting giant. The cool breeze tugged him backwards while his curiosity pushed him forward.

  It has a Soul Shroud, but it feels wrong. Incomplete. Huh?

  The ogre’s eyes snapped open suddenly. Then, as though set on fire, the creature sprang to his feet.

  He can sense me!?

  Surprise passed through Xyn. Over a hundred metres separated him from the ogre, with no clear line of sight, yet the creature’s widened eyes aimed at him perfectly.

  Following a thunderous roar, the ogre rushed his way. He was fast, crossing dozens of metres a second. Xyn’s heartbeat sped up as he watched the creature’s speedy approach. The ogre cleared a hill with a long jump and sailed through the air in a parabola.

  The dirt became water-like, splashing tens of metres up and away as the ogre crash-landed.

  Only twenty metres away now, Xyn observed the creature with his mundane senses.

  The ogre’s bumpy skin was various shades of green, bright at places, dark at others, the pattern anything but. Neon-yellow orbs, a closed fist for a nose, and chipped knives for teeth.

  This is a monster.

  It wasn’t simply due to physical features that Xyn made the assessment. It was the sheer hunger that the ogre radiated. From the light in its eyes to its maw, which waterfalled with saliva, it was insatiable.

  The lack in its Soul Shroud should be the cause of this. Through consumption, it seeks to fill a void. Pointlessly.

  The psionic focused on the green-tinted energy that blazed off the ogre’s body. For all the muscles, it was obvious that their previous feat wasn’t a product of physical might alone.

  A stat-enhancing aura. Interesting. What else can you do?

  At the question, Xyn’s expression changed from thoughtful to eager. The scholar’s hat had been replaced with a warrior’s. Sporting a smile no less savage than the monster, he cracked his knuckles.

  Come, monster. Try to take a bite out of me.

  The ogre moved as though having read the Void Prince’s thoughts. Dirt exploded as he launched forward.