Scumbag Fate System-Chapter 54: Void (1)

A clash of steel rang out sharply!

The descending blade was blocked by a sword. Reinhard stood with his sword raised high above Yor’s kneeling form while his arms shook from the force of blocking the strike.

Yor’s eyes widened while her head snapped up. "Reinhard! Why are you here?"

Reinhard smiled despite the strain of holding back the blade while his muscles burned. "We’re here for you."

"We?" Yor blinked.

Alice’s voice called out from behind as she charged forward with her hammer raised. "Of course we! Don’t tell me you thought only Rein would come help you and not us? I thought we were closer than that!"

She swung her massive sledgehammer at the corrupted Yor while her Crush ability activated. The entity had to push Reinhard back hard to create space before bringing its sword up to block Alice’s strike. The impact sent shockwaves through the basement while cracks spread across the floor beneath their feet.

Arrows streaked through the air, fired from Rika while Louis rushed in from the side with his spear’s fire crystals blazing. The entity’s two massive wings snapped out and blocked both attacks while the arrows bounced off and the flames parted around the wings like water around stone.

Black energy gathered around the corrupted Yor. It built in intensity until it exploded outward in a shockwave that hit everyone at once. Reinhard flew backward while his boots left the ground, and his back slammed into a collapsed pillar. Alice tumbled across the floor while her hammer clattered away. Rika crashed into the wall, and the impact knocked the air from her lungs. Louis rolled several times before coming to a stop against debris.

All of them groaned while pushing themselves up on shaking arms. The corrupted entity stood in the center of the basement with its wings spread wide, and its masked face turned toward Yor, who remained on her knees and trembling.

"Such lovely friends you have." The entity voice was like Yor’s but darker and twisted. "But it’s not like you deserve them, is it?"

Alice narrowed her eyes while climbing to her feet and retrieving her hammer. "Shut up! Who do you think you are talking to her like that?"

The entity giggled. "Of course I’m Yor. Who else would I be?"

Everyone except Yor froze while their minds struggled to process that statement, and Alice’s mouth opened in shock. "What?"

"I am the Void." The entity said while tilting its head, and the mask caught the dim light. "I’m the feelings and beliefs and truth that Yor has hidden deep within herself. All the things she won’t say out loud but thinks constantly."

The Void’s smile widened while black smoke poured thicker from its form. "I know what she truly believes. That we don’t deserve the care of others and we’re too dangerous."

Alice grit her teeth while clenching her hammer. "That’s not true! Yor deserves—"

"You don’t know what she deserves," the Void interrupted with a scoff. "You only know what you want to believe. It’s not like she tells you anything in the first place."

Alice shouted something wordless and charged forward. Her hammer was swinging in a wide arc. The others joined the attack while Reinhard, from the left, aimed his sword at the Void’s exposed side. Louis came from the right with his spear swirling with wind for piercing strikes. And Rika firing arrows that sought gaps in the entity’s defense.

But the Void swiftly deflected all their attacks with its sword and wings. Before then, rushing towards Alice who quickly recovered and brought her hammer down. It was aimed at the Void’s head, but the entity sidestepped with Yor’s gliding movement, and its wing swept out to catch Alice in the ribs and send her stumbling.

Reinhard’s blade cut toward the Void’s neck, but a black wing blocked the attack.

"Do you want to know what she really thinks about you?" the Void asked while its masked face turned toward Reinhard and its other wing knocked away Louis’s spear thrust. "She believes it would have been better to never become friends with you at all."

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. "As if we would believe your words-"

"Because being near her lowered your lifespan." The Void continued while its voice was almost cheerful in its cruelty. "She heard the doctor explain it. She knows what her power did to you, even though you can touch her. And she hates herself for it."

"How did you know about that?" Reinhard demanded as he was sent hurling back from the black wings.

The Void laughed while parrying Alice’s next strike and catching Rika’s arrow out of the air with its wing. "Of course, we were listening! We’re always listening to everything, even when no one notices. Just like no one notices how Yor truly feel beneath all the smiles and politeness."

The floor beneath Louis tilted sharply while throwing off his balance. The Void took advantage while its wing slammed into his chest and sent him crashing backward. Rika called out a warning about an incoming attack, but the pressure around her made her shout too late. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

All of them were still feeling the effect of the environment, and it became almost impossible to focus.

But they pushed through it for Yor.

"She also believes it would have been better to stay distant from the Resonance Club," the Void said while fighting three opponents without apparent effort. "Better to never join at all. Better to stay alone where her poison couldn’t touch anyone."

It caught Reinhard’s sword with its wing. Then its own blade swept toward his exposed side, forcing him to twist away while his feet slipped on the unstable floor.

"And sometimes." The Void continued while its voice dropped lower and more intimate, like sharing secrets. "She thinks maybe if she just didn’t exist at all, then everything would be better. Those third-year students who quit wouldn’t be empty shells. Those students in the mall would still have their emotions and their full lifespans. The people in this ruined city would still be alive. Her family wouldn’t have suffered and died."

Yor trembled on the ground while her hands covered her ears. But unable to block out the words that came from her own voice speaking thoughts she’d tried so hard to bury.

"That’s not true!" Reinhard glared while pushing off from a pillar and launching himself at the Void with renewed intensity. "Yor being alive isn’t a mistake, and the things that happened weren’t her fault!"

The Void’s smile turned sad while its movements never slowed as it deflected his attack. Alice’s simultaneous hammer strike and Louis’s returning spear thrust. "That isn’t what she thinks."

"We don’t care what-"

"You should care," the Void interrupted while black-purple energy began to gather around its form in visible waves. "Because what she thinks and believes matters far more than what any of you outsiders want or hope for."

The energy built higher while crackling between the entity’s wings and along its blade and wrapping around its body like a storm gathering strength. The pressure in the basement increased, making the air feel thick and hard to breathe.

"You can argue all you want," the Void said while raising its sword and the black-purple energy concentrating along the blade’s edge. "You can tell her she’s wrong. You can insist she deserves happiness, friendship, and love. But none of that changes what lives here."

It tapped the mask on its face with one finger. "The parts of her she won’t show anyone. In truth, she hides from herself."

The Void slashed its sword sideways, unleashing a wall of magic that ripped through the basement. Reinhard tried to jump clear, but the blast caught him mid-leap and hurled him against the far wall.

Stone cracked behind his back.

Alice thrust her hammer forward to shield herself. But the energy simply curved around it, striking her chest and sending her rolling across the floor. Louis watched in horror as the earth spike he made was blasted through before the wave slammed into him.

Rika’s arrows vanished in the wave before she was thrown back into the tunnel entrance. All of them lay scattered across the chamber, groaning.

None could lift their heads as pain shot through their battered bodies.

In the center of the destruction, the Void remained perfectly still.

"What she thinks and believes matters far more than what you outsiders believe." It repeated while its voice echoed in the suddenly quiet basement. "And deep down, Yor believes she shouldn’t exist at all."

Yor trembled as she clenched her sword.