"Wait. What are you doing?"

Killian didn’t respond as he felt the chains materializing from his fingertips, and carefully wrapped around the egg.

He let go and the egg rushed to the ground, but disappeared into a vortex before it reached the surface. A small smirk crept to his face as he had felt the Void’s panic when the egg left his hold.

"You are quite sadistic, vessel."

"Oh, not ’Killian’ anymore?" Killian scoffed, continuing his walk to the portal’s entrance. "Don’t try to lie to me. Hide information if you want, but if you do tell me something important, it should be nothing but the truth."

Inside the Abyss, she should stop hatching or if she did, she could roam within there. Either way, she was no longer his problem since the Void could still access her within the Abyss.

He tapped Thistle above him. "Do you want to go back?"

Her hold on his hair tightened a fraction. "It’s okay here," she said, her eyes looking around as they moved past trees and cliffs that looked similar to the ones in her realm. "I like this place."

Killian hummed, moving down a cliff he had noticed when he was with Jane and Kia.

His mind wandered to what possible excuse the coordinator would have on why the mission was compromised, and newbies who fit the exact resistance to the beast in this realm were sent here.

He looked back at the WLog when it lit up. He thought of swiping since he had seen a lot of its interface for a day, but he clicked the message. From George again.

[You should return. That realm, according to the coordinator, has a beast trapped in there that you can’t defeat. If you accidentally release it. All hell would break loose.]

ROARRR!!

Killian and Thistle turned behind them in unison. The message on his WLog quickly made sense as well as the ’hell’ just broke loose.

"Well, a tidbit of information I didn’t think you’d need since I assumed you’d obediently listen to me, but anything in the abyss gets erased from this world."

Killian jumped down the cliff. "That means if the egg’s presence stopped a beast from breaking loose, when she was in my inventory she could still be sensed, but in the abyss, it is as if she isn’t there?"

"Exactly. And taking out something from the abyss isn’t always easy but I will make an exception—"

"No." Killian felt the heavy footsteps of whatever pack of beasts moved towards him and Thistle, who had been screaming since the first roar.

His Void-Bat fell into his arms, along with the headphones.

"I have trials in a few hours. I have a mana restoration vial too. I see no reason why I shouldn’t train here."

"That beast needed to be sealed by a summon of the Void. It isn’t so simple, Killian."

"Still, I just have to avoid the largest one."

Killian sighted a group of smaller beasts standing atop the cliff he had just jumped out from. Their footsteps had become lighter as they closed in, just like hunters.

Their reddish fur was very different from a panthers’, and the curved outer canine dripped of drool.

He stepped back, beforehand putting on his headphones and encircling his surroundings with the Void.

<Shadow Art Series>

<Void Shield>

A large shield materialized in front of Killian, then phased through his body, and shifted to four positions surrounding his perimeter.

He watched the shield shrink back to a line around his chest, but could still feel it very actively behind him.

"With enough capacity, they get more efficient." He sent Thistle back to the inventory when she got tired of screaming.

The flames around his body intensified, and he wrapped Fire around the void-bat carefully.

Then with more caution, he shifted his mana and a darker shade of flame engulfed the weapon. Corrupted Fire. And his veins only popped slightly as the flames rose to his wrist.

The dark flames mixed unevenly but unlike before, the strain wasn’t easily noticeable. Killian’s eyes narrowed at how coordinated the flames were, all of sudden.

It seemed the greater the capacity he had, the less painful Corrupted Fire would be since it was part Void.

It was still unstable, but it no longer felt like forcing knives through his veins..

He returned his attention to his surroundings, still standing atop the broken roots, waiting for a beast to move.

None did. The red-furred beasts stared at him from afar with blank eyes, their bodies low to the ground.

The larger one causing the occasional tremors seemed to be moving farther away instead.

Killian frowned slightly. "They don’t fight together."

Which meant they were confident enough not to need teamwork. Or likely territorial.

The smaller beasts still slowly moved around a particular one which looked most confident, and had a darker red-fur compared to the rest.

They stood there, watching and circling but they didn’t close in. They just stared.

Killian tilted his head faintly. "Are they looking around for something? Perhaps the hatchling?"

He hummed. ’These things probably wanted to eat it while it was still weak.’

"They are predators," the Void replied calmly.

Killian nodded once. "I have watched enough animal documentaries to know that predators will sometimes hunt stronger creatures out of revenge or fear."

His eyes shifted briefly toward the direction of the tree. They didn’t go there directly for some reason and came to him.

So they might still be sensing traces or they came to the only other thing with stronger mana signature. He nodded at the idea that came into his mind.

"Say, do you still want to release the egg while it’s just a hatchling? If I give them what they want I can escape easily."

"Don’t be funny. Just return to the entrance."

Killian smirked.

"They will never leave this place," the Void continued. "And you should not become too confident simply because your capacity increased. You have the capacity, but not the skills to match it."

Killian shrugged. "I said I want to train my Fire and Sound now." He rolled his shoulders slightly. "Those are what I’ll mainly use in the academy. I can’t expose the Void."

Even while saying that, his tendrils stayed hidden beneath the ground around him, and the Void Shield remained active around his body.

Killian pointed at the beasts with his Void-Bat. "Come."

The creatures stared at him silently, then looked away.

As if bored. One by one, they began walking away from the cliff.

Killian’s left eye twitched.