"Void."
The word slipped from my lips, barely above a whisper, yet it carried the weight of everything I had been missing.
The battlefield, the searing heat of the Kraken's cosmic beam, the molten scars left in its wake -none of it mattered for that single mont.
Because now, I understood.
My grip tightened around my estoc as the realization settled into my bones, threading itself through my thoughts with unshakable clarity.
[Void Starfall Blade.]
The technique my master had taught . The technique I had spent years perfecting. The foundation of my swordsmanship.
And yet, I had never questioned it.
"Master," I had once asked, turning to Gerald in the middle of training, sweat dripping down my brow. "Why did you give the technique that na?"
It had been an idle question at the ti. A curiosity, nothing more.
Gerald's response, however, had been strange.
"I felt like it," he had said simply, his tone casual, as if the answer was obvious.
I had frowned. "You felt like it?"
"Yes," Gerald had nodded, his gaze distant. "Even though I don't know why, the mont I ford my core, and understood how to cultivate, a sword technique took shape in my mind. And the na of the technique followed just like that."
Those were his words.
One of the strongest in the world.
Perhaps the greatest genius this world had ever seen.
Starscourge Gerald.
A man who had created his own cultivation, who had forged his own path without guidance, without lineage, without the privilege of noble blood. A man who had rewritten the very principles of power itself.
And yet, even he had said it simply ca to him.
"Then that ans...'
My eyes flickered back to the Kraken.
To the starlight energy pulsing through its monstrous form. To the way it resonated with , with my Devourer of Stars core.
To the way it regenerated, endlessly consuming energy, refusing to die.
I exhaled slowly.
"I see now..."
The connection that had eluded . The missing piece.
Gerald never taught the higher-ranked techniques of the [Void Starfall Blade]. Whether it was because he believed my body couldn't handle it, or because he himself didn't know, I had never been certain.
But now-
"I understand why you gave it that na, Master."
I rolled my wrist, my estoc humming with energy, but this ti, I didn't force Starlight Energy into it.
This ti, I let go.
Because [Void Starfall Blade] wasn't just a technique.
It was a principle.
I had been relying on Starlight.
"But does the na of my cultivation technique say anything about Starlight?"
The thought struck like a blade to the gut.
I had always assud-no, I had always focused on the Starlight aspect of my abilities. I had drawn my strength from it, molded my techniques around it, refined it into sothing lethal, sothing unstoppable.
But...
[Devourer of Stars.]
That was my core.
That was my foundation.
And nowhere in that na did it say anything about Starlight.
I inhaled sharply, my gaze locking onto the monstrous form of the Kraken once more. The foreign energy coursing through it flickered in my vision, pulsing between its grotesque limbs, surging along its regenerating flesh.
Not just Starlight.
Not just Void.
But a mixture of both.
My mind reeled back, reaching for sothing-a mory.
The vision.
I had seen it countless tis before.
That vast, endless expanse.
The cosmos stretching infinitely, stars burning with celestial brilliance.
And among them-
That one star.
The black star.
The one that had called to . The one that had chosen . The one that had been the source
of my very core.
What had that ant?
Was [Devourer of Stars] sothing as simple as Starlight?
Or-
"Was it the fusion of Starlight and Void?"
Just like the na of my sword technique.
Just like the power the Kraken was wielding right now.
I exhaled, my lips curling into sothing close to a laugh.
"Haha... How funny is that?"
I had been fighting the answer this entire ti. Searching for sothing that had been right in
front of from the very beginning.
I could sense it now.
The breakthrough was near.
My core trembled, energy surging in my veins like a wildfire barely contained.
The Kraken shrieked, its abyssal cry reverberating through the cavern, its wounds sealing
faster, its body adapting.
It was waiting for .
It was daring to step forward.
To accept what I had been denying.
To beco what I was ant to be.
I grinned, rolling my shoulders, the energy in my core shifting-changing—awakening.
"Alright then," I murmured, stepping forward.
BOOM!
I shot forward, my body blurring into motion.
Pain no longer mattered. The gashes along my ribs, the taste of iron in my mouth, the steady
drip of blood down my fingers-none of it registered anymore. The only thing that existed
was the thrill.
The rush of battle.
The exhilaration of stepping into the unknown.
SWOOSH!
The Kraken's limbs ca down like falling mountains. A blur of grotesque flesh, thick and
unyielding, carving through the battlefield with monstrous force.
I twisted, evading with a step so light it barely disturbed the broken stone beneath .
SLASH.
My estoc carved through the air, its edge wreathed in a pulse of void-starlight. The attack tore through one of the beast's tendrils, severing it in a single fluid motion.
Schlrkkk-
Regeneration.
Instant.
A snarl of abyssal energy crackled through the Kraken's form as it stitched itself back
together.
I laughed.
Not out of mockery. Not out of frustration.
But because this-this-was fun.
I had fought countless battles. Stood on the precipice of life and death more tis than I
could count. But this-fighting on the edge, pushing past my limits, discovering sothing new-this was what I lived for.
"Co on!" I grinned, my breath ragged but my energy surging. "Is that all you've got?"
The Kraken shrieked, its abyssal form shifting, twisting.
A barrage of obsidian spikes erupted from its body, raining down upon in a storm of
lethal precision.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
I wove through them, my estoc dancing, flicking the projectiles aside mid-motion. My body
moved on instinct-no, beyond instinct. It felt as if I had already seen these attacks a hundred tis over, as if my movents were rely a natural response to what I already knew was
coming.
The rhythm of battle was intoxicating.
The pain in my body no longer felt like a burden.
It was fuel.
And then-
Sothing within shifted.
Not just my movents. Not just my sword.
My core.
I could feel it-the trembling, the pull, the very structure of my energy changing as I
continued to fight.
Because this wasn't just about reaching the next step.
This was about breaking through. 'Previously, when I reached the Fourth Star...'
I had connected the three stars that I had ford in each breakthrough.
First star. Second star. Third star.
Each step had created a new star, forming them one by one as I advanced.
But this ti-
This ti, that wasn't what I needed.
I could feel it in my very core.
The next step wasn't about forming another star.
It wasn't about strengthening the bonds by creating a new connection.
It was about sothing more.
"Bending the space, like a void."
The realization struck mid-motion, my estoc gleaming as I slashed through another
tentacle, my body twisting past the monstrous retaliation.
It was about the pull.
Not outward.
Not forward.
Inward.
The three stars that I had ford-each a stepping stone to my growth-were already
connected by the Void between them.
And now, the next step...
Was to pull them together.
Not into a fourth star.
But into a center.
Like the heart of a galaxy.
Like the singularity that everything revolved around.
The Void in my core trembled.
It called.
It demanded.
I grinned. "Ah... so that's it."
I finally understood.
And then-
Everything collapsed.
The world around blurred-no, it folded.
The three stars within my core, once scattered, were dragged inward.
Not into destruction.
Not into chaos.
But into balance.
Into the Void.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The battlefield erupted in a wave of abyssal force as my breakthrough ignited, my energy
surging, my entire being shifting.
And for the first ti-
I was stepping into sothing entirely new.
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