[-=Nox=-]

I opened my eyes.

Jillian the Dreamancer looked down at me, looking like his normal, obscure gray self. His arms were shaped like blackjacks. The other two high mages were in the process of collapsing to the floor. He had struck them as directed and their power that was disabling my body was ended. The dreamancer’s demonstrable greed was the downfall of the Rim Baron’s plan. Sins were my domain and sinners were easy to manipulate. Simply offer them what they desire most and they will obey.

I winked at him. “Great job.”

The indeterminate-shaped mage made a quick bow, smiling. “What now, mistress? The Baron is watching this, no doubt.”

“Don’t you worry. I’ve a plan for him. I’ve a plan for everything.” I lied. I didn’t have a plan. Plans were hard to make right now. I was at one Void. Thinking coherently was immensely difficult.

June rose from her position on the floor, blinking at the two fallen Rimmer mages.

I looked at her. “June, take all of the artifacts off the idiot in the big wizard’s hat and put them on yourself.” I struggled to stay upright. “Decessander - take all of the artifacts off the other high mage and put them on me.”

“Yes, mistress.” The monsterling responded. June looked at him cautiously.

“That’s Decessander the Dreamancer” I told her. “My latest acquisition.”

She nodded, harvesting artifacts from the fallen mages. In a few minutes we were both gaudily adorned in mismatched trinkets. Fortunately, I don’t care about fashion, preferring to set the trend. Decessander bowed, turning towards the door. “The Baron is coming. He won’t be happy.”

“Grow some fat over your ears and go hide in the closet.” I told the monsterling. “He can’t command you using your debt if you can’t hear or see him. I’ll let you out when I’m done.”

Decessander nodded, his shape shifting to exclude ears. He stepped into the wardrobe and closed the door behind himself.

June whistled at the shifting face of the monsterling. “Damn. A shape-shifter and a Dreamancer. That’s a nice power set.”

“June, come here.” I commanded.

The foxkin stepped towards me. “One of your eyes is purple and the other is blue. Heh.”

“Keeping it balanced.” I nodded.

[Yul, you awake?] I thought at myself.

[Yep. Not being able to control my body is kinda freaky, though.] Yul replied.

[You can take over anytime. Stand me up please.]

Yul stood our body upright. [Gotcha. Ah, it takes a little push!] She thought.

“June. Do you want the power to save your kin? Do you agree to be the Apostle of the Void and of Virtue?”

She nodded. I wasn’t going to make the same stupid mistake. I grabbed June’s hand and pulled at the [Pact] between me and Yul. I also reached out to the System itself, towards voidstar.

“By the power of the unbreakable divine pact between Void and Virtue, I hereby offer June Rim Maldiver to be our eternal Apostle in exchange for a promise to save her kin!”

In June’s eyes I saw a reflection of myself. A halo of darkness surrounded by the light, akin to a miniature voidstar formed above my head. It was a manifestation of the [Pact] between myself and Virtue. June’s mouth fell open.

“Do you accept the power to wield and serve us?”

“I do.” June nodded.

“Then give us your devotion and accept our divine blessings. Accept the Darkness of my Void and the Light of Virtue!” I declared, my voice trembling.

“How?”

“Kiss me.”

The light of the voidstar’s corona shone through the ship’s porthole painting June’s hair with gold highlights. She was the real hero in my eyes, someone who had succeeded where we had failed. She was the one who brought our light and darkness together, helped us reach an understanding, a unity of purpose. She had fought, tried her best to unite us and died for it. In flashes of Yul’s memories that were now flickering my way I saw June rushing towards me when Yul had turned the ship sideways.

“June, I… love you.” I said. “You might not remember this, but you sacrificed your life to try to help me. I am willing to sacrifice what I am to help you. I am willing to die for you. I refuse to lose you again. Let my words be bound into the power of this pact. Let it truly be unbreakable beyond reckoning. Let the System fall, let the world end, let the continents fall into the Void if you die!” I connected with the voidstar and set a parameter into the flashing System Error.

> If June Rim Maldiver = dead, Terminate System.

An information vector snapped from the black hole to June. It worked!

[What the shit are you doing?] Valerianne demanded. She felt that I was making something irreversible, theoretically catastrophic, but could not tell what exactly.

[What I should have done to begin with.] I answered. [What needed to be done. The ultimate sacrifice of everything I had made, Vali.]

[Did you…?] She started to complain.

[Yeah, your first name - Valerianne is too long. Vali is nice and compact, see?]

June didn't hear our inner conversation. She tentatively looked at me, reached out to me and kissed me. This close to the voidstar’s radiance she had gathered a lot of Shadow in herself and had offered it to me on her own. I accepted it, growing stronger. Every little tiny microscopic bit of her soul reached out to me and intertwined with mine, a vast, infinite array, an impossible clockwork ticking into motion.

I didn’t want to let her go again, held onto the kiss. Void was the nail upon which the universe hung. Void was the binding element at the center of galactic spirals. I poured all of the Void that June had given me into the binding of the Apostle pact. I felt that this time it didn’t come alone - something else was there. Along with the power of the Void, Pure Light of Virtue emerged from Valerianne’s aura into the binding matrix of the [Pact]. Three souls became connected by desire, power and purpose.

Something strange and impossible was happening. Light and darkness started to dance in an ever accelerating circle, spinning faster and faster. June’s soul had become the catalyst, the cyclotron, the engine of power that ignited, guided, controlled the diametrically opposed Virtue and Void. The fractures within June’s soul began to fuse as the engine of vast power held within her hastened. A current of power manifested between all three of us, a line of darkness and light dancing around June, a ripple of energy shimmering across the cabin’s walls.

“Whoaaa.” June let go of me, watching black and white lightning dance all over her fur, over her hands, over over the furniture of the cabin. Clearly visible spikes of Void and Light danced all over her aura, projecting out onto the world.

[What is that?] Yul inquired, looking with amazement at the dancing currents of power.

[Resonance!] I replied. [More specifically, catalytic resonance of diametrically opposed magic. June is a living engine, a unique mage that's somehow able to wield two spectrums! This has never happened before as far as I knew, because none of the Gods had cooperated with each other and then I ate them all. June is able to pull divine Light from your soul and wield it, just as she wields my Void! Where you are limited by dryad design, she is free! June is the key, the missing element needed to complete our equation!]

I pointed my tongue at June, letting Valerianne observe her stats.

----------------------------------------------

June Rim Maldiver

[Age]: 23

[Race]: Foxkin

[Level]: [37] Reasonable mediocrity [Chiaroscuromancer]

Stats:

[Mana] : 1 [Shadow], 50 [Void], 50 [Starlight]

[HP] : 42/50

[Affinity] : Chiaroscuro

[Aura] : 33.33% Shadow, 33.33% Void, 33.33% Pure Light.

[Perks]: Edge-born. [Mana to blood oxygen catalysis]

[Bond]: Reiu soul-debt contracts

[Pacts]: Deathseer's Shadowpact [×10 in Shadowmancy]

Apostle of Void & Virtue [Unbreakable]

Systemfall [Unbreakable]

Inventory:

Rim Novitiate robe.

Hairpin lockpick.

Sextant slave collar [broken]

----------------------------------------------

[Oh! You’re better than a pearl of Inquiry. Um. What’s a Chiaroscuromancer?] She commented.

[I have no idea. Charus-Obscurus… Light-dark?] I replied. [I had never encountered whatever that is. My prior Apostles either had Light affinity or Dark, or even some other color… both at the same time of equal strength is an impossible absurdity.]

“I remember you. I remember both of you.” June whispered. There were tears in her golden-yellow eyes. Nox! Noxxy! She hugged me with all of her strength. I hugged her back and I was finally at peace.

By itself my Void was destruction and death, alone it had led to nothing but an end to all things, guiding the world towards Systemfall. Valerianne’s Light of Virtue was life, creation, a miracle that had repaired June’s mind and soul. Together we had done what I could not do alone! Together we had brought June back from death! MY June!

The door bucked and detonated. It was Baron Von Zimmerman. He was wearing a reflective, iridescent, shimmering armour dotted in green emeralds that were drawing power from the ship’s core. The Rimmer Archmage had seen the impossible dance of magic in his all-seeing eye. He was the sole witness to our ritual. He understood that something of great value had transpired between us. He saw the ultimate betrayal of his Dreamancer.

The pearlescent armour he wore acted as an accelerator, allowing him to move faster than sound. He stepped into the room, the very air around him boiling with detonations of supersonic explosions. His hand swung at my face, nearly connecting with it. The robust displacement of air was enough to fling us apart. I flew sideways, rolling on the floor, accelerating myself as June slammed into the wall with an unhealthy crack of splintering wood.

I burned through my blood to try to match his movements. It wasn’t enough. His hands grabbed at mine as Vali and I had grabbed at his. He was stronger, higher level. He wore divine-level armour. There was nothing we could do to stop him. Our artifacts started to spark as all of his will and magic pushed against them. His iridescent metallic gloves closed around our hands, emerald gemstones shimmering and our bones splintered from the immense pressure.

I tried to make an exploding spell, but he moved far quicker than me, simply snuffing it out with his hand before the circle had even started to form. The fucker saw that I had used speed against him and had countered it with this armour. Yul tried to activate a healing spell, pulling on the bits of magic from the mech-control bracelet and he snuffed it out with ease too. Even both of us working together were no match for a high Archmage in power armor.

Zimmerman grinned, his white, sharpened teeth matching the rest of his skeletal, pale face. His divine eye looked into one of my eyes then at the other. The artifact was reading Valerianne’s thoughts, extracting her memories, learning everything of value. In the very same instance I felt that it had mentally crushed, overwhelmed and paralyzed her personality into inaction. Damn it all!

"Deliquesce!" His hand snapped out towards the closet where Decessander hid. The Dream mage died with a scream as the wardrobe and his body melted, bonds between atoms comprising both coming apart.

June lay passed out on the floor. I was now alone against an Archmage.

“Deconstruct eximius!” He said pointing at me. My clothes sheared into a thousand unconnected threads. The protection artifacts shattered into the parts that had once comprised them. Only the mech-control bracelet ring remained unbroken. It sparked and burned on my wrist, refusing to submit to his deconstruction spell.

“It should have been obvious when I first saw you, but I had figured you out in time. A strong Void spirit within a weakling healer. Two minds for the price of one.” He remarked, his speed slowing down enough for him to taunt me. “Our Academy had never succeeded at inserting a spirit into a human being. Ordinarily, one of such subjects dies, depending on their level.”

The divine eye snapped to my broken wrist, examining it. “Ah, you do not feel pain. Not the best defence, I would say. A bit masochistic, if anything. Let me show you the folly of your ways.”

“Expergiscimini-Morsus!” Zimmerman spoke. The spell circle he made consisted of a high level cognizance and pain spells intertwined into one. When it connected with me all of my nerves ignited. I did not faint because the first part of this spell was forcing me to stay conscious while the pain spell burned through my nerves. The pain to pleasure converter matrix I had constructed within Yul’s brain disintegrated under the Baron's onslaught. I drowned in an ocean of pain, unable to pass out, unable to escape.

“I must confess, I find guilty pleasure in dismantling you, spirits!” He laughed. “Do not think of yourself as so special, Voidkin. The Academia of Magic laboratories keep many creatures such as yourself bound. You’ll find plenty of your kin in our catacombs. You’re certainly rare, but just like the rest of them you are merely a beastie formed from energy and information, a sentient construct akin to a living book. I will enjoy dissecting you personally.” He boasted as I thrashed on the floor.