It was cold and dark. So dark. Dry, rubbled dirt and rock covered the land, stretching out for miles upon endless miles. It disappeared into the darkness. All roads led to nowhere. All paths ended in nothingness. The only semblance of structure was what lay directly in front: a ravine that sank down into the deepest depths. It was an endless abyss that felt as though it was always pulling you in. It was alluring. It was tempting. It was frightening. It was familiar.

So that’s where I am, Vincent thought to himself.

Those thoughts bounced through the space around him, echoing the words from his mind into reality. He ignored them. Instead, he chose to stand up and walk over to the edge of the ravine and look down. It certainly hadn’t changed since the last time. Or, maybe, it was a bit darker.

Even so, he continued to stare into it, wondering why he was there. Whatever came before this was lost in his mind. In fact, the more he stared into the abyss below, the more he forgot. He would think less and less. Those racing, aching thoughts that always plagued him would be silent. It was nice. He could finally stop worrying. He thought that everything would be better if it was always like this. Freedom would come when there was nothing left—eternal darkness. Eternal nothingness. He just had to jump in. He just had to commit. Just commit. Just commit.

Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit. Commit.

“Welcome back, it’s been a while,” a voice gently said, snapping him out of the trance.

Looking beside him, he found a white, vaguely humanoid shape standing there.

“Oh, what’s up, Alltemiac?” Vincent said.

“You seem to be stuck, searching for answers.”

Vincent kicked the dirt a bit. “I mean, I guess. I just…” He paused. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do or what I’m supposed to be. I-I’m the Chosen but it just doesn’t feel like it. I feel like I’m worthless. I feel like I’m—”

“Nothing,” Alltemiac said, finishing his sentence. “I understand that. Trust me, I understand that better than you think.”

Vincent cocked his head at them and then looked at the empty space around him. His eyes casually drifted from one patch of black to the next, occasionally seeing what seemed to be a twinkle before he blinked and it would be gone.

“Who even are you?” he asked.

There was a moment of silence before Alltemiac answered. “I am someone who is trapped in a way that you cannot fathom just yet. But for now, just know that I am someone who is here to support you in order to make you stronger.”

“That didn’t really answer my question, dingus.”

“You’ll understand. We’ll be meeting sooner than you think.”

“Whatever.”

Vincent then paced around for a few seconds, taking slow, intentional breaths. For some reason, he felt oddly calm in this space. He always did. All of the stress, thoughts, emotions, and other burdensome things were left outside. In here, he was truly himself, or so he thought.

“So what am I supposed to do? Why am I here?” Vincent asked.

Alltemiac walked over to him. “It seems that you’re at a crossroads,” they said. “You’ve already come so far. Learning to resonate is a great start, but now you have to unlock the true depth of your power.”

Vincent looked at them. “What the hell does that mean?”

“You know what I mean.” They placed a finger on his forehead. “You still hold back on fully committing to those words. There’s still hesitant warmth in your mind. Let it go. Let it all come out. Truly embody the nothingness that you are.”

Vincent swiped the finger away and took a step back. “Screw off. I ain’t nothing. I know who I am.”

“Do you?”

There was a pause. Vincent wanted to fire back an insult, but nothing came to mind. For whatever reason, Alltemiac’s words rang in his mind, echoing in the space around him.

The white silhouetted being continued their thought. “I’m not saying it in a bad way. Quite the opposite. If you want to be able to save this world, you have to embrace the isolation.”

“But…but it doesn’t feel right.”

“It will in time. You just have to get used to it. In fact, it’s selfish to not isolate yourself and embrace the void.”

Vincent’s eyebrow raised. “What?”

“Think about it,” Alltemiac commented. “You drug your friends along and put them in great danger. And now when you have the chance to be strong enough to protect them, you refuse. If you continue this half-assed resolve, your mind will never evolve to where it needs to be. If you truly want to keep your friends safe, you need to distance yourself from them and let go of all that you care about.”

Vincent walked over to the edge of the ravine and stared downward. The longer he looked, the more it seemed it stared back at him.

“I don’t…” Vincent hesitated. “I don’t know if I can.”

Alltemiac joined him at the ledge. “I’m not asking you to fully commit. I just want you to take the first step. Just reach a hand out.”

“Just reach a hand out,” Vincent repeated.

He kneeled down and stared longingly into the abyss. The remaining thoughts in his head raced, screaming at him to leave. But he remained. He didn’t know why, but something inside of him yearned for the darkness—it pleaded to be one with it. While he wouldn’t give his entire self to it, he decided to take the first step.

It was a choice that one could not come back from.

As he reached out, the darkness of the abyss clung to his arm. He tried to pull his arm away with his other hand, but that too became enveloped in darkness. And then a solemn calm washed over him. It was peaceful. It was oddly serene. He saw and heard and thought of nothing. All memories, feelings, and thoughts began to flow out his mind, leaving him with nothing but black.

The final thought that left his mind was: There’s a cold spot in my heart. There’s empty space in my mind. And they’re growing. How have I not realized it until now? I’m truly becoming…nothing.

***

In the public square in front of Big Ben, a massive cluster of rubble lay bare. Piles of metal, broken stone, and wood covered the entirety of the once-open space. Dust continued to rise and settle. All seemed to calm as Archard looked down at the ruin that he created.

“A small price to pay, I suppose,” he said, his face obscured by shadow.

He continued to look down at the city he ruled, letting his eyes scan all the way back to the orange horizon. His mind continued to buzz and he felt all of the hairs on his body still sticking up. The static that coursed through and eventually became his body had not yet subsided. In times like that, he often just had to look toward the sky to turn off his awakened powers. It was the only thing that he knew was above him.

Just as he felt his body begin the process of returning to normal, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. He snapped his attention over in that direction. In the middle of the rubble, a rock tumbled from the top.

With narrowed eyes, Archard thought, Hmmm, must just be a loose section.

But then another rock tumbled. And then another. And another. Suddenly, like dynamite was just set off, the center of the rubble erupted, flinging stone and metal upward. Where rubble once sat, there was now a massive black sphere. It looked almost two-dimensional, seeing as no light could penetrate it.

Immediately, Archard began to resonate and Awaken his powers again. Sparks of electricity danced around his body. His mind thrummed; his body vibrated; his muscles flexed. All of his attention and focus was trained exclusively on this new threat.

Wait, this is familiar. These waves…it can’t be…

The void-like sphere began to disintegrate, but rather than quickly disappearing, it slowly fell apart. The void split into two and melted downward, revealing what it concealed. Standing in the middle of the void was Vincent Huron. His deadened eyes were staring directly up at Archard as the splitting void latched itself to his sides. Where there were once human arms, there were now black, void-like arms that moved fluidly and without definite shape. Like veins of growing tattoos, the void part of the arms reached up like tendrils, stopping just short of his head.

“How are you still alive?” Archard yelled. “What has happened to your body?”

Vincent’s eyes glanced down to black arms and then back up to Archard. “I took the first step,” he said, his voice cold and devoid of most emotion.

Those arms… Archard thought, a bit of sweat dripping from his forehead. They’ve begun to become voids. That and the fact that his waves are more consistent than before spell it out for me. But it should be impossible. How can someone like him possibly be capable of doing this?

He shook his head. “Look at your half-assed attempt to Awaken. I told you that you could never compete with me. I bet you don’t even know what you’re doing!”

Without breaking eye contact, Vincent solemnly replied, saying, “You’re right. I don’t. All I know is nothing—it is what I am and what I always need to be.”

The moment he said that, his mental waves erupted out of his body, causing the ground around him to quake and crack. It was a contradictory sight, to say the least. The calm, almost demonic-like zen face of Vincent seemed unfazed by the massive surge of power. For the first time in a long time, a shiver fell down Archard’s spine.

The Godfather nervously gulped, his mental waves hesitating for just a moment. “What you are is a tool. Don’t go thinking that this new form makes you any more than that. I’m the strongest here. I’m the freest. I am MAGNETISM!”

He clapped his hands together. “Conjoin!”

All at once, multiple pieces of rubble shot toward Vincent, as if they were all drawn to him. Small rocks, bent lamp posts, and sides of collapsed buildings all rushed in to smother him. However, they never made it to him. While still looking up into Archard’s eyes, Vincent's arms shifted and changed shape. They grew into massive claws that caught the rubble and crushed it into dust.

“This darkness that envelops my arms, it’s not like most darkness,” Vincent said, his arms retracting back to look more human-like. “It’s a void that will consume you and I. It’s something that’s more twisted and hollow than the darkness we’ve always seen. It’s a type of black that nothing can escape from…not even me.”

The pupils in Vincent’s eyes grew larger and larger, eventually consuming the entirety of them. There was no color anymore to those eyes; nothing but black remained in them now.

“You want to know what this power is called?” Vincent asked. “This power is death. This power is nothing. This power is…Altered Black.”