The Walker Of Voids

[Incinerate]

*Fwoosh*

*BOOM*

A tsunami of blue and orange flames left Lloyds palm and enveloped the creature before, yet for an instant, everyone saw those very flames dim, becoming pitch black before returning to their previous color.

Due to Lloyd's killing intent exploding out in every direction within a split second, it could not fully avoid being hurt as it was a few seconds too late in activating its ability to absorb the flames.

However, while it might have been hurt by the flames, especially when they had suddenly become black and several times stronger and more ferocious, in the end, Lloyd was nothing but a half-step first commandment with very little true fighting experience, as well as minimal training from experienced fighters.

His father never had time to train him since he was always in the military until recently, while even though his mother could have taught him instead since many would have considered her just as strong as her husband, she was thoroughly against the idea of Lloyd learning how to fight an early age.

And all those past decisions came down to this moment, where Lloyd was fighting against a berserk beast that, despite being injured, would do everything to kill him.

'Shi-' Lloyd couldn't even finish the thought as he was instantly rammed by the creature, and in what felt like the time between one blink and another, Lloyd had flown past Hime and Veronica, both of which paused to watch the scene of Lloyd smashing through trees before hitting a particularly sturdy one and losing consciousness.

***

*Smack Smack*

Opening his eyes again, Lloyd squinted out of instinct after looking up at a light that beamed into his eyes.

The last thing he remembered was a tsunami of pain all over his body before everything turned to black, yet now when he opened his eyes, he could not help but feel extremely energized, to the point where he felt like he could run a hundred laps around his city without breaking a sweat.

However, before he could delve deeper into his fantasies of running an awakened marathon, he was snapped back to reality by the stinging pain that was the reason for his waking up. A stinging pain that radiated from his cheeks and nowhere else.

"Hey, Hime! I think the hes awake." A melodious and soothing voice entered Lloyd's ears, and despite the rash use of words, Lloyd felt like his body was going into a tranquil state.

Just when he was going to close his eyes again and fall into a deep slumber, the face of an angel entered his line of view, making a smile reflexively stretch across his face while his eyes glazed over.

"Angel? Am I in heaven?" Lloyd asked with a euphoric smile on his face.

"No... You're in my tent, and I need you out in the next 30 minutes or so." Despite the voice remaining the same, Lloyd's expression immediately morphed into a grimace.

"Oh... Its only you." Lloyd sighed as his voice changed from one at peace to one that had been hardened by the infinite trials of war.

"Why do you sound disappointed..." A vein bulged on Veronica's forehead while her words were laced with anger.

How could he switch up that quickly? Did he not find her attractive? Nonsense. Everyone in the world found her attractive. She had thousands of suitors!

"I expected an angel, yet I found myself looking into the eyes of the devil's incarnate." Lloyd sneered while Veronica's patience dwindled.

"Get out." She muttered, yet despite Lloyd's wanting to argue a little more, he knew that saying any more would aggravate Veronica enough to hit him.

'I'd rather not die.' Lloyd thought to himself before getting up and leaving the tent with his coat in his hand.

"As Lloyd left Veronica's tent, he bumped against a figure that caused his head to bounce while allowing him to look up and look into the eyes of the person he had just run into.

'Explains the bounce.' he thought before smiling.

"Hey, Hime. What's up?" Lloyd asked.

"You've been unconscious for hours, yet you seem completely fine." She narrowed her eyes.

"I'm running on adrenaline. The first thing I saw when I awoke was Veronica's face, so try to imagine the scare I got when her blood-red eyes locked with mine. I still get chills when I think of how she was about to stick her fangs into my neck." Lloyd replied while shuddering.

"Oh really?" Hime asked.

"Yeah."

"Then how about you explain the cracks in your skin." Hime's eyes flashed with a hint of red as she analyzed Lloyd's body language to look for even the briefest hints of lying.

However, instead of lying, gaslighting, or changing the subject like Hime expected, Lloyd did the complete opposite.

"Miss... Everyone has their secrets." Lloyd's voice was monotone, and his aura had completely changed. At the same time, his eyes were hollow and empty, as if there was no soul behind those eyes that stared directly into her soul.

"Even you do... However, the difference between the two of us isn't just our secrets, but its the fact that one of us chooses to mind their own business, while the other is choosing to snoop." Lloyd spoke, his eyes never breaking contact with Hime's, yet at the same time, it felt like he wasn't even looking into her eyes but into something beyond it...

Hime's face scrunched up in an expression she would not have been capable of recognizing if she had looked into a mirror.

"Oh, well. Let's keep this as our little secret, alright?" Lloyd smiled, his emotionless persona disappearing as easy and as fast as the flick of a switch, a characteristic of his that sent a shiver down Hime's.

As Lloyd began to leave, Hime called out-

"Oh. Uhm, there is a tent meeting in an hour. Please be there." She asked with a noticeable shudder in her voice that even she recognized as she spoke.

"Sure... I'll be there," Lloyd replied before waving at her and leaving to set up his tent; however, despite both of them seeming mostly collected on the outside, they were both inwardly screaming the same thing.

'What the f*ck was that!?'

***

An hour passed in what felt like a blink of an eye as Lloyd found himself opening his eyes once again after having them closed for the past hour as the sound of an alarm rang in his ear.

He had been meditating for the past hour, trying his hardest to find a way to absorb the space element into his purple rune, yet no matter what he did, the only way that seemed to work was by injuring himself, something he was not particularly keen in doing especially after realizing how low his pain tolerance was compared to others he knew.

'You'd think I would develop a bigger tolerance to pain after almost dying, almost dying again, dying, being scorched alive, and being beaten up by different monsters, but apparently not.' Lloyd thought before the image of purple runes infesting his skin and scorching him alive sent a shiver down his spine.

"I should get going. I'd rather not have Hime shout at me again. That was terrifying." Lloyd muttered to himself with a grimacing expression, but after thinking for a moment, he could not help but recall what happened the last time he had talked to her.

'It was as if I had suddenly activated [4-Dimensional Thought], but even then, it felt a lot more intense than the last time I did it. And what the hell did I mean when I said that I knew her secret?

I sounded so convincing I even convinced myself that she had a secret that I knew, but now when I try to think of what it was, I just get a headache...' Lloyd scratched his head before shrugging.

"Oh well. That's a problem for tomorrow's Lloyd. Today, I have to get through that meeting of theirs without going to sleep." Lloyd chuckled while grabbing his jacket and wearing it on the way out.

It took him less than a minute to walk to the larger tent in the middle of the camp, and since he hadn't taken any time to appreciate his surroundings, he took this one-minute walk to see everything around their camp.

'I can't see any traces of our previous battle, so we must be a couple hundred meters away from the last location, or possibly more... The place seems nice, but we are at the top of a hill, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

While being on top of a hill makes it easier to see any incoming enemies that come out of the forest around us, it also targets us, not allowing us to blend in with the trees, not that the giant dome around our camp helped with that in any way.' Lloyd thought before snapping out of his trance when he found himself in front of the tent.

Several voices could be heard behind the tent, and Lloyd was certain they most likely didn't sense him coming.

Not wanting to snoop outside for too long just to get caught, Lloyd parted the curtain and entered the tent as a wave of warmth spilled onto his body.

However, the following words he would exchange with the group would not fill him with the same warmth.

"Oh good, you're finally here." Roderick let out an awkward smile before continuing-

"Alright, let's get this over and done with. After watching your battle yesterday, we all took a vote and kind of realized that you are very bad at fighting, yet since you are going to be in our group for god knows how long, we took another vote and came to a decision...

Each and everyone one of us will be training you in different aspects of fighting to ensure that your chances of survival are as high as possible while ensuring that you won't be a burden on us.

Is that understood?" Roderick asked at the end with a smile that slightly agitated Lloyd, but from how everyone looked at him, Roderick's question only had one real answer.

"Yes... Sir..."