The Walker Of Voids

Lloyd had never felt so much pain in his entire life.

Or so he would have said, yet for some reason, the training he was currently going through felt slightly lame, or at least mediocre.

With Veronica's hand hovering over his general area, Lloyd felt waves of pain shoot through his body and put him in one of the worst pain he had ever felt in his life.

Yet, unlike Veronica's expectations of him reaching a snapping point where she would be forced to stop, she found that Lloyd was dealing with it much better than she had expected.

On the other hand, Lloyd hated every bit of it, yet at the back of his mind, a voice constantly told him that at least it wasn't as bad as using [Void Channel].

Yet, it was painful, and yes, Lloyd was writhing on the ground in pain while screaming like a little girl, but it wasn't nearly as bad as [Void Channel] that seared his skin and branded it with an unbearable pain closely followed by the fear of death and horribly deep desperation that slowly crawled through his body at that moment.

Veronica's logic was that she could kill three birds with one stone by using the same method to tackle all three of Lloyd's problems.

She could increase his pain tolerance by making him feel a lot of pain. She could tackle the anger problem by training Lloyd to not be enraged and to keep a calm mind whenever he feels pain, and finally, she can increase the power of Lloyd's killing intent by making him feel unbearable pain for prolonged periods.

While Lloyd hadn't really felt the difference after leaving his latest Void walk, his killing intent skyrocketed in power due to the pain and trauma he had gone through. He didn't feel the difference simply because of his [Monarch's aura].

His aura had always been powerful, but when it's so much higher than everything else he has, it becomes harder to feel the difference. Of course, the other reason was that he had recently been hanging around many strong people lately, making his killing intent and aura obsolete in front of their much higher commandments, experience, and wills.

Veronica's 'training' carried on for several hours, and by the end of it, Lloyd found himself sprawled on the ground, panting and gasping for air as the pain continued to radiate throughout his body even after Veronica had stopped.

"Are you okay?" Veronica asked, this time sounding genuinely worried for Lloyd, yet in Lloyd's pain-filled mind, her voice sounded almost mocking.

"I've never wanted to punch someone in the face more than I do right now." Lloyd muttered to himself, his body spasming every now and then as if a jolt of electricity was moving through it.

"That's not a nice thing to say." Veronica pouted.

"F*ck... You!" Lloyd roared with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Its okay... Don't cry little baby." She mocked while holding him close to her chest, something that was no longer uncomfortable or even painful since she had taken off her armor and had simply worn the black garment underneath it.

Before Lloyd could resist any further, he felt his head land upon a soft surface. As if it was laying upon the softest clouds in the universe, his eyelids became extremely heavy before darkness swiftly overtook his vision, and he fell into a deep slumber before he knew what was happening.

"Good thing I stopped 3 hours early. I'm sure he'll need the sleep." She muttered to herself while staring at the black-haired boy who lay on her lap. One of her hands slowly stroked his head while the other hand moved his hair away from his face, giving her a good look at him.

The temptation to try and suck some of his blood almost overtook her for an instant, but she was able to shake her head and calm herself down down.

'Blood harresment is not a joke!' she inwardly shouted at herself. She knew that there was a chance that Lloyd didn't have blood, but that didn't stop higher vampires like her from sucking on a person's mana instead, something that was actually more efficient than consuming mana-rich blood since the conversion rate was not the same.

***

"You awake?" Veronica asked as Lloyd slowly opened his eyes.

"Yeah... Thanks-..." Lloyd thanked with a smile, yet when he saw the position he was in as well as Veronica's dreadful red eyes, his sentence stopped mid-way while his mood simultaneously worsened.

"Nevermind." Lloyd sighed before getting his head off her pillow-like lap

How long till my next session?" Lloyd asked with exhaustion in his voice.

"About 2 minutes I believe?" She answered, yet from the fact that she was scratching her cheek as she said so, Lloyd had a feeling that she didn't really know.

"Alright. Goodbye." Lloyd waved and began walking away.

"Aren't you going to thank me?!" Veronica harrumphed.

"No." Lloyd raised his middle finger before descending into his shadow and speeding away.

Since it was still nighttime and on the brink of dawn, Lloyd's shadow was moving faster than ever, allowing him to reach Tina's tent in a matter of a few seconds.

"Tina? Are you ready?" Lloyd asked.

"Oh yeah, c-come in!" She stuttered, making Lloyd raise a brow as he entered.

"If she is nervoice about even talking to me, how the hell is she supposed to train me?" Lloyd asked himself before shrugging and entering the tent.

"H-Hey... Uhm... Sit down please." Tina, she pointed towards a pillow on the ground.

"This place looks nothing like I imagined it to be." Lloyd remarked while looking around her dimensional tent.

"Y-You were imagining my tent?" She stuttered with a tinge of pink dyeing her face.

"It sounds weird if you say it lake that..." Lloyd chuckled.

"I-It does?"

"..."

"..."

Not wanting to increase the awkwardness between the two of them, Lloyd continued to look around for a moment, allowing himself to take in everything around him.

While Lloyd's tent was a standard tent for living, Tina's tent didn't feel that way in the least.

With a simple glance around, one could spot several cauldrons sitting over flames, creating a weird yet almost pleasant aroma.

Several tables with test tubes and flasks could be seen around the room, and while Lloyd expected it to be extremely messy due to her having the presence of a mad scientist, it was much cleaner than he thought it would be.

While books were left open on her tables, they were neatly aligned with everything else on the table, making it feel a lot less cluttered than it would have usually been if they weren't aligned so perfectly.

On the other hand, her study desk at the back of the tent, right next to her tiny bed, was filled with a mountain of books all stacked upon one another.

'I have no idea why, but I expected her to be a weeb.' Lloyd thought to himself before looking back at Tina, who had reached the skin color beet red. Lloyd could almost imagine smoke coming out of her ears, an image that made him chuckle slightly, which only made Tina become redder.

'I can't believe a let a guy into my room so easily.' She thought to herself.

"So, are you a human?" Lloyd asked while trying to change the subject.

"Y-Yeah, what about you?"

"As human as they come." Lloyd smiled while lying through his teeth.

"Enough chit-chat now; let's get to business, shall we."