Void Spawn - A litrpg adventure fantasy

Everyone fell silent at Aphemis's remark. It was true. The Church of Light only accepts disciples with light affinities. So far they've never truly doubted how they have so many light soldiers, considering the church had been standing for thousands of years.

However, now that they have connected the potential target of the church, this contradiction revealed itself.

There couldn't have been enough light affinity children within the Starfall event. Sure, these were kids with great talents and potential, with some possessing unique elements.

"Perhaps they're there to kill the non-light-affined children?" Icarius asked. "That way, not only can they send a message but also lower the number of potential warriors in the future."

Nova's brows furrowed. "That could be the reason."

"It could be..." Aphemis muttered.

Listening to this, Samael's eyes lowered on the floor as he looked back on the crazy mage in the laboratory.

"What is it, boy?" Ishkar asked.

The rest of the High Table leaders switched their gazes upon Samael, awaiting his response in silence.

"The laboratory I was in had dozens, if not hundreds, of children. Some did not possess elements, and some did," Samael recalled, a frown present on his visage. "But I can tell you now, there were no light echoes, none at all."

"What are you insinuating?" Nova leaned closer.

"The mage then kept pursuing something. Every day new batches of children were sent for his own experiments, some too grotesque," Samael muttered. "I think the answer to our questions lies in that lab."

"Where is it then?" Aphemis asked, her figure bolting upwards as she slowly approached Samael.

"I burnt it to the ground." Samael's jaw clenched tight as he remembered the flickering flames and smoke rising in the air.

Everyone's faces dropped in dismay.

"Then our lead is gone." Icarius leaned back with a sigh.

"I would like to return there." Samael shifted his gaze towards Icarius.

"Are you sure?" Ajax asked.

"I am," Samael nodded. "It's time to dig back what I buried ages ago."

***

After further discussion, Samael formed an alliance with Aphemis. Considering the lab was located in the crimson forest meant that it was within her territory.

Learning this, Aphemis went on a small rampage. Not only were the enemies under her nose, but they dared to trespass near her domain. But what truly fuelled her rage was the fact that she didn't know any of it.

She had been exposing her granddaughter to the elements all along. Perhaps that was how they knew where to ambush Samael and Lilith in the first place.

Lilith herself was shaken by this revelation. She had gone multiple times in the crimson forest with her grandmother. Yet never once did the thought appear in her head that the enemy was already there to begin with.

Before the High Table meeting ended, Icarius declared a state of martial law for now. All sanctuaries were going on lockdown with their defences fortified.

There was some uproar for a while, especially after the people learnt of what happened in Oros. Fuelled by fear of these "terrorist" attacks, the people swiftly ran back home and locked themselves away, vacating the streets entirely.

Due to this, the martial law efforts did not take much effort. Without resistance, the regime was passed right away.

Security measures were doubled down, and machines of war were finally on full production efforts. New defences were introduced with the help of the blueprints Samael and his cohorts bought back.

Meanwhile, Samael's feet left trails of echo in the air as he found himself surrounded by crimson leaves and lowering trees.

He was back. Once more.

However, another set of footsteps followed close as a pale white hand held Samael's hand, clutching tightly as their fingertips intertwined.

"Are you okay?" Lilith whispered.

Samael shifted his gaze upon the woman as he nodded, letting off a small smile. "I'm fine. Let's continue."

For the sake of safety, Aphemis trailed the two as they delved deeper and deeper within the confines of the forest.

As time slowly went on its long parade, they finally found themselves in a familiar place.

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It was the place Lilith and her grandmother used to always visit. Now, as the woman looked upon the falling leaves, only dread and a sense of unease remained.

Samael squeezed the woman's hand as he continued forward, leading her further.

It didn't take much longer as they arrived at a massive barren crater, one that stretched to the chasms below.

This was where Samael found the fragment. Beneath large rocks and ruins. This was where he forged his new future.

The beginning.

"My grandmother said a suicidal attack of the Omens caused this large rift. However, it seems to be larger than what she described." Lilith's voice left melodic trails in the air as another voice chimed in.

"That is because it is larger," Aphemis added, startling the woman as her lips pursed forward. "I assume you know the reason, Samael." The woman's gaze landed on the man.

Samael's eyes remained fixed on the depths below. "Yes..."

"What happened down there?" Lilith asked as her brows raised. "B-but you don't have to answer."

A small smile formed on Samael's lips. He could not hide things from her.

"My element is the Void."

Aphemis's and Lilith's eyes widened as both formed a frown.

"Void? You do not possess an element?" Aphemis asked.

"No, my element is the Void." Samael raised his hand as black matter began to materialise on his palms.

Lilith's eyes slowly gravitated to the black matter swivelling in the air as she reached out. Seeing this, Aphemis felt threatened as she tried to reach for the girl's wrist when Samael raised his hand, stopping her.

"It's okay, I allow it." Samael nodded as Aphemis retracted her hand back.

As Lilith's hand touched the black matter, it pulsed for a moment before wrapping itself around the girl's fingers, causing her to giggle as the energy began to coil around her body like a dog.

"How fascinating..." Aphemis muttered as she carefully watched the dark matter. She had not seen anything nor heard of such an element. That only meant two things.

It was either a newly discovered element.

Or something extremely ancient and rare that no one else had gotten before.

Either way, both were extremely unheard of. This connected many of the questions Aphemis had before. But to think that there was actually something below the crimson forest baffled her.

This land was procured by her family thousands of years ago. Yet her parents told her no mention whatsoever of the things below.

It seems she will have to dig deeper in their history.

"Let us proceed," Aphemis said as she marched forward.

Pulling Lilith with him, Samael followed Aphemis as he tracked down by memory the path he and Lilith took.

Each step they took was reminiscent of their first meet and adventure. All the lessons, the hardships and how far they've grown from the kids they were back then.

Now Samael was no longer a mundane human with no powers but rather a saint with the capability to fight transcendents. Now they hold each other not as friends but as lovers and comrades in arms.

As they marched through the vast crimson forest, they even went past the cave they once called home.

Entering the abode, Samael gently ran his fingers across the drawings on the stone wall. Each one held a memory of the past.

"I remember these," Lilith muttered as she rested her head on Samael's shoulder. "I miss those days."

Samael smiled as he wrapped his arms around the woman. "Me too."

After their short stop, they soon began to see signs of the lab as Samael finally pieced together where it was.

Sniffing the path forward, Samael soon found himself standing before a blackened building hidden within the forest. If it weren't for his tracking abilities, he wouldn't have found the area.

"This is the place," Samael's gaze trembled for a moment. It felt as though it was yesterday that this place was burning in front of his eyes. Now it was nothing but a husk.

"It seems to be fully intact." Aphemis crossed her arms as she looked upon the structure. "Perhaps because it was a lab, it had some structural engineering done to it for scenarios like this."

"Perhaps", Samael muttered. "Let's go in."

Approaching the metal doors, Samael remembered how he hastily tried to unlock the metal padlocks during his escape. Now, he was entering back in.

Pushing the metal door forward, Samael made his way inside as he looked upon the charred but otherwise intact hallway before him.

"You've spent your life here?" Lilith asked as she held Samael's hand tighter.

"It was all in the past," Samael reassured the girl as he strode forward.

Checking the rooms as he did before, the bodies of the children massacred back then remained in their same position, with a few scattered around and turned to bone dust.

Now he felt nothing but pity for them. No more disgust. He had gotten too used to violence.

"Awful," Aphemis whispered.

Marching onwards, Samael eventually reached the office of the mad scientist as they went in.

Searching the area, Samael soon discovered a variety of files in his drawers. Folders of them stacked cleanly within the cabinets.

"Case report on Subject 1134," Samael read as he opened the file, a frown etched upon his visage as he saw the picture of a child around 5 or 6 years of age, chained to the floor with both feet and hands, stitches present upon the chest cavity of the kid along with rods impaling his body.

"What the fuck..." Samael muttered to himself. "Test reports yielded futile results. Will try a different approach and device recalibration."

"What are these?" Aphemis spoke out loud. "It seems they were attempting something but kept failing."

Delving further into the man's stash, Samael soon found a large binder. Opening the journal, Samael read the capitalised title. ,

"Project Illumination."

Aphemis turned to the boy. "Looks like we found it."

Reading through the file, even Aphemis, who had seen all manners of monstrosity and evil, couldn't help but grimace at the contents of the scientist named Bernard.

It detailed the objective of Project Illumination to synthetically implant a dunamis core that had been modified to take in light energy. Allowing the host an affinity to the light element itself.

It showed a variety of past records of how they tried to approach the concept, with some starting at their studies and understanding of Dunamis all the way to ripping apart the existing core of a child while it is dormant to replace it with the new one.

It was evil beyond anything they had witnessed.

It defiled the natural order of things and violated the sanctity of human bodies. This wasn't a pursuit of simple knowledge but a destructive obsession.

"This failed," Samael said. "He never made it."

"What? But they've clearly made progress with the omens. Now it makes sense why those assassins possess murky light affinities," Aphemis mentioned. "How could they have failed?"

Samael fell silent as the next words he spoke deafened everyone in the room.

"I killed Bernard."

Aphemis's gaze lowered to the binder. "I see..."

"Then that must mean there are still other labs out there?" Lilith asked.

"It seems that way," Aphemis nodded.

Samael felt his blood boil as he wouldn't dare imagine the torture hundreds, if not thousands, of children had gone through in pursuit of this cursed knowledge. Seeing how this was only one of the many, the collateral may very well number in the millions.

Moving forward, Samael made his way towards the cells, where he soon stood before a rusted metal jail cell.

Looking down, he stared upon the dead corpse of the mage, its hand holding its throat.

Lilith hugged Samael's back as she couldn't bear to look at the dead mage. Her anger might make her do something to this place.

Reaching out, Samael slowly disintegrated the bones of the mage, leaving not even ash in his wake.

It was done.