Prologue III: Man of Void

It is her, my hands coated in charcoal touched her face. I had forgotten her. How could I have forgotten her!?

"W-Why are you here!?" I asked, angry. There could only be one answer, she chased after me. 

"That doesn't matter… it is you Ray! It is you!" Lana touched my face all over and so did I to her, she recognised me the same way I recognised her. Her smile was so broad and my relief so much that whatever anger there was, just vanished.

Her factions, every detail was the same but there was so much dirt on her that she was almost unrecognisable.

"Ray… what are we going to do?" 

It was boundless happiness that saved the soul after millions of years of emptiness, but Lana still asked the question of the million dollars, what are we going to do? we have met each other, we are together... but we're still at a dead end.

In this test, only one person will survive... and I have my answer. My mind was thinking a million miles per hour. How can I go about this? how can I conceal it long enough for her not to notice?

I took both her cheeks and kissed her so hard, I finally understood now why nothingness is so important. After millions of years of nothing… when there is finally 'something', the feeling is indescribable. 

I must save her, I must make her win this test so that she can leave this accursed place. I'm happy that she chased after me; I feel like the luckiest man alive... but she shouldn't be here. 

"I love you, Lana…"

"Mee too- what are you doing!?"

I started removing the barricade that divided us from the onslaught taking place outside, first, we had to survive the night.

"Wait here!" I yelled at her to be quiet and rushed out of the cave.

"Ray!" she chased after me but decided to heed my orders, she's always like that, obedient. 

I ran like a hunter with no reservations whatsoever and lunged at the closest walking body I found. Two men fighting each other, my original plan was to wait for whoever won the fight but we don't have time, I don't know if we have seconds or minutes left until the day is done.

I delivered a vicious and treacherous blow from the start, jumped and a single kick with my knee to the back of his head blasted his skull. The other person was surprised, so much so that he didn't see my first coming with an uppercut, he received it like a champ but several teeth blew up. He then rushed at me but I easily made him trip, he fell on the charcoal soil and I fell on top of him. 

I smashed his head against a stone repeatedly, over and over... until he stopped moving, and I was saved for the day. 

It was then that the predicament began: Am I actually saved? people in this world have three lives and even if they lose their three lives, they still remain here... which means this person may have already lost all of his lives and he is still wandering about. I can't even rely on the counter because it keeps decreasing at marginal speeds. 

It is a nightmarish test. The purpose of it is to make you kill others senselessly, I could almost hear his ominous laugh, damned Oblivion. 

With no other option, I took both 'dead' bodies and dragged them, on the way they began moving once again and struggling but I didn't want to risk killing them again if either of them still had a life left. 

Instead, I smashed both of their legs and arms, they released pained silent screams but didn't stop moving. 

I had transformed into a monster and didn't even think twice about committing the worst atrocities, all I want is for Lana to live. 

"You have to kill him, Lana!".

Once I reached the cave, I put the two bodies in front of her, they watched Lana in terror, almost understanding my purpose.

"…"

"We don't have time, hurry up! I'll hold him!"

Lana looked at me and bit her lips, "You have already killed today, right?"

"I did, so hurry up-"

"You're not lying to me, are you?!"

"I wouldn't leave you alone, until the end, Lana. Let's reach the end first and then we see what we can do, maybe we can plead..." I tried to convince her. She knows me, I know her... she's going to try to sacrifice herself for me at some point, just like me. But I have the upper end, I'm stronger than her... if necessary I'll restrain her. 

She did what I said and then I threw, killing each of them once by shocking them, I threw them out of the cave and covered it back up. At some point in the night, we both felt something washing us over, it was like a blackish energy... I don't know what that means, but I'm going to consider it as a sign that we're still both alive. 

This day we did something we promised we'd never do. But we survived the night.

I looked at the sky, the counter was still there albeit decreasing slower. In a single day, more than a hundred thousand had died, at least according to the number. 

'It is a big number, but I won't give up' I embraced Lana who remained silent, but she wasn't asleep. Her hand clutched on my waist as if she didn't want to let go, I didn't want to let go either. But I will let go for your sake. 

"Don't worry Lana, we will make it".

'You're going to survive this'.

...

After that incident, as would be expected from my girlfriend, she wasn't any more shy at the prospect of killing. She understood the game, in order to survive we have to keep killing as many as we can every day in the hopes that one of them is going to have any leftover lives. We could be doing that all day and end up killing only 'hollows', as I labelled them.

As the numbers kept decreasing, the fights turned harder. We found groups, just like us. Groups of two or three individuals together hunt others. Lana and I focused on ambushing those groups as they were the ones more likely to still have lives. 

She was not a violent person, but she would do everything I said. We were able to ambush them because they'd be focused on me and Lana would finish them off as they didn't expect her to be hiding nearby. 

I fought tooth and nail for so long and so long. Killing everything in front of me, sometimes in the most gruesome way possible to ensure survival. My whole body was tainted in darkness and so did Lana's.

Our bodies were shrouded in nothingness but our minds weren't, we were in a mission. The number in the sky kept decreasing.

2356000.

450332.

72343.

1295.

190.

10.

It was when we reached this stage that I had to be the weariest of Lana, I don't know how much time has gone by, it must be years, dozens of years. We have spent our time together in a way that I didn't expect. Closer than we were even when we were alive, loving each other regardless of the charcoal; like this was going to be the last time we would be together. 

"Just a bit more".

"What are we going to do… Ray? What if the two of us can't survive?!"

We lay naked inside of another cave, several weapons scattered across. She began divagating now that we were at this junction. I'm surprised, she had actually been fighting with the intention of saving the two of us. She had placed faith in my words back then.

But I knew the likelihood of us both surviving was very small, Oblivion... that bastard was enjoying this, he didn't care about us.

"Don't worry, we definitely can… trust me" I told her words I didn't believe and she smiled, pinning me down and going on top. We have reached very far.

"I trust you, Ray…" She began, rubbing my chest and I did the same, but as she carried on I sensed her intentions, a tear scattered out of the edge of her right eye and I saw her left hand reaching for something next to me. 

"I know you love me, I know how you are… I trusted that you will sacrifice yourself for me!"

"Lana, stop!"

She took one of the improvised knives we had made and thrust it against her throat, I was already expecting that. For the last months, no, years... I was expecting her to do something like this. 

My hand got in the way and she pierced through it, shocked at my reaction speed. She broke into tears when I turned the tables and pinned her down.

"Why, Lana!?"

"Because I know what you will do! I don't want it! I want you to live, Ray! You are so much better than me. You could have reached greater heights, you could have left a mark... even those bastards killed you because of me! You could have been so much more without me!"

She left me out of words, her tears were so genuine. When did she start thinking all that nonsense? I was nothing until I met her. 

"Lana, it's not like-"

I was interrupted by an arrow piercing my shoulder, It was so quickly I didn't see it coming.

'An arrow?!'

We were inside the cave, who could shoot an arrow here? I looked at the origin, deeper inside the cave three men were looking at us wickedly. They had been here all this time, ever since we arrived, and they never attacked?!

I tried to stand up, but the next arrow pierced Lana's chest. Those bastards had what looked like improvised crossbows. 

We both fell next to each other, looking at each other's eyes as the arrows kept coming, I panted.

"L-Lana…"

"Ray… please stand up, fight…! We fought together all this time. You can't die like this!"

She crawled through the ground, towards them... yelling.

"Kill me instead!"

It was like something inside me broke loose. I took the arrow out of her and my chest and stood up with strength I didn't even know I had. They had to come and ruin it all.

Arrows rained on me as I ran, piercing my chest, shoulder, and stomach. But I didn't stop. I reached the first one and twisted his neck, I used his disgusting flesh as a shield and reached the second one, growling like a beast I punched forth and my fist, with overbearing strength, pierced through the man's stomach. I didn't notice the dark aura that had started gathering around me.

Only one of them was barely able to give me some fight before I murdered all of them in the most gruesome manner, tearing them apart to make sure they wouldn't be standing back up.

The one that shot Lana. I tore his head apart from his torso... by the time I finished my whole body was black. Whether it be darkness, sadness, nothingness... it didn't matter. 

I was panting, shivering and afraid, we both had just one life left.

My strength was almost gone and I fell on my knees away from her, crawling back to her, she wasn't moving anymore but her eyes were looking at me, shivering... I could almost feel the life slipping away from them. That arrow had pierced her heart.

As I crawled, the tears began welling up... and I could remember every single second of our lives like a reverse movie, starting from our life here, hunting together.

'W-Why does it have to be like this...? Why does it never work the way I want it to?'

We were going to marry, we were going to have a bright future after so much hard work, plenty of kids and maybe a house and a car, her presence in my life allowed me to dream, such a simple and banal life felt like a dream as long as she was there.

"Then why? Why does this world continue to f*ck me over!?"

"It seems you're both about to die. What a pity, you were both my favourite contestants".

I heard steps next to me, walking in the direction of Lana with a pace as slow as me crawling. When I looked up, it was oblivion, his eyes shining in the darkness. 

He showed me his hand and in there, there was the counter. 

2.

"Oblivion!"

"Oblivion, please!"

We both screamed at the same time, with the very little energy we had left, a voice that mixed with the blood in our throats. 

"Save Lana!"

"Save Ray!"

Our plead slanted a vivacious laugh out of this cosmic bastard, I didn't stop my crawling... wanting to shout Lana to shut up, but my voice was gone and probably so was hers.

"Hahahaha! How interesting you are mortals, your lives make for the most worthwhile entertainment show in the multiverse. A pity for you both, but I mixed a bit of a lie in... there is no test after this... both last tests were condensed in one~"

'E-Eh?'

"I left a bit of my power in every single one of you. As you killed each other, you continued to plunder those bits of power away from each other. Right now, both of you are holding the entirety of my power inside you. But, my little Ray, your share is bigger than Lana's by nearly double, you killed a lot more after all, you're a monster of nothingness~"

My eyes shivered, "G-Give her..." 

My voice wouldn't come out, I know what's about to happen, I don't want it. He stretched his hand towards Lana, I saw her smile as he extracted his power out of her and with that... her life.

"L-Lana... Lana..."

That power floated in the form of a black miasma, towards me. I crawled away from it but I was too slow, the tears wouldn't stop. I lost her... I lost her forever.

A hand took me by my hair and lifted me up, I looked at him straight in the eye, but I believe mine weren't shining like his.

"Look at you, Ray... look at those eyes, so empty~".

"..."

As the reality sipped in, my mind just stopped working normally, I stopped thinking about everything altogether, all there was... there was so much emptiness.

All Hollow. 

The power entered me and the miasma engulfed me.

"A perfectly compatible hollow vessel. I have so many expectations for you, Ray. Once you reach the late stages of the multiversal brawl, you can come and kill me if you want. You can destroy the whole multiverse if you want. You can even end the multiversal brawl altogether, and destroy all the contestants. Who cares? It doesn't matter what the result is-"

He put me back on the charcoal soil, my eyes losing focus as Lana's figure blurred, that would be the last time I'd ever look at her, and... it would be the last time I would remain as me.

Because 'nothing' remains of me, and nothing... is also a thing. 

"All shall go back to nothingness".