The moment the cocoon shattered, silence broke.
The white void stirred. Its energy, once formless and passive, surged forward like starving beasts denied prey for countless ages.
And their prey was him.
Jake's awareness froze as the flood rushed toward him. The sensation was suffocating. It was as though he had been thrown into the center of a starving wolf pack—dozens of hungry eyes upon him, claws and fangs ready to tear him apart.
Fear pierced deeper than thought. He wanted to scream, to run, to fight—but in this place, there was nothing he could do.
He tried.
He willed himself to move, to twitch, to escape even a fraction of an inch. But the void mocked him. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't move. Not his legs. Not his arms. Not even the shape of his soul. He was trapped in place, bound by a reality where movement itself was meaningless.
The realization sank into him like ice.
I… can't… move.
The truth hollowed him out. Resistance gave way to dread, and dread gave way to resignation. His frantic thoughts slowed. His fear dulled.
Perhaps… there was no point in fighting.
Slowly, as though surrendering to inevitability, he shut his eyes. If this was the end, then so be it.
The void answered.
The pale energy descended in a storm, wrapping around him, devouring him from every side. His soul was smothered in the whiteness, swallowed by the eternal hunger that had been waiting for this very moment.
And Jake Virell was consumed.
The void swallowed him whole.
Jake's soul was drowned in the violent flood of white energy. It coiled around him like a predator, smothering, tearing, devouring. His awareness twisted under its grip, sensations warping into something beyond pain.
Jake's soul convulsed.
The void energy ripped into him mercilessly, shredding at his essence. It was a sensation beyond comprehension—like being torn apart a thousand times, yet never truly breaking.
Was it pain?Was it numbness?
He couldn't tell.
It was both and neither, a paradox of torment. He felt everything and nothing all at once. His essence screamed, but he had no voice. His form recoiled, but he had no body.
He was simply… consumed.
It was worse.
The energy wasn't clawing at his body—he had no body—it was tearing at his very essence. Every flicker of thought, every fragment of what made him him, was being consumed. Piece by piece, Jake Virell was vanishing.
Slowly, his consciousness dimmed. His eyes—or the illusion of them—felt heavy.
Maybe… this is it.
The thought drifted gently through his fading awareness.
Let's… meet again… in the next life…
And with that, he let go.
But fate was crueler than he realized. He didn't know that once the void consumed his soul essence, there would be nothing left to meet again. No rebirth. No afterlife. Nothing. Oblivion.
He had already surrendered. Already accepted the end.
Until—
A light.
Not from outside, but from within.
Blurry, half-forgotten memories surfaced like fragments of a dream. Among them, a single figure shone brightest.
A girl.
Her beauty was timeless, like a masterpiece drawn by the gods themselves. Midnight silk hair cascaded down her waist, shimmering faintly even in memory. Eyes the color of a summer sky, bright and untamed, looked at him with mischief and warmth. Her lips curved into a faint smile, playful and knowing, as though she held the world's secrets and chose only to share them with him.
Her laughter echoed—clear, melodic, like wind chimes stirred by a gentle breeze. Her every step was grace, her every motion poetry. She was a flower in bloom, a star in the night sky, radiant, unforgettable.
Jake's fading consciousness trembled.
I… know her.I have to… see her again.
The void clawed deeper, trying to smother even this fragment of hope. But Jake's will flared.
No. Not yet. Not like this.
Strength surged where there had been none. His fading essence ignited, no longer trembling but resisting. The void energy that had pressed so violently against him shuddered.
It was as if his willpower had formed a barrier stronger than the cocoon.
The void roared, endless and hungry, trying to consume his consciousness. But Jake's determination burned brighter, refusing to be extinguished. The white flood recoiled, unable to breach him.
And then—he turned it.
Jake realized something terrifying, yet empowering. The void attacked his consciousness first. That meant… he could strike back.
The same energy that tried to consume him—he could consume it.
His will surged again. Where once he had been prey, he now became the predator. He bit into the void itself, pulling its essence into himself.
For the first time since the cocoon shattered… Jake wasn't being devoured.
Jake's eyes—those that did not exist, yet somehow did—snapped open.
The suffocating whiteness still surrounded him, wrapping him like chains, but something was different. The pain, the tearing, the numbing consumption—it was gone.
The void energy no longer harmed him.
For a moment he simply floated, bewildered. Then clarity struck like lightning.
It… doesn't attack the body.It attacks the consciousness.
That was the truth. It gnawed at awareness, devoured thought itself, and once that was gone, the soul would collapse.
When the void had first descended, fear had already killed him before it touched him. Fear of death, of helplessness, of not even being able to move—he had surrendered, and the energy nearly swallowed him whole.
But then came those fragments. Those blurry memories. The laughter, the girl, the whispers of Thousand Worlds. His own past adventures, broken but burning like sparks in the dark. They pulled him back from the edge, stitched his will together when everything else was failing.
That was why he survived.
"...So that's it," Jake whispered—or thought he did. "I lost a piece of myself in those few seconds. A fragment of my soul… devoured."
It was the cost of letting go, even for a breath.
But he was back. His consciousness intact, his will burning fiercer than before.
Yet the void wasn't done with him.
The energy swirled closer, refusing to retreat, wrapping tighter around his form. It did not pierce him now, but pressed against him, surrounding him on all sides like a storm waiting for the moment to strike.
And Jake realized—
This wasn't the end.
This was only the beginning.