A half-hour of flight derailed the Void Prince's one-track mind. Obvious considerations made themselves known, causing the psionic to hit the brakes and rethink his current trajectory.

  Zooming ahead with only a general direction is foolish. Without a map or way to track them, finding them will be nigh impossible. Not to mention that several hours have passed since they arrived. Depending on their capabilities, they could be on the other side of the realm...or dead. This place ain't no joke.

  Xyn nodded to himself as he recalled his various encounters since arriving in Machaeverosa.

  Yeah, let's change gears. There are tasks to complete. This area will work.

  Monsters and other creatures were present, but few and far between. The closest one was over four kilometres away. Interruptions were unlikely, and that's what the psionic wanted. His various projects required concentration.

  Xyn glided down onto a flat section of grassy ground. He glanced around, eyed the tall trees that glowed with various lights and cracked his knuckles.

  Those will do just fine.

  A grand multiroom lodge.

  The Void Prince’s hands were closer to an artist’s than a builder’s; this fact was reflected in the end result of his hour-long labouring – nay, crafting. Two were built, one for him and the other to house the second transmigrator.

  They were exquisite creations. Simplistic, but polished in their details. Void Cuts had split wood on an atomic level, turning the surfaces into mirrors.

  As one could guess, it was not Xyn’s first try at the activity. As a lover of primitive ways of life, he had built many such structures in his free time to use as bases. He was prolific. No less than a hundred such structures could be found in his home universe, on unnamed planets. While mostly working off memory, he still poured his heart, soul and literal bones into his creations.

  I hope they don’t mind that. Well, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

  Xyn followed up by decorating them. He filled them with personality, a warm and magical one. Cosy was the ideal he aimed for and reached. Alison's wares and trinkets were put to good use. By the end, both places gave off a lived-in vibe, homes instead of the husks they once were.

  Xyn did a final inspection of his properties. He had gone all out, and it showed. More than effort alone, the addition of magical objects, making up its construction and decoration, propelled the lodges beyond anything he had previously made. A sense of satisfaction and pride swirled within him upon completion.

  Worthy of royalty, if I do say so myself.

  Happy with the result, Xyn willed the guest lodge into his storage ring.

  Driving his mana accordingly, his mind’s eye welcomed an outline of a massive rectangular prism. He had it engulf the lodge, and with another thought, transported everything inside into his storage ring.

  So convenient, Xyn smiled. Replicating the feat with Void Vault wasn't possible. Void Vault's limit was his Soul Shroud limit, which was humble, to say the least. That said, using this brand of translocation wasn’t practical for battle, but it was perfect for these activities.

  Xyn walked up to his lodge.

  The door opened and closed at his will. He passed through the doorway, and his lips were tugged up by an invisible force. It felt good to enter his own space. The outside world didn't disappear, but some of his tension did. It was the power of home at work, an ancient magic.

  Back to the shut door, he drank in his creation. The inside was spacious without feeling too big. On his right, a kitchen area made of three islands of shelves and counters existed. On his left was a living room featuring two three-seater couches facing each other, separated by a white fur carpet and a small wooden coffee table.

  Further left and right against the wall was a fireplace, where logs were already amidst an orgy. Xyn's bedroom was in the upper left, separated from the living room by a wooden partition. An archway-shaped entrance led to it; its two doors were swung open. An emperor-sized bed was flanked by two cupboards, bearing lava lamps that bubbled with golden hues. Moving rightward, one would find a small corridor north of the kitchen area. It split off into two rooms: one at the end, and the other to the right. The former led to a storeroom and the latter led to the bathroom.

  Did Xyn need either? No. The Void Prince needed no food, shelter or water. To survive, that is. To live - as a human - was a different story.

  Xyn became Black and White. His two selves occupied Xyn's Grey Matter form. It was a rare vessel to take. Just like Dark Hollow, it worked in conjunction with another technique to produce its results. Instead of mobility, though, the Void Prince sought to enhance his intelligence.

  Xyn was a genius. No question about it. He was the winner of a genetic lottery rigged in his favour - as was much of the population of the Rose Union.

  Furthermore, he could conjure another self. Two brains running in parallel allowed the young man to perform impressive mental feats. Xyn wasn't content with that advantage. Smart as he was, he couldn't compete with automatons and that rubbed him the wrong way. So, with the help of his personally trained Sparky, he developed a technique that would elevate him to the level of a supercomputer.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Xyn could create any part of his natural human body, labelled Form 1 in his mental library. Blood, bones, urine...and importantly, brain matter. Using this ability, he created a biocomputer like no other in history. The amalgamation of brains was pyramid-shaped and as massive as one. He called the processing unit "X-8". It stood in the centre of the Void Vault. Getting it inside required significant spatial warping, but Xyn managed it in the end.

  With a thought, Xyn undid the space-time lock around it. The brains contained in the black pyramid’s casing began pulsating as a result. He admired the motions for a few seconds. The dark spec that was the entrance to Void Vault usually occupied his left-hand glove. At the moment, it was inside his chest. It expanded to three inches. A flesh cable flowed out of the hole into a circular plug.

  The motion was seamless, having been designed to fit perfectly. Xyn's consciousness briefly wavered as the connection between his vessel and X-8 was established.

  Ah, that's always a kick in the nuts, Xyn thought, clearing the disorientation away with blinks as bioelectricity raced across the man-made bridge.

  Intelligence enhanced, Black strode over to the fireplace. A lighter did the trick, and the living room took on an orange glow. Xyn stared into the flames as a purple blanket appeared from Void Vault. It had been no different than a ship's sail to his five-year-old self, but now, it barely wrapped around him. Xyn let it engulf him and curled up in front of the fireplace. On the fur rug, he resembled a caterpillar.

  Xyn had a particular fixation with heat. He could - and had spent - great spans just relaxing in front of a heater. It was his favourite pastime. That said, wasting away wasn't in his plans, at least, that wasn't the main focus. There were tasks to accomplish. Alison's phone made a reappearance.

  "Sparky. How many languages are stored on the phone?"

  {There are eight languages. They are Macheon, Econ, Vanes, Vetren, Kluvo, Banon, Treswen, and Lishnik.}

  "What language was the phone set to previously?"

  {Macheon.}

  Could have guessed that one, Xyn thought. "Okay, we'll start with that one. Compile a dictionary where Macheon and Vetren words are side by side. Tack on pronunciation and list possible nuances."

  {Right away.}

  The screen lit up as the requested doc came into being. What followed was dreadfully boring, but familiar. Xyn took in everything with a glance before moving on. What was seen was both memorised and understood. Scrolling and scrolling, not lingering on a page longer than a second. Not even thirty minutes passed before he was done. Macheon had been mastered. The other six languages were conquered with similar swiftness, one after the other.

  In modern times, the Rose Union spoke one language, but that wasn't the case in the Dark Ages. Thousands of tongues and dialects were spoken in the time before humanity became a space-faring race. Xyn, fascinated by this period of history, naturally learned the languages to better understand what it was like back then, and X-8 made that process exceedingly simple.

  While Black was doing this, White wasn't idle. He had his own task to accomplish. Taking a seat on the velvet couch, he summoned Ignis Collar and had it swirl around his wrist.

  Xyn thinned the connection between Black and White. If it was usually a rope that consisted of ten interlocked threads, it was now a single strand, on the verge of snapping. The Void Prince felt that it was best for what he was attempting to do.

  Was it dumb? Possibly. But Xyn felt it was worth it, and that's all that mattered.

  Vanta encased the golden band and hovered toward White's neck. Then, muting the voice in his head that warned him that this was a catastrophic mistake, he had Ignis Collar coil around him. Nothing happened. The layer of Void prevented the magical working from activating. Xyn took a breath and slowed his perception to its absolute limit.

  Okay, here goes nothing.

  Xyn removed a spec of Vanta from the coating. That was enough. The golden band lit up, and the binding magic rushed to turn Xyn into a glorified slave. It was lightning-quick, even in his accelerated perception. His soul was invaded; invisible chains snaked around his being. The Void Prince shook in defiance, but his resistance was bulldozed through.

  A moment separated him from a tragic fate. Recognising this, Xyn aborted the mission and himself.

  A failure, Xyn paused his reading and glanced at the couch.

  White's corpse remained as it was. Xyn was reduced to Grae, a lesser version of Grey. Escape had come at a cost. The price of a soul - White's. It was an overall good trade, but there were significant negatives. It would take three hours for him to regenerate the destroyed soul essence.

  Till then, Monochrome was deactivated, making him significantly weaker than usual. Teleporting, healing, biocreation, and a number of other abilities were inaccessible in his current state. He knew this was a possibility and was fine with it. Risk and reward often went hand in hand, after all.

  But not the end of the world. I'll try again, and again, until triumphant. Yes, one way or another, I'll break those shackles.

  Determination and humour swirled in equal parts in Xyn as he declared internally. Grae split his mind into three parts: one part to language learning, one to observe the surroundings through his Void Sense and the last to appreciate the heat massaging his front.

  Like this, day became night.

  ***

  Xyn had made a catastrophic mistake. He was bound. Not by Ignis Collar - no, by a magic far stronger and insidious, comfort.

  Still wrapped in his blanket, Grey was the picture of indolence as he basked in the gentle warmth. He had been this way for half a day already, doing nothing else. Further entrapping him was the weather. It turned stormy only hours after the lodge was built. Rain fell in a hypnotic rhythm while winds swirled a wicked lullaby. There was no mana to it, yet it was undeniably magical.

  A part of him told him to get up, but another part of him, a more substantial portion of his soul, told him otherwise.

  I'll get up as soon as a monster is near.

  This was the excuse he had been telling himself to procrastinate. In the three days that had passed since arriving in the area, Xyn had faced no disturbances. Magical beasts and animals had passed through the sphere that was his Void Sense, but no monsters.

  Thoughts of the other transmigrator, or rather, any thoughts, were scarce in the Void Prince's melted brain. The gears were turning slowly, and only thanks to inertia. A wake-up call was needed. Thankfully, for Xyn and the world at large, it arrived. The young man was jolted with psychic energy as he registered the new arrival.

  Another foe to vanquish or...

  The hope unsaid, Xyn shook off the blanket and the curse it imparted and rose to his feet. The stranger was moving toward his lodge. Curiosity seemed to drive her steps. Noting this, he adjusted his expectations. A pleasant smile appeared on his face.

  Well, let's see how this goes.