The Scourge-Wolves didn't have fur. Their bodies were composed of shifting grey smoke and jagged bone plates that rattled as they moved. They were the scavengers of the vacuum, creatures that had evolved to survive by eating the literal absence of magic.
And right now, Xylo and I were the only things in the Grey Wilds that tasted like a feast.
"Four of them," Xylo whispered, his wings half-unfurling in the cramped space of the hollow tree. "They'll try to circle us. One will draw our attention while the others lunge for the tether. They know it's our lifeline."
"Let them try," I said. My pulse was a frantic rhythm in my ears, but my hands were steady. The violet runes on my skin were glowing with a predatory light.
The first wolf lunged. It was a blur of smoke and teeth, targeting Xylo's throat. He met it midair, his golden sword carving a brilliant arc through the dim forest. The blade sliced through the smoke-flesh, but the creature didn't bleed; it dissipated and reformed instantly, snapping at his armored forearm.
"They're intangible!" I shouted. "Physical strikes won't hold them!"
"Then use the Void!" Xylo roared, kicking the beast back. "Give them something they can't reform from!"
I stepped out from behind the tree, the tether stretching between us like a tripwire. Two more wolves emerged from the silver dust, their eyes glowing with a sickly, pale hunger. They didn't go for me—they lunged for the cord of energy connecting me to Xylo.
"Hey! Over here!" I yelled.
I didn't use a spell. I simply stopped fighting the hunger. I let the "hollow" in my chest widen, turning myself into a psychic sinkhole. The air around me began to spiral, drawing the silver dust and the smoke-flesh of the wolves toward my palms.
One wolf tried to veer away, but the pull was too strong. It shrieked—a sound like metal scraping glass—as its smoky tail was sucked into my right hand.
The sensation was different from the priest's light. This was cold, bitter, and tasted like ash. But as the wolf was dragged into my core, I felt a surge of raw, primal energy.
"Xylo! Catch!"
I didn't wait for the system to finish. I funneled the ashen energy through the tether. It hit Xylo like a lightning bolt. His golden sword turned a dark, obsidian purple, the edge vibrating with the "un-making" power of the Void.
He didn't miss a beat. He spun in a lethal circle, his wings flaring for balance. The dark blade passed through the remaining three wolves, and this time, they didn't reform. The void-touched steel erased the smoke-flesh on contact, leaving only the bone-plates to clatter harmlessly to the forest floor.
The forest went silent. The silver dust settled.
I slumped against the trunk of the ironwood, my breath coming in ragged gasps. My skin felt tight, the violet runes pulsing slowly as they digested the wolves.
"You're leveling up," Xylo said, sheathing his sword. He walked over to me, his golden eyes scanning my face with a new kind of intensity. He wasn't looking at a "null" anymore. He was looking at a weapon. "The more you eat, the more the Tether evolves. I can feel my own strength returning because of the 'scraps' you're feeding me."
"Is that all I am to you?" I asked, looking up at him. "A battery?"
Xylo reached out, his fingers brushing a stray silver hair from my eyes. His touch was warm, a sharp contrast to the cold ash of the forest. "In the beginning, perhaps. But Vespera... I have never seen a soul adapt this quickly. The empire didn't just fail to see your core. They failed to see that you are the Core."
Suddenly, the ground beneath us groaned. It wasn't a wolf, and it wasn't the Prime Seeker.
A voice, cold and ancient, drifted through the trees, carrying the weight of a thousand years of frost.
"So... the Fallen Star has found a little shadow to play with."
From the mist stepped a figure in tattered, regal armor. His skin was the color of ice, and his eyes were empty sockets filled with swirling blue frost. He held a staff made from a single, giant crystal.
"The Ghost-Knight of the Wilds," Xylo whispered, his wings tensing. A Lvl 40 Guardian. He's the one who ensures no one leaves this forest alive."
The Knight raised his staff, and the temperature dropped forty degrees in a second. "You bring the Void into my sanctuary? You bring the hunger into the place of silence?"
"We're just passing through," I said, stepping up beside Xylo. I was only Level 6, and he was still a fraction of his former power, but the Tether was humming with a new, dark resonance.
I looked at the "Incomplete" skill in my vision. I didn't know how to use it, but looking at the knight's frost staff, I knew I was about to learn.
"Xylo," I said, grabbing his hand. "Don't let go of me. No matter what happens."
"I couldn't even if I wanted to, Vespera," he replied, his grip tightening. "Let's show this ghost what happens when the Void meets the Star."