Chapter 72: Fusing the Void, Void Step Annihilation

Alvian’s tracked each symbol as it passed. The probability calculations ran in real time. Each reel carried 100 symbols. The distribution was 45 Bronze, 35 Silver, 15 Gold, 4 Prismatic, 1 Beyond. The reels were independent. The result was determined by where each one stopped.

Reel one began to slow. The symbols became visible individually. Bronze. Bronze. Silver. Bronze. Gold. Bronze. Silver.

Gold.

The first reel locked on Gold. A deep golden hum filled the room. The Essence in the air resonated. Alvian’s heart rate spiked but his body stayed perfectly still. VIT 855 kept his physical response controlled.

Reel two slowed. The symbols streamed past. Bronze. Silver. Bronze. Gold. Silver. Gold. Silver. Gold. Gold.

Gold.

The second reel locked. The golden hum deepened. The air pressure in the room dropped as the System’s probability engine drew energy from the surrounding environment. The wood panels on the walls creaked. The Essence-dampening crystal behind them flickered, struggling to process the energy spike.

Two Gold. Rare tier locked. The minimum result was now a B-Rank movement Skill.

But Alvian needed more. He needed Epic. He needed the third reel to land on Prismatic.

The third reel slowed.

The symbols blurred past. Bronze. Silver. Bronze. Silver. Gold. Gold. Silver. Bronze. Gold. Silver. The reel was still moving too fast to track individual symbols but it was decelerating. Alvian’s INT 192 calculated the stopping position based on the angular velocity and the symbol spacing.

The calculation returned a probability distribution. 38% Bronze. 31% Silver. 19% Gold. 9% Prismatic. 3% Beyond.

Nine percent chance of Prismatic. Three percent of something higher.

The reel continued to slow. Gold. Gold. Silver. Gold. The symbols were almost readable now. Each one visible for a fraction of a second before the next replaced it.

Then the reel stopped.

The symbol that locked into place was not Gold. It was not Silver. It was not Bronze.

It was Prismatic. A shimmering, iridescent white that seemed to exist outside the standard spectrum. The same color he had seen on the primary wheel when the Fate’s Loaded Dice had forced the God Roll. The color of probability breaking its own rules.

The room went silent. The golden hum cut off. The Essence-dampening crystal behind the walls cracked with a sharp sound like breaking ice.

[DING!]

The notification chime was different. Deeper. More resonant. It vibrated in Alvian’s chest and made his bones ache.

[EPIC PROFICIENCY MULTIPLIER!]

[7,000X!]

[Skill Fusion: Clearwater Coating + Spatial Tracking → Evaluating...]

[Fusion factors:]

[Host INT: 192]

[Host Essence: 280]

[Talent Resonance: Clearwater/Dissolution]

[Multiplier: 7,000x (Epic tier)]

[FUSION COMPLETE.]

The System paused for exactly one second. When it resumed, the notification carried weight. Authority. Something beyond the usual carnival-jingle sarcasm.

[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: VOID STEP: ANNIHILATION]

[RANK: S]

╔══════════════════════════════╗

║ NEW SKILL: VOID STEP

║ ANNIHILATION (S-RANK)

║

║ Effect: Host can instantly

║ teleport to any location within

║ a 5-mile radius. Teleportation

║ bypasses ALL physical barriers,

║ dimensional locks, and energy

║ wards by dissolving the spatial

║ fabric at the departure point

║ and reconstituting it at the

║ arrival point.

║

║ The dissolution leaves a vacuum

║ of corrosive energy at the

║ departure location, dealing

║ S-Rank dissolution damage to

║ anything within 3 meters of

║ where the Host vanished.

║

║ Cost: 50 Essence per teleport

║ Range: 5 miles (scales with INT)

╚══════════════════════════════╝

Alvian read the description three times. His INT 192 processed every implication in parallel.

Teleportation. Not through space. Through dissolved space. The Skill didn’t fold reality or phase through dimensions. It removed the space he occupied, erased his coordinates, and wrote new ones somewhere else. The spatial locks in the palace anchored coordinates. Void Step erased coordinates. The locks couldn’t lock what didn’t exist.

The departure vacuum was a bonus. A three-meter sphere of S-Rank dissolution detonating wherever he left. Anyone trying to follow would walk into an acid bomb. Anyone standing near his departure point would dissolve.

’One teleport into the Treasury. One teleport out. Two uses. One hundred Essence. I have 280. More than enough.’

[WARNING.]

[World Will monitoring at CRITICAL.]

[Epic roll detected during Skill Fusion.]

[Fate Enforcer deployment accelerated.]

[Previous ETA: 67 hours.]

[New ETA: 48 hours.]

[19 hours subtracted from preparation window.]

[The World Will does not appreciate probability manipulation, Host.]

[The World Will is now actively preparing conceptual enforcement entities.]

[The System recommends the Host cure his mother and prepare for combat within the new timeframe.]

[The System also recommends the Host not perform any more Epic-or-above rolls.]

[The System notes the Host will probably ignore this recommendation.]

Forty-eight hours. He’d lost nineteen hours. The number settled into his INT 192.

Two days. Cure Martha. Deal with the King. Prepare for entities made of crystalline law that existed outside physical combat.

The math was tight but it worked. Tonight, he’d breach the Treasury. Tomorrow, he’d cure Martha. The remaining time would go to preparation.

He checked the guard rotation pattern he’d mapped during his escort through the palace. The sub-level 3 corridor had a gap in patrol coverage between 2:17 AM and 2:21 AM. Four minutes. More than enough for a teleportation that took zero seconds.

He had already calculated the Treasury’s exact location based on the ward density he’d sensed during the walk to the throne room. Sub-level 3, directly beneath the throne room, behind the thickest concentration of spatial locks in the palace.

The locks didn’t matter anymore.

He opened his status panel and reviewed the changes.

╔══════════════════════════════╗

║ STATUS PANEL

║ Level: 70

║ STR: 530 | AGI: 290

║ VIT: 855 | INT: 192

║ Essence: 280

║ HP: 1,710/1,710

║ KP: 53

║ EXP Bank: ~224,900,000

║

║ Skills:

║ Abyssal Dissolution

║ Domain (S-Rank)

║ Void Step: Annihilation

║ (S-Rank, NEW)

║ Severing Sword Aura (A)

║ Clearwater Palm (D, enhanced)

║

║ Passive: Bone Corrosion

║

║ Note: Clearwater Coating

║ absorbed into Void Step

║ fusion. Passive bone/skin

║ benefits remain.

╚══════════════════════════════╝

Clearwater Coating was gone. Absorbed into the fusion. Its active application was now part of Void Step’s mechanics. But the passive enhancements, the bone-level Clearwater resonance and the skin corrosion, remained as intrinsic modifications from weeks of use.

He tested the Skill mentally. The interface showed the teleportation ready. Cost: 50 Essence. Range: 5 miles. Targeting: mental selection of destination within range.

He selected a spot in his mind. The corner of the guest room, three meters away. The System confirmed the target.

He didn’t activate it. Not yet. The departure vacuum would destroy the bed, the door, and probably wound the Knights outside. That would trigger every alarm in the palace.

He needed to wait. Patience. The right moment.

2:17 AM. The guard rotation gap. The Treasury corridor would be empty for four minutes.

He lay back on the silk sheets. The bed was soft. The room was warm. The Knights outside breathed steadily, unaware that their prisoner now held a Skill that made their locked doors meaningless.

Alvian closed his eyes and ran the heist plan one more time. Step one: Void Step from guest room to Treasury corridor. Step two: Clearwater Palm through the Treasury door. Step three: dissolve the containment field around the Tears. Step four: Void Step out of the palace.

Four steps. Two teleportations. One hundred Essence. Four minutes.

Simple.

The Fate Enforcer timer ticked in his mind.

48 hours.

’Enough time. It has to be enough.’

The System interface glowed softly in the dark room. The Void Step icon pulsed with prismatic light. His new Skill. His way out.

Alvian slept.

-

The silk sheets felt wrong against his skin.

Too smooth. Too clean. Too much like something that belonged to someone else. Alvian lay on the bed with his eyes closed, his INT 192 running scenarios behind his eyelids like a war room projector. The guard rotation outside his door had shifted three times since dinner. Two Level 55 Royal Knights. They changed positions every four hours. The next shift was in nine minutes.

He had mapped the palace during his escort through the corridors. Every detail burned into his enhanced memory. Guard positions. Ward frequencies. Structural load points. The exact path to sub-level 3 where the Royal Treasury sat behind three layers of defenses designed to stop A-Rank invaders.

The Treasury corridor had a gap in patrol coverage between 2:17 AM and 2:21 AM. Four minutes when the night shift guards walked to the far end of the corridor and the morning shift hadn’t arrived yet. Four minutes of empty hallway.

More than enough.

He had already calculated the Treasury’s location based on the ward density he sensed during the walk to the throne room. Sub-level 3. Directly beneath the throne room. Behind the thickest concentration of spatial locks in the palace.

The locks anchored coordinates. Standard teleportation tried to move through locked space and failed because the coordinates were frozen in place. But Void Step: Annihilation didn’t move through space. It erased space. The locks couldn’t anchor what didn’t exist anymore.

’Simple solution to a complicated problem. Dissolve the lock itself.’

The System interface glowed softly in the dark room. The Void Step icon pulsed with prismatic light. Ready. Waiting. Fifty Essence per use. He had 280. Enough for five teleports if he needed them. He only needed two.