Reid’s eyes snapped open, his breath ragged as he regained consciousness. He was back in the cave—but something was wrong.
He wasn’t where he had collapsed.
Multiple black tendrils wrapped around him, restraining him to the cave floor. He had been captured by the voidspawns and brought to their mother.
The sight of the mother voidspawn would’ve been terrifying to any other human or tamer, but considering he had just met the watcher, the mother voidspawn’s form looked like child’s play.
"I’ve been wanting to meet you ever since I heard of you from father" the mother voidspawn spoke again.
Weirdly enough, it didn’t have any human host but it could still talk.
"After all," it continued "it’s thanks to you that I was created."
’Thanks to me?’ Reid thought in confusion.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, struggling a bit against the restraints but they held on tight.
"Ah, you really have no idea, do you?" The mother voidspawn said in an amused tone "I guess it doesn’t matter if I tell you now, after all, you’ll be dead soon."
"You see, at first, father only saw you as a nuisance" it started "an abandoned rich kid who just couldn’t stay out of trouble."
"He never even considered you a threat," the mother voidspawn took a small pause before continuing "but then, you started piquing his interest with your unnatural growth."
"And that’s when father learnt about something truly.... fascinating" it continued, its voice taking a reverie tone "the codices."
Reid shifted uncomfortably where he was restrained, knowing that the cult had some knowledge about the Codices was one thing and actually confirming it was another.
"The Codices, little cubes capable of granting unimaginable power to anyone who bonds with them"
"And guess which nuisance had abilities matched one of the Codices" although it didn’t have eyes, Reid could clearly tell that the mother voidspawn was looking at him.
"You have a power that father wants, Reid" it continued "since the codices cannot be forcefully extracted once bonded, I was created."
"Once your body is mine, father will have control of two out of the three existing Codices." It completed.
"Thanks for the info," Reid said "but it’s time for me to leave now, my friends might get worried."
"Oh don’t worry about them," the mother voidspawn said in an amused tone "they’ll be too busy, dealing with my children, to worry about you."
"Besides, no matter how much you struggle, there’s no way you’ll ever escape my hold."
"Is that so?" Reid muttered, there was a hint of amusement in his tone ’Evo?’
[Done]
As soon as her words came, Reid disappeared from the restraints and reappeared a few feet away.
He had copied [Void] from Nyx, allowing him to escape.
"What—?" It hissed in confusion. It hadn’t seen Reid summon any of his Forged-Beasts, so how had he managed to escape?
"You were saying something about me being unable to escape?" Reid taunted as he massaged the wrists that were just restrained.
"Interesting," it mused, "You’re more troublesome than I anticipated."
"But no amount of tricks will stop me from absorbing you" it finished.
Reid didn’t reply. Instead, he summoned his Forged-Beasts to his side.
But rather than reacting with fear or caution, the mother voidspawn erupted into laughter.
"You see, Reid," it began, its voice dripping with amusement, "you’ve fought countless of my children using those pets—and each time, they’ve adapted to their abilities."
"And every time my children adapt to something," it continued, "that adaptation is passed on to me making me only need to experience it once."
Reid frowned. If the voidspawn was telling the truth, this fight would be far more difficult than he had anticipated.
To make matters worse, he barely had enough soul energy left for his Forged Beasts to use more than a few abilities.
"Well?" The mother Voidspawn asked "Are you going to fight a hopeless battle, or are you going to willingly hand your body over?"
Its reply came when Reid readied his sword.
"Very well then," it said and immediately after, it attacked.
It’s body shifted and multiple tendrils the shape of claws lashed out, each aiming to skewer Reid and his forged beasts.
Rusty immediately used [pause], freezing the tendrils in time but the effects only lasted a second before the tendrils continued forward.
Reid clicked his tongue and moved, barely dodging as a tendril sliced through the space he had occupied moments ago.
Beel then activated [Swarm] and the cave was immediately filled with countless smaller gluttony flies.
The buzzing swarm latched onto the inky appendages, biting and devouring chunks of it.
The mother voidspawn let out an ear-piercing screech, its body convulsing, but the flies latched on tight.
"Enough" the Voidspawn screeched out and a shockwave of void energy pulsed outward, disintegrating the first layer of Beel’s swarm instantly.
The rest collapsed to the cave floor, like puppets whose strings had been severed.
"Your tricks are nothing more than an annoyance," the mother voidspawn sneered. "But in the end, they are meaningless—you cannot harm me."
Suddenly, its tendrils twisted and extended, merging into a single massive limb. The dark appendage slammed down like a hammer, aiming to crush them all at once.
But Nyx was quick enough to react. Without missing a beat, it enveloped them all in [Void].
In an instant, Reid and his team vanished, reappearing on the far side of the cave.
The tendril crashed into the ground, shattering the rock and creating a deep crater.
Reid exhaled sharply. They were burning through their abilities fast, and his soul energy was running low.
’Think, think!’
The mother voidspawn turned toward them, its form warping, shifting.
"I tire of this game," it sneered. "You cannot kill me, Reid Fletcher. My body will adapt. My power will grow. Your resistance is nothing more than a delay to the inevitable."
Reid clenched his sword tighter, he was running out of spirit power and ideas. It took the mother voidspawn only a few seconds to adapt to the abilities of his forged beasts.
That’s when suddenly, Reid heard a voice in his head.....his voice.
"Let it try to absorb you."