The drill continues. One morning, the mist clung to the earth like forgotten breath, veiling the village paths in a dreamlike haze.
Kaiden sprinted up the trail behind the Kidpen, his wooden dagger bouncing at his side and his satchel thudding in chaotic rhythm. Each step stirred damp leaves and broken twigs — tiny echoes of the relentless days that had led him here.
The bag bulged grotesquely now, overstuffed with loot fragments. No longer was it the uncertain collection of trash-tier drops. This was curated. Hard-earned. Tracked and cross-referenced by name, glow, and estimated passive frequency.
His days of cautious gathering had matured into something fierce. Obsessive. And the weight of it — not just physical, but personal — strained every seam.
[ Kaiden ]
"Just hold on a little longer…"
He'd reinforced the leather with vine-thread earlier that morning, whispering thanks to the cedar sapling that offered it. But even that had snapped — twice. Every step now was a gamble against gravity, with cracked loot slipping to the edge, threatening to spill.
And worse still... some loot had begun to fade.
The gentle glimmers he'd memorized — those subtle indicators of resonance potential — were flickering, like fireflies flickering out when forgotten. Loot never did this before. Not unless forgotten. Not unless it wanted to return to the earth.
[ Kaiden ]
"No..."
"No, no, no."
"You're mine."
"I earned you."
He dropped to one knee beneath the twisted cedar where he'd fought his twelfth slime this week. A shard lay nestled in a leather wrap — dull gray now, but just days ago it pulsed faintly with a hidden passive. Kaiden clutched it tightly.
Something pulsed faintly in his palm. Not heat — tension. Like a thin thread had stretched between the residue and his veins, tugging softly, then vanishing.
He blinked, unsure if it had been real.
And then — something inside him cracked open.
Not loudly. Not violently. But decisively.
A phantom tension snapped in his chest, and he gasped. His body recoiled as warmth flared across his spine, spreading downward, toward the small of his back.
Kaiden's fingers shot behind him, clutching at the source.
The birthmark.
It burned.
The familiar closed chest — the shape that had earned him ridicule, fear, and exile—was changing. Edges shimmered. Lines split. The mark, once sealed tight like a puzzle box, was shifting.
And then, without warning, a pulse.
The world didn't shake. But he did. A shockwave rippled through Kaiden's being. Soundless, but not silent. A truth had stirred, and it echoed through bone and thought.
The air behind him shimmered like oil on water.
Reality — calm, immutable reality — bent.
A clean vertical tear appeared midair. No larger than a book spine, no louder than a breath. But its presence was profound.
As though the world had politely stepped aside to make room for something older than time.
A phrase whispered inside his mind.
[ HEART ]
❖ [ Voidspace: Unlocked ] ❖
Kaiden's limbs gave out. He fell to all fours, panting. His satchel finally gave way, exploding at the seams, scattering loot across the mossy ground — teeth, orbs, fragments, pulsing scraps of memory and power.
The tear remained.
A rift.
Six inches wide.
Floating in midair.
Outlined in amethyst light, but bordered by something darker than black — a nothingness so complete it defied language. It didn't glow. It absorbed. Even the mist hesitated around its edges.
[ Kaiden ]
"...Voidspace?"
He stood shakily. A single slime core trembled in his palm. As he approached the rift, the fragment resonated, like it recognized home.
The moment it crossed the threshold, it vanished — soundlessly, painlessly, yet not without weight. Kaiden felt it move, as though the item had slipped into a pocket deep within him.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
A space within his soul.
[ Kaiden ]
"You're not just storage…"
"You're memory."
More fragments followed. He fed them into the rift like prayers into a shrine. Each item's vanishing came with that gentle tug in his chest, like a thread being sewn deeper into his being.
And then, like a storm at its climax, the mark pulsed again.
This time, he didn't do anything.
The Voidspace pulled.
Loot lifted from the ground of its own accord. Every item he had fought, analyzed, and valued rose in slow arcs, suspended midair like offerings to an unseen god.
One by one, they vanished into the rift, their individual flickers combining into a slow, spiral dance.
Even the broken ones. The dull ones. The worthless ones.
[ Kaiden (quietly) ]
"Everything I earn…"
The final fragment — a chipped core with no passive at all — hesitated. Then, as though reconsidering its own worth, it slipped inside.
The rift pulsed. Then stilled.
Kaiden fell back, eyes wide. And inside him, a pressure gave way — like a seal had been broken, and a name long forgotten was finally spoken again.
His HEART Status flickered open with a shimmer of silver light.
[ HEART STATUS – UPDATE ]
Trait: Void of Aena
(Sealed Functions: 92%)
► [ New Subsystem: Voidspace Access – Limited (Level 1) ]
► Storage: 0.32 / 1.00 m³
► Sort Mode: Intent-Based
► Slot Binding: Automatic
► Passive Web: 3 Nodes Active
► New Node: Vaultmind [Awakened] – Enhances loot resonance memory; improves retrieval speed
Vaultmind. The name resonated.
Kaiden reached out. Willing. Wanting.
A single core floated into his hand from nowhere. Not warm. Not cold. Just there. Like it had always been waiting.
[ Kaiden ]
"This is mine."
Behind him, a voice finally broke the stillness.
[ Niklaus ]
"I was wondering how long you'd take."
"Voidspace isn't a gift, Kaiden."
"It's a question."
Kaiden turned, stunned. Nik had been standing there? Watching?
[ Kaiden ]
"...I didn't know I was asking."
[ Niklaus ]
"Oh, you were."
"Every time you bent down to pick up trash-tier shards."
"Every time you hoarded slime dust and named it valuable."
"You were asking: What's worth keeping?"
"And now you know."
Kaiden touched his back. The mark no longer resembled a locked chest.
It was open.
Detailed now with a swirling void at its center — subtle, but undeniable. It no longer felt like a curse. Or even a mystery.
It felt like potential.
[ Kaiden ]
"It was always sealed…"
"Because I wasn't ready?"
[ Niklaus ]
"And now?"
Kaiden looked at the horizon. His world had changed — but not just because of magic.
Because he had earned it.
[ Kaiden ]
"I am..."
"I am ready!"
Nik's smile was faint. But it carried pride that no praise could match.
[ Niklaus ]
"Good..."
"Coz you're going to need a lot more space."
The rift shimmered once, and then, like a patient eye, closed. No blast. No collapse. It simply ceased, leaving behind a stillness more absolute than silence.
Not gone.
Just waiting.
Like a chest that would open again, only for its rightful keeper.
The rift vanished — the world didn't change.
But Kaiden had.