"You see, I assumed it was a foreign operative because they were willing to influence the U.S. soldiers," Dei explained to Perumah as he started for the door, "But some things don't add up. For one, whoever it is, they're protecting Matthew's emotions. Sure, he might not have been told directly what's going to happen, but it's clear that he's still figured it out. He looks nervous when I do something impressive, he looks guilty when I bring up how I'll keep helping people, he has to know something. But you're saying that there isn't even a whiff of betrayal in him. That can't be true.

"So what now? I don't have enough information. Perhaps they're acting according to an order from higher up… but Rea's words seem to imply otherwise. Like they created a monster, and now it's turned on them in some way. But it hasn't actually turned on them, it simply no longer listens.

"I think we're dealing with the remnant of a soldier, who wants to help the U.S., but doesn't want to listen to the government. A nationalist, with pride in his country. Now, he's likely forcing them to continue bioweapon tests to help advance the country, at the detriment of specific soldiers. After all, Rea would've survived less than a month under the influence of her affinity. The Karmic soldier? Less than that, he was here for perhaps a few days. Jean's the exception because his Duplication affinity has kept him here for several years, but I'm willing to bet this fourth foreign user won't be the same, maybe they've been here for a week or two. But what are the chances of all these people being here at the same time, right as I end up on Earth? Low, too low to justify.

"After they created this remnant soldier, the one influencing their minds, they likely intended to stop with the weapons program, but Rea's words imply he's forcing them to keep it up. For what reason, I truly don't know. It might be because of a nationalist pride, maybe the U.S. is in an arms race I haven't seen yet, but I won't know until I learn more, or perhaps even directly confront this person. The clues are too scattered right now, but their behavior doesn't align with a foreign influence."

"So where does Loretta fit into this?"

"Loretta? Why her?"

"Do you not remember? I suspect my memory was altered to forget about her departure, and you clearly did not take note of it- they may even be influencing you as well, albeit to a lesser degree because of your resistance to magic."

"I… don't know. Now that you mention it, that's a really weird and specific fact. I have barely anything to work off right now, but you're right that we should keep it in mind."

* * *

The walk to the final foreign affinity was a bit uncomfortable for Dei now that he knew what to look for, but nothing really changed.

When they arrived in front of the cell, he got the usual rundown and a jarring shock.

"This person's affinity is called Void, and it is suspected to be a subcategory of the Fabric affinity. It focuses on manipulating the divide between two objects in a very… confusing way. Despite it being part of our reality, we suspect it is not subject to the same physics as every other affinity, as it has placed a divide between it and everything else. Useful in that it can do some impossible stuff, terrible in that it's unusually toxic to life. This man arrived around two days ago, and is suspected to die within another three. As for how he fights, we aren't completely sure, but several of our soldiers had their limbs fused into the dirt below them before we were able to get them contained. As in, dirt and flesh becoming one. They're physically quite similar to how they were as a human just… their pupils are unnerving. You'll see when you get in there, be careful."

'Huh… I never thought I'd see a natural born Void user here. What are the chances? Well, pretty high if there's someone out there forcing them all to go crazy and end up in the exact facility for me to heal them, but that's not relevant. What's important is that this could be my chance, and perhaps a solution to a problem I've been thinking about.'

His deal with Void, something he was quite nervous about. Not just because he couldn't be entirely sure where to find people to attune, but also because he was starting to second-guess the options he'd chosen before.

When he was on Avium, it was easy to say he'd just pick someone mentally ill and be done with it. Now that he was back on Earth though? It felt all too real. What kind of monster would he create if he chose someone highly unstable, only for them to accept the Void affinity completely? Rather than killing them, they'd gain immense power, and he was already seeing the effects of one potential rogue experiment. Earth didn't need two.

Someone with the Void affinity already though? He'd never considered such a thing but now that it was before him, he saw that they were his best chance of fulfilling Void's request without completely screwing everyone over.

These people were already affected by Void, he wasn't making the problem much worse. Not to mention it might genuinely help them survive and get their affinity under control.

When someone became attuned to an affinity, their soul was flooded with said affinity. The issue on Earth was how people's souls weren't fit to contain this much of that particular magic, meaning that if he attuned the person to Void, they'd likely survive longer than otherwise.

'They live longer, aren't as changed by the magic, and gain an awesome contract out of it. I can only see this as a win, I just need to find more people with the Void affinity. Difficult, but there are eight billion people on Earth, and only around five thousand affinities, even if some of them are banned in the System. Not impossible.'

That in mind, he walked through the cell door into yet another airlock. Briefly, he wondered how they would even contain someone with Void magic if the person could teleport, but there was no mention of having such an ability. Maybe they didn't know? He'd only gotten it down with experimentation and some assistance from Void in the form of knowledge from the contract. they might not have the ability to do so.

The door to his new patient's cell opened into pure darkness. Unlike everything else, this cell appeared to be made like it was featureless. To his eyes though, which saw according to how spirits viewed the world, it was just as visible as outside. He saw how the material in the room was an incredibly dark fabric, made to suck in all the light it could.

They hadn't warned him of the lightlessness. Maybe they wanted to draw out more of his tricks, maybe they just assumed it wouldn't be a problem. Didn't really matter to him, as he didn't show anything off and it really wasn't an issue.

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The only thing in the room breaking up the monotony was a man leaning against the far wall, staring directly at Dei. His pupils were large around as a normal human's irises should be, so Dei could understand why most considered them unnerving.

More than that though, they seemed just a bit too dark, resembling the Void itself.

The man was pale, atrophied, and staring Dei straight in the eyes.

"Hello there," he greeted politely.

"Yo."

"Mind if I come closer?"

"I do."

"I see…"

Instead of walking closer he, too, sat down and leaned against the door.

'I could form a link to him through Identify, but this one seems to have accepted Void, like how Jean accepted Duplication. He will fight it, and might even attack me. I'm not worried about damage he could do, but I need him to work with me if I want to form a contract. I have to earn his trust and… I need to get him out of here after he's sane again. I can't have him falling into the hands of whoever is puppeteering the other Elite. Void is simply too difficult to pin down.'

Some version of a plan forming in his head, Dei called forth his own Void affinity.

He couldn't move his patient closer, but what if he didn't need to? What if he was already there?

Void didn't require much mana to work, it did require a lot of willpower though, which he had in spades.

A quick use of Meditation provided him a link to his patient, and a flex of Void closed the distance between them.

Unmoving, he watched his patient grow larger in his view, seeing the man's eyes widen further than they already were.

Glancing around the room, he saw that nothing else was different, and the room was the same.

The idea of space between them was simply… shrunken.

Despite sitting on the opposite wall, they were almost touching shoulders as Dei positioned himself slightly off from his patient.

He hadn't attacked Dei, instead looking much more curious, so Dei extended his hand.

"Wanna see something cool?"

Absently, the man nodded, taking Dei's hand.

Dei used Connection to link himself to the man, and flexed a unique skill he wasn't entirely sure would actually work: [How About a Demonstration?]

True, it was dependent on the System, but that didn't seem to matter when Dei gifted the man High Mind. His own Mental stat was high enough to still outpace the man's thinking, but this should close the gap significantly, allowing Dei to converse without interruption.

"Hello there, my name is Dei, and I have a proposition for you, sent by the will of the Void, but only if you want it," he sent with a Meaningful, while also connecting with him to allow for the man to speak back.

"I am Boris, Who are you?"

"A visitor from another world, one that made a deal with Void. I need five people to attune themselves further to it, would you like to be one?"

"Yes!"

Dei wanted to laugh, "You don't even know what it would entail!"

"It doesn't matter. I need the Void, it… It has helped me. It organizes my thoughts, gives me more control. If I can bring myself closer to it, I want to do so."

"How so? How does it help you think?"

"Does it not help you?" he responded tersely.

'He's seeking kinship in me through our shared affinity. Now that I think about it, if someone had, say, a split personality, wouldn't Void allow them to gain control over their different personalities? It helps because manipulation of the space between lets them draw lines within their conditions, letting them manipulate that line and where it is mentally.'

"I do not need it to. It chose me because I have lived two mirrored lives, but I can manage those issues on my own. If you do not want to talk about your condition, that is fine. We cannot talk of this forever though. Despite our heightened thinking speeds, we will run out of time, and I don't know how long the process of attunement takes. Are you sure you want this? To bring yourself closer to Void?"

Forgetting his previous qualms at Dei's words, Boris immediately said "Absolutely."

"Very well then. I've long theorized how to bring people into contact with Void's avatar, but this may not go smoothly. Prepare yourself."

The man was already linked to Dei through Connection, which spanned his entire soul, including the fragment Void left within him, the impossible space between the death of Leven and the birth of Dei.

Though Boris was only linked to the most surface level of his Connection, all Dei had to do was shrink the Void between the surface of his soul and the absolute darkness of the memory within his own death.

When he was done, Dei's Void Walker blessing sat upon the surface of his soul, letting Boris look directly into it.

Luckily, the man did not flinch away or go mad, but watch even more closely. His body was too slow to react to what his mind saw, but Dei knew he'd be leaning closer if he could.

Indescribable shapes and figures bubbled up from Dei's soul, coalescing in front of Boris.

A contract flashed forward.

Dei started to speak, ready to walk Boris through what kind of Contract he should watch for.

"Yes," Boris said, seemingly having forgotten that Dei was there at all.

Terror welled up in him, and he quickly scanned the contract. Though he couldn't see any words as he'd seen in the System, the contract broadcast its every purpose to whoever read it, surprising him in how good it was?

It promised four new spells of Void's choosing, massively increased ability to advance Void at the cost of never being able to learn any other affinity, immunity to Void's passive damage to his soul, and knowledge of how better to manipulate the Void.

Its major drawback, the final clause, what every affinity contract had to bring people better into line with the affinity's will?

"You will love both halves of yourself."

That was… sweet?

Boris' soul became significantly darker as the meaning of Void filled his soul, his mind visibly clearing up.

"My God… what have I done?" he said, stricken.

Rea had been conscious, uninfluenced, the moment she came back into being her own being. He had to assume Boris would be as well. "Regret your previous actions later, I need answers Boris. Is there someone taking control of U.S. soldiers? Answer, fast, then flee."

His shaking emotions firmed instantly, "You are correct. My time to myself is limited if I do not leave. Yes, there was a race to the core of the planet to claim something powerful six years ago between America and China. America won, but the person who claimed it took it for himself. I don't know what it was, but it's given him the ability to control a lot of people, and the amount is growing every day as he learns to control it better."

"What was at the core? And what does he want?"

"I don't know, and I don't know.."

"Thank you. Go."

He didn't know how long it would take for Boris' mind to become compromised, but he couldn't have whoever this was catching onto him too much. The information Boris gave him was already enough to plan his next course of action.

Dei also wasn't worried about Boris not knowing how to teleport. Roving gate was, after all, the most common Void ability. He had no doubt that Boris was given it from his attunement.

Without even a pop, Boris disappeared, and Dei retracted High Mind for himself.

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