The void stretched out before Xkarian, and in that void lay an infinite number of universes.

  Cracks.

  He could feel the cracks. There were more of them than there were universes, for the walls between universes were always cracking.

  Crack. Crack. Crack.

  Over the countless millions of years that he’d spent inside the void, Xkarian had a sixth sense for them. As did most Void Beings. He swam through the Infinite Passage. Searching. Ever searching. He passed other Void Beings on his way, ones that had given up. Beings that had once been powerful enough to rule an entire universe had been rendered almost to nothing by the pressures of this place.

  That I will not become. You will not defeat me. I will return. I will live again.

  I will rule again.

  Xkarian only needed a body. Any body. It didn’t matter what grade—he could turn it into the most powerful Denizen in a universe again.

  All he needed was time.

  Craaaaaaack.

  Xkarian flowed through the void. His spirit twitched as he sensed the crack.

  Freeeeeesh.

  His ghostly tongue whipped out as though to taste what he could sense. Taste. Something he had not known for almost an eternity, and yet he remembered. Memory. Right now that was all he had, but this crack. This could be the one.

  This could be what he’d been searching for.

  Searching searching. Always searching.

  Xkarian had given up hope a long time ago. What he had now was something else. Something far stronger than mere hope could ever be.

  Unrelenting persistence toward his goal.

  It had been how he’d become so strong in the first place, until…

  Xkarian opened his ghostly jaws and roared. It was a silent roar, for no sound existed in this place.

  He neared the crack. Neared the universe that had it in its wall. Here, distance and time were almost irrelevant concepts. If one knew how, they could move close to one universe, then all the way to another in an instant. Navigating the Infinite Passage was a matter of will and nothing more.

  The crack in this universe’s wall was weak, but not weakened enough for the true residents of the void to make it through.

  But for a Void Being—a spirit—such as him?

  Xkarian’s mouth made some approximation of a grin. He could see through the crack, right to the other side. His tongue darted out, tasting… Nothing.

  But he didn’t sense nothing.

  A vessel.

  Not just a vessel—but one that could almost be called a fit for him.

  Xkarian broke through the crack and entered the Mortal Realm for the first time in what must have been millions upon millions of years. Perhaps even billions. Time had, long ago, lost all meaning to him.

  He burst into a world filled with brilliant light and colour that almost blinded him to his goal with its majesty. The sight of everything, so vibrant, so alive! It almost felt as though he were alive again.

  He did not let this stop him. He saw what he was after. The body of a dragon, bereft of its spirit, currently being attacked by a human.

  The vessel is weakened.

  This was not the first time Xkarian had tried to claim a vessel. There were attempts in the past that had been… Unsuccessful.

  He would have to ensure that this would not be one of those times.

  ~

  “What the hell?” Xavier’s eyes were wide. A spirit had come from… From somewhere—he wasn’t really sure where—and had slithered straight into the body of the Elemental Dragon!

  Xavier had been so close to killing the damned thing. There was no way that the Elemental Dragon’s spirit would have made it back into its own body.

  He’d been so close…

  Xavier gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to let this body snatcher get away.

  His gaze flicked to the cooldown timer for his Time Alteration spell. It was almost through, but not quite.

  God, Xavier needed time to figure out what had just happened. As close as he still was to the Elemental Dragon, he was able to touch a hand to the majestic C Grade beast just as the rogue spirit entered it.

  Time Prison!

  He doubted the spell would last very long, but he had to do something.

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  The dragon froze.

  Rhaalir! he called out in his mind. What in the world is that thing?

  The elf spirit stood nearby, eyes wide, gazing at the now-frozen Elemental Dragon.

  Rhaailr!

  Whatever trance the elf was under, that second shout seemed to do the trick. Rhaalir swallowed, took a long breath. Why a spirit would need to do either of those things, Xavier didn’t know.

  That… That spirit isn’t of this world.

  It’s from the Otherworld?

  Rhaalir shook his head. No. It’s from the place that stands between universes. The Infinite Passage. The—the void. That spirit… It is a Void Being.

  The elf spirit said those words as though he thought they would mean something to Xavier, but Xavier didn’t know what Rhaalir was talking about.

  He stared at the Elemental Dragon, his mind turning.

  Void Being? He recalled what the Spirit of Time had told him. That the unfolding of multiple timelines could sometimes cause a crack in the universe—was that what had happened here? She’d told him that would only happen of he kept going, and he’d stopped. Is this the threat the Spirit of Time spoke of? Xavier asked

  Rhaalir’s fear became so potent Xavier was actually able to feel it. He wasn’t sure that had ever happened from a spirit before. No. This… Isn’t that. That… That would be much worse. But you need to run, Xavier Collins. Those who can survive the void—you will not be able to defeat this beast any longer.

  Xavier wasn’t so sure about that. He’d weakened the Elemental Dragon considerably in the time it had lacked a soul. He couldn’t tell how close its health was to zero, but surely he couldn’t turn his back on this fight now? Not when he’d been so damned close to defeating the dragon.

  I can’t give up, Rhaalir. Not unless I know for certain there’s no way for me to win this. I have to keep trying.

  Rhaalir sighed loudly in his mind. I was afraid you would say that.

  Every second that passed increased the chances of the Elemental Dragon breaking out of that Time Prison spell. While locked inside of it, the dragon could do nothing to harm Xavier, but Xavier couldn’t do anything to harm the dragon in return.

  He had to hope that whatever spirit had entered this beast’s body would be disoriented by the transfer. That could give him some time once it broke free, if only a very little bit…

  Soul Strike. He’d been keeping that spell in his back pocket in case he needed to inflict vast amounts of damage upon his enemy. A last-ditch to kill the beast.

  Now, it looked like that was the very thing he would need. It would be well worth using every last bit of his soulkeeping reserve if it meant taking this thing down.

  Assuming it would be enough…

  The Elemental Dragon stirred. God, that didn’t take very long. With the speed that he’d been conversing with the elf spirit in his mind, it had probably only been a few seconds. He’d thought his time prison spell was more powerful than that.

  Xavier reacted instantly. He cast Soul Strike the moment the beast moved. Thousands of arcs of white lightning erupted from the Lost Bone of a Dead God and shot toward his enemy. The lightning shifted, turning into more soul apparitions than he could count. They all moved together as one. A mass of souls flowing toward the Elemental Dragon, intent on delivering one thing—its death.

  Xavier hadn’t simply cast Soul Strike, either—he’d dug deep. As deep as he could without compromising himself. Once again during this fight he had infused Soul Energy into one of his attacks. It was a surefire way of making everything he did more powerful, and with each iteration of this fight he’d been paying close attention to just how much he could use before going over the edge.

  He hoped he’d struck the right balance.

  The most powerful attack Xavier had ever launched slammed into the Elemental Dragon with the rogue spirit of the Void Being inside of it.

  ~

  Xkarian blinked. Real eyes. He had real eyes. And a body. A heart.

  Cores. Celestial Energy. And a great swell of potential.

  He could also feel the pain that he was in. The battering that this body had taken. His health flashed before his eyes—25 percent.

  This human before him had done a great deal of damage to the Elemental Dragon’s body.

  While the dragon had been defenceless. Now, it no longer is. Now, I am in control.

  But the instant he entered this body he felt something shift in the timelines of this universe. His mind worked at incredible speeds—far beyond what should have been possible for the vessel he was inside. And he could feel time being weaved around him.

  He pushed against it.

  Once, he had been the master of time. Now, he would be again.

  Time Prison…

  Yes. He knew this spell well.

  And like any prison, one could break out of it if only they knew how.

  Xkarian shattered the prison holding him—it took him longer than he would have liked to manage this feat, but it made sense that he would be a mite sluggish after being in the void for so many millions of years.

  Millions? Or billions?

  Time had no meaning there. He still didn’t know how much of it had passed. Perhaps he never would…

  He supposed it didn’t matter. One thing was for sure—the universe that he was born in was no longer.

  He would have to find a new universe to call home, and just because this was where he’d found his body, that didn’t mean it was where he had to remain.

  For as a Void Being, even inside of a host body—a vessel—he had the power to move between universes.

  Xkarian tilted his new head to the side as he broke through the Time Prison, watching as the human launched what looked to be a devastating attack on him—no, this was no human. This… The little creature had wings.

  This was a dragonkin—a poor imitation of the most noble beast that could ever exist.

  A soul attack… Xkarian saw the scythe-staff in the dragonkin’s hands. This child is some kind of reaper…

  Xkarian could sense the power of the attack coming his way, and with the sluggishness he felt inside of this new form he knew he wouldn’t be fast enough to avoid it. His mind moved, discovering what defensive and offensive spells this Elemental Dragon had—but none of the spells would stop the one coming his way.

  Thousands of soul apparitions flew through him. They didn’t only damage the vessel, they damaged his soul.

  Your health is at 2%.

  Xkarian’s eyes widened. Two percent health? That child had knocked out 23 percent of his health in one attack?

  Xkarian scanned the dragonkin and all he found there was confusion. The enemy was D Grade. Barely.

  Yet… so powerful.

  Interesting. Very interesting.

  And there was something else about this young dragonkin that Xkarian couldn’t help but see, for he had the ability to gaze into another being’s soul.

  His soul is keyed to another universe… Like me, he is not of the one we are in.

  Xkarian could sense the signature of the universe this dragonkin had come from. In that signature he obtained the coordinates he would need to find this dragonkin’s original universe, for he sensed this Denizen was only a temporary residence of the universe they both currently resided in.

  He held no true grudge against the young dragonkin, but he also couldn’t let anyone who dealt harm to him live after delivering such a slight to his honour.

  In Xkarian’s original universe, as a dragon honour was everything.

  But he knew if he continued to fight in his current condition, he would not survive.

  And so, it was time to flee.

  I will deal with you later, young dragonkin.

  Xkarian flapped his massive, newly acquired wings and found that they were more than up for the task. He flew, with all the speed this body could muster, and conjured Soul Energy from deep within him, knowing the consequences of using this much but not caring one wit.

  Xkarian, in a mortal body, broke through the crack in the universe he had just travelled through and back to the Infinite Passage.

  He would need to be careful there if he wished this body to survive long enough to reach its new destination.

  And just like that, the Elemental Dragon was gone from this universe.

  Accidental Champion!

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