The room was quiet, as if no one was here. The figure guarding us had left for what I guess is an hour or two by now, and we were waiting on Felix to wake up.
"A penny for your thoughts?", asked a man with glasses. He seemed to have lost a lot of his caution around me during the few hours we've been here.
"Jake, right?" I asked
" Yeah." He said.
He slumped down quite a distance away from me, still keeping some space between us.
'He's still a bit cautious...' I thought.
"Why are you not trying to kill me?" I asked him, already used to the patterns of everyone around me.
"I would love to do that", he sighed, " but I can tell you have no idea whats going on. And I'm a bit afraid to touch you."
I raise my eyebrow, perplexed at his answer.
" Afraid?" I said confused.
He nodded and closed his eyes, then contorted his face in displeasure.
" Ughh." He groaned and clutched at his head.
I moved closer, trying to help. He was still clutching at his head.
" Are you okay?" I asked.
Instinctively, I touched his forehead, trying to help.
"Results not found. 'Erebus' does not exist." Said a low, mechanical voice.
Taken aback, I removed my hand from his head, and the voice disappeared. He stopped groaning and looked at me. His eyes filled with curiousity and caution as he gazed at me.
" What's wrong?" He asked.
" What was that voice?" I said.
His eyes widened, almost turning into saucers as he stared at me.
" You heard that?" He was clearly a bit confused.
" Yeah, what was that?!" I shouted, causing the other heroes to look our way.
Jake waved at them, signalling that there was no problem. They looked at me suspicious, then turned away, resuming their business.
'Seriously, what did I do?' I thought to myself.
"The voice is my ability." He explained.
" That doesn't explain anything." I said.
" I was given omniscience, remember?" He said.
Only after the words left his moth did my memory jolt awake.
"What you heard was all the information in the universe about you." He said sternly.
"I don't exist?" I asked.
" You don't" He replied.
We both just looked at each other in silence, waiting for the other to speak.
" But I'm here?" I asked.
" I know", he said, " but there's no information about you."
I felt myself getting dizzy at this exchange, and decided to ask other questions.
" What about the heroes? Why are they hostile to me?"
Jake closed his eyes. Curious, I brush my hand against his head, and a series of fast, rapid images flood my brain. They pass by quickly, barely giving me the time to process each.
"""I hate you!""" They all said in unison as the last images flashed by.
I stumble back, overwhelmed by the experience.
Jake opened his eyes again.
" Did you see anything?" He asked.
" Yes, but I dont understand." I said.
The images had passed by too fast to see, and the last one did not help my situation in the slightest.
" Me too..." He sighed.
The distance had shortened considerably between us, and I had a feeling he was more trusting of me than earlier, even if only marginally.
" Any reason why you are afraid of me?" I asked him.
" Well, I don't want to die by your hands again." He shrugged, unnaturally calm after saying such a statement.
Before I could ask what he meant, the dark figure reappeared in the room. His limbs were barely able to be seen, as they seemed to blend with its body in darkness.
"Despite earlier challenges," It began, its voice considerably calmer than when it left.
"You must defeat the entity as a team."
I nodded. While I haven't been able to find out why they were so hostile to me, the vision of the heroes' lives gave me some information about the entity that I had previously been unaware of.
"How are we meant to stop the entity?" Jake asked.
" You will follow the darkness." It said vaguely.
"In each universe the entity has killed, the universe is covered by darkness before being fully consumed." It explained.
" You must travel to each universe that hasn't been fully consumed yet, navigate through it before it is erased, and track the darkness to find the entity." The figure said.
" What happens if we are consumed in the Darkness?" Lei Ling asked.
She was looking a lot better now than when she had collapsed. Her skin was less pale, and her eyes weren't bloodshot anymore.
" Nothing happens, everything will go black, and you'll cease to exist." The figure said.
The heroes looked around doubtfully and worriedly. Unfortunately for them, the figure's next statement shut down any thought of being cowardly.
" Or you could just wait to die, watch everyone you love die, and then finally be consumed as the last beings to ever live." It said gravely.
"..." We all stood silently.
The figure waved it's hand, and its body disintegrated into a portal.
" You are the last saviours of the omniverse. Never give up." Those were the final words we would hear from the figure. It's body was transformed into a portal, and began sucking everything inside.
I hadn't even managed to blink before I was sucked in.
When I opened my eyes again, I was met with an interesting sight.
'Have I gone blind?' I thought to myself.
Pure darkness reigned over wherever I was. I couldn't even see my own hand right in front of me.
" How are we supposed to navigate here?" A rough voice complained.
It was the voice of the bulky, short man who had been in the white room m when I arrived. Gumesh, if I remember correctly, was his name.
The others murmured in response, checking to see if no one had been seperated.
"I think I might know..." Said a female voice. It was Lei Ling.
A cold wind blew after her words, pricking at my skin. She murmured something about light before addresing the rest of us.
" Got it." She said.
The sound of flicking could be heard, and a faint light emitted from a giant flashlight shaped object.
Unfortunately, the surroundings seemed just as dark as before. The flashlight did nothing to illuminate the world around us, as if the light was being greedily consumed by darkness.
Lei Ling coughed and de-summoned the flashlight. Her voice was a bit rough. That summoning must have taken a portion of her power.
"We can't light up the surroundings," She said. " And we don't have much time..."
We could all feel it, our bodies dying slowly in the darkness that covered this world.
" Try using your abilities to map the surroundings." Said Jake.
I reached out to the direction of his voice and touched him. After doing so, I could see the world us around naturally. Interestingly, none of us were in his sight from what I saw.
"I'm using the memory of this place to see what it was like before it was covered in darkness" He said to me.
It was a solution with many problems. For one, he had to switch between the past images and the present darkness to make sure he was still with the group.
The rest followed suit. Lei Ling created three glasses that could sense the matter around this world, and gave one to both Felix, who had just woken up before we were transported here, and Gumesh, who's abilities wouldn't help him in any way.
It goes without saying that she didn't make one for me.
I sighed, removing my hand from Jake. The world once again turned dark around me.
An oddly familiar energy ran through me, warming up my body against the cold.
When I blinked again, I saw the world in black and white. It was mostly dark, with white outlines around the objects and people around me, like an inverted sketch with only two shades: white and black
'Do I really have no abilities?' I thought to myself, relishing in the energy inside of me.
" Come on. " Jake said, leading the way forward. While we were disorentated at first, we quickly adapted and followed him, looking for any clues of where to find the entity and exit this dying realm.
***
" What's wrong, master? Asked the scythe.
" Someone entered my domain." Death said, her face breaking into a smile.
"Those heroes are looking for me."
"Should we eliminate them?" The scythe asked
"Of course not, this is the perfect opportunity to manipulate the heroes." Death replied as she felt the heroes exploring her domain.
" It's time we begin to end Void, and those heroes will help us." She said.
The scythe remained silent, wondering what its master had planned. More than anything though, it could feel its own clock ticking away, as if a countdown to their own death had begun the moment they met Erebus.
It could only hope that it was just a nagging worry, and that nothing disastrous would occur to them.