Chapter 201: understanding the Void

Leo sat beneath the tree with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, letting the distant hum of the camp fade away. He slowed his breathing and settled his mind, reaching back toward the brutal days he had spent inside the Void Dimension.

Back then, every mistake carried a steep price. The Astral Master who trained him never bothered to explain a technique twice. If Leo failed to grasp an exercise, the old man simply made him repeat it until he got it right—or beat him until the lesson stuck. On many days, Leo had spent hours practicing a single movement. He had thought the man was just a sadistic bastard who enjoyed making him suffer, but now the reason behind the brutality was becoming clear. The Astral master had never wanted him to blindly follow instructions; he wanted him to understand what he was doing.

A memory surfaced in the quiet of his mind.

Leo stood before the Astral Master, holding a wooden sword while sweat dripped down his face. The man stood a few meters away, looking unimpressed.

"You think that if your movements and techniques are perfect, you’ll be able to unleash the strongest attack?"

Leo had nodded.

The Astral Master immediately shook his head. "Wrong." He casually tapped the wooden sword against Leo’s shoulder. "If this were a street fight, then sure. Perfect movements and techniques would give you an advantage against ordinary thugs." He paused. "But against experts or beings with natural talent, that alone won’t cut it."

Leo frowned at him.

The Astral Master continued. "If you want to become the best at something, you must ponder, observe, and completely understand your abilities, your weapon, and your own body." He pointed the wooden sword directly at Leo. "Don’t just learn how to swing your weapon. Understand why it cuts. Don’t just learn how to move. Understand how your body produces that movement. And don’t just learn how to use your power."

The Astral Master’s eyes narrowed. "Understand what it truly is."

The memory dissolved, and Leo opened his eyes. He lowered his gaze to his open hands.

"If I want to become stronger, I need to understand my power."

His fingers curled inward. "Void."

Ever since awakening as a superhuman, he had relied on his Void abilities through instinct and hard-earned fighting experience. Void Edge enhanced his weapons with destructive force, Void Walk carried him short distances through space, and Void Sense alerted him to his surroundings. He knew what these abilities could do, but did he truly understand them?

He shook his head. Not even close. He had been too focused on surviving to examine the nature of his power. Whenever a stronger enemy appeared, he simply pushed his abilities harder, forcing his way through the difference in strength. It had worked so far, but the cost was high. His energy drained too fast, and maintaining certain techniques took a heavy toll. Pushing forward on instinct alone would eventually bring him to a dead end.

Leo picked up one of his combat knives. "Let’s start with you."

He focused his mind, and a thin layer of black energy spread across the blade, coating it in a dark sheen.

Void Edge.

Leo studied the energy closely. Until now, he had treated it as a basic enhancement technique—a way to boost the cutting power of his weapons. But what was happening beneath that dark surface? Was the energy sharpening the edge, weakening the space around it, or doing something else entirely?

He reached out and cautiously touched the blade. Nothing happened. He pressed harder, but the knife that could carve through zombie flesh failed to leave even a faint mark on his skin.

Leo frowned. He altered the energy concentration, thinning the layer before bringing it back up, but the result stayed the same. He adjusted his grip, observing how the energy shifted as he moved the blade, and even tried gathering the power into a single point along the edge. Nothing revealed itself.

After nearly half an hour, he lowered the knife.

"This won’t do."

Trying to figure out the Void by looking at its outward effects wasn’t working. He needed a different approach. His gaze fell upon his palm.

"Void Devour."

A tiny black sphere appeared above his hand, no larger than a marble. Unlike Void Edge, which merely coated a physical object, this miniature sphere held an unusual sense of depth. It was completely dark, yet it didn’t look like a normal shadow. It felt as though the tiny sphere held a space far larger than its size suggested.

Leo narrowed his eyes, controlling his breath as he locked his attention on the miniature Void. The ambient noise of the camp drifted away, and the footsteps passing nearby faded from his awareness. Slowly, his surroundings vanished until only the black sphere remained.

Deep inside his mind, something stirred.

It was a faint, subtle feeling, as if he had brushed against a hidden door. Leo instinctively tried to grasp it, but the feeling began to slip away. His eyes snapped open.

"No..."

He dismissed Void Devour, letting the sphere vanish, then closed his eyes to hold onto that fleeting sensation. Forcing it would only break the connection, so he remained still and let his consciousness sink deeper.

The world around him dissolved.

The tree behind him was gone, the breeze stopped, and the sounds of the camp died away. When Leo opened his eyes, he stood in an endless darkness that stretched in every direction. There was no ground, yet his feet rested on a solid surface. There was no sky, no stars, and no horizon—just vast, unbroken shadow.

He turned around, but the darkness was identical in every direction. He couldn’t spot an exit or tell whether he was moving or standing still, yet no fear touched him. Years of living as an assassin and surviving the Void Dimension had hardened his nerve, but this place felt different. It wasn’t the heavy stillness of a ruined building or the tense silence of an ambush; it was a calm that seemed to welcome everything into itself.