The Walker Of Voids

"She gave the boss something to boost its commandment, moving it from a topaz seal to a mid-stage amethyst seal." Lloyd explained, making all the adults gasp in shock.

Such a power gap would have been complete suicide to fight against, yet even the non-adults in the room understood that moving up a seal was no easy feat, and for Veronica to use such a thing on a monster only meant that she had a hand in the dungeon break.

"Then... How did you kill it? How do you survive? Lloyd, you aren't exactly in the second commandment, how did you not die?" A was a cruel question coming from Zack, but it was one that everyone had in mind.

Well, everyone except the adults who hadn't actually checked Lloyd's commandment yet.

They had assumed his strength after feeling his aura before, yet when checking his commandment now, they were completely flabbergasted; yet, at the same time, it answered Zack's question.

'Noah... Your kid is a real monster.' Benjamin couldn't help but think to himself. Not only had Lloyd created a clone that tricked all of them into thinking it was real, but it seemed like he also had the power to fight one commandment above his own.

The questions kept on coming, and while Lloyd tried his best to answer them as half honestly as he could, Layla did not hesitate to call him out when he did, causing him to reveal a little more than he would have liked.

As this continued, Rex left the room briefly to talk to one of the soldiers, yet no one paid him any heed since most of them didn't really care about him all that much.

"How did you escape it then?" Elana opened her mouth for the first time since entering the room.

"?" Lloyd tilted his head a little.

"The monster thing. How did you escape?" She repeated.

"We didn't... Two died..." Lloyd paused for a moment before regaining his bearing.

"Two of us died, I broke through and held the monster back a little, bit it initiated the dungeon break and tried to kill me. Veronica showed up and killed the monster with a single attack." Lloyd explained, not wanting to get into more detail since recalling the event would only make him for angry.

While his family had seen glimpses of it, his angry side was not a side he wanted to them to see, yet no matter how hard he tried, it seemed like he couldn't avoid it forever.

"Lloyd?" Rex called out, his voice filled with pain.

Despite everything that had happened between them, when Lloyd looked into Rex's eyes, he knew that the pain that filled them only meant one thing.

Rex was mortified, yet he knew the news would be much harder on Lloyd, yet before telling him, he made sure to remind him of something.

"Don't use it, okay?" He asked, yet he didn't get a reply from Lloyd. Instead, Lloyd just looked at him with a pleading stare, one that he had not seen throughout the entire 3 month period they had essentially lived together.

"They found... They found Felix's body. He's dead... He was stabbed by a spear made of his own blood." Rex explained.

The silence in the room was deafening. At this point, the adults quickly pushed all the kids out of the room, including Delly and Elana, despite them technically being adults.

No one said a word. Olivia and Noah silently hugged their child, something they hoped would lessen the blow of such strong news, yet to Lloyd, their hugs didn't mean anything.

He knew that Felix's death was a possibility, yet he didn't want to believe it. They had gone through so much together. Felix was one of his closest friends, yet he died.

To make it worse, he died feeling betrayed. He died feeling anger toward Lloyd for keeping such a secret and for lying to them the whole time. Lloyd could only imagine how he felt in his last moments.

Feeling tricked. Tricked by a void walker into becoming a close friend of his. Tricking him to drop his walls, and now possibly even killing him.

And now Lloyd had to carry those feelings.

The feelings of regret, guilt, and shame. He could have changed this outcome. He could have activated [Void Channel] early and ensured no one had to die.

He could have told them of his secret...

Of course, these things were unrealistic. There was no way of knowing whether or not Veronica would have slaughtered all of them when they knew of Lloyd's secret.

If he had used [Void Channel] early, chances were that he would have died against Veronica.

Yet he could not help but blame himself, and Layla could sense that.

All he could do was look down at the ground and feel an overwhelming sense of dread.

"Lloyd... Please, I beg you to not use it. Its not healthy. You have to experience these emotions; otherwise..."

"Otherwise, what?" Lloyd asked, yet instead of hearing a seething rage within his voice, they heard nothing.

To be precise, they heard nothing but a cold and monotone voice, speaking a set of words without even the smallest semblance of emotion. As if they were coming right out of the mouth of a robot.

Lloyd gently pushed his parents off him while standing up, his face as void of emotions as his voice.

Layla couldn't help but step back slightly. One moment, he felt a cluster of emotions that would have made most go into a severe depression, yet in the next, he was completely fine...

No, calling it "fine" would be complimenting it. He was not fine. His mind was silent. His emotions had flatlined. His aura was cold and distant.

At first, she thought his mind had snapped, yet she knew what a snapped mind looked felt like, and Lloyd's was not that.

It was far from snapped... It was almost... Enlightened.

'I'd like you to stop reading my emotions. Its quite invasive.' Layla felt a cold shiver go through her back, a feeling that she hadn't felt in years. It was not like there were many who could scare her, yet what she felt was not fear.

Unsettlement. That's the feeling she felt as those words echoed in her mind.

'Did he just use my ability to talk to me telepathically?' She asked herself, quickly finding herself covered in a cold sweat.

Yet Lloyd didn't pay her any heed. Walking past her, Lloyd expanded his shadow slightly and used some of it to create a trenchcoat made from his own shadow.

Lloyd finally stopped walking when he reached Rex, yet despite Rex's size, he could not help but feel small in front of Lloyd's cold and merciless gaze.

"Otherwise, what?" Lloyd repeated, his eyes shining slightly when he spoke those words.

"Otherwise, you might turn into a monster, just like Veronica." Rex replied, looking into right into Lloyd's eyes while speaking despite his body screaming at him to look away.

"Like Veronica you say?" Lloyd asked with a tilt of his head.

"Even if you are correct in your assumption...

I do not remember asking for your opinion on this matter."