Chapter 27) Nothing Prevails.

You destroyed all my plans, Ghost boy." She spat bitterly. "For that, you are going to pay. No one can defy me and go freely. I would kill you now, but I want you to watch as I burn your precious mother alive."

Despite the lack of air going into his lungs, Xavier managed a smile of his own. "That's if you can escape from the void to find her."

And without thinking twice about it, Xavier commanded the portal to close by activating Void Spectrum. The system had warned him that trying to close a portal he had not created would cause the portal to develop a strong pull to itself. This was his last resort. He felt it was the only way he could stop Selena without hurting anyone else in the hospital.

Once the portal began to reduce in size, a strong vacuum force started pulling items into the void. Machines, contraptions, beds and even blocks of debris got sucked into the void. Shards of glass broke off from the walls to mix with scraps of steel and metal, all of them whipping around to disappear through the void.

Selena tried to fight the force with her fire powers, but couldn't. She was dragged about the room, trying to clutch at anything her hands could reach. Fire poured from her body and random runes appeared around her as she tried to script them into a spell. Nothing she did worked. The force of the infinite void was beyond her elemental capacity, and no strengthening spell would've helped her . She released a long guttural scream as the void swallowed her up.

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While the battle was raging in the research lab of the hospital between Xavier Xerxes and Phantom Mystic, Selena Monte-Carlos, Kim Sao Chen was riding on his Snow Peacock towards the hospital. Elsa was flying as fast as she could with her broken left wing. A grizzly boss had tried to tear the wing off with its claws. Elsa would heal up after some rest and great cubes of the chocolate cheese she liked to eat. Kim Sao had already released healing spells into her body by drawing a rune over the broken area.

They couldn't stop to allow it heal completely, though. Time was their greatest enemy. Kim Sao wasn't at ease with all the bad things that could be happening to Xavier at the hospital. The soon to be completed Domination ritual added even more anxiety on the Astral mystic.

It had taken him some time to vanquish the Grizzly bosses that flew up to meet him in the air. Fighting them had used up most of his mana, but there wasn't a chance to double back and absorb the crystal cores that dropped from them. Though both he and his soul creature were greatly weakened from all they'd endured over the past hour, Kim Sao Chen would not give up so easily.

Elsa had just reached the outer walls of the central hospital building and was soaring up towards the top floor when something broke out of the night sky with a loud crash that shook the surrounding buildings.

The rumbling sound intensified as an upsidedown mountain materialized in the sky. No, it wasn't just any mountain. It was an ethereal volcano with hot magma flowing inside. The sight of it dropped a sinking feeling into Kim Sao's stomach. Things just got a whole lot worse.

Only a Phantom Mystic of the fire affinity had the core strength to summon an active volcano. It was one of their most destructive skills. That meant Selena had leveled up by just performing the ritual. She was bound to get unimaginably more powerful after completing the ritual.

The top floor of the hospital was a sight of destruction. A good chunk of the roof on the left side had caved in. The Volcano hovered right there to release a torrent of boiling fire into what should be the research lab. Big green clouds of harmful gases poured out of the jagged mouth of the volcano as well. Kim Sao quickly scripted a rune that wrapped a protective bubble around himself and Elsa.

What happened next would puzzle him for years to come. Although his perception attribute was at peak level, and allowed him to Mind Surf and gather information about things with ease, he couldn't figure this one particular strange occurrence out.

The green clouds had just cleared up when a gust of black mist shot up towards the volcano, absorbing the magma as it did. The mist was somehow denser than even the night sky in blackness, and seemed to posses life of its own. It engulfed the volcano immediately. There was another shivering rumble before the mist vanished. The volcano was nowhere to be found, as well.

"What sort of power is that?" He wondered, looking around for some other Mystic who might've used it. He found no one else on the roof. Could the person be inside the lab?

He hastily floated off the back of the snow peacock.

"Stay here, Elsa."

She whistled in protest, her nose flaring. That happened only when she was hurting somewhere.

Kim Sao patted her neck. "No, you can't go in with me. You are in pain and weak already. I will be back with our young friend."

Elsa puffed but obediently sat down on her haunches. Kim Sao released some mana into the healing rune to hasten up its action, before gliding towards the cracked opening on the roof.

He slowly lowered down. The moment he entered, a strange sensation tingled all over his mind. The air smelled strange, too clean and without any sort of scent at all. The only wind in the room seemed to be the one he had around his body.

Kim Sao touched down at the centre of what was certainly the research lab of the hospital. The place was totally dark, so he summoned a handful of light orbs to spread out around him. Once the light reached every part of the room, He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Was he in the wrong place? No, he couldn't be. This was certainly the research lab of the hospital. There were still feint traces of the Forcefield Mesh charm in the sections of the walls still intact.

Tantai Xi stepped through the left part of the broken wall that opened up into the passageway where Kim Sao had fought with Fierce, the fury dragon, only moments ago.

He too looked around first with a confused expression over his face before fixing inquisitive eyes on Kim Sao.

"Are you sure we are in the right place?"

Kim Sao nodded. He couldn't form words yet. His mind was going around in circles trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

Tantai Xi walked slowly to stand beside him. Together, they gave the completely empty room one more sweep with their eyes. There was nothing in the room, not even specks of dust or bits of glass on the floor. There was no air or moisture either. It was like standing on the wrong end of a vacuum.

"I don't understand." Kim Sao looked at Tantai Xi hoping his friend would have a good idea about what was happening.

Instead, Tantai Xi was staring at a spot behind Kim Sao. "There's something over there."

Kim Sao followed his gaze. He even controlled two orbs to move in that direction, casting it with light.

"I don't see anything."

But the more he looked, the clearer he saw. As the light orbs drew closer, the darkness gradually vanished until what Tantai Xi had seen became apparent.

Tucked into a slightly secluded corner of the room was a narrow hospital bed with a woman lying on top. Standing as motionless as a statue beside the bed was the young Mystic. In the black hoodie and black trousers he had on, there was an ominous aura around him.

"Xavier?" Kim Sao called as he inched closer. Tantai Xi kept pace beside him.

The Novice Mystic didn't say or show anything in recognition.

"Stop." Tantai Xi said suddenly.

Kim Sao obeyed reluctantly. "What is the problem?"

"Something doesn't look right about him."

"I can sense it too." Kim Sao admitted.

"We should put him to sleep before we go any closer. While he is out, we will be able to search him properly."

Kim Sao easily scripted the sleeping runes, powered them with mana, before releasing the spell towards Xavier. The Novice Mystic immediately crumbled to the floor like a puppet whose strings had just been cut off.

Kim Sao rushed towards him and lifted his head up. The boy's skin was ice cold and pale, but his chest rose up and fell softly. He was alive.

Tantai Xi was regarding the room with a keen eye, his eyes alight with suspicion.

"Something isn't right here. For one, where is the Fire elemental Mystic who summoned the volcano?"

Kim Sao couldn't reply. Nothing that happened tonight made sense. It would take some time for him to put the pieces of the puzzle together. He was simply relieved that the Novice Mystic was alright.

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Neither Tantai Xi nor Kim Sao Chen thought anything about the fact that Xavier's right fist was tightly closed. They had no idea about the tiny ball of darkness hidden inside it, pulsing with energy and limitless powers of the infinite nothingness of the void. This was what remained of the void portal, and would serve as Xavier's connection to the Dark Element from now on.

"