[MA] 294. Ray of Light (Patreon)

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[Notice: There will be no chapters on next month's last week-ish (09/23 to 09/29)

Chapters this week: 2/3

Next release: Saturday]

The D-ranks immediately found that running under the weird local gravity could be challenging. When they walked or ran, their legs became under stronger gravity than the rest of their body, which felt lighter. None fell to the ground, but plenty of them tripped on themselves.

Still, they kept the pace.

The first causality of war was the Guardian System. It suddenly just stopped working. The black rectangles on top of people's heads, revealing their names and ranks, disappeared without warning.

"Don't get distracted by it," Zyn said. "Keep following." The Battalion Commanders forwarded the words to their people.

Soon, it was time for C-rank cultivators and mana-wielders with mastered Laws to suffer. The Voided space started feeling incomplete. The phenomenon was officially called Voided Continuum.

Shen could always feel his Laws around him, but that stopped being true in some pockets of what felt to him like nothingness. A "string" of Gentle Breeze with holes in the middle was unnatural. Shen could often feel the wind blowing at the beginning and the end of an air route but not the space in between. It was as if there were holes in the Laws of Reality.

He felt thankful for the lack of water nearby; feeling the interruptions on Stream might become absurdly distracting.

Walking in those pockets of nothingness—which still looked and physically felt like normal space—wasn't harmful. Even when he was entirely within such a pocket, he could still feel the Laws beyond. Those bubbles of emptiness weren't any sort of Law-denial technique or attack. They didn't null the Laws inside physical objects; Arthur could feel everyone around just fine.

It would affect energy attacks, though. If a place lacked the Axioms of Fire, no conjured flames would exist inside. Domains could deny that, but it was beyond Shen's aura's ability. If auras were that good, everyone would want them for themselves. Conversely, not being that useful against the Void was the primary reason auras were ditched in favor of rushing to master a Law. Mastered Laws were equally inefficient against Voided Continuum, but they could manifest in any other area where they weren't physically present, just like auras allowed unmastered Laws to do.

The pockets of Voided Continuum became increasingly frequent the more the troops moved. They also became smaller. It felt to Shen like a minefield, countless bubbles of nothingness from the size of his fingertip to his head floating everywhere.

The basic course had mentioned the Voided Continuum, but not this application. Zyn had said every Voided space had its unique features. Instead of giving a comprehensive list containing every phenomenon the military had found to date, they gave a rudimentary list and some tips, and it was up to every person to figure out how to deal with reinterpretations of items in the list or new things.

The current environment was the perfect example of why fighting the Void wasn't as simple as using Concepts and Laws against the correspondingly vulnerable Void Spawn. His Path's Laws might be incapable of existing on a battlefield. Even using qi might not be enough if it went through a place where a specific Law of his couldn't manifest. In such cases, he had to physically pierce the Void Spawn with something holding a Law.

Fighting in that place would require a lot of environmental awareness and absolute focus.

It made him worry for the D-ranks again. It felt more and more like they were sheep heading being led to slaughter—

"Ahhhhhhh!" someone close to him screamed.

Shen turned to see Staff Lieutenant Fu Wenqian almost falling on her back. The girl, who looked in her early twenties, had tripped on herself as she stepped back midway through her next step forward. She was wide-eyed, looking terrified at... nothing.

"Shit!" a male D-rank from Earth screamed next.

The guy sidestepped while running and hit a colleague. Both slowed down to stop themselves from falling to the ground.

There was no enemy nearby, but people seemed legitimately scared and surprised. Shen didn't have to think deeply to guess what was going on.

"Everyone, keep moving!" he commanded. "Staff Lieutenants, be on the lookout for anything that might have to do with the Stress Discipline training. Learn to differentiate Lieutenant Specialist Karlov's domain from people hearing voices in their heads. Staff Lieutenant Fu Wenqian, get a report from Junior Sergeant Jacob Gordon on what he saw, then share it and your own sighting with me. You'll be responsible for compiling a list for me whenever there's a new episode."

Zyn had previously ordered everyone to follow him and didn't slow down when Karlov started working. The man ran ahead, and his two Staff Lieutenants followed some distance behind. Then came the Battalion Commanders, followed by their own Staff. Finally, the Company Commanders were followed by their Staff Sergeants.

In theory, Zyn should be able to shout his commands to everyone. In practice, the Voided Continuum made it more challenging at times. Sometimes, sound simply couldn't continue. When it happened, it was up to his Staff to guarantee his orders were transmitted down the chain of command.

Therefore, the distances between everyone, while not standardized, felt natural. It was a distance people felt wasn't too close or too far to hear those directly above them. Or it should have been like that. However, Zyn should also be leading 33 battalions, not 301. Many were far from Zyn as they moved ahead in a line beside the other battalions.

It was also Zyn's Staff Lieutenant's function to keep the troops below following orders. Shen's Battalion wasn't the only one affected by Karlov's domain trick. The Lieutenant Specialist's domain had no trouble with the Voided Continuum. Nothing less than half the battalions started falling behind.

Xun began to work hard. Uya kept only a little behind Zyn in case she was needed to deal with an emergency, while the male Staff Lieutenant started running everywhere and commanding the Batallion Commanders not to fall behind. There was one time when Shen heard the man from a mile away. Another time, he didn't hear Xun screaming at the top of his lungs, only a few hundred yards away. The distorted Laws in the place made communication difficult.

Shen expected things to normalize quickly once everyone realized it was just Karlov messing with them, but he was wrong. As hours passed, more and more people were scared by the Lieutenant Specialist's domain.

The worst part was that it left no traces.

"No one remembers seeing anything, Commander," the red-headed Fu Wenqian had informed Shen. She was still trembling a little. "But I just know I saw and felt something scary. I know it. I'm not crazy!"

The Stress Discipline training was more psychologically demanding than Shen had anticipated if C-ranks were doubting themselves. No one remembered what exactly they had witnessed, only the terror they felt. No one could guess when the next sighting would happen or to whom. Even if two people were looking at the same spot, only one might be affected.

Shen could pinpoint multiple false flags. Zyn had said nothing against the troops assisting Karlov in training their colleagues, and some people added fuel to the fire. They wanted those they despised to feel more pressure and, hopefully, just die.

Shen turned to one liar once, only to be stopped by Uya, who ran at him at full speed. "Commander's orders: no punishments for anything related to Stress Discipline training," she delivered Zyn's message, then left as quickly as she came.

Shen hadn't wanted to inform everyone about what was happening. Spreading doubt about the ranks would be eleven more harmful. Unfortunately, Uya's words broke that damn.

Soon, the troops were scared of whatever could make even C-ranks terrified and didn't trust each other—despite Zyn's early warnings that they had to trust someone.

The Stress Discipline bit made the Expedition Training under the effects of the time rings, already a tense situation, even worse. Captain Abbav really resented people's leadership skills not being as required now as there were E-ranks to babysit, considering he had done a great job at raising the bar again.

Half a Standard day later, Shen made another short speech on top of the countless ones he had already delivered.

"Remember this mission's goals!" he shouted. "Survive! To survive, talk if you hear voices in your head! Your survival is more important than your distrust of someone! If you become Void Spawn, you'll not even leave a body behind! Stay together! Stop creating dissent! You might need someone to trust soon, too! And stay together no matter what! We're headed to a Void Farm! We'll release our frustration on Void Spawn soon!"

His five Staff Lieutenants had to repeat his words to ensure all the 54 D-ranks under him heard it despite not being that far.

"This is a test! Help each other! Help yourself! Don't be scared! This is a—"

He was interrupted by finally seeing what scared everyone.

Or rather, it wasn't exactly seeing as much as knowing and imagining it.

Shen just knew that death awaited him if he dared to take a single extra step ahead. That unbreakable belief created a phantom of a terrifying fanged smile in his mind. It wasn't a form of mind invasion but his own brain functioning working against him. Karlov knew precisely how to make the remnant reptile part of his brain react instinctively with fear of the unknown and in a way that made it imagine the worst.

There was no fighting that fear. It was illusory, and he knew it with his every fiber. But it was also too real because the simple truth was that the Lieutenant Specialist had a domain, and Shen would die with a single snap of the man's fingers.

Everything he knew told him there was nothing to fear, but at the same time, just knowing he was at the mercy of the domain holder was already a threat. When that threat was backed by even an illusion of fear in a test, it gained way too much weight.

It was a more primal fear than Shen had ever felt.

Multiple times already, he had been confident enough about his Path to face death with his head held high.

Yet, right now, he only recalled Liya's warning.

"...don't trust anyone too much," she had said while staring deep into his eyes. "Don't buy into your commanders' bullshit to sacrifice yourself for a piece of land. Our strongest will be fighting a civil war. The Alliance will shrink regardless of your actions. Prioritize your life at all times, no matter what." She had stepped closer and held his face between her hands. "No. Matter. What."

This situation fitted her words. He knew he could keep moving. In fact, his Path of Omnipotence almost demanded him not to stop. Lieutenant Specialist Karlov would be considered a traitor if he killed Shen here.

Yet, Shen would not keep moving.

He wouldn't let his life depend on Karlov's sense of self-preservation and fear of later punishment. Not for something as simple as looking strong for not being affected by the man's trick. Shen had to prioritize his life because no one else would.

That said, he wouldn't just stop. He couldn't simply stand still. His entire being refused that very idea.

He understood the situation and had to bend slightly, but he only sidestepped and kept going. Anyone looking would know—

The fear materialized all around him. There was only one way to avoid dying: to stop.

Karlov knew what he was doing with his psychological attack. He struck straight at Shen's Path. At his very Will. To stop now was to deny his very essence.

Shen wouldn't get crippled if he stopped, but something would change. He would have to evaluate parts of his Path and reconnect with his innermost self. He would have to face a defeat which he would've brought on himself. He would be the one to choose fear over a glorious death.

Or was that death really glorious?

It would be pathetic to die like this in this place. The very thought sickened him. To die before even concluding the basic course?! He couldn't stand that.

But refusing his own self felt incomparably worse.

Shen didn't have to think twice before roaring in fury and keep going.

He stepped into the forbidden area and survived. He kept running, and nothing happened. Except for one thing: the fear never disappeared.

It also never became easier to bear. For hours and hours, Shen moved under the crippling fear of facing extinction on his next step, no matter where he moved. No amount of evidence of him still being alive despite however long it had been could smoother the terror.

He kept going anyway. He kept going and was still mostly kept aware of his surroundings. At least, he remained conscious enough to have an idea of how his people were doing and remember to give mini speeches now and then.

In the end, urprisingly, and obviously also by design, it was Alicia who helped him anchor himself in Reality more than in the overwhelming fear surrounding in from all sides.

"Commander," she said as she approached, "I'm hearing voices."

Her words and the panic in her voice were like a ray of light cutting through a mental darkness Shen hadn't even noticed to have taken hold of him. He turned to her, and the world felt sharper. The fear was still there, but mere companionship was enough to render him something close to immune to it.

Shen smiled in relief as his every muscle relaxed and said softly, "I'm listening."

Alicia smiled back in thanks and started sharing with him the fears that threatened to overwhelm her and make it look like dying was better than keeping on living.

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