Darkness. Complete. Absolute.
Cold that burned. Emptiness that screamed. Pressure that crushed.
Jak couldn't breathe. Couldn't see. Couldn't think.
The void dimension was hostile to life. To reality. To existence itself.
He was dying. His body was breaking down. Cells disintegrating. Flesh dissolving.
Through the bond, Shade's presence. The fox was suffering too. But less. Void affinity meant resistance. Not immunity. Just slower death.
Jak forced his void regeneration active. Drew energy from the surrounding void. Used it to rebuild himself.
It worked. Barely. His body stabilized. Stopped dissolving. Started adapting.
But the pain was incredible. Like being burned alive from the inside.
Jak opened his void sense. Tried to perceive the dimension around him.
The void wasn't empty. It had structure. Patterns. Energy flows.
He could see the mega-rift's anchor. The energy source maintaining the tear. A concentration point. Massive. Stable. Feeding power to the rift constantly.
That was the target. Disrupt that, the rift collapses.
Jak moved toward it. Movement in the void was strange. No ground. No up or down. Just direction. Will. Intent.
Shade moved beside him. The fox adapted faster. Void affinity meant natural understanding. The fox belonged here in ways Jak didn't.
They reached the anchor point. It looked like a crystal. Massive. Purple-blue. Pulsing with energy.
Jak drew his blade. Struck the crystal.
The impact sent shockwaves through the void. His blade bounced off. The crystal was harder than anything he'd encountered.
He struck again. And again. And again.
Cracks formed. Small. Spreading.
The crystal began destabilizing. Energy leaking. The anchor weakening.
Then something noticed him.
Jak felt it through his void sense. Presence. Massive. Ancient. Aware.
The thing that lived in the void. The entity he'd sensed watching him for weeks.
It was here. Close. Getting closer.
Through the bond, Shade's terror. The fox could sense it too. And the fox was afraid.
Jak struck the crystal again. Harder. Desperate.
More cracks. The anchor was failing. Almost collapsed.
The presence drew closer. Jak could feel its attention. Its curiosity. Its hunger.
Then he saw it.
Massive. Incomprehensible. Shape that hurt to perceive. Eyes that weren't eyes. Presence that crushed reality just by existing.
The void entity. The thing that lived beyond the rifts.
It spoke. Not words. Concepts. Ideas forced directly into Jak's mind.
"Interesting. A cultivator. Young. Weak. But persistent."
Jak couldn't respond. Could barely think. The entity's presence was overwhelming. Crushing. Absolute.
"You're changing. Becoming void-touched. Continue and you'll be like me eventually. Neither human nor beast. Just void."
Jak struck the crystal again. Final blow. It shattered.
The anchor collapsed. The mega-rift began closing. Reality reasserting itself.
The void entity laughed. Sound like breaking glass amplified infinite times.
"Run, little cultivator. Before I decide to keep you."
Jak ran. Void step. Through the closing rift. Back toward reality.
Shade ran beside him. Both moving as fast as void would allow.
The rift sealed behind them. Reality snapping shut. Cutting off the void dimension.
Jak collapsed on solid ground. Real ground. Back in zone eighteen.
His body was damaged. Badly. Void exposure had burned him. Changed him. His skin had purple-blue traces. Visible corruption.
Through the bond, Shade's exhaustion. The fox had suffered too. But survived.
Elena and Theron were still fighting. Two specialists against dozens of spawns.
But the spawns were weakening. The mega-rift was closed. No more reinforcements. Just the ones that had already emerged.
Jak forced himself up. Joined the fight. Wounded. Exhausted. But alive.
Together, the three of them cleared the remaining spawns. Took an hour. Brutal work. But they succeeded.
When the last spawn dissolved, Jak collapsed again. Couldn't stand anymore.
Elena knelt beside him. Her expression was shocked. "You survived the void. That's... that's not possible."
"Void affinity," Jak said. Voice weak. "Shadow fox bond."
"Your skin. It's corrupted. Void-touched." Elena's voice was quiet. "You're changing. Becoming something else."
"I know."
"Was it worth it?" Elena asked. "Three specialists dead. You corrupted. For what? To close one rift?"
Jak thought about the void entity. The thing waiting in the darkness. The presence that would have consumed him if he'd stayed longer.
"I don't know," Jak said honestly. "Ask me when I can stand."
S-rank support arrived thirty minutes later. Three adventurers. National-level power. Here to handle a crisis that was already resolved.
They examined the closed mega-rift. The dead specialists. Jak's corrupted skin.
"What happened here?" one of them asked.
"Mega-rift emergency," Elena said. "We lost three people. Jak entered the void to close it from inside."
"Entered the void?" The S-rank adventurer stared at Jak. "That's suicide."
"Should have been," Jak said. "Wasn't."
"Show me your corruption." The S-rank crouched beside Jak. Examined his skin carefully. "Advanced void-touch. This is severe. You need immediate treatment or it'll spread."
"Can it be reversed?" Jak asked.
"Maybe. If we act fast." The S-rank pulled out a vial. Glowing white liquid. "Purification serum. Expensive. But effective against void corruption."
They applied the serum to Jak's skin. The purple-blue traces began fading. Slowly. Not completely. But reducing.
"That's all I can do," the S-rank said. "The rest requires time. And luck. Void corruption is unpredictable. Sometimes it stops spreading. Sometimes it doesn't."
"How long do I have?" Jak asked.
"Weeks. Maybe months. Depends on your exposure level and natural resistance." The S-rank stood. "You should stop working rift zones. Void exposure will accelerate corruption."
Jak said nothing. Stopping meant giving up cultivation. Giving up power. Giving up the path.
He couldn't do that. Wouldn't do that.
Even if it killed him.
Through the bond, Shade's presence. The fox understood. They'd keep walking the path. Corruption or not.
Whatever the cost.