Chapter 75: Stepping Through the Void

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Stepping Through the Void

"Upward, not Northward." — Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland

•••

Hall Nine was dark when Joel returned at two in the morning.

The moment he stepped inside, his injuries began troubling him.

Of the twelve cuts Gideon had inflicted, eleven had already healed thanks to Juggernaut Vitality.

But the deep wound beneath his ribs refused to close. Pinkish blood continued soaking through his shirt.

The poison was an even bigger problem.

Although its main effects had faded, it had left behind a residue specially designed to match Joel’s body.

His filtration ability recognized the substance as part of him and refused to remove it.

Now it circulated through his veins, causing a constant burning sensation.

Joel sat at his desk, watching the blue light from the aquarium.

"You’re bleeding and poisoned," Nyx observed from the pipes.

"I’m bleeding, poisoned, and two Fate Points richer," Joel replied. "The house has survived worse Fridays."

"The shipment arrives tomorrow. Do you intend to face it like this?"

"No. I intend to be something else by then."

Joel examined his current abilities.

His Domain allowed him to control momentum within fifty meters.

Inside that range, he could stop attacks and control their force almost completely.

But there was one major weakness.

He still had to reach his enemies.

Gideon’s blood attacks moved incredibly fast, while Joel’s own movement remained limited by his physical speed.

[ Phantom Tread ] allowed him to move silently, but it didn’t eliminate the time needed to cover a distance.

The fight in the archives had already proven that.

He had crossed the courtyard without making a sound, yet still arrived with barely enough time to save Sybill.

And now, he had several problems approaching.

Gideon was returning to the Syndicate.

Thomas was still investigating him.

And twelve dangerous units were scheduled to arrive tomorrow night, with their original delivery plan already disrupted.

Joel needed speed.

Not just enough to outrun an ordinary opponent.

He needed something that would let him close distances before his enemies could react.

His remaining balance stood at seventeen Fate Points.

After considering his options, he decided to wager one point on the cheapest ability he owned, the same ability that had saved him countless times.

If the gamble succeeded, it might finally give him the speed he lacked.

"Nyx. If this goes badly, the vault combination is still your birthday."

"I still don’t have a birthday."

"Then the money is still perfectly safe."

[Ding!]

[The Wheel of Fate accepts the stake: 1 Fate Point. Balance: 16.]

[The Wheel notes the stake is modest. The lesson will not be.]

TK-TK-TK-TK-TK!

The Wheel spun, gradually slowing down.

The pointer passed x900.

Then x3,000.

It continued past multipliers Joel hadn’t seen since gaining his Mythical mind.

Finally, it stopped.

TCK!

[Ding!]

[The Wheel of Fate stops. Multiplier: x6,000.]

[Application routes available:]

[A) Skill Proficiency.]

[B) Cellular Regeneration.]

[C) Body Evolution.]

"A," Joel said. "Skill Proficiency."

[Ding!]

[Application A selected: Skill Proficiency. Target the mechanic of your choosing.]

"[Phantom Tread]," he said. "The silence, the pressure, the soles of my feet, and everything I was never taught about taking a step."

[Ding!]

[Target confirmed: ’Phantom Tread’ (E), Lv. 2, a skill about pretending the floor never happened.]

[Routing 6,000 proficiency units to target.]

[Ceiling exceeded. Override engaged.]

[Hold still, student.]

The knowledge didn’t arrive like an ordinary lesson.

Instead, Joel suddenly began understanding things he had never learned before.

And that understanding took over his mind.

TIK-TIK-TIK-TIK!

A sharp tapping filled his head, like someone writing on an enormous blackboard.

It wouldn’t stop.

His mind became filled with strange lessons about space and distance.

Then the room around him began looking different.

His desk remained where it was, but the distance between his chair and the aquarium no longer seemed fixed.

Instead, he saw several possible paths connecting them.

Even the wall to his left could become the shortest route to the window.

Not around the wall.

Straight through it.

The air above the kettle had its own location, an address he could somehow reach.

Hundreds of such points existed throughout Hall Nine.

They had always been there, hidden within the room, but Joel had never known how to use them.

Now he understood.

He could reach those locations without physically crossing the distance between them.

A drop of pinkish blood fell from his nose onto the desk.

PLIP!

His powerful mental defenses could block outside attacks, but this knowledge had entered with his permission.

There was nothing to stop.

PK!

Both his ears suddenly popped.

Then everything became clear.

The strange geometry finally made sense.

Joel had always believed the shortest distance between two points was a straight line.

But his new understanding revealed something different.

The shortest distance between two points could be a single point, if he knew exactly where to go.

[Ding!]

[Curriculum comprehended: spatial topology. Curvature. Geodesics. The geometry of folded distance.]

[Warning: comprehension was not optional. Comprehension was the product.]

As Joel gained this new understanding, his skill began changing to match it.

[ Phantom Tread ] had always allowed him to move silently, spreading his weight and hiding the sound of his footsteps.

But sometime before dawn, the skill evolved beyond simply making his movements quiet.

It no longer needed to hide his footsteps.

Now, it could decide exactly where they would take him.

[Ding!]

[Skill evolution complete: ’Phantom Tread’ (E), Lv. 2 → ’Void Step’ (A).]

[Function: instantaneous relocation, short range. Thirty meters, as the address is counted, not as the floor is.]

[Physical barriers: not consulted.]

[Momentum: declined at the border. You arrive at rest, by appointment.]

[Advisory: the Sovereign rules what moves. The Step declines to visit the distance at all.]

Nyx emerged from the pipes and slowly circled the desk.

"What did you buy, Architect?"

"A door," Joel replied. "No. Something better. I no longer need doors."

He decided to test his new ability immediately.

The first test was simple.

Joel stood beside his desk and looked toward the aquarium.

Instead of walking, he took a single step.

PK!

Instantly, he was standing beside the aquarium.

He hadn’t crossed the room. His location had simply changed.

For the second test, he approached the vault.

Its door was secured with three ordinary locks, each carefully installed for protection.

Joel stood outside.

Then he took another step.

Suddenly, he was inside the vault.

The locks remained untouched.

The cipher ledger, letters, and Sunken Reliquary were exactly where he had left them.

He had entered without opening the door.

Satisfied, Joel stepped back outside.

The third test involved momentum.

He picked up a coin and flicked it toward the opposite wall.

While the coin was still flying, Joel stepped toward the spot where it would land.

PK!

He appeared there instantly and caught the coin, bringing it to a complete stop.

"You can keep the change," he told it before slipping it into his pocket.

For the fourth test, he decided to challenge gravity.

Joel climbed onto his desk and stepped off, allowing himself to fall.

But just before he could hit the floor, he activated his ability.

PK!

He appeared beside his chair, standing perfectly still.

The fall continued without him.

THUD!

"Gravity has a complaint," Joel remarked. "Apparently, it still thinks I’m falling."

Nyx stared at him, her crown flashing rapidly with violet light.

"Architect. You left your position without crossing the space between."

"I stopped owing the distance."

"Even faster than the hunter’s blood."

"Nothing is faster than a question," Joel replied. "But now the answer doesn’t need to travel."

After three in the morning, Nyx left through the reclamation pipes to carry out her usual surveillance.

She returned without being seen, bringing information from Roan’s lattice and the hunter’s messages.

The latest report contained two important discoveries.

The reservoir meeting had been scheduled for midnight, when the twelve units were supposed to be transferred.

But nobody had arrived.

No delivery.

No collection.

The dock had remained empty throughout the night.

The twelve units were still somewhere, untouched and unclaimed, with no one left to complete the shipment.

Meanwhile, Gideon Vane had successfully returned to the Eclipse Syndicate.

And the Syndicate had responded to his report.

The message contained only three words, written in a courier’s handwriting.

All accounts frozen.

[Ding!]

[Hidden quest updated: Undertow. The shipment was scrubbed. The twelve units exist, unmoved, unclaimed.]

[The client has frozen all accounts pending the new quote.]

[Assessment: you have become a line item.]

"They’ll change their plans," Joel said. "Whoever makes the next schedule will have read Vane’s report. They’ll move slower, stay quieter, and be more dangerous."

He put the log away.

"Frozen accounts earn interest. So do I."

By dawn, the last traces of Gideon’s poison had cleared from his body.

The deep wound beneath his ribs finally closed with a faint tick.

Joel slept peacefully for four hours.

When he woke, he received two unexpected pieces of news.

The city’s proclamation towers were being decorated with banners, and gray military columns were arriving through the sky-docks.

"The Tenth Stratum," Nyx said from the ceiling.

"No one has ever mapped it," Joel replied, reaching for his coat. "But it looks like someone intends to."

He paused.

"I want to see their schedule."