Humming a tune, Xyn strolled along at the pace of a breeze, moving no differently from one across the uneven landscape. His thoughts shifted from the magical phenomena around him to his transmigration, to that which brought it about.

  The Vanishing. People assumed those ensnared by it were killed, but that's not the case. At least, not for me. Could the others have also been transported to this universe? Would any of them still be around?

  Xyn recalled the Vanishing's supposed victims and mentally plotted a timeline from oldest to most recent.

  The Void Empress is a long shot, though that would be an interesting meeting. The strongest psionic in history versus the strongest psionic in modern times. Ha, if only. It's been a millennium and some change. Also, Xyn's gaze swept in the direction the bestial noises were sounding out from, would she leave me any non-humans to kill? Unlikely. This forest would be free of monsters if she had come. Meeting Electro is within the realm of plausibility. It's been seventy years or so.

  Xyn made a face as he remembered the details about his predecessor.

  The Void Prince knew little about the man. This was due to Electro's nature. He was a private person and preferred to stay out of the public eye. But as an Aberrant, he couldn't hide from the spotlight completely.

  Almon Drona awakened psionic powers at ten, becoming a member of the rarest and most potent psionic class. No Aberrant was alike. His unique power allowed him to be a source of infinite electrical energy, hence his moniker.

  This would have been a miracle two thousand years prior, but the Rose Union had long found sources of unlimited energy.

  Almon Drona went on to become a Psi Enforcer, a well-respected one. He was regarded as a no-nonsense character who followed and loved rules; strict with himself and others. He was a man of steel, and in his mid-twenties, that description became more literal. Almon traded flesh for machinery to become a cyborg. His new body synergised well with his powers and transformed him into a one-man army, with most considering him the strongest psionic of his day.

  The Void Prince scoffed.

  He would struggle against a Type 876 and be helpless against a Type 918. Yeah, not eager to meet. Being a weakling is bad enough, but...

  Xyn's thoughts came to a halt as he did. His chin raised, and his black sights locked onto a distant figure.

  Another challenger?

  It was beyond Void Sense's range, perched on a branch of a tall tree. Xyn was forced to observe with his mundane senses. Blinking, he focused on the creature with new eyes - literally.

  The psionic pegged it as a type of monkey. It was the size of one and had a coat of dazzling silver fur which stood on end. Electric blue eyes stared back at him as the primate's two tails fanned the leaves at its rear. A mist-like white energy simmered off its figure.

  Xyn's earlier question was answered as the monkey showed a flash of sharp teeth.

  A predatory smile. That's different, he thought, narrowing his eyes. No, it's not just that.

  The ogre had shown intelligence and emotion, but was far closer to a beast than an enlightened being. The monkey, though, felt very intelligent, and its expression upon sighting Xyn was one befitting a sadist. The creature bled a sense of arrogance. It was looking down on the human that had been unlucky enough to appear on its radar.

  The Void Prince didn't appreciate the look in the other's eyes but didn't act on it. It was after he entered the grassy clearing, as the edge of his Void Sense touched the other's Soul Shroud, that Xyn gleaned an interesting discovery about the creature.

  This monkey's soul is complete, and its magic is different.

  Xyn nodded to himself at the assessment. His gaze brushed against the fauna, and several puzzle pieces fell into place in his head.

  It has a similar feel to the forest. Whatever mutated it also mutated this monkey...is my guess.

  The Void Prince refocused on the monkey, whom he categorised as a 'magical beast' instead of a 'monster', his expression thoughtful.

  His mana output is less than half of the ogre's, so why is it - he - so arrogant?

  Xyn saw the magical beast lean forward, and he shifted mental gears. The monkey moved a second later.

  I see, that's why, the Void Prince thought, taking in the new reality.

  The monkey placing itself on a pedestal made more sense to him. It was brisk. Where the ogre had been clocked at 50~ m/s, the twin-tailed monkey was supersonic, clocking in at just over Mach 2.

  The magical beast had feigned a frontal attack before slingshotting away with only ten metres separating them to land on a tree at Xyn's ten o'clock. The young man turned his head to regard it.

  A smug face greeted him. Xyn's eye twitched. You're barely quicker than a tortoise, and yet you're so big-headed. Ridiculous. Did you think you scared me with that stunt just now?

  The monkey did. In Xyn's stillness and blank face, it saw fear-induced paralysis. Mocking laughter echoed from its lips as it swung lamely from its branch.

  Xyn stared on stupidly for a few seconds before scoffing, turning away and continuing forward. The laughter cut off sharply. A second of silence followed an angry snarl.

  Malice pooled into the magical beast's eyes as the white energy rumbled across its figure. Letting off a low growl, it flipped itself to the top of the branch and then leapt into action.

  Xyn expected a beeline, but what followed was anything but straightforward. After parting from the bark, the monkey began encircling him at speed.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Going from tree to tree or tree to ground or vice versa, the silver-furred ape drew a complex constellation. Momentum was a thing until it wasn't. The creature landed lightly, leaving white ripples in his wake, before darting away at sound-shattering speed.

  Boom Boom Boom...

  Like a drum roll to an impending demise. Heightening the feelings of fear prey feels as it waits for an inevitable death, huh?

  The Void Prince ground to a halt at the centre of the clearing. The thought of becoming a turret came and went.

  No, the ball is in your court, monkey. Come.

  Despite all the signs pointing toward a malevolent nature, the monkey had yet to attack him. Everything so far could be a terrible prank. It was far-fetched, and he didn't believe it, yet this line of thinking kept the Void Prince's metaphoric gun holstered.

  Operating under an innocent till proven guilty paradigm, Xyn waited. He observed the magical beast continue its killing ritual with a stoic face, calm as a still lake. His mundane senses were woefully inadequate to track the creature's movements. Thus, Xyn focused on his psionic ones.

  Void Sense.

  The Void was a dimension that overlapped with reality. It existed between spaces and was essentially everywhere. As the Void Prince, Xyn had a passive and omnidirectional sense of the Void and space around him. His range was variable. Normally, everything within 104 metres could be perceived, but he could extend this range to 303 metres if he concentrated.

  Another thing that was variable was Void Sense's perception rate. With a thought, Xyn could drastically alter his time perception and perceive what his physical senses could never - in sublime clarity. This sense was vital in his clash against the ogre, and even more so now.

  Willing it so, his perception halted to a crawl, and the Mach 2 monkey appeared no different to a statue to Xyn. A black and white statue. The Void was a monochrome one, where colour was a luxury it couldn't afford.

  Hmm, is that why it has two tails? Because it can move at Mach 2? By the reasoning, Xyn took his foot off the metaphoric brake, and the monkey sped up. Does that mean there are others like it? A hypersonic five-tailed monkey. I must explore and find out. And looks like that'll be soon. I'm no fun. My lax demeanour must not be doing much for it.

  Xyn was right.

  The monkey's grin had slipped off its face as its prey refused to react as expected. Wanting to change that, the magical beast ceased its intimidation tactics after arriving at Xyn's six o'clock. Force ripples spread out as it launched off the thick tree trunk.

  Briefly touching the grass and kicking up a whirlwind of red petals, it continued forth. Its prey's back approached rapidly. The monkey's right arm drew back, and mana rallied to its hand, forming a garden shovel-shaped energy blade.

  Knew it. It really is a bastard, Xyn thought as he captured the trajectory of the monkey's attack. It was aiming for his left arm instead of going for the kill. The Void Prince didn't care either way. It would not change the result.

  Xyn remained rooted in place.

  "Kuh!?"

  Swiping past its target, the monkey experienced an emotional journey. At first gleeful, he was hit with befuddlement before panic set in. Landing, he whipped around to the unharmed Xyn and then looked back at what was left of his right arm. Everything below the elbow had disappeared - no, been swallowed.

  Before the claw had reached him, Xyn had covered his arm with a patch of Endera. To the gluttonous Void, the monkey's arm was a welcome snack.

  "Kua aah huu..."

  The monkey broke out into noises Xyn couldn't articulate but could perfectly understand. It was the language of the fearful. He showed a villainous smile as he stepped toward the frightened magical beast.

  Seeing Xyn's expression, the monkey shook in fright. The human before him was no easy prey or prey at all, but an apex predator. Struck by this realisation, the magical beast leapt back at its fastest speed, keeping its blue sights on Xyn.

  But this was a mistake.

  Separating from the ground made dodging Xyn's next move impossible. A - fully naked - Void Prince appeared at its rear, just half a metre away, hand outstretched and coated in Endera.

  The monkey skewed itself on White's hand, nape first. It was dead in an instant. The duplicate met its end a moment later, exploding upon collision with the cannonball that was the monkey's corpse in a firework of blood, organs and bone.

  Furry head and body parted ways, but the white energy coating them kept them intact. Still carrying great momentum, they ended up crashing into distant trees before tumbling down stairs of branches and landing on patches of dirt.

  Ding. Twin-tail Monkey defeated. 500 XP gained. An amused smile played on his face. What would the ogre have netted me? Definitely less. 100 XP? Nah, even that's too generous. This thing could kill a few dozen ogres, easy. What then?

  Xyn had these casual thoughts while pushing his Void Sense's accelerated perception to its limits. Uncharted territory required caution.

  The ogre may not have exploded, but who's to say the monkey wouldn't? After an eternity, ten seconds, the psionic was confident that this wouldn't come to pass.

  Different in this way as well.

  The monkey's corpse didn't glow and condense into a monster core. It simply lay there, in two mostly intact pieces. The white energy had lingered for a few seconds before vanishing into the aether, leaving a gross but mundane carcass.

  Xyn closed the distance with a couple of thoughts and began studying the creature. The gore didn't bother him. Not the sight. The smell could, but he had shut off the sense entirely. Unnerved, he had his Void Sense invade the corpse.

  Without the Soul Shroud blocking him, it could penetrate and observe the inner workings. Void Sense was more than a high-speed camera. When he wished, it could become a microscope as well.

  Using it as such, Xyn examined the creature's biology down to the tiniest cell. It was a short investigation. Lasting not even two minutes. The duration belied Xyn's speed, but mostly his interest, or rather lack thereof.

  5 XP seems harsh but fair. And at least he gave a monster core.

  Settling one matter, Xyn's eyes shifted between the head and body of the magical beast. Why not? I have the space. Thinking this, he engulfed the objects with his Soul Shroud and translocated into Void Vault. The process was instantaneous.

  The Void Prince summoned his bone dagger and readied a toss, but before he could...

  What the!?

  Xyn's magical senses were more than pricked; they were stabbed.

  It was akin to goosebumps, only infinitely more unpleasant. The Void Prince jerked his head in the direction of the mana surge.

  Intent...and a wicked one at that.

  Magical signatures had been aplenty since his arrival, each one either high or low in mana and each one bearing one or more attributes or attributeless. The magical signature his senses were locked onto differed from all others in that it had an additional property, intent.

  Intent was psychic energy that coloured mana. Xyn was familiar with the concept. Telepaths, the second most common psionic type, could direct intent in their tethers to influence the minds of others. He had faced many in Aflein who tried and failed to sway him.

  If every magical signature were a voice, it would be a shout, whereas all others were a whisper. Matching the aura's mana density were the concepts it carried, and outdoing both was how vile its intent was.

  Blood and slaughter, the concepts naturally came to Xyn's mind as the intent molested him.

  Freshly split blood, warm and acrid, splattered against his being as though delivered through a cluster of balloons. After painting every inch of him, each clump began squirming in place. The blood belonged to the strong and weak, innocent and wicked alike, their agonised and sorrowful voices echoing in his mind.

  Xyn didn't understand the words spoken, but understood the gist of what he was hearing. Calls for help, angry curses, and descriptions of pain.

  Evil.

  Xyn wasn't one to paint with a broad brush. The topic of morality was always a fleeting one in his mind. That said, the young man had a firm grasp of right and wrong, light and darkness, good and evil. And if anything could be called evil in his book, it was the aura he was feeling and those who could radiate it.

  Evil was to be destroyed, immediately. With no one stepping up, he gladly volunteered to be the destroyer. The role suited him well enough. A palm met a fist as the psionic's lips tugged upwards. The anger and disgust the aura inspired had fused to become righteous eagerness. Practically vibrating in place, the Void Prince ceased his study of the aura and vanished from the spot.

  West he went, to face a different kind of monster.