Chapter 1: Reset

  The first thing Yana knew was the pressure of nothing. She opened her eyes to utter darkness, only to realize they were already open. There was no light, no form, only an endless, smothering blackness that didn't just meet her gaze—it absorbed it. Then, a single pinprick of recognition: there was a subtle difference between her closed and open lids. She could see, but she saw only the Void itself.

  As that realization hit, letters began to swim and flash before her eyes, blurring so fast she questioned her sanity. They stabilized into an urgent, blinking message: SYSTEM RESET! SYSTEM RESET! Yana froze, watching the words blink three times before the screen slammed into place, listing her data in excruciating detail.

  SOUL SYSTEM

  Name: Yana ???? Soul Depth: Void

  Age: ???? Rank: Shadow Novice

  Location: Pa void

  ABILITIES

  Dimensional step: Adept Shadow call: Adept

  Shadow Walk: Adept Shadow control: Adept

  Shadow step: Adept Shadow dispersal: Adept

  Discernment: Adept Seer: Adept

  MAGICS

  Spell weave: reset to level 1 Shadow manipulate: reset to level 1

  Shadow create: reset to level 1 Fate: reset to level 1

  Illusion: reset to level 1 Dimensional door: reset to level 1

  Pets: 0 Familiars: 1

  Shadow cat Name: Amber

  Abilities: Shadow Step, Shadow Weave Level: Adept

  Location: Lost in the void

  Adept abilities, but Level One magics? What kind of unbalanced mess was this? A bug? A screw-up? Or had she—the supposed Oracle of the Void—managed to accidentally wipe her own mind? The list of unanswered questions was dizzying, yet the System knew her exact location in the void but not her full name or age. Before she lost herself in the panic, one line offered a tether: Familiars: 1. Shadow cat. Name: Amber.

  ‘Amber to me!’ she thought, projecting the demand with stern urgency.

  She felt her void soul quiver, followed by a great rush of wind, and a three-meter tall beast of black fur, striking white markings, and large golden eyes materialized before her. It sat, the shift in air pressure audible, before shrinking down to the size of a comfortable house cat. The tabby looked at her strangely.

  “Why did it take you so long to call me?” Amber asked. “Did something happen?”

  Yana shrugged. “Seems so. All of my magics are back to level one.”

  The cat stood in surprise. “Only Level One? How did you ever call me?”

  “All of my abilities are at Adept.”

  Amber simply stared, bewildered. Yana sighed. “So, how long have you been with me?”

  The cat scrunched its face into what Yana assumed was a familiar frown and fixed her with a long look. “You don’t remember me?”

  “No.”

  “Well, why did you think to call me?”

  Yana hesitated. How did you explain that a leveling system listed your assets? And should she even call a Shadow cat an asset?

  “Never mind. Never mind,” Amber muttered, looking around. “I see that you do not want to tell me. Yes, we have been together for... um... a while.” She paused, her golden eyes scanning the blackness. “Tasha and the others. Where are they?”

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  Tasha and the others. Another unlisted variable. She remembered Amber, but the others were absent from the System.

  “I just woke up here with no memory,” Yana admitted honestly. “When the System finished its reset, it listed zero pets and one familiar. I do not remember Tasha, and she was not listed anywhere.”

  Amber sighed and brought a paw to her face. Yana merely watched.

  “I told you that you may not be powerful enough to upgrade your System,” the cat lamented. “But you can still call shadows?”

  “Yes. My abilities are still at the Adept level, my magics are at Level One.”

  “Okay. You can call Tasha, Starlight, and Demon Dust. They are all shadows.” Amber glanced into the void. “The others may be lost in here forever. I have no idea how to find them in a void. Maybe DD or Tasha know. They both have some void magic.” She shook her head. “What a mess. I always told you that you can be way too greedy sometimes. In everything else you are perfection, but when it comes to power…”

  Yana ignored her, already sending the call. ‘Tasha to me! Starlight to me! Demon Dust to me!’

  This time it was like a screaming gale force wind, and then three distinct beings appeared before her: a tall, slender black-skinned fae, a bright ball of iridescent fur barely bigger than her palm, and a two-meter tall being that truly seemed to be composed of shifting, gritty dust.

  Yana’s soul stirred, and the System alert flashed before her eyes.

  NOTIFICATION

  You have gained two familiars You have gained one pet

  Dark Fae, Name: Tasha, Level: Advanced Star Guide, Name: Starlight, Level: Advanced

  Marked Demon, Name: Demon Dust, Level: Intermediate

  Yana nodded her head with a small, satisfied smile.

  Tasha, the Dark Fae, looked around, annoyance clear on her face. “What happened?”

  “Her System did a reset instead of an upgrade,” Amber explained, still frowning.

  Tasha just stared blankly at Yana. “And the others?”

  “Lost in this place,” Amber sighed.

  Yana ignored their conversation and sat down, cross-legged, on the invisible floor. Demon Dust, the imposing dust creature, came to her and simply stared. His presence felt heavy, like dry earth.

  She sighed, addressing him. “Do you know where we are?”

  He gave a slow nod.

  “Do you know where the others are?”

  He stopped, tilting his two-meter frame to look up into the endless blackness for a moment. Then he looked back at Yana and nodded again.

  “All of them?”

  His voice scraped out, a terrible sound like hot rocks knocking together and breaking. “There are only two more.”

  Yana winced instinctively at the sound, confirming why he didn't speak much. “Do you think they want to return to me?”

  He nodded to indicate yes.

  “Come everyone. Let's get the last two.”

  “Just call them to you,” Amber said impatiently.

  “I don’t know them to sense them,” Yana replied.

  “Oh… right. I’ll show you where they are.”

  Tasha projected an image and critical information directly into Yana’s mind—a silent flood of coordinates and names. Yana instantly understood exactly where the remaining entities were.

  She extended her senses into the blackness, connecting with the faint psychic signatures of the two missing creatures. When they felt her touch, they visibly relaxed in the Void. Tasha had given her their names, so Yana only had to issue the command.

  “To me Alisha! To me Jasmine!”

  A porcelain-white doll with long, jet-black curly hair suddenly materialized and jumped lightly onto Yana’s shoulder. At the same time, a jet-black wraith with fire-red hair and eyes moved to Yana and silently slipped directly into her soul.

  Yana gasped slightly as she instantly felt Jasmine's intense relief, followed by a surge of raw, unfamiliar power.

  NOTIFICATION

  You have gained one familiar You have gained one pet

  Shadow Doll, Name: Alisha, Level: Intermediate Dimensional wraith, Name: Jasmine, Level: Advanced

  “Exactly what happened?” demanded the doll, Alisha, her beautiful face tight with accusation.

  “It seemed I made a mistake,” Yana replied, rubbing her temple. “You do know you are right beside my ear? You do not need to scream.”

  “Scream?!” The doll looked to the others for clarification, visibly shaking.

  “She has lost her memory, Alisha,” Amber warned quickly. “Yana, you never want to hear her scream. Banshees were born from this precious thing.”

  “Call me precious again, Amber!” Alisha shrieked, making everything tremble in the Void.

  Yana instinctively knew she could instantly decrease the sensitivity to sound in that particular ear and automatically calm the Shadow Doll, but she held back, deciding not to overuse her innate abilities just yet.

  She looked around again. Her System specifically said she was Lost in the void. That was ominous.

  “So, we’re in a void,” she stated, looking at her assembled crew. “Can one of you open a door and get us out?”

  “Well, you usually handle that,” Tasha replied flatly.

  Yana sighed. “I had a feeling you would say that. My Dimensional Step is Adept, but I have no idea where we are, and my Dimensional Door magic is at Level One.” She looked at Amber. “What exactly did I do, and why did I do it here, in a void?”

  Silence descended again.

  Yana closed her eyes, forcing herself into a tactical mindset. ‘Okay. Task one. Escape the void,’ she thought decisively.

  A massive system prompt instantly consumed her vision, blazing with red text.

  NEW TASK CREATED: ESCAPE THE VOID

  1. You have five days to escape the void.

  2. Each day you fail to escape, there will be a punishment.

  3. If you do not escape the void in 5 days, there will be a new System Reset and a new location chosen.

  4. REWARD: If you complete the task in the time given, you will increase all of your magics by one half level.

  WARNING: If you do not accept the task, you will be punished.

  DO YOU ACCEPT THE TASK? Y / N

  Yana’s eyes went wide. How could a simple, random thought trigger a task—and one with mandatory, escalating punishments? Her petty System was indeed trying to kill her. But refusing meant immediate consequences. With a sigh of pure exasperation, she projected the acceptance.

  ‘Yes. I accept.’

  Task accepted. Your time starts now:

  4 days 23 hours 59 minutes