Stitches’ soft tail brushes across Mateo’s unkempt chin waving back and forth as she clicks through his user interface. He runs his hand over her soft ears gently.

  “Grave Robber, that’s a good one, you’ll be able to loot the dead.”

  “Can’t I just take their shit without an ability?”

  “Yeah, if you want garbage, Grave Robber converts loot to fit your abilities and in the case of equipment, size measurements, I have a similar skill but it’s called ‘Cat Burglar’, It’s how I can steal Serenity’s lingerie, and it fits me perfectly.”

  “I’m sorry what?” Mateo asks.

  “I mean, never mind that, let’s look at your available skills, you have twelve skill points so we should probably be careful how you spend them, I’m not ten talons yet, but I’ve heard it’s harder to progress once you get to tiger claws, that’s why there are so few of them.”

  Mateo stops petting Stitches’ ears and she grabs his hand placing it back on top of her head.

  “Holy shit, I must be reading this wrong,” Stitches says pawing at the air.

  “What?” Mateo asks.

  “Surely not, but you are a voidwalker, where’s Natalia?”

  “She’s eating sweets with Terror, why, what’s up?”

  “Summon her, I need to ask her about this.”

  Mateo closes his eyes establishing a spiritual connection with Natalia. She appears in the room before him. Stitches is sitting in his lap her eyes a pale blue as she stares into his menu.

  “Um, you needed me for something?” Natalia asks staring awkwardly at Stitches sitting in Mateo’s lap. “Look if you need an audience I’ll get Okami, he would be more than happy to witness your copulation techniques,” she adds

  Stitches turns toward her, and her eyes return to their normal heterochromatic state.

  “Um, that’s not what this is, Mateo has a lot of available abilities that are good, and he has twelve available points which can unlock them, but one stands out to me and I don’t recognize it, but it costs twelve points and combines a lot of the other skills.”

  “What is it called?” Natalia asks.

  “Voidlord.”

  Natalia lands on Mateo’s shoulder folding her raven wings and sighs. Her eyes glance over at Mateo before looking back at Stitches.

  “Is something wrong Natalia?” Stitches asks looking back at her.

  “Yes, and I’m glad it’s just us three here,” Natalia replies.

  “Why is that?”

  “Keeliyah, I know you have feelings for Mateo, but do you really love him?” Natalia asks.

  “You know I can hear both of you,” Mateo announces.

  “Shut up dumbass, this is important,” Natalia snipes.

  Mateo sighs returning to a meditative state. Stitches turns around wrapping her legs around Mateo’s waist putting her in a very provocative position. Her tail darts about anxiously.

  “I do love him.”

  “I, Natalia Starbreaker am soul bound to one Mateo Ryusane, do you, Keeliyah Noir, one who holds a bond with the essence of death, accept him as a Lord of the Void?”

  “I do.”

  “Are you sure you know what this entails?” Natalia asks.

  The air is silent. Not even the whispers of the wind grace it. You can almost hear the clouds scraping across the sky outside the small tavern.

  “I’ll be bound to him.”

  “Yes, much like I am,” Natalia says.

  Stitches lowers her head and the world turns dark. Bones surround them as they rest upon blood-soaked dirt. The sky is devoid of stars, and only dark clouds fill it. Mateo opens his eyes standing. He moves to Stitches grabbing her wrist.

  “Keeliya, is that you?”

  “Yes Uzuki, it’s me.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “They’re dead, and so are you,” Stitches replies.

  Mateo smiles and his composure changes.

  “Lady Noir, would you like to see my palace?”

  “Yes, Lord Ryusane.”

  Darkness and shadow fill all that is. Darkness and shadow are all that is. Mateo stands in front of Stitches holding out his hand as the emptiness of the void surrounds them. She reaches out her hand and he grips it pulling her into an embrace.

  “Welcome to my palace, Keeliyah,” he whispers in her ear.

  The darkness around them begins to bend and rupture. The odd sensation of vibration fills the air. The dark reality around them begins to distort into solid form. What was once a small cottage is flattened, and all is reshaped. Pillars rise from the darkness jutting toward an absent sky. Walls form around a large central structure that resembles a palace.

  “Mateo, what is this?” Stitches asks.

  He looks down into her bright heterochromatic eyes with a smile.

  “This is my palace in the void, you are welcome here.”

  “You brought me here first, why is that?”

  “I was afraid to bring any of you into the void with me, afraid that it would take you from me, I apologize for making you the first, you have the death essence, so the void cannot swallow you because lady death owns your soul, it was how I was able to pull you from your space in the afterlife and into the void safely.”

  Stitches stares around at her surroundings then turns her eyes back to Mateo.

  “Is that all?”

  Mateo runs his hand over her soft ears gently petting her. Seeing the lack of disdain in her eyes gives him some relief.

  “I trust you.”

  “More than Serenity?”

  “More than myself.”

  Stitches holds him close rubbing her soft ears against him and lets out a long breath.

  “You should bring them here, this is a power far more valuable than anything I could have imagined, the void is a dark endless nothing, and so it can be ever expanded, the possibilities are endless.”

  “I will, when it’s stable, I’ve just established this, thanks to you.”

  “Woah, I can store so many snacks in there,” Natalia says floating by them with her little raven wings.

  Stitches giggles pressing herself against Mateo.

  “Natalia seems to be taking to her wings.”

  Piercing blue eyes stare down at Stitches. Mateo runs his hand across her soft cheek sensually.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Thank you for that, lady Keeliyah.”

  “Please, just call me Stitches.”

  “As you wish, Stitches.”

  Mateo and Stitches step through a large empty yard over the shadows of what resemble grass. Crossing a small bridge over a castle mote, which seems more for decoration than defense, they reach two large wooden doors. The doors stand out being one of the few things besides two torches lit with violet flames to have color. The doors are carved with a familiar scene. The same one as the carvings on the box Mateo opened when he became a battle mage.

  “This place is kinda cool,” Mateo says.

  “It could use some color,” Stitches comments.

  Natalia joins them at the doors after flying around the plot for a few moments. She seems to have further information on what Mateo has just acquired.

  “When you enter, the chambers will probably be empty, I think, and this isn’t something I’ve done before, but we might be able to mold this place with our souls, that’s why it’s such a blank slate, except for the door that signifies that the Lord of this castle is a battlemage,” Stitches theorizes.

  Mateo pushes open the doors and they step into a large chamber. Besides a few torches lit with a violet flame it is indeed empty.

  “So, do you think this place is part of my soul?” Mateo asks.

  “Absolutely not, this place is influenced by your soul, it is still present in the void, the reason I brought up that we might be able to shape it with our souls was because,” Natalia pauses rubbing the back of her neck as her brilliant raven wings slowly flutter behind her.

  “Natalia, what did you do?”

  Natalia looks down twisting her left foot as if she was standing on solid ground.

  Vendor purchased: the vendor ‘Snacks of the Void’ run by Ladarius Firefinger has been added to your facilities.

  Vendor slots remaining 3. To attain more vendor slots upgrade your palace by increasing your rank.

  Mateo takes a deep breath before stepping back outside where he notices a small wooden stand covered in rags of varying colors. Inside the stand is a large oven and a seven foot tall red-skinned male with curled horns and goat legs. The incubus male has a little white chefs hat and an apron which Mateo hopes isn’t the only thing covering his lower extremities.

  Mateo lets out a long breath and steps toward the stand.

  Ladarius Firefinger is a candy vendor in the void. After being abandoned by his mother, and well, everyone. He took up the practice of making sweets in order to put smiles on the faces of children who have been through the same challenges as he has. Also, he’s an incubus so he’s probably banging your mom. Enjoy that razzle-dazzle kid.

  “Good evenin’ mate, my name’s Ladarius Firefinger, but me mum always called me lad, well, the few times I saw her,” he says in an ill-fitting Australian accent with vocabulary that seems to be heavily influenced by Steve Irwin.

  Mateo, with a look of irritation, fakes a half smile.

  “So Ladarius, what do you make here?”

  “Crikey, I make snacks mate,” he replies proudly.

  “And what do your snacks do?” Mateo asks.

  “I’m glad you asked mate, my pop lollies increase experience gained for twenty-one hours, my pocket jollies decrease stamina drain by five percent for three hours, my candied razzledazzles increase your mana pool by ten percent for twenty-one hours, and my pickled anaconda tail increases strength by four percent and adds plus five to charm when speaking with reptilians by ten for one hour, the rest of this is just regular snacks that give the well fed buff,” he says displaying his stock proudly.

  “Awesome,” Mateo says sarcastically, “I’ll take eighteen thousand pop lollies.”

  Natalia flies hastily to Mateo’s shoulder pecking him on the cheek.

  “Surely we can be reasonable about this, if he spends all his time making pop lollies he won’t be able to make any of Natalia’s snacks,” she says laying on her side in a seductive manner on his shoulder.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “But, but, what about my bubble crisps, or cinnamon butter snarls, or, or, the snausberries, the godsdamn snausberries Mateo!”

  Void palace bartering unlocked. You have purchased a vendor through the Void upgrades system and now have the ability to barter goods with other Voiddwellers.

  Registration required. In order to barter with other Voiddwellers you must register with the Voidnet system. Please begin by entering a username and password for your Voidnet account.

  “Snausberries Mateo!” Natalia yells crying hysterically.

  “Calm the fuck down Natalia, I don’t know what snausberries are, but they probably taste like the back window of a police car, I need to make an account to barter stuff in the void,” Mateo replies. “Alright, so how do I make an account on the Voidnet?”

  Thank you for your interest in joining the Voidnet. Please input a username and password to create an account.

  “Hmm, what should my account name be, Voidslayer, maybe, Lord of Darkness, those are probably taken,” Mateo ponders.

  “Mr. Kitty, password I love Natalia!” Natalia yells.

  Welcome to the Voidnet ‘Mr. Kitty’.

  “Godsdamnit Natalia!”

  “Ha! Take that you snack thieving mother fucker!” Natalia yells.

  “Natalia, such language, what is wrong with you?”

  “Excuse me, I just wanted to let you guys know I’m still here,” Stitches says raising her hand.

  “Sorry Stitches, well it seems we have a snack stand now, we’ll probably all get diabetes, but at least we’ll have an experience buff for an unknown amount of experience,” Mateo says.

  Ladarius bags a few items and sets the bag on the table.

  “Don’t try to eat to many sweets mate, everything except the pocket jollies will cause a debuff if you eat to many of them too quickly,” Ladarius says with a smile.

  Item acquired, bag of sweets. Enjoy your adventures with this bag of sweets compliments of Ladarius Firefinger. Consuming more than two sweets in the period of one hour causes the debuff ‘sugar rush’.

  Sugar rush- when under the effects of sugar rush your stamina drains more quickly, though you have slightly more of it. Charisma decreases by three points and you talk at an obnoxious pace. Pixie’s are unaffected by this debuff as they metabolize carbohydrates at a far greater rate. Also, they are already kind of annoying most of the time.

  “Hey, that’s some bullshit, Mateo, tell that immortal voice in our heads that I am not annoying!” Natalia yells.

  “Come on Stitches, let’s do some redecorating,” Mateo says ignoring Natalia.

  “Mateo, he has besmirched my good name, do you care not for the honor of your beloved who hath soiled her own untouched lips to spare you from a cruel fate?”

  Mateo continues to ignore his pixie and she becomes more desperate for his attention. So desperate that she is willing to admit that she was wrong.

  “Mateo I’m sorry I bought the snacks vendor without asking, but I thought that you wouldn’t get it and think it was useless because I have a ravenous hunger for snacks and I was being selfish, which is somewhat true, but it’s also important to have buffs, especially experience buffs early on because they become less useful at higher ranks,” Natalia says firing off the words like a gatling gun.

  “Natalia, how many pocket jollies have you had?” Mateo asks.

  “Thirty-seven,” she pauses popping another one of the hard candies in her mouth, “thirty-eight.”

  Mateo steps over to Natalia and pats his shoulder.

  “I was just messing with you Natalia, I’m not mad, now let’s go make some tacky furniture for my,” he pauses for a moment, “our new palace.”

  Natalia smiles rubbing herself against his neck frantically.

  “I love you Mateo.”

  “I love you too Natalia, slow down on the sweets.”

  Mateo returns to Stitches side, and they step into his void palace. After doing some interior decorating Mateo sits at a large table in the main hall of the palace.

  “There isn’t any food here, I looked,” Stitches states.

  “I think I have to store it in my inventory under ‘palace supplies’.”

  Mateo moves some food items from his inventory placing them under the ‘palace supplies’ tab.

  Palace supplies- add food or ingredients to your palace supplies to save them for later or to have your ‘chef’ create a feast that will buff you and anyone in attendance for sixty three hours. Buffs from a feast depend on ingredients used and the level of your chef.

  Holy shit. I mean uh.

  Someone in your party is a level five chef. Bring them to your culinary den to employ their skills.

  “Stitches, are you a level five cook?” Mateo asks.

  “Probably not,” she replies.

  They both look at Natalia munching on her fifty second pocket jolly. She pauses and stares back.

  “What?”

  “Natalia, are you a level five chef?” They both ask.

  “Is that like, the lowest level?” She replies.

  “Never mind, Natalia probably couldn’t even cook a grenade,” Mateo says rolling his eyes.

  “What’s a grenade?” Stitches responds.

  “Don’t worry about it, unless you see one, so, who could this level five cook be, it’s just you, me, and Natalia, maybe Ladarius?”

  Stitches thinks for a moment before poking her claw against Mateo’s chest. He grunts rubbing himself.

  “What was that for?”

  “There is one more person you’re forgetting.”

  Mateo looks down at the belt around his waist that contains miniature versions of all of his hotkeyed items except weapons. He plucks a small flask from it pouring the contents onto the ground in front of them.

  A human shaped female slime rises in front of him wrapping him in a tight, sticky embrace.

  “Sapphire, do you know how to cook?” Mateo asks rubbing the moist outer membrane of her back gently.

  Sapphire releases him and forms into five separate slimes all wearing different cooking oriented outfits. The main Sapphire sprouts a chef’s hat atop her head brandishing cooking utensils.

  “Chocolate,” she says her face firm with determination.

  Culinary den updated- you have added a chef to your culinary den. You may acquire unknown recipes around the world of Gottes from several different sources. The main source of culinary recipes is inn, taverns, and brothels. Increasing your recipe count unlocks new ingredient uses which upgrades ingredients for your alchemist.

  Apothecary’s booth- unlock the apothecary’s booth to hire an alchemist who can brew potions for you. Remember to sell some of your stock on the Voidnet in order to offset the cost of employment for your staff. Natalia SB has currently set Mr. Kitty’s storefront to- available items: seventeen thousand nine hundred and fifty pop lollies.

  Sapphire scurries off to the Culinary den as Mateo rubs his palm across his face. Stitches lifts a chair with the wave of her hand and it forms into a large feather bed. She waves her hand again and it changes into a medieval looking swivel chair.

  “It seems we can form the objects in here into anything we have on memory as long as it matches the furniture type,” Stitches says.

  Mateo waves his hand at the table and it shrinks down nearly to the flour. He motions at the chairs and they turn to firm pillows arranged about the table. The entire thing looks like some dinner table out of a Japanese anime.

  “Let’s liven this place up,” Mateo says waving his hand around.

  Stitches peers around curiously as the design of the room changes drastically. Some of the patterns seem familiar, though they aren’t from Gottes. They do fit some of the cultures there.

  “What is it?” Stitches asks.

  “The color patterns are from South America, the furniture is a more traditional Japanese, atleast, what I know of it, never been there myself, the pillars are something I remember from a few buildings in Russia where I saw combat.”

  “Where you saw combat?”

  “Let’s leave that for another time, I think we should show the others the palace,” Mateo replies.

  In his return to Gottes Mateo appears in front of an angry vampire elf whom is tapping her foot furiously.

  “Where have you two been?” Serenity demands.

  “Gather the others, I have something to show you all.”