Void The Spell of Nothing

Ares made his way to the hidden room in the church, it was one of the most secure places he knew and he wanted to read the book he had been given by Mars. After arriving Ares cleared a small area in the side of the room and sat down leaning against a wall. He grabbed the book which he had stored in between his belt and body. The book was about a hundred pages and was about the width of his hand. He slowly opened the first page and read the introduction.

SPACE MAGIC-

This magic is a profound and ancient school. Planets, stars, suns and all matter began in the emptiness of space. This magic is one of the three ultimate magics and the understanding and study of this magic will ultimately enable any true magician to transcend the levels of this plane and pursue true knowledge in the cosmos.

Advanced users of space magic can move to any destination in an instant, freeze and stop time within set areas, create and destroy using the emptiness of the void, understand the truth of life. More then 99.999% of the universe is empty and the uses space magic can tap into this unlimited potential to almost any means.

To say Ares was excited after reading the introduction would be an understatement, he did not understand all of what was written but the words "unlimited potential" rang a bell with him and made him excited to begin.

Ares flipped the next page and instantly his face sunk. There were no words only a golden circle embedded in the pages. The circle however had a huge portion missing. There was however a title at the top of the page. It read "Awakening of the void step 1." Ares was dejected. How could he learn from such a damaged spell book?

He flipped through the rest of the book and became more and more depressed, the first page seemed to almost be the most complete of the entire book. He sighed to himself. Considering his options, he flipped back to the beginning of the page and started to look at the golden circle on the page of Awakening of the void step 1.

He started by looking at the edges of the golden ring. It had very slight indents in it and after looking at them for a few minutes they seemed to resonate with something deep within him. After about an hour he fell into a trance beginning to trace the outline of the golden circle with his finger again and again. His eyes were glassed over and there seemed to be an infinitely black colour reflected in their depths. Initially he was moving his finger back and forth over the complete portions of the ring but after an unknown period Ares's finger began to go over the missing parts very slowly but in a very methodical manner. Time ceased its meaning as his finger traced over and over the golden circle. After an unknown period, his finger was infinitely close to completing a full circle. A glow emitted from within the circle and Ares ran his finger one last time around the full outskirts of the golden circle. Ares shut his eyes and golden light appeared before his sight. He opened his eyes and looked at the book.

The book physically hadn't changed but as Ares glanced at it he could see in his view an almost ghostly overlay showing the completion of the circle. With the completion of the circle he could also see a short incantation in the centre. Not wanting to stop whatever had happened he read the incantation.

"Let the void encompass all." It seemed to be a simple sentence but having just completed the magic circle a glow emitted from the book. It floated out of the book and looked to be an ethereal version of the circle of gold. It then shot forward imbedding itself deep in Ares's body.

Having never practiced magic before Ares was shocked, scared and excited all at the same time. Hopefully whatever had just happened was a good thing. He felt queasy all of a sudden and before realising what happened he lurched forward and threw up into the corner of the room.

He stood shakily after finishing retching and looked at the mess he had made. He angrily waved his hand towards the corner in an off handed gesture. A black spot no larger then a marble shot from his hand and landed in the corner of the room. There was a second of hesitation before a huge suction force emitted from the spot sucking all the mess he had just created. After no more then a second it disappeared along with the mess.

"What the hell was that?" Ares said looking at his hand in horror. As the spot disappeared Ares felt a huge pull in his mind and he felt absolutely drained all of a sudden. Whatever he had just done he knew if he tried again he would likely pass out. He shook his head slightly before turning and walking to the door and letting himself out.

Weird, he thought to himself. It was light out when he had come to the church and it still was. He made his way towards the Railway slowly. Upon arriving back, he could hear chopping. It seemed Carl was still hard at work, he smiled to himself.

As he came into view he shouted to Carl.

"Hey Carl how long you going to chop those logs for!" He smiled.

Carl had a shocked look on his face as he glanced back.

"Thank god, where the hell have you been the last two days?" he shouted, throwing the axe down and pulling Ares into a hug. Two days, Ares thought to himself, he hadn't eaten, slept or even been to the bathroom. How had it been two days?

After a little reassurance and apologies to almost all of his family members Ares was allowed back into the carriage, he promptly fell into a long sleep. Before passing out he thought to himself, this magic could be dangerous if it took two days every time he learnt a spell.

After a long sleep Ares awoke once more. There was early morning sunlight streaming into his bed. He could feel a bizarre feeling as he glanced at his own body. The ribs that had been clearly visible less than a week ago were already gone, instead a thin layer of muscle now covered his stomach. Ares prodded himself a few times before finally shrugging and accepting that he had changed.

The following few days Ares continued to attempt to understand the book however despite reading the second page again and again he could gain no insight into the next spell. On the the final day before he left for guild he decided to try using the black spot spell again.

Having re-read the spell, he now understood that this was called the void spell. At its earliest stages it could create a small black hole which would destroy targeted matter, later on it could form huge shields and destroy buildings; the spells limitation was that it couldn't absorb any living matter. Ares was excited to try the spell once more and had arrived in the church room ready to practice. He pointed his finger at the corner and willed the magic to work. There was no response, and he felt stupid. He considered how he had got the magic to work last time, it had been a flippant gesture one he hadn't even considered. He remembered being angry at having just thrown up.

In his mind Ares considered all possible outcomes from his very limited understanding of magic. The state of mind affected a lot of magicians. The more emotional one tended to be the less they could control a spell. But in his anger, he had used magic. How did this work? Perhaps space magic was different and responded to emotions.

Ares thought about a particularly upsetting memory involving Grant. It was the memory in which he had almost been drowned. Hatred flickered behind his eyes and he pointed at a chair. A black beam emitted from his finger engulfing the chair. There was a popping sound and it disappeared.

"Yes." Ares exclaimed to himself. A drawing feeling came from within himself and he felt instantly more tired. Again, with this feeling? What was it he thought to himself.

He sat in the room and waited several hours before trying again with the void spell. This time he barely had to connect his memory before the beam shot out and destroyed another chair. The pulling feeling repeated again but this time he could feel it was very slightly less tiring that before.

Because of the time Ares waited another two hours before trying one last time with the void spell. Once again, the void spell shot out without any delay engulfing a portion of a table and disappearing it.