The Weight of Exhaustion

Chapter One: The Start

Void's footsteps echoed in a rhythmic pattern as he slowly descended down the spiral staircase. The torch in his hand was the only light source he had to view the surrounding areas. It wasn't much, considering he was surrounded by stone carved with warnings to turn back and up and down only showed the long staircase he was descending down.

The darkness wrapped around him in a tight embrace. Even it knew that the dark surrounding them was not theirs to play with, for it belonged to someone, something, else entirely. Neither Steve or Human. A supposed child of The Void.

The being sealed away at the end of the stairs was one not to be trifled with. It was also one Void hoped to recruit in his plan to consume the world in darkness.

Few books still exist about this being that once plagued the Steves and supposedly, the humans, at one point in time. For this being of darkness existed before Void did. Before he was Void, before he was Rainbow Steve, and before he was just Blue Steve. This being was locked away by what is considered to be the first of the Chromatic Steves. When Origin Steve was still creating other Steves.

Void felt the darkness that was not his move around curiously. It spun around him in tight circles. Each step caused the darkness that wasn't his to swirl around him quicker, almost excited like. Void could feel light pokes and prods of the other darkness the further he descended.

His darkness seemed split on the new entity around him. Some poked and prodded back while the other half pressed tightly against him.

It was ten minutes and a concerning amount of stairs later, Void reached the end. Two doors loomed opposingly in front of him. Words in a language forgotten by most Steve inscribed on them. A last warning and a spell to seal away the being inside from being able to escape the room beyond the doors.

The funny thing was, the Steves who sealed away the being didn't think someone from the outside would open the doors, so nothing stopped him from swinging the doors open and walking in.

It was almost anticlimactic how easy it was.

The room was pitch black, and the torch in his hands did nothing to pierce through the darkness. Good, he could toss away the damn thing now.

The torch clattered against the stone floor. The sound echoing around the room. The darkness, the one not in his control, seemed to play with the discarded item. Void could hear it rolling over stones and pebbles. Even though Void could not see, he could feel something watching him, watching his every move.

The sound of the rolling torch stopped and the silence seemed louder after the final sound stopped echoing. A low, gravely chuckle picked up. The words sound off, as if the creature speaking them was not meant to speak in Galactic.

"You are a very foolish Steve to come down here and open my doors." The words echoed around the room, vibrating the very bones in his body. The being's darkness tapped him and the darkness that pressed close. "Or smart." It hummed. "You have my Mother's touch. You have spread Her throughout the land. I can sense it, now the doors are open. What are you? I do not remember the Steves willing to accept The Void when I was around. So, what are you, Steve with the darkness? Perhaps a better question would be, who are you, Steve?"

Void took a breath. Here goes nothing. "My name is Void Steve, and I come with an offer."

"Oh?"

"Both of us want the darkness to consume the lands, and I offer an alliance towards you. Very few books exist about you nowadays, and your name has been forgotten by most. Almost all Steves know nothing of you. You would be allowed freedom across the land to choose who you wish to drain as we infect the lands with darkness."