By the second month of their exile, Jaden's physical frame had filled out, though he remained lean and pale, his skin possessing a translucent, marble-like quality. The most striking change, however, was his hair—it had settled into a stark, ghostly white that seemed to absorb the light around it.
He spent his days in "meditation," though to Alyssa, it looked more like a trance. He was testing the limits of his second new ability: Phase-Lapse.
"Hit me," Jaden commanded one afternoon on a plateau behind their hideout.
Alyssa hesitated, her hand on the hilt of Nightfall. "Jaden, you're still gaining your weight back. I don't want to—"
"Hit me, Alyssa. Use the style I taught you. Third form, Falling Leaf."
She drew her blade, the steel humming. She moved with the speed of a veteran knight, a blur of motion that should have ended with the flat of her blade against his ribs. But as the sword made contact, there was no sound of impact.
The blade passed through Jaden's torso as if he were made of smoke. For a split second, his body flickered—a silhouette of violet static—before solidifying again.
Alyssa stumbled, nearly losing her balance. "What... what was that?"
"Phase-Lapse," Jaden said, turning to face her. He wasn't even breathing hard. "The Void taught me that 'existence' is a choice. I have learned how to briefly desynchronize my body from this reality. To the world, I am there. To your sword, I am a dream."
He looked at his hands, which were slowly returning to their solid state. "It's a perfect defense, but it's exhausting. It requires the 'Genius' to calculate the exact frequency of the incoming strike and adjust my own body's 'vibration' to match the void-space."
"You're becoming a ghost, Jaden," Alyssa said, her voice trembling. "If you keep going like this, will there be anything left of the boy I knew?"
Jaden stepped closer. He didn't comfort her. He didn't take her hand. He simply looked at her with the detached curiosity of a scientist. "That boy was a variable that led to failure. He trusted a King. He believed in loyalty. This new ability... it doesn't just protect my body. It protects my mind. I can Phase-Lapse my emotions, Alyssa. I can turn off the pain. I can turn off the guilt."
"But can you turn off the love?" she asked, her eyes searching his.
Jaden stared at her for a long time. The violet light in his eyes dimmed, flickering like a dying candle. For a moment, just a moment, a shadow of the old Jaden surfaced—a look of profound, agonizing sadness.
"I don't know," he whispered. "The calculus for that is... incomplete."
He turned away and began to descend back toward the cave, leaving Alyssa standing alone on the plateau. She realized then that Jaden wasn't just recovering; he was being weaponized by his own trauma. The Void hadn't just given him abilities; it had given him a suit of armor made of nothingness, and he was slowly retreating inside of it.