A cool breeze billowed through the colossal fortress' vast hallway, its gentle winds coursing through Astarvan's lengthy hair to make it dance in the air with eminent grace.
Trick watched in pure splendor, his master pose with an illustrious stance, his lips stretching out into a cunning smirk as he opened up his mouth in speech.
"The reason is quite simple—" Astravan directed his gaze towards Trick, his bright purple eyes locking into Trick's crimson ones, which currently beamed in the unfettered rays of his curiosity.
Astarvan's next words were words that Trick never thought he would ever hear, his master's eyes widening in a sly grin as he spoke his grim findings.
"He's feasting on them!"
Trick immediately flinched in bafflement, his mind overhauling with a great storm of frantic questions as he analyzed his master's words.
"Feasting on them?" Trick asked in sheer befuddlement.
"Well, not exactly feasting on them." Astarvan folded his arms, stroking his beards in thought as he spoke.
"But rather feasting through them."
Astarvan's answer left Trick with even more questions, the child itching the side of his head in confusion as they both headed for Oneiros' lair.
"Hmmm?" Astarvan stared intently at Trick, folding his arms admonishingly at him.
"Don't tell me you don't remember this Trick, weren't you listening when I taught you last time?"
Astravan let out a weary breath as Trick stroked the back of his head with a bashful laugh, responding with a look of ignorance on the matter itself.
"Void beasts, creatures from the Void that have long plagued humanity for millennia without end."
Astravan's face etched out a slight smirk as he began explaining to the benighted child, the mysterious workings of Void beasts.
"Master… can't we skip the boring parts." Trick protested childishly, cutting Astarvan's story short.
"I already know all these areas of the story."
Astarvan then resounded a mirthful laugh into the air, ruffling Trick's hair under the vast palms of his hand.
"I know it might seem boring, however!"
"These are the key areas you need to actually understand, before knowing the plans of our Void beast culprit."
Astarvan voiced out with a wink at Trick, the formerly disinterested boy now bubbling in excitement as his master spoke every single word.
"Unlike ancient beasts or everyday monsters, Void beasts have a knack for feeding on something much different from the rest of them."
"They feed on—"
Astarvan gave a delayed pause, staring at Trick for a brief moment before continuing.
"Human suffering."
Trick's face immediately creased to form a resentful frown as his memories momentarily flashed his melancholic encounter with the void chief Oneiros.
Trick knew that Void beasts loved to merry in suffering, he knew that much.
He knew that watching people wallow in despair set them on cloud nine, he knew that much.
But what he didn't know was—
Like woeful predators, they revered in the sorrows of humans, consuming it as an ends to their own kind of sickening food.
Astravan rested his palm atop Trick's head, the child's former shivers of rage relaxing under his master's mollifying presence.
"The greater the number of people's sorrows a Void beast feasts on, the greater the amount of Void essence they have the ability to farm."
"Our Void beast culprit is farming energy in a very shrewd way." Astarvan shook his head with a wide grin as he and Trick got closer and closer to the Void Chief's egregious lair.
"By oppressing them with fearful nightmares, he's basically increasing the amount of suffering each person receives. And by inverse—"
"Getting a boat load of energy while he's at it!" Trick completed his master's words, his eyes widening in perplexion as they began to graze the tip of the iceberg that was the Void Chief's sinister plans.
"And that my boy, answers the three main questions we had before." Astravan pointed out three of his fingers into the air, a wide grin of pleasure making its way to the Trickster's lips as he did.
"But…" Trick added in a dissatisfied manner, his eyes radiating in a bright glow of determination as he spoke.
"We don't yet know what his exact plans are, what does he plan on doing with all that Void essence?"
Astravan stared at the burning flames of concern which like a wildfire started from but a single spark, before bursting into a ravaging fury of blazing flames.
"And that's the number 1 question that actually matters." Astravan stared above for a bit, before redirecting his gaze back into Trick's direction.
"As for the answer—"
A witty smirk stretched across Astarvan's face as he moved his lips around, ready to literate an answer, Trick stood at the edge of his mental seat, just desperately managing to keep himself from shuddering out of sheer curiosity.
The master Trickster then held unto his hat once more, his eyes glistening in purple eminence as he opened up his lips to reveal the answer to the question which now hung heavily in the air.
"I don't really know."
Trick immediately paled in shock, his face wearing a smile of disappointment as he stared at his master casually brush through the back of his head with a hearty laugh.
"Since we don't know the answer…" Astarvan paused his movements, lifting his head completely up high.
"We might as well ask the mastermind of the plans himself."
Trick paused his movements, his eyes widening under the storms of stupefaction that now embraced tightly at his heart.
As both he and his master now stood before the towering doors of gargantuan magnitude, etched within the walls of Oneiros' lair.
The harrowing journey was finally over, the two Trickster's standing face to face with the elephantine doors that separated them from the presence of the calamitous Void beast that laid within.
But, just how would the story play out?
"Wow." Trick muttered audibly, watching the titanic doors that towered massively above him.
Watching the unbelievably indomitable reinforcements that stretched across the humongous doors.
And feeling the melovalent aura which surged all through the weighty doors, shrouding it with a layer of nigh unbreakable defense.
All that came to Trick's mind at the time was just one line reflecting his great befuddlement for the contraption which stood before him.
"NOW—"
"THAT'S INSANE!"