The rain poured harder, the sheets of water blurring the world into gray and shadow.
Noah’s breath fogged in the chill as he squared himself against the massive shape of the Void Tortoise.
The beast shifted, its shell shimring faintly with violet lines. Its claws sank into the sodden earth with every step, carving grooves that filled instantly with rainwater.
Noah’s heart hamred in excitent. Just one strike from the beast was enough to end him.
The tortoise lunged first. For a beast its size, its speed was wrong. Space seed to cheat for it, the distance between them snapping shorter than Noah could track.
He flung himself sideways, mud exploding under his boots as a claw swept through the air where his chest had been. The strike cleaved straight through a tree, reducing it to splinters.
He didn’t stop moving. He couldn’t. He dashed through the undergrowth, cloak plastered to his back, every sense screaming at him to stay ahead.
Blackfla coiled in his palm, and he flung it, the cold burning fire lashing across the rain.
It splashed against the tortoise’s shell, shadows hissing, but when the smoke cleared, the beast stood untouched. Its shell shimred faintly, the void drinking away the vitality of the attack.
Noah grimaced. "So that’s how it’s going to be."
The tortoise lumbered forward, head tilting back. Then, with a sound like tearing cloth, it spat a bolt of condensed void. The air warped violently as it streaked towards Noah.
He barely dodged, throwing himself into a roll, mud saring his uniform. The bolt struck a tree behind him.
The tree didn’t burn. It didn’t even fall. It simply... ceased to exist. A clean absence remained, a perfect circle where trunk and branches had been.
Noah’s eyes widened, stomach turning. That wasn’t destruction. That was erasure.
The tortoise rumbled low, charging another bolt. Its maw glowed with spirals of nothingness.
Noah’s shadows scread at him to act. He thrust his hand forward, casting devour.
Hands of darkness surged outward, clawing hungrily for the forming bolt. But the tortoise’s void t them, unraveling the spell. His darkness frayed and split apart, slipping like smoke between the beast’s power.
Noah clicked his teeth. "Figures."
The tortoise loosed another void bolt. He blurred sideways again, lungs burning. The bolt smashed into the earth, gouging a pit that filled instantly with black rainwater.
Noah retaliated, this ti with Rot. The sickly tendrils of decay splashed across the tortoise’s leg. For a mont, the ground bubbled and crumbled. But the beast’s shell pulsed, and the decay fizzled harmlessly away.
The fight quickly devolved into a vicious rhythm. The tortoise struck, claws gouging, and void bolts erasing everything they touched.
Noah dodged, ducked, and slid through mud, his shadows shrieking with each near miss. He fired back spell after spell, each one swallowed by the tortoise’s shell. His mana burned, his arms ached, and his heart thundered.
Then he knew he had to gamble.
Rain cascaded off his hood as he skidded to a stop, lifting both hands. Mana roared through him. "Pillar of Judgent!"
The world split open with fire. A roaring column of white gold fla, rimd with black, exploded downward onto the tortoise. It struck its shell with a sound like a forge hamr smashing iron.
The tortoise bellowed, its deep voice rattling Noah’s bones.
For the first ti since the battle began, it reeled. The ever burning fla clung to its plates, feeding on the very air, gnawing into the shell that had shrugged off everything else.
Noah’s grin flashed at the sight.
The tortoise staggered, violet void spilling desperately from its shell as it tried to wrench the fire loose. Space itself warped, cracks of black light forming as it fought to unravel the fla.
Noah didn’t waste the chance.
He pulled Devour into being again. Not once, but layered. He created the first spell formation. Then added another atop it. Then a third, each formation getting thicker as he pushed them to their thresholds, the formations trembling at the edge of collapse.
The air groaned with pressure. His shadows howled in ecstasy.
The tortoise realized what was about to happen. It lunged towards him, dragging its burning shell through the rain, claws tearing the ground apart.
Noah’s teeth clenched. His body scread at the strain, veins burning as the three Devours strained to burst apart. But he held them, forcing them together.
"Now!"
He unleashed it.
The three Devours collapsed into one monstrous hand of darkness, a storm of claws and hunger that surged forward. They wrapped around the Void Tortoise, pulling and dragging at it.
The tortoise roared, void exploding outward, tearing at the hands. Space ripped, bolts of erasure detonated, but the darkness only howled louder.
It struggled, claws flailing and shell thrashing. The forest shook. Trees toppled and earth cracked, but the darkness did not let go.
The Pillar of Judgent still burned on its shell, draining its strength.
Noah’s jaw locked as he forced every shred of his will into the spell. "You’re mine!"
The hands of darkness closed tighter.
The tortoise bellowed once more. Then, with a shudder that split the air, it was dragged down into the abyss of Noah’s spell.
Its massive form twisted, folded, and collapsed into nothingness, consud utterly by the layered Devour.
The rain fell harder, drowning the silence that followed.
Noah stood frozen, chest heaving, sweat and rain mixing on his skin. His knees buckled, and he slumped to the mud, cloak heavy and plastered to him.
His shadows curled around him like a crown, crowing at his victory.
Then, golden text shimred faintly before his eyes.
[You have devoured the Void Tortoise.]
[New Spell Unlocked.]
[Void Bolt - S-Rank spell]
Noah stared at the words, chest rising and falling slowly. Then, his eyes drifted down to its description.
[Condense and fire a destructive projectile of void energy. The bolt erases anything it strikes, bypassing conventional defense. Consus high mana per use.]
His lips parted in a tired, bitter smile.
"S-rank... void."
The rain pattered around him, cold and endless, soaking him deeper into the mud. He let himself fall back, staring up at the canopy above.
His body ached everywhere, lungs burning, but inside, a fire raged.
He had hunted the myth. He had won.
And now, he held its weapon.
Noah closed his eyes. The rain fell without end.
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