Chapter 336: Foreboding

Chapter 336: Foreboding

The runes shattered and released the magic formation dwelling inside. A literal star of frost energy spawned over Zasha's figure and then deformed itself, trembling and twisting until it closed in on itself to form a black hole.

Nyx grunted and planted her feet on the ground, summoning two living armors from her shadow but not letting them fully surface so that they could anchor her down. The broken bits of buildings and roads were lifted into the air and then mercilessly disintegrated by the dying star.

The air was getting terribly thin, if not entirely inexistent at that point, and the gravity would have killed a normal person several times over already. The Half-Dimension was dangerously close to breaking down as well.

'I don't think I can keep it up for too long...' Nyx thought as she resisted the pull the best she could. Surviving the black hole was one thing, but continuously manifesting the dimension to stop it from being fully brought into the real world was another.

Who knows how many people would die if it got out to Zero? The main reason why she and Rakna hadn't already died from it was their inherently inhuman physique.

"If you're awake, it's time you do something..." She grumbled half-heartedly to the crater near her and not knowing what to expect, she was startled by a claw suddenly pulverizing one of the chunks of metal floating upward.

The werewolf rose, his fur now glowing crimson, from the ground and calmly walked through the landscape being slowly picked apart by the black hole, with Rift Shuttle bouncing off the effects of gravity. Discover new chapters at novelbin(.)com

He soon stood next to Nyx and her eyebrow twitched as she looked up at him. She hadn't been this close to him the last time he had gone berserk. Not only did he have all his tails and wings, but his overall size had also increased.

Though, at the moment, she had to admit she was a bit more scared by the fact that he looked like a walking corpse. His body was currently closer to a bundle of Eion than flesh. One of his arms was still in the process of weaving itself back together, the left half of his skull was still being covered by a new layer of blood vessels, and his torso was fighting against Zasha's venom to a stalemate.

"...you're in control, right?" She asked uneasily at his silence

He glanced down at her and snorted. "Pride is a useful thing," he said with a shrug. "Ireful Descent also saved my ass just now and the curse is flaring up, but I don't feel any strain. That guy damaged me so much from the venom alone that my defense was doubled by the skill and I barely managed to activate Wrath Demon to increase my magical defense."

Nyx sighed and shook her head. "Right..."

"How long can you last?" The werewolf promptly asked, sighing as he reverted to Everfrost.

"...preferably, I would like it if you ended that spell as fast as possible."

He nodded and pointed his hand at the black hole. He grimaced as he tried to control the massively powerful Tier 2 spell. Thankfully, he hadn't used his Manifestation like last time, since his current state had enough raw power to skip it, or it would have been much more uncontrollable.

On the other hand, while his Mystic Magic had made it stronger, it had also created a stronger link between him and the spell. Which was a convenient side-effect.

Eventually, the black hole began to shrink and lose power. Rakna would have normally continued to shut it down until it dispelled itself due to an eventual loss of core supply, but he stopped after a short moment.

His outstretched arm trembled and he growled, "That bastard..."

Before Nyx could ask what he was muttering about, the black hole was suddenly pierced by a large saw of violet energy. It began to spin loudly and then flashed all around its circumference until it was cut into hundreds of pieces.

The collapsing star was shredded into nothingness; just like that. And within its fading remains, a giant purple scorpion with red accents emerged. The shiver-inducing Arachne shrieked and fell to the ground, hitting the ground with its claws in anger.

"What kind of resilience is that..." Nyx heard Rakna speak with a rare nervous tone. "The star both formed and collapsed while he was inside of it. Even in my current state, I would have died without a doubt if it was me in his place."

"That form," the goddess narrowed her eyes at the titanic scorpion. "I assume that transformation is something every Nine-Tailed can do?"

Zasha's voice softly echoed and his aura twisted into something different; more ordinated.

Nyx's eyes widened at the very familiar feeling as well as the syllable he uttered. She had heard it plenty and had used it herself more than a few times. "Rakna!" She shouted in panic and she could feel him tense. "Leave! He's about to use his Manifestation!"

Rakna shuddered and his six wings promptly started releasing a silver mist. He was already ready to use Wings of Spatial Collapse to escape but then his instincts kicked in; it was too late. None of his skills would allow him to leave in time if he didn't demonize.

The giant scorpion's features somehow imitated a grin and opened its mouth, "[...surrect--?!]"

But before Zasha could finish, he abruptly stopped. His rising power died down as if a mirage and he quietly looked to the side, where nothing could be seen, before reverting into human form.

"It seems like you won't die at my hands, Rakna Xiorra," he spoke up as he donned a completely immaculate coat out of nowhere. A top hat then materialized in his hand, which he put on, followed by a pair of sunglasses. "The Clan is calling me back. Looks like they found out what was happening out here," he calmly said.

The scorpion pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and straightened his coat. "This wasn't included in my pay, so I was ordered to leave the Abyss to their business. It's not such a bad thing, actually. Killing you will probably create more trouble than it's worth."

"On that note..." Zasha bowed grandly in mock respect. "Farewell. We will meet again, if you leave this place alive, of course. There's a greater foe than I waiting for you in this Plateau after all," he smiled. "But I'm sure you know that already," he chuckled and swiped his hand, tearing a hole into Nyx's Half-Dimension and leaving before it closed behind him.

After he was gone, the dimension fell silent and Rakna groaned, landing back on the ground and softly letting go of Nyx. "Take it down," he said evenly and she nodded. Promptly, the darkness of the Twilight Realm receded into the moon in the sky as if it was hiding behind it until there wasn't enough of it to sustain the dimension anymore.

The Crepuscule Night immediately fell apart with the disappearance of the full moon, and what had been destroyed was fixed, as if rewound in time. Before Rakna could be seen by anyone, he grasped the small interval between the disappearance of the moon and the return to the real world and ended his transformation.

He grimaced at the discomfort of prematurely ending the 'berserk' state and forcing his extra tails and wings to go back to 'sleep' inside his genomes. Once again, he took on the appearance of Ranka so that no trace of his presence here becomes known after Zero is back in Eva's hands.

He looked at his trembling hands; his body was hanging by a thread. The Oryad Poison had done far more damage to the Alkahestic Physique than he had admitted. He was genuinely afraid when he was injected with it.

'I managed to keep a few trump cards... but will that be enough?' He thought and looked at Nyx. "Do you think you can cast the Half-Dimension again?"

She shook her head in the negative. "I forced it too much. I will need at least an hour to recover properly. Otherwise, it might just collapse as fast as one minute or a second after being cast."

Rakna slowly nodded and used Eye of Symphony to link up with his Eion bugs.

"Hans, do you hear me?" He called and didn't receive an answer even after ten seconds. But since the signal hadn't been lost, it meant that Hans either lost the automaton or was unable to respond.

"I don't like that..."

"What's the plan?" Nyx questioned and he clicked his tongue.

"Let's go to that damn Terminal," he said and unfurled his wings. At this point, people had already seen this fake identity with them, so he didn't mind. "Back or princess?" He quickly asked and Nyx blushed a bit before sighing.

"...let's go with princess," she replied reluctantly and he snorted in amusement. With her blessing, he lifted her and flew off, not forgetting to check up on Rita, and Cura, who was currently engaged in a battle of which he could see the direct repercussions from his current location.

'Rita is doing the rescue, I see. They should be fine...' He thought and focused on the map up on his retina. He would arrive at the supposed Terminal's coordinates in less than a minute. And for some reason... he had a really bad feeling about it.