Demonic Devourer ch. 91

The sudden surge of power isn’t unexpected, but it is terrible.

For an instant that stretches out into a breathless eternity, everything stops. At first, I think it’s my incredible Mind (Speed) stat applying itself again, but the world is still. Far too still to simply be accelerated perception.

I can’t move, but somehow that doesn’t instill the sense of fear or losing control in me that it should. Rather than being a prisoner in a body that won’t move, I realize I am simply witnessing a single, impossibly powerful moment.

Right now, my nullspace overlaps the real world. Though the skill description doesn’t tell me how far it extends, I can sense it. It intrudes into reality as a perfect sphere, extending just about ninety-nine feet from my body.

Within that sphere, I am sovereign. I have yet to pick a specific effect for my nullspace, but for the time being, it is similar to my domain, exchanging precision for raw power. I can use the combination strike of divine and demonic magic to unravel a soul while tearing apart the physical vessel by taking their blood, and I can designate targets to be excluded from the effects in their entirety, but I can’t manage much of anything else.

Not that I’ve needed to do anything else. I have the sneaking suspicion that there’s more to my domain that I have yet to discover, but the domain is still on cooldown. The nullspace is not, and it’s here.

Within these precious ninety-nine feet, I am absolute.

Except I’m not. My nullspace is not alone.

In the fragile intersection of altered reality where my nullspace penetrates the plane of existence we are on, a third force appears.

I never witnessed Inome’s nullspace properly; instead, I saw glimpses of it, a path that could be but never was, and even that only when I was Devouring its corpse. Scintilla, I now realize, once pulled me into a fascimile of its nullspace, but that was nothing like a real one.

This new sensation is like a trickle of cold water sliding down my back, quenching the flames I have engulfed myself in. In this frozen instant, I sense the encroaching presence. An area of serenity opposing my violence; of dark and light, evening out my light and dark.

A nullspace of balance.

The moment stretches on and on and on and on, reminding me of the years I spent patiently waiting for my passenger to open up my class evolution, piece by painstaking piece.

This time, however, my companion is far more personable than an egotistical god who will be best remembered as my sustenance.

Evelyn, Sierra’s voice whispers into my mind. Success.

The words impact me with all the force of a Titan. Each of those words carries the weight of the world, bringing with them a dozen, a hundred, a thousand ideas. The majority of those ideas are malformed and shapeless—Sierra has not mastered this form of communication.

And yet, she has this communication. How did she manage it? How did she manage to do what took me the death of a god to do?

For the first time since I met her, I am scared of her power. I can feel it thrumming through me. Did she bond the two of us together?

I try to ask her all of those questions and more, forcing power to explode forth in this unmoving instant.

Titan, I manage. Bond. Question.

Just speaking in the Titan-tongue hurts. It uses a different kind of power from mana, and it drains me like nothing else. I have to encapsulate concepts within every word, pack the meaning of a dozen sentences into three words.

The same must be true for Sierra, because she takes minutes to recollect herself.

I wait patiently. When the time around us does not move, we have as long as we need.

Souls. Together.

So she did. It was a soul bond of some kind, likely a special skill from her Blue Mage class. I haven’t tracked her progress as much recently, but she must have advanced fast if she’s able to do this.

I compose another message, taking my time to craft it as comprehensibly as I can. It feels like I have to roll a boulder up a mountain to speak a single word.

What are your powers? Are you able to interface with mine? Will it be enough to defeat RI1? Will your body and soul remain intact afterward?

Abilities. Question.

By my count, thirty-seven minutes pass before Sierra responds. The message is jumbled and half-illegible, but I’m able to puzzle out the meaning after a brief moment.

Knowledge. Negative. Domain. Allow. Question. Time. Question.

Sierra doesn’t know the answers to any of my questions, because we’re together, frozen, and not in a position to test our abilities. She wants me to… allow her domain to expand? No, not her domain—her nullspace. And she asks if I know why time has yet to unfreeze.

I don’t know the answer to that, either. I didn’t feel anything like this when I first gained my Proto-Titan class, though that was under completely different circumstances. Is it possible that this did happen, but the haze of my Equalize kept me from realizing it?

It doesn’t actually matter. Either way, I don’t know what happened then, and I don’t know what’s happening now.

I can hazard a guess, though. That prickly, cold-water sensation is telling me that another nullspace is trying to seize control over mine. It’s not an entirely alien sensation; I remember Alexander Callen using a domain to override every other skill activated within it.

Sierra is trying to override my nullspace, and one or both of us have entered a space of frozen time.

Is this how Titans duel? I wonder.

Any musings about the nature of the Titans that we now seek to be a part of are less relevant, however, than the whirling dervish that still threatens our lives. In this frozen moment, I can see a spot of calm where I’ve chosen to exclude Adrian from the effect. RI1 breaks into its component fleshy pieces right before his eyes, but I know the creature well enough to know that this won’t last long.

It has already adapted to my nullspace.

Sierra’s, however, is new. Wholly new. I don’t think I touched upon anything like it in the Paths that other Titans took; then again, I didn’t see any Path that looked like my own, either. Not a single one of them used demonic magic.

Fight back, my instincts cry. Dominate. Kill. Win.

I shove them aside forcibly. There is a time for domination, but I am starting to learn that there is also a time for trust.

Allow. Positive. Prepare. I can’t force out any words beyond that. Speaking leaves me exhausted, body and soul alike.

Confirmation, Sierra replies.

I let Sierra’s nullspace in, lowering my grasp on that section of my nullspace, and time accelerates, returning us to the frenzy of the battle.

“—ly shit!” Adrian says.

The nullspace-clash sensation amplifies a hundredfold, shifting from a prickly trickle to a full-body slam. The cold water that was tracing its way down my back douses my entire body instead, chilling me to the core.

I hope you know what you’re doing, Sierra.

Trait earned: Bonded

Your soul has been bonded with another’s. While you possess this trait, you will always know the current location and current status of your bonded partner. If you touch your bonded partner, you can share your mana. This bond can only end if dispelled or voluntarily canceled by a partner.

ERROR: UNDEFINED UNIQUE BEHAVIOR

Recalculating.

Trait modified: Bonded (Proto-Titan)

Another Proto-Titan has bound itself to you. While you possess this trait, your nullspaces can coexist.

Sierra’s nullspace expands.

Her eyes, I notice, are no longer glowing the same way mine are. One eye continues to burn with iridescent red, but the other is a deep, royal shade of blue. Sapphire.

Sierra’s nullspace isn’t as large as mine, nor is it as well-defined. Even a few days of practice has enhanced mine. That means I have to retract my own to give hers more space to deploy.

More importantly, however, my nullspace is not gone. I can feel Sierra’s pressing against my domain as if it’s her flesh against mine, but they manage to coexist.

The Blue Mage’s domain is, for a lack of a better word, beautiful. Rich turqouises and soft scarlets whirl together where her nullspace exists, tinting the land around them shades of blue and red. It does the same to my nullspace, and though the result is still lethal—perhaps more so than before—it seems less chaotic.

“Black and white,” Sierra mumbles. “Red and blue. Fire and water. Life and death. That’s one form of balance.”

She squeezes my hand tighter, and magic courses through us both. Through our freshly-linked souls.

Assistance. Question. Sierra uses the Titan-speech again, choosing to express her desires through words laden with hazy, nuanced ideas rather than her words.

But I understand her. I know what she’s asking for.

The same thing she’s been asking for this whole time.

Confirmation, I reply, mirroring her early statement. The effort of making the statement nearly breaks my concentration completely.

My nullspace keeps breaking RI1 apart, but it’s pulling itself together faster and faster. No longer can I atomize it, reducing it to its constituent atoms. Now, the best I can manage is a constant rain of focused smites, demonic corruption, and hemorrhages. I almost wish I picked a Path.

Almost.

Sierra’s request rings clear, and I trust her. I extend my free hand forth, narrowing my eyes, and I will my entire nullspace to Devour.

Every part of the space reacts. Scouring light turns hungry, while demonic darkness unleashes its base instincts. Even the blood seeks to devour, assimilating RI1’s flesh for itself. I pull it towards us, dragging it in range of Sierra’s smaller nullspace.

It won’t be enough. Not alone.

Sierra engages the trademark skill of her Blue Mage class. Within her nullspace, the effect is amplified. Rather than hours, it takes milliseconds. Rather than a pale mimicry, she receives everything.

My omnidirectional Devour sends mana coursing through my veins, and Sierra breathes it all in.

“The other form of balance,” she says, her voice oddly light. “Give and take.”

I redirect my magic.

“Give.”

The red-black storm of Devour flows into her, feeding her the power she desires. One skill, freely given.

“And take.”

Her attack floods out of her in every direction, passing over me and Adrian harmlessly. Its colors are inverted; blue and white instead of red and black. She overpowers the fuel source she’s using easily—her temporary version of Devour blasts straight through the original I gave to her.

Sierra is the eye of the storm. Her eyes are half-lidded, but the red and blue of her irises shine through nonetheless. She radiates an intense calm, the only still piece of a maelstrom of madness.

There’s an odd fluttery feeling in my chest that I don’t recognize. I examine my own body, confirm that it’s not a toxin or another trick, and I push it aside.

Her nullspace isn’t as large as mine, but the two coexist. My magic combines with hers, empowers it, and every last iota of power we have floods into the still-beating heart of RI1.

“She is mine,” Sierra snarls.

As I watch, another source of magic flows into the swirling mess of energy. It’s unlike anything either of us are casting, and it pulses like it’s a living being in itself.

The information gives itself over to me with but an act of will.

That magic flowing in the air is Adapt.

She’s stealing its skill.

RI1 howls, expressing pain for the first time this battle. It picks up its pieces, reforming faster than I’ve ever seen it. I try to crush it down again, but my nullspace’s combination attack barely does anything.

It Adapted harder.

My magic is running dangerously low. This is only my second time using Manifest, and I’ve never taxed myself this much before. I can’t keep this up forever. I can’t even keep this up for another thirty seconds.

The experiment pounds towards us, the line of magic connecting it and Sierra flickering. It turns fifty feet into ten feet in a single second—and then a blade pierces through its core, narrowly avoiding hastily-reformed limbs and pinning the monster to the ground.

Adrian, bruised and bleeding, has one hand impaled on RI1’s cilia. The other holds his sword, and by extension, the experiment.

It dropped its other immunities to stop me.

Sierra cries out in victory, and suddenly, Adrian’s blade sinks in deeper.

“Get back!” I shout at Adrian. “Now!”

The hurricane that is our combined nullspaces obfuscates the sound. Adrian doesn’t budge, stabbing into the monster once again.

RI1 has just lost its most powerful skill.

But it’s not dead, and those limbs are still incredibly lethal. Neither of us can annihilate it while Adrian is still on top of it, and if he doesn’t move now, he’s going to be trapped.

Flee, Sierra forces out.

Adrian pauses, hearing her, then looks up to the sky, nods once, and melts into a pile of water.

“That’s my move,” I mutter.

Sierra collapses like a doll with its strings cut.

RI1 is close enough that I can see its face through the manastorm. It’s twisted, nothing at all like a human… but this thing was like me, once upon a time. Born in a broken world and forced to dance to a researcher’s tune.

“Spare… me…” it tries to say, but its vocal cords have been ruined in favor of a more lethal, more survivable body. The words come out as a garbled hiss.

I search within myself for sympathy, and I find none.

“If you wanted to live,” I say, “you should never have shown your face to me.”

It gurgles out one last word. I think it might be Carnelian.

“Goodbye, RI1. May you rest poorly.”

With the last of my magic, I engage my nullspace one last time.

RI1 crumples under demonic pressure. Divine light flattens it. Blood tears out of its remaining veins, turning it into a withered husk.

And my authority as a nascent Titan spreads its remains across the plains.

The nullspace dissipates less than a quarter second after I kill it, my magic completely and totally spent for the first time I can remember.

Objective: Two of a Kind [COMPLETE]

Not only have you killed the last remaining experiment, you have managed to add yourself and a bonded partner to another category. Together, you are two of thirty-three.

You are now the sole remaining survivor of your laboratory.

Trait earned: Endling

You are the last of your kind. The fate of your species now rests upon your shoulders. Your conceptual weight has been quadrupled. You now gain experience at twice the rate you did previously. All of your magic affinities increase by 1 level.

Remember them; if not for how they lived and died, then for what their deaths brought you.

I sit on the scorched, blackened sand next to Sierra’s fallen body. She’s unconscious, but she has a pulse. Her blood is still flowing.

Adrian joins us, checking Sierra’s heartbeat before finally relaxing. His left arm is a bloody ruin, but we’ll fix it like we always have. For the time being, I stem his bleeding with Hemokinesis. If all goes well, he’ll be able to keep the limb.

“Well, that’s one less problem,” Adrian says, heaving out an exhausted sigh. “Who do we kill next? Sersui?”

He’s completely deadpan. His statement isn’t funny at all—there’s no humor to his words.

And yet I find myself laughing, throwing my head back and cackling.

Adrian starts laughing too, the two of us doubling over, delirious with our victory.

We won. We won. RI1 is dead, as is the Zelin Deadmarked who sought to steal me for himself, the duo of UCC operators that were hunting me, and the proto-Titan. Adrian’s soul is intact again. Sapphire and the researchers is still a problem, of course, but for now? For now, I am as free as I’ve ever been.

PT-32

[Clearance class 3 required to view. Your clearance class is: 4.]

Alternate Designations: Evelyn Carnelian; Blood Reaper

Category: 1* [Category is esoteric. See footnote[1] for more information.

Alignment: Experiment

Containment Status: Uncontained

[Article collapsed.]

Addenda

[Incidents PT-32-1 and PT-32-2 collapsed.]

Proto-Titan Incident 32-3

Containment attempted by Zelin Deadmarked; notably, He Who Watches The Gate, predicted to be a antifactual countermeasure to PT-32, failed. Nullspace deployment confirmed.

[Details of PT-32-3 collapsed.]

Proto-Titan Incident 32-4

See Resistance Infusion Experiments for details. Experiment designated RI1-CI terminated.

See PT-33 (formerly PP-47-7, alias “Sierra Jade”).

Upcoming Containment Attempts

Curious how these things turn out, isn’t it? I’ve notified her aunt already. I’m sure she’ll be pleased. Marie is on the other side of the planet, last I checked, and I’m sure you’re all raring to have a look. There’s a lot of you, and you know what I always say.

If you’re in the area, feel free to try your hand. Just don’t complain if they bite.

- S.

[Footnotes collapsed.]

Would you like to edit this listing?

> No.

You have a private message from: Overseer Clearwater.

> Display it.

Overseer Clearwater:

Callen. Your third-favorite operator is alive, though not well. I do wonder if it’s worth the trouble installing myself as an Overseer in the system if the Coalition’s insects refuse to close my file, but I suppose that’s a question for another day. I have a use for Kirin; she has a number of artifacts that I have not seen in centuries. She will prove to be a usable backup plan in the event that little Carnelian goes to hell. Demons die twice, humans once, elves thrice; Kirin can violate that law.

That aside, once you are finished pretending to care about your students, I know you’d like to see if the experiment is proceeding according to my standards. I also know that I can stop you, but I’d never separate a predator from their prey. You can figure out which of you is which.

A warning, one which I anticipate you will ignore: you are not me. You are not any of the seventeen, though your potential is still great.

Make it count.

Would you like to respond?

> Yes.

Administrator Callen:

Warning is heard, loud and clear. I will observe. If I am satisfied, I will return. In the likely event I am not, I will exterminate it. The experiment is now powerful enough to use as material for any one of us, yes? If it is unsatisfactory, I will eliminate it and take its power for my own.

You have received a response.

Overseer Clearwater:

Good hunting.

Would you like to respond?

> No. I am finished here.

Thank you, Administrator Alexander Callen. This session will now be terminated.