Screaming white magic crashed down on Noah from every direction. It tore through his domain, shoving it aside like there was nothing but air, advancing like an army of relentless soldiers. The only thing that remained within its way was the comparatively tiny shimmer of chaos magic that shimmered through the air around Noah like a gossamer oil spill.

The two magics connected with a flash.

There was a sound like the air getting let out of a balloon crossed with a spool of yarn getting thrown into a washing machine. Noah had never heard anything like it before; a whistling, whirring series of thuds that could only properly be summarized by a generalized feeling of oh, shit.

When someone sat down in their seat on an airplane, ready to set out for a month, only for their stomach to drop out as they wondered if they’d remembered to shut their stove off before they’d left their house. It was like someone had taken that exact moment of time and condensed it into a series of sounds in the worst possible way.

And as that sound echoed through Access Point 4, the ocean of angry white magic surrounding Noah peeled itself apart. Layers of power stripped away from the lightning as if it were made out of string cheese. The spell shredded apart into strips of glowing confetti that then faded to nothing at all.

Delicate motes of faint white magic snowed down around Noah as he stared, the back of his neck prickling in the wake of the power that he’d just released. This wasn’t the first time he’d achieved a result like this.

When he’d achieved an Awakened state in his pattern, he’d been able to do something similar. But, when he was Awakened, Noah could literally rip the power out of magic and steal it for himself.

This was certainly similar. But, now that he was finally starting to understand what he was doing with his own magic, he realized that the applications were not the same. This was the next stage of that power.

His pattern only worked when he could overpower the magic coming for him. It was a brute force attack that could crush out mages who were weaker or roughly the same strength as he was, stealing their power to utilize himself.

There were limits to that. Noah never could have stolen the magic from the white lightning. The golem was too strong. Many of his opponents were. Even though his runes were incredibly strong for their rank, he wasn’t in Arbalest anymore. An ability that was mostly effective against equal or lesser opponents had its uses, but it was limited.

But Unraveling Disruption didn’t steal.

It destroyed.

The application of chaos had turned the power composing the golem’s attack upon itself. Instead of trying to stop it, he’d just directed the magic to clash with its own existence. The spell had completely consumed itself well before it could actually do anything at all to him.

This was Unraveling Disruption’s true purpose.

To unravel. To unmake. That was what every single component within the rune lent itself toward. All the elements and methods of destruction that were housed within it were there for it to identify what it was tearing apart. And… so long as a spell coming for Noah had some aspect that related to those kinds of magic, he was pretty sure he could turn it upon itself.

After all, it was in the damn name.

I’m pretty sure I can apply this to my pattern as well. Increasing my understanding of Unraveling Disruption should make the Awakened state of my pattern a hell of a lot more powerful as well.

Noah’s lips pulled into a grin. He looked up to the golem, pulling on his magic once again in preparation for the next attack.

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But the huge metal training dummy was no longer moving. It had fallen still.

“Analysis complete,” the eye behind the golem reported, its voice buzzing through the room around Noah. “Your Keystone Rune has been assessed. Are you prepared to receive your assessment?”

Noah let his hands lower.

Huh. It didn’t wait until I broke the golem this time. I guess it’s looking for something in particular?

“Yes,” Noah said. “Show me.”

“According to gathered energy, your Keystone Rune appears to be at Rank 5,” the eye said. “It possesses multiple—”

“Skip this bit,” Noah said. “Do not attempt to record any information. Ignore the fact that any readings may be inaccurate due to the grid being damaged and forget the part where I didn’t use any runes other than my Keystone. Just give me your analysis specifically on what I did with the tools I used.”

“Acknowledged,” the eye said. “Minor inefficiencies were located within your utilization of your magic and synchronization with your rune. You are likely functioning at around 85% of your runes true output. The assessment was halted early due to the usage of an unexpected ability. I do not understand how to analyze this technique without connecting to the grid. Thus, I cannot give an accurate performance reading.”

Noah’s grin grew wide. He’d gone up an entire 25% in the eye’s view of his efficiency. Sure, that reading definitely wasn’t accurate since it didn’t even understand the chaos elements of the magic he was using, but that was still a huge improvement. And he’d been able to feel it.

I’m on the right track. I can’t expect to master this thing perfectly in just a few hours, but I know the direction to focus my attention again. That’s what I needed.

“Thank you,” Noah said. “You can go back to rest… or whatever it is you do when I’m not here.”

The eye blinked, then powered down. Noah turned for the exit. His centipede companion stood in the doorway, watching him with its wretched maw of a face. Even though he’d started to get used to the monster’s presence, it certainly wasn’t a sight for sore eyes.

Noah’s stomach rumbled.

The centipede’s mandibles clicked in unease. “Prayer.”

“Stop that,” Noah said. Then he grimaced. It had been a while since he’d killed anything. His body was going to run out of sustenance without magic to feed it. The only reason he’d survived this long was because of all the hunting he’d been doing of the hivemind.

But something about killing the centipede now felt wrong. It had followed him so far, and it was clearly intelligent. Just how intelligent was an entirely separate question, but the monster understood enough to know fear.

I’m not going to kill it just because I’m hungry. But I do really need to find some way to deal with this.

I wonder if he’ll object to me killing his brethren. If a monster is a hivemind, does it really care if one or two of the minds get snipped off? Surely it can’t be too much of a bother.

“Prayer,” the centipede muttered again, pulling back into the hall behind it. Perhaps it had sensed something shift in Noah’s eyes.

He just shook his head and blew out a sigh. That would have to be saved as a last resort.

Noah stepped past the centipede and headed out into the main hall, thoughts curling through his mind in smoky trails. He had to get back to the room with the imbued wall if he wanted to put his new understandings to the test.

But the Devourer is off duty for the day. How am I supposed to find—

Noah ground to a halt.

There, filling the main hall, was the massive black carapace of the Devourer. The centipede’s molten eyes watched Noah curiously as he stepped out from the Access Point and nearly tripped over himself.

“What are you doing here?” Noah asked.

“I did not have anything else to do,” the Devourer replied. Its legs clicked against the floor in what might have been boredom or irritation. “I have already devoured all of worth within the Citadel. It is entirely empty.”

“Huh,” Noah said. “Well, that’s convenient. I certainly won’t complain. Did you happen not to devour anything… uh, edible? I’m going to have to start killing things if I don’t find some food soon.”

The Devourer leveled a flat stare at Noah. “I am the Devourer.”

It didn’t need to say anything else.

“Right,” Noah said. He supposed he really should have expected that. “Fair enough. The Citadel was always very isolated from Obsidia, right? Did it have some kind of food or resource growing location?”

“There was such a place,” the Devourer said. “I consumed all that resided within it.”

Lovely. At least I know I can probably put that back to use once I get the grid repaired… and find some things to grow. I’ve still got a little while before my body starts breaking down and getting too hungry. Might as well put the time to use.

“Good to know,” Noah said. A grin crawled across his lips. “In that case… if you’re bored, can you take me back to that imbued wall? I’ve completed my testing here. I think it’s about time I knocked that wall down.”