The moment Ben's dark aether surged outward, the air itself recoiled.
Winds spiraled violently around him, bending to his will.
The battlefield, cracked and scorched, trembled beneath the raw pressure radiating from his core.
Twelve golden eyes gazed down like judgment itself, system code spiraling through their depths like living circuits.
Then the Devourer moved.
One eye blinked. And a beam of law fired down, a line of gold-etched entropy that didn't simply destroy, but erased existence itself..
"Scatter!" Ben shouted.
The beam struck.
The world behind them ceased to be, no dust, no crater, no sound. Just absence. As if that part of reality had been snuffed out of reality itself.
But then Ben's eyes widened, he caught it. The other eyes didn't move.
They glowed, but only the one that fired had reacted.
He locked eyes with Apophis as realization dawned.
"It can't fire all twelve at once," he said breathlessly. "It's limiting itself, only one beam per cycle!"
