Northern flew through the battlefield like a trail of mist, imperceptible to many, even his own allies. But wherever he flew, his enemies faltered and his allies found respite.
His allies, in this sense, were none other than his summons. Black Mamba blistered through monsters, leaping from place to place with astonishing speed. Northern did not know how the summon had managed to grow two additional hands, but Black Mamba seemed desperate and on the brink of a new discovery.
More than seeing the look in Black Mamba's forlorn eyes, Northern could resonate with the emotion thanks to [Link]. He sensed what they were all feeling.
Some emotions, of course, registered more vividly than others. Black Mamba's, for instance.
Northern tried not to dwell on it, instead weaving his illusioned blade like strokes of paint, coloring the sky with a horrifying palette of devastation.
He landed on the edge of a building. The following minute, someone crashed into the structure, rolling away. Behind them, a clone of Northern appeared and halted their gruesome momentum, helping the person to their feet.
Then Northern walked toward them.
"Jeci."
Jeci bowed her head.
"I'm sorry to be a bother to you..."
Northern frowned.
"Come on, stop that. A burden to me?"
Black sparks wove around his free hand as he spoke to her.
"You are not a burden to me. In fact, your growth is amazing. You're not even a Sage yet and you're already dealing with Behemoths. That's one hell of an achievement, Jeci."
Her sleep-deprived eyes widened momentarily, her cheeks flushing slightly.
Then she lowered her gaze with a subtle smile.
"Thank you, master."
"Don't mention it. Take."
Jeci raised her head as Northern spoke. She looked at his hand with a confused expression. He extended a round shield adorned with several eyes.
She studied it strangely as she received it from Northern, listening to his voice.
"It's yours now."
Jeci's eyes widened.
"Master, you don't have to—"
"It's not really useful to me. Check it out. It should serve you well."
He smiled and patted her head before leaping back into battle. With a single bound, he shattered the flat surface of the roof and vanished into the chaos.
Jeci, meanwhile, stood transfixed for a minute, studying the components of the shield.
It was, of course, Plates of A Thousand Eyes, which Northern had received after defeating the tenth floor boss of the dungeon —the one that had stubbornly refused to die.
It possessed orders like [Watchful Gaze], which allowed its user to detect attack patterns. Northern could already do that with Chaos Eyes. [Glimpse] allowed the shield to cast a bright red light to momentarily blind opponents. Northern had no need for that either.
And [Bloodthirst] allowed the shield to release a pressuring amount of bloodlust. Yet whatever the shield could unleash paled in comparison to the bloodlust buried in the depths of Northern's hollow heart.
Speaking of Northern, he already soared through the battlefield. But with a different weapon.
'It's been a while since I used Grengar.'
The twin-bladed staff twirled in his hands, its curved blades like scythes of death, rolling and twirling in the air as he spun the weapon swiftly. He shifted from left to right, ruthlessly tearing through the wings of these abominations.
Time and again, Grengar proved itself to be his most fearsome weapon. Northern felt an unusual resonance with it, as if things became much simpler when it was in his grasp.
The only challenge was his personal preference. He genuinely preferred and enjoyed the sword. That didn't mean he lacked skill with the twin-bladed staff.
Even while in motion, in flight, he spun the weapon over his body, carrying the centrifugal force with his entire form. He delivered speedy consecutive strikes that were nearly impossible to follow and too swift to counter, never sacrificing their devastating power.
He rolled the staff in his hands, ascending slightly to gather momentum. As he descended, he returned with a powerful downward swing onto the back of an abomination, sending it crashing into the ground. A thunderous sound rolled through the entire area, the city trembling as the creature collided with the earth and carved a massive crater between buildings.
He swung Grengar back, burying its scythe blade into the neck of a monster lunging at him from behind. His cold eyes gleamed beneath his helmet, causing the blue flames of all four eyes of his armor to burn with wicked intensity.
With one full forward swing, he severed the creature's neck, carrying it forward with the force of his attack before flinging it away.
Of course, Northern's attacks weren't merely physical strikes. Each was laced with [Echo] and [Return], multiplying the attack itself while unleashing a torrent of impact on the same point.
His attacks, no matter how simple they appeared, consistently combined the abilities of Full Impact and Phantasmal Strike with the help of DiY, yielding devastatingly destructive results.
He shot forward with blinding speed but suddenly halted, his gaze drawn to a distant building to his right—where he had witnessed Paragon Raizel and the Devilish Belial crash moments ago.
'I don't remember ever summoning him...'
Night Terror was tearing through the gate of Limitless Void by himself.
Few could accomplish such a feat—just Bairan and Revant. The others needed Northern to summon them; that was why they were called summons, after all.
But suddenly, Northern felt a spike of emotion—anger, rage, a red-hot, burning fury erupting from one of his summons.
This rage burned even more vividly than whatever emotion Black Mamba had right in that moment.
Of course, getting his hands stolen must have ignited something intense and desperate within Night Terror, compelling the devil himself to forge a pathway out of the Limitless Void.
It was both wrong and astonishing simultaneously. Tearing through the Limitless Void was like ripping apart the fabric of reality itself. It was far easier for Northern to simply tear the veil for them.
However, the summon was desperately pushing through with his own will alone. Raging fuelling every bit of his black lustrous fiber.
And it didn't stop there. Something was changing about Night Terror. Something was evolving.