For anything to stop the hand, they must have sensed its presence earlier and pinpointed its exact location. Black Mamba possessed the overwhelming potential to outpace anything in speed.
But Northern had believed it couldn't perceive the monster. He was certain none of them could.
Yet perhaps Black Mamba actually managed to detect it belatedly, in that fleeting moment when he was racking his brain to decipher what felt wrong.
This event alone left Northern utterly astonished by Black Mamba.
With the strange emotion swelling within the summon's soul, he knew something significant was unfolding. The exact nature had just remained elusive.
The next second revealed all…
His breath caught in his throat as a new panel materialized before his eyes, delivering unprecedented news. Two news, actually.
The first one read:
[Your Summon, Black Mamba is evolving...]
[Chaos and Void is losing grip of the creature's soul...]
[Due to your summon's affinity to formlessness, Omniform is planting root in its soul]
[Black Mamba's dark and meaningless soul is gaining meaning...]
[Searching for the true drive of growth, the reason for existence and its comprehension. Black Mamba had come closer to the crux of that realization and such realization is fueling its resolve to push beyond its limit]
[With a Nebulous passion to rend asunder every creature that crosses its master's path, and the unreasonably stalwart resolve and stubbornness of the strange serpentine creature Black Mamba, your summon is evolving to a new being.]
Northern's brow furrowed, deep lines etching across his forehead.
Instantly, the entire environment erupted in sinister black smoke that devoured everything like a ravenous storm unleashed from the void itself.
But he couldn't focus fully on the catastrophe unfolding before him.
Another strange panel appeared, delivering additional extraordinary information:
[Your Summon, Night Terror out of the humiliation of having his hands stolen, derived from its strange and tyrannical pride had discovered a new height of power.]
[Unwritten is taking root in its soul, unwriting and rewriting that which should have been normal.]
[Night Terror is evolving]
[A new soul core is being formed]
'A new soul core is being formed?'
That aspect troubled Northern most profoundly. According to everything he understood about monsters, they simply couldn't ascend to an entirely new rank. Evolving to a higher danger level wasn't unusual.
He had wondered when Night Terror would transform into an Abysmal Hellion, as it had remained a Devilish Hellion for quite some time.
Even as a Devilish Hellion, it towered over others of its class—a hundred times more fearsome and ferocious than any monster of similar caliber.
Suddenly seeing that it was evolving was quite exhilarating.
Northern, though, was forced to redirect his attention to the disaster being wrought by Black Mamba's evolution. He raised his hand over his face as the terrible storm of black smoke intensified, swirling like a cyclone of midnight ink.
Black Mamba and the strange creature remained locked in place, the enigmatic summon refusing to relinquish its grip, despite the transformation unfolding and refolding its entire soul.
Unable to discern exactly what was happening to Black Mamba, Northern opened his chaos eyes. Two blue eyeballs separated within each of his eyes and moved closer together, focusing to pierce through the dark tempest.
Black Mamba's skin began peeling away in gossamer sheets. Beneath, a glossy new layer of obsidian skin emerged, accentuating the creature's musculature with an almost artistic precision, more magnificent than before.
It appeared as if the creature had been sculpted from the essence of midnight itself, then polished to perfection, every contour of its body refined and defined.
The white lines that typically coursed across its entire form—perpetually reshaping to suit its momentary needs of strength or speed—had vanished completely. In their place, two small horns jutted from each side of its head, curved and lethal.
Its eyes remained their characteristic white, but now gleamed with crystalline brilliance, no less dangerous for their beauty. A small crystal formed at the center of its torso, pulsing with inner light.
As the crystal completed its formation, another panel materialized before Northern's eyes:
[Congratulations]
[Your Summon, Black Mamba has gained the meaning of soul and gained six soul cores for its Nebulous nature]
[Your Summon had become a strange existence, his source and origin tied to the void but his soul broke beyond that prison and found meaning in reality. Hence making it a void monster, the first of its kind to ever exist]
[Black Mamba has evolved to Apex Destroyer, Nebulous Lord]
The dark storm scattered with ferocious force, compelling Northern to shield his face with his arms while those behind him sought whatever protection they could muster.
As the tempest cleared, Black Mamba stood fully revealed, transformed. Now taller and distinctly different, its pure glossy black form contrasted sharply with wickedly shining white crystalline eyes. It retained no features for a mouth—this hadn't changed—as Black Mamba had always manifested a lip line only when it wished to speak or smile.
Its frame had become sleeker, more streamlined, yet the flowing contours of its muscles suggested even more tremendous strength than before, coiled power waiting to be unleashed.
Northern's moment of admiration was interrupted by yet another panel materializing before him:
[Unwritten has rewritten the normalcy for your summon]
[Night Terror's soul rank has evolved]
[Night Terror's danger level has evolved]
[Devilish Hellion, Night Terror, has evolved to Abysmal Maelstrom, Abyss Tyrant]
'Abyss Tyrant...'
Northern immediately sensed something unusual about the name—both the 'Abyss' and 'Tyrant' elements struck him as significant departures.
'It seems whatever happened to Night Terror should not be considered ordinary... or should I call it Abyss Tyrant now?'
The new name would certainly require some time for adjustment.
His gaze shifted to where the creature was rising...
'Ohh?'
Night Terror—now Abyss Tyrant—bore skin remarkably similar to Black Mamba's... or rather, Nebulous Lord's.
'Yes... it's definitely going to take some time.'
Abyss Tyrant's midnight-black skin glistened like polished onyx beneath the subdued glow of an eldritch light, undulating subtly as if darkness itself pulsed beneath the surface.
Ivory lines etched intricate patterns across its muscled form, branching like ancient veins that throbbed with spectral energy.
These markings ran vertically along its torso, snaking outward across broad shoulders before diverging down its four powerful arms, each limb a mesmerizing tapestry of stark contrast between the obsidian flesh and alabaster markings.
Its head now resembled a polished skull, devoid of distinguishable features save for empty, abyssal eye sockets—twin voids that consumed light and emitted a faint, haunting resonance.
Jagged, claw-like fingers—elongated and curved—gleamed with an otherworldly sheen, their tips stained a deeper shade, as though dipped in the essence of despair itself. Each tapered into a razor-thin edge that could cleave through bone with terrifying ease.
A dark, flowing skirt draped from its waist, layered with segmented plates of silver that caught what little light remained, shimmering like fragments of captured moonlight. The fabric itself seemed to devour illumination, creating an ethereal contrast to its ink-black form.
A staff—slender yet imposing, crowned with a crescent shape—rested in one clawed hand, its shaft intricately etched with serpentine designs mirroring the patterns adorning its body. The creature bore itself with regal poise, its presence so overwhelming that space itself appeared to warp around it.
Northern could only gape in awe.
Night Terror had transformed into an Abysmal Maelstrom—Abyss Tyrant, while Black Mamba had become a void monster, first of its kind, an Apex Destroyer—Nebulous Lord.
By conventional classification, this meant the Nebulous Lord now ranked as the more powerful entity.
'...but why do I keep feeling like Night Terr... Abyss Tyrant is stronger?'
The sensation defied easy explanation. Perhaps it wasn't a question of superior strength but rather equal might manifested differently.
'This won't do. I need to see the profiles myself.'
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[A/N]