Devourer snatched chapter's title and replaced it with its theme's name.

"Where is Cid…" Alexia was biting her lips.

After all the insane stuff that happened in Goddess' Trial and afterwards, they somehow got kicked out of Sanctuary. Well, not somehow, Shadow Garden members confirmed that it was doing of their Master, Shadow, but that didn't make it any easier! And when they came out, it was already evening, so they decided to go and rest… But they couldn't find Cid.

Somehow, he disappeared.

Iris raised her knights and even went as far as to ask Shadow Garden members stationed nearby for their help, to no avail. Now the only possible hope was-

"I finally found out about his state!" Rose Oriana walked in with a smile on her face.

"Well? Spill the beans, then!" yes, Alexia was nervous as hell.

"He's fine, but is currently recuperating. Turns out Church members were a bit rough when escorting people out, so some people were injured-"

"What? Not only they don't even check out for people in their ranks, they also allow rough treatment of their guests?!"

"…Yes, that's absolutely unforgivable. Should we tell Princess Iris that?"

"Oh, you better believe we do. A scandal of this scale is not something even they can handle…" Alexia went into her scheming mode.

A flash of light shined through the window.

"What now?…" Alexia looked up.

Then she saw it. Something… titanic flying across the sky, dwarfing even the stars and moon. In mere moments its shadow covered the entire city. Then it disappeared.

Alexia rubbed her eyes. Either she was going delusional because of all the insane shit that happened in mere month or…

Probably the former. It's not like something that big could exist, right?

The Serpent was chasing the annoying pest. If anyone who knew It ever found out about that, they surely would mock It. A mere human, not only parrying the whole weight of Its body, but also damaging It in the process? Laughable!

Serpent had to admit, though: for a pest this human had… abilities. His magic, while not something that would bring attention of Auric Deities (oh how It wished to feast on them once more!), was certainly not weak. Moreover, something about his body seemed… unusual. The scent… was pleasant. Not on God's level, but pleasant nonetheless.

And Serpent was hungry. It was denied the meal It deserved. Denied by the same very human that was currently flying away from him.

Worthless. Does he not know that the longer Serpent chases Its prey, the faster It becomes? The final dash, welcome to your new-

Pain flashed through Serpent's head.

It was dumbfounded for a moment. Prey has escaped. Where?…

Something cut It from behind.

Serpent immediately turned Its head towards the tail. He was there. The prey fights back. Somehow, he dodged the Serpent at the last moment and inflicted injuries upon It.

Nasty.

Serpent was no mere worm. It was the Devourer of Gods. Many deities found their end in Its jaws.

And now a mere human dares to defy Serpent. Absurd.

It matters not. Soon, human would tire. That's when It would take Its deserved dinner. For Serpent does not tire.

Cid was looking at the gigantic snake, unamused. Not only it came back for more, it even followed him back to his world! So much for his peace time. And now it was chasing him across the sky. No, really, it disobeyed any and all laws of gravity and just flied right towards him, accelerating in the process! Soon enough it started flying faster than him, forcing him to counterattack and parry its head. He had a nagging feeling if he got caught by the jaws, he would suffer very heavy injuries… Well, maybe not, but better be safe than sorry.

Oh, snake finally realized that something was off and now was turning back towards him. It lost all the speed it was building up to this moment, however, so Cid was now free to think of the ways he can fight this thing back. Obviously, it tanked his Atomic right in the body, so it should be very strong and was trying to tire him out, right? However, upon striking it a few times Cid realized an interesting thing.

Serpent's body segments were very resistant, to the point where even filling his slime sword with mana to the brim was barely enough to make a small (respectively to its size) cut. Of course, it was possible to try and attack in-between scales, but it was very hard to do. However, head and tail were not that protected. Even a half-charged slash was more than enough to inflict a deep injury on these parts.

And so Cid got a plan…

Annerose Nichtsehen was walking back from Goddess' Trial. She heard about some kind of commotion that happened a few hours after, but it did not matter much. What she wanted now is to get to Midgar's capital as soon as possible in order to participate in Bushin's Festival. It was her first time doing that after leaving Seven Blades, and she longed to find a worthy opponent. Who knows, maybe she could fight the princess Iris herself? People said that she's strong…

Annerose's danger sense went into panic mode. She immediately looked up only to see a large magic sphere falling right towards her. Was this another trial from the Goddess?

She took a position and watched as the sphere came closer. It was strong. Strong enough to completely obliterate her, should she ever lower her defence. But that only made it better.

The sphere was mere meters away from her. Annerose breathed in, poured her magic and attacked.

The sphere and the sword met. Annerose could feel the heat scorching her hands, yet she did not give in. With gritted teeth, she gripped her sword tighter and continued to fight back against unbound magic. And a minute after, her efforts were rewarded; sphere slowly started to disappear.

After it was gone, Annerose fell on her knee. It was hard. Way harder than whatever that warrior at Goddess' Trial was.

But…

She looked at the sky, where beautiful stars were shining upon her.

This is exactly why she went out. To find the unbeatable. To challenge it.

And this encounter has shown her that she was on the right way. That there are still peaks she has not reached. With this, her wish to participate in Bushin only grew stronger.

Just give her a moment, please; she needs to collect her breath…

Devourer was growing irritated. This human continued to pester It, and was not even tired yet. At first he simply slashed at Its body, but after finding out where Serpent's weak points actually were, he always tried to snipe them.

Of course, Serpent Itself was not idiot: upon realizing the situation, It immediately retreated back to subspace. After that Devourer started sending magic blasts against that human, but even that was proven to be futile when human simply diverted them against one another with his strange weapon, or even outright dodged. One blast even went somewhere to this planet's ground, though it quickly died out.

Serpent even planned to just tire out the human with relentless blasts, however this almost turned out to be a fatal mistake when he somehow cracked through Its dimension and sent a strange dark attack towards It. In the end, Devourer was forced to go back in the material world.

Nonetheless, this fight was… good. Serpent had to admit, this human was excellent. Without Auric Soul, without gods' powers, he still managed to fight It back. Of course, his demise was all but decided, but he would be the one honored enough to be remembered by Serpent. Now, after their small prelude, It could feel human's mana.

Delicious.

Cid was… elated.

He finally realized what was going on.

Serpent was a multi-phase boss! Its first phase was a quite simple close quarters combat, if it could be named as such, where snake would try to charge at you at high speeds, occasionally firing at you with magic. Now, it entered second phase, starting with cool-ass entrance (find anyone who says that tearing space apart is not cool!).

And only now Cid noticed that Serpent's appearance somewhat changed. Body segments' ornaments were now adorned by beautiful large gems of various colors, it got a few additional smaller eyes, and some kind of a crown could be seen circling around its head. Indeed, a multi-phase boss with different appearances and different sets of abilities. Of course, for such an occasion Cid changed his attire to that of Shadow!

Now, even though Serpent was a bit faster than before, it also made sure to try and hide in subspace to attack him freely with magic blasts. They did not have any technique behind them, but they were filled with mana to the brim. Of course, because of lacking the technique, the mana was getting absorbed by the air quite quickly, but considering how much mana Serpent sent each time, it was enough to last several minutes.

He planned to do a surprise attack on Serpent when it was in its own little subspace, but somehow it immediately realized his plan and came out to attack him. Eh, no biggie, Cid will just follow with his original plan, then.

This human was a hassle.

Serpent was slowly coming to the point where absorbing him would not cover Its losses.

Probably, It should not have tried to use magic blasts against such agile target and just focus on relentless chase. But the problem was, human did not show any signs of being tired. Almost like it was him who had the almost infinite mana supply, while Serpent was playing on the limited stamina.

Of course, that couldn't be. After all, what Serpent meant with 'not covering the losses' is that human, despite smelling delicious, did not have that much of energy. A little snack, no more. Devourer simply did not wish to waste Its time on something so insignificant.

However, now it became a matter of pride to bring this human to deserved end. Namely, being eaten.

Cid could see the Serpent starting to hesitate.

It was obvious that poor snake was not so confident now after all the time of chasing him across the globe. No, really, Cid was pretty sure he managed to fly around the whole planet and then some! Of course, he did not have a large mana supply that allowed him to fly for such a long time, so how did he do it, then? Very simple: he infused the air beneath his feet with mana and simply moved with it. Also he used Overdrive to quickly replenish his mana.

Cid would like this fight even more if this thing was at least somewhat skilled, but unfortunately, in terms of actual combat between equals it was even more stupid than Delta. At least she tried to listen to his explanations, and somewhat caught up to what he taught her. Eh, nevermind, he already took his sweet time. Now, there was only one thing to do before he could proceed with killing the Serpent.

Making sure it has nowhere to escape.

This was going nowhere.

This human was too agile, and it was a long time since Serpent had a proper meal. It planned to use Goddess of this world as one, but this human somehow took her away, denying It deserved nourishment. Moreover, while Serpent slowly, but surely lost Its energy, human somehow connected to the world itself and used its mana as replacement for his own.

This battle of attrition would surely be won by human, considering that Serpent could not recklessly attack the world, lest human takes on Its moment of vulnerability, neither could Devourer attempt to eat the human so long as he could evade Its attacks. Of course, It could gamble on the fact that human is bound to make a mistake at one moment, delivering himself on silver plate right to Its jaws, but Serpent had better idea.

Human will not go anywhere, Devourer can say that for sure. It will only need to place the Sentinels to protect the subspace while Serpent goes to have Its meal. After that, It will go back, with replenished powers, and take this scoundrel's life!

Devourer of Gods slowly submerged back into the subspace.

Cid watched as the Serpent went back to his dimension. Just what he was waiting for.

Upon realizing that this thing could mess with Pylons' properties, Cid thought: "Who said I can't do the same, but to that snake?"

And thus a plan was born: he will connect with Pylon System and use it to trap the Serpent. Sounds great on paper, but he will probably have to replace the Pylons after that; after all, such a stress could not possibly end good for poor rocks, even if they are enhanced… Eh, no biggie, he planned to remake the system for better protection, anyway.

And he started working. Fortunately, after Serpent forcefully summoned him to its dimension, a weak connection still remained, which Cid could use in order to close any attempts at escaping. He only needed to use the knowledge he got from Sanctuary, then open up his Shadow Domain…

Devourer hit the wall.

One moment, It was leaving this world. The next, something stopped him from opening up spatial rift. No, not something…

Serpent could clearly see human's energy in whatever this wall was. Somehow, he could block It, the sole ruled of Void, from leaving!

Devourer once again tried to rip his way through, only for the rift to close up again. Now, Serpent was…

Angered. Yes, angered. Clearly, this human does not know his place. Serpent was merciful enough to let him live for a moment longer, and that's how he repays the Devourer?

And then, It felt pain once more.

Human attacked Its head again, and this time he left something. This… something was quickly going through Its body, absorbing the cosmic and divine energy Devourer collected for millennia. Immediately, Serpent redirected Its aggressive energy towards the intruding one, and only after using up about 3% of Its energy could that intruder be destroyed.

Serpent felt pain. This was the first time someone other than Auric Deity could bring so much pain, and even they could not hold up against Devourer for a long time. Yet now, a mere human was winning!

That couldn't be. That simply couldn't be. This was impossible. Such audacity… Such audacity, to think that he, a mere human, could defeat a God!

Human wanted a fight? He will get a fight!

Serpent will not back down!

A God does not fear death!

Shadow Garden members gathered at throne room in Alexandria.

A strange pristine white stone was standing right behind the beautiful throne of their glorious leader, Shadow. It was covered in intricate runes that even the brightest minds of Research Department could not decipher. They could do nothing but call upon the Research Department head, the Seventh Shade, Eta.

To their shame, even Eta herself could not immediately discern the meaning behind them. She even wanted to take the stone away to her laboratory to study it better, but at this moment…

Stone shone brightly.

The familiar violet light filled the room. The light that gave them hope. The light, shining through the darkest places.

The light of their leader, Shadow.

Shadow Garden, always indomitable in face of mightiest foes, fell on their knees in front of the throne. And, as they started praying, the stone shone brighter.

Serpent went into third phase.

Cid was ready. He enhanced the spatial stability with his Pylons and covered the material world with Shadow Domain, targeted at Serpent. He can't allow it to leave into space, after all, right?

Then Serpent charged at him from the subspace at breakneck speed. It was so fast that even Cid himself at first was barely able to react at gigantic snake flying towards him. It then went to subspace again and tried to open up another rift to try and escape, yet to no avail, as Cid focused on fortifying the dimensional… walls? How does he even call it? He will think of a cool name later…

Moreover, each time Cid managed to inflict an injury upon the Serpent, he dropped some of his blood into the wound and tried to take the Serpent's energy away. Of course, it did not do anything big, as even his blood could not withstand that much, however he still felt its energy slowly plummeting.

Serpent tried to ram at him multiple times from the subspace, yet each time the only one who got injured was it.

And seemingly realizing that, too, Serpent went on the offensive.

Midgar's capital was sleeping. Only a few guards were patrolling the streets.

Of course, there were still not so law-compliant people who were scheming behind everyone's backs, but otherwise, everything was peaceful.

Then a shadow covered the entire city.

Moments after it disappeared, however those who managed to see what was up above could swear they saw some kind of a gigantic snake flying above them.

Shortly after, same thing repeated at other places.

Vegalta. Oriana. Alexandria. The ocean.

Shadow covered everything.

Out of fear, people started praying. And soon after, every city saw shining light.

Serpent tried to attack the relentless human.

It has long ceased to be a hunt. Now, it was a battle of survival.

Devourer aimed Its head at various angles, tried to do close-up attacks from subspace, and even feigned ramming to catch human off-guard. Nothing helped.

Moreover, each time human inflicted an injury, Serpent could feel Its energy being absorbed. This was the first time ever Devourer felt being the prey. And It did not like that.

The dimensional walls were fortified. Human's strange energy was finally revealed, closing the world from space. Given time, Devourer could break through. However, it would take several minutes. Minutes during which the human could tear Serpent apart.

And so It did the only thing it could. Ramming at full speed and beyond.

Yet it didn't help.

Devourer was becoming slower with each attempt. Its energy reserves were running out.

And at some point, Serpent, for the first time in Its life, felt unknown force pulling It towards the ground.

For the first time, Devourer of Gods was subjected to gravity.

Alexia was sitting at the window. She was waiting to see this strange shadow once again.

She was not the only one, though. Both Iris and Rose were here, too. Turned out, she was not the only one who saw it, and then it appeared again, and then… Yeah, in short, they were waiting.

After some time, they saw the shining light near Goddess' Trial arena. Moreover, they could see multiple people sitting in praying position.

Then they saw the shadow covering Lindwurm once more. However, this time it slowly came to a halt.

And then the light shone from the sky.

"That's… a little early for dawn, isn't it?" Alexia spoke in disbelief.

"I do not think that this is dawn…" Iris squinted, trying to discern the features of thing that cast the shadow.

Rose only sat in silence.

I will not be destroyed.

Devourer could no longer move. This world's gravity was slowly pulling him down. It tried to resist, but alas, Its energy was depleted.

Serpent could only rise Its head and look at the one who bested It.

A human was walking on the air. Walking just like on ground. He slowly came closer and closer to Serpent.

I will not be destroyed!

Devourer tried to open Its maw. Jaws slowly parted, opening up the passage. Human still walked towards It, as if not caring about the sharp teeth covering the surface of Serpent's mouth.

"You were strong, I'll give you that," human started speaking as he stopped right in front of Devourer's mandibles.

Serpent desperately tried to move just a little closer, just enough to reach the human. It would be enough to restore the energy to go back to Its dimension!

"However…" human shook his head, "You lacked the skills necessary to back up your strength. Nonetheless, you deserve to know the name. The name of the one who defeated you."

No… No. No!

Devourer could feel Its body not being able to sustain itself anymore. Tail fell off first. Next segment started detaching soon.

I WILL NOT BE DESTROYED!

"Remember well."

Human's body suddenly erupted in mana. Mana so strong that even Serpent felt power behind it. If only It could take just a bit…!

"My name is Shadow. I lurk in the shadows, and I hunt down the shadows. You never stood a chance to begin with. However, out of respect for your power level, I shall reveal another name."

Human's clothing shifted in form and spread Serpent's mandibles apart as he started walking towards the mouth. Devourer tried to close Its maw only to realize that It no longer had strength to do so.

I

"I."

WILL

"Am."

NOT

"Atomic."

Alpha looked up.

Right above them, a familiar light filled up the sky itself, bringing a sudden dawn.

Shades watched in awe at the light that gave them second life. Numbers fell down on their knees and started praying.

Alpha herself only smiled at the sight. The sight she saw back when he saved her. All-encompassing energy that washed off all signs of Curse.

The light slowly died out as the night sky once again took its place.

However, Shades saw him.

He was slowly descending down, with gigantic head behind him being held by his mana.

He only looked around the place, then focused his gaze on them. And smiled.

"LORD SHADOW!" cheers erupted in the air.