The moment Ben's dark aether surged outward, the air recoiled.
Winds spiraled around him and bent to his will.
The cracked and scorched battlefield trembled under the pressure coming from his core.
Twelve golden eyes hung above them.
They stared down like judgment.
System code flowed through their depths like living circuits.
Then the Devourer moved.
One eye blinked.
A beam of law fired down, a line of gold-etched entropy that did not just destroy, but erased existence itself.
"Scatter!" Ben shouted.
The beam struck.
Everything behind them vanished.
There was no dust, no crater, no sound.
That part of the world was simply gone, as if it had been removed from reality.
Ben's eyes widened.
He noticed something.
The other eyes did not move.
They still glowed, but only the one that fired had reacted.
He met Apophis's gaze as understanding clicked.
"It can't fire all twelve at once," he said, still catching his breath. "It is limiting itself, only one beam per cycle."
