Noah's ascent into the stratosphere was reversed once he reached the boundary of the Liminal room. His body was a speeding bullet rising into the sky, then he disappeared and reappeared, shooting back towards the ground.
Just before he hit the ground Noah was able to become intangible again. He phased through the ground and then popped back out immediately.
He landed with a skid over the shattered ground, eyes searching for Hadrian immediately. Then he flinched at the amount of destruction his coming out of the ground did.
All the buildings had toppled over, all the cars had exploded and started fires around him, and Hadrian must have been blown away by Noah breaking the sound barrier.
Maybe even dead.
This could be like a special attack. It takes a lot of energy from me though, because of the damage my body takes.
A pile of rubble exploded in front of him suddenly. The glass serpent was reformed but a bit smaller. Hadrian climbed out of the rubble of the building covered in dust and royally pissed.
His glasses were cracked, so he took them off, and put them in his jacket. After dusting himself off, he asked,
"Is that your stage one evolution?"
Noah was confused, then he looked down at himself. The black jacket he was wearing extended into a black coat; the edges of the coat were wispy like flickering flame.
Checking his face in a broken piece of glass, he found about one quarter of a mask on his face.
It was black and intricately detailed. The piece of mask covering one of his white eyes. The small mask made his eye look furious and sinister.
He touched it a little, but it couldn't move. It was just a small bit of a full mask. One that he would likely form as he continued to evolve.
Hadrian was standing on the hill of rubble, illuminated by a single flickering streetlight on the ground. In this black and white world, he looked like a detective, facing a demon that crawled out of hell.
Well, that is kind of the actual situation.
"I'll ask one more time," Noah announced, his voice deeper and hollow. "Can we come to an agreement? I'm not looking for a fight."
Hadrian chuckled; his dark eyes had an eerie depth to them, like they were just cages for the darkness beneath.
"Well I am. You've entertained me, and for that I'll grant you a painful death."
Hadrian didn't draw his strange dagger this time. He reached into the air and a spear shimmered into existence.
It was fully red, but here it looked more like dark blood. The spear was taller than Hadrian; its tip was wrapped in barb wire that was stained with blood.
"Spears are the Union's favorite weapon," Hadrian mused, admiring the spear in his hand. "This Dark tool was formed after a Duke executed almost a hundred of his subjects in the middle ages. It became cursed, drinking the blood and life of its enemies."
He pointed the spear at Noah. "It will drink mine like it drank the duke's if I don't feed it. And this puppy isn't picky. Even if you don't have blood, it'll drink your life till you dissipate. This is going to be fun."
Everything moved at once.
The glass serpent attacked Noah, its dark form surging through the air like a plague. Hadrian disappeared in a blur of movement, much faster and stronger than before.
The serpent came down on Noah while Hadrian attacked from the ground. Noah watched them for a moment and let out a surprised sound.
"Huh?"
This was manageable.
His body flickered, the ground beneath his feet caved in. He jumped up to meet the Serpent in the air.
[Void Ice Creation]
He tapped the beast on its narrow, black head, passing beside it. Hadrian's eyes narrowed at his sudden increase in speed; this was a bit too high for a Class C Phantasm, even with an evolution.
Without hesitation, Hadrian followed Noah into the air, shooting off the ground in a powerful burst. Mid-air he retrieved his dagger and cut a new symbol into the air with a flurry of movement.
His enhancement increased once again. Meanwhile, he commanded the serpent to wrap around Noah.
Why did the phantasm just tap the Glass lizard on it's head?
The touch did nothing; no ability had activated. According to Hadrian's knowledge the first evolution power of a Wraith was [Hellfire].
Noah turned to meet him mid-air. But the Glass lizard didn't move an inch.
"Guess you can't see the ice either," Noah said with a hum of pleasure.
The glass serpent was entirely encased in deep blue ice right now.
Hadrian came charging at him regardless of this. The guy was really too hotheaded and overconfident.
The Keeper didn't know what was happening to his summon but still trusted his strength, stabbing at Noah's head mid-air with the red spear.
Noah swung his body, kicking the spear, before spinning to catch Hadrian, whose momentum had him flying at Noah.
[Void Ice Creation]
The air was filled with mist. Ice crawled over Hadrian's fist in seconds. To his credit, Hadrian sensed the danger and took out his dagger. The man was too fast at drawing those red symbols, but not fast enough.
The ice encased more than half his body before it stopped. They both fell to the ground but Noah caught Hadrian and helped him land softly.
He couldn't let the ice break and inadvertently free the Keeper. So he laid the man down and took his dagger by force.
After a moment of struggle, Noah retrieved the dagger and threw it across the barren space.
"Thanks for underestimating me," Noah chirped before jumping away. He left Hadrian there, rushing to the boundary of the Liminal space.
According to his experiences with it, no physical attack could weaken the barrier enough for him to escape, but if he used [Void Ice Creation], he had a feeling he could get through.
It didn't take long to reach the boundary. Noah walked right into it, entering the empty black space at the end of the Liminal room, the artificial end. Then it reversed his direction and he walked right out and back into the black and white world.
He stopped and turned towards the empty space. In front of him were a couple collapsed buildings and a toppled phone booth.
It looked like the world kept going from here, but now he knew this was the boundary of this fake world. He put his hand forward and watched it disappear.
Then he felt a ridiculous amount of force pushing back against his hand. It was the boundary trying to send him back in the other direction.
Noah grit his teeth and kept moving, activating [Void Ice Creation].
A grating sound erupted from the space in front of him as ice formed over empty space and was rapidly cracked and pushed back.
He glanced back as he forced his way through the barrier. If Hadrian found a way to free himself, Noah would have to kill him.
After a long breath of time, the air in front of him began to warp. Noah rejoiced internally and pushed more ice into the space.
He turned to check on Hadrian again, and a chill ran over his spine. The Keeper was standing at the top of the road.
Hadrian ripped the ice off his skin and suit, tearing his skin off along with it. His face was a grisly mess of blood and torn skin, and he was limping towards Noah with the crimson spear in hand.
"Come on, come on," Noah repeated as he increased the distortion in the boundary, generating more and more ice.
Hadrian cocked his hand back and threw the spear. It streaked across the air silently, coming down on Noah with ruthless accuracy.
Noah glanced back and forth between his escape tunnel. It was just big enough to crawl through.
Crouching down, he jumped into the tunnel just as the spear fell to the ground.