The forty seconds were up.
But Raizen still didn't move an inch.
"What the hell is he waiting for,I thought he said forty seconds."
Nox's grin slowly faded, the devil's own smile only stretched wider.
It raised its hand toward Nox.
Nox had neither the energy nor the will to lift even the smallest muscle.
So this is it?
I'm really going to die like this, without finding out if my mother's alive or dead, without making that red haired bastard pay?
His heartbeat thundered in his chest, louder than war drums, as death loomed over him.
The beast's fist came down.
Nox shut his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.
Thud.
But the impact never came.
He snapped his eyes open, the monster's arm was severed, cut clean off before it could touch him.
It roared and swung again, another slice, its limb split apart mid strike as if carved by an unseen blade.
Raizen? No, he craned his neck, desperate to glimpse behind the monster. Raizen still stood motionless, eyes closed, as though in deep meditation.
The devil unleashed a barrage of lightning fast punches, each one aimed to pulverize Nox into the dirt. But every strike was intercepted by that same invisible force, each fist carved apart, the cuts racing upward toward its shoulders.
The monster leapt back in fury. But while in flight, its body split into jagged pieces, scattering into the wind.
Nox's chest heaved, confusion outweighed even his relief.
Before he could gather his thoughts, a powerful hand gripped him and whisked him away. In a single breath he was dropped beside Juro at the trunk of a massive tree, out of immediate danger but with a clear view of what was about to unfold.
The forest ahead was unrecognizable, where there had once been towering trees and life, now stood a wasteland of shattered trunks and craters, an arena for a nightmare beast and the warrior who had finally awakened.
"...Nox?" Juro's eyes snapped open, he had regained consciousness right on cue.
He followed Nox's wide eyed stare and froze.
Raizen.
He stood in the open, blade at his side, eyes still shut. How he had carried them both to safety in an instant Juro couldn't comprehend, but one thing was certain, Raizen now was something different, something terrifying, a different type of monster.
The monster's remains were already stitching back together. The black mist gathered like living thread, pulling its torn body upright, binding its form in writhing tar like bandages. Its grin remained unbroken, wicked as ever.
Then Raizen finally opened his eyes.
A cold wind tore across the battlefield, the air itself thickened, heavy, suffocating, crushing.
Nox and Juro froze, they knew this pressure. The same suffocating aura from the night their village burned, the night everything began, the same night they were saved before darkness swallowed them whole.
The monster roared as the black mist fully clothed its body, it materialized and wrapped around it like bandages, its power at its absolute peak.
But Raizen was already moving.
He unsheathed his blade in one clean motion.
A storm broke with it, his skin had cracks like glass that spread across his body to his face, lightning crawled over his skin, his eyes blazed white, raging like a storm.
For the first time since awakening, Raizen spoke.
His voice cut through the night like judgment.
"God Mode."