When the Light finally reached Shadowblade, Noah felt like he was going through an out-of-body experience.

The exoskeleton of the Shadowblade was covered entirely by Eve’s abyssal black substance, but the connection between them was not lost.

The area surrounding his vision changed rapidly, a second seemed to stretch into an eternity. The whole area seemed to have slowed down to a slime’s pace until… everything stopped, in the literal sense.

Noah tried to breathe out of reflex, but he could feel neither his chest moving nor the feeling of air caressing his skin. Even though his mind had transcended to a higher level of perception, his body had failed to follow through.

The eerie phenomenon vanished just as fast as it appeared but in its wake, it left a piercing pain in his mind.

The substance produced by Eve did not vanish, however, indicating that Noah had successfully survived the ordeal. It did, however, disorient him to such a degree that Noah was not willing to go through this experience any longer.

Blood flowed freely down his nostrils, his eyes quite literally burst out of their sockets, splattering blood everywhere. His muscles froze, and his heartbeat nearly stopped.

He was unable to make heads or tails about what was happening with his body. His mind was too chaotic. He felt as though he was trying to process an unimaginable amount of information all at once.

Gotta move!

Even though his mind was in utter shambles, Noah still understood that staying stationary right now would literally be a death sentence. But that did not mean his body was cooperating. He simply was unable to do anything and Eve was not doing much better than he was.

This feeling!

Amid the debilitating pain, Noah latched onto a short instant of insight. He recognized this pain. Even though it was to a lesser extent, this pain was not dissimilar to the pain he probably felt eons ago. It was the sort of pain that coursed through his being when he fought against Eve and entered that wormhole with her.

“Fu~” Noah could not even curse properly as his frame jolted to life. Numerous messages with information about the damage levels flashed everywhere in his mind but he did not have the faculties to observe them properly.

But he got the gist that his mecha was in terrible shape. Also, he was moving fast, too fast even. He surmised that the Chronodraco had blasted him away to someplace.

Can’t let myself get struck by another one of those light beams.

Only a few seconds went by but he could feel his thoughts flow more smoothly. His eyes had still not healed but the tingling feeling on his face made him realize that it wouldn’t take long now.

Where is it?

Noah did not let panic cloud his mind. He could not see. It was only natural that he did not know where his enemy was. This was more than enough to send anyone into a spiral of fear and self-doubt.

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A simple energy gun popped into the hand of his Knightframe at his command. Even with his eyes destroyed, the action was more than easy for him.

This gun was not particularly powerful. Even though it could absorb Dark Matter – or Aether as the Gaia Empire termed it – to blast a focused and condensed energy, there was a limit to the load it could bear.

Soon though the entire gun was covered in a dark substance and the shape changed to that of a spear.

Eve, you’re back.

— I AM GOING TO KILL IT!

A primal rage of the likes he had never felt in his life filled a corner of his mind, making his lips twitch involuntarily. This was the first time he had seen Eve lose her calm to such an intense degree. Clearly, she did not appreciate the pain.

The tip of the spear wriggled continuously, finally taking on the shape of a drill. The drill started rotating, slowly at first but it picked up speed fast as more and more of his energy was poured into it.

Ignoring the cries of revenge of the wrathful Parasite Queen, Noah focused on his surroundings.

His perception spread in all directions, filling the space around the frame like a zone. From 2 meters to 5 then 10, 20, 30, and finally 70 meters. He was still not able to see anything, but that did not mean he could not sense it. His ears were still working just fine for whatever reason and his reflexes were not completely affected.

It’s coming.

Goosebumps covered his skin as a great feeling of danger shrouded his mind. But rather than escaping, the Shadowblade simply tightened its grip around the drill spear.

Light gathered on the frame’s surface and the energy overloading the spear transformed, a searing blaze flashing through the weapon.

Just a little more.

He thought. His palms were sweating heavily. The spear grew in size and power, from simply a few meters long to more than 30 meters. The size increase came with a feeling of weakness in his whole being. Yet, he pumped more power into the spear.

Just a little more.

His heart seemed to run a mile a minute then the feeling of the world slowing down to a crawl appeared once again. Only this time it was different. The time dilatation was weaker. Far weaker than what the previous attack had made him feel.

But… that was enough.

Now!

His eyes opened, now healed enough to return his vision. Immediately, he witnessed a giant open maw rushing toward him at lightspeed, ready to devour him whole.

A torrent of energy overloaded all the circuits of the Frame as Noah pumped even more of his energy into the machine. Systems after systems closed as the circuits were complete and finally… he threw the spear.

Like a comet, the drilling spear flew through the sea of stars, a blazing brilliance in its wake. Like a comet, it illuminated everything on its path, leaving its trail through the stars.

The distance between him and the Time-Devouring beast was infinitely small in the scale of the wide space.

But this distance was destined to never be reduced.

A roar filled with pain, anger, and fear shook the void, as the spear pierced the eye of the monster.

For an infant who had never faced any difficulty in its entire life, the pain was simply too much for the beast. It barrelled out of Noah’s trajectory as it started thrashing in pain. No matter how much it tried, it could not dislodge the spear from its eyes.

Noah, seeing this clicked his tongue in dismay. This should have been a one-hit kill. His goal had been to completely pierce the eyes and destroy the brain of the monster. But at the last moment, a small curtain of white light veiled before the spear and decreased its size considerably.

He might have been disappointed, but that did not impact his actions. He pushed himself to act, ready to advance and give the final blow to his enemy, but…

“Huh…?”

Red lights flashed all over the cockpit and no control answered his command. Noah swore under his breath, realizing that the Shadowblade was completely incapacitated after repeatedly going beyond its limit on its very first live battle.

Should I just jump out?

He seriously considered just opening the cockpit and rushing out into space to attack the cosmic beast. Sadly, for Noah, the Crocodile was clearly not interested in fighting anymore.

A fissure in space, not unlike the one Noah would open with Eve’s help, appeared behind the Crocodile and he watched powerlessly as its prey fled into the Sea of Quanta.