The word "Begin" had barely left Malakor's skeletal mouth when Satou acted.
No hesitation. No testing the waters. No cautious opening move.
Satou immediately activated Devouring at maximum power.
His shadow exploded outward like a tidal wave of absolute darkness, expanding across the mirror-smooth obsidian in a forty-foot radius. But this wasn't the normal shadow manipulation he'd used before. This was something far more terrifying.
The shadow became a void—a tear in reality itself, a black hole of pure consumption that began pulling everything toward it. The obsidian floor cracked as pieces were ripped away and dissolved into nothing. The air itself was being sucked in, creating a howling vortex of wind. Even light bent toward the consuming darkness, making the area around Satou seem to exist in a state of perpetual twilight.
