Book 5: Chapter 41 — Severence
Severence, Lunar Judge, The Unwatched Ascendant and (until very recently) The Negator, was running in a blind panic when a wave of taunting, arrogant, controlling power rolled over him.
[Dragon Fear] has counteracted [Devourer’s Dread]
Sev came to an abrupt halt halfway toward the valley entrance, blinking. It had been a long time since he was caught so thoroughly off guard.
His soul ached at the absence, one of his paths torn out of him and consumed right in front of him. Even thinking about it threatened to return him to that blind panic, but he retained enough presence of mind to adjust. Normally he’d have used Nullify or Dispel to remove negative status effects, but those were gone. Thankfully, The Negator wasn’t his only control path.
[Uneventful] has repealed [Dragon Fear]
[Uneventful] has repealed [Devourer’s Dread]
With both fear effects gone, he was able to calm down and make a plan. Which, really, didn’t require a whole lot of thinking. The Devourer was what the shard-bound entity called itself, but it was clear that something of that power level couldn’t simply roam around in B-Rank bodies for long. All Sev needed to do was wait and watch until the entity returned to dormancy, then grab the hosts and bring them in.
But as simple as the plan sounded, he didn’t turn around.
He couldn’t stop noticing the empty place where his second path should have been, couldn’t stop straining to activate abilities that no longer existed. He’d often imagined what it would feel like to fight someone with his abilities, someone who could cancel, erase, and undo what he did. He’d never imagined anything like this.