Rise of the Devourer

Tony knew a lot of different kinds of fear. Dread, helplessness, terror, horror, existential despair… all had been part of his long and empty existence at one time or another. The panic of running from a larger voidbeast that wanted to consume him, the frustration of being too slow to reach the front of the press, all of it was familiar.

Since meeting Noah, all that fear had become distant. Tony had instead felt excitement, joy, eagerness, and even hope, a myriad of wondrous new emotions as he followed his master, his new partner, into one event full of thrilling chaos after another.

That chaos was suddenly a whole lot less thrilling and a lot more terrifying.

Noah’s body had been obliterated so fast even Tony’s advanced perception didn’t see it coming, leaving only his frantically beating heart amid the destruction.

Noah gave Tony an image and a brief burst of jumbled instructions, then shoved the last of their mana into teleporting them as far as possible toward that destination before passing out.

Tony had recreated Noah before. Before his master had completed his first evolution, Tony learned from a grafting master how to improve every bone, muscle, and cell in Noah’s entire body. That process had involved breaking Noah apart piece by piece and putting them back together.

Since then, the two of them had fused closer and closer into perfect unity. Tony’s metamorphosis could extend across Noah’s body and amplify everything he was, and Noah’s lifeblood sustained and strengthened Tony far beyond anything the abyssal creature had ever imagined possible.

But though Tony was an expert in reshaping and improving Noah’s body, he found himself at a loss when faced with the task of recreating it from nothing. Anything he was given, he could improve, but he had nothing.

Only Noah’s shadow-streaked storm-sparking heart, quiescent without a body to sustain, resting in Tony’s claws.