“Hm,” Noah said, craning his neck back to look up at the ravenous maw of the massive centipede monster looming above him. His brow furrowed for a moment. Words coiled and twisted through his mind like streams of elusive smoke, evading his grasp for longer than he cared to admit. “No. No, I don’t think so.” “Prayer,” the small centipede at the entrance of the room said, terror quaking its voice. It still hadn’t moved from the spot Noah had told it to wait at. Apparently, it couldn’t quite tell which of them was scarier. But it was going to have to be one that he dealt with later. There were other, more pressing issues at hand. Far more pressing ones indeed. “What?” the Devourer asked. There was a note of disappointment in its voice, as if it had been expecting a slightly more enthusiastic reaction to its arrival speech. “Are you—” “No,” Noah said. “Most certainly not.” Anger flared within the massive monster’s eyes at being cut off. The ground rumbled as it shifted, more of the wretched thing’s body pouring into the room with a thunderous clatter of chitinous legs against the stone. There really didn’t seem to be an end to its length. It simply vanished into the shadows of the Citadel beyond the doors as if it were the insect cousin of Jormungandr waiting to devour the world. There was just one problem. “You are a bold one,” the Devourer hissed. “After all these years. All this time. Do you have the slightest idea of who you stand before? I am the culmination—” “I just dealt with a massive, world-ending monster yesterday,” Noah said. Then his head tilted to the side. A dozen thoughts flashed through his eyes as one. “Oh, no. That wasn’t yesterday. Was it — when was it? Oh, no matter. It was close enough. I haven’t slept since then. Don’t think I have, at least?” The Devourer stared at Noah. Its mandibles twitched. The frustration in the monster’s expression was so evident that, for a moment, it might have been able to pass for a human. The many teeth within its mouth undulated like a blinking eye. “What are you—” “Disappointing, isn’t it?” Noah asked. His head tilted back to its proper spot. “Waiting around for a ton of time, only to find out that the thing you were waiting for really wasn’t what it was built up to be. That seems to happen a lot. Far too often. Maybe it’s a pattern. Could be. Certainly could be. But it doesn’t matter. You know that. I did say that, didn’t I? I’m finding it a little difficult to remember.” As the words spilled from Noah’s lips, his mind shifting and clicking like the spinning gears of a watch being wound, something shifted. A wave of power rolled through his soul. Hollow Symphony trembled within him. Tendrils of its magic wormed out through Noah’s body, coiling through him and eagerly offering up their power. It was like nothing he’d ever felt. The power within the rune was… different. There was no mistaking it for anything but a rune, but at the same time, it was completely foreign to anything he knew. This was to his other runes as heavy metal was to folk. They were both music… but their genre was entirely different. Both were beautiful, but the wavelength they sang on was entirely different. Noah’s mind would have been awash with wonder if it had been slightly less fragmented. The number of things this changed, the questions it should have raised — they would have to wait. At the moment, he was just annoyed. “Mortals,” the Devourer said in disgust. “You were not worthy to witness me. But I am free. No longer am I caged. No longer must I wait. And for that, I thank you. You will be granted a painless death.” The enormous centipede blurred. Its legs sliced through the air like a thousand blades as it accelerated down toward Noah at an incredible speed, its entire body an axe plummeting down for his head. A deafening crash shook the cavern. Stone shattered, shards spinning in every direction to smash against the walls. A huge shockwave tore out through the room, slamming into the smaller centipede near the entrance and throwing it into the wall with a crunch. Dust rained down from the ceiling, large chunks of rubble breaking away from the walls to crash down in a stone hail. The muttered, desperate intonations of prayer twisted through the dust-filled room. The Devourer raised once more, mandibles clicking. No trace of Noah remained beneath it. Its eyes swiveled to the smaller monster. Even now, it hadn’t moved. Not voluntarily, at least. Though the exit was well within running distance, the monster remained exactly where it had fallen, the terror in its stolen voice only growing stronger with every passing instant. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. “One of the failed experiments.” The Devourer chittered in disgust. “What a pathetic audience. Has the world truly forgotten about what it created? Or do they not even realize? I—” A faint tapping rolled through the room. It wasn’t too dissimilar from the sound of chitinous centipede legs beating against the ground in a march, but the noise didn’t come from an insect. It didn’t seem to come from a living being at all. The tapping drum rolled through the room like a coiling snake, pulling the Devourer’s gaze in a circle as it tried to locate the source of the strange, percussive noise. Sharp notes pierced through the room as the beating of the invisible drum grew faster and faster, going from a march to a panicked, rolling crescendo. And then the sound cut out. It vanished, snuffed like a candle, only to be replaced by the hissing crackle of lightning. Then the drumbeat started again. There was an erratic, frantic air to the sound that pierced into the air like a cry for help. The music — for that was the only thing it could have been called — was fast when it should have been slow. It was slow when it should have been fast. No room to rest was permitted within its needling song. The Devourer lurched back, its eyes slicing through the surroundings in search of the source of the noise. And then it found it. Not on the ground, but suspended near the ceiling, his hands crossed behind his back and head tilted to the side in intense concentration. Orıginal content can be found at 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥 “Do you hear that?” Noah asked. “Is it playing out loud? One can never be too certain. I’ve been hearing voices recently, you know. Might need to see somebody about that. But not you. You’re not the one we — I — want to see.” The Devourer’s mandibles chittered in anger, but there was something else in its gaze now. Noah barely even noticed. His fragmented attention was preoccupied with the new pattern unfolding through the air all around him. This wasn’t the first time inserting magic into his pattern had created music. It had happened before, when he’d used the pattern to deconstruct magic that entered his domain and turn it to his own uses. There had been harpsong at that time. And this pattern — it was the same one. It was the same, but it was different. Hollow Symphony wasn’t lending its power to him. It was lending it to his pattern. The rune that had once belonged to the Night’s Shadow wasn’t one that wanted to be directly called upon. It was taking his magic and allocating it into a pattern entirely on its own, almost like he had a second mind concentrating on maintaining the power for him. Noah didn’t have to focus on the pattern at all. This was his song, but he wasn’t the singer. He was the conductor. The hissing snare drum slowed once again, shifting to Noah’s desires. His violin materialized in his hands, the bow already flitting across the strings as a grin slipped across his features. Red arcs of Chaos crackled along the instrument as jittery string song cut into the air, pouring from Unraveling Disruption to flow into the pattern. Hollow Symphony adapted its song at his behest, the drum falling line with his violin. And then the plucking song of a harp joined into the song. The combination wasn’t necessarily one he would have chosen. But Chaos didn’t tend toward very harmonious music in the first place. The instruments fell in line as Hollow Symphony adjusted them, bringing the magic to heel like a ravenous hound. Every single instrument wove its own strands of the tapestry that was a Formation. Each thread came from Noah’s runes. And not just Unraveling Disruption. Noah’s veins turned jet black as Sunder itself trembled and lent its power into the mix at Hollow Symphony’s behest. And, within mere seconds, it was done. A Formation that normally would have taken Noah minutes to create was filled to the brim so quickly that he could barely even believe it. The extra control that Hollow Symphony gave him nearly made the relatively complex formation seem basic. Noah’s laughter rolled through the room like crazed thunder. Even his voice hissed with magic that hissed and popped at his lips like a flame. The power welling within him was indescribable. It was incredible. He looked down at the Devourer. Its hateful red eyes bore into him as it took in the first being that it had seen since the Citadel had fallen. As it observed the existence in countless years that knew no fear of it whatsoever. Noah released the Formation. An obsidian spear tore down from the sky. Its glossy surface glistened, countless runes burning with ravenous hunger all across its pitch-black surface. The spear fell like a meteor, trails of inky energy tearing away from its tip as it plummeted in a flash. There was no time for the Devourer to dodge. The spear slammed straight into its back. Chitin shattered. Fragments of black carapace crunched and the spear carved straight through the monster, passing through it like a passing memory to pierce into the ground below. And then, as quickly as the spear had formed, it vanished. The Devourer screamed. It lurched back, its head slamming against the ceiling in its haste to recoil. Dust and debris rained down as the monster’s eyes locked on Noah, terror welling within them. In all the years that it had resided within the Citadel, in all the years since it had been trapped… not once had it been hurt. Black ichor welled from the wound within the massive monster, weeping out from both ends. “What magic is this?” the massive centipede snarled. “I am the great Devourer! I cannot be—” “There’s nothing great about you,” Noah said, his vision slipping out of focus before locking back onto the huge monster. Song twisted around him as another Formation wove into being at his fingertips. Noah’s gaze remained locked on the centipede as the corners of his lips curled into a cold smile. “I’ve seen great. But you? You’re just a bug.”