Chapter 248 - 249: Test Subject
Far away in the void, the Void Devouring Dragon finally forced its massive body to stop tumbling. Dark energy leaked from the deep cracks across its face and neck where the first slap had landed, trailing behind it like a bloody comet of pure consumption. Dimensional tears flickered open and closed along its scales as the Principle of Devour worked desperately to repair the damage, pulling in whatever residual energy drifted through the empty space. Its golden eyes were wide with shock and a rising fear it had almost never felt in its long life.
That single slap injured me more than the fight with that damned chicken, it thought again, still struggling to accept the reality. What kind of monster did I run into?
The memory of that earlier battle flickered through its mind—the stubborn, feathered creature that had somehow forced it into a drawn-out struggle and left it wounded enough to need three universes just to recover. That fight had been humiliating enough. This was something else entirely. The figure in dark robes had not even used a named technique. He had simply walked forward, spoken a few casual words, and then slapped it across millions of void units as if swatting an insect.
The dragon was not stupid. It had survived for ages by knowing when to fight and when to run. This was not a battle it could win. Staying here would only lead to a humiliating death. It gathered the remaining power in its body, compressing dark energy into its limbs and core. Scales tightened. Claws flexed. It prepared to tear open a path through the void and launch itself away at full speed, putting as much distance as possible between itself and that calm, golden-eyed nightmare.
But it never got the chance.
The moment its body began to move, Runar suddenly appeared again—right beside its massive head. There was no fluctuation of space, no warning of any principle, no ripple of intent. Even though the dragon was now on full alert, its senses completely failed to detect the arrival. One instant the space beside its skull was empty. The next, the same calm figure stood there as if he had always been waiting.
Where the fuck did you come from again? the dragon thought in pure panic.
Before the dragon could even fully process the presence, another hard slap landed across the other side of its face.
The sound cracked through the void like a collapsing universe.
The force was just as absolute as the first. Pure, refined authority compressed into a single motion that ignored the dragon’s scales, its regenerative power, and even the Principle of Devour itself. The dragon’s enormous body was launched in the opposite direction, flying another million void units away in a helpless tumble. Fresh cracks spread across its scales in jagged webs of dark energy. More dimensional tears opened along its neck and shoulder. Its vision spun as empty space blurred past at impossible speed. Stars that had once been distant points of light became streaks, then vanished entirely as the dragon was flung far beyond the original sector’s borders.
When the dragon finally managed to stabilize again, forcing its thrashing body to a halt through sheer will, Runar was already standing in front of it once more. The calm figure looked completely unbothered, golden light still faintly surrounding him like a soft halo. He studied the heavily injured dragon with mild curiosity, tilting his head slightly as if examining an interesting specimen rather than a being that had terrorized entire sectors.
"Oh," Runar said in a quiet, almost thoughtful voice. "I’m pretty interested in the Principle of Devour. Come be my test subject. Let me feel it on your face."
The dragon’s golden eyes widened further.
Test subject?!
The words struck harder than the slap. In all its long existence, the Void Devouring Dragon had been the one who decided what lived and what was consumed. It had never been reduced to a specimen. The sheer casualness of the statement left it speechless for a fraction of a second—long enough for Runar to move again.
What followed was later remembered by every witness as one of the most one-sided and brutal beatdowns the sector had seen in recent memory.
Runar appeared beside the dragon no matter which direction it tried to flee. Each time, a precise, devastating slap landed. The dragon was sent flying across millions of void units again and again. Scales shattered under the repeated impacts. Dimensional layers tore open and failed to close properly. The Principle of Devour itself trembled under the repeated authority, unable to properly absorb or counter the pure force behind each strike. Dark energy sprayed through the void in violent arcs, yet none of it seemed to hinder the calm figure who simply reappeared wherever the dragon landed.
From the dragon’s perspective, the experience was pure nightmare.
Every time it tried to open a spatial path, Runar was already there. Every time it tried to activate the Principle of Devour to consume the incoming force, the slap still landed cleanly and the devouring attempt failed. The pain was sharp and humiliating—not the clean, absolute erasure of a superior principle, but a repeated, personal demonstration of helplessness. Worse than the physical and conceptual damage was the growing realization that it could not escape, could not fight back, and could not even understand how the opponent was moving.
How is he doing this? the dragon thought desperately between impacts. I can’t sense him at all! My Principle of Devour should at least react to any power... but there’s nothing to devour!
There was no energy signature to latch onto. No law fluctuation. No spatial distortion. The figure simply existed in one place and then existed in another, as if the concept of distance itself had decided to cooperate with him. The dragon’s ancient instincts, refined through countless ages of predation, found nothing to sink their teeth into. It was like trying to bite smoke.
While the beatdown continued, Runar remained completely calm. With every slap, he was not merely punishing the dragon. He was carefully reading the structure of the Principle of Devour through direct contact. Each impact allowed him to observe how the principle attempted to activate, how it tried to consume external force, and where its limits and weaknesses lay. The brutal sequence was, for him, a high-speed research session. Golden light flickered faintly around his palm with every strike, analyzing, cataloguing, and storing the data in real time.
Far away, the Multiversals and Universe Wills watched in complete silence.
One Initiate-tier Multiversal whispered, voice barely audible even through the void, "He’s... just slapping it."
Another answered in a hollow voice, "And the dragon can’t do anything."
A Universe Will muttered inside the private chat group shared by several of the surviving wills, "That Advanced-tier Void Devouring Dragon is being treated like a training dummy."
William, still observing from within his membrane, felt a deep chill. He had known Runar was powerful. He had even called him a "disgusting monster" in private, half in jest and half in genuine wariness. But watching the calm figure repeatedly appear and slap an Advanced-tier dragon across millions of void units made the true gap in power feel almost unreal. The dragon that had nearly swallowed his universe earlier now looked small—pathetic, even—under the relentless, methodical punishment.
The dragon tried one last desperate move. It poured everything into the Principle of Devour, attempting to create a massive devouring field around its body to consume anything that approached. Dark energy erupted outward in a violent wave, forming a sphere of pure consumption large enough to swallow entire star systems. The field pulsed with hungry intensity, warping the void and pulling at every nearby particle of energy.
Runar simply walked through it as if the field did not exist. The dark energy parted around him like water around a stone. Another slap landed. The devouring field collapsed instantly under the residual authority of the strike, and the dragon was once again sent flying into the distance, trailing broken scales and leaking essence.
When the dragon finally managed to stop itself again, its body was covered in cracks and leaking dark energy in thick, oily streams. Its golden eyes no longer held arrogance—only exhaustion and a deep, unfamiliar fear. The Principle of Devour still circulated, but sluggishly, as if the repeated impacts had left even that core ability shaken.
Runar appeared in front of it once more, still looking thoughtful. He studied the wounded dragon for a long moment, golden eyes calm and analytical.
"Interesting," he said quietly. "The Principle of Devour is more flexible than I expected... but also more limited. Thank you for the demonstration."
The dragon could only stare at him, unable to form a coherent threat or plea. Its jaws worked soundlessly for a moment before it managed a low, strained growl that carried more exhaustion than defiance.
Then Runar’s expression shifted slightly. The mild curiosity faded, replaced by something colder and more serious. The faint golden light around him deepened, no longer soft and observational but sharp and focused.
"It’s about time you got a taste of your own medicine."
The moment the words left his mouth, the dragon felt an invisible force lock its entire body in place. It could no longer move. Even the Principle of Devour was frozen mid-circulation, the dark energy within its body suddenly still and unresponsive. The sensation was absolute—more complete than the earlier suppression by the Universe Wills, more personal than any spatial lock it had ever encountered.
"Don’t move," Runar said calmly. "I have one final experiment."
He slowly outstretched both hands toward the dragon.
From the dragon’s point of view, those outstretched hands looked like pure death. The void around them seemed to darken, not with devouring energy but with something denser, more final. An overwhelming sense of ending pressed down on its existence, as if the very concept of continuation was being questioned. The dragon’s golden eyes locked onto the approaching palms, and for the first time in its long life it understood, with perfect clarity, what it felt like to be prey that had already been marked for consumption.
"Let’s get a little serious," Runar said.
His aura finally released.
Golden pressure exploded outward and blanketed the entire sector in an instant. Every Universe Will, every Multiversal being, and every floating particle of energy froze under the weight of that aura. The true scale of Runar’s strength was finally revealed without any restraint. The difference was no longer a gap—it was a chasm so vast that the earlier slap had been little more than a polite introduction. Membranes of distant universes trembled. Residual principles scattered and fled. Even the void itself seemed to hold its breath under the sudden, absolute authority.
At the same time, the Principle of Devour began expanding from Runar’s outstretched hands. Dark, hungry energy that should have belonged only to the Void Devouring race now gathered under his control, forming a growing sphere of pure consumption between his palms. The energy twisted and condensed with perfect precision, responding to his will as if it had always been his to command. The sphere pulsed once, then again, growing denser and more refined with every heartbeat.
When the dragon saw this, its golden eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
"How the fuck...!" it roared in pure disbelief.
The sector held its breath.