Chapter 395: 395. Finality (Part 2)

Tyrian's anger seemed to fold back into him, swallowed by the same terrible composure that had allowed him to stand before Jaune and examine the impossible without immediately giving in to rage.

His shoulders settled and the muscles in his jaw loosened.

He stared at Jaune for several seconds, and Jaune stared back without a word. Between them, the ruined air continued to burn with the remnants of their first exchange, while the stolen Supreme Rune of Choice turned slowly within Jaune's spirit, its presence becoming more familiar with every passing moment.

Tyrian's gaze moved over Jaune's golden clothing, his restored arm, his face, and finally the space around him. He seemed to be searching for something that should have been obvious.

"You've become a Rank 3..." he said at last, and the words carried none of the fury of his earlier outburst.

He paused, as though listening to something only he could hear.

"That much is clear. Yet... I cannot sense your domain."

Jaune remained silent. He could feel Tyrian's attention pressing against the edges of his existence, probing the space around him with the power of Knowledge.

It was not quite an attack, but rather, an attempt to understand.

To identify.

To determine what had changed and why the newly arrived Rank 3 standing before him could occupy the same conceptual space as Tyrian's domain without being swallowed up by it. Jaune could feel the question moving through the air before Tyrian spoke again.

"How interesting. Knowledge is stating that your domain is existing within the confines of my own, but its inherent property is causing it to lie parallel to my own. Like two lines that can't intersect."

Tyrian did not move, but Jaune felt something shift within the space he occupied. A phenomenon was being manifested directly inside his domain, an attack attempting to take shape within the very air surrounding his body.

Jaune could feel the pressure of it, the way Tyrian's authority was trying to establish a foothold in a place where it should have been impossible to establish one.

Then the attempt simply failed.

The phenomenon never completed. It was as though the space had rejected the possibility of the attack existing there, and Tyrian's expression changed by the smallest degree as he registered the result.

"Yet... that by itself is a contradiction, as your domain is clearly stopping my attacks. How curious..." Tyrian once again called out.

The power of Knowledge was terrifying, and Jaune had expected it to be. His father had spoken of it with the kind of caution that Nicholas rarely afforded anything, and now Jaune fully understood why.

Knowledge did not need to overpower an enemy in the ordinary sense. It could simply understand what was happening, dissect it, identify the rules governing it, and use that understanding to determine what should happen next.

It was a Rune that could turn the unknown into a weapon.

Yet Jaune said nothing.

Truth be told, he was buying time.

He was newly minted Rank 3, and he needed time to become accustomed to the level of power that now existed within him.

Saying that however, it was clear that his current existence surpassed every Rank 3 in the world and every Rank 3 in history, with the sole exception of Tyrian Callows.

His domain alone was vastly superior in size and density to that of an ordinary Rank 3. A normal Rank 3 possessed a domain of approximately twenty-five kilometers. Jaune's domain covered two hundred.

It was vast and boundless, extending through the air, across the ground, and seemingly over half of the entire core area of the moon.

And that was before considering what Devour could do. Jaune could feel the sovereignty of the new Supreme Rune, the way it seemed to pull at everything around him, the way it made the world feel less like a collection of separate things and more like a collection of things that could be brought into himself.

Yet it still wasn't enough.

He had performed a surprise attack on Tyrian while the man was occupied, and that surprise had allowed him to take Choice. Several coincidences had aligned in Jaune's favor, and he understood them now with a clarity that made the entire exchange seem almost inevitable.

Tyrian had taken the Supreme Runes in the order of Destruction, Knowledge, Creation, and finally Choice. After taking each one, he had immediately begun absorbing it and integrating it into his spirit.

He had not waited until all four were fully integrated before moving to deal with the Rank 3s. That meant the runes were each at different levels of integration. Destruction had probably been assimilated to nearly one hundred percent, while Knowledge and Creation were lower.

Choice, the last of the runes taken, was likely only around ten percent integrated. That was why Tyrian's domain had been growing in size. He had been absorbing the power of the Supreme Runes into himself, and each one had been expanding the strength and size of his domain. Every Supreme Rune absorbed would double one's domain's strength and size.

Tyrian's advantage had been that he possessed three Supreme Runes while Jaune had only two, but Devour was not an ordinary Supreme Rune. It had transformed Jaune's body into a body without weakness.

Unlike Tyrian, who needed to rely on his special body as a vessel and the integration of Salem's conscious mind to contain the Supreme Runes within his imperfect existence, Jaune was flawless. The power of Choice, which would have directly destroyed any other Rank 3 with its vast might, was integrating into him without issue.

His body had become a perfect vessel for the authority.

And there was another thing.

Before the entire moon scenario had occurred, Tyrian had possessed two Supreme Runes. Nicholas had been unsure why Tyrian had not already reached Rank 4, and he had suggested that Salem's existence might have been the reason.

But now that Jaune was a Rank 3 himself, and now that he possessed a Supreme Rune, he understood one fundamental fact. His father had been half right. Jaune was almost entirely certain that reaching Rank 4 required four Supreme Runes. Which meant that he had arrived just in time to stop Tyrian.

Tyrian seemed to reach the same conclusion.

"It seems I was wrong," he said, and the admission sounded almost thoughtful. "What a fool I was... thinking that Nicholas was trying to use Knowledge and reach the realm of Rank 3. I should have used Knowledge in that moment to see if he had hidden his plans, but I admit that... I was arrogant. I was lulled into a false sense of safety."

He shook his head, and the movement was almost casual.

"You were in the time realm, weren't you? It wasn't he who was using it, but you.... Hmmm... but why wasn't I able to sense you with my domain..."

His eyes narrowed.

"How odd... even Knowledge, for some reason cannot identify the reason."

Jaune knew why.

Devour had integrated the power of Null, and that property superseded hierarchy in the conventional sense. It could directly nullify information-type Runes from trying to discover it. Tyrian could understand the existence of Jaune's domain, but he could not understand why it was hidden from him. He could observe the contradiction, but could not resolve it.

"Nicholas's weapon against me..." Tyrian's voice lowered, and for the first time since Jaune had appeared, something like genuine amusement touched his expression.

"To think it would be his own son."

By then, the other Rank 3s had already escaped the matter cages. They hovered in the air at a distance, watching Jaune and Tyrian speak, their domains still strained from the remnants of Creation's authority.

Velik looked as though he wanted to move forward, but Jaune's voice echoed into their ears without him speaking.

'Don't interfere. If you get close, I can't protect you, and all of you will die.'

The words carried through his domain, and the Rank 3s paused. Raven and Qrow immediately understood the warning. They had seen what Jaune had done to Tyrian's Supreme Rune and had seen the way Choice had been torn from him.

Not to mention how Jaune's body had regenerated after Destruction had consumed it. Velik frowned, but Raven and Qrow moved to his side and told him that Jaune's Master Rune was made up of three Meta Runes.

Velik's expression changed instantly.

He understood the seriousness of the situation. A Supreme Rune was not something that could be treated as an ordinary Master Rune, and Jaune was not an ordinary Rank 3. The Rank 3s all simultaneously left the battlefield, moving away from the space where Jaune and Tyrian stood.

Tyrian seemed to know that Jaune was communicating with them through his domain, but he did not spare them a glance. His entire attention remained focused on Jaune.

"I have to admit, Jaune Arc," Tyrian said, "to create a Supreme Rune, with nothing my mortal comprehension. It truly is remarkable what you have done. But... it's just a shame that you had to stand against me."

Jaune frowned and finally spoke.

"You're not even Tyrian anymore, are you?"

Tyrian smiled.

"Correct. But you may address me how you wish."

The answer was not quite an admission of Salem's presence, nor was it a denial. It was simply the acknowledgment that the being standing before Jaune was no longer entirely the man who had once possessed the name Tyrian Callows.

Jaune could feel the difference in the way the power moved through him, the way his domain seemed to be responding to something deeper than the individual consciousness of the man in front of him.

Yet the name remained. Tyrian had been the vessel, and Salem who was now inhabiting him had inherited the name.

Then, Tyrian twitched his finger.

The entire space of his domain that Jaune's own was not occupying was suddenly washed with the monochrome light of Destruction. The light spread across the battlefield in a vast wave, consuming the air, the ground, the ruined ground, the distant fragments of the moon. It was not a simple attack.

It was the manifestation of a Supreme Rune's authority, and everything it touched was reduced to monochrome nothingness.

Jaune could feel the light pressing against the edges of his domain, unable to cross the boundary that Devour had established. The destruction moved around him, and the space beyond his domain seemed to vanish beneath its radiance.

Tyrian looked toward the expanding boundary of Jaune's domain, which had now reached approximately three hundred and fifty kilometers as Jaune continued to grow accustomed to the power of Choice.

A spot of anger coalesced around his features, but it was immediately suppressed.

He raised his palm, and a vast majority of his domain condensed forward into his hand, gathering into a single point of physical monochrome light. The result was a spear of Destruction, a weapon so dense with the power of the Supreme Rune that everything it touched was destroyed by its light.

Even light.

However instead of a void of nothingness representing the absence of light , the monochrome light of destruction was reflected in the atmosphere.

Jaune understood immediately why Tyrian had chosen that method. His domain's property could not directly clash with Jaune's and the spear was a way of bypassing the domain's conceptual separation, a way of bringing the authority of Destruction into a concentrated form that could be used as a physical weapon.

"Whatever. You talk too much anyway." Jaune spat out.

The distance between them vanished.

Both combatants crossed the space in the blink of an eye, the spear of Destruction racing forward with a speed that would have been impossible for any ordinary Rank 3 to react to.

Jaune condensed the power of his own domain into his hands, turning them into dual golden swords of Devour. The weapons were not simply blades but were also the physical manifestation of his Supreme Rune's authority.

The moment they met Tyrian's spear, the impact was deafening.

The clash erupted like two thermonuclear bombs going off at once, blasting a crater into the battlefield and igniting the very air and atmosphere around them. Streams of runic energy scattered in every direction, and the pressure of the collision sent shockwaves through the surrounding space.

Jaune felt the force of the impact travel through his body, but his body did not break. The power of Devour held him together, and the golden swords remained intact as they clashed against the monochrome spear.

Then Jaune realized something was wrong.

The property of Nullification that his domain should have possessed was not working. The Destruction energy was being devoured, but it was immediately being replaced.

Tyrian was creating more energy to supplement it in a continuous fashion, and the Destruction energy that Jaune had devoured was self-destructing before he could use it. Jaune felt the process happening in real time, and the realization came with a sharp, unpleasant clarity.

Knowledge.

Tyrian's Rune was dissecting Jaune's capabilities as they occurred. It was not merely observing the fight but directly understanding the way Jaune's Devour rune worked, identifying the limits of its current manifestation, and adapting to the properties of the new Supreme Rune.

The clash continued, and in less than the span of a heartbeat, a hundred exchanges occurred. Jaune found himself at a disadvantage. It was almost as if every single attack Tyrian launched was predicting his every move.

That was the horror of his rune.

Tyrian might not have been able to affect Jaune with Knowledge in its true state, but the Rune could still give him information about Jaune's fighting style from Tyrian's own eyes.

Jaune was a master of hundreds of different fighting styles, but Tyrian was able to dissect them in an instant. He could see the patterns, the transitions, the subtle movements that Jaune used to shift between one style and another, and he could use that information to anticipate the next attack before it happened.

It was like Tyrian had his own form of a foresight rune.

Jaune's first real mistake came when Tyrian's spear cut clean through his arm.

The limb separated from his body, and for a moment Jaune felt the familiar sensation of Destruction spreading through the flesh.

But instead of disintegrating, the arm flew forward and attacked Tyrian from behind. Jaune's consciousness still existed within it, and the severed limb moved with the same precision as the rest of his body.

Tyrian seemed surprised but it didn't affect his judgement.

The power of Creation rolled out from his domain and he simply created more space between them, extending the distance between his body and the arm while continuing to attack Jaune.

Jaune devoured the space between them and appeared where his arm was, then kicked the limb toward Tyrian like a spear.

The arm pierced through Tyrian's torso, passing through flesh and bone with enough force to tear through the body.

Tyrian did not make a sound at the damage.

He simply grabbed the arm, and Jaune felt his connection to it suddenly disappear. The limb transformed into a strange state of matter, and Jaune realized that it was plasma. The plasma shot forward at a speed far beyond his ability to react, and it pierced through his head.

Jaune's head exploded.

For a moment, the world vanished into a burst of light and pain. Then the golden liquid of his body reformed, the ruined flesh flowing back into place, the shape of his head returning as though the destruction had been nothing more than a distant dream. Jaune's eyes opened, and the first thought that came to him was a simple, irritated one.

'Damn it.'

He had underestimated how quickly Knowledge could adapt to him and how difficult it would be to fight someone who could understand his every move while simultaneously wielding the power of three Supreme Runes.

The extent to which Tyrian's domain could continue to create new attacks even when Jaune's Devour rune was consuming the energy of the old ones was terrifying. Yet the realization did not frighten him.

It simply sharpened his attention.

He had arrived at Rank 3, and he had not yet learned how to use the full extent of his power. He had only just begun to understand what Devour could do, and Tyrian had already shown him that the Rune's authority was not enough to guarantee victory. The fight had barely begun, and Jaune knew that he would have to learn faster than Tyrian could adapt.

Tyrian stood before him, the spear of Destruction still in his hand, and his expression had returned to its earlier calm.

"You see, this is why information is so useful. I do not need to understand everything about you. I only need to understand enough." Jaune looked at him, his golden hair moving in the invisible wind, and the faintest trace of a smile touched his face.

"Then I suppose you'll have to keep learning." Tyrian's eyes narrowed. Jaune raised both hands, and the golden swords of Devour began to rotate around his wrists, their edges pulling at the surrounding air. The space between them trembled.

"Because I'm not done yet."

The smile vanished from Jaune's face as quickly as it had appeared. He had no intention of pretending that the first exchange had gone well. Tyrian had read his movements, countered his attempts to exploit the properties of Devour, and turned a severed arm into a weapon that had nearly destroyed his head.

The fact that Jaune couldn't die so easily, did not change the underlying problem. He had been fighting as though possessing a greater quantity of power would automatically make him superior, and Tyrian had just demonstrated that power without understanding was still a dangerous thing to wield.

Each of Jaune's meta runes were still present within the unified structure of the Supreme Rune, and he could feel the way their properties were interacting with the world. They had become something that could consume, incorporate, and deny the very laws that governed existence.

But Jaune had not yet learned how to use those principles together. He had only just begun to understand what Devour was capable of, and Tyrian had already shown him that the Rune's authority was not enough to guarantee victory.

Tyrian moved first.

The spear of Destruction vanished from his hand, and Jaune felt the space around him begin to change. Knowledge was working again and examining the movements of his body, the way he used Devour to alter distances.

Jaune's first instinct was to change his fighting style.

He shifted from a sword-based stance into a more fluid, close-quarters form, allowing his body to move with the same flexibility as the liquid substance from which it had been formed. His right hand became a blade, his left hand a shield, and his body moved through the space between them with a speed that would have been impossible for any ordinary Rank 3 to match.

Tyrian once again met him without hesitation. The spear of Destruction appeared again, and the two weapons collided with a deafening impact.

Jaune's next attack was different.

He did not move toward Tyrian or attempt to close the distance between them. Instead, he reached outward with his domain and pulled. The space between them began to contract, not because Jaune was devouring the distance itself, but because he was devouring the distinction between the space where he stood and the space where Tyrian stood.

The distance became a single thing, a continuous stretch of reality that no longer possessed the authority to remain separate. Tyrian's eyes widened, and Jaune saw something like surprise in his expression.

The spear of Destruction moved forward, but the space around it began to fold inward. The weapon was not destroyed but was being drawn toward Jaune and its trajectory altered by the new property of Devour.

Tyrian attempted to create more space between them using Creation, but Jaune devoured that space as quickly as it appeared. The spear struck Jaune's shoulder and annihilated it under monochromatic light, but the impact was no longer enough to stop him. He moved through the attack, his body flowing around the weapon, and his hand closed around Tyrian's wrist.

Tyrian's body was a vessel, a structure that had been designed to contain the power of Salem and the Supreme Runes. It was strong, immensely strong, but it was not flawless like Jaune's own.

Jaune could feel the way the runic energy moved through Tyrian's flesh, the way it was being forced into the body, the way the power of Creation was constantly repairing and reinforcing the structure. He could feel the presence of Knowledge, the way it was observing him, the way it was attempting to understand the new Supreme Rune.

Jaune pulled and Tyrian's body lurched forward. Jaune's hand sank into his chest again. The spear of Destruction vanished from Tyrian's grasp, and the space between them seemed to collapse. Jaune felt the pressure of Knowledge pressing against his mind, attempting to understand what he was doing, but the power of Null within Devour rejected the attempt.

The information could not be gathered. The phenomenon could not be completed. Tyrian's body shuddered, and for a moment, Jaune felt the presence of something vast and ancient moving within him.

Salem.

The sleeping mind that was within him. The power that Tyrian had been integrating into his spirit. Jaune could feel it, and he could feel the way Devour responded to her. The Rune pulled at the presence, attempting to draw it into itself, but before he could, the power of destruction destroyed the link, stopping Jaune from completing the action.

It was not something that could simply be taken with ease. The attempt to devour it sent a shockwave of energy through the battlefield and Tyrian's hand closed around Jaune's throat.

The grip was impossibly strong. Jaune felt his body begin to compress, the flesh of his neck deforming beneath the pressure, but the power of Devour held him together. Tyrian's eyes were no longer calm. They were filled with a cold, focused intensity, and his dual echo voice sounded almost amused.

"You are learning quite well pup." he said. "But you are still thinking like a mortal, aren't you?"

Jaune's eyes narrowed.

"And you're still talking too much." He reached outward with his domain, and the space around Tyrian's arm began to collapse. The flesh of his wrist started to dissolve, not into nothingness, but into a luminous, liquid-like substance that flowed toward Jaune's hand.

Tyrian released him, and regrew his arm through creation.

Jaune stepped backward, body reforming as the pressure of the grip vanished. The golden light of Devour rotated faster within his spirit, and Jaune felt the Rune respond to the new understanding.

He could devour not only intangible things like Runic energy and distance, but also directly devour matter and the distinction between things.

The realization was not enough to win the fight, as Tyrian was still vastly more experienced.

But Jaune had finally begun to understand the true nature of his Supreme Rune. It was a means of consuming the world. It was a means of making the world part of himself. The distinction between his body and the surrounding reality had become something that could be altered.

The distinction between his domain and Tyrian's domain had become something that could be denied. The distinction between an attack and the energy that created it had become something that could be devoured. And if he could learn to use that principle properly, then perhaps he could do something that no other Rank 3 had ever been able to do.

Devour a god.