Chapter 41 Forced Into Darkness

Raising his arms into a guard, Clark's fist rocketed against his forearms, breaking through his guard before a burst of heat vision followed, aimed towards his face before Noah managed to evade it, lunging forward.

"Ghh–!" Noah gritted his teeth.

Flexing his muscles as they coiled with his utmost strength, he threw a punch with all of his might, causing the air to crack as he connected with Clark's nose.

To his dismay, the tall, well-built man was standing there, unphased by the blow as only a trail of blood trickled down from one nostril.

Just as he went for another fruitless blow, he heard the air sizzle, looking up to see the man's heat vision bubbling up with lethal intensity.

"...Shit…" Noah mumbled.

Expecting to be lasered straight between the eyes, he was surprised to find Clark moved right past him, instead using his heat vision on a random section of the road.

"How disappointing. That's all you had," Clark remarked, talking to seemingly nobody.

'Huh…?' Noah was left perplexed.

Before he could find an answer, he was suddenly grabbed by an unknown figure, finding himself warped away from the block and into a dingy alleyway.

"Wha–"

Stumbling for a moment, he found himself standing before the azure-haired man he was desperately trying to find anyway.

"Yukio-!" Noah said.

"Miss me?" Yukio teased.

"What happened? What'd you do?"

"Well…I saw what went down on the news and headed down right away," Yukio explained, "It wasn't looking good, Noah. I had to use a wide-cast illusion that could take the heat off of you–and you had some serious heat."

"What'd you do…? Tell me," Noah insisted.

As they stood in the quiet alley, tucked away from the disastrous events occurring on the blood-painted block of downtown, Yukio looked at him straight before answering:

"I made the world believe Noah Grays is dead," Yukio told him.

"...Huh?"

"Everybody in the city saw it, and most importantly, all the news outlets have your death caught on live feed," Yukio explained, pointing at him, "As of this moment, Noah Grays died on this day."

Amidst such heavy news that took a few minutes to process, he eventually remembered the entire reason he sought Yukio, approaching him with hope of an answer.

"Since this morning…I haven't been able to conjure any spells. My grimoire won't conjure at all, either," he explained, "--Do you know what's causing this? Has your system ever just…stopped?"

Yukio looked at him for a moment before smiling, "Oh, that? Yeah, it's happened before."

"Really?" Noah looked at him with hope.

"There's an easy solution, actually! Hold on, I've got this," Yukio assured him, placing his hand against Noah's chest.

To his surprise, Yukio seemed to emit a simple 'transmission' of his system through his body, jolting his system back into gear.

'I feel it…!' Noah thought.

The Creator's Grimoire manifested, much to Noah's relief as he let out a sigh of relief before invoking ["Absolute Recovery"], mending the fractured jaw and bruises he sustained from the brief encounter with Clark.

It seemed clear that Noah was about to attempt something, but Yukio stopped him, "...Before you try and use your mass hypnosis to set things back into a favorable position for yourself, I'd reconsider."

"What?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

"Consider the fact that the Sentinels also believe you're dead. We can use this to lay low and build our strength–think about it: we can use our abilities to begin taking control of this city while remaining under the radar," Yukio told him, "It can be temporary, but for now, let 'Noah Grays' be dead."

"Let myself…be dead?" Noah repeated.

Yukio smiled, extending his hand for a handshake to synchronize their resolve, "Let's use this chance to begin our world domination–anew."

It was a difficult decision for Noah as he checked his phone, seeing a flood of texts from his classmates, and more specifically, Emily, though he knew that this was the best route towards his end goal.

'...Even with all this power, I still have to compromise?' He thought.

Accepting Yukio's hand, he discarded the life he once lived comfortably, deciding to abandon the last remnants of humanity he anchored himself to.

Though something 'snapped' in him on that day, experiencing an unavoidable loss at the hands of the Sentinel, the malevolence he buried down deep within him bubbled up.

There was very little still tethering his humanity to himself; even if they were relationships built on artificial manipulation, Noah truly felt as though the friends he had made were real, and that his relationship with Emily was as well.

'I'll be back. I promise,' he thought.

—

[A Month Later]

As he was a "dead man" to the world, Noah stayed out of society, within his subspace, which he rerouted at will to be accessible on any surface, he and Yukio used Xanadu 3.0 as a base of operations.

Throughout the weeks passing from the incident that caused the current situation, he studies his grimoire continuously, figuring out new abilities and combinations for optimal combat and ease of life. After being helpless against Eliad and angered by his encounter with the Superhero system user, he was more motivated than ever to master his own abilities.

In the training room of the mansion, built with enchanted walls meant to be indestructible, Noah tested unused spells, unlocking further versions through prior usage of their lesser forms.

["Absolute Enhancement: Godstrength"]

[Strength: 25000]

["Absolute Enhancement: Godspeed"]

[Agility: 25000]

Granted unequivocal raw power and speed unlike what he'd used before, Yukio helped him train, snapping his fingers to create a downpour of rubble that fell from the ceiling.

There were tens of thousands of pieces of debris and sediment, all raining down from various points up above, but Noah moved calmly, using his godlike speed to race around the room, catching and destroying each piece.

It was as if time was slowed down for him, but it was simply the speed at which he moved, seeing the flood of sediment stagnate in the air as he used the walls as leverage for his speed, getting every piece.

[0.0000001 second(s)]

–This was the time it took for Noah to stop the thousands of pieces of sediment, not allowing a single speck of it to touch the furnished, wooden floorboards.

Yukio whistled, clapping his hands, "Wow, scary stuff. Nice job."