Two hours.

Or at least that’s how long it felt like since Adrian started fighting the Oroborus.

Noctis noticed that its contractor was definitely out of options right now, especially from the way he looked.

His glasses, the magic tool, had been broken at some point during the second hour, though Noctis couldn’t remember exactly when, but it wasn’t the only thing.

His left arm hung at an angle that suggested it had lost an argument with the serpent’s tail sometime in the last thirty minutes and hadn’t recovered from the experience, his ribs, had met the same fate.

There was blood running from his nose that he hadn’t bothered wiping away, probably because wiping it away would have required energy he was allocating elsewhere.

But through it all, he was still standing.

After all, he still needed to get by his lady’s side, and he wouldn’t let a mere obstacle stop him.

The obstacle, on the other hand, unlike him, had no sign of battle on its body.

But that was only because of its ridiculous regeneration.

Adrian had managed to get through the Oroborus’ defenses multiple times, but every time he did, the thing regenerated as if it was nothing.

And he finally understood why the founder and Lightbringer were unable to destroy it, despite how strong they were.

You couldn’t destroy something that converted destruction into growth.

The founder and the Lightbringer ancestor hadn’t failed because they lacked power.

They had simply been trying to solve a problem that didn’t have the solution they were looking for, and eventually arrived at the only one that actually existed.

Seal it.

But unlike them, Adrian possessed no knowledge of how to seal the damn thing, so it was either he killed it or he was killed.

Letting out a deep breath, he swapped with a clone again, but the Oroborus tracked him without urgency and struck the moment he reappeared.

Fortunately, he got enough shadow up to deflect the worst of it before the impact sent him sideways into the remnants of a column.

He hit it shoulder-first, stayed there a moment, then pushed himself off.

His left arm wasn’t useful anymore. His ribs made their damage known with every breath he took, and honestly,

Adrian was so exhausted right now.

Noctis, seeing the state of its contractor stepped off his column.

Adrian heard him land on the stone floor without looking away from the serpent.

The cat crossed the hall quietly and stopped beside him, and for a moment neither of them said anything, both just looking at the Oroborus as it regarded them with those unchanged yellow pupils.

Then Noctis asked, without any particular inflection, «Can I eat it?»

Adrian was silent for a while as he looked at his cat, but a second later, he let out a sigh and said, "Yes."

«Alright then,» the cat said as it stepped forward, «stay back.»

Adrian didn’t argue, or rather, he had no energy to, so he just sat down and leaned on the column, but the next second, his eyes went wide.

A pressure even greater than the Oroborus’ suddenly fell in the hall, and it was coming from Noctis.

«Although I’m still restricted in what I can do,» he started, «a pest like you should be within my limits.»

Just after its words, the shadows around suddenly enlarged, starting from below the cat.

The Oroborus went completely still, as if a prey standing before a much more dangerous predator...which wasn’t far from the truth.

The cat, in its perspective, was a massive being of endless darkness...darkness that seemed all-consuming.

Darkness it couldn’t escape, not that it could...even if it tried.

The shadows wrapped around it, starting from the tail, which was the first to get enveloped, then its entire body.

The Oroborus tried struggling, but it was all for naught as the shadows quickly swallowed it whole.

The serpent was then pulled into the ground with the shadows, and the hall immediately went completely silent.

Noctis, still in its cat form, sat on the floor and lifted its paw before licking it....

It couldn’t help it.

"...."

Adrian silently looked at the cat for a while, before turning towards where the Oroborus previously was.

This damn cat had watched his ass get handed to him, just to easily handle the threat.

But before he could say anything, the cat turned towards him.

«I’ll try to absorb it,» Noctis said, «in the meantime, brace yourself.» 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Without any further explanation, it disappeared into the [Shadow Vault], leaving Adrian alone in the hall.

He wondered what it meant when it said he should brace himself, but his question was soon answered when a wave of pain hit him.

It felt as if his chest was burning, and something was forcefully being branded on him.

Adrian couldn’t check what it was. He barely had the energy to remain upright, let alone investigate, so he did the only thing available to him.

He gritted his teeth and endured it.

But he soon realized that the pain in his chest was the last thing he was supposed to be worried about as he suddenly heard a slow clap in the darkness.

Weakly, he looked in the direction of the clap and it was exactly who he expected.

Though, right now wasn’t the greatest of times to be facing someone like him.

"Well that truly was impressive," the person said as he stopped a distance away from him, "though, I must say, I didn’t really expect you to kill the Oroborus."

"Guess I truly underestimated you."

"Marion," Adrian muttered as he slowly stood up, but his movements were suddenly restricted and that’s when he felt them.

Strings.

Countless strings, wrapped around him and denying him the slightest bit of movement.

"Now now, I wouldn’t move if I were you" Marion said with a grin on his face, "after all, you wouldn’t want to hurt that body more than you already have, would you?"

"What do you want?" Adrian asked without a change in his expression, though he already knew the answer to that.

With a grin that got wider and wider, Marion responded,

"Your body."