Isaac, Lenna, and Nacen were on the roof of his wizard (stone box) tower. Isaac had requested to meditate under the moonlight and Lenna had seconded it. Nacen had no stake in the matter so he obliged them easily enough. That was how they found themselves sitting on blankets, on the flat stone roof of Nacen's home.

"Just, be prepared." Isaac warned Nacen. "If there is anything nearby that you think would be stupid enough to try and assault the city to get to the tastiest snack ever created, we can work something else out."

Nacen shook his head. "Not that I am aware of. There shouldn't be anything capable of doing any damage to the guards or walls within a hundred miles in any direction, save, maybe downwards?" He replied. "I must admit that I am not as acquainted with the Innerworld area directly beneath us as I probably should be."

Isaac nodded. "I haven't heard of a Tunnel Horror on the surface so we should be fine on that account. Though, if one was crazy enough to go straight up, it would be aiming for me." Isaac informed him.

Nacen gave Isaac a confident smile. "Well, my security can handle a few Tunnel Horrors, so you will not have to worry about that potential future." He explained with a nod. "Go ahead, whenever you are ready, I will ensure that you are uninterrupted."

Isaac nodded and closed his eyes. Lenna did the same a moment later. Nacen watched on with great interest and glowing magic blue eyes. He watched the mana currents shift and move, though to him the colors were indistinguishable from each other. He could feel the subtle shift in the mana around them like it was shifting to match someone's mana signature, only it wasn't matching anyone's at all, not even Isaac's. Eventually, Isaac and Lenna both entered deep meditation and Nacen's eyes went wide in surprise. He had heard about the spectacle of Isaac meditating, but it was far more intense than he had expected.

After around half an hour of watching Isaac in wonder, and taking notes in his journal, Nacen's ear twitched. Something felt wrong. He looked up from his journal and rose to his feet so he could look out over some of the city. Unfortunately, his was the only building whose roof did not peak around the fourth story mark, because it was flat, so he could see little but his sense of unease was starting to build. Something was definitely wrong.

Isaac's mana event rapidly wound down until it winked out all together. Lenna's eyes flew open at the sudden change in atmosphere. Both rose to their feet at the same time and turned to look at Nacen. "Incoming." Isaac spoke one word that sealed the fate of the evening.

Isaac wasn't sure exactly what was coming but he knew it felt wrong. It wasn't natural. Whatever dark creature was coming was at least level twenty five and it was making a beeline straight for him. There was a loud thud and rumble that shook the glass in nearly every window across their half of the city. The alarm bells started ringing a moment later. "Forty strength, or its equivalent." Lenna stated from the sound of the impact and how far the shockwave had carried. "It's a wonder the walls are still standing."

"Begin 'Anti-Tarasque' protocol." Nacen spoke calmly and bent his knees while he dropped his journal to the ground. He launched up into the air as Quicken, Flight, Darkvision, True Seeing, Tempest Shield, and a permanently activated Reality Shield all were cast on him by the tower. His casual gray cotton tunic and pants were replaced by forest green silk canvas robes and pants, which were absolutely covered in golden enchantments, as a static field came into existence all around him. He shot off towards the wall like an arrow with similar speed.

"Archmagus indeed." Isaac commented.

"Who has an 'Anti-Tarasque Protocol'?" Lenna wondered. "That is an apocalypse level monster. One that is nearly immune to everything in existence mind you."

"Sounds like a fun fight once we are back to full strength." Isaac replied with a smirk. "Want to follow him?"

Lenna shrugged. "Why not? If he doesn't kill it, we are going to have to fight it anyway." She told him.

"Good point." Isaac agreed and casually gestured towards his side. "Shamesh, we need to get over there as fast as possible." He ordered his retainer before Shamesh had even finished appearing.

"Can you figure out your landing by yourself?" Shamesh wondered.

Isaac was incredibly intrigued at whatever crazy method of transportation Shamesh had cooked up but he did not get the chance to ask because Lenna cut in immediately. "No." She told them both simply. "When we are in peak condition, then we can talk about it."

"Understood, my Lady." Shamesh replied and quickly cast Levitate on both of them and then Flight on himself. He took both of their outstretched hands and shot off in the direction Isaac had directed. Once he was up to speed, Isaac and Lenna both felt Shamesh cast another spell. Shamesh's own telekinesis grabbed a hold of himself and started pushing him forwards faster and faster until they were moving at the same speed as Nacen.

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Nacen stopped two dozen feet above the wall and looked down at something, as a whole section of the wall started crumbling beneath him from a second massive impact. The trio caught up to him a dozen seconds later, around the time that the rubble beneath him started moving. "Chaos seems to follow you, it is not that you necessarily cause it." Nacen told them as they arrived. He barely spared Shamesh a glance before his full focus returned to what was beneath them. A massive stone block, at least three feet thick on both sides and six feet long, was tossed out into the dirt road that surrounded the outside of the wall.

A being slowly rose up from the rubble and shook itself off like a wet dog. The monster was practically vibrating with condensed magic. It felt like it was using a perverted version of Isaac's own boosting skill. To Isaac's Polarity Sense, it felt like a gaping hole to the afterlife fused with a physical but twisted dark creature that felt like a corrupted version of the darkness that should've remained pure. It was ten feet tall and made of exposed muscles wrapped around elongated bones of a vaguely humanoid creature. Its eyes were pits of watery death and its teeth were so pointy and long that they pierced through its own mouth out the top and bottom. It unhinged its jaw as it looked up at Isaac and the two locked eyes. Isaac felt its entire attention lock onto him.

"Reality, reject this being as it does not belong. Forswear the creature that plagues us. Remove your blessing from upon it and hold it accountable for its actions." Nacen chanted as power built inside and around him.

A ninth level spell impacted existence like an arrow, which originated from Nacen, that exploded on impact with the creature and engulfed the area all around it. All of reality around the creature locked in place as any and all kinetic force was nullified. The air refused to move around the monstrosity of undeath and it was entirely locked in place.

"I cannot hold it for long. Lord Darkness, would you like to do the honors, or should I introduce it to an imitation of the sun?" Nacen asked Isaac without taking his eyes off of the monster.

"The air will not let me through it either, will it?" Isaac wondered.

Nacen shook his head slightly. "No. But I can cancel the spell at any time." He replied.

Isaac was in a tight spot. Something had finally decided to show up and fight him for the title of Lord of all that is Dark. The issue was that he was in no condition to be slugging it out with a creature ten levels higher than he was. If he wasn't injured, Isaac was pretty sure that he could win. If he backed down though, if he let anyone know that he had chosen not to defend his own title, his demigodhood would be put into even more question. He shared a look with Lenna that conveyed his worry and she just shook her head slightly.

"Shamesh, drop me." Isaac told his retainer. "I'll figure out my own landing." He said with a wink towards Lenna. He had an idea. "Nacen," Isaac began and then was dropped by Shamesh. "END YOUR SPELL!" Isaac called and then vanished from even Nacen's True Seeing spell.

Isaac pulled out his sword, his Truth, as he felt the magic holding the monster in place break apart. Thankfully, the monster was temporarily disoriented from Isaac's sudden disappearance so it didn't move more than just frantically looking around in all directions. What Isaac was about to do was well within his usual capabilities, but was beyond what he was currently capable of. He knew that if he performed the move normally, he would be on the ground in pain within moments. That was why he was going to cheat. Isaac knew that he still had all his maximum mana reserves to pull from, he just couldn't pull from them at the rate that he used to be able to. Now, he couldn't even approach his passive regeneration rate. That was fine as long as he used each of his skills back to back instead of all at once. His first concern was that he would not have enough available mana expenditure per second to power his sword while he did everything else. His second concern was that the creature would be far faster than its actions suggested.

Isaac shadow-stepped behind the monster from five feet above it. It looked up to see the fading silhouette of Isaac right as Isaac's Truth slammed into the back of its neck. Isaac had fallen around forty feet before his teleportation so he was moving quickly enough that he didn't want to hit anything directly with his body. That was why he had angled himself so he would fly right by the creature's head with his sword outstretched.

Isaac poured as much of his power into his sword as he reasonably could. It hurt but he knew from experience that he wasn't doing any real damage to himself. If he was doing any damage to himself at all, a few hours of meditation would wipe it away entirely; it was just that minor.

His sword impacted the thick neck muscles of the monster and it felt like Isaac had hit steel. The muscles parted from his blade easily enough but the extreme resistance was almost enough to yank the sword out of Isaac's hand. As it was, his momentum was entirely altered and he started to spin in mid air. He twisted and used his new momentum to start another swing as he shadow-stepped again. The creature had swung around to see what had hit it in the back of the neck but was just met with another fading silhouette. It could feel the power coming from Isaac, but it barely even had a tenth of a second to react before Isaac's attack would land.

Isaac used his momentum like a ballet dancer and managed to land a total of three strikes to the creature's neck before he had lost most of his falling born velocity. He twisted in mid air one last time as he shadow-stepped and appeared a dozen feet from the creature. It swung around to face him and its head toppled forwards and slammed its nose into its chest. Isaac lunged forwards and brought his sword down from his right shoulder towards his left knee while he shadow-stepped again. He appeared upside down perpendicular to the monster so his and the creature's bodies formed a 'T'. Isaac's sword struck true and the last bit of connective tissue was cleaved away from the monster's neck and its head toppled towards the ground.

Isaac appeared again a few feet in front of the creature and watched as its hands caught its own head as it fell. The finger bones had elongated to the point that they were now bone claws each at least a foot long and the claws dug into the sides of its head. The creature shifted its grip on its head in its hands and then set its head back on top of its neck where it belonged. It eyed Isaac with eyes that were both mindless and calculating at the same time. There was no real intelligence in its gaze but it was somehow still trying to figure out how to combat, and then consume, the human in front of it.

"What are you?" Isaac asked the monster. "I am the Lord of all that is Dark. And you are a perversion of my kingdom. So, I ask you again, what are you?" The creature, obviously, did not answer him. Instead, one of the cut muscles snapped up and reconnected. It was clear that its passive boosting, from the massive amount of mana going through it, was not healing it like how Isaac's would heal him. Instead, it appeared that the monster just had some innate ability to heal itself, albeit slowly. Isaac did suddenly have another concern though, it didn't feel any weaker from having its head removed. It was almost like its head was not that important. It just needed the eyes and mouth on it in order to complete its functions.

The creature turned its head, with its hands that were still holding it in place, towards the north for a moment before it refocused on Isaac and let go of its head. A second muscle had snapped into place so the head didn't immediately fall to the ground again, though Isaac doubted that it would stay that way, because a moment later, it launched itself at him at a speed comparable to a sprinting racehorse. The problem, for Isaac, was that they were only six feet apart.

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