The faint vibration of Raiyen's Limiter Ring cut through the stillness.
He stopped mid-step.
Eyes narrowing, he focused inward—and found it. A precise signal. The Devourer's proxy link had revealed not just a location, but direction.
"Found you," he said quietly.
Without hesitation, his eyes darkened. Deep crimson circles formed within his irises, layered with fractured glyphs that rotated slowly like ancient mechanisms.
Rinnega Eyes: Active.
Gravity itself seemed to tilt slightly in response.
Korrin's voice echoed urgently from afar. "Don't jump directly—"
"I'm going now," Raiyen replied calmly.
There was no portal. No radiant gateway.
Space simply folded.
Distance became irrelevant.
In a blink, the surface of Earth vanished.
Raiyen stood at the edge of the planet's core—where molten silence roared without sound, and colossal chains stretched endlessly through the burning abyss.
And there, bound within them—
The Devourer.
Massive. Restrained. Aware.
Pressure spiked the moment their eyes met.
"You came," the Devourer's voice rumbled through the core.
"Yes," Raiyen answered, unflinching.
But the Rinnega Eyes did not blaze with destructive energy.
They observed.
They read.
They traced the laws embedded in the chains—their bind points, structural anchors, hidden conditions, and potential loopholes. He wasn't here to attack.
He was inspecting.
Korrin realized it instantly. "You're not preparing to fight him," she whispered in disbelief. "You're studying him."
Dark tendrils extended from the Devourer—not as weapons, but as temptation.
"Your rules are inefficient," it murmured. "Release them."
Raiyen's gaze sharpened. With a subtle shift of will, the Rinnega Eyes severed the tendrils at their causal source.
They dissolved before touching him.
"You're weak," Raiyen said calmly.
The Devourer growled.
"You're not free," Raiyen continued. "You're hunger. And hunger is predictable."
The crimson glyphs within his eyes deepened in rotation.
He reached through the planet's layers—not physically, but through the reverse thread of the proxy link. With precise control, he severed the connection.
On the surface, the possessed human's eyes returned to normal.
Deep below, the Devourer roared in fury.
The chains reacted violently, shaking as if resisting an internal surge. Limiter Three pulsed in response, stabilizing Earth instantly.
"YOU STAND TOO CLOSE," the Devourer warned.
Raiyen stepped even closer.
"You think I came here to fight?"
Silence filled the core.
He placed his hand on one of the chains—not to break it, not to weaken it—but to confirm its structure.
"I only came to verify something," he said quietly.
"That you are not ready to die."
For the first time, uncertainty flickered through the Devourer. Not rage. Not fear.
Confusion.
Above, Korrin's voice trembled slightly. "He's mapping him," she realized. "The entire structure."
Raiyen turned away.
"Running?" the Devourer shouted after him.
"No," Raiyen replied over his shoulder.
"Setting the baseline."
Space folded again.
And he vanished.
The core returned to silence.
Alone within the chains, the Devourer processed what had just happened.
He had been seen.
Fully understood.
Without a single blow exchanged.
For the first time, a faint trace of fear surfaced.
On the surface, Raiyen reappeared. The Rinnega Eyes remained active, but stable. Controlled.
Veyra rushed toward him. "Are you alright?"
He nodded.
"He's bound more by his hunger than by those chains," Raiyen said quietly. "Which means… he will make a mistake."
Deep underground, the Devourer whispered to itself:
"If he understands me…"
"…then I must change."
The chains tightened.
Earth trembled slightly.
Raiyen's Rinnega Eye flickered once in response.
His voice lowered, calm and certain.
"Your move."