The stars bled.
From horizon to horizon, the heavens cracked like broken glass, and through the fractures crawled it.
A beast the size of continents, its body a shifting tapestry of eyes, teeth, and writhing tendrils that spiraled into infinity. Where its flesh brushed reality, oceans solidified into jagged black glass, forests collapsed into brittle ash, and the air tasted of rust and lightning.
Its roar wasn't sound — it was a pressure, a weight that crushed against the inside of Kai's skull, threatening to push his thoughts into oblivion.
He hovered in the thin, frigid air miles above Blackwater, the city below a fragile smear of gold in the darkness. Wind clawed at his coat, making it whip violently around his frame.
Above him, the Nyx Devourer's body coiled like a living storm front.
The Infinite Draw System's cards spun in a slow, halo-like spiral around him, glowing faintly against the dark.
The System's voice slid into his mind — cold, mechanical, and yet laced with an undercurrent of… anticipation.
[ Target: "Nyx Devourer" – Cosmic Class Threat ]
[ Threat Level: Planetary Annihilation ]
[ Draw Limit: None ]
Kai's jaw tightened. His fingers hovered over the floating ring of cards. He wasn't breathing hard yet, but deep inside, every nerve knew this was the kind of fight where hesitation meant death.
"This isn't going to be enough," he muttered to himself, the wind stealing the words away. "Guess we'll have to make it enough."
The Devourer's shadow swallowed the moon. One of its tendrils lashed downward, tearing through the sky with the sound of mountains grinding together.
Draw.
[ Card: Celestial Step ]
Effect: Fold space for short-range movement.
The tendril struck — and Kai wasn't there. Space folded in on itself, snapping him into a new position in the sky. The displaced air detonated into a shockwave, rattling the city's tallest spires below.
Before the tendril could retract, Kai drew again.
[ Card: Oblivion Lance ]
Effect: Manifest an anti-reality projectile capable of piercing dimensional barriers.
A spear of black light formed in his hand, humming with violent energy. He hurled it without hesitation. The lance ripped through the clouds like a comet, slamming into one of the beast's countless eyes.
The Devourer's scream bent the very clouds into spirals, a deep, cosmic groan that made Kai's bones ache.
"You felt that, huh?" Kai's voice was calm, almost amused.
The wound closed instantly, flesh knitting together like time had rewound.
Kai's expression didn't change. "Figures."
Another draw.
[ Card: Storm Reaver Blades ]
Effect: Manifest autonomous storm-forged weapons.
Five curved blades of lightning spun into existence around him, each trailing arcs of raw energy. They moved as if they were alive, intercepting a barrage of snapping tendrils before they could touch him.
The Devourer retaliated. Whole sections of its body began to glow — not with light, but with absence. Spheres of erased reality formed around it, pulsing outward like malignant stars.
Kai felt his skin crawl. He drew again.
[ Card: Eclipse Breaker ]
Effect: Dispel all energy constructs in range.
The moment the card dissolved into him, the glowing voids shattered, scattering into harmless motes. The beast convulsed, tendrils retracting slightly.
"You don't like losing your toys?" Kai said, twisting in mid-air to avoid another tendril. "Neither do I."
A ripple tore through the clouds — not wind, not lightning. The Devourer moved faster now, the air warping with every shift.
Kai's next card shimmered cold in his palm.
[ Card: Mirror Void ]
Effect: Reflect the next attack with equal force.
A translucent sphere unfolded around him just as the beast unleashed its next strike — a beam of compressed dark matter, wide enough to erase a mountain range.
It hit the Mirror Void with the sound of ice cracking under impossible pressure. For a breath, everything stopped. Then the attack reversed — all of that annihilation forced back into the Devourer's own body.
The creature spasmed violently. Sections of its hide flickered into constellations before sealing again.
Kai smirked. "Gotcha."
The System pulsed in his head.
[ SECOND DRAW CHAIN AVAILABLE ]
He pulled two cards at once.
[ Card: Crimson Rift ] – Tear open a rift that bleeds until sealed.
[ Card: Blood Debt ] – Each wound inflicted magnifies all following damage.
Kai flicked them into the storm. The first carved a vertical slash in the sky, crimson light spilling out like an open wound in the firmament. The second slipped unseen into the Devourer's essence.
The Rift tore through the beast's flank, spilling not blood, but streams of fractured reality. The wound didn't fade — it widened, feeding on itself as the Blood Debt amplified it.
The Devourer's scream this time was different — not rage, but the deep rumble of a galaxy dying.
Kai's boots skimmed along a current of wind as he shifted position.
"You're a real mess, you know that?" he said to the silent void. "Big, loud, eats everything in sight… but you're not even looking at me." His voice lowered. "You're looking through me."
The creature hesitated. Its tendrils no longer lashed wildly — they curled protectively around its glowing core.
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Thought so."
Then his hand brushed something else in the deck.
A black-backed card.
The Joker.
It pulsed slowly — once, twice — like a heartbeat.
The System's voice faltered for the first time.
[ Card: The First Joker ]
Effect: Classified. Warning – Field stability not guaranteed.
Kai stared at the rain hissing into steam against the card's surface. Slowly, his lips curved into a smirk.
"Stability was never my thing."
He drew.
The sky inverted.
Black lightning cracked from horizon to horizon, shattering the Devourer's tendrils mid-swing. A halo of thousands of cards exploded into being behind Kai, spinning in an endless spiral. Each flashed with impossible symbols, languages no human mouth could form.
The Joker didn't speak — it promised.
[ Unlimited Combat Draw – Active ]
Kai's hands blurred, pulling cards faster than his eyes could track.
A bow that fired collapsing stars.
A chain that bound concepts themselves.
A shield forged from the memory of the sun.
Each strike slammed into the Devourer, tearing away chunks of its endless form. Yet the beast didn't flee — it surged forward, roaring so loudly that reality bent toward it.
The fight was no longer measured in strikes, but in cataclysms.
Kai's blades shredded galaxies the beast tried to manifest as barriers. The bow punched holes through its inner dimensions, spilling stardust into the void. Every wound deepened under the Blood Debt's curse.
Yet the Devourer pushed on, massive jaws parting to reveal a swirling singularity in its throat.
The System screamed warnings in his mind.
Kai ignored them.
One last draw.
[ Card: Event Horizon Collapse ]
Effect: Overwrite a target's gravitational anchor. Consequence: Total annihilation of affected zone.
The card burned away in his hand, and the singularity in the Devourer's throat inverted, crushing inward on itself. The monster thrashed violently, tendrils cracking into shards of shadow before dissolving.
Its scream faded into nothing. The sky was left scarred — bleeding stars, torn clouds, and a silence that felt heavier than the fight itself.
Kai hung there in the void, chest rising and falling. The Joker's cards faded into motes, and the System's voice returned, cold once more.
[ Combat Complete. Reward Stored. ]
Kai looked down at Blackwater — untouched, blissfully unaware.
"Yeah," he murmured. "Let's keep it that way."
And then, without fanfare, he vanished into the night.
[Infinite Draw System] initiated.