The forest clearing had been reduced to a wasteland of broken stone and scorched earth. Above it, Morax hovered with his wings wrapped around his figure, as shadows were curling from his body outwards.

The tentacles of darkness writhed and twisted below him, hundreds of them stretching skyward, and their jagged tips glistening with murderous intent.

Arthur floated in the center of it all, as lightning crackled across his body, his eyes fixated on Morax unblinking.

The first wave of attack struck towards him.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Dozens of tentacles made out of darkness lashed toward him like spears. Arthur’s arms blurred, crackling with golden lightning as he punched and sliced through them. Each strike detonated with a thunderclap, blasting chunks of shadow apart.

But before he could even catch his breath, more sprouted from the ground, rising to replace the destroyed ones.

“Tch.” Arthur’s jaw tightened. “So you’re just going to keep spamming this sh*t, huh?”

Morax’s laughter echoed overhead. “Your power is impressive, human, but raw strength alone cannot overcome my ability.” He spread his arms wide, and the shadows surged faster, wrapping around boulders, snapping giant trees like twigs as they converged again trying to slam those things onto Arthur.

Arthur raised his palm, his Chi concentrating into a glowing orbs in front of him. With a grunt, he blasted them forward.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOOOM!

The Chi blasts detonated, vaporizing dozens of tentacles in a single flash, the shockwave carving a crater into the ruined land. But again, more shadows seeped from the ground, writhing and reforming as though nothing had happened.

Arthur clicked his tongue in irritation. “Persistent bastard.”

Another barrage came. This time, the tentacles didn’t aim to attack him directly, but to coil and bind him. They wrapped around his arms and legs mid-flight, tightening like steel chains.

Arthur’s aura flared as lightning and Chi erupted outwards violently.

THOOOOOM!

The tentacles burst apart instantly, their remains dissolving into mist. Arthur broke free, but his brow furrowed. ‘It can’t go on like this. He can just keep regenerating his shadows… and he has more energy than me…’

Before he could refocus, a circle of red light appeared above him.

FWOOSH!

A beam of crimson energy cut through the sky and slammed down on him.

Arthur threw up his arms instinctively, layering Chi across his body, while simultaneously pushing outward with telekinesis. The energy around him shimmered, distorting space as the beam struck.

BOOOOM!

The force drove him downward, the ground caving into a deep crater as dust and fire surged outward.

Inside the blast zone, Arthur gritted his teeth. His arms trembled from the pressure, lightning sparking furiously around him as he pushed against the destructive torrent. At the same time, invisible ripples pulsed out from his body, his telekinesis halting the incoming tentacles just before they could reach him.

He forced a growl through clenched teeth. “…That’s… enough!”

With a roar, his lightning exploded outward. The beam shattered, breaking apart into a storm of fragments that tore across the battlefield.

Arthur shot out of the smoke like a golden spear. In a flash, he was at Morax’s front, with his fist cocked back.

His punch connected.

BOOOOOOM!

Morax’s barrier flared once more, cracks spiderwebbing across it. The sheer force sent the demon Duke hurling backward through the air, his wings flapping wildly as he steadied himself hundreds of meters away.

Morax’s eyes widened as the impact subsided. It's not like he wasn’t taking Arthur seriously, but even after cautiously keeping distance from him, Arthur was able to close the distance between them instantly.

He thought he was the faster one here, but it seems he was wrong. Though he wasn’t using his full power while creating the barrier, he was still shocked as it should not have been possible for a Master rank martial artist to put a scratch on.

Arthur didn’t give Morax a second to breathe.

WHOOSH!

He streaked through the air, lightning and Chi trailing behind him like a comet. He cocked his fist back, and aimed straight at the demon’s chest.

Morax’s hands moved in swift arcs, and a wall of crimson barriers layered themselves one after another in Arthur’s path.

CRACK!

Arthur’s punch smashed on the barrier, creating a shockwave that shook the surrounding areas. But the barrier ultimately held on, Arthur wanted to continue his attacks but dozens of tentacles of darkness shot up, writhing like serpents, snapping toward his arms and legs.

Arthur felt the tentacles gaining on him. “Not this crap again.”

He used telekinesis, as invisible pressure slamming down on those tentacles made out of darkness.

BANG!

The tentacles whipped and twisted violently but were forced down, pinned into the earth as if crushed by a mountain. They writhed furiously, straining under Morax’s control, but couldn’t reach him in time.

Arthur continued his barrage of punches on the barrier as cracks started to form on its surface.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Only for a sudden barrage of energy beams to slam into him from the side. They struck with immense power, detonating in a chain of explosions that hurled Arthur across the sky.

“Tch…” Arthur grunted, spinning mid-air before stabilizing himself, Chi and sparks of golden lightning erupting around him. His arms smoked faintly, but his body remained intact.

Morax sneered, his wings flaring wide. “You’re tough… but still just a rat hard to catch.”

Arthur wiped the dust from his cheek, a sharp grin cutting across his face. “Funny, you sound scared for someone hiding inside a bubble.”

A trace of frustration appeared in Morax’s face which he covered with an angry expression.

Without waiting, Arthur blurred forward again.

For the next stretch of time, it became a brutal rhythm of back and forth.

Arthur closed in while dodging the dark tentacles with hairbreadth precision, others he stopped dead mid-air with his telekinesis, slamming them into the forest floor or tearing them apart with punches.

Every time he broke through, his fist or his sword slammed into Morax’s barrier.

CRACK!

The shield webbed with fractures again and again, but it held against his attacks.

And every time Arthur committed to a strike, Morax retaliated with various attacks and spells.

He used boulders ripped from the ground, hurled trees like spears at Arthur, and spells of fire and shadow roared across the battlefield.

Arthur smashed through them all, gritting his teeth as the endless cycle repeated.

Minutes bled into hours.

The place that had once been a forest was now an apocalyptic ruin. Craters layered the earth, trees lay broken and burning, the very air was thick with smoke and ash.

Arthur’s chest rose and fell steadily, and sweat clung to his skin, but his eyes hadn’t dulled even a bit. Slowly but surely, he was chipping at Morax's energy reserves.

Morax was also getting frustrated. Although Arthur couldn't breach his barrier and could only put some cracks on it, he was also unable to do anything to Arthur. If it was someone else in place of Arthur it would have been much easier even if they were a Grandmaster.

He used spells that could annihilate an army, tentacles sharp enough to pierce through the strongest defence that a Master rank martial artist could come up with, but none of them left so much as a scar on Arthur’s body.

And Arthur's durability was something he found unbelievable for a Master rank martial artist, even most Grandmasters don't have such a high level of defence as Arthur.

Morax, for the first time, looked… annoyed.

He bared his fangs. “Impossible… a mere Master rank martial artist… should not last this long against me.”

Arthur tilted his head, smirking faintly as he continued raining Chi blasts at Morax. “Guess you are weak then.”

Inside, though, he wasn’t as casual as he appeared. ‘Damn… at this rate, it’ll take days to wear him down. He’s got a bottomless well of energy, and I can’t punch through his barrier fast enough.’

The battle intensified and dragged on for more than a few hours and it was attracting attention from monsters drawn by the deafening shockwaves and overwhelming energy.

And beyond that, far away, few scattered figures of humans, elves, and various other races, the “guests” of the realm, watched the clash with pale faces.

Above the ruined battlefield, lightning and various spells tore at the sky, their clash shaking the area.

And neither was ready to back down.

…

As the fight dragged on for more time Morax got so irritated that he decided to use his triumph card against Arthur. Although he felt it was shameful to use it against someone weaker than him, he gritted his teeth and thought it was the only way he had left to kill Arthur.

So, he stopped all his attacks. The air shuddered, then fell eerily still.

Arthur blinked in confusion, his fists half-raised. “…What?”

The tentacles froze mid-air, the bombardment of spells cut off. Even the oppressive aura pressing against him seemed to vanish. For the first time since the fight began, the battlefield was silent again.

Arthur’s brows furrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re already out of juice.”

But then…

WHOOOOM!

A pulse of black energy burst outward from Morax, washing over the battlefield like a tidal wave. Arthur braced instinctively, increasing his energy output to meet the attack, but the darkness wasn’t an attack. It wasn’t something he could block. It simply… swallowed everything.

Arthur tried to look around, but the world before him had already vanished.

There was no sky, ground or trees. Not even the ruined battlefield he’d been flying above.

Just an infinite void of pitch-black nothing.

His breath caught in his throat. ‘The hell is this…?’

He tried to open his map, only to see the panel glitching, flickering in and out before the whole display collapsed into static.

Arthur spun in place, trying to sense anything, mana, smell, even the sound of wind. His ears strained but there was only silence. He couldn't feel his own touch as if all his senses were blocked in this dark place, and even his sense of direction was also gone.

A bead of sweat slid down his temple. ‘What the heck is this…place.’

…

The demon Duke hovered in the dark void, his wings unfurled wide as though he were a sovereign in his element. Darkness rolled off his body like smoke, his yellow eyes glowing faintly.

A sharp grin tugged across his mouth. “Finally… this irritating charade will end.”

Domains are the ultimate ability of an Archmage. Each one was tied to their element, their affinity. And Morax’s domain embodies the concept of darkness itself, with the ability to perfectly suppress all the senses of his enemies. Within it, his prey couldn’t resist, or fight at all. And that is exactly what was going on with Arthur.

Morax, knowing all of his attacks were useless against Arthur, took out a dagger with a pitch-black blade and a silver handle. The weapon emitted dreadful energy, as if it hungered for blood.

Morax poured almost half his energy into it, and the dagger began to vibrate violently.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “I should not have to use this against a mere Master rank martial artist. It is shameful, but so be it.”

Then he vanished and reappeared in front of Arthur the next second, and pointed the dagger towards his chest.

STAB!

Arthur’s chest jolted, as a cold edge pierced through his skin, pushing slowly. Although he couldn’t sense much, he was slowly adapting to this place and his senses were slowly coming back. His skin and muscles resisted, the sheer toughness of his body slowing the blade’s progress, but finally.

Schhhk!

The dagger punctured through his heart.

His brain told him nothing had happened, as there was no sensation at all. His body, however, knew. His heart stuttered, blood leaking away like water from a cracked jar.

‘…What the hell…?’ Arthur’s mind reeled. He couldn’t feel the wound, couldn’t even sense the blade inside him. Only the sudden, unnatural weakness spreading through his veins betrayed it. Even his regeneration was slowed to a crawl.

The dagger Morax used contains one of the deadliest venoms found in his home world. And this poison was restricting his regenerative ability.

Arthur’s hand twitched, but his muscles felt sluggish, and unresponsive. His adaptability was already at work, counteracting the toxin.

Morax released the dagger, letting it sit buried in Arthur’s chest, pulsing with black energy like a parasite eating at his lifeforce. He stepped back, his wings curling around him like a cloak.

His eyes narrowed suddenly, flicking to the edges of his Domain. He could sense presence gathering outside, circling at the edges like sharks smelling blood.

“Hmph. No point in wasting more time here,” he muttered. “I’ve already burned too much of my energy on this pest.” Feeling Arthur's lifeforce slowly draining he left the area.

The Domain began to collapse, as it lost the energy to support itself.

Arthur dropped from the sky, his hand clutching the dagger lodged in his heart.

***

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