Azellia (3)
Azellia flinched for a split second at the black mist surging to swallow her whole, but she quickly sharpened her gaze.
"Hoo... Fine. Can't be helped."
Bitterness laced her voice.
"Sorry is sorry, but we've gotta fight anyway."
She couldn't hesitate now, not after coming this far.
A crimson aura erupted explosively from her body.
Hwuaaaah—!!
In an instant, her black hair was dyed a blazing scarlet, as if set aflame.
It wasn't just a color change. Every strand writhed and danced like living flames.
Spirit Predation.
A cursed ability that devoured spirits, absorbing their essence and making it her own.
And the forbidden technique of forcibly possessing her body with the power of those devoured spirits to fight.
Azellia had preyed on countless spirits up to now.
From low-grade to mid-grade, and even high-grade ones. The essences of all those flames were fusing as one inside her now.
Tssshhhh—
Steam rose from her skin.
The air around her warped, and the ground beneath her feet began to blacken and scorch.
Heat reaching thousands of degrees Celsius radiated from her core.
Yet Azellia only grew more tense, staring at the dome of darkness enclosing her.
Something's off...
No matter how absolute the darkness, this level of heat should at least make it waver or distort. But the black dome didn't budge, as if her inferno didn't exist at all.
A domain...?
Azellia's red eyes widened in shock.
Domain.
A transcendent technique that pushed one's ability to its limit, dominating space itself.
An absolute realm where one redefined the laws of reality through sheer will—a domain only those who had stepped into transcendence could unfold.
"A domain... from the start?"
Her voice trembled in disbelief.
Of course, a captain could deploy a domain.
But the reason for her shock was different.
A domain was the essence of one's power, their final trump card. It was an unwritten rule to unleash it only in life-or-death duels, when truly resolved to kill.
To deploy a domain from the outset in a spar or training...
He means to kill me, Astra.
He'd clearly said before the fight that he wouldn't kill her.
But even she wouldn't easily forgive someone who'd prodded her deepest wound, ally or not.
Ways to break a domain...
Her mind raced.
First: Interfere with the space itself using raw power stronger than the domain. But shattering a fully formed domain from outside was near impossible.
And Astra's definitely not weaker than me. No way it's that easy.
She knew instinctively.
This overwhelming density of darkness, this perfect dominion over space—it wasn't something even she could casually disrupt.
Second: Counter with a domain of equal caliber.
Clashing domains would neutralize each other, and their overlap could birth strange phenomena.
If their powers were evenly matched, the worlds might fuse, creating a neutral battlefield for both.
But...
I don't have a domain...
Azellia laughed bitterly at herself.
She never thought herself weaker than the other captains. In pure combat prowess, she was confident she surpassed them.
But domains were different.
Her supernatural ability, Spirit Predation, was fundamentally about stealing others' power and claiming it as her own.
Predation and forced possession.
Devouring and coveting what belonged to others—that was the root of her strength.
A domain meant creating one's absolute world. How could she, who relied on others' power, forge her own?
Of course, she wasn't without options.
If I go all out here, I could match him evenly.
But the cost...
One of us would die for sure.
At that moment, the black darkness swirled ominously, shifting form.
As if a colossal abyss had opened its eyes, something immense and overwhelming inside the dome fixed its gaze on her.
"Azellia."
Astra's voice echoed from the darkness.
Strangely calm, yet resonating like an endless abyss.
"First, my apologies. I'm sorry. I got a little angry."
Sincerity filled his words, but so did a chill intent to kill.
"I'll hold back enough so you don't die. Endure it."
"What?"
Azellia's red eyes blazed with fury.
Even as a fellow captain, this treatment was too much.
No matter that she'd started it, what she hated most was being looked down on.
"Endure it...?"
Her voice dropped dangerously low.
"That's what I want to say to you, Astra. You better en—"
Kugugugugu—!!!
Before she could finish, the darkness came alive.
The entire space quaked as thousands, tens of thousands of presences manifested at once.
And the next instant—
Shuaaaaaak—!!!
Thousands of spears condensed from darkness poured down like a torrent of rain.
In the pitch black, their forms were invisible.
Only the space-rending whooshes and killing intent announced their existence.
But—
Kwaaaaaarrr—!!!
Flames exploding from Azellia formed a sphere and expanded outward.
A curtain of fire incinerated the unseen spears one by one.
Each collision twisted space as darkness and flame clashed fiercely.
What is this... dissonance?
Her brow furrowed deeply.
The pressure from each spear was considerable. Yet upon hitting her flames, they vanished far more easily than expected.
As if...
He's pulling his power right before impact?
It clicked in an instant. Astra was testing her. No—toying with her.
Her rage surpassed its limit.
"Astra!!!"
Her scream shook the entire domain.
In that moment, a wondrous transformation began.
Streaks of sky blue seeped into her blazing red hair.
Shuuuung—!
The two colors intertwined bizarrely, swirling like a dance.
Red flames and blue winds merged into a power unlike any before.
Her hair now shimmered in a fantastical hue, like a sunset sky where crimson and azure harmonized perfectly.
If the elves saw this, their shock would turn to terror.
Elves were born with affinity for one attribute alone, bonding with its spirits for life. That was nature's law, immutable.
But Azellia was different.
Her Spirit Predation mocked such laws.
She devoured spirits of other attributes, wielding their powers freely—and simultaneously.
Kuoooooo—!!!
Flame and gale fused into a massive vortex.
The burning tempest spiraled upward.
Thousands-of-degrees heat blended with hundreds-of-meters-per-second winds, pushing back even the absolute darkness.
"Don't underestimate me! I'm not some pushover like you think!"
With her shout, the flame storm expanded explosively.
Kraaaaaak—!
* * *
"Don't underestimate me! I'm not some pushover like you think!"
Kraaaaaak—!
Azellia's cry rang out as her flame storm began shredding my darkness to pieces.
No... why is she suddenly going all out?!
Wasn't this the point where she was supposed to apologize first since she'd started it?
Why was I the villain getting raged at?!
...No way?
Did she think my attacks were too weak? Interpret that as me looking down on her?
No, they really were weak...
I felt wronged, but I couldn't even make excuses now.
Ascaros! How much longer?!
I cried out desperately in my mind.
Almost ready, Lord Astra. Just a bit more...
Damn it.
This whole thing was a smokescreen to buy time for Ascaros's advanced black magic chant.
I'd scraped together every scrap of mana to shroud the area in darkness, then thrown maybe a few dozen spears at best.
To Azellia, it probably looked like thousands raining down from hell...
But it was nothing grand.
Hold on... she has to hold on...
Every time her flame storm gnawed at my darkness, it felt like mana was draining from my whole body.
Cold sweat trickled from my forehead into my eyes, but I had no time to wipe it.
Please... just a little longer...
But Azellia had no idea how desperate I was.
"Ha! Same pattern over and over... And you're still holding back, looking down on me? You bastard."
My gut burned at her misconception.
No, I'm going all out! This is my limit!
But all I could do was grit my teeth and endure.
Ascaros, please... hurry...
Urgh...
I clenched my trembling fists, barely holding the darkness's form.
I tried to keep a composed expression, but the sweat dripping from my chin gave me away.
"Azellia, is that your best?"
I forced an arrogant tone, but my ragged breathing betrayed me.
Damn... even in this forest, she's this strong...
I'd brought her to this forest away from the training grounds thinking the World Tree's abandonment might weaken her a bit.
Even accounting for that, she was too strong.
Kwaaaaa—!!!
The flame storm devoured more of my darkness.
This time it was really dangerous. The domain's form visibly shrank.
At this rate...
Suddenly, scorching heat raked my cheek.
Tszzzzt—
Her flames had finally pierced my dark barrier.
Burning pain spread along my nerves from my skin.
"Urgh..."
A groan escaped me unwittingly.
Up till now, the Frost Flower Gloves had let me recover mana fast enough to hold out, but this was the limit.
Ascaros! I can't hold any longer!
My mental cry had become a wretched scream.
Five seconds... no, three more!
Three seconds.
A blink in normal times.
But now, it felt eternal.
One second.
Kraaak—!
The darkness thinned further. Her flame storm tore through my barrier like paper, black fragments scattering like ash.
Two seconds.
My legs shook. My knees nearly buckled, held only by pride.
I couldn't let her see this...
Three—
Ready!
The instant Ascaros signaled, I let everything go.
Shuuuuw...
The black darkness enveloping us began to fade.
And finally—
It was revealed to the world.
The advanced black magic—Ascaros's forbidden spell he'd raved about as having "peerless destructive power."
Black Hole.
"Black Hole."