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Chapter 5 - Lightning vs corruption (2)

It was chaos.

Everything around was destroyed.

The trees were pulverized, and no beast or animal was in sight, despite them being on top of a forest—well, it used to be a forest, now it was just a place with no life.

All because of a clash between sovereigns. However, the Skinwalker's corrupt energy played a greater role.

The corruption energy, also known as chaos energy, was an energy of pure malice and corruption.

It corrupted anything that it touched, including lands, people, and animals; it destroyed and corrupted anything that had life.

Those who were exposed to that energy either became crazy and died or turned into mindless monstrosities.

These monstrosities were called the Corrupted or the Beings of Chaos.

The dust cleared.

Two figures floated up in the air.

One was unscathed, holding a blade in his hand while his other arm was folded on his back, Vladmir.

While the other, the Skinwalker, had the left part of his body, from the shoulder, missing.

Dark blood was leaking from the wound. His breathing was heavy, and he had an annoyed face.

His remaining hand was holding the soul-blade.

"I'm surprised you survived that attack, I'll give you that," Vladimir said.

The Skinwalker thought. Tch, this body is useless against this freak, even though we are both sovereigns. He is still stronger than I, and it also makes sense because I just broke through this rank while he must have been a sovereign for a while. He's maybe at mid or peak sovereign.

And that damned lightning is annoying. How can it negate my corruption? My wounds, which should have healed by now, are not healing.

I didn't even land a single attack. Maybe if I could just wound him, I'd be able to weaken him and kill him. 

Should I just run away? 

No. I will die if I do that. The worst thing in a battle is turning your back against an enemy.

Tch, this is all happening because of that bastard who kicked me out of my territory.

 I swear if I survive this, I will get my revenge! If I use my domain, ill probably survive or even defeat him.

He then looked down at the gaping dark hole below them, and a plan formed in his head.

"The cat got your tongue now, huh? Where did all that pride go? You said this scrap of metal wouldn't cut you, but now look at you,"

Vladimir laughed.

"It's not about the sword, it's about its wielder."

"Well, you must be asking yourself how my lightning can nullify your chaos energy, right? It is just simple, you are weak."

"Maybe if you were as powerful as I or stronger, you could've had a chance of killing me, but you're weaker, and it seemed that you just stepped into this rank months ago. So yeah, neh, you're dying." Vladimir said.

With that last sentence, Vladimir's body blurred and moved, turning into streaks of gold.

He appeared in front of the Skinwalker, his sword cutting the air vertically and falling on the Skinwalker.

The Skinwalker barely reacted in time; he raised his sword and weakly blocked the blow.

The blow sent him plummeting down towards the gaping dark abyss hole their collision had created.

The Skinwalker's muscles throughout his body ached from the attack.

Vladimir dived down too, breaking the sound barrier with his overwhelming speed.

He appeared in front of the falling Skinwalker. He pulled his arm back and then punched forward towards his chest. 

The Skinwalker couldn't block it in time, so the punch connected. His chest caved in, and he coughed up black blood. The blow sent him down the hole faster and hit the bottom of it—CRASH!

Vladimir landed at the bottom too, not in a hurry but with grace.

He looked at the crater where the Skinwalker was supposed to be, but he was not there; only traces of his disgusting black blood remained.

As he was scanning the area, that was when he heard—

"Sword domain..."

The Skinwalker spoke.

"[Eternal chaotic night]" 

As if the surroundings obeyed his command, the atmosphere changed.

Pure Darkness enveloped Vladmir; his surroundings became darker than usual.

It was unsettling.

His body became heavier and pressured. He heard agonizing screams of souls.

And then he saw it.

The skies were a dark purple, the land was scattered with bones and wandering souls that appeared human, while others seemed like vengeful spirits.

A river of blood flowed on the ground.

"kekeke, so what do you think of my domain?" the Skinwalker spoke while sitting up on a throne made of bones.

He continued, "You know, when we were fighting, I split a bit of my chaos energy and sent it towards the hole. It was to trap you so you couldn't escape my domain.

And then I let myself be dragged inside the hole to execute the trap. Quite genius, don't you think? "

A Sword domain. It is a high-level ability that signifies a sword master's ultimate connection to their weapon and the art of swordsmanship.

You can only form a domain if you have reached the Grandmaster rank.

The only way to survive was to cast a domain of the same strength or stronger, causing a clash of domains.

Vladimir didn't answer him; his gaze was on a wandering soul that looked like a child, a little girl.

The child had an expression of fear, tears streaked down her face, probably the face the child had in her last moments before being killed by the vile creature.

His face turned serious and darker. He was angry. Why? Because the child reminded him of Vladislav and Athelstan.

Additionally, he disliked those who harmed children the most.

Vladimir lifted his gaze from the poor soul of the child and looked at the Skinwalker.

"First, you make me leave my family and miss my two boys' first training. Second, I'm about to miss dinner with my lovely family because of you and third, you killed an innocent child.

Children are the most innocent things in this world of chaos and must not be harmed," he said.

He continued, "They are vulnerable, therefore they must be protected at all costs, but who am I to make you understand that? You're just a monster, a being who causes chaos, and that's why I shall hunt your kind and wipe you all out from the face of the earth."

"Your death will not be pleasant, I'll make sure of it," he finished.

He dropped the soldier's sword that he was holding, and when it hit the ground, it turned to dust.

The only reason it was still holding it was because Vladimir was wielding it.

His hand moved towards the sheathed sword on his waist with a golden hilt.

The moment he unsheathed the sword, a pressure was released. The vengeful spirits that tried to attack him froze on their feet and cowered in fear.

The sword was beautiful; the golden hilt was well-crafted, the blade was sharp and refined, and it looked like it could cut through chaos.

It was really fitting for the man who wanted to erase the chaos.

He lifted his Sword high, and the air cracked.

The red skies shook, and golden lightning energy gathered and crackled on the sword.

His aura enveloped the little girl's soul warmly, but to the other spirits and the Skinwalker, it felt like dread.

Cold killing intent was seeping from Vladimir towards the Skinwalker, making him sweat.

Sensing danger, the Skinwalker tried to move from his throne to attack him, but the killing intent froze him in place. 

"N-no way! Why can't I move? This shouldn't be possible, you're. Inside my domain!" he barked.

"It's simple, really, cough, I'm just better than you," Vladimir replied coldly as various golden lightning swords formed behind him. He lifted his left hand, pointing toward the Skinwalker, and said—

"Go."

The swords obeyed.

They moved towards the Skinwalker at a terrifying speed. He made an effort to lift a barrier, but it was of no use.

The swords tore through it like paper and pierced him. At the impact, the throne broke and he fell on his back.

Many golden swords pierced his body. And crackled with lightning, electrocuting him. 

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed in pain.

He felt pain, excruciating pain, worse than anything he had ever felt before. It felt like someone was cutting his soul into pieces.

Ironically, Vladimir was indeed tearing his soul; his lightning had a soul attribute that could attack the soul.

"It hurts, it hurts so much, just kill me! Make it stop!" the Skinwalker begged for mercy, but unfortunately for him, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

A pool of blood formed under him as he was bleeding from his wounds.

"Already? It has only been 1 second," Vladimir replied coldly

That 1 second to the skin walker was an eternity. Soul pain was no joke.

As if his body could no longer handle the human form, it ripped away from it, revealing its proper form.

It looked like a large black slime, or like gum that had been chewed, reeking with chaos energy and possessing various, varied limbs.

Some resembled tentacles, while others bore a human form.

It screamed in pain with different voices.

Even though the Skinwalker became bigger, the swords didn't budge and kept it in place, torturing it.

After a couple of more minutes of torturing the creature, Vladimir sighed and spoke.

"Time to finish this," he kept holding his sword up.

Vladimir dropped his sword with a swing, making the air bend to his will.

"Lightning sword series fifth technique..." he said softly

"[Divine punishment]" 

Outside the domain, dark clouds gathered. It was storming with rain and thunder.

As if the clouds obeyed his command.

An enormous golden lightning energy released from the clouds in the form of a long, beautiful golden dragon, which dived towards the ground and hit the black cocoon of the domain at a fast speed.

The world shuddered at the impact, causing an explosion of bright gold that illuminated the night.

BOOM!–

Thousands of kilometers away, the soldiers back at the Lovria border felt the ground shaking and saw the golden explosion from afar.

The domain was disintegrated entirely.

Only Vladimir stood alone.

His sword was already sheathed while he looked at the spot where the Skinwalker had previously been.

And the Skinwalker?

Gone.

The attack not only killed it but left nothing behind, no blood, no corpse, just gone.

It was erased from existence.

Then—

He suddenly felt the presence of 3 people behind him. He turned back and saw a man and a woman holding hands with a little girl. They were smiling at him.

The little girl ran towards him and hugged him—his legs, to be more accurate, since he was very tall. The little girl had blonde hair and blue eyes. 

"Thank you so much for releasing us, Uncle. We can now rest thanks to you," she said.

Vladimir felt his heart tightening, but his face didn't show it.

He gave her a sincere smile and said, "You're welcome, that was the least I could do."

He then proceeded to ruffle her hair gently, making her giggle, and then she gave one last bright smile before slowly turning into sparks alongside her parents and flying up into the sky.

"May you all find solace and rest in peace."

He said one last time, looking at the flying sparks.

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