CHAPTER 34: THE AWAKENING OF DOMAINS
"This seems to be truly to the death then," Swain said, the energy in his demonic arm multiplying. "Very well, then I will also fight to the death. Let's end this."
"Spirit Leap!"
Kai, with one final desperate move, lunged forward again at high speed toward Swain. Instead of single attacks, he began to rain down coordinated, successive blows. Swain's response was not delayed.
"Wisdom of the Single Eye!"
Swain closed his right eye. Instantly, crows appeared in the air with an unprecedented density and began to fly. Kai rained down Spirit Fist and Spirit Shockwave attacks from every direction, but through his crows, Swain had gained a complete 360-degree field of vision. Invisibility, illusions, clone techniques... none of them worked. No matter how much Kai attacked, they all went into empty air.
"Ah, what kind of power is this?" Kai panted, breathless. "I can't even touch you in any way!"
"Kai, will you talk this much every single time?" Swain roared, a note of contempt in his voice. "Are you really the one who defeated Neros? It's becoming hard to believe. Come on, attack me with all your might now! Otherwise, this won't be training, it'll be a waste!"
These words drove Kai mad with anger. "Take this, King!"
He tried an instinctive technique he had never used before. He joined his two hands together, firing a concentrated beam of white energy from his palms.
"Spiritual Ray!"
The beam was so bright that even Po on the sidelines had to squint. "He never used this technique even when fighting me," he muttered. "It must be improvised. But it must require great energy. How logical is it for him to take this risk?"
Swain merely raised an eyebrow at the deadly beam coming toward him. "Is this it? Is this all your power? Then take this, a gift from me!"
"Demon Claw!"
Swain tore through the air with a clawing motion of his demonic arm. The incoming Spiritual Ray seemed to condense in front of Swain, then suddenly vanished as if it had never existed, extinguishing into nothing.
Kai stood frozen in shock. "This... what does this mean? The attack I prepared with so much energy... he erased it with a single claw motion. I can't even come close to him, let alone be on the same level!"
"KAI, FOCUS ON THIS FIGHT!" Swain thundered, his voice echoing. "You're drowning in fear and doubt!"
Kai shook his head, snapping out of it. "Yes... This isn't over yet. I still have energy. I can still do something. I'm sure of it." A new determination flashed in his eyes. "I am a Spirit user. Maybe... we'll see that now."
He lunged forward again with "Spirit Leap!" and threw a Spirit Fist.
Swain was growing impatient this time. "Kai, aren't you tired of this? Doing the same thing over and over isn't growth, it's stubbornness. Do something different now, or you'll stop developing, you'll regress!"
Kai paid no heed to the words. His fist collided with Swain's Devil's Arm, and as expected, Kai was forced to step back. Just as Swain was about to launch a follow-up attack, Kai suddenly shouted:
"RISE!"
Swain froze suddenly. His arm and legs wouldn't move. He looked beside him to see two semi-transparent, spiritual energy figures holding him tightly.
"What is this? Kai, what is the meaning of this?"
Kai answered with a triumphant smile on his face: "I am a Spirit user, Swain. I don't just shape my energy, I command existing spirits too. And they are now my soldiers."
Swain's astonishment was his opportunity. Kai immediately prepared a Spirit Shockwave and struck Swain right in the center of his chest.
BOOM!
Swain was launched like an arrow, flying back at least fifteen meters. He scraped along the ground, tumbled, and finally stopped by shattering a rock formation. He coughed up blood as he tried to get up from the ground. But on his face was not pain, but fervent astonishment.
"OHH! KAI! This technique... IT WAS BRILLIANT!" he shouted, coughing as he tried to stand. "That's the creativity I was looking for! Let's see what else you will achieve?"
Meanwhile, in the frozen realms, the battle between Morde and Flower was also intensifying.
Morde struggled to his feet. The cut on his stomach burned like ice. "Ah... So you really did cut me. Fine, so be it. I won't hold back against you anymore, Flower. You'd better stop me."
Flower replied with a slight smile. "Come on, Morde."
"Shadow Leap!" Morde lunged forward rapidly. "Shadow Shock!"
Flower drew her other dagger from her belt this time. She crossed her two ice daggers and swung them.
"Twin Glacial Slash!"
A cross-shaped, deadly blue energy attack rushed toward Morde. Morde countered by forming an X with his own energy. However, Flower's attack was too powerful. It only managed to destroy one part of Morde's defense; the other slash grazed Morde's shoulder.
Morde was sent flying back to the ground again. He stood up, blood flowing from his shoulder. His eyes blazed with anger and dark energy.
"FLOWER! Now you've made me angry, you bastard! This ends now!"
He stretched both hands forward and shouted with all his might:
"SHADOW KING'S DECREE!"
Instantly, ten large, wounding Shadow Slash energies shot toward Flower one after another.
The relaxed expression on Flower's face changed for the first time. "Glacial Step!" she cried, trying to dodge the incoming slashes at high speed. She avoided nine, but the last one grazed the very edge of Flower's left arm.
"Ah!" Flower instantly lost her balance and fell to the ground.
Morde saw this opportunity. With "Shadow Leap!" he lunged forward again, gathering a deadly Shadow Shock in his hand. Just as he was about to strike, he felt a deep pain in his back.
"W... W-What does this mean?" he stammered, looking at the ground. Flower's body on the ground was melting and disappearing. It was a clone!
The real Flower appeared right behind Morde, her dagger embedded in his back. It wasn't deep, but it was insidiously placed. "I didn't think you'd fall for such an easy trap," she whispered.
Morde screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground. "Ahhh! Even if it's not deep... it hurts so much!"
"Come on, Morde!" King Task shouted from the sidelines, his voice motivating. "You're Morde! Weren't you going to rule the entire world? Get up! Fight back with all your might!"
Morde's inner voice was saying the same thing. He's right. If I give up now, I can't become the strongest. I have to defeat her at any cost. At the end of this battle... I must open my Domain.
With a momentary burst of pure will, Morde sprang to his feet. Ignoring the pain, he threw a blind punch backward. Flower easily dodged it.
Morde immediately raised his left hand, dark energy gushing from his palm. Flower braced for an attack, but that wasn't Morde's intention.
Just as Flower was about to evade, her feet suddenly became fixed to the ground. Five shadowy, humanoid but formless entities composed of shadow energy had surrounded her.
Flower's eyes widened in shock. "What is this power? These are..."
Morde spoke, a mix of pain and triumph on his face: "The power within me... told me to do this. That I could create soldiers from shadows, not just manipulate them. I'm glad I listened to it."
Then he turned to the shadow entities, his voice a sharp, icy command:
"Kill her now."
The three idle shadow soldiers attacked Flower with the dark swords formed in their hands. Flower desperately tried to evade, to escape them with Glacial Step. She shattered one with ice, cut another's leg, but as she dodged the third's attack, she lost her balance and was left defenseless.
At that very moment, Morde had approached from behind.
"SHADOW SHOCK!"
Before she could even respond, the energy struck Flower right in the center of her back.
CRACK!
Flower was thrown forward, vomiting a gush of blood from her mouth. She tumbled uncontrollably on the ground, dragged for at least ten meters before finally stopping. With difficulty, trembling, she stood up. Her face was pale, but her eyes still held that cold, professional glint.
"Morde..." she spat, the blood in her mouth. "You really... grow stronger every second. But let's see how you survive this?"
She crossed her two ice daggers in front of her. All the cold energy in the surroundings began to flow toward her, swirling around her.
"Ultimate Technique: Glacial Kinetic Speed - Ice Skate Path!"
Meanwhile, in the Barren Wastes, Kai and Swain's battle was reaching its climax.
Kai was creating a vortex of speed around Swain by using Spirit Leap repeatedly, trying to confuse him. But Swain was prepared for this.
"Crow's Curse!"
Crows appeared around them again, but this time they were different. No matter how fast Kai moved, all the crows followed him as if watching him in slow motion. Then, all at once, they transformed into deadly daggers and plunged into Kai.
However, no physical wounds appeared on Kai's body. He just suddenly collapsed to the ground as if all his strength had been drained.
"Kai? What was that? What happened to me?" he murmured, trying to get up but falling again. His body felt heavy, his soul aching.
Swain explained as he approached: "As the name implies, Kai. It's a curse. Because you 'took' all those attacks at once, your spirit energy was greatly depleted, it's leaking. It's not physical, it's spiritual exhaustion. It's time to end this battle now. If you can withstand this... perhaps you will open your Domain."
Swain stopped, spreading both arms to the sides. The sky suddenly darkened. Crows, in numbers many times greater than those in the Throne Room, gathered like a black cloud. Electricity crackled in the air.
"PREPARE YOURSELF, KAI!"
"ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE: AWAKENING OF THE CROW GOD!"
Swain's physical form began to change. All the crows, screaming, assaulted his left, demonic arm, merging with it. The arm transformed into a monstrous, massive limb covered with feathers and beaks. From the crow cloud in the sky, dark energy, powerful enough to gouge out souls, the very essence of death, began to pour down.
Kai froze with pure, primal fear. In the face of this power, he had become unable to use most of his own abilities.
Swain, in this new, terrifying form, advanced toward Kai with a destructive speed. The monstrous claw he raised for the final blow seemed to swallow all light.
Kai lay on the ground, vomiting blood. His consciousness was fading. With a final effort, pushing his limits, he tried to stand. He got to his feet, but his head hung forward, his eyes were completely white, his gaze empty. His hands were at his sides, but his fingers were curled like claws, trembling. He was in an unconscious, purely instinctive stance of resistance.
Swain was about to deliver his final blow to Kai in this state.
At that exact moment, in the ice realm, Flower's ultimate technique activated. A bright, blue ice skate path formed under her feet. She began to move at a speed close to light. Morde's eyes couldn't follow her; he only saw a blue lightning flash spinning around him.
As Flower spun around Morde at light speed, she began to deliver fifty non-deep but extremely precise and painful cuts per second. Morde's body jerked uncontrollably left and right, up and down in response to these cuts, blood spurting from everywhere. His eyes had rolled back, completely closed. He was losing consciousness.
Flower appeared right in front of Morde to deliver the final, lethal cut, raising her dagger toward his heart.
That was the moment.
Morde's unconscious, closed eyes suddenly opened. From within, from the depths of his soul, from the foundation of his existence, a scream rose and poured out:
"DOMAIN OPEN!"
Flower's eyes widened in horror. The air around Morde instantly condensed, darkened, vibrated. It was as if even sunlight was being absorbed. Morde's voice became a resonating, powerful proclamation:
"DOMAIN OF SHADOWS!"
In the same millisecond, in the Barren Wastes, Swain's monstrous claw was descending upon Kai's head. Swain saw Kai's empty, white eyes, understood he had no consciousness. But it could no longer be stopped. The attack had to be completed.
Just as the claw was about to touch Kai...
Kai's lowered head suddenly lifted. His empty, white eyes locked onto Swain's. From his mouth rose a scream filled with blood and determination, as if tearing the universe:
"DOMAIN OPEN!"
A pure, intense white light explosion emanated from Kai's body. It pierced through Swain's crow cloud and dark energy. Within the light, countless spiritual figures appeared and vanished, melodies and screams were heard. Kai's voice rose from within this light with a final proclamation:
"DOMAIN OF SPIRITS!"
In two different realms, on two battlefields, two tremendous energy explosions rose to the sky simultaneously. One was like a night that absorbed darkness, shadows, and cold, the other like a pure dawn that illuminated all spirits.
The Domains had awakened.