Somewhere far away.
A throne forged from the sun itself hovered in silence, its existence permitted rather than created. The heat did not burn. The light did not radiate. It simply was.
Enra sat upon it.
The True Emperor of Pride.
His gaze was fixed forward, distant, observing without emotion.
Below him, the battlefield had been reduced to a fractured scar in reality.
Dark stood barely upright.
Blood ran freely down his face and chest. His breathing was uneven. His aura flickered, cracked, held together by will alone.
Across from him stood Destroyer Dark.
Unmarked.
Unbothered.
Malevolence coiled around his body like living lightning, red-black arcs snapping outward and carving thin wounds into space itself.
Destroyer Dark laughed softly.
Destroyer Dark: Oh... you poor thing.
He stepped forward.
The ground beneath his foot ceased to exist.
Destroyer Dark: I told you before.
Malevolence thickened, pressure sinking deeper with every word.
Destroyer Dark: Hope.
Destroyer Dark: The sweetest sin of men.
His laughter grew louder, heavier, pressing against Dark's already strained presence.
Dark lifted his head.
Blood dripped from his chin.
He smirked.
Dark: You really think this ends here.
Destroyer Dark tilted his head.
Destroyer Dark: Yes.
Destroyer Dark: I am going to kill you now.
He raised both hands and brought them together.
Malevolence collapsed inward.
The pressure dropped like a blade.
Destroyer Dark: Domain World.
The world screamed.
A crushing, despair-filled pressure slammed outward, warping space, flattening sound, dragging everything toward annihilation. Malevolence did not expand. It asserted.
Far above, Enra watched in silence.
Dark raised his hands in response.
Dark: Domain World.
Shadows did not rush out.
They aligned.
They locked.
The battlefield stilled for half a heartbeat.
Then—
Dark: SHIRO NO YAMI SAKAI!!!
Destroyer Dark: ZETSUBO ENMETSÜ!!!
The two Domain Worlds collided.
Not in explosion.
In denial.
Shiro No Yami Sakai began to manifest, layers of shadow forming rules, orientation bending around Dark's will—
Only for Zetsubo Enmetsu to tear into it immediately.
Despair ate shadow.
Malevolence crushed structure.
Entire sections of Dark's Domain warped, cracked, and vanished on contact, the two worlds grinding violently against each other as reality struggled to decide which law would survive.
Dark's knees buckled slightly.
Destroyer Dark grinned.
Destroyer Dark: Still standing.
Destroyer Dark: Good.
Enra leaned forward just a fraction.
Watching closely.
The two Domain Worlds did not "form."
They declared.
Shiro No Yami Sakai spread first, not as a dome, not as a barrier, but as a borderless sheet of white-black night that replaced the idea of distance. The ground lost its texture and became a smooth, pale void, like snow made from shadow. Every sound that tried to exist inside it got swallowed and returned as a dull heartbeat.
Dark's Domain World was not built to look pretty.
It was built to make everything else feel small.
Inside Shiro No Yami Sakai, darkness was not an element.
It was jurisdiction.
Shadow became a governing law that decided what could move, what could be seen, and what could remain untouched. Every ounce of aura inside the space got measured, weighed, and rewritten into Dark's favor.
It was the kind of Domain that did not scream.
It suffocated.
Zetsubo Enmetsu answered like a hate response.
Not spreading.
Replacing.
A red-black storm crawled across the pale night, and anywhere it touched, the white-black floor did not crack.
It ended.
As if the world simply stopped being allowed to exist there.
Destroyer Dark's Domain World was not "destruction magic."
It was malevolence given geography.
A ruin made into a place.
Inside Zetsubo Enmetsu, the rules were simple.
Everything decays.
Everything fails.
Everything becomes the last version of itself.
Even concepts.
Even intention.
Even courage.
Malevolence lightning snapped through the air, not to shock, but to brand the space. Each arc wrote an invisible sentence into reality.
You are allowed to die here.
The clash line between the two Domains formed as a jagged horizon, half pale void, half red ruin. It trembled like a blade being forced through bone.
Dark's aura flared, trying to stabilize his territory.
Destroyer Dark's aura pushed, trying to delete the idea that territory mattered.
The border screamed without sound.
Then both of them moved.
Dark vanished into his own night.
Not speed.
Permission.
He reappeared beside Destroyer Dark with his fist already halfway through the motion, shadow wrapping his forearm like layered armor.
Dark: Die.
The punch landed.
It hit hard enough to dent space.
Destroyer Dark's head snapped slightly to the side.
That was it.
He looked back with a grin that did not match the damage.
Destroyer Dark: Good.
He grabbed Dark by the wrist.
Malevolence crawled up Dark's arm like a parasite, trying to teach his bones what breaking felt like.
Dark twisted his shoulder, shifted his weight, and forced gravity inside his stance to anchor.
The Malevolence slowed.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Dark: You are trying to rot my alignment.
Destroyer Dark laughed.
Destroyer Dark: I am trying to rot you.
Dark ripped free and drove his knee into Destroyer Dark's ribs.
This time the impact carried Domain authority.
Shiro No Yami Sakai tried to claim the moment.
The ribs compressed inward and the shadow pressure attempted to lock the damage in place, to prevent regeneration by denying the concept of "recovery" inside Dark's jurisdiction.
For half a second.
It worked.
Destroyer Dark coughed blood.
Real blood.
It floated, then turned black, then dissolved into red sparks.
Destroyer Dark's grin widened like a wound.
Destroyer Dark: There you go.
Destroyer Dark: You finally remembered how to use your world.
He opened his palm.
A thin red-black line formed in the air, like a cut that never closed.
Destroyer Dark: Malevolence.
The line snapped across Dark's chest.
It did not slice skin.
It sliced the idea of endurance.
Dark's breath caught.
Not because of pain.
Because his stamina dipped like something had reached into his body and stole the next fifty seconds of his ability to keep standing.
Dark staggered.
The white-black floor under him dulled.
Shiro No Yami Sakai flickered.
Destroyer Dark leaned forward.
Destroyer Dark: Your Domain is expensive.
Destroyer Dark: You pay for every law you enforce.
Dark steadied himself, jaw clenched.
Dark: And yours.
Destroyer Dark: Mine is cheaper.
Destroyer Dark: Because my world only needs one rule.
Destroyer Dark spread his arms slightly.
Zetsubo Enmetsu surged.
The red ruin crawled forward another meter, and that single meter felt like a funeral passing through the battlefield.
Dark felt it in his skull.
The closer the red reached, the harder it became to believe in effort.
Not fear.
Hopelessness.
The kind that convinces you to stop moving.
Dark's eyes sharpened.
Dark: Cute trick.
He raised a hand, fingers slightly curled.
Shadow gathered.
Not as a ball.
As a verdict.
Dark: Dark Magic.
Dark: Kuroen Bind.
Chains formed, but not metal.
They were made of compressed shadow law, each link a command that told reality to hold.
They snapped around Destroyer Dark's torso and arms.
For a split second Destroyer Dark stopped.
Not because he was trapped.
Because Shiro No Yami Sakai finally found a grip.
Dark stepped in, grabbed the chain itself, and yanked.
The Domain border jumped forward, white-black night swallowing another chunk of red ruin.
Destroyer Dark's smile twitched.
Dark pressed harder, voice low.
Dark: This is my territory.
Destroyer Dark's head tilted.
Destroyer Dark: You think I care.
He flexed.
The chains did not break.
They aged.
In one instant they went from new to ancient, then crumbled into dust that never hit the ground.
Zetsubo Enmetsu ate the command and left nothing to hold.
Destroyer Dark: See.
Destroyer Dark: Your rules still require a world that wants to exist.
Destroyer Dark: Mine does not.
He disappeared.
Not into darkness.
Into ending.
He reappeared behind Dark and drove two fingers into the back of Dark's neck.
Malevolence detonated inside Dark's nervous system.
Dark's vision flashed white.
His body locked for a fraction of a second.
Destroyer Dark whispered close.
Destroyer Dark: Hope.
Destroyer Dark: Still clinging to it?
Dark's answer was a headbutt.
Brutal.
Stupid.
Perfect.
It landed dead center and cracked Destroyer Dark's nose.
The sound returned for one heartbeat just to make it disgusting.
Destroyer Dark stumbled half a step.
Blood ran.
Then the blood turned into sparks again.
Destroyer Dark laughed, wiping his face.
Destroyer Dark: I missed this.
Dark exhaled sharply.
Dark: Shut up.
He slammed his palm down.
Dark: Domain Authority.
Shiro No Yami Sakai responded.
The pale floor rippled, and then the entire Domain shifted into a new state.
The white-black night did not expand.
It compressed.
Everything inside suddenly felt closer to Dark, as if the world was being folded like paper toward his position. The air thickened with shadow pressure, and the red ruin began to grind slower, like it had to push through a weight it could not name.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed for the first time.
Dark: My world is not just darkness.
Dark: It is a boundary of denial.
Dark: Anything I mark.
Dark: Does not get to act like it has options.
A black sigil appeared under Destroyer Dark's feet.
Thin.
Clean.
Silent.
Destroyer Dark looked down.
Then he smiled again.
Destroyer Dark: There it is.
Destroyer Dark: You are learning.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
Zetsubo Enmetsu surged in response and the red ruin finally did what it was designed to do.
It started erasing the Domain itself.
Not the floor.
Not the sky.
The rules.
The pale night's authority began to peel away in strips, like someone tearing pages out of a book mid sentence.
Dark's eyes widened.
His Domain World trembled.
Dark: No.
Destroyer Dark: Yes.
Destroyer Dark: Because your Domain is a structure.
Destroyer Dark: And structure is something I was born to hate.
The border line exploded forward.
Red-black ruin devoured white-black night in a violent crawl, and for a moment Shiro No Yami Sakai looked like it might collapse entirely.
Dark's breathing turned ragged.
This was the cost.
Energy draining fast.
Stamina burning.
Focus cracking.
Aura shaking.
Pressure turning unstable.
His Domain World demanded payment to keep its laws alive.
Destroyer Dark stepped forward as the ruin took more space.
Destroyer Dark: You are running out.
Destroyer Dark: You can feel it.
Dark clenched his fist.
He did not deny it.
He used it.
Dark: Abyss Magic.
Dark: Mugen Kyomu.
Abyss opened under Destroyer Dark like a mouth.
Not a portal.
A missing foundation.
The ground beneath him became a depth that did not end, a void that tried to pull even Malevolence into silence.
Destroyer Dark's foot sank.
For the first time, his movement slowed.
Dark stepped in and punched again.
This punch was not about damage.
It was about forcing his Domain to win the argument.
Dark: Move.
The punch landed.
Destroyer Dark's chest caved slightly.
Dark followed with another.
And another.
Each hit tightening the white-black laws around him, each strike making Shiro No Yami Sakai reassert its existence like a stubborn god refusing to die.
Destroyer Dark's grin widened, but his eyes sharpened.
Destroyer Dark: Better.
Destroyer Dark: But still not enough.
He inhaled.
And Zetsubo Enmetsu changed.
The ruin did not expand.
It focused.
The red-black storm stopped crawling outward and instead began spiraling inward, condensing around Destroyer Dark like a crown made of endings.
The Malevolence lightning thickened.
The pressure became personal.
Destroyer Dark: You want an explanation.
Destroyer Dark: Fine.
He lifted his hand toward Dark.
Destroyer Dark: Your world is a court.
Destroyer Dark: You decide the rules and force everything to obey.
Destroyer Dark: My world is a grave.
Destroyer Dark: Everything enters already losing.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Destroyer Dark's voice rose slightly, just for this.
Destroyer Dark: ZETSUBO ENMETSÜ.
Destroyer Dark: MALEVOLENCE CROWN.
The red-black spiral snapped outward.
Not far.
Just enough.
The instant it touched Dark, his Domain World screamed.
Shiro No Yami Sakai fractured.
Not like glass.
Like a law being disproven.
Dark's pupils tightened.
He felt it in his bones.
If he let the Malevolence Crown keep spreading, his Domain would get eaten from the inside out.
Dark swallowed blood.
Then smirked.
Not because he was winning.
Because he finally understood the level of the problem.
Dark: Good.
Dark: Now I can stop pretending you are just a version of me.
Destroyer Dark's grin widened.
Destroyer Dark: Finally.
Both Domain Worlds surged again.
The border line shook like the universe was holding two beasts apart with trembling hands.
Dark stepped forward into the ruin.
Destroyer Dark stepped forward into the night.
And they met in the middle.
Fist.
Elbow.
Knee.
Head.
Violence layered with law.
Each strike warping the clash line, each impact temporarily stealing territory for one side before the other ripped it back.
The Domains were not just backgrounds.
They were weapons.
Dark landed a hit and the night tried to bind.
Destroyer Dark landed a hit and the ruin tried to rot.
Dark's breathing worsened.
Destroyer Dark's laughter got lower.
More serious.
Then Destroyer Dark leaned close mid exchange and whispered again.
Destroyer Dark: You are bleeding aura.
Destroyer Dark: You can't keep a world running forever.
Dark answered without looking away.
Dark: I don't need forever.
Dark drove his shoulder into Destroyer Dark's chest and forced him back a step.
The white-black night surged forward with him.
Dark: I just need one opening.
The clash line trembled.
The Domains screamed.
And for the first time.
Zetsubo Enmetsu stopped smiling through the damage.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
Not in anger.
In recognition.
The red-black spiral of Malevolence tightened around his shoulders as he stepped forward into the clash line, letting the ruin bite into his own form just enough to feel it.
Destroyer Dark: Good.
He vanished.
Not displacement.
Cancellation.
The space he left behind imploded inward, and the moment Dark registered the absence, a fist smashed into his jaw from the side. Dark's head snapped hard, shadow flaring instinctively as he skidded backward across the pale floor.
He twisted mid fall, planted a foot, and stopped himself with sheer pressure.
Dark wiped blood from his lip.
Dark: That all you've got.
Destroyer Dark was already there.
A knee slammed into Dark's ribs.
Then an elbow.
Then a palm strike straight to the chest.
Each hit carried Malevolence, not to explode Dark outward, but to eat away at his internal stability. Dark felt his aura thinning, like something was gnawing at the joints that held his power together.
Dark answered with violence.
He stepped in and drove a punch into Destroyer Dark's throat.
It landed.
Hard.
Destroyer Dark staggered half a step.
Dark followed with another punch, this one layered with abyss pressure, shadow compressing around his knuckles until the impact bent the air sideways.
Destroyer Dark grinned through it and headbutted Dark in return.
The collision rang through both Domains at once.
The clash line rippled violently, white-black night and red ruin tearing chunks out of each other as the two of them exchanged blows at point blank range.
No distance.
No recovery.
Just impact.
Dark grabbed Destroyer Dark by the collar and drove him face first into the ground.
The pale floor cratered inward.
Destroyer Dark laughed even as his face split and regenerated.
Destroyer Dark: That's it.
He wrapped an arm around Dark's neck and dragged him backward, malevolence flooding into the hold, trying to rot Dark's breath, his rhythm, his sense of timing.
Dark snarled and slammed his elbow backward.
Once.
Twice.
The third time he twisted his body and threw Destroyer Dark over his shoulder.
Destroyer Dark hit the ground and slid, carving a red trench through the white-black floor.
Both Domains surged at once.
Shiro No Yami Sakai tried to tighten.
Zetsubo Enmetsu tried to end it.
The border snapped and folded, leaving jagged fractures of both worlds hanging in the air like broken glass made of concepts.
They moved through it anyway.
Destroyer Dark launched forward, fist cocked back, malevolence screaming.
Dark met him head on.
Fist to fist.
The impact collapsed the space between them into a momentary void.
They kept hitting.
Punch.
Knee.
Elbow.
Palm.
Dark's movements were sharp, efficient, brutal. Each strike carried layered magic, shadow reinforcing bone, abyss stealing resistance, void erasing recovery windows.
Destroyer Dark fought like a catastrophe given limbs. No technique. No restraint. Every blow was meant to end the exchange permanently.
Dark ducked a wild hook and drove his shoulder into Destroyer Dark's chest, forcing him back into the red ruin.
The ruin tried to eat Dark's arm.
Shadow hardened.
Dark held.
Dark: Not yet.
He raised his hand.
The white-black night behind him stirred.
Not violently.
Precisely.
Dark: Shadow Art.
Dark: Kuro Senkai.
The Domain answered.
The pale floor cracked open in hundreds of thin lines, and from those fractures rose countless black blades. Not solid weapons. Not illusions.
Condensed shadow.
Each one razor thin, humming softly as they aligned themselves behind Dark like a storm waiting for a command.
They did not rush.
They waited.
Destroyer Dark's grin widened.
Destroyer Dark: So you finally learned how to let your world fight with you.
Dark did not respond.
He stepped forward.
The blades followed.
With a thought, Dark sent them flying.
They did not scatter.
They moved as a single structure, a flowing swarm of shadow edges that curved, split, rejoined, and adapted mid flight. Each blade carried Domain authority, striking wherever Destroyer Dark existed inside Shiro No Yami Sakai.
The first wave hit.
Shadow pierced through shoulder, thigh, side, neck.
Blood sprayed.
Black and red mixed.
Destroyer Dark staggered.
Then laughed.
Destroyer Dark: YES.
Malevolence exploded outward from his body, detonating several blades mid air, rotting them into nothing before they could reform.
But more replaced them.
Dark clenched his fist.
The blades multiplied.
They came from above.
Below.
Behind.
From angles that should not exist.
Destroyer Dark ripped several out of his own body and snapped them in half, but each one shattered into smaller fragments that reformed instantly and struck again.
The ruin beneath his feet cracked deeper.
Destroyer Dark planted his stance and roared.
Destroyer Dark: ENOUGH.
Malevolence surged.
A red-black shockwave tore outward, annihilating a massive portion of the swarm and forcing Dark back a step as his Domain shuddered under the strain.
Dark felt it.
Energy bleeding fast.
Stamina burning.
Focus straining.
But his eyes stayed sharp.
Dark: You're adapting.
Destroyer Dark wiped blood from his chest, regeneration slowing slightly now.
Destroyer Dark: And you're paying.
He lunged.
Dark met him.
The remaining blades wrapped around Dark like a cloak, orbiting him in tight spirals as he stepped into the charge.
They collided again.
Hand to hand.
Blade to flesh.
Shadow to Malevolence.
Dark slipped inside Destroyer Dark's guard and drove a blade straight through his forearm, pinning it in place.
Dark followed with a knee to the ribs and a palm strike to the face.
Destroyer Dark ripped his arm free, tearing shadow with it, and slammed Dark into the ground.
Dark rolled, came up instantly, and sent the blades back in.
This time they didn't pierce.
They carved.
Thin lines opened across Destroyer Dark's body, each one carrying a delayed pull, dragging shadow pressure inward and trying to collapse his regeneration points.
Destroyer Dark staggered again.
His laughter stopped.
For the first time, his expression sharpened into something colder.
Destroyer Dark: Careful.
Destroyer Dark: You're getting close to something you can't undo.
Dark stepped forward anyway.
The blades aligned behind him once more, darker now, heavier.
Dark: That's the point.
Both of them moved at the same time.
Not a dash.
Not a burst.
A decision.
Dark stepped forward and the white black night folded around him, blades spiraling into a single spear shaped swarm aimed at Destroyer Dark's throat.
Destroyer Dark stepped forward and the red ruin condensed, Malevolence Crown sharpening into a pressure edge that could split laws, not flesh.
The clash line between their Domain Worlds screamed.
The surrounding space did not crack.
It started shedding layers.
The nearest void behind them peeled like paint and exposed another sky beneath it.
A second later that sky split too.
A third layer appeared.
Stars, then no stars.
A sea of dead light.
A world line in the distance warped as if it had been punched in the spine.
Not destroyed.
Bent.
Forced to remember it was small.
Their fists were inches apart.
Their auras were already colliding.
The shock of it rippled outward and a nearby world, far off, stuttered in its rotation.
Its oceans jumped.
Its atmosphere tore into ribbons for half a heartbeat.
Then it stabilized only because the clash had not finished.
Yet.
Dark's eyes stayed locked.
Destroyer Dark's smile sharpened into pure hate.
And right before contact.
Right before the impact that would have cracked everything within reach of their existence.
Something appeared between them.
No portal.
No light show.
No warning.
Just presence.
The contact never happened because reality forgot it was allowed to happen.
Enra stood there.
Calm.
Still.
His throne of sun hovered far above, unchanged, like it did not care about distance or scale. The heat did not radiate. The light did not spread. It simply existed because he permitted it.
Enra raised one hand.
Two fingers slightly apart.
And the two Domain Worlds recoiled.
Not pushed back.
Silenced.
Shiro No Yami Sakai folded inward like a sheet being gathered by an unseen hand.
Zetsubo Enmetsu tightened like a noose being held steady.
The clash line froze mid scream.
The blades behind Dark trembled but did not move.
The Malevolence Crown around Destroyer Dark crackled but could not expand.
Enra's eyes remained on Dark.
Enra: End it.
Dark's breathing slowed.
His blood still dripped onto the pale floor, but the drops stopped mid fall the moment they entered Enra's space.
Dark did not look at the throne.
He looked at Enra.
Dark: You want me to kill him.
Enra did not blink.
Enra: I want you to finish.
Destroyer Dark laughed under his breath, like the word amused him.
Destroyer Dark: Hear that.
Destroyer Dark: You finally get permission.
Dark's jaw tightened.
For a moment he actually considered it.
Not because he hated him.
Because it would be clean.
Because it would be easy.
Because it would be the kind of choice that ends questions.
His hand flexed.
The shadow blades behind him shifted, aligning again, hungry and precise.
Destroyer Dark leaned forward slightly, Malevolence Crown flaring like it wanted to taste Dark's intent.
Then Dark exhaled.
Not relief.
Control.
Dark: Move.
He stepped.
Enra stepped back without moving his feet, like distance simply rearranged itself to keep him out of the way.
The instant Enra left the line, both Domain Worlds roared back to life.
Dark and Destroyer Dark collided.
Fist to fist.
The impact detonated inside the clash, not outward.
The pale floor shattered into fragments of night.
The red ruin spit out sparks that cut through the fragments and turned them into ash.
They went hand to hand again.
No speeches.
No pauses.
Destroyer Dark tore into Dark with Malevolence, each hit trying to rot Dark's stamina, steal his breath, sabotage his focus.
Dark answered with clean brutality, each strike carrying Domain authority, shadow law trying to lock damage in place.
Destroyer Dark's ribs compressed.
Dark's shoulder split.
Destroyer Dark's jaw cracked.
Dark's vision flashed as Malevolence crawled through his nerves.
Dark kept moving anyway.
Destroyer Dark grabbed Dark by the throat and lifted him.
Malevolence surged.
Destroyer Dark: DIE.
Dark's boots dangled inches above the pale floor.
Then the floor rose.
Not physically.
Conceptually.
Shiro No Yami Sakai denied the idea of being lifted inside Dark's jurisdiction.
Dark dropped back down and drove his knee into Destroyer Dark's stomach.
Hard.
Destroyer Dark coughed blood.
Real blood.
It hung in the air for a second, then turned into sparks.
Dark twisted and punched him across the face.
Destroyer Dark staggered.
Just a step.
Dark's eyes narrowed.
Something had changed.
Destroyer Dark felt it too.
Not with senses.
With instinct.
The pressure in Dark's strikes was different.
Sharper.
Not just stronger.
Cleaner.
Less wasted.
Dark was reading him.
Destroyer Dark snapped forward again, furious, throwing a hook meant to end the exchange.
Dark slipped it.
Barely.
Then punished him with a straight punch to the throat that carried void trimming, shaving off the moment Destroyer Dark would have used to recover.
Destroyer Dark stumbled again.
Two steps now.
His grin faded.
Destroyer Dark: What.
Dark did not answer.
He hit him again.
A palm strike to the sternum.
A knee to the ribs.
A backhand to the jaw.
Each one landing like Dark already knew where Destroyer Dark would be.
Destroyer Dark's eyes widened a fraction.
Not fear.
Confusion.
Destroyer Dark: You.
Dark: I'm adjusting.
Destroyer Dark tried to flood the space with Malevolence.
Dark's Domain did not fight it the same way anymore.
It redirected it.
Shiro No Yami Sakai did not just suffocate.
It guided.
The white black night tightened around the red ruin like a grip, forcing Malevolence to travel where Dark allowed, forcing the rot to waste itself on empty space.
Destroyer Dark's laughter did not come back.
He threw another strike.
Dark caught it.
Twisted.
And broke the wrist.
Clean snap.
Destroyer Dark stared at his own hand for half a second.
Then regeneration kicked in.
But it was not instant this time.
It hesitated.
Like something in Dark's world had started denying recovery more consistently.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
Destroyer Dark: You're stronger.
Dark: Yeah.
Destroyer Dark: No.
Destroyer Dark: You're not just stronger.
He stepped back, boots scraping across the clash line.
The border of the two Domains trembled.
Destroyer Dark: You're changing while we fight.
Dark's expression did not change.
Dark: That's what happens when you keep trying to kill me.
Destroyer Dark's gaze sharpened.
He looked at Dark's hands.
At Dark's stance.
At Dark's breathing.
Then he noticed it.
Dark was landing openings that could have been fatal.
And not taking them.
Dark's blades were there.
Right at the throat.
Right at the spine.
Right at the heart.
And they were stopping.
Not because Dark could not finish.
Because he was choosing not to.
Destroyer Dark's jaw clenched.
Destroyer Dark: Why.
Dark stepped forward again.
Shadow blades hovered behind him like a verdict that refused to fall.
Dark: Because if I kill you now, you stay the same.
Destroyer Dark's eyes widened slightly.
Dark: And I'm tired of fighting a tantrum.
Destroyer Dark's Malevolence spiked in rage.
Destroyer Dark: I AM NOT.
Dark cut him off mid surge.
Dark: You are.
Silence cracked through the clash for half a beat.
Enra watched without moving.
His gaze did not approve.
It did not disapprove.
It waited.
Destroyer Dark lunged again, furious, swinging with enough force to split the pale floor into a thousand fragments.
Dark moved through it.
Not faster.
Better.
He slipped each strike by a hair and punished each miss immediately.
A hit to the liver.
A hit to the jaw.
A hit to the ribs that locked the damage for a second longer than it should have.
Destroyer Dark's breathing hitched.
He backed up again.
Destroyer Dark: You're holding back.
Dark: Yeah.
Destroyer Dark: You think I won't notice.
Dark: I want you to notice.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
His hate did not vanish.
But something else tried to form underneath it.
A thought he did not want.
A possibility he hated even more than pain.
That Dark was not trying to win.
Dark was trying to make him remember something.
Destroyer Dark's voice dropped.
Destroyer Dark: What are you doing.
Dark stepped closer, blood still dripping, aura still cracked, but his presence was steadier now than it had been at the start.
Dark: I'm letting you cool off.
Destroyer Dark's Malevolence flared violently, like an animal hearing a word it could not stand.
Destroyer Dark: Don't talk to me like I'm fixable.
Dark: I'm not fixing you.
Dark: I'm forcing you to look at what you are.
Destroyer Dark froze for a fraction.
Not physically.
Mentally.
Then he snapped forward again with a roar, Malevolence Crown surging, trying to erase the space between them by ending it.
Dark raised his hand.
The shadow blades behind him shifted.
Not into a swarm.
Into a single shape.
A storm compressed into one decision.
Dark: Shadow Art.
Dark: Kuro Senkai.
The blades exploded outward and then folded back in, not as rain, but as a rotating halo of edges that circled Dark like a moving execution wheel.
Destroyer Dark's eyes widened.
He recognized the structure.
Not from memory.
From danger.
Destroyer Dark: You're serious now.
Dark: I've been serious.
Dark stepped forward into the clash line.
Their Domains screamed again.
And for the first time.
Destroyer Dark realized the truth.
Dark had surpassed him during the fight.
Not by a little.
Not by slow growth.
It was violent growth.
The kind that makes your enemy feel smaller every second.
Destroyer Dark clenched his fists.
Malevolence screamed.
Destroyer Dark: Then stop playing with me.
Dark's expression stayed calm.
Dark: I'm not playing.
Dark: I'm teaching you the only thing you never learned.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
The clash line trembled.
The worlds beyond their battlefield cracked again just from the pressure of what was coming.
And Enra's voice carried through it, quiet and absolute.
Enra: Finish it, Dark. Finish your Origin.
Dark did not look away from Destroyer Dark.
Dark: You keep saying finish like it's the same as kill.
Enra: For you, it should be.
Destroyer Dark laughed.
Destroyer Dark: Hear that.
Destroyer Dark: Even he's tired of you.
Dark: He's not talking to you.
Destroyer Dark: He's talking through you.
Dark: No.
Dark: He's testing what I choose when I'm finally strong enough to choose.
Enra: Pride is choice.
Enra: End it.
Destroyer Dark stepped closer, Malevolence Crown crawling higher up his neck like a collar.
Destroyer Dark: You want me ended.
Destroyer Dark: Say it.
Dark: I want you honest.
Destroyer Dark: Honesty is for people who still believe they can be forgiven.
Dark: You don't want forgiveness.
Dark: You want permission.
Destroyer Dark's eyes tightened.
Destroyer Dark: Don't psychoanalyze me.
Dark: It's not analysis.
Dark: It's observation.
Dark: You only get loud when you're scared.
Destroyer Dark: Scared of what.
Dark: Of being wrong about yourself.
Enra: Enough.
Enra: The Origin is not a conversation.
Dark: It is.
Dark: Because this is the first time I can end a monster without needing to.
Destroyer Dark: You think that's noble.
Destroyer Dark: You think restraint makes you pure.
Dark: No.
Dark: It makes me dangerous.
Destroyer Dark's grin returned, but it was strained.
Destroyer Dark: Dangerous.
Destroyer Dark: You are bleeding in your own world.
Destroyer Dark: You are shaking.
Dark: Yeah.
Dark: And you are still losing.
Destroyer Dark: I'm not losing.
Dark: You are.
Dark: You just haven't accepted it yet.
Destroyer Dark: I refuse.
Dark: That's the problem.
Enra: Dark.
Enra: End him.
Dark: You want closure.
Dark: I want truth.
Enra: Truth is Axiom's obsession.
Enra: I am Pride.
Enra: I do not need truth to judge.
Dark: That's why you keep messing up.
Enra's eyes narrowed slightly.
Enra: Speak carefully.
Dark: No.
Dark: I've been careful my whole life.
Dark: It got me nowhere.
Destroyer Dark: Finally.
Destroyer Dark: There's the arrogance.
Dark: It's not arrogance.
Dark: It's clarity.
Destroyer Dark: Clarity.
Destroyer Dark: You think you're above me now.
Dark: I'm not above you.
Dark: I'm past you.
Destroyer Dark's smile twitched.
Destroyer Dark: Past me.
Destroyer Dark: I'm you.
Dark: You're a version.
Dark: A loop that never learned to break itself.
Destroyer Dark: Break itself.
Destroyer Dark: You mean soften.
Dark: No.
Dark: I mean stop pretending pain is a religion.
Destroyer Dark: It is.
Destroyer Dark: Pain is the only honest thing in creation.
Dark: Wrong.
Dark: Pain is honest.
Dark: Your worship isn't.
Destroyer Dark's Malevolence surged.
Destroyer Dark: I AM MALEVOLENCE.
Dark: No.
Dark: You use it.
Dark: You hide behind it.
Enra: Dark.
Enra: The longer you hesitate, the more you insult me.
Dark: Then be insulted.
The air went still for a heartbeat.
Destroyer Dark stared at Dark like he had never seen him.
Destroyer Dark: You just said that to a True Emperor.
Dark: I know.
Destroyer Dark: You're insane.
Dark: I grew up.
Enra's voice lowered.
Enra: Your Origin was forged by cruelty.
Enra: By loss.
Enra: By the weakness of those around you.
Enra: You were born from a story that demanded you become an end.
Dark: And I refused.
Destroyer Dark laughed, sharp and bitter.
Destroyer Dark: You didn't refuse.
Destroyer Dark: You delayed.
Destroyer Dark: I'm what happens when you stop delaying.
Dark: No.
Dark: You're what happens when I stop thinking.
Destroyer Dark: Thinking.
Destroyer Dark: That's your lie.
Destroyer Dark: You call it thinking.
Destroyer Dark: It's fear in a suit.
Dark: If it was fear, I would've killed you already.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
Destroyer Dark: Why won't you.
Dark: Because you're not the enemy.
Destroyer Dark: Then what am I.
Dark: The test.
Dark: The proof.
Dark: The mirror that shows what I become when I stop choosing.
Enra: You speak like you are above fate.
Dark: I am above excuses.
Destroyer Dark: You think choice makes you clean.
Destroyer Dark: You think you can carry darkness and still be a hero.
Dark: I'm not a hero.
Dark: I'm a ruler.
Destroyer Dark: Then rule.
Destroyer Dark: Kill me.
Dark: No.
Destroyer Dark's smile faltered again.
Destroyer Dark: What do you mean no.
Dark: I mean.
Dark: If you want to die, earn it.
Destroyer Dark: Earn it.
Destroyer Dark: I've been trying to kill you this whole time.
Dark: You've been trying to prove you're necessary.
Destroyer Dark: I am necessary.
Dark: You were.
Dark: Not anymore.
Enra: Pride does not tolerate defiance.
Dark: Then hate me.
Dark: It won't change what I'm doing.
Destroyer Dark's laugh was quieter now.
Destroyer Dark: You really think you can save me.
Dark: I'm not saving you.
Dark: I'm stripping you.
Destroyer Dark: Of what.
Dark: Of the lie that you are all I am.
Destroyer Dark: I am your ending.
Dark: No.
Dark: You are my beginning.
Destroyer Dark froze.
Enra's gaze sharpened.
Enra: Explain.
Dark: Origin isn't the moment you become evil.
Dark: Origin is the moment you decide what evil means to you.
Dark: And you.
Dark looked at Destroyer Dark, eyes calm.
Dark: You are the part of me that took the easiest definition.
Destroyer Dark's mouth opened slightly.
No laugh came out this time.
Destroyer Dark: Easy.
Destroyer Dark: You think becoming me was easy.
Dark: Yes.
Dark: Because it requires no responsibility.
Destroyer Dark snarled.
Destroyer Dark: RESPONSIBILITY IS A CAGE.
Dark: Exactly.
Dark: And you chose the cage because it lets you blame the bars.
Enra: Words.
Enra: I asked for an end.
Dark: You'll get one.
Dark: Just not the kind you want.
Destroyer Dark's Malevolence Crown flared again, unstable now.
Destroyer Dark: You're talking like you already won.
Dark: I did.
Dark: The moment you realized I could kill you.
Destroyer Dark: That doesn't mean you will.
Dark: That's the point.
Destroyer Dark stared at him.
Destroyer Dark: You think sparing me makes you superior.
Dark: No.
Dark: Sparing you makes me free.
Enra: Pride demands proof.
Dark: Then watch.
Dark took a slow breath.
Dark: I'm ending my Origin.
Destroyer Dark's eyes widened.
Destroyer Dark: How.
Dark: By doing what you can't.
Destroyer Dark: And what is that.
Dark stepped forward.
Dark: I stop needing you.
Destroyer Dark's face twisted, rage and something else mixing.
Destroyer Dark: You can't discard me.
Dark: I'm not discarding you.
Dark: I'm putting you in your place.
Destroyer Dark: I AM YOUR PLACE.
Dark: No.
Dark: You are my warning.
Enra's voice cut in, colder.
Enra: Enough.
Enra: Finish it.
Dark nodded once.
Dark: I will.
Destroyer Dark's grin tried to come back.
Destroyer Dark: Finally.
Dark: Not with hate.
Dark: With definition.
Destroyer Dark: Definition.
Destroyer Dark: You sound like Axiom.
Dark: No.
Dark: I sound like me.
Destroyer Dark's eyes narrowed.
Destroyer Dark: Then prove it.
Dark: I will.
Dark: Right now.
Dark: In front of him.
Dark: In front of you.
Dark: In front of the part of me that keeps trying to turn pain into permission.
Dark's gaze hardened.
Dark: I'm going to end this.
Dark: And you're going to understand why you couldn't.
The world stalled.
Not the Domains.
Not the ruin.
Reality itself.
A sphere formed.
Small.
Perfect.
No color.
No texture.
No inside or outside.
Just separation.
Dark and Destroyer Dark stood within it alone, everything else cut away like a forgotten thought.
The clash noise vanished.
The pressure vanished.
Even Enra's presence thinned, reduced to a distant certainty rather than an immediate weight.
Destroyer Dark stiffened.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
Dark stepped closer.
No aura flare.
No threat.
Just presence.
Dark: Look me in my eyes.
Destroyer Dark laughed once.
Weak.
Forced.
Destroyer Dark: You think that works on me.
Dark did not answer.
He simply waited.
Destroyer Dark's smile faded.
Slowly.
Against his will.
He lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
The Malevolence cracked.
Not shattered.
Cracked.
Like a mask splitting down the middle.
Destroyer Dark's breath caught.
His knees trembled.
Destroyer Dark: ...No.
Memories flooded him.
Not images.
Weights.
Every moment he chose destruction because it was simpler.
Every time he justified cruelty as truth.
Every time he told himself there was no other path because choosing another would mean admitting he was afraid.
Dark did not push.
Did not dominate.
He simply existed.
And that was enough.
Destroyer Dark's knees hit the ground.
Not slammed.
Placed.
Respect.
Loyalty.
Understanding.
Destroyer Dark bowed his head.
Destroyer Dark: I see it now.
Dark stayed silent.
Destroyer Dark: You weren't denying me.
Destroyer Dark: You were outgrowing me.
He clenched his fists, Malevolence draining away like poison pulled from a wound.
Destroyer Dark: I thought I was your truth.
Destroyer Dark: I was just your shortcut.
Dark stepped closer.
Dark: You were the version of me that survived when survival was all I cared about.
Destroyer Dark swallowed.
Destroyer Dark: Then let me serve.
Destroyer Dark raised his head.
Destroyer Dark: I pledge myself to you.
Destroyer Dark: Not as a weapon.
Destroyer Dark: Not as a shadow.
Destroyer Dark: But as proof of what you left behind.
Silence.
Dark looked down at him.
Then shook his head.
Dark: No.
Destroyer Dark's eyes widened.
Dark: You don't belong to me.
Dark: You never did.
Dark knelt in front of him.
Their foreheads almost touched.
Dark: You are now free.
The words were quiet.
Absolute.
Chains that never had form shattered anyway.
Destroyer Dark gasped.
Malevolence did not scream.
It dissolved.
His aura shifted.
The red-black lightning faded into something neutral, raw, unclaimed.
Destroyer Dark laughed softly.
Not cruel.
Relieved.
Destroyer Dark: So this is what it feels like.
Destroyer Dark: To stop fighting yourself.
Dark placed a hand on his chest.
Dark: Go.
The sphere trembled.
Destroyer Dark's body began to break apart.
Not violently.
Gently.
Particles of light and shadow lifted from his form, drifting like ash caught in a slow wind.
Destroyer Dark looked at his hands as they faded.
Destroyer Dark: Guess this is goodbye.
Dark: No.
Dark: This is integration.
Destroyer Dark smiled.
A real one.
Destroyer Dark: Then don't waste it.
His form dissolved completely.
The particles flowed into Dark, sinking into his chest, his spine, his shadow.
No explosion.
No surge.
Just completion.
The sphere collapsed.
Turned to dust.
Then nothing.
The battlefield returned.
One presence.
One aura.
One existence.
Dark stood alone.
His shadow settled differently now.
Deeper.
Calmer.
Whole.
Enra's presence returned in full.
Heavy.
Watching.
He clapped his hands once.
Softly.
The sound echoed farther than thunder ever could.
Enra: Good.
Dark looked up.
Enra: Your Origin is complete.
Enra paused.
Then smiled faintly.
Enra: Your training is not.
The throne of sun shifted.
The light sharpened.
Enra: Stand.
Enra: We are not finished.
Dark smirked slightly.
Dark: I'm ready.
To Be Continued.
End Of Chapter 12.