King Domine pushed through the surge of pain in his chest, his teeth grinding together as the wound flared under Vilak's spell. His body tensed for a fraction of a second, then steadied, his control reasserting itself even as the damage lingered beneath the surface. "Dominus Repello Universalis."
The command left his lips cleanly.
The effect was immediate.
A violent shockwave erupted outward from his body, not a pulse of magic in the conventional sense but a physical expulsion of force that expanded in all directions at once. Bram was caught mid-swing, his blade only halfway through its arc before the impact hit him full in the chest and ripped him backward through the air, his momentum completely broken. At the same time, Ercale's lightning-charged kick met something solid that had not been there a moment before, a wall of compressed air forming instantly in front of Domine and deflecting the strike off-line before it could connect. Above and to the side, Prince Mark's missiles never reached their target. The expanding force collided with them mid-flight, detonating the entire volley prematurely and spreading the explosions outward into a wide, burning ring that briefly encircled Domine's position in the sky.
For a moment, he was completely obscured behind fire and smoke.
Then something broke through it.
Samwell's body came hurtling out of the ring at high speed, thrown with enough force that the air cracked around him as he was sent straight into Prince Mark. The collision hit hard, both of them losing control instantly as they were driven downward together, slamming into the ground below with a heavy, jarring impact.
Domine did not follow them.
He was already moving toward Ercale.
His body cut through the dissipating flames as he closed the distance, his clawed hand drawing back and then snapping forward in a clean, lethal line aimed directly at Ercale's midsection, the motion precise and fast enough to split him open before he could properly react.
Ercale did not try to outpace it.
Instead, he brought both hands together for the briefest moment, forcing lightning to collapse inward while pulling a thread of astral energy into it. The result formed instantly, unstable and blinding. He released it directly in front of Domine's face.
A flash detonated at point-blank range.
"Ugh!" Domine grunted, his vision overwhelmed for just long enough that the strike missed its mark, his claws cutting through empty space where Ercale had been.
That opening was all Ercale needed.
He pivoted off his planted foot and drove his leg forward, the kick landing square against Domine's face with everything he had behind it. There was no restraint in the motion, no attempt to preserve himself. The force transferred cleanly through the strike, and the moment it did, his own body paid the price. The bone in his shin gave out under the stress, snapping violently, a fragment pushing through as the impact carried through regardless.
The kick still landed.
Domine's head snapped back, his entire body driven downward as the force displaced him from the air and sent him crashing toward the crater below.
Ercale dropped after him, his injured leg already beginning to mend as residual lightning crawled along it, forcing the damage back into alignment.
Below, the others were already reacting.
"If he's immune to magic, what are we supposed to do?" Amara asked, her eyes fixed on Domine as he descended.
"You make him unable to see," Sarandel replied immediately, her voice steady and decisive. "Use every spell you know that will obstruct his vision."
She did not wait for them to act.
Her hand lifted toward the sphere of holy energy suspended above, and then she brought it down in a single, deliberate motion, guiding its power. A concentrated beam of radiant light lanced downward from the sphere, striking directly at Domine as he began to rise from the crater floor, the brilliance focused entirely on his face.
"Is this all your strategies now!?" Domine snapped, bringing his arm up to shield his eyes as the light bore into him.
He turned toward their position through the interference.
He never got a clear view.
Annabel, Clara, and Amara were already moving in unison, their spells forming almost simultaneously before being released together. Streams of fire surged forward, converging on Domine from multiple angles. The flames did nothing to his body, but they filled his vision completely, layering over the beam of light and turning his entire field of view into a shifting wall of brightness and distortion.
Above them, Ercale landed, his leg still in the process of knitting itself back together as he stepped into place beside Bram. "There," he said, his tone rough but controlled. "No need for a flying spell now."
Bram gave a brief dismissive wave in response, his attention fixed forward as they both watched Domine being pelted with overlapping sources of light and flame. It was not a solution, not something that would hold him indefinitely, but for the moment it was enough to disrupt him, to slow him, to create space.
Off to the side, Samwell pushed himself up from where he had crashed, blood spilling from his mouth as he spat it out onto the ground. "Can only use enhancing magic against that thing," he muttered, wiping his mouth as he steadied himself.
Prince Mark rose as well, his gaze narrowing as he looked back toward Domine. "He said something, and that barrier formed," he said, thinking it through aloud. "What was that? Is it that rare magic that allows people to do magic by speaking words?"
"Wrong."
Ercale's voice cut in, his leg nearly fully healed now as he straightened. "Word magic can replicate what he's doing somewhat," he continued, his eyes never leaving Domine.
"What he is doing isn't word magic."
There was a brief pause as his expression hardened.
"It's control. Control over whatever he thinks is his," he said, his tone carrying a sharp edge. "And clearly, this arrogant bastard thinks the whole world is his."