The storm of black lightning raged across the forest, scorching trees and the ground they were fighting on. The air was charged with power, the kind that made the ground tremble. Draz'gul stood in the center of it all, his crimson skin glowing under the black arcs of lightning crawling along his body. His fanged grin was twisted in a cruel way, and his eyes were blazing with fury.
Arthur stood across from him, with a calm look on his face amidst the chaos. His clothes were torn apart, and his body was marked with faint burns in several places continuously as they regenerated the next second, but his expression remained cold, collected, and unbothered. Golden Chi flickered along his frame, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat as if it was glitching in and out of existence.
Draz'gul raised a clawed hand, his voice booming across the clearing as he ignored the pressure he was feeling from Arthur. "You think I would just let you achieve a domain, human!"
The air crackled with thousands of black lightning bolts, and they erupted from the sky, each one carrying a destructive force that could level cities. The forest screamed as trees vaporized under the sheer intensity of the domain.
Arthur raised his head slightly, with his eyes glowing in golden color due to the oversaturation of Chi. "You talk too much."
He didn't dodge, nor did he move. Instead, Chi burst from his body, forming a dense shell around him. The black bolts slammed into him like meteors, shaking the ground — but when the dust and light of the explosions cleared, Arthur stood unscathed. Only wisps of smoke rose from the ground beneath him.
The demon blinked. "Impossible…"
Arthur tilted his head. "You're not the first one to say that to me."
Then he vanished from his position. The air split apart as Arthur reappeared right above Draz'gul, his leg already swinging down. The demon barely raised his arms before…
BOOOOOOM!
The kick sent him crashing into the ground, creating a massive crater that rippled through the forest floor. The sound alone made birds flee miles away from them.
Arthur landed lightly a few steps away, his gaze hardened. "Is this all your domain's got?" He was extremely disappointed in the demon. He can think of multiple ways to defeat himself if he had the same domain. He could manipulate the bioelectric signal of his opponents to restrict their movements and kill them, among the others.
Then he shook his head and thought that the demon might be on the weaker side or might have recently become an Archmage and new to the powers of a domain and is not used to it, and is not able to utilize it to its fullest potential.
Draz'gul roared, as fury erupted from every pore of his body. His black lightning condensed into spears, coiling around his hands like writhing serpents. He dashed forward, his speed tearing the air apart. His punch connected with Arthur's chest, the impact shook the trees but Arthur didn't move, not even an inch.
Draz'gul's eyes widened. Arthur's gaze was calm. "That tickled."
Before the demon could react, Arthur slammed his forehead into Draz'gul's nose with a thunderous crack. The demon stumbled back, blood spurting from his nose. He tried to recover, but Arthur was already on him again, his knee met Draz'gul's gut, then a roundhouse kick smashed into his ribs, sending him spinning through the trees.
"Your lightning's fast," Arthur said, walking toward him, golden light flickering with each step he took. "But I'm faster."
The demon coughed, spitting out black blood, his fury boiling into madness. "You… YOU FILTHY HUMAN!"
He slammed his palms into the ground. Black lightning exploded outward like a tidal wave, reshaping the battlefield. His aura expanded, a swirling black storm that disintegrated everything it touched.
Arthur felt it hit him, the domain's destructiveness intensified, his lightning flickering erratically, struggling to stay under his control. The pressure was immense.
But something inside him was changing too.
That heat in his dantian, the golden core of Chi within him burned brighter, and hotter. Yet it wasn't painful, in fact it was almost soothing, like he was soaking under sunlight on a cold day. His Chi was shifting, and its density was increasing as there was a qualitative leap as one reaches Grandmaster-Rank.
Boom!
Draz'gul lunged at Arthur again, his clawed hand wreathed in dark lightning, aiming for Arthur's throat. Arthur caught the wrist mid-swing, his muscles bulging as lightning danced along his forearm. The impact rippled the ground beneath their feet.
The demon snarled. "You can't resist my domain forever!"
Arthur's eyes glowed gold. "Then I'll make my own."
A pulse of energy burst outward from his body, it was invisible, but heavy. It slammed into Draz'gul, launching him backward. The shockwave rolled through the forest like a hurricane, uprooting trees and blowing the storm of black lightning apart.
Arthur exhaled slowly, as his heartbeat steadied. His Chi surged like an ocean breaking through a dam. Every cell in his body felt alive, and his strength skyrocketed.
The sword spirit's voice appeared inside his head, its tone unusually serious. 'So you've finally crossed it… The barrier between a Master and a Grandmaster.'
Arthur clenched his fists, feeling the raw power coursing through him. "Yeah… I can feel it."
"And the best part, lad," the spirit continued, "isn't the strength, it's the domain."
Arthur's gaze flicked around, and suddenly it appeared as if the world slowed in his perception. He could feel everything around him, the weight of the trees, the density of the air, even the subtle shift of energy inside each stone and leaf within two hundred meters of radius around him. It was as though the world had become transparent, the density of everything, every particle laid bare before his eyes.
He picked up a small stone near his feet, it felt light and fragile. A thought occurred to him as he channeled his Chi into it, the weight spiked nearly tenfold and he had injected only a bare minimum Chi into it. His grip tightened involuntarily as the stone became denser, and heavier, like condensed steel.
"Interesting…" he murmured, tossing it once before crushing it effortlessly in his palm.
He was about to test it further when he felt the surge of black lightning again and he heard the roar of the demon in the distance.
Draz'gul, still on one knee, screamed with rage and unleashed another barrage of lightning bolts.
Arthur raised a brow. "Still trying?"
He waved his hand slightly. The air before him distorted as his Chi infused with the space itself. The moment the lightning bolts entered that area, they slowed down drastically, their trajectories warping mid-flight like they were passing through an insulator.
The demon's expression twisted in confusion. "What… what is this sorcery?!"
Arthur didn't answer, his gaze turned razor-sharp. He extended his will outward again, this time focusing not on the air, but on the demon himself.
And suddenly, Draz'gul staggered.
He felt it instantly, his body turning heavier. Each step became harder to lift, and his limbs trembled under invisible weight.
Arthur spoke quietly, almost to himself. "So it works on living beings too…"
He poured more Chi into the demon's body remotely through his domain. The weight doubled, tripled and continued as it reached in the hundreds and then thousands. Draz'gul's knees hit the ground with a thud. The demon roared, his muscles straining, and his bones creaking under their own mass. He wasn't even able to lift his eye lids to open his eyes
"Wha… what are you doing to me…" he spoke barely above a whisper as it was extremely difficult to speak under the conditions he was put in.
Arthur walked toward him slowly, his every step measured. "Just testing something new I acquired."
Draz'gul tried to thrash against the invisible force but he was unable to move his body even a single inch, but he didn't need to move to use his domain, as his black lightning erupted violently but was still unable to reach Arthur. The two forces crackled, hissing like fire and oil, but Arthur's presence now completely overshadowed the domain of the demon.
The sword spirit chuckled darkly.
'You're not just manipulating energy anymore, lad… You're rewriting the rules around you. A fitting requirement for one to reach godhood."
Arthur smirked faintly. "I'll settle for survival for now."
He stopped in front of the kneeling demon, and asked slowly. "What's your name?"
The demon spat a mouthful of blood and hissed through cracked teeth, "You're not worthy to know my name you bastard!"
Arthur just shrugged and took out his sword, he wanted to know the name of the first Archmage he was going to kill but since he wasn't getting any answer he was not going to ask a second time. The demon finally realizing Arthur was going to kill him widened his eyes and opened his mouth to plead. But that exact moment the blade of Arthur's sword passed through his neck, severing it from his body.
Shing.
The demon's eyes were wide, frozen in terror. His head hit the ground with a dull thud, the black lightning around his body flickering out like dying embers.
Arthur exhaled slowly, sheathing his sword. The storm around them dissipated instantly, leaving only the quiet whisper of wind and the faint scent of ozone.
'That was… beautifully brutal,' the sword spirit murmured.
Arthur said faintly. "You're getting unusually poetic."
The sword spirit gave a boisterous laughter as it said, 'I'm living through you, lad. Someone has to narrate the legend as it happens.'
Arthur rolled his eyes but said nothing. He bent down, plucked the demon's spatial ring from his hand, and pocketed it. Then he turned his head toward the distant flashes of light and sound, the rest of his group was still fighting the beast-kins.
He cracked his neck, flexing his hand as golden lightning flared around him again. "Guess it's time to clean up the rest."
With a single step, his figure blurred into a streak of gold as he vanished and headed straight into the fray.
***
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