Garion felt it the mont the pressure hit him.
This ti, it was different.
The air didn’t just feel heavy.
It felt compressed, like everything around him was being forced into a smaller space.
His boots sank slightly into the cracked ground as the weight pressed down harder than before.
"...Oh," Garion muttered. "So it’s stronger this ti."
Black ash surged around Kravos, feeding into him from every direction.
The remaining demons nearby were on their knees now, faces pale, bodies trembling as their strength was drained away.
Kravos threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahaha!" His voice echoed through the ruined streets. "Do you feel it now, human?"
He spread his arms wide.
"This is the power of a ruler. The authority of Black Ash City!"
Garion didn’t answer right away.
He stood there, shoulders relaxed, eyes half-lidded as if he were simply testing the weight on his body.
Then he smiled.
The laugh on Kravos’s face faltered.
Velgon noticed it first. "...Why is he smiling?"
Azgus swallowed hard.
"That pressure should be crushing him."
Garion lifted one foot and stamped it lightly against the ground.
Crack.
The stone beneath him shattered outward.
Kravos’s eyes widened. "What?"
Garion rolled his neck once and let out a small breath.
"So this is [Sovereign Erasure] when you stack it with stolen power," he said. "Yeah. It’s definitely stronger."
He looked up at Kravos and smirked.
"But here’s the problem."
The pressure around Garion shifted.
The ground around him sank deeper, forming a shallow crater centered on his feet.
Kravos frowned.
"...What did you do?"
Garion raised his head fully now, eyes sharp and focused.
"Do you really think," he asked calmly, "that I’ve been serious this whole ti?"
The ash trembled.
Garion smiled.
"Let tell you a little secret," Garion said, his voice steady. "My power actually works a lot like yours."
Kravos’s eyes narrowed. "...What?"
Garion took one slow step forward. The ground dipped under his foot.
"My strength isn’t just mine," Garion continued.
"It’s the result of countless bodies. Countless efforts. Countless limits broken and stacked together."
He tapped his chest once.
"Everything my disciples pushed beyond limit fused into ."
Velgon’s face went pale.
"...Fused," Velgon whispered. "You’re saying your power is fused."
Garion nodded. "Exactly."
He looked back at Kravos.
"So from the mont we started, anything you tried to erase was aningless."
Kravos shook his head violently.
"No. That can’t be true."
His voice cracked, anger and fear mixing together.
"Authority can erase anything!"
Garion smirked.
"Authority erases permissions."
He raised his hand slightly.
"My body doesn’t ask for permission."
The ash around Kravos wavered wildly.
Velgon stumbled backward.
"My lord... this isn’t right."
Azgus fell to one knee, unable to breathe properly.
Garion exhaled slowly.
"Let’s finish this," he said.
He turned his head and looked directly at Velgon and the remaining demons.
"Earlier, you saw the [Gravity Hole] I used," Garion said. "That version relied on mana."
His fingers curled.
"But now," he continued, "I’ll use my body directly."
The air scread.
"[Gravity Hole]."
The change was instant.
Garion’s skin darkened.
It was as if his body itself beca heavier and deeper, pulling everything around it inward.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and sank, forming a shallow crater.
A pulling force erupted from his body.
Velgon’s eyes went wide.
"...No. That’s not a technique."
He staggered backward as the pull caught his clothes, then his body.
"That’s not how skills work!"
Kravos felt it too.
The mont the force touched him, his ash domain shattered.
The black ash that once obeyed him was ripped away and dragged toward Garion like dust in a storm.
Kravos roared. "Stop this!"
He slamd his foot down and tried to activate [Black Ash Dominion] again, but the ash refused to answer.
It was already being stolen away.
"This is impossible!" Kravos shouted. "No body can beco a core like this!"
Garion looked at him, eyes sharp, expression almost curious.
"You still don’t get it," Garion said. "My body isn’t acting like a core."
He took one step forward. The crater widened.
"My body is the gravity."
The pull intensified.
Velgon scread as his feet left the ground.
"My lord! We’re being dragged in!"
Azgus tried to crawl, claws digging into the stone, but the ground itself peeled away beneath him.
Kravos gritted his teeth, veins bulging as he forced power into his limbs.
"I am the ruler of this city!" he shouted. "You cannot erase !"
Garion raised his hand slightly.
"You already lost when you tried to erase things you didn’t understand," he replied.
The force doubled.
Kravos’s body lifted into the air.
His armor cracked.
Blood spilled from his mouth as his limbs were pulled inward against his will.
Velgon was sobbing now, fear completely replacing his greed.
"Please! I was wrong! I shouldn’t have sold anything!"
Garion didn’t look at him.
"Too late," he said quietly.
The ruins of the city began to move.
Broken towers slid across the ground. Streets folded inward.
Everything was dragged toward Garion, crushed tighter and tighter as it approached.
Kravos let out one final roar, filled with rage and disbelief.
"I refuse!"
His voice was swallowed.
Stone. Ash. Bodies.
Everything vanished into the invisible pull, compressed until there was nothing left to see.
Then, slowly, the force faded.
Garion’s skin returned to normal. The darkness receded. The ground stopped shaking.
Silence fell.
There was no city anymore. No demons. No ruler.
Garion stood alone on bare land, breathing evenly.
He looked around once, then nodded.
"...Yeah," he said to himself. "Still works."
He rolled his shoulders and relaxed his hands.
"That really is a strong technique," Garion added. "Good call naming it [Gravity Hole]."
He turned around and smiled faintly.
With Black Ash City erased and the Demon Gate gone for good, the demon world no longer mattered to him.
There was nothing left here worth fixing or studying.
"Alright," Garion muttered. "Back to my own problems."
A familiar transparent screen flickered into view in front of him.
He looked at it calmly.
"So," Garion said, hands slipping back into his pockets, "what do I do now, System?"
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