The knife wasn’t enough.
Alex knew it before he even raised his hand.
Twenty centiters of ordinary steel against a level 78 exorcist with thirty-two thousand HP and passive regeneration.
It wasn’t enough.
But the Fragnt had other ideas.
---
It started in his right hand.
A tingling. Then heat. Then sothing that wasn’t exactly pain but wasn’t its opposite either.
The black energy that had been pulsing around his knuckles began to move.
Up his arm.
Across his shoulder.
Up his neck.
[CORRUPTION: 80.5% → 82%]
[WARNING: Critical threshold exceeded]
Alex felt the exact mont sothing changed.
Not dramatically.
Not with an explosion or a shout.
Just... a step back.
As if the part of him that was still calculating, still hesitating, still wondering should I do this? simply leaned back.
And made room for sothing older.
---
Matthias noticed it first.
"Ah," he said quietly. "There it is."
Alex tilted his head.
The voice that ca out was his own. Sa tone. Sa timbre.
But without the fatigue. Without the weight of the last thirty minutes of battle.
"You’ve been talking for a long ti."
He launched forward.
Without Shadow Step. Without Blood Weapon. Without anything.
Just speed.
[SYSTEM — NOTIFICATION]
[Corruption 82% — Primordial Death skills temporarily unlocked]
[Death’s Domain — ACTIVATED]
The fifty-ter radius around Alex changed.
The air grew heavy. Almost visible, like black mist clinging to the ground. The dead plants on the terrain rotted faster. The rocks darkened.
And Matthias’s creatures within the radius...
They hesitated.
The Sand Scorpion Warrior took a step back.
The Wyvern Mate lowered its head.
Pure instinct. The sa instinct Grim had triggered earlier with his pulse, but constant now. Permanent. Radiating from Alex like heat from a fla.
Matthias gritted his teeth.
"Dominion versus Domain," he murmured. "Interesting."
His creatures fought against two wills at once. Matthias’s green pushing. Alex’s black crushing.
For now, Matthias was winning.
But it cost him concentration.
---
Alex arrived.
Matthias blocked the first strike with his forearm.
CLANG.
The ordinary knife shouldn’t have made that sound.
But Death’s Domain enveloped every centiter of Alex now, and the simple steel conducted the energy like a wire conducts electricity.
[Matthias HP: 9,700 → 9,100/32,000]
Matthias counterattacked. His green fist straight to the chest.
Alex didn’t dodge.
He took it.
[Alex HP: 260 → 180/1,110]
And at the mont of impact, he channeled.
[Soul Rend — ACTIVATED]
Not physical damage.
Soul damage.
Alex’s free hand grabbed Matthias’s arm at the contact point, and sothing invisible tightened between them. Like a thread. Like a root.
Matthias felt sothing he hadn’t felt in years.
Fear.
"What are you—"
[Matthias — SOUL DAMAGE: -800]
[Matthias HP: 9,100 → 8,300/32,000]
[Holy Regeneration — INTERFERED] (soul damage interrupts healing cycle for 8 seconds)
The regeneration cut off.
Matthias violently separated, burning MP in a burst of green energy to create a large distance between them.
Twenty ters between them.
His eyes, normally calculating, held sothing new.
Uncertainty.
"Soul Rend," he said. "You shouldn’t be able to use that yet."
"Apparently I can."
[SYSTEM — NOTIFICATION]
[Necrotic Amplification — ACTIVE]
[All death skills: 100% power]
[Duration: as long as corruption exceeds 82%]
---
"Master."
Alex didn’t turn his head.
Grim was to his left. Sixty HP. Left arm unusable. Fractured ribs.
But standing.
"Still. Here."
Sothing in that phrase.
So simple.
It pierced through the Fragnt’s noise for a second and touched sothing that was still Alex.
Still here. With sixty HP. Because you’re still here.
The Fragnt noted the distraction and ignored it.
There was work to do.
---
[MATTHIAS]
The exorcist assessed in two seconds.
Soul Rend interrupted his regeneration. Death’s Domain weakened his control over the creatures. Necrotic Amplification multiplied every attack.
The math had changed completely.
It was no longer level 78 against level 43.
It was sothing more complicated.
Matthias made a decision.
"Very well."
He extended both arms toward his creatures.
Not to attack.
To call them.
The Sand Scorpions. The crawling Wyvern Mate. The corpses of the Wyvern Alpha still with green energy flowing in their veins.
All responded.
Converging toward him.
"If you’re going to use ancient power," he said, "I’ll use my faith."
[Martyr’s Sacrifice — CHARGING]
Alex saw it.
Understood a second too late.
"Grim—"
Too late.
[Martyr’s Sacrifice — ACTIVATED]
Green energy exploded from every creature simultaneously.
Not outward.
Toward Matthias.
The Sand Scorpion Elder detonated first. Ninety-five thousand HP worth of mass converted to pure energy in an instant. Then the Hunter. The Warrior. The Wyvern Mate.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Four chain explosions.
The earth split. The mountains answered with their own tremors. Rocks the size of houses fell from distant cliffs.
Dust covered everything.
---
When it settled—
Matthias stood in the center of the crater.
Different.
His destroyed robes had been replaced by sothing that wasn’t clothing. It was green energy solidified around his body like living armor. His eyes blazed so brightly they illuminated the dust around him.
[MATTHIAS — TEMPORARY POWER SPIKE]
[Stats equivalent to Level 90 — Duration: 5 minutes]
[HP: 9,700 → 24,000/32,000] (creature absorption)
He took a breath.
"Five minutes," he said. "That’s all I need."
He launched himself.
---
The first blow struck Grim.
[Grim HP: 60 → 0—]
[Core Resonance — ERGENCY INTERVENTION]
[HP cannot fall to zero while vessel lives — Minimum: 1 HP]
[Grim HP: 1/3,360]
Grim flew a hundred ters.
Hit the base of the canyon.
He did not get up.
The second blow ca for Alex.
[Alex HP: 180 → —]
[Partial Awakening — ERGENCY ABSORPTION]
[Alex HP: 180 → 95/1,110]
Alex flew too.
Less than Grim.
He landed rolling. Stopped against a rock.
Silence for three seconds.
Matthias walked toward him.
Unhurried. With five minutes, he had plenty of ti.
"You see?" he said. "Ancient power or not. Level difference always matters."
Alex spat blood.
Ninety-five HP. Zero MP.
Grim at one HP at the far end of the field.
[Matthias HP: 24,000/32,000]
[POWER SPIKE — 4 minutes 31 seconds remaining]
The Fragnt calculated.
No panic. No doubt.
Just numbers.
Four and a half minutes. Zero MP. Ninety-five HP.
We can’t win an exchange.
We can’t run. He’d catch us.
We can’t wait. Grim is at one HP.
What remains?
Matthias reached five ters.
He raised his hand.
[CORRUPTED SMITE — MAXIMUM POWER]
"It ends here, Fragnt."
Alex looked at him.
His eyes crimson, fully crimson now, no white visible.
And he said sothing that only the Fragnt would say, not Alex.
"Not yet."
[MP: 0 → 0/535]
[HP: 95/1,110]
[Death’s Domain — ACTIVE]
[Soul Rend — CHARGING]
[Necrotic Amplification — ACTIVE]
The mountains trembled again.
A new crack split the ground between them.
The battle was not over.
But ti was running out.
For both of them.
---
User Comments
0 comments from readers