"Gah!"
A pained grunt escaped Bane’s lips as he was violently expelled from mental space. His body shot backward, flying out of the Night Devourer’s domain like a broken kite.
Thud.
However, he didn’t hit the hard ground as blood-soaked arms caught him mid-air.
"Master!"
Yaro, the Blood Marquis, looked down at the young man in his arms with undisguised concern. "Are you okay?"
"...Yes."
Bane steadied himself. He wiped a trail of blackish-red blood from the corner of his lips with his thumb. He looked at the massive, swirling shadow beast in the distance, his eyes narrowing in excitement.
"But... I want to tame this guy even more now."
Yaro blinked, then let out a short, dry laugh.
He wasn’t surprised.
He remembered when he had first met this boy. Back when Yaro had refused to bow, when he had threatened to drain the boy dry, Bane had looked at him with that exact same predatory hunger. The more impossible the challenge, the more this Prince wanted to conquer it.
"But... can we beat it?"
Yaro asked, his voice losing its humor as he looked up.
The domain was shifting. The formless shadows were coalescing into a colossal, beastly shape that towered over the snowy landscape.
Yaro clutched his side. He was still injured from those strange flames he had absorbed from his Master earlier, and even his super regenerative abilities were struggling to heal the burns.
’And...’
Yaro glanced nervously at the dark expanse of the snowy field.
’What if that white monster comes back?’
He didn’t dare speak the thought aloud. The Prince hadn’t seen the terrifying creature that had appeared briefly earlier. Yaro feared that if they were caught between an enraged Overlord and that unexplained calamity in this open field, they would be truly finished.
Bane chuckled coldly, unaware of his servant’s internal panic. He straightened his back, the snowflakes landing on his shoulders.
"Don’t worry. I have anticipated this outcome."
He turned his gaze toward the roaring Night Devourer.
"Negotiations failed. So now we use the usual option: force."
He looked down at the small shadow near his feet.
"I guess it’s time to let loose again. Yaro, buy me some time."
"Y-Yes!" Yaro’s eyes widened. A savage grin finally returned to his face despite the pain. "Leave it to me!"
"Velmort, let’s play," Bane muttered. "I’ll treat you once we finish."
The black cat-like creature, Velmort, looked up at him. It stared for a moment before letting out a long, exaggerated sigh of annoyance. It seemed to say, ’Do we really have to do this?’
However, it didn’t refuse since Bane promised to treat.
With a gentle leap, Velmort leaped into Bane’s arms.
Then, they pressed their foreheads together.
Ommmmm.
A low vibration vibrated through the air. In an instant, shadows erupted from the ground. They wrapped around Bane and the beast, forming a dense, impenetrable cocoon of darkness.
"ROAAAAR!"
Meanwhile, Nemo had fully manifested his strongest form. He was now a behemoth of nightmare energy, a wolf-like monstrosity with violet lightning crackling around his fur.
He stared menacingly at the blood marquis and the pulsating cocoon behind him.
His instincts screamed at him. Whatever was happening inside that shell was dangerous. It felt like the "Noble" power he hated so much.
He couldn’t let it finish.
BOOM.
Nemo charged. The ground shattered under his paws as he closed the distance in a blink.
"Not so fast!"
Yaro roared and stepped in front of the cocoon. He ignored his injuries and burned his blood essence to create a massive crimson shield.
BANG!
The impact was deafening.
Yaro grunted. The bones in his arms cracked under the sheer weight of the Overlord’s strike. He held the line for a second, two seconds—
"Urgh!"
The shield shattered. Yaro was blasted backward. He tumbled across the snowy floor until he smashed into a rock, splurting out blood.
"Hmph!"
Nemo snorted. He didn’t bother to finish off the guy.
His target was the ’prince’.
He raised a massive claw wreathed in violet corruption and slammed it down onto the black cocoon.
"Die!"
CLANG!
A metallic ringing sound echoed through the cavern.
Nemo’s eyes widened.
His claw hadn’t crushed the cocoon. It had bounced off.
"What—?"
Before he could retract his hand, a shockwave of black energy pulsed outward from the shell. It knocked the massive beast back a few steps.
Cr-crack.
A spiderweb of fissures raced across the surface of the black cocoon, glowing with a faint, ominous violet light.
Shatter.
The shell exploded outward, dissolving into wisps of smoke before hitting the ground.
Slowly, majestic wings of pure, solidified darkness unfurled, stretching so wide they seemed to blot out the stars in the night sky.
Bane hovered in the freezing air.
The transformation was complete.
The jagged black symbol burned intensely on his forehead, pulsing like a second heart. His skin had turned pale, almost translucent, contrasting sharply with the pitch-black sclera of his eyes. His irises were gone, and in their place sat an endless void, swirling with only a faint, dangerous hint of violet at the center.
His expression was detached. Cold. Inhuman.
He looked down at the massive beast below as if it were nothing more than an ant—a mistake to be corrected.
"ROAAAAR!"
Nemo lost all reason the moment that gaze landed on him.
It was that look.
That same, indifferent look the High Nobles had given him centuries ago when they threw him into the rift to die.
"I will kill you!"
Nemo unleashed hell.
He twisted the very night to his will. The shadows stretching across the snowy plains writhed and hardened, transforming into thousands of obsidian spears that erupted from the ground, aiming to skewer the hovering figure from every angle.
Simultaneously, Nemo opened his massive maw.
SCREEEEE—!
A blast of pure mental agony screamed through the air, capable of shredding the sanity of any living soul within miles. The atmosphere itself vibrated violently, churning into a chaotic turbulence of psychic noise.
Bane stood still, simply waving his hand.
"Scatter."
The single word carried an authority that superseded reality.
The thousands of shadow spears froze mid-air before disintegrating into harmless mist. The psychic scream washed over him but broke uselessly against an invisible barrier.
"Die! Die! DIE!"
Nemo ignored the failed attack. He abandoned magic, relying entirely on his monstrous physique.
He leaped.
The ground beneath him vaporized from the force of his takeoff. He became a blur of violet lightning and fur, his jaws wide open to swallow Bane whole. Space warped around his fangs, a Void Bite capable of tearing through dimension barriers.
BOOM!
Bane caught the massive jaws with his bare hands.
The collision flattened the surrounding snow for a hundred meters. The air exploded, creating a vacuum that sucked the oxygen out of the clearing.
Nemo thrashed wildly, his claws tearing at Bane’s torso, trying to rip him apart.
Bane held firm. His black wings beat once, generating a hurricane of wind that pushed the beast back.
"Is that all?" Bane whispered, his voice resonating with a terrifying, metallic echo. "Is this the power of a... King?"
He spun in the air, grabbing Nemo by the tuft of his neck.
"Down."
He hurled the massive beast toward the ground.
CRASH!
Nemo slammed into the frozen earth like a meteor. The impact shook the foundation of the plains, sending cracks racing through the ice for miles. Dust and snow rose like a mushroom cloud, obscuring the moon.
But before Nemo could recover, Bane dove.
He became a streak of black light, crashing into the crater with a second, earth-shattering boom.
The world trembled.
Fists of darkness met claws of void. Every clash sent ripples through the atmosphere, distorting the moonlight and turning the peaceful night into a catastrophic war zone.
BOOOM!
BANG-!
VROOM!
The collision of their powers created a deafening roar that drowned out all other sounds in the world. The shockwaves tore up the earth, creating a curtain of snow and debris that shielded the battlefield from the outside world.
Because of this chaotic storm, neither the enraged Overlord nor the focused Prince noticed the subtle fluctuation in space just a few hundred meters away.
Vwoom.
A small, silent portal swirled open near the edge of the crater.
A figure draped in pristine, snow-white robes stepped out onto the frozen field. The chaotic winds and raging energy blasts seemed to part around him, unable to touch the hem of his clothes.
He folded his arms, his gaze locking onto the apocalyptic clash between the Prince of Darkness and the King of the Night.
As he watched the earth-shattering exchange, a faint, amused smile played on his lips.