Chapter 600: Losing The Battle
“Domain Expansion…”
The instant those words were spoken, Zar’kul’s eyes widened as he felt the already silent void descend into an even deeper stillness.
‘He… he still has enough power to activate a Domain!?’
The Void trembled instantaneously.
A nebula-sized rift tore open above the void, threads of starlight wrapping and bleeding in reverse.
From within surged a monstrous, collapsing realm—a void-born throne world where gravity had increased a thousandfold, and the skies were painted in molten red and black.
At the center burned a pitch-black dying star, chained behind a fractured throne.
Its edges pulsed with malevolence, leaking void fire into the realm.
And on that throne sat a humanoid figure.
On his head rested a crown of broken halos, hovering above him, etched with ancient symbols across their surface, sending pulses of light rippling through the entire domain.
Then, with a stunned expression, Zar’kul watched as the seated figure silently unfolded his crossed legs, his body leaning forward with curiosity.
“Now… where were we?”
——
Mutation 3: Domain Expansion – “Nether Crown: Throne of the Dying Star”
You tear open a nebula-sized rift, forming a cursed, collapsing void-realm ruled by a sentient dying star.
This Domain is alive, feeding on hope, light, and sanity.
Void Law Rewrite: Every 30 seconds, you can rewrite a rule of reality inside the Domain.
—
A petrifying wave of aura sank into Zar’kul’s core as fear gripped him.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
Just by standing within this domain, he felt it gnawing at his spirit, like spectral claws scratching toward his soul’s core, dragging dread through his every fiber.
He turned instinctively, trying to escape the domain, yet his first step resulted in the entire void shattering into pieces, as Ryuk raised his legs and slammed into the ground beneath him.
“Activate Draconic Grave March!”
In an instant, the already suffocating gravity surged several hundredfold.
One of Zar’kul’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the platform beneath him.
He tried to immediately turn to look at Ryuk, but then the voice echoed out:
“May Light Cease to Exist!”
The words rang through the realm like the cold decree of an unforgiving monarch.
Zar’kul ran, yet he lost sight of everything.
There was nothing.
No light.
No sound.
No space.
He tried to look at his own body—but saw nothing.
As though his vision had been devoured. In that pitch-darkness, only one thing echoed out:
STEP
STEP
STEP
The sound of deliberate footsteps.
He clenched his teeth and forced himself off the ground, resisting the immense gravity.
In a breath, he summoned his will, moving his hand to conjure a runic symbol he remembered—but then—
SLLIISSSHHH!
The sharp sound echoed through the domain as Zar’kul felt a searing pain in his arms.
They were gone.
He’d been disarmed—his wrists ripped away before he could conjure anything.
In a desperate move, he kicked forward toward the space ahead, but met only empty darkness.
He kicked left, then right—
But there was only silence.
STEP
STEP
STEP
The footsteps continued, unperturbed.
He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it.
A dread that wrapped around his mind the longer the darkness endured.
“Can you feel it, Zar’kul?”
The voice rang out suddenly as Zar’kul slashed in the direction of the voice, only to meet shadows.
“Can you feel your death closing in…?”
This time, the voice whispered directly into his ears.
Zar’kul slashed again, his claw rending air—but nothing was there.
“Your grand dreams of becoming something more?”
“The lives you sent into the abyss for conquest?”
“Can you feel it all draining away…”
“Drifting into the hands of one you referred to as ‘little’.”
“The one whose retreat you mocked, the one you saw as a coward, your entire existence.”
“And now, in three seconds from now and you’ll be the one dying in fear.”
“Pathetic, is it not…?”
It rang out again as Zar’kul’s eye twitched and his breath came in unsteady bursts.
Then he heard it.
‘Three seconds.’
He instantly recognized the opportunity.
And truly—within those three seconds—he felt it.
A direction.
A presence.
A chance.
For a moment, the light that had vanished reappeared within the realm once more.
Zar’kul’s eyes glistened with revelation, he felt the danger that soared from behind him.
“You forced me to use it!”
The unwilling roar rang out as Zar’kul twisted in a single motion, his right hand engulfed in bizarre, purple energy that oozed with an aura that didn’t resemble either Void Energy or Apex Energy.
BOOOOOOOM
It surged forth in a palm strike, appearing before Ryuk, whose claws reached for Ryuk’s ribs, gnawing for his core.
RIIIIIIIP
RIIIIIIIP
The sound echoed twice.
Claw and palm—each impaled through the other’s back.
But then, one of them opened his lips—and from within, dark blood splattered out.
Zar’kul exhaled and inhaled in heavy gasps, awakening to the horror.
He stared at his fading, ruined hands—the ones that tore through Ryuk’s chest, the left which his heart ought to be—and Ryuk’s, whose claws grazed past but never really touched his core.
And he smiled triumphantly.
Blood continued pouring from Ryuk’s chest as he collapsed to one knee, the claw stuck in his torso.
“You lost… little dark one.”
He whispered victoriously, his voice laced with acidic satisfaction, watching Ryuk’s eyes flicker with disbelief and regret.
Something in that look made Zar’kul’s gaze gleam—
And in that one moment of victory, he revealed a final truth.
“You ever wonder why your body parts were seized—bit by bit—shared amongst the Seven Calamities?”
He asked Ryuk, whose gaze remained lost, blood splattering onto Zar’kul’s hands.
“It’s because of the energy every part harbors. When Abyssal Energy and Apex Energy meet—two opposing forces…”
“They conjoin together, under very rare exceptions, to form a new energy.”
“An energy called—Hurricane!”
“The only energy that allowed an ordinary race to become a Beyonder Race.”
“The only energy that can challenge those bastard gods sitting on Eternal Thrones, watching us as nothing more than playthings. Entertainment for their sick boredom.”
“And you, little dark one… possess this energy from your dual bloodline. A bloodline that should never have fused… and never should have existed.”
“And now, to this energy, obtained from your skeletal structure that was ripped off of your unworthy body and bestowed to me—you now end to!”
——
A/N:
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In and Out_SnowySmoos