Atticus had been holding onto a very powerful artifact for years now.
Five years ago, after the attack on the Ravenstein camp and the subsequent award ceremony, Avalon had promised to give Atticus a gift for his impressive display during the ceremony.
In light of this, Avalon had given Atticus a spherical object containing five blue earrings. Out of these five, only one remained.
Atticus had given two to Aurora and Ember back at the academy, the third to Avalon, and the last was always fixed on his left ear.
The effects of the artifact were simple yet profound.
**Name:** Echo's Call
**Rank:** Grandmaster+
**Function:** Echo's Call is a powerful teleportation artifact. Each of the five earrings within the sphere is linked through a connection. When one wearer is in danger, they can mentally trigger the artifact, which will teleport another wearer of the earring to their location instantly.
It was an incredibly powerful artifact, and to Atticus, it served as a tremendous safety net.
The entire battlefield descended into a deafening silence.
Alvis and Ronad found themselves standing together hundreds of meters away the moment that man appeared.
Avalon Ravenstein.
One of the four stars of the Ravenstein family and one of the greatest geniuses ever to appear in the human domain.
Avalon had broken almost all the records left behind by Magnus and was expected to become a being even stronger than Magnus.
Avalon truly deserved the title of the family head of a family of madmen. Only a madman could lead a family filled with them.
Avalon was known throughout the human domain for two things: his overwhelming talent and power, and his hot temper.
Magnus was calm and steady, striking only when provoked. However, his threshold for nonsense was still relatively high, depending on the situation, of course. But Avalon was the opposite. At any sign of nonsense, Avalon would erupt.
'Can we handle him?' Alvis wondered, still in his bestial and transformed state. Although his left arm had started healing, it would take time for it to fully grow back.
Avalon was a grandmaster+ rank, but he was incomparable to Rowan, Aurora's father, whom he and Ronad had faced back at the Raven camp. Avalon was a monster among the grandmaster+ ranks.
Only his presence, without unleashing any aura, was enough to increase the weight of the air.
Ronad could also see the severity of the current situation, and he had completely lost the grin on his face. To be honest, he was more worried than Alvis because of their history.
[We'll fight together. He shouldn't be able to handle the two of us. It'll be tough, but we'll kill him just like we kill that fool back then at the Raven camp]
Ronad manipulated the air flow and communicated with Alvis. If they could kill the Ravenstein family head and heir here, it would be a huge blow to the Ravenstein family.
However, while the duo was busy planning their next move, Avalon took his time.
He was currently clad in a regal robe and had been heading toward an important meeting before he got transported out of the blue.
Although Avalon's mind worked like a supercomputer, his actions seemed slow.
The first thing he did was turn his gaze backward. He knew only his boy could have called him here, and he needed to assess his state first.
Seeing Atticus's bloodied figure showing him a weak smile, Avalon's expression didn't change. He had expected that Atticus would at least have had to be in this state for the artifact to activate.
Then, Avalon turned to face the front. In that moment, only two things occupied his mind. The first was the current state of one of the grandmaster+ ranks before him—one of his hands was cut off.
It didn't take a genius to figure out who had done that, given the situation.
His 16-year-old son had severed the arm of a grandmaster+ rank.
Although they had met and spent time together on multiple occasions, Avalon hadn't been able to spend much time with Atticus over the years due to his obsession with finding Ariel's killer.
He had always been proud of his boy, always.
Atticus was hardworking and possessed a talent never before seen in the human domain.
But a 16-year-old cutting off the arm of a grandmaster+ rank? The pride Avalon felt deep within him was so intense that a chuckle escaped his lips. He felt an overwhelming urge to brag!
However, as soon as Avalon's eyes landed on the man beside Alvis, all those good feelings vanished, and his expression froze.
Avalon stared at Ronad for a few seconds without uttering a single word.
For eight years—eight whole years—he had been searching for this man. The same man who had killed his brother, Ariel Ravenstein.
And now, that same man was standing right in front of him.
There was no need for useless words.
Avalon's lips parted, and though he uttered only a single word, it was enough to send a tremor through the entire space.
"Domain,"
The word echoed like a thunderclap, reverberating through the atmosphere.
In the next instant, it happened. An eruption of blinding orange light exploded from Avalon's body, so intense that it was as though a sun had ignited on the battlefield.
The light shot up into the sky, a searing pillar of fire that tore through the heavens.
It felt as though a nuclear explosion had detonated, the force of the blast rippling outward in all directions.
The shockwave that followed was a wall of heat and power, incinerating everything in its path, reducing the landscape to ash and cinders in an instant.
The orange light continued to spread outward, expanding with terrifying speed until it encompassed everything within its reach.
The sky, once pitch black, was now an inferno, swirling with fire and smoke, the very clouds themselves burning.
In the center of the raging world, where the heat was so intense it could melt steel, Avalon stood tall.
The flames swirled around him fiercely, yet they seemed almost tamed in his presence, as if bowing to their master.
Alvis and Ronad had immediately unleashed their own domains as soon as Avalon had done so.
However, instead of each one clashing for dominance and trying to overcome Avalon's domain, Avalon's domain was so overwhelming that only two small mini-domains formed around the both of them, each one fighting a losing battle and on the verge of being snuffed out.