I didn’t touch anything physically.
The domain did.
Far away, at the edge of the province, the golden pressure folded inward around an isolated zone occupied by another race, and then the effect spread through it all at once. Streets cracked apart first, the ground eroding into dust while structures collapsed inward as though age had suddenly caught up to them in a single moment.
Walls disintegrated. Towers folded. The monsters inside barely had time to react before the same force consumed them as well, their bodies breaking apart under the overwhelming pressure spreading through the zone.
A system notification appeared immediately.
Then another.
Then more.
[Safe Zone Captured]
[Influence Points +150]
[Combat Points +700]
I barely paid attention to them.
My focus shifted to the next zone.
Then the next.
The province trembled under the domain as Ruinous Touch spread from one location to another, each activation beginning the same way, a bloom of destructive energy unfolding inside the targeted safe zone before rapidly expanding outward through everything within it.
Entire cities began collapsing in sequence across the province, roads breaking apart while buildings eroded into drifting ash beneath the pressure. Defensive walls disintegrated. Watchtowers crumbled. Streets split open as the force moved through them without resistance.
The notifications became constant.
[Safe Zone Captured]
[Influence Points +63]
[Combat Points +540]
[Safe Zone Captured]
[Influence Points +48]
[Combat Points +395]
[Safe Zone Captured]
[Influence Points + 410]
[Combat Points + 820]
I continued.
The domain carried the skill effortlessly now, each activation flowing into the next as the stored energy circulated through the province-wide field, allowing me to target zones one after another without needing to move.
And every destruction fed even more energy to the domain.
Some fell instantly, weaker territories collapsing under the pressure before their inhabitants even understood what was happening, while others resisted slightly longer, their barriers holding for a few seconds before the disintegration spread through them anyway.
Then I felt the first real resistance.
Far north.
A cluster of alien races had fortified themselves inside a major zone, layered barriers stacked over the city while powerful energy signatures gathered within the center. The moment Ruinous Touch spread through that area, the resistance pushed back hard enough that the domain actually slowed around it.
I focused on it immediately.
More energy surged through the field.
The pressure around me intensified as I pushed directly into that point, feeding additional force into the domain until the resistance inside the zone began cracking under the weight pressing against it.
The barriers shattered first.
Then the city itself began collapsing.
I could feel them fighting it, trying to attack the domain, trying to reinforce the zone, but the domain had already surrounded everything. The disintegration spread through the streets, through the walls, through the beings themselves until the resistance vanished entirely.
The notifications continued.
Nonstop.
By the fifth minute, entire sections of the province had already gone silent.
By the seventh, the remaining resistance had turned chaotic, scattered groups trying to flee zones that no longer existed by the time they reached the edge.
By the tenth minute, there was almost nothing left.
I opened my eyes slowly.
The golden domain still stretched across the horizon, vast and overwhelming, but now the province beneath it had changed completely. Safe zones that had once glowed with foreign control had gone dark one after another, their structures erased under the pressure while the system notifications continued flooding endlessly across my vision.
The energy inside the domain kept growing even after the province had fallen silent, circulating endlessly through the field like a storm that refused to calm down, and the sheer amount of power moving through me had already crossed the point where it felt comfortable to hold.
Every destroyed zone had fed more energy back into the domain, every collapsed city adding to it, and now the pressure surrounding my body had become heavy enough that the ground beneath me continued cracking even while I stood still.
I exhaled slowly and raised my hand slightly, trying to steady the flow before it spiraled further.
Knight looked at me with an expression that had shifted somewhere between concern and disbelief. "That’s way too much energy," he said. "You need to release it before something explodes."
"I was planning to," I replied.
The moment the words left my mouth, I bent my legs slightly and pushed off the ground.
The earth shattered beneath me as my body launched upward like a comet, tearing through the air in a streak of golden light while the pressure surrounding the domain followed with me, roaring through the sky in violent currents.
The city disappeared beneath me almost instantly, along with Knight and Lyrate, while the landscape of the empire stretched out below in enormous sections divided by mountains, rivers, forests, and distant capitals.
The next province came into view within seconds.
I crossed the distance so fast the air itself distorted around me, the accumulated energy constantly feeding into Radiant Drive until movement no longer felt like motion but acceleration without resistance, and as I reached the sky above the next provincial capital, I saw them again.
The metal puppets.
Rows of them standing around another massive shielded city, their visors already beginning to glow red as they reacted to my presence overhead.
I didn’t slow down.
The axe came up above my head while the energy inside the domain surged violently into the blade, compressing into a glowing edge so dense the surrounding air bent around it.
"Radiant Slash."
The strike came down.
A massive blade of golden destructive energy tore free from the axe and crashed into the city below before the puppets could even move properly, and for a brief moment everything went still as the slash buried itself into the center of the capital.
Then the destruction spread.
Yellow light exploded outward across the city in expanding waves, streets collapsing first before the buildings followed, entire districts disintegrating under the pressure while the giant puppets vanished within the blast before they could even lift their swords. The ground itself split apart beneath the impact, the force carving a massive crater into the province while a deep gorge ripped outward from the center like the land had been cleaved open.
I passed over the destruction without stopping.
The domain followed.
The moment the capital fell, the field expanded across the province automatically, and Ruinous Touch spread through every connected safe zone like a chain reaction, cities collapsing one after another while the destruction itself continued feeding more energy back into the domain.
The notifications became endless.
[Safe Zone Captured]
[Safe Zone Captured]
The energy surged higher. I accelerated again. The next province.
Then another.
The empire blurred beneath me as I moved from capital to capital, never slowing long enough for resistance to properly form. Some provinces tried to fight back immediately, launching flying beasts, barriers, and coordinated attacks toward me the moment I appeared overhead, but none of it lasted. The domain had grown too large, too dense, and every attempt to stop it only fed more destruction into it.
One capital attempted to raise a layered barrier across the entire province before I arrived, massive red shields stacking over one another in the sky while thousands of alien races members gathered below.
I crashed straight through them.
The domain tore the barriers apart on contact while Ruinous Touch spread through the province immediately afterward, entire mountain ranges trembling as cities vanished beneath the pressure.
The axe swung once and the accumulated force detonated through their bodies, the explosions visible from hundreds of miles away as the remains crashed back into the collapsing cities beneath them.
Every province became the same after that.
Arrival. Destruction. Silence.
The empire itself was falling faster than anyone could move through it.
By the time the final province came into view, the sky itself had started changing color beneath the pressure radiating from the domain, faint golden distortions stretching across the clouds while the energy roaring around me had reached a level where even holding the axe felt unnecessary.
I descended slowly toward the last capital.
The city below had already begun preparing for me, countless figures gathered around the massive central fortress while barriers layered over one another across the skyline.
I looked down at them quietly. Then raised the axe again. The domain roared.