Chương 493: Chapter 491 – Taking Down The Null Zone

Time seemed to slow as Damion made his way to the heart of the ruins. Having the Time affinity, he knew the flow of time had not actually changed, just his perception of it, but the seconds still seemed to drag on as he counted them down to officially becoming an SSS Rank mage. When the countdown finally hit zero and the Magic System flooded him with another burst of magic power, Damion felt relieved that it was finally done. After asking the Magic System to boost all of his artifacts to SSS Rank he continued on.

Now all he had to do was make his way to the seal and confront the SSS Rank Alfar that was waiting there. There was no doubt in Damion's mind that the Alfar was not expecting him to arrive alone. Or that he would be an SSS Rank as well. Looking at his tablet, there was not far left to go. The large passageway he was traveling through was filled with fragments of broken buildings, remnants of a long dead age. After numerous twists and turns, the passage led into an even larger cavern.

This cavern was not like the previous ones, where the majority of the sunken cityscape was destroyed. Here he saw intact buildings lining dusty streets. If not for the darkness, it would have been easy to forget he was underground. In the very heart of this sunken cityscape, Damion saw the building he was seeking. A large domed building with stone columns intricately carved into human shapes. The carved pillars depicted humans in various poses. Some appeared to be casting spells, others holding swords and shields.

Damion was not sure if they were heroes of a forgotten past or if they were supposed to be depicting a story or a forgotten battle. Whatever the case, he was impressed with the artistry and the level of detail put into each one. On Nerotath there were not many artists. Even architects like his father were in short supply. When so much could be done quickly and easily by magic, taking the time to craft something by hand unfortunately risked becoming a lost art.

Heading towards the entrance to the rotunda, Damion paused for a moment to take in the craftsmanship of the pillars. With True Sight enhancing his vision he could faintly see the aged chisel marks indicating these works were indeed done by hand and not by a skilled Stone mage. After wondering if his father would like to see this place in the future, Damion walked forward through two massive stone doors that were open, as if they had been waiting for him for eons to walk through them.

As he walked towards the center of the building Damion spotted the artifact array powering the null zone. The artifact array was arranged around a central pedestal with long cable filaments running to it. If the pedestal was the enchanted seal on the Mother World, it would seem the artifact array was powered by the excess mana being produced, which meant it could likely function indefinitely. What concerned Damion was not the power source for the artifact array, it was the lack of a defender.

The Alfar SSS Rank should have been here. True, the tablet image they used as reference to see the layout had been an old still image and not a live feed, but why would the last defender abandon the seal? Damion slowed his pace as he walked towards the seal, carefully looking for signs of the Alfar. Everything outside the range of his Shadow Domain was difficult to discern due to the null zone. While his domain kept the null zone at bay, it did present him with a few difficulties.

Including, how to disable the artifact array. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! At first, Damion was worried that if he moved too close to the artifact array the null zone would form inside his Shadow Domain, but he quickly dismissed that thought. His domain allowed him to seize control of all mana inside it. If he moved to let his domain encompass the artifact array he would be able to deprive the artifacts of mana and cause the array to collapse.

Since the Alfar was nowhere to be seen, Damion decided to move forward and shut off the null zone. When the null zone came down both sides would be alerted. The question was, who would rush to the ruins first? And would their appearance make any difference in the battle between two SSS Ranks? As Damion approached and his Shadow Domain edged closer to the first artifact of the array, he took one more step forward and then stopped.

His domain had not moved forward with him, for some reason it had halted just shy of the artifact. Ordinarily, a domain was anchored to a mage, meaning he was at the center of it at all times. It was of course possible to push his domain in one direction or another by willing the domain to shift his location inside it, but Damion was not currently attempting to do this. There was of course one other thing that could cause his Shadow Domain to not be able to advance, the presence of another domain.

Other than briefly encountering other mage's domains, he had never truly fought another person with an active domain. Looking around, Damion attempted to locate the SSS Rank Alfar. Despite True Sight never failing him before, he was unable to find the Alfar. This left him with the question of, was there something else at work here? Or was the Alfar invisible? That would account for the Iblis having no knowledge of a SSS Rank among their enemy.

Though he was not sure if it would resolve the lack of a signal from the auto-mapper, after all, the auto-mapper had returned a signal when the null zone was deactivated earlier. There was also the question of why the Alfar never used this SSS Rank in the war prior to now? However, Damion realized that he likely was not going to find any answers until he met this Alfar face to face.

Realizing that his Shadow Domain was likely being blocked by the domain of the Alfar, Damion pushed more mana into his spell to try and increase its influence. His magic power surged as he pushed and his Shadow Domain grew in every direction except towards the artifact array. Now Damion could feel the resistance of the Alfar's domain pushing back against his as they struggled for dominance. As he continued to feed more magic into his spell he could not help but wonder what type of domain the Alfar was employing.

Having four domain spells himself, Damion was familiar with the differences between them and what he could sense from the Alfar's was different still, yet somehow familiar. The familiarity of the Alfar's domain told Damion the domain was likely related to one of the affinities he possessed. Unfortunately, unless he wanted to subject himself to his opponent's spell, there was not a way for him to determine for sure what affinity the domain belonged to. Damion pushed harder, feeding his Shadow Domain even more mana.

He could feel the edges of his domain expanding slowly. Pushing back the Alfar's spell and slowly encroaching on the artifact array. The artifact array relied on each of the artifacts working in concert to create the null zone. Therefore, all Damion had to do was disable one artifact and the entire array would collapse. The Alfar realized this as well and continued to boost his own domain to try and thwart Damion. Unfortunately for the Alfar, Damion's magic power was at a similar level.

Where the two differed was in total mana capacity and mana regeneration. The Alfar could keep his domain spell up even when faced with many lesser mages, but against someone of his own Rank and someone that never seemed to tire or run low on mana, the Alfar was outclassed. When Damion's Shadow Domain touched the first artifact of the array the entire array exploded. Pieces of the various artifacts were sent flying around the rotunda, and the null zone came crashing down.

The blast also startled the Alfar and the SSS Rank's domain faltered for a moment, revealing to Damion his opponent.