Chương 495: Chapter 493 – What Comes Next?

"Impressive," the male Alfar voice said to Damion with a smirk. The Alfar's domain had only faltered for a moment, but that was enough for Damion to clearly see his opponent was a he, which confused him. Aside from confronting the Alfar army on their way to Ardnet, Damion had only encountered one male Alfar. Even including the ones that made up the Alfar force, none of them had been above A Rank. Seeing this Alfar at SSS Rank was quite the surprise.

The brief moment of exposure was enough for the artifact array to be damaged beyond repair, which meant Damion was now on the clock. He had no idea if his allies or the Alfar would arrive here first, but given this was a battle between two SSS Ranks, it did not matter. Neither of them could be harmed by a weaker mage.

"I am quite surprised to see a male Alfar here," Damion said to the seemingly empty chamber. The Alfar had hidden himself in his domain again and withdrew it from contact with Damion's. This meant the Alfar was hiding, possibly preparing to strike and there was no way for Damion to know from where.

"I have only ever known the females of your people to be powerful," Damion continued, hoping to goad a response from his opponent.

"Do they kill off the stronger males, to preserve their power? How is it that you escaped notice?" Damion's question was answered by a blast of mana ripping into his Shadow Domain. The concentrated magic attack did not come close to hitting him, but it did surprise him. The Alfar had managed to condense enough of his mana into a single attack and launch it at him to breach Damion's domain. Once the attack was within the Shadow Domain, the Alfar's control over the mana was overridden by Damion's.

In a way the attack was successful, but not in the way the Alfar had hoped. Instead, it gave Damion a bit of insight into how to combat another domain wielder and helped him identify what the affinity his foe's domain was. Spatial. However, even with a method of attack and knowledge of the Alfar's affinity, Damion still had to locate his foe. Now that he knew his opponent was using the Spatial affinity he had an idea on how he was remaining hidden.

Inside the Spatial Domain the Alfar would be able to bend and manipulate space in ways that were impossible outside of it. Knowing the magic seal for Spatial Domain himself, Damion considered making use of it now, but he hesitated. In the past when he used his Spatial Domain, he used it to avoid attacks or lock down an area to prevent someone from escaping. Manipulating space the same way as the Alfar would not be easy to do.

Not only was he not sure if he could do it, Damion was not even sure if the Alfar was only using the Spatial affinity.

"I seem to have hit a sore spot," Damion smiled. As he spoke to the hiding Alfar he worked to reinforce his Shadow Domain. Then he activated Shadow Mastery and as his Body of Light passive. The light he emitted created shadows across the dark rotunda, shadows he could then manipulate at will. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Summon Shadows could have allowed him to create more shadows and at a greater rate, but Damion did not want to put the Alfar any more on guard than he already was. Manipulating the shadows through Shadow Mastery was not as noticeable as Summon Shadows, so he hoped he could locate his opponent before the Alfar realized what he was doing.

"Are you shy? Is that why you don't talk? Or is it because your Mistress or Matron doesn't allow you to speak without permission." Damion hoped to taunt the Alfar into revealing his location, but so far the male Alfar had kept quiet.

"My name is Damion, what's yours?" This time he tried a different approach. Perhaps this SSS Rank Alfar would give up on the idea of keeping the seal intact since he was facing off against an SSS Rank. It was a long shot, but Damion supposed it was possible. After a long moment of silence, the Alfar finally responded.

"My name is Gedrick."

"Named after the ancient Alfar male who reached S Rank, I suppose?" Damion responded before he considered what he was asking.

"Named after no one. I am Gedrick."

"Then you are the leader of the Alfar?"

"I am."

"Then tell me, why are you trying to doom the Mother World?"

"All things with a beginning must also have an end. What does it matter if we hasten that end?"

"So, you don't mind also dooming your people? Once the mana density reaches a certain level, even the Alfar will not be able to tolerate it."

"Why should I care about the Matrons and the Mistresses? What have they ever done for me?"

"What about your fellow males? Shouldn't you be trying to give them a better life?" Damion asked. His shadows were moving around the rotunda, following the sound of Gedrick's voice. Soon Damion would have the Alfar's location pinned down and he would be able to launch his own attack.

"They are weak. If they cannot look after themselves, why should I?"

"You don't care about your people. You don't care about the Mother World. So, what is it that you care about? Why do you want the seal to remain?"

"Power."

"Power?"

"Why else?" As Gedrick spoke he launched another attack at Damion. This one, however, did not penetrate as far into the Shadow Domain. With his shadows spread out over the chamber, Damion was able to detect the attack as soon as it was launched. Gedrick did not remain in the same place after he attacked, but with a thought, Damion sent one group of shadows to follow his wake. Now that the Alfar was located, tracking him would be much easier.

Without even causing a disturbance in the ambient mana, Nyx Shadow Stepped from Damion's shadow to the shadow now following the path of Gedrick's Spatial Domain. While Nyx was attaching herself to the shadow, Damion was manipulating the shadows in his domain to counter the attack Gedrick had launched. This time, Damion was able to see that the spell consisted of layers of space folded onto one another until the Spatial affinity itself became tangible.

The Spatial Blade, as Damion had decided to call it, was quite the attack. If it was able to hit its target the folded space would expand exponentially, ripping the victim apart from within. Even with his multiple layers of artifacts, Damion was not sure how he would fair if he was actually hit with such as attack.

"Folding space into an attack," Damion said, though he took care not to speak directly at the place he now knew Gedrick was hiding. He slowly walked in a circle, around the seal in the center of the rotunda, keeping his eyes darting around as if he was still trying to locate the Alfar.

"It seems to me you already have plenty of power. SSS Rank. Mastery of a difficult affinity. What else could you desire?"

"Surely you have sensed it," Gedrick answered. Damion turned towards the Alfar's voice and found his foe had ceased to remain hidden.

"You are at least as strong as I. You must have sensed the next Rank."