Something started to writhe beneath Julien’s feet, shifting faintly at first, then gradually spreading outward, creeping over the ground around him.
“Calling out your domain?”
The Deacon stared at Julien before shaking his head. At the same time, those around him started to get ready.
Domains weren’t difficult to handle.
The key was in not entering them. So long as one didn’t enter them, they were essentially useless.
There was a reason why nobody fully used their domain and only partially used it.
This was because pulling someone into a domain demanded extraordinary strength and precision. Though Julien was powerful, he was outnumbered, and the Deacon surpassed him in raw strength as a Tier 7 Mage.
‘With that being said, his emotive magic has far surpassed my expectations.’
The Deacon turned to look at his comrade on the floor. His expression grew serious then.
If he had to compare himself to him, the Deacon felt he was lagging behind. This was mainly because he wasn’t specialized in combat, but even then… the Deacon wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
The fact that someone stronger than him had been defeated by Julien…
Further adding to the fact that they were all equipped with tools capable of handling high-level emotive magic, it became incredibly clear that Julien’s Emotive abilities were far beyond what he had originally expected.
‘I’m afraid… not even a Tier 8 Mind Mage should be capable of handling something like that.’
The thought…
It made the Deacon extremely apprehensive, finally getting a hint as to why the Saint was so wary of him.
But nonetheless, he was still manageable.
Lifting his head, he stared at the approaching domain.
By now, the frontliners had retreated while the mages immediately started to cast spells, directed in Julien’s way.
The key here was stopping him before he could fully get his domain out.
“Shoot!”
The spells all rained down on Julien at once, his bloodied figure remaining still as the spells approached him.
Bang!
A terrifying explosion ensued shortly after as the spells managed to hit him in the body.
“Ho…”
The Deacon took an amused breath as he saw Julien remain standing, the domain beneath his feet continuing to inch forward. Somehow… he had managed to resist the attacks coming from all sides.
Of course, while he did manage to resist them, it wasn’t without any injuries.
Blood continued to flow out of his body as the expanding domain beneath his feet slowed down significantly.
The Deacon could see from just a glance that he was on his last leg.
‘He just needs a little push.’
He thought about going forward to finish things, but hesitated.
“…..”
He was reminded of what had previously happened when someone got too close, and immediately felt apprehensive about moving forward.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down.
‘There’s no need to act. He’s on the verge of collapse. I should play it safe.’
The Deacon was just cautious by nature. He didn’t want to take unnecessary risks when everything was flowing well.
And so,
Lifting his head and looking at the mages, he shouted.
“Shoot again.”
Bang!
The spells rained down on Julien again, his figure shaking, and the domain beneath him stopping completely, almost moving back.
Then—
Thump!
Unable to hold on any longer, Julien stumbled to his knees, his chest rising and falling as blood dripped down the floor.
Another wave of spell was about to fall on Julien when the Deacon raised his hand.
“Stop.”
Everything ceased the moment he spoke.
Silence filled the surroundings.
With all eyes on Julien, the Deacon remained standing where he was.
“It’s impressive how you’re still clinging to your domain even though your body is about to give up on you.”
The Deacon’s praise was real. Julien’s body was clearly on the verge of breaking down, and yet, he still stubbornly clung to the idea of expanding his own domain.
The Deacon shook his head, lifting his hand to beckon the frontliners to move forward.
Given that they couldn’t kill him, they had held back quite a bit.
The losses were quite heavy, but given the importance the Saint had placed on him, the Deacon could only obediently follow.
“Make sure to be careful. Don’t kill him. Just—hm?”
Pausing mid-sentence, the Deacon frowned. He suddenly started to have a bad feeling as he looked around him. However, regardless of where he looked, he couldn’t notice anything strange.
Even the Domain that had been expanding out of Julien’s body had completely stopped moving.
In that case, everything was well.
Why did—
It was then that he saw it.
The slow, yet shaky curl of Julien’s lips as he slowly raised his head to look in his direction.
The Deacon’s heart clenched then as his mouth opened, but by then it was too late.
“…..!?”
The space beneath him wiggled, and the surroundings turned completely dark.
“What the…!?”
The Deacon looked around him, his expression unable to hide his shock as he found himself within the confines of a domain.
“But how?”
He had been so sure to keep his distance away from the domain he had been trying ot expand out of his body. It was logically impossible for him to be able to trap him in his domain.
Unless…
A distraction?
‘No, that’s not possible. I felt it. That was his real domain. It wasn’t an illusion. However… it felt different than this one.’
Indeed, what he felt from the previous domain was different from the one he was currently within.
But how could it be different?
There was no way it could be different. No way unless…
“That’s impossible!”
Waves rippled in the Deacon’s heart as he looked around him. It was dark, and he felt completely isolated from the world. He couldn’t see, hear, or sense anything.
Just pure empty darkness.
‘I need to calm down. He’s still weaker than me.’
Taking a deep breath, the Deacon calmed himself down. Even if he was within Julien’s domain, and he was put at a disadvantage, he was still stronger than Julien. Not only that, he wasn’t alone.
There was no way for Julien to handle him.
It shouldn’t take long for him to break through the domain and escape.
“I’ll do that.”
The Deacon channeled his mana, a terrifying pressure bursting out from his body as a series of magic circles manifested around his body, floating in the air.
The Deacon’s sharp eyes scanned the surroundings in search of some sort of point he could exploit. While brute forcing his way out wasn’t impossible, he didn’t want to completely waste his mana unless something unexpected occurred.
He also felt that it would lead him to become extremely vulnerable, which didn’t align with his cautious nature.
“There—!”
As if sensing something, the Deacon’s gaze quickly fell towards a certain spot in the distance, and a burst of light shot in that direction.
Xiu!
The speed of his attack was instantaneous, arriving at its intended target in a matter of seconds.
“Ahhhh!”
A scream pierced through the darkness shortly after, throwing the Deacon off.
Stupefied, he looked in the distance to see one of his men on the ground, a gaping hole in his chest.
“Shit.”
The Deacon cursed, realizing he had been duped.
Anger boiled from deep within his chest as the realization hit him, and his eyes scanned the surroundings sharply.
“Where are you!?”
He shouted, his voice booming throughout.
“Don’t think you can win with just this! All you’re doing is delaying time! Quickly give up resisting and come with me amicably. I’ve been holding back the entire time for the Saint’s sake. The last thing I want to do is kill you!”
The Deacon’s voice once again boomed throughout the entire domain.
However, even as he spoke, he received no response back. Instead, he felt several different spots around him squirm. His body twitched the moment he felt them, but he held himself back.
He felt they were the same trap from before.
“Hooo.”
The Deacon took another deep breath, his expression twisting from the boiling rage building up on his body.
‘I can’t kill him. I can’t kill him. I can’t kill him…’
Over and over, he had to remind himself that he couldn’t kill Julien. Things would’ve been a lot easier if he had the authority to do so, but the Saint’s orders were law.
He had to respect the law.
“This is your last and final warning. If you—!?”
The Deacon’s words were cut short as he felt something coming from beneath his feet. Hastily looking down, he saw several purple hands emerge from the ground beneath, reaching out to grasp his legs.
“Tsk.”
Clicking his tongue, the Deacon kicked the ground and jumped back.
Swoosh!
The hands reached out for nothing but air.
However, things weren’t over. As if predicting his movements, the space around the Deacon shifted, and he saw even more hands emerge, reaching out to grasp him from all directions.
Snap!
Snapping his finger, a shield made of light surrounded the Deacon, blocking all of the hands from reaching him.
‘A curse-related domain?’
Looking around, the Deacon saw over several dozen hands surrounding his shield, attempting to make a breakthrough.
However, it was meaningless. The strength of the hands was insignificant.
“…I’m starting to get really annoyed.”
The Deacon muttered to himself as he stared at the hands closing in around him. With just a glance at the scene, he had more or less grasped the nature of Julien’s domain. It was a curse-type domain, granting him free control over these eerie hands that emerged from every direction.
He could see how many people would struggle to escape such a domain.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t anything impressive. Nothing like what he had expected before.
And right as he was about to open his lips to speak, he stopped.
So did the hands as they moved back.
“What the…?”
Blinking his eyes, the Deacon saw a red orb floating within the black void.
A red orb?
Since when…?
The Deacon felt something build up in his throat the moment he saw the orb. Something about it… Something about it didn’t make sense.
It felt detached from the domain. Foreign.
But at the same time… it also felt connected to it.
“That makes no sense…”
Leaning in, the Deacon felt his lips dry out as he examined the red orb closely. The longer he stared, the more an ominous feeling stirred deep within him, creeping up from the pit of his stomach.
It was then that it hit him.
“Emotive…?”
Wham!
Another orb appeared, this time green in color. The Deacon’s eyes widened all of a sudden as the creeping feeling from before intensified.
Wham! Wham!
Purple, Blue, Pink…
Orbs continued to manifest around him, slowly filling the space around him. In the blink of an eye, orbs of all colors filled the space.
The Deacon felt his breath leave his body as he looked around him.
A possibility manifested in his mind as he stared at the orbs, but he quickly shook his head.
“That’s impossible! There’s no way…!”
He denied the possibility with all his might. Accepting it was the same as accepting the impossible.
There was no way it was possible.
This was all an illusion.
An illusion!
…But was it really?
As the orbs surrounded the Deacon from all sides, the hands that had also surrounded him started moving, each reaching out for an orb.
From purple to red.
From purple to green.
From purple to blue.
The hands changed color in accordance with each orb grasped, and the Deacon felt a lump form in his throat. Before he could truly grasp what was happening, one of the red hands clenched and smashed into his shield.
Bang!
“Huek!”
The Deacon flinched as the shield around him suddenly trembled.
Taking a step back, the Deacon stared at the hand, his grip tightening on his shirt as the possibility he had fought so hard to deny settled sharply in his mind.
“H-how could this be…?”
He could barely breathe as more and more hands grasped for the orbs in the air, turning in his direction.
He wanted to deny the possibility at all costs, but staring at the sight before him, the Deacon could only think of one reason for the changes around him.
This was…
…The combination of two domains.
