Chapter 420: Debt II
Castor took a deep breath, his lungs working normally while the frozen world remained still, and felt something settle in his chest.
’Whatever his goals may be... Whatever grand design this serves... The beggar already made it clear to us about our debts when he saved our lives...’
BOOM
Suddenly his life force began burning, simply ignited on its own, pulled from his body by forces he couldn’t resist, fueling the Domain that was destroying his body from the inside.
His hair began turning white in patches, the color bleaching out as his life force converted to fuel.
Castor smiled with a helpless and bitter expression that carried years of understanding arriving too late.
"Beggar... you’re leaving me no choice, huh?"
The words came out as a whisper in the frozen world.
His gaze shifted to the 4th Shadow King’s frozen face, his eyes were still locked onto Damian’s figure, awareness trapped behind them, his mind processing, but understanding of the situation was crawling toward him like a glacier.
Castor’s smile widened despite the pain burning through every cell.
’If I’m going to die anyway... I’ll die the way I want...’
’But I can only maintain this for half a millisecond in real time... Maybe less with how broken I am... Inside the Domain, that gives me half a second at most...’
Phantom Step
His enhanced speed skill activated as he grabbed the frozen Shadow King, the transformed demon’s body was locked solid, suspended in time’s distortion, unable to resist.
He lifted him with hands that were already aging, muscles tearing under the strain.
Then he jumped, as his strength launched both of them upward with explosive force.
The ground fell away beneath them as momentum carried them higher and higher, the frozen city spreading out below like a photograph.
Distance blurred past as they climbed, five hundred meters, one kilometer, two kilometers up at the edge of the Domain’s barrier.
Castor’s hair was completely white now, his face aging rapidly as decades of borrowed time came due all at once.
He released the Shadow King’s frozen form, which remained suspended in the air, every matter within the Domain slowed to one-thousandth their speed, even gravity’s pull barely registering.
He drew his daggers, twin blades appearing in his weathered hands, the weapons he’d carried for decades.
He created Aura constructs beneath his feet, solid platforms of energy that let him step through the air around the suspended demon.
Then his weapon art activated, Thousand Cuts in Silence.
The first strike carved into the Shadow King’s throat, the blade cutting through demonic flesh like paper. The wound appeared cleanly, but no blood emerged yet, liquid unable to flow at normal speed.
The second took his left eye. The third, fourth, fifth carved through arms, chest and legs, each creating perfect incisions that hung open without bleeding.
"Yara mentioned you made a deal with the Demon of Envy... Gained the ability to replicate skills used against you..."
Slash slash slash slash slash
Ten strikes became twenty, each one finding vital points with analytical perfection.
Slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash
Twenty became fifty, his daggers blurring through the frozen air as he stepped around the suspended demon on Aura constructs.
’No! Why?! Wasn’t the Phantom just supposed to have high speed?! Isn’t that how he saved everyone at the start?! Nothing was mentioned about him having a Domain! I don’t have a fucking domain to counter this!’
The Shadow King’s awareness was trapped in his body, understanding spreading like cold water that he was being executed, that he was helpless, that the Domain he couldn’t break was killing him.
His voice came out conversational despite the violence:
"Too bad you can’t copy my Domain..."
Slash slash slash slash slash slash
Fifty became a hundred... A hundred became two hundred.
Castor’s vision was fading, the edges going dark. His Aura core felt like molten glass being scraped hollow.
Slash slash slash slash slash slash
Two hundred became five hundred.... Five hundred became a thousand.
Each cut numbered in Castor’s mind, each strike catalogued with the precision that had defined years of survival.
When the count reached exactly one thousand cuts, his enhanced speed finally failed. His withered body gave out mid-strike, the Phantom Step cutting off like a severed string.
The Aura constructs beneath his feet dissolved.
He began falling toward the ground kilometers below, his white hair streaming behind him.
The Shadow King’s frozen form remained suspended in the slowed time, locked in place by the thousand accumulated cuts that hadn’t bled yet.
Castor created one final barrier around the demon with the last spark of power remaining in his burned-out core, a simple sphere of Aura that would hold all the shockwaves.
’The Domain is about to collapse... Not much time left...’
His body was falling, plummeting through air that felt thick as honey.
Phantom Step activated one final time, carrying his broken form across the hundreds of meters, bringing him back to where Yara stood frozen.
He landed beside her, his aged legs barely holding his weight.
Castor looked at her frozen face, at the tears suspended like crystals, at the desperate plea locked in her expression.
’So many years... And I never had the courage...’
His withered hand reached out, trembling, and touched her frozen cheek.
The contact was gentle despite shaking fingers.
"I love–"
The Domain shattered before he could finish as time snapped back to normal with a sound like reality breaking.
CRACK
****
Damian looked up at the demon towering above him, the doubled voice still echoing in his ears, the clawed hand frozen centimeters from his throat.
Then he heard it.
A voice carrying across the battlefield, distant but clear.
"Chronos Overclock."
’Castor?’
The thought barely had time to form before the world snapped back.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
The sky above exploded as hundreds of detonations erupted simultaneously across the night.
Damian’s eyes went wide.
’No...’
The 4th Shadow King that was previously just above him, was now far away in the sky and then–
BOOOOOOOOM
His body detonated from the inside.
The shockwave rolled across the city, the sound deafening even from kilometers away.
Damian staggered as his body moved.
’Castor used his Domain again...’
His hands clenched into fists.
Suddenly, communications that had been dead for a long time suddenly crackled back to life, holographic displays flickering with emergency broadcasts.
The lights across Tranquil City blazed back into existence all at once, illuminating streets that had been dark since the Shadow Council’s attack began.
But Damian wasn’t paying attention to any of it.
His gaze was locked on the distant sky, on the falling embers of flesh raining down like meteors.
Then he heard her.
A scream, raw and anguished, cutting through the chaos like a blade through flesh.
"CASTOR!"
Yara’s voice, broken and terrified in a way he’d never heard before.
Damian’s stomach dropped.
’Castor...’
His legs moved before the thought finished, sprinting toward where the scream had originated, toward where Castor must have collapsed.
’Please don’t be dead... Please...’
Comments