Chapter 432: Domain’s Creation 2: Test
The two hours had slipped away like water through fingers. Nero sat on the tatami, his eyes open, his breath slow. The fire still hummed in his chest, a warm ember that would not fade. He should have left. The session was over. His credits were spent.
But he did not move.
The idea still burned. The understanding he had touched—the feeling of becoming fire—was not complete. It was a glimpse, a taste, a whisper. He wanted more. He needed more.
He pulled out his phone, typed a quick message to Khione and the others. Training longer. Don’t wait up. Then he stood, walked to the control panel by the door, and booked another two hours. This time, he added a special feature.
Advanced Grade Golem Knight. Law of Water. Advanced swordsmanship. Domain capable.
The screen displayed the cost. He paid without hesitation.
The room shifted. The bonsai, the plants, the soft lanterns—all faded, replaced by a vast, empty arena of white stone. The walls dissolved into mist. The ceiling became a gray sky, flat and endless. Nero stood alone in the center, his training sword in his hand, his heart steady.
From the mist, a figure emerged.
It was tall, human-shaped, forged from a metal that gleamed like polished silver. Its joints moved with fluid grace, no stiffness, no clanking. In its hand, a blade of pale blue crystal, its edge shimmering with moisture. Its eyes were two blue gems, cold and patient.
The golem raised its sword. Water swirled around the blade, forming a thin, razor-sharp film. It took a stance—low, balanced, perfect. A knight’s stance.
Nero raised his own sword. Fire flickered along the steel.
They did not speak. They did not need to.
The golem moved.
It flowed like water, its steps silent, its blade cutting the air in a wide arc. Nero parried, the clash of steel and crystal sending sparks into the mist. The golem’s sword was cold, and where it touched Nero’s blade, steam hissed. The Law of Water. It was not just water; it was pressure, flow, the relentless force of a river carving through stone.
Nero retreated, testing, probing. The golem followed, its attacks smooth and continuous, each strike flowing into the next. A thrust, a slash, a low sweep. Nero blocked, dodged, sidestepped. The golem was fast, faster than any training dummy, faster than many cadets. Its swordsmanship was clean, efficient, deadly.
He needed more than speed. He needed understanding.
He closed his eyes for a heartbeat. He reached for the fire inside him, not as a weapon, but as a self. Become the law. The words echoed in his mind.
The golem’s blade came for his throat.
Nero’s eyes opened. They were red, burning, but behind the red, there was something else—a glow, deep and orange, like the heart of a forge.
He did not dodge. He did not parry. He raised his hand, and the fire answered.
His body changed.
It started at his chest, where the crimson star pulsed. Heat radiated outward, not as an explosion, but as a transformation. His skin turned to living flame, orange and gold, flickering and bright. His clothes burned away, replaced by a cloak of fire that wrapped around his shoulders. His hair became a corona of embers. His sword dissolved into light, then reformed as a blade of pure elemental fire—solid, searing, hungry.
Only his eyes remained unchanged. Those ominous red eyes, watching from within the inferno.
He was fire. Not a man wielding fire. Fire wearing the shape of a man.
The temperature in the arena skyrocketed. The mist boiled away. The white stone beneath his feet cracked, then glowed, then melted into glass. The golem’s water blade hissed and steamed, shrinking, struggling to maintain its form.
The golem responded. It raised its free hand, and a dome of water erupted around it—its domain. The water swirled, dense and cold, pressing outward against the heat. The Law of Water made manifest. Within that dome, the golem was untouchable, its blade restored, its movements fluid and fast.
Nero smiled. It was not a human smile. It was the smile of a flame, bright and terrible.
He stepped forward. His fiery foot touched the water dome, and steam exploded. The dome shuddered but held. The golem lunged, its crystal blade aimed at Nero’s heart.
Nero did not block. He let the blade pass through his chest of flame. The water hissed, turned to steam, and the blade emerged from his back, smoking but unharmed. He was fire. Steel and crystal could not cut him.
He raised his own blade—the elemental sword of flame—and struck.
The golem parried, but the fire sword cut through its water-coated blade, sending droplets of steam in every direction. The golem retreated, its domain shrinking, reinforcing itself. It was calculating, adapting. It had never faced an enemy like this.
Nero pressed. He moved like fire—flickering, unpredictable, everywhere and nowhere. One moment he was before the golem, the next behind it, the next above. His sword struck from impossible angles, each blow carving through the water domain, each hit leaving molten scars on the golem’s silver body.
The golem roared—a grinding, metallic sound—and unleashed its domain fully. A tidal wave of water exploded from its body, cold and crushing, filling the arena. Nero was swept back, his flames dimming, his form flickering. The water pressed against him, trying to extinguish him, to drown him, to return him to flesh.
He could feel his transformation weakening. This state was temporary. A few moments more, and he would be human again.
He gathered all his fire into his sword. The blade blazed white-hot, brighter than the sun, hotter than the heart of a star. He raised it high.
The golem raised its own blade, water swirling into a spiraling lance.
They charged.
Nero’s sword met the golem’s lance at the center of the arena. Fire and water collided. Steam exploded outward, shrouding everything in white. The ground beneath them shattered. The mist walls trembled. The sky above cracked.
For a heartbeat, nothing moved.
Then the golem’s lance dissolved. The water domain collapsed. The golem stood frozen, its crystal blade shattered, its silver body scorched and cracked. It looked at Nero—at the being of flame standing before it—and its blue gem eyes flickered.
Nero lowered his sword. The fire around him faded. His skin returned, pale and human. His hair darkened to its usual blue. He stood naked in the ruined arena, breathing hard, his sword of flame gone.
The golem collapsed. Its body fell apart, piece by piece, until nothing remained but a pile of scrap and a fading hum of magic.
Nero sank to his knees. The transformation had drained him—more than any fight, more than any training. His muscles trembled. His head pounded. But his heart was full.
He had done it. Not perfectly, not permanently, but he had done it. He had become fire, even for a moment. He had felt what it meant to be the law, not just to wield it.
He lay back on the cracked, steaming stone, staring up at the gray sky. The arena began to fade, the mist returning, the walls reforming. The session was over.
He did not move. He simply lay there, breathing, smiling at the ceiling.
The path to the Black realm was long. But he had taken another step. And for now, that was enough.
