Arthur's world became a blur of motion as he shot forward at over ten times the speed of sound, straight down through Wovan's portal beneath his feet, and then through Mysha’s, where his trajectory was altered and made longitudinal. Arthur didn’t so much as see what happened as he did feel it.

  All his momentum, speed that his enhanced brain could hardly perceive, abruptly came to a stop. There was no gradual slowdown, no deceleration to speak of whatsoever. One moment, Arthur had been in motion, and the next instant, he was stationary. All his momentum had to go somewhere, though. His soul spear broke first, disintegrated really, and then all that force reached his feet.

  Everything below his hips simply ceased to exist, bones, flesh and tissue exploding into nothingness as the energy equivalent to a small nuclear bomb rushed through his body. Arthur’s intestines popped like overfilled balloons, his ribcage crumbling like dead wood under an axe. His heart stopped beating, quite an apt response to over 90% of it being destroyed. The only part of him to survive the impact was his enhanced skull and spine.

  It was the most damage Arthur had ever taken, enough that he’d be dead in the next few seconds if he didn’t do something fast. There was no time for conscious thought, no time for careful ether manipulation. Arthur let his healing green flames wash over him just as the poisonous energy from his attack exploded outward.

  Surprisingly, Arthur wasn’t sent flying backwards. Instead, he was suspended in place as the energies from his own attack ravaged his body once again. Arthur was caught in a vicious loop, where poisonous ether fuelled his skeleton, which in turn fuelled his healing and kept him stubbornly clinging to life.

  Two minutes later, the deadly ether storm finally subsided enough for Arthur’s eyes to fully regrow. Whatever strange magic had held his body aloft left, and he dropped to the ground with a dull thump. Arthur was finally whole again, and he thanked his lucky stars that his returned attack hadn’t caused him any more soul damage. Still, being reconstructed almost entirely from nothing left him feeling strangely fragile.

  Arthur would have loved nothing more than to lie down and go to sleep for a week, but he didn’t think he’d wake up again if he did. His attack hadn’t gone anything like he’d expected, which could only mean one thing. Shylo was still alive. Thankfully, Wovan wasn’t so disoriented, and she teleported him backwards just as a spear of black light descended to where he’d been lying down.

  Arthur scrambled to his feet and finally got a good look at the destruction his attack had wrought. He was a little confused at first. Arthur had felt all his momentum come to a halt, which meant he had to still be within the Silverglade Palace, except that wasn’t the case. Arthur was out in the open air, no hint of a castle to speak of.

  All the deepstone rock within three miles of his position had turned a dark shade of green, and Arthur’s senses told him the changes weren't merely visual. The deepstone had been altered on a fundamental level, becoming something else entirely, a rock that passively produced poison affinity ether, more akin to a sentient creature now, instead of a lifeless object. The air and clouds above, too, were tinged a faint shade of green, and Arthur had a feeling they wouldn’t be returning to normal anytime soon, if ever.

  He’d changed the ether makeup in the local area for good. Arthur finally understood why there was no castle to speak of. He’d destroyed it—not entirely, since he hadn’t received any experience notifications—but he didn’t think it would be recovering anytime soon. Finally, Arthur turned his attention to the castle's master, Shylo. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from the corrupted Avatar of a planet, but it wasn’t this.

  For starters, the elf looked like he was in his late teens, hardly a day over sixteen if he had to guess. Arthur was used to his enemies being significantly larger than he was. Higher-level monsters tended to be big; it was just the way things worked. This time, however, Arthur towered an entire foot over his enemy.

  Shylo cocked his head to the side and examined him like he was a particularly interesting zoo animal. “That’s the closest I’ve ever come to death, you know. You got further than anyone else. You managed to destroy my heart.” Shylo’s voice was soft and sweet, almost feminine-sounding, once again completely subverting his expectations.

  Arthur frowned, confused. “Your heart? You mean…the castle?”

  Shylo smiled, neither denying nor confirming his words, but it was the only answer that made sense. The System made the distinct chime of a new title being gained, but Arthur didn’t spare it any attention. He already knew what it would be: Reality Breaker II.

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  If his last attack hadn’t done it, then nothing would. Shylo, thankfully, hadn’t escaped entirely unscathed either. His left arm was missing from the shoulder down, and his veins were glowing dark poisonous green, impossible to miss against his pale white skin.

  “There's no reason to fight, you know that, right. You’re not a part of this realm, I can feel it. Leave it and live, or stay and die. It’s the only chance I’ll grant you.”

  Arthur grinned. "A corrupted creature with mercy. I don’t think so. You’re afraid, aren’t you?”

  For the first time, Arthur saw an expression on the Avatar's face. It was so brief that most would have missed it, but not him. Shylo was angry.

  “Believe what you will, outsider, your fate is written in stone now,” the elf said placidly, calm once again, as he raised his remaining hand toward the heavens.

  “I’ve learned that stones are pretty malleable these days,” Arthur replied, summoning his water shield in its shell form. He let his domain extend out and selected Shylo for the debuffs Homunculus’ Draining and A Homunculus’ Ire. Next, he applied the crest from his legendary skill, Cloaked Blade, upon himself, enhancing his agility and strength by 30% for the next five minutes.

  He held off on using Augmented Recovery for now. It had a 24-hour cooldown, and his enemies would be coming after him in less than 17 hours. Shylo was powerful, but he’d save his trump card for now. His Shadow Cloak fell over his shoulders like a familiar blanket. Just in time, in fact.

  Shylo’s hand fell, and that same black light he’d first attacked with fell from the heavens. Arthur shadow stepped behind the Avatar, a shadow-soul hybrid gauntlet forming around his left hand, already moving towards the corrupted elf's head. Unfortunately, two could play at that game, and Shylo too disappeared, just as Arthur’s fist reached where his head should have been.

  He hadn’t sensed any ether use or any nether, for that matter, to explain the teleportation, but that could just be attributed to his being so new to the energy source. Shylo reappeared a dozen feet from him, once again cocking his head to the side in that strange way of his.

  “Henceforth, shadows shall cease to be,” the corrupted Avatar commanded, once again raising his hand towards the sky.

  Arthur almost scoffed at the absurd declaration, but then he felt it. His shadow cloak faded away, along with the crest he’d placed on himself. That wasn’t all. Every part of his domain that utilised shadow magic ceased to function, and every shadow within a thousand metres, magical and mundane, simply disappeared.

  Can he just do that? Declare that magic doesn't exist? That was all the time Arthur had for musing before the black light fell once again. This time, Wovan teleported him out of harm's way, only Shylo wasn’t letting up. The corrupted light had become a constant barrage now, ten shots fired every second.

  Arthur let Wovan take the helm on defence as he considered things. Shylo’s declaration wasn’t all-powerful, since he would have locked down his soul affinity if that were the case. The declaration also extended only to places the Silverglade palace’s wall had once covered, which meant the ability was tied to it, a structure he’d all but destroyed already. The fact that it could still exert so much power hinted at just how poorly this battle would have gone otherwise. Shylo’s teleportation was also limited to the same boundary.

  The corrupted Avatar finally seemed to grow tired of their cat-and-mouse game. The corrupted light stopped falling in concentrated blasts, instead spreading to cover a half-kilometre-wide range. Arthur allowed the weaker attack to hit him instead of dodging this time and winced at how uncomfortable it felt. It wasn’t causing any damage to him; he was far too durable for that, but he could feel the corrupted energy trying to take hold of his flesh, like worms attempting to crawl through his skin.

  The corrupted light didn’t stop falling. It was constant now, an attack that didn’t look like it’d be letting up anytime soon. Arthur marvelled at how much energy Shylo must be expending to keep it up. 5,000... No, closer to 10,000 ether a second. Or was it nether? They were very similar energies after all. The corrupted Avatar seemed to have read his mind.

  "My energy comes from Haadran. I can maintain this output for hours before my vessel must rest.”

  Arthur grinned. “And I can endure it forever.”

  Shylo’s eyes narrowed as he seemed to contemplate Arthur’s words. “I sense that your words hold no deceit. Truly, I have never met another like you.”

  “I would hope not. I'm an Originator.”

  “Haadran offers a peace treaty. Become its new Avatar, and I will become your subordinate. Imagine all that power at your fingertips. Reserves of magic this body of mine could never hope to handle.”

  Arthur frowned. This wasn’t something he’d expected. “Don’t you have an issue with that. That the planet would cast you aside so easily.”

  Shylo shrugged. “I was born to serve. Literally.”

  Arthur resummoned his gauntlet, this time creating it entirely out of soul magic. It was a crude thing, but it would serve his purposes now that he couldn’t use a spear.

  “This planet will be mine before the day is done, an extension of my will, not the other way around. I'm no one's Avatar.”

  Shylo shook his head in amusement. “This charade has gone on for long enough. You were given more chances than any before you. Servitude is all that awaits you now. In life or in death.”

  The corrupted Avatar clicked his fingers, and the world twisted, some fundamental part of existence breaking.

  Ether began to unravel.

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