It felt as though the apocalypse had descended upon the earth.
Avalon’s domain was, without a doubt, like hell on earth.
The entire environment had transformed into a blazing inferno, with towering pillars of fire erupting violently from the ground.
The sky within the domain was a seething mass of dark, roiling clouds, intermittently torn apart by fiery bolts of lightning.
The ground was a cracked, smoldering wasteland, with rivers of molten lava cutting through the terrain.
The heat was so intense that even the rocks glowed red hot, and any vegetation or water sources that had initially been present had been instantly incinerated upon the domain’s release.
‘Amazing.’
It was Atticus who thought this. The atmosphere was completely oppressive, with the air shimmering from the extreme heat.
However, despite the whole space being incredibly hot, Atticus felt absolutely no discomfort. In fact, the fire wrapped around him in a gentle embrace, and he was beyond shocked to feel himself recovering. When could fire heal?
Yet, it was happening right before his eyes.
‘This control of fire…’
Atticus had advanced greatly in his control over the fire element, but he could feel it—his control couldn’t hold a candle to what he was currently experiencing.
The fire felt alive. Atticus could sense the intense amount of anger radiating from the fire molecules. The flames surrounding him felt warm and kind, but the fire everywhere else in the space was wrathful.
Atticus turned his gaze towards Avalon standing in front of him, then at the two struggling figures in the distance, and let out a smile. ‘I expected him to be powerful, but this is too much.’
The domains of two grandmaster+ ranks were losing to just one person. It was a fact that would shock anyone who heard it, and indeed, both Alvis and Ronad were beyond shocked.
Even though it would eventually lose, they had expected one of their domains to clash and struggle against Avalon’s first.
But with both of their domains actively fighting against Avalon’s, they thought his attention would be divided on both fronts, and the intensity of the attack would be even more severe. Both Alvis and Ronad, plus any sane person, would have expected their combined domains to overpower Avalon’s or at the very least reach a stalemate!
However, the last thing any of them would have ever expected was for Avalon’s domain to overwhelmingly dominate theirs.
Both Alvis and Ronad were at a distance from each other. The world that had once been expansive and grand in its entirety had been reduced to a small patch of air surrounded by fire.
A domain, the embodiment of a grandmaster’s power—one that, if unleashed, was a natural disaster on its own, majestic and powerful—had been reduced to this.
The same was true for Alvis, whose dark, unsettling aura that made up his domain was restricted to a 30-meter radius, shrinking gradually.
‘Shit, we’ve been checkmated,’ Alvis’s eyes turned cold. He and Ronad had just made a terrible mistake, one that might cost them their lives.
Because they believed they could battle and defeat Avalon, both Alvis and Ronad had refrained from using their escape artifacts. But as soon as Avalon’s domain engulfed them, that escape route became obsolete.
“Ariel Ravenstein. Do you remember him?”
Avalon’s voice echoed through the entire space, sounding as though a god was addressing a group of lower life forms. Despite the hell he had just unleashed, he still appeared calm.
Ronad’s gaze narrowed before an intense grin formed on his face. He was worried about the situation, but it was impossible for him not to provoke chaos when the opportunity presented itself.
“Hmm, I’ve killed a lot of you white-haired monkeys. But I do remember one particular fool. He cried while calling out the names of his children!”
Ronad burst into raucous laughter before making a pathetic attempt at mimicking Ariel’s voice in a mocking tone.
“Ember… Caldor, I’m sorry! Hahaha!” Ronad’s laughter showed no signs of stopping.
However, Avalon remained calm, his expression unreadable. He was standing more than a hundred meters away from Ronad.
But in the very next instant—before anyone could even blink—he was in front of Ronad, his hand flying through the air with blinding speed.
Not even a nanosecond passed, and the distance between them vanished as if Avalon had always been standing there.
Ronad didn’t even register Avalon’s presence before Avalon’s open hand connected with his left cheek with a force that was nothing short of cataclysmic.
The impact sent a shockwave rippling through Ronad’s flesh, his skin warping and distorting as the energy traveled through his face.
It was as if a tidal wave of force had crashed into him, his cheekbone creaking under the pressure, the flesh rippling outwards in slow motion before snapping back with a painful recoil.
His vision blurred as his body was yanked violently by the momentum. His mind struggled to keep up, the world spinning around him as the force of the slap propelled him sideways at an astonishing speed.
He was sent hurtling through the air, his body twisted in an uncontrolled spiral, headfirst.
Just as his consciousness began to fade, he managed to claw his way back from the brink, his instincts kicking in as he fought to regain control.
His feet hit the ground hard, and he skidded along the earth, digging deep furrows into the molten dirt as he struggled to stay upright.
‘D-did I just get slapped?’ Ronad was finding it hard to grasp reality.
But before he could even process the thought, another blip of movement filled his vision, and a second, devastating slap connected with his other cheek.
The force was no less terrifying, sending him careening through the air once again, his body tumbling uncontrollably as the world spun out of focus.
Ronad crashed into the ground, his body rolling and bouncing across the unforgiving terrain. He desperately tried to regain his footing, but the sheer force of the blow left him disoriented, his senses scrambled as he skidded to a halt once more.
The world was spinning, his face burning with pain, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.
