Chapter 398: The Beginning Of The End [LX]

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The arena vanished.

In its place stretched a vast, deserted land of pale stone and cracked earth, empty all the way to the horizon.

There was no sky, only layers of gray clouds spinning slowly overhead like a broken ceiling. The air itself felt alive, moving even when it seemed still.

Then the wind appeared.

Not as a single storm, but as countless vortexes scattered across the domain.

Tall, twisting columns of air rose from the ground, spinning in different directions, their edges sharp enough to shear stone.

Some were thin and fast, others wide and crushing, but all of them pulled at the same thing.

Aestrea.

The moment the domain stabilized, the wind pressure slammed into his body from every direction.

His clothes snapped violently, his hair whipping back as invisible forces dragged at his arms and legs, trying to tear him off balance.

Fwwooooo!

The vortexes shifted, repositioning themselves smoothly, as if guided by an unseen hand. One pulled from behind, another from the left, two more from above, their pressure layering on top of each other.

At the center of the domain, the winds twisted into a massive spiral.

That was the core.

Everything was pushing toward it.

Every step Aestrea took was immediately corrected by the domain.

When he leaned forward, the wind from the front vanished while the pressure from behind doubled. When he shifted his footing, a side vortex changed angle and dragged him back into place.

“…This is going to be a little difficult,” he muttered.

Lina stood at a distance, floating calmly above the ground, her staff planted firmly in front of her.

The wind wrapped around her body like a crown, untouched by the chaos she had created.

“This is my territory,” she said, her voice carrying clearly through the howling air.

“Every current listens to me. Every flow bends the way I want.”

“A crowd controller type of domain, eh?” Aestrea dug his heel into the ground as another surge of pressure slammed into his back.

Stone cracked beneath his foot, fragments lifting into the air before being shredded into dust by passing currents.

He didn’t draw his sword yet and just straightened his back, resisting the pull.

Fwoooo!

The vortexes immediately reacted, their pull increasing as if angered by his resistance.

The central spiral grew wider, its rotation speeding up as sharp streams peeled off and slashed toward him from every side.

The wind bit into his skin.

Not deeply, but constantly.

Dozens of thin cuts formed across his arms and shoulders, blood misting into the air before being blown away.

Yet his stance didn’t break.

His eyes remained calm, tracking the movement of the currents rather than Lina herself.

“…Moving here is going to be a pain in the ass,” he sighed.

The vortexes closed in further.

The distance between them shrank until only a few meters remained, the pressure on his body stacking heavier and heavier, trying to force him into the core where the winds overlapped into a grinding death zone.

Lina watched closely, not wanting to lose track of him.

“Let’s see how long you can stand,” she muttered quietly, tightening her grip on the staff as the domain responded.

Fwip, fwip, fwip!

Before Aestrea could react, three vortexes changed direction at once.

One slammed into his back, another dragged at his legs, while a third descended from above like an invisible hammer.

The pressure was overwhelming, crushing down on his body from all sides, forcing him to constantly adjust just to remain upright.

Fwwooom!

“Tsk…” Aestrea slid several meters across the cracked stone, his boots carving deep grooves as he dug in.

Splat!

Before he could fully stabilize, a cutting current swept past his side and tore into his arm. Blood sprayed briefly before the wind scattered it into mist.

Lina didn’t waste the opening.

She flicked her staff to the side, and the vortexes responded instantly.

Two of them merged, forming a wide spiral that rushed straight toward Aestrea’s chest, while thin streams peeled off from its edge like blades.

Aestrea bent his knees and stepped sideways, letting the main force rush past him by a narrow margin.

At the same time, he twisted his upper body sharply, avoiding a blade that would have taken his neck.

He reached out with his free hand and struck directly into the core of a smaller vortex.

BAAAM!

The air detonated under the impact, the vortex collapsing violently.

The backlash slammed into his arm, tearing open fresh wounds, but the disruption gave him just enough space to move.

Lina’s eyes narrowed.

Even inside her domain, where every flow listened to her will, he was still finding openings. Not by overpowering the wind, but by reading it.

He was predicting it and moving at the exact moment the currents shifted.

“Tch,” she clicked her tongue and slammed the butt of her staff into the air.

The ground below Aestrea cracked apart as a massive updraft exploded from beneath him, launching him skyward.

Before he could fully regain balance, spinning currents wrapped around his limbs, yanking him sideways and then downward.

CRASH!

He slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a shallow crater.

“Ugh…”

The wind didn’t stop.

Fwip, fwip!

Splat!

Sharp streams rained down relentlessly, cutting into his body again and again.

His shoulders, his sides, legs… all of them were sliced open in dozens of places. His clothes were torn apart, soaked through with blood.

Lina finally smiled again.

“Stay down. You can’t win a war of endurance inside my domain.”

Aestrea pushed himself up anyway.

“Fuuu… I think I got the hang of it,” he muttered to himself.

Blood dripped steadily from his arms and soaked into the cracked stone beneath his feet. His glowing crimson eyes stayed locked on the movement of the vortexes, not on Lina.

When another spiral lunged at him, he didn’t retreat, and this time, he simply rushed forward, full of confidence.

’…A little off, but should be fine.’

The wind roared in protest as it tried to tear him apart, but Aestrea slipped between the currents at the last possible second, moving in short steps that looked almost impossible.

He ducked under a cutting stream, pivoted on one foot to avoid a crushing pull, then leapt straight toward a vortex that was meant to block his path.

He punched straight through it.

The vortex shattered violently, and the shockwave slammed into Lina’s barrier of wind, forcing her to slide back slightly in the air.

For the first time, she frowned.

“So you’re just not going to use it?” she snapped, irritation leaking into her voice.

“Your sword. That black blade. Don’t tell me all those rumors were exaggerated.”

Aestrea landed lightly, his boots scraping against the stone as the wind immediately closed in again.

He deflected a cutting stream with his forearm and twisted away from another, barely avoiding having his ribs crushed.

And still, he didn’t answer her words.

Lina’s grip on the staff tightened.

“I’ve heard plenty about you,” she continued, her voice rising as she swung the staff again, sending three vortexes crashing toward him at once.

“About that sword. About how you end fights in a single move. Are you looking down on me?”

Aestrea slid backward under the pressure, blocking a blast of compressed wind with crossed arms.

The impact cracked the ground beneath him and forced a grunt out of his throat.

“No,” he replied calmly.

“I’m just being careful.”

That answer only made her angrier.

“Careful?” she shouted.

“Inside my domain? After all this?”

The vortexes howled louder, their rotation speeding up as Lina poured more power into them.

The center of the domain shrank, pulling tighter, the pressure increasing sharply as the winds tried to grind everything toward the core.

“Stop holding back!” she yelled.

“Use your sword!”

Aestrea stopped moving.

The vortexes dragged at his body, slicing into him again, but he didn’t dodge this time. He stood there, shoulders rising and falling slowly as the wind tore at his wounds.

For a brief moment, the entire domain seemed to hesitate.

Then he lifted his head.

His crimson eyes met Lina’s violet ones through the storm.

The only reason he wasn’t using his sword was to avoid revealing too much power to Thaliel and Emyria, but since Lina was so eager to test him, he finally nodded.

“…Very well.”

The words were simple, but the moment they left his lips, the air around him changed.

Aestrea slowly reached for the sword, and this time… he decided to scare her a little.

The instant his grip tightened, a low hum spread through the domain, deep and heavy, as if the air itself had recognized danger.

Shhiiiing!

Midnight slid free of its sheath.

At the same time, silver mana poured out of Aestrea’s body without restraint.

It wasn’t explosive or did it erupt violently?

It simply flooded outward, dense and overwhelming, like a rising tide that had no intention of stopping.

The ground beneath his feet cracked further, thin silver lines spreading outward like veins. The air around him bent slightly, unable to fully contain the pressure.

The wind reacted instantly.

The vortexes that had been closing in hesitated.

Their rotation slowed, and several of them wavered, their forms distorting as if uncertain whether they should advance or retreat.

Fwwooo…?

The cutting currents that had been tearing into his body pulled back instinctively, avoiding the space around him as though afraid to cross an invisible boundary.

Aestrea stood still, sword lowered at his side, silver mana wrapping around him in slow, steady waves.

Lina’s eyes widened.

Her confident expression cracked as she stared at the space around him, at how her domain was reacting to his presence.

“…What?” she muttered.

She tightened her grip on the staff and pushed more power into the domain, trying to force the wind forward.

The vortexes trembled.

Some of them shrank.

Others shifted away from him, redirecting their pull toward the center without daring to touch the silver aura surrounding his body.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lina said, her voice rising slightly. “This is my domain. The winds don’t hesitate.”

She looked back at Aestrea, and for the first time, there was clear shock in her eyes.

“You’re scaring my wind,” she said under her breath.

Aestrea lifted Midnight slowly and pointed at her.

“You’re the one who asked for this.”

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