novelraw Chapter 74: Domain of Darkness
Chapter 74: Domain of Darkness
"Boss?" Nyla asked the moment she noticed his eyes snap back into focus.
Damon’s gaze slowly moved around the throne room, disorientation dawning on him for a few more seconds before his thoughts finally settled.
"Nyla..." he murmured, catching the girl off guard for a moment.
Then, without wasting a second, she took two quick steps toward him, ready for whatever he would ask of her. "Y-Yes?"
"Did you get the treasure?"
She blinked. And so did everyone else, as the first thing he cared about after standing there in a trance they hadn’t seen before, was the treasure.
"Yeah, Uh... We did," she replied after a pause, "It’s a-"
"Good."
He suddenly stood up, cutting the girl’s sentence off before she could finish it.
Then, he glanced up toward the rift core floating several meters above them.
He raised his arm, coalescing a shard of black ice far larger than he would normally do and sent it straight at the core.
In an instant, they were back on Earth.
Broken concrete, twisted metal and toppled cars were all around them as they landed on the broken city street.
The group exchanged confused looks with one another, clearly confused by his behaviour. The treasure chest was the first thing he would ask about, but now he simply brushed it off.
But unbeknownst to them, there was a reason for it.
Not only did his class just evolve, but he also grasped an understanding that would help him fix the ability he had broken.
Central Station was several hours away, and walking for hours, while his mind burned with knowledge he wanted to apply, wasn’t an option.
He needs a safe place to settle down.
"Let’s find a place to rest for a while. Then we’ll head back to the station."
The group nodded almost in unison before scattering around, looking for a suitable place.
Nyla lingered for a moment longer, watching Damon’s lost-in-thought expression, before she too left to find a temporary shelter.
"I found the school bus. It’s in good condition, and the street around it is empty," Amber said as she was the first to return.
Damon nodded. "Good. Let’s wait for the others and go there."
Ten or so minutes later, everyone returned. Each of them had a suggestion of where they could go. An abandoned apartment building, a convenience store with intact walls, and a parking garage, but Damon went with the first option, the empty school bus.
Once inside, Damon turned to Elias.
"Elias, I need you to set up watch rotations. I have something I need to do. It shouldn’t take long, but be prepared... just in case."
The middle-aged man nodded firmly. "Leave it to me."
He was always Damon’s second in command, a reliable member of the group whom he could trust to make the right decisions.
Damon moved toward the back of the bus and settled down, his lips curving up just ever-so slightly in a quiet anticipation as he summoned his status window.
***
[Name: Damon]
[Level: 50]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Error-!]
[Attributes: System Breaker, Dark Evolution (Lord of Darkness)]
[Classes (4/∞): Divine Beast Tamer, Lord of Darkness, Berserker, Blacksmith]
[Abilities: Black Ice Manipulation (Lord of Darkness), Domain of Darkness, Corrosion (Lord of Darkness), Shadow Manipulation (Lord of Darkness), Absolute Comprehension, Bloodthirst(Berserker), Berserker’s Fury(Berserker), Furnace(Blacksmith), Relic Weaving(Blacksmith)]
[Stats:
— Strength: 123 (with [Obsydian Jian] equipped)
— Dexterity: 98
— Vitality: 147
— Stamina: 93
— Mana: 112 (Available: 56)
— Luck: 1]
[Stat Points Available: 3]
***
It took Damon a while to read through the list, which was now quite long, but as he did, he found many changes.
But the most interesting change of all was the new ability of his Lord of Darkness class.
His eyes narrowed on the ability, focusing on it just enough to get a feeling of what it was, but not enough to cast it right in the middle of a bus.
His caution, however, didn’t go as planned.
The moment his thoughts moved toward the Domain of Darkness, his entire surroundings changed in an instant. The smell of an old bus was replaced by a familiar biting cold and a strong gale that hit him from behind.
He blinked, his eyes trailing across the structure before him.
’I’m... back here?’
Before him stood the castle made of black ice, the very same one that he had just seen in the rift. The same towering spires, the same frozen architecture that seemed to defy natural law.
He frowned.
His eyes shifted to his shoulder, where Kitsune normally sat, but when they landed, she wasn’t there. Nor was anyone from his group. The silence was absolute, broken only by the howling wind.
He moved forward with caution, his footsteps crunching onto the black snow as he approached the already open entrance to the throne room.
The inside was exactly the same as he remembered it, with one small difference.
There was no rift core hovering above the throne.
And kneeling on one knee with a longsword resting before it was the knight he had fought earlier. The Black Knight. Unmoving like a statue, its armour gleaming with frost.
Damon summoned his Jian sword as he approached, the familiar weight materialising in his hand. His grip on the weapon tightened with each step until he stood only a meter away from the kneeling figure.
’It’s not attacking?’
His grip loosened just a little as he stared at the statue-like figure for several long moments. The knight didn’t move, didn’t react to his presence. It simply knelt there, frozen in a pose of submission.
Then, he simply walked past it, drawn to the back of the chamber where the throne stood. Something pulled at him, an instinct he couldn’t quite name.
The atmosphere grew colder with each step, his breath turning into a thick mist that hung in the air. The temperature dropped so low that ice crystals began forming on his eyelashes.
He ascended the three large steps toward the throne, each one carved from solid black ice.
After a moment of pause, he sat down.
The throne was cold against his back, but it felt... right. Like it had been waiting for him.
CRACK!
The knight made of ice suddenly began to move, its joints creaking as frost fell from its armour. Damon was already rising to his feet, his sword coming up defensively, when a loud notification cut through his head.
[You have received an Attribute: Dark Legion]
Damon ignored the notification, his attention locked on the knight’s sudden movement. But as his gaze landed on the figure, he saw lines of text he had never seen before, floating right above its head in pale blue letters.
[Black Knight Lv. 60]
He frowned, his mind racing through the implications. Before he could dwell on it for even a second, a loud, deep voice cut through the room, echoing off the frozen walls.
"I am ready to serve, my liege."