A/n: I'm very surprised myself that I managed to finish two chapters within 4 days. Must be that I got a lot of free time before my 2nd Semester begins.

But at long last, we can see Fenrir flex on the arrogant masked man! Should be fun!

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Inside an empty library, a Mercenary Gang member was seen reading in a book, splitting his focus between its pages and the music playing through his magical headphone-like device.

The quiet was abruptly shattered when Riley crashed through one of the library walls and landed in a heap before quickly scrambling to his feet. A moment later, Fenrir, in his feral beast form, smashed through another wall as his eyes blazed with predatory rage.

"I’ll bathe in your blood!" Fenrir snarled as he lunged at Riley, who instinctively retreated and quickly formed an invisible mana blade. With a clean vertical slash, he aimed to cleave Fenrir’s chest, a technique that had ended hundreds of lives before.

But to Riley’s surprise, Fenrir seemed to sense that invisible attack and deflect it with a single slash of his claws, scattering the mana blade into harmless particles.

‘It seemed his senses were heightened to the point where he can feel the faintest disturbance in the mana around him,’ Riley realized.

Before he could analyze further, Fenrir spun like a whirlwind and delivered a devastating 360-degree kick aimed squarely at Riley’s chest. The impact sent shockwaves through the air, but Riley’s first-layer mana filter activated and reflected the force back onto Fenrir, who howled in pain as his own attack snapped his leg.

Wasting no time, Riley retaliated with a crushing punch to Fenrir’s chest, launching the beast through several bookshelves and into an empty desk.

From the debris, Fenrir burst out with an enraged roar. He crouched and prepared to charge, but Riley raised his hand and surgically manipulated the surrounding mana particles. Above Fenrir, he condensed the mana into a dense invisible platform, bending light around it to mask its presence.

With a fast downward swipe, the platform fell toward Fenrir at mach speed in an intent on crushing him into paste.

BOOM!

The impact obliterated the ground beneath Fenrir, pinning him with immense force.

"RAHHHHHH!"

But with a roar that seemed to shake the very air, Fenrir braced himself and tore the platform apart with sheer brute strength, scattering it back into mana particles before launching himself at Riley with blinding speed.

“Oh shi—”

Riley’s expletive was silenced when Fenrir delivered a ferocious kick, throwing him clean out of the library through a shattered window. Luckily, Riley’s second-layer filter activated that redirect the force just in time to propel him away like a bullet.

Fenrir didn’t hesitate and leaped through the destroyed wall to chase his prey down.

While this was happening, the Mercenary Gang member, entirely oblivious to the ferocious battle raging behind him, finally turned around, and his jaw dropped as he took in the wreckage before his book slipped from his hands.

“What the fuck?”

Meanwhile, the battle between Riley and Fenrir raged on as Fenrir lunged, claws extended, and the two exchanged a storm of blows that seemed to resonate through the air. Their strikes were evenly matched, each hit generating gusts of wind that whipped through the crumbling battlefield.

The stalemate shattered when Riley, thinking fast, conjured a small mana field that absorbed Fenrir’s momentum, and the wolf’s punch landed harmlessly against Riley as its force was neutralized.

Before Fenrir could understand what happened, Riley countered with a vicious uppercut that cracked Fenrir’s jaw and sent him flying into the air. Without hesitation, Riley leaped into the air and delivered a spinning kick that hammered Fenrir back into the ground with bone-jarring force.

Determined to end the fight, Riley manipulated the surrounding mana into a barrage of invisible slashes. As the attacks rained down, Fenrir’s body became a blur and moved impossibly fast. With a combination of sidesteps, backsteps, and fluid dodges, he evaded every strike and slipped through the barrage like smoke.

Fenrir suddenly lunged forward and aimed to maul Riley’s face, but Riley leaped backward just in time. In midair, however, Fenrir expected the move and delivered a brutal knee to Riley’s face. Spinning with calculated ferocity, Fenrir followed up with a kick that sent Riley careening across the hall.

Riley’s second-layer mana filter absorbed the damage, protecting him as he used mana to slow his momentum and land gracefully.

But as his feet touched the ground, Fenrir was already on him and delivered a thunderous kick that launched Riley skyward. Fenrir followed with a flurry of aerial bicycle kicks, each strike cracking the air like a whip.

In a flash, Fenrir materialized above Riley and descended with a devastating axe kick that smashed him to the ground.

“Enough with the kicks, damn it!” Riley spat as he rolled to the side just in time to avoid Fenrir’s next attack, and the wolf’s dropkick struck the ground with such force it shattered the stone beneath them.

Riley wasted no time and summoned mana strings to bind Fenrir’s limbs. The bindings constricted him and the razor-sharp tendrils ready to tear him apart. But Fenrir’s feral instincts surged to the surface as he unleashed a deafening [War Cry], shattering the mana strings with sheer force.

At fast speed, Riley pivoted into a roundhouse kick and aimed to capitalize on the opening. Fenrir countered with his own kick, and the collision of their strikes generated a powerful shockwave that splintered the earth beneath their feet.

“What kind of magic are you using, exactly?” Fenrir asked with genuine curiosity.

“...” Riley said nothing.

Fenrir capitalized on his hesitation and slashed with his claws. The attack struck Riley’s second-layer filter, nullifying the damage but sending him crashing into a towering pillar.

Fenrir showered Riley with a barrage of fiery slashes that demolished the stone foundation. The structure collapsed in a cloud of dust and rubble, burying Riley beneath it.

As the dust settled, Fenrir’s feral grin faded. From the wreckage, Riley emerged unscathed as his mana shimmered faintly around him.

‘Tch! This is as annoying as that fairy bitch,’ Fenrir thought with a snarl.

In his mind, there was only one objective which is to fully grasp the extent of the power standing in front of him.

‘The main problem is bypassing his defenses,’ he analyzed as his sharp gaze fixed on Riley. ‘What I have learned in this battle is that it isn't exactly a shield. Rather than a simple wall which blocks my attacks, it's more of a mirror which redirected the force of my attacks back at me or repelling him when I try to made contact.’

“However...” Fenrir muttered under his breath.

Exhaling deeply, he clenched his fists and his knuckles cracked with the tension. With a single deliberate step, he activated the artifact hanging from his neck.

VRRRRRRRRRRR—!

195,000.

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200,000.

A powerful burst of energy exploded outward, engulfing the entire area the moment Fenrir activated the magic artifact.

[The Totem of Chaos]

By activation this magic artifact transformed their surroundings into a dark oppressive world, a pocket dimension under Fenrir’s absolute control.

Within this domain, only those he chose could enter and trapped his opponent in this bleak expanse.

As long as they had a higher negative karma, it would raise all of the individual’s stats several fold. And it's even greater in his domain, which acts as his own personal battlefield.

But it didn’t just create a battlefield, it tilted the scales dramatically in Fenrir’s favor. It amplified his stats exponentially, including Luck, Resistances, and Intelligence, while simultaneously weakening his opponent with debilitating magic effects such as [Weakness] and [Slowness]. These curses drained vitality, slowed movement, and eventually brought his enemies closer to death the longer they remained in its domain.

There's no question who was in the advantage here.

Here, Fenrir was at his strongest. Even the late Elf Queen Melian would be overwhelmed within this domain.

With a burst of primal energy, Fenrir dropped to all fours and charged like a wild beast, swinging his claws through the air with devastating force. The sheer wind pressure from his swings shattered the ground and sent debris flying.

CRACK!

Just as before, the clash ended with his arm snapping violently as his attack was repelled. But Fenrir didn’t falter as he used the momentum to spin around and struck again, this time aiming for Riley’s lower torso, only for the attack to be repelled once again and reverberated back at him.

Fenrir jumped back as he built distance between the two of them.

This interaction happened at speeds that couldn't be traced with the human eye. In order to further analyze his opponent, Fenrir had successfully landed two consecutive strikes. Whether they actually did anything to him or not was not an issue.

"Tch! As I thought.”

Throughout this entire exchange, Riley had merely stood there, letting Fenrir humor himself, and making no signs of moving.

“That first hit shattered my arm, but the second didn’t,” he muttered and his grin widened into something feral. “This confirms it. The damage reflects back exactly equal to the force I output, it’s automatic. He has no control over it.”

Fenrir’s dark grin deepened as he clenched his fists tighter.

"I’m starting to understand your power, little by little. To avoid further damage to myself, it would be wiser to hold back and chip away at your defenses until I find the opening I need.”

With a guttural growl, he called out, "[Greater Pure Boost]!"

A surge of raw energy coursed through Fenrir’s body as the buff spell took effect. Within his domain, even the simplest enhancements became monumental and turned him into a force of nature. His muscles coiled like steel, and his movements radiated an almost supernatural ferocity.

"Hey, is it my turn now?” Riley spoke up as he slowly stepped forward with his crimson eyes showing brightly. "You just said you're starting to understand my power, didn't you? If you were so curious, you could’ve just asked. Closed mouths don’t get fed, you know? But don’t worry, I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

He raised his foot slightly, as if preparing to step forward.

Sensing what's coming, Fenrir readied himself to counterattack.

"Well then..."

BOOM!!

The moment his foot met the ground, a giant crater was formed, and Riley was gone in an instant.

A heartbeat later, Fenrir caught sight of a pitch-black glove inches from his face, but it was already too late.

"Let’s start the lesson," The man black said coldly.

WHAM!

With a vicious sound, Fenrir was sent flying and crashed through the pillars like paper.

As if the world itself couldn't keep up with Riley’s movement, the devastating wind and momentum that comes from moving at such speeds had a late reaction and happened only after Riley had already sent his opponent flying.

Fenrir gritted his teeth, struggling to regain control as his claws digged into debris to slow his momentum. Even so, he couldn’t ignore the sheer destructive strength behind that frail-looking arm.

Before he could fully recover, Riley appeared above him as a shadow against the dust-filled sky.

"I simply manipulate the very particles of mana," Riley stated matter-of-factly.

The man in darkness threw a punch down at him. This time, Fenrir reacted just in time by crossing his arms to shield himself while simultaneously striking back. Despite blocking, the impact was immense which sent Fenrir flying like a meteor and crashed down onto the ground, destroying everything around it.

Despite the devastating landing, Fenrir laughed wildly and sounded unhinged.

‘I would have thought that bastard takes down his reflection when attacking but it appears that is also not the case.’ he thought.

As the dust settled, Riley landed gracefully on top of a nearby pillar with an unreadable expression by his dark skull mask.

"Many people call them Magicules," he continued conversationally, as though explaining to a curious student. "They’re like atoms or molecules, the building blocks of everything in this world. By controlling Magicules, I control every kind of power, including the energy that governs living beings like you. In fact, I could even directly disturb or interfere with others' Mana and their use of Magic."

“RAWRRR!!”

With insane strength, Fenrir lifted a massive chunk of debris from the wreckage and threw it toward Riley before charging straight at him with feral speed.

Riley didn’t flinch. Placing a hand on the pillar where he stood, he redirected its structure, causing countless shards to shoot out and intercept the debris mid-air, neutralizing the attack.

"Redirecting every form of power? Interfere with others' Mana and their use of Magic, huh?” Fenrir growled in both frustration and curiosity. “You’re leaving out something. There’s more to this than you’re saying!”

Riley leapt down from the crumbling pillar and landed effortlessly on the ground.

“Hmmm…” he chuckled darkly. “Why don’t you try to beat it out of me, then?”

"[Greater Fiery Power]."

Flames erupted around Fenrir's claws, spiraling like serpents of destruction. With a sharp motion, he launched the searing fire slash toward Riley at blinding speed. At the same time, he bolted forward and his raw speed outpaced even the flames he had unleashed.

‘If he had absolute control of mana,’ Fenrir thought, ‘What happens if I suppress mine entirely and rely on sheer strength to overpower him?’

As the fiery slash closed in on Riley, Fenrir moved to exploit the distraction and swing his claws from Riley’s blind spot. This time, he poured no mana into the strike, only raw unfiltered power.

But Riley remained calm, and his expression remained unchanging, as though he had expected the maneuver all along.

The result was no different.

Both attacks, the fire slash and the claw strike, were effortlessly reflected. The flames ricocheted and shot back toward Fenrir, while his claws snapped back mid-swing, and the backlash vibrated painfully up his arm.

The redirected fire slash struck his leg and forced Fenrir to the ground with a snarl in pain.

"Even if you suppress your mana,” Riley said as he stepped closer, “I can manipulate it from within. Allow me to demonstrate something interesting."

He raised a gloved hand, slowly extending it toward Fenrir.

“With just a slightest touch, I can control the mana reserves inside your body. I can even use them to reverse the flow of your blood. What do you think would happen when such a phenomenon occurs? When your very own blood flow changes course and circulates back into your beating heart?”

The eerie calmness in his tone sent a chill down Fenrir's spine.

Sensing his life in danger, his instinct kicked in, and before Riley’s hand could reach him, Fenrir vanished and retreated several meters in a blur of speed. He landed hard, his breath ragged, eyes wide with frustration and confusion.

‘Damn it!’ Fenrir cursed internally, grinding his teeth in confusion and frustration. ‘None of this makes sense. His strength, his power, his resistance, everything should’ve been reduced by the effects of my domain. His movements should be slower and his body should be accumulating damage over time.’

Yet here he was, unharmed, untouchable.

Fenrir’s glare burned with fury as he analyzed his opponent.

As annoying as that reflection is, Fenrir was more worried about the mana around him. The opponent before him said it himself, he had full control over it.

While the [Totem of Chaos] gave Fenrir immense advantages within this domain, this man already had the biggest advantages since the very beginning, a power far deadlier than the totem’s effects.

‘If this keeps up, he’ll destroy me. I need to finish him before he gets the chance.’

“I think we’re wasting time here,” Riley said sharply and dismissively. “We should end this soon.”

“That we can agree on,” Fenrir growled as his claws dug into the ground.

Riley extended a finger, and the air around him rippled as he manipulated the ambient mana. The energy condensed rapidly and formed a tiny sphere no larger than a grain of salt. The sheer density of the mana made the air hum with tension, vibrating with lethal potential.

With a casual flick of his thumb, Riley unleashed the condensed energy bullet.

It shot forward faster than the eye could follow, a streak of death moving at a speed that rivaled a railgun.

‘No need to overthink.’

A tremendous wind pressure erupted beneath Fenrir’s feet as he slammed his claws into the ground, unleashing a massive shockwave that burst out toward Riley like an unstoppable tidal wave.

The force tore through the battlefield, shredding everything in its path. Chunks of rubble were lifted and thrown forward, creating a crushing tsunami of debris that bore down on Riley with relentless force.

Riley leaped into the air to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the airborne debris followed him like a deadly swarm.

‘Untouchable or not, this much chaos creates openings,’ Fenrir thought.

While Riley’s magic shield could reflect the mana-infused wind, the physical rubble, a mundane mana-less threat, slipped through the cracks of his defense. His reflection wasn’t perfect, and Fenrir knew it.

Riley raised his hand and calculated the trajectory of the incoming debris with insane precision. In an instant, the rubble disintegrated into nothingness, reduced to harmless particles by his control over mana.

But Fenrir had expected this. Using the debris as cover, he closed the distance and appeared right in front of Riley as the last fragments dissolved.

“RAWWWRRR!!”

With a feral roar, Fenrir unleashed an intense wave of heat and turned the air around him into a blazing inferno. The oppressive heat spread outward, engulfing the area in a fiery aura that burned everything in its radius.

Naturally, his skill [Greater Fiery Power] effect was being boosted not only in damage output but even turning into an AOE effect, an attack which embodied an entire area.

So for most, such heat would be unbearable, but Riley remained unfazed as he casually adjusted his body’s temperature through his mastery over mana, insulating himself from the scorching air.

"Extreme Heat or extreme cold," Riley muttered, "neither bothers me anymore."

The flames didn’t concern him, but the reminder of his vulnerabilities did. Though rare, Fenrir’s attacks occasionally bypassed his shield, a frustrating flaw Riley couldn’t ignore.

“That’s not all!”

Still several meters away, Fenrir swung his claws with all his might. The air itself seemed to split as an invisible instantaneous slash tore toward Riley.

Riley felt his mana shield reacted and deflected the attack. What could have been reflected, was reflected, though not in the way he wished. The reflected energy burst into a dazzling rainbow of light and refracted across the area.

But not all of it was reflected. Some components of the attack slipped past his shield and grazed his defenses. Riley felt his body twist in an unnatural way and bent backward against his will to dodge the strike, a movement forced upon him by his own mana manipulation. The air screamed as the attack sliced cleanly through a nearby structure, splitting it in two.

‘Magic or not, a rock is still a rock, and I have to use mana to deflect the physical properties of matter.’

Before he could analyze further, Fenrir charged again and closed the gap in a blink. His claws descended with lightning speed and aimed to cleave Riley in two.

Riley sighed, unimpressed. “You never learn, do you?”

Deciding to humor him, Riley met the strike with a punch of his own.

BOOOOM!!!

The collision unleashed a cataclysmic shockwave, obliterating everything in its radius. The ground cracked and shattered, debris spiraled outward, and the air itself seemed to ripple from the sheer force of their clash.

Fenrir snarled as his claws grinded against Riley’s fist as both forces vied for dominance, neither yielding an inch.

“Hahahaha!” Fenrir burst out into laughter. “You... are certainly strong, but you will lose to me! For I do not fear death. DEATH FEARS ME!”

Their clashing powers canceled each other out in a deafening shockwave, and in the blink of an eye, Riley appeared in front of Fenrir.

Despite the sudden proximity, Fenrir was completely unalarmed as he had expected this. With a savage grin, he swung his claws downward just as Riley’s outstretched hand reached out to touch him.

There was no strategy behind Fenrir’s attack, no calculated movements, no hesitation, no expecting any result.

He would simply keep swinging his claws until his last breath.

He had come here fully prepared to sacrifice his life to reclaim his honor.

But then, something happened. Something neither of them expected.

As their attacks moved to meet, Fenrir flinched.

For the briefest of moments, his instincts took over, and he pulled his claws back, only for the momentum to betray him.

He pulled, and yet the claws pushed in the opposite direction by some unnatural force.

It pushed past further than before.

Reached closer to Riley than he had ever done.

Past his jet-black coat.

Cutting through his striped white shirt beneath.

And slicing horizontally at his pale white skin.

Instinct? Luck? Or perhaps the domain itself had tilted fate in his favor. Whatever the cause, Fenrir had done what was thought impossible.

He had bypassed Riley’s seemingly impenetrable defense.

Simultaneously, Riley’s fingertips touched Fenrir’s arm.

It was just a graze, and what happened next was indescribable.

It felt as if Fenrir’s very muscle fibers had come to life and decided to rebel against their master.

Fibers ripped off, tendons snapped, and pain erupted in fiery bursts throughout his arm.

Both attacks had been simultaneous.

Both fighters recoiled and landed on opposite sides of the battlefield.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then the pain finally kicked in.

Riley’s vision blurred as deep red blood seeped through his clothes and soaked him like a sponge. He stared at it and took a moment for the human to register in his head that the blood he was staring at…

…Was in fact his.

“ΑΑΑΑΗΗΗΗΗ!!!”

A scream tore from his throat as waves of excruciating pain crashed over him, pain unlike anything he had ever felt.

It wasn’t like the sharp sting of a bullet or the dull ache of a beating.

This was something new.

Something raw.

Something that burned from his upper chest all the way to his lower hip, as blood poured freely from the wound and spilled where it wasn't supposed to.

Thankfully, the cut wasn’t deep enough to be life-threatening, but the sheer blood loss was alarming.

Clenching his jaw, Riley placed a trembling hand over the gash and manipulated the mana particles around him to regulate his blood flow. It was a temporary fix at best, but it would have to do.

‘I have to end this quickly. But more importantly... how?!’

All sorts of thoughts ran through Riley’s head as he tried to piece together what just occurred. The one thing no one had ever done.

He clenched his fist, trembling with a mix of rage and disbelief.

That fucking Furry Gay Stripper literally became the first person in the world to have bypassed his defense.

"Damn it!”

The words slipped out as Riley’s frustration boiled over. For the first time, he was at a loss, not just for strategy, but for how his flawless control had been undone.

“FUUUCK!!!!”

Truthfully, the mechanism behind Riley’s passive ability wasn’t anything difficult to understand in theory.

It functioned as a simple redirection, any force that came into contact with it was reflected in the opposite direction.

Theoretically, this meant that if one could adjust their attack’s trajectory “at the exact millisecond” it touched him and redirected it back toward Riley instead of themselves, they could bypass his ability entirely.

But as straightforward as it sounded, it was nearly impossible to execute.

First, one would need to determine the exact range of Riley’s reflective field, which he constantly changed to keep opponents guessing. Second, the timing required complex calculations that even the most genius of minds would struggle to calculate in the heat of battle.

Most challengers misjudged the nature of his ability and mistaking it for some type of powerful shield they could brute-force their way through. Such misconceptions only led to their quick demise, as their attacks were invariably turned back on them.

To successfully exploit this weakness, one would need intimate knowledge of Riley’s power, his patterns, and a staggering level of precision, all of which seemed insurmountable.

However, it wasn't an underestimate to say that Fenrir had just done the one in a million impossibility, and became the first person in the world to accomplish such an impossible feat.

"I cut him… I CUT HIM!"

Excitement filled Fenrir as his bloodied face twisted into a triumphant grin.

How could he not be overjoyed? His claws had broken through what he once believed to be an impenetrable barrier.

But then his expression shifted and his excitement gave way to intense focus.

“However…” he muttered under his breath as his sharp mind dissected the exchange.

Why did it work? What had been different this time?

Fenrir replayed the moment in his mind, scrutinizing every detail back on the exchange that just occurred.

The posture of both fighters. The timing of their attacks. The sensation in his claws. The hesitation he held.

He analyzed everything, leaving no stone unturned, and began eliminating possibilities.

Striking Ghost while his hand was outstretched hadn’t worked before. Simultaneously attacking during Riley’s offensive had also failed.

But this time… when Fenrir had instinctively pulled his claws back, they had seemed to defy his orders and moved forward as if acting of their own accord.

“That’s it…” Fenrir whispered and his golden eyes narrowed.

All his physical attacks so far had been reflected back at him.

Thinking about it, that was a big clue in itself. It was never a shield, but a mirror which directed all his attacks back at him.

If his attacks were reflected back at him with equal force, then pulling his claws away at the moment of impact should, theoretically, cause the reflection to follow the opposite trajectory, straight into Ghost.

A crazed grin spread across Fenrir’s face as he realized this conclusion.

“I see it… The road to victory… I SEE IT!!” he excitedly yelled while coughing blood.

One of his limbs had been torn from the violent exchange, and yet he didn't even pay it a glance as he embarked on his new discovery and his excitement eclipsed all else.

Victory was no longer just a dream, it was within his grasp.

“Bleeding has stopped. Circulation of the blood flow has been regulated. No internal damage to organs. Heart rate is back to normal." Riley finished his self-analysis as he turned his attention back to Fenrir.

"You bastard. Did putting this wound on me inflate your tiny little ego? That was your one and only chance. There won't be a second time."

"Indeed." Fenrir lamented.

In his attempt to reduce the recoil from his reflective ability, his earlier strike had been intentionally shallow. If he had known the truth back then, if he had struck with everything he had in that fleeting moment, perhaps this battle would already be over.

“But no matter,” Fenrir said as his resolve hardened. “Now that I’ve unraveled your secrets, dealing with you will be simple. Your so-called defense is nothing more than a fragile facade. Once stripped of it, you’re no better than an inferior. You’ve made light of me for the last time!”

His voice rose in a thunderous crescendo.

“This is my domain, Sir Ghost! In here, I alone hold dominion!”

The air itself seemed to bend under the weight of Fenrir’s fury. An oppressive force descended upon them, answering his outburst with an eerie resonance.

The Chaos Domain surged, amplifying his area spell to a terrifying degree.

From where he stood, Riley’s movements began to slow down and his vitality visibly drained. His pale skin grew even paler, and his body looked almost lifeless as the Domain worked its deadly magic.

Even if Riley attempted to escape, the Chaos Domain was a closed pocket dimension. Only Fenrir held the key to its borders.

“I’ll recreate that exchange right here, right now,” Fenrir declared with unshakable confidence.

Riley’s body continued to lose color, and his once-animated form appeared on the brink of collapse. It was only a matter of time now, seconds perhaps, before his entire being succumbed to the Chaos Domain.

And yet…

He was strangely quiet.

“Why are you so quiet?” Fenrir sneered as his grin brimmed with mockery. “Has the realization finally dawned on you? At least die with some honor—”

“~sigh~”

The sound was quiet, almost dismissive, but it cut through Fenrir’s taunt like a blade.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Riley opened his mouth and spoke.

“You have thoughtlessly gone assuming and convinced yourself that my passive ability is all there is to me…” His voice was calm, almost pitying.

It was unfortunate.

“What’s he babbling about?” Fenrir growled and shook off the unease creeping into his chest. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll end this with that reversal technique!”

Fenrir’s claws tensed as he prepared to strike the finishing blow. Riley’s colorless face seemed to signal defeat as his immobilized state became the perfect opening.

Even if that ability was still active, it would be easier to breach with him immobilized and unable to retaliate.

He could do this!

He could certainly win!

It was without a doubt that Fenrir had grown stronger throughout this battle.

Mainly in sharpening his instincts, analyzing his opponent and considering every possibility to make sure his claws would always reach.

He had learned to expect Riley’s moves, adapt to his tricks, and exploit his weaknesses.

He had evolved, no longer the brute who fought on instinct alone.

Before he was a caterpillar.

Now he was like a cocoon about to evolve into a butterfly.

And it was without a doubt that if left to his being, he would continue to grow even stronger.

As Fenrir’s claws descended upon Riley like a vicious collapsing dam of raw fury, he carefully recreated his earlier maneuver by pulling back just before the strike made contact.

But this time, something was different.

"I'll show yOu ThEn..."

Riley spoke in a slow and calm tone, as if talking to a naive child.

"I’lL sHoW yOu ExAcTlY hOw FaR tHe GaP bEtWeEn Us GoEs."

Before Fenrir could process the ominous words, Riley raised a hand and clenched it into a fist.

The air around them quaked.

Cracks began to spider web across the fabric of the dark world, faint at first but rapidly spreading like fragile glass under immense pressure.

Then, in an instant, the entire Chaos Domain shattered, splintering into countless shards before dissolving into a swirling black mass of chaos energy.

Fenrir blinked, disoriented as the real world materialized around them once more.

But his confusion turned to dread as he noticed the remnants of his shattered domain, melted into a viscous inky liquid flowing toward Riley’s body.

"Impossible..."

The [Totem of Chaos], his greatest trump card, had been destroyed. The impenetrable domain that had always guaranteed his dominance lay in ruins, reduced to nothing more than a pliable servant to Riley’s will.

The black mass moved like liquid and coiled around Riley, forming and rising up high behind him like wings of death.

The sight was unlike anything Fenrir had ever encountered.

He felt it then, an invisible force rooting him to the ground and paralyzed him completely.

"Do NoT bLiNk. I'm DoNe GoInG eAsY oN yOu."

As Fenrir’s widened eyes stared into the murderous cold and uncaring eyes of the Harbinger of Doom, he came to understand something.

That shield was him not taking this seriously.

From the very beginning, Riley hadn’t considered them a threat.

The proud Heads of Destruction, warriors feared across realms, were nothing more than prey and a source of curiosity before this man, a fodder to occupy his time.

The most important fact in which Fenrir failed to understand.

His opponent was an Anomaly, a being who existed beyond the natural laws of this world.

Neither Fenrir nor anyone else in this New World could begin to comprehend the weight of that title, nor the terrifying power it truly bestowed.

Before he could react, the inky black mass coiled like a serpent and lashed out.

In less than a heartbeat, it pierced Fenrir’s body and sliced through him like a sharp blade.

For a moment, there was silence.

And then it became painfully clear…

The butterfly that had only just awoke from its cocoon would never live long enough to spread its wings.

How truly unfortunate.

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A/n:

Thanks for reading!

Riley, or should I say Ghost, was cold this chapter ngl.

And his Mana Manipulation was incredibly deadly than we had expected.

Anyways, It's about time to start rounding up, I think.

But for the next chapter, it will be the most intense thing that Riley and his team had ever faced. If they failed, then not only the invading force of Aquarius, but the whole National Liberation Campaign will fail!!

Anyways, next chapter after that will be the most intense thing that the whole human army could come across!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! This was quite fun to see, the gore and dread.