Chapter 97 Dungeon Break [6] - Terraigne
[Pull]
Reality distorted to shorten the distance between Veronica and Lloyd. It broke so many laws of physics, yet somehow it still occurred. Ripples of space and time shot out in every direction as the distance between the two became negligible.
By the time Veronica regained her senses, a violet blade made out of void energy had already sliced toward her neck.
The intent to kill was thick in the air. It was very obvious that Lloyd was trying to kill her, and even though he hadn\'t killed anyone before, he did not seem to hesitate, even for a moment.
Maybe the excruciating pain that traveled through his body every second of every minute made him feel this way, but one thing was for sure, he was no longer pulling his punches.
After all, now that they were both fighting in his domain, there was no threat to anyone on the outside being targeted or caught in between the fight.
However, now that Veronica was also in serious danger, she was no longer holding back.
While at first, she thought that she may be able to change Lloyd\'s mind if she threatened him with the lives of his comrades, or even killed one of them to send a message, she found it close to impossible for her to even reach within a mile radius of Tina, let alone anyone else.
With her [Apex Predetor] passive ability activated, not only was her body much stronger, and her reflexes a lot more refined, but she could also take a lot more damage without falling prey to any of the wounds on her body, or the pain that might come with them.
This was the perfect ability for a vampire, and the reason for this was simple. Vampires have one of the highest regeneration rates amongst humanoid creatures.
A strong vampire in the 3rd commandment or higher can regenerate entire limbs within seconds of them being cut off. And even though Veronica was in the second commandment, not only was she experienced beyond her bodily age, her vampire abilities were considered to be top class when compared to anyone at the same level as her.
However, when it came to Lloyd\'s attacks, there was a small problem.
While the natural breakthrough void energy didn\'t have enough potency to stop her from regenerating, a blade made out of pure and condensed void energy could, at the very least, stop her from regenerating for at least a minute.
When she saw the blade come toward her neck, time slowed down as she thought of hundreds of ways to avoid the attack before finding the one.
Her movements were precise, like the tools of a surgeon.
Every movement meant something, and had a purpose behind it. Not a single movement went to waste, and by the time she had ducked, her greatsword was already above Lloyd\'s head, cutting downwards like a lightning bolt smiting Lloyd with its speed and strength.
*Snap*
[Swap]
Yet all of it went to waste when she heard the snap of Lloyd\'s fingers echo in her ears like an eerie ring that would never go away.
The time frame was short, yet due to the adrenaline running through her veins, she could see everything move as slowly as it did before, her plan to cut Lloyd in half crumbling in an instant as a scorching pain radiated from the palm of her hand, going all the way up to her fingers.
At the same time, she watched her greatsword slice toward her intending to cut her in two, yet right before it could hit her, she let go of the purple blade and slammed her hands on either side of the sword, stopping its momentum but crushing her arms at the same time.
With the snap of his fingers, Lloyd had swapped his short, weightless void blade with her enormous greatsword.
Since the greatsword already had a lot of momentum from when she swung it, Lloyd needed to add a little more of his own strength into it to make the cut fatal.
On the other hand, the void blade was far too short of reaching Lloyd, and due to it being weightless, the fact that Lloyd was swinging it horizontally did not affect Veronica\'s vertical swing.
Reducing the gap between them, Lloyd snapped his fingers again.
[Swap]
Swapping the blades once more, Veronica was forced to roll forward to avoid the verticle slash, and as she rolled, she made sure to grab her blade before sliding back a few meters and pointing her sword at Lloyd.
"I don\'t think you understand, Veronica... You are on my turf now." Lloyd grinned before his body disappeared, yet in an instant, he was right in front of Veronica with his fist deep into her gut.
Unable to react in time, Veronica helplessly watched as her feet left the ground and she was catapulted into the sky, yet it only took her a few more moments for her body to slam into the ground once more.
Getting up, she looked up, just to see Lloyd standing on the ground, looking up at her with his bright violet eyes that could be seen from a mile away.
\'The gravity shifted mid-way through. It\'s like he turned the world inside out.\' Veronica thought with a deep scowl on her face.
Reaching her hand toward her blade, she watched it shoot toward her from where Lloyd stood before she grabbed it with one hand was if it was weightless.
There wasn\'t nearly enough blood around for her to use any of her blood martial arts, but she had been trained for situations like these.
Cutting both her arms from her palms of her shoulders, blood slowly seeped out of her body and floated. While some swirled around her like long tendrils made from blood, the rest turned into orbs of blood the size of a fist.
However, some of the blood coated her body before moving around the create blood runes that enhanced every feature of hers, allowing her to fight more efficiently and with greater ferocity.
Dropping low, Veronica looked upwards before extending her legs in one explosive movement that sent her flying toward Lloyd.
At the same time, Lloyd split himself into hundreds of copies and gave each one of them two void blades before every single one flew toward her like violet bullets, slowly homing onto their enemies.
The battle lasted for several minutes, yet to both of them, each minute felt much longer than that.
Veronica carved through the clones with ease, quickly getting used to their predictable attack patterns.
The blood around her had many uses. The tendrils floated around and quickly turned into anything she desired, like a whip that would either slice a clone in half or grab it before throwing it toward the ground. It could become long and pointy, or it could split into a hundred pieces and shower Lloyd\'s clones with bullets.
Stabbing the last clone through the stomach, Veronica raised her eyes upwards before narrowing them when they locked upon Lloyd\'s floating figure.
His coat fluttered in the air and looked like it hadn\'t been touched since the day of its creation. Not even dust specks dared touch Lloyd\'s coat, as if the dust specks themselves were afraid to touch him.
The amount of killing intent flooding out of his body felt like it could have euthanized a dragon. Yet, Veronica simply stood there without flinching, her hands tightening around her weapon while killing intent began to seep from her too.
"You should have taken my proposition." She spat.
"You shouldn\'t have hurt us." Lloyd\'s pseudo-transcendent voice echoed through the entire realm. Suddenly, Veronica turned into a red beam of light before shooting toward Lloyd at top speeds, breaking several sound barriers and appearing before him in an instant.
[Expand]
With the snap of Lloyd\'s fingers, the distance between him and Veronica instantly tripled, and before she could react to the sudden increase in distance between the two of them, she felt something pushing on her abdomen.
[Repel]
In an instant, she shot into the ground and found herself being buried several meters into the ground and still going.
After shooting through what felt like 20 meters of solid earth, she descended through the air again. She expected that she would eventually run into a cavern since dungeons were practically filled with them, but when she looked down again, her eyes widened in shock as a sense of de javu overcame her.
She could see Lloyd staring at her with killing intent bursting forth from his body and flooding the area around him. She could feel all the emotions he was feeling through his aura, and even though she didn\'t want to believe the feeling she was sensing, she could not deny that Lloyd\'s emotions were real despite being a monster.
Extending his hand forward, Lloyd pointed at Veronica, yet she spoke before he could do anything else.
"Do you really not understand?" She asked.
Lloyd raised a brow, yet he did not mutter a word. He assumed that this was another one of her petty tricks to save her own life. When Lloyd activated [Void Channel], he knew that the battle was over and done with. He had already won; he just wanted to play with his prey before killing it.
"We could have become something. We could have saved lives. Millions!" She roared.
"You expect me to believe that." Lloyd chuckled mockingly.
"You expect me to believe that opening up a dungeon to take over a planet and kill millions of people is the right thing to do?" Lloyd spat.
"Lloyd, you\'re a kid, and I understand that. Me and you, we are different. You are different. Look around for one second and tell me if anyone else in the universe is capable of doing what you just did. I\'m at the peak of the second commandment, yet you, someone still assimilating the first commandment, can fight me off and possibly even kill me..." Veronica smiled slightly before continuing-
"Your point being?"
"Look at humanity. A race only driven by their determination to survive, and it has always been like that. from the first cavemen who invented fire, to the man who solved climate change out of the sheer desperation to survive another day. Yet, in the end, what are they but barbarians?"
Hearing her words, Lloyd\'s brows furrowed, yet despite the clear disapprovement shown form Lloyd, Veronica continued-
They kill everything and anything they get their hands on. They murder each other over things like money, fame, and political power. They are worse than the monsters they fight against on a daily basis. Trust me, I know more than anyone how horrible humanity can be."
"Don\'t act like you\'re the victim here..." Lloyd spat.
"Do you really think the humans will accept you? You will have to live in hiding your whole life, and the way you are using your power now, I bet you\'ve already put yourself in the eye-line of a few powerful people. We can fix that. With us, you don\'t have to live in hiding anymore!" Veronica reasoned.
"Do you think I\'m stupid?" Lloyd asked, causing Veronica to finally stop her blabbering.
"Do you really think I\'m stupid enough to fall for your shit again?" Lloyd asked before appearing right in front of Veronica.
"I saw the look in your eyes. The moment I created this thing..." Lloyd paused before slowly looking around at his domain while trying to think of a word to best describe it.
Normal domains weren\'t too difficult to create. They are usually bubbles that span 20 meters in radius. It usually depends on the element of the class of the person using it, but every bubble has a few key aspects.
The user is strengthened in some way, shape, or form, and if the user is masterful enough with it, they can also strengthen teammates. On the other hand, it weakens the enemy in some way, shape, or form depending on the element or class of the person using it.
While Lloyd didn\'t know it, he had done something far beyond creating a simple domain. Maybe his emotions fueled his will to go further beyond, or maybe it was [Void Channel] that allowed such a thing to happen.
Either way, while Lloyd seemed oblivious to the true extent of the technique he had just used, Veronica knew exactly what he had done, and it had already terrified her to the core.
Throughout billions of years in which the universe had existed, the technique went by many names. Throne World, Divine Garden, King\'s Realm, Pocket Dimension, and even recently, True Domain.
However, there was a common term recorded throughout the history books, a term that all the first users of this technique used to name their creation.
"Terraigne... I\'ll call it that. My personal Terraigne."
[Author\'s note: Again, sorry for the long delay between uploads. I\'m trying to do my best to get back on schedule. I know I sound like a broken record, but I\'m going to try my best to get into a consistent schedule by march.]
[Terraign: Comes from the Latin word "Terrene" and the Greek word "Terra," in which both mean land and/or earth. They are also used in the English language to create the word territory and terrain. Terraign is pronounced "Terr- eh -ghn"]