Free Web NovelChapter 19: Chapter 019: Dinner(2)
Duke Alain’s lips curled into a smirk once more.
And then—he laughed, a deep, rich, knowing laugh.
The entire room stilled.
"Fascinating," he murmured.
Selena turned sharply toward him. "Alain—"
He lifted a hand. "Please, dear."
His gaze remained locked on Mikael, unwavering.
"You come into my home... kill my knights... insult my power, claim my city... and yet here you are, seated at my table. But I would ask you do not mistake my silence for weakness, boy."
His smile widened as he leaned in once again, his aura now flaring. Selena signalled for the servants to leave immediately, fearing the earlier incident would repeat.
"Now tell me, Mikael. How do you intend to ’claim’ this city, my city? By force, perhaps?"
The walls of the dining hall were now groaning and creaking under the weight of his aura.
Selena smiled inwardly. Truly, her husband, the Diamond Tyrant of the Bloodline family was finally not joking.
"Only if necessary, Duke."
A sharp silence followed.
Then Duke Alan’s eyes hazel eyes gleamed while Evander, Isabella, Lucas, and Sybil looked between them, struggling to understand what was going on.
But Mikael already knew.
This was probably not a battle of swords and spell, but a battle of wills and wits. And he would very much like to keep it that way.
And he had just made his first move. Now he had to wait to see how the other would react to it.
Duke Alan’s laughter faded, but the smirk remained. The air in the room was thick with tension—magic, spells, and blades barely contained, as the Limmor family waited for their Patriarch to make a move.
Mikael continued swirling his cup, completely unbothered, yet his presence was akin to an undeniable pillar of dominance.
"Only if necessary," he had said.
A very simple answer.
Yet it carried impressive weight. It meant he considered himself on par with Sage Ranks like himself and Selena, despite his aura being at the peak of the Master Rank at most!
There were eight ranks for the awakened.
The lowest was the Novice Rank which is the base rank whenever someone awakened and after which came the Adept Rank though some geniuses directly awakened in this rank, skipping the Novice Rank.
After those came the Master and Grandmaster Rank, considered the pinnacle of the lower ranks. Those in these ranks could join knight orders as commanding officers, mage towers, academy professors and even the Imperial Army! The monsters came after these, with the Sage and the Archsage Rank. The remaining two, Half Deity and Quasi God were pretty much stories of legends, no one was sure they even happened.
It seems it’s time I took this boy seriously.
Evander finally snapped. "Take over this city? Do you think we are here to make jokes with you, you bastard?" He unsheathed his sword.
But he was in for a surprise as he pointed at Mikael—at least, where Mikael was.
Alas, what remained was... an afterimage.
He was already behind Evander before he could even pull out his sword. However the Duke and his partner kept up with his movement, and the Duchess was already behind Mikael too!
Selena was coy in hiding her bloodlust as she barely stopped herself from twisting Mikael’s neck and killing him. He had given her enough worries than she could bear to handle.
Evander finally froze in terror as a cold finger touched his throat in a slow yet threatening manner. Only one thought came to his mind:
’So fast!’
Mikael grinned like a fool. "Easy there, lad. You almost lost your head just now?"
"And you, yours." The Duchess finally announced her presence, completely startling Mikael who had completely underestimated them!
" Innate Soul Domain. Expand!" the Duke suddenly declared, his voice cutting through the hall. He seemed to have had enough play.
"Diamond Prison!"
The hall changed into a different scenery immediately. It became a huge cage that glittered just like....crystals. Like diamonds. And it encompassed the entirety of the hall!
Mikael was surprised. This was something he had never seen over the past hours.
"You mortals are very interesting creatures, aren’t you?"
He raised his hands slowly as he left Evander’s back and walked calmly back to his seat, finally getting Selena off his own neck.
His inner senses were saying that he was somehow powerless here.
"Say, Duke. What kind of magic did you use now... I am genuinely curious," Mikael asked in his usual curiouity, tilting his head with innocent intrigue.
" You mean you haven’t heard of Innate Soul Domain?" Isabel blurted out before covering her mouth.
Everyone stood in shock at Mikael.
Was he some kind of overpowered country bumpkin who just felt too powerful and decided to be reckless?
Duke Alan rubbed the bridge of his nose in disbelief. A moment later, he issued an order to his last child. " Explain to him, as you have been taught." The Duchess had tried to object but the Duke had none of it.
Sybil cleared her throat. "Sir Mikael, the Innate Soul Domain literally explains itself. It is the world within your soul and it is said that it shapes itself according to the personality of a particular soul as well as its affinity! As such, it is unique to one person only.
However, only people who have achieved a perfect connection to their Soul world and possess an impressive mana pool can manifest their soul world into the physical world for a short while."
"And inside their soul world," she continued, "an awakened individual is generally considered unbeatable, that is all."
Kael’s memory stirred once again but still nothing. Maybe Adrian was uneducated, Mikael considered.
"Good girl," the duke said as he rose from his seat.
" Now, lad. You have to show me what you’ve got. If you think you can claim my territory..."
Selena felt pity and joy in equal measure. Joy as she watched her husband finally become serious. Pity as she wished to put Mikael down herself.
The Diamond Prison’s major ability was subtle draining of mana into the diamonds lining the entire Domain and then strengthening those diamonds that’ll then serve as the Duke’s defense. It left his opponent powerless to cast even the most basic spell if it’s left alone! All the while protecting the Duke from the opponent’s attack!
This was in addition to the unique Domain Rule that made an opponent expend more mana to cast a spell in a domain or augment their base physical capabilities, much more so than doing the same thing outside a domain!
Therefore any battle of attrition was basically decided in the Duke’s favor, unless his opponent was of a higher level than him, in which case the strong domain wins out!
These Soul Worlds or Domains usually reflected the owner’s personality and mana, Mikael noted. But he didn’t care much for the personality part. What interested him more was the mana used to manifest and maintain these domains!
This was a new test to see how his backlash would react to his absorbing from domains. However rushing in without fully understand how it works, could be fatal, especially with his backlash approaching.
He could already feel his heart throbbing, painfully and his breathing had gotten a bit ragged. He had come here to establish a stable footing in this world of men, so he couldn’t go down unless he satisfied that. So he had to go in!
......’He’s stalling for time, that much is obvious,’ Alan guesed. ’But nothing goes here without my consent. What’s he planning to do? Absorb the mana from my soul, like at the entrance? Unless his skill of absorbing isn’t some spell or rune — because they’re all useless here."
"Boy, while I don’t know what it is you’re planning, inside my domain, only what I say goes. If you feel up to the challenge, stand and face me. Otherwise, you should leave. I’ll personally see you out safely."
Mikael smiled, the apprehension from before vanishing. He’d already confirmed what he......he wanted. The void was feeding and enriching him, slowly but surely. To last a bit longer, he also absorbed all the cores he had gathered from earlier.
"If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my fall, it’s to never fight at a disadvantage."
His eyes turned fiery red. The air distorted and even the duke’s soul domain suffered some cracks.
And then, with a quiet murmur:
"Summon, Ragnarok."
The temperature in the Domain dropped instantly. A crack tore through the air — like reality itself was being unzipped, as though existence had been torn apart.
And from that rift emerged the weapon, the scythe from before — a weapon of impossible length and elegance, its shaft was pulsing with sentient hunger.
Its blade? A crescent of shadowed moonlight, constantly changing form, unstable. Inscribed along it were runes from a language ancient and lost before time.
Ragnarok — the Guardian of the Void!
The air screamed as Mikael twirled it once.
"You wanted to see my power, Duke?" His voice had dropped some octaves, no longer playful. He had gotten serious.
"Here’s a fraction of mine."
And with a step — just one.
He vanished.
"Summon, Warden." A greatsword appeared before the Duke. ’ Physical attacks? Not a bad choice.....But.....’
BOOM.
Mikael appeared mid-air above the duke, scythe in a descending arc. The blade didn’t just cut down — it tore a rift that dragged all surrounding mana into a singularity, at the tip of his blade.
Alan raised his sword to meet the scythe, shards of diamonds already covering up the weapon in defense.
Below the sword, he was casting defensive spells, layering them.
There was something about that scythe that was unsettling so he needed to avoid it as much as possible!
