Chapter 345: Trapped!

Jax stood alone in the vast trench, golden mana flowing around him in slow, deliberate currents. The collapse of the hidden dimension had finally ended.

The last fragments of silver light drifted upward before dissolving into the surrounding sea, leaving behind only the ancient ocean that had existed long before the artificial realm had ever been created.

Silence lingered and then the creature emerged once more after Jax’s previous attack.

Entire cliffs split apart as its colossal frame pushed itself free from the shattered mountains Jax had driven it through. Chunks of obsidian armor fell away from its body as it moved.

The wounds inflicted moments earlier remained. With the creature’s personal domain gone, there was no impossibly fast regeneration, no rewriting reality to heal, nothing to erase the damage that Jax had dealt with his attacks.

Blue blood drifted from dozens of deep gashes, staining the surrounding water with glowing streams of light.

Jax watched all of this quietly, "Good."

The creature answered with another roar. This one sounded different. It wasn’t confident or territorial like the previous roars from the creature.

Instead, this roar sounded desperate. The beast’s thousands of eyes locked onto Jax once more as it roared, luminescent blue light erupting beneath every remaining armor plate as the creature charged up for the upcoming battle.

The surrounding ocean began trembling as Jax also readied for battle, "You’re burning your own reserves now."

Jax folded one hand behind his back, "So you’ve realized this fight won’t last forever. Well same, I was just planning on putting you down,"

Hearing that, the monster roared angrily and surged forward towards Jax viciously. Its damaged limbs ignored their own injuries.

Every movement carried enough force to fracture underwater cliffs. This time, instead of simply attacking in basic ways, the creature unleashed everything at once.

The remaining eyes across its body opened simultaneously, leading to hundreds, no, thousands of beams, all of which exploded outward.

Unlike before, they didn’t converge toward Jax. Instead, the immense amount of dangerous beams flooded the battlefield itself, making everywhere unsafe.

Entire sections of ocean became saturated with destructive energy.The beams crossed one another until escape routes vanished entirely.

"Area denial," Jax smiled as he saw this, "That’s smarter, but I wonder what’s your goal with that,"

Finishing his line, Jax finally moved. Golden light flickered around him, and the Demon King’s body vanished.

One instant he stood before the creature, staring directly at it, and the next moment, Jax appeared between dozens of converging beams.

He stepped forward and began taking multiple steps, but every single one of them was impossibly precise, as if Jax could actually see the future.

With every single step Jax took, each beam missed him by mere centimeters. To anyone watching, it looked less like dodging and more like the attacks themselves had decided not to touch him.

Far behind him, Astra watched from within her barrier, in awe at everything that was happening, "He’s reading everything."

Her tired eyes widened as she spotted another perfect movement from him, correcting her prior statement as she spoke, "He’s predicting it, it’s like he’s downloaded all of the beasts attacks directly into his mind,"

The creature realized the same thing, so its attacks intensified, leading to more beams, more claws and more crushing waves of mana.

Jax continued walking forward, calm and untouched by any of the attacks.

Finally, one claw descended directly overhead, bather than evade, Jax looked up and holden mana condensed around a single finger.

He flicked upward.

~BOOOOOOOM!~

The claw exploded apart. Fragments of obsidian armor scattered throughout the sea while the creature staggered backward.

Jax appeared above its head in an instant, "Your body’s impressive."

Golden circles unfolded behind him once more. Far more than before. One hundred, then five hundred and soon all of these circles grew to well past one thousand.

Each circle carried a unique spell matrix. Each represented years of magical theory refined into perfect execution.

Jax raised both hands, "Let’s increase the pressure."

Every array activated and the ocean changed. Gravity compressed, temperature fluctuated, lightning danced between circles, spatial blades rotated silently through the water.

Mana gathered from every direction and without warning, the first barrage descended viciously.

Golden spears, black lightning, compressed gravity spheres, flame that ignored water, wind blades sharp enough to sever enchanted steel, crystalline mana shards, chains of light, explosive sigils and much more.

Thousands of spells crossed the battlefield simultaneously. The creature roared. Every remaining limb moved in frantic defense.

Its claws shattered countless attacks. Its armored hide endured many more, yet every successful block still left another wound, every second another section of armor broke away.

Every heartbeat another stream of glowing blood escaped.

The trench became a storm of explosions. Mountains collapsed and various oceanic rocks fractured. The seabed split open beneath the relentless exchange.

Jax never stopped casting. His circles continuously rearranged themselves, completed spells disappeared and new ones formed instantly.

"You’re adapting," Jax said as he watched the creature carefully, "Good."

The monster suddenly twisted. Instead of attacking, it fled. It turned toward the deepest part of the trench. Blue mana exploded from its damaged body as it accelerated.

Jax raised an eyebrow as he saw this, "Running?"

For the first time since meeting it, probably the first time in its entire life, fear radiated from the creature.

It understood that without its domain and without endless regeneration, remaining here fighting Jax meant death.

Jax, seeing this going down, sighed, "I was hoping you’d stay."

Golden mana expanded beneath his feet. A massive spell circle appeared, unlike every spell before it.., this one stretched across kilometers.

Ancient runes rotated around one another, concentric rings locked together. The ocean dimmed.

Even Astra looked up from inside her barrier, a frown on her face as she saw this, "What is he casting now?"

Jax spoke only three words, "Celestial Demon Bind."

The spell circle ignited and golden pillars erupted throughout the trench. Thousands of them, and each pillar connected to another with threads of radiant mana.

Within moments... An enormous lattice surrounded the fleeing creature. It slammed into one barrier, then another and soon, every direction had already been sealed.

The monster roared in fury. It attacked the lattice, its claws descending viciously while the beast fired off beams, causing immense shockwaves..

The golden framework bent, but refused to break.

Jax slowly floated forward, "You’ve been interesting."

The creature charged him one final time. Everything it had left. Every remaining reserve of mana. Every surviving eye glowed. Its rotating jaws opened wider than ever before.

The ocean itself seemed to split around its final assault, but Jax inhaled and golden mana condensed around his right hand inward until the light became almost invisible.

"One strike."

He stepped forward, the creature descended and their attacks met.

For an instant, nothing happened, but then...

A perfectly circular shockwave expanded across the trench. The surrounding water parted. Sea cliffs disintegrated and silence followed.

The creature froze as all of this happened, a single crack appeared across its chest. Then another, then hundreds.

Its remaining armor shattered away. The enormous body lost all momentum. It drifted backward helplessly.

Defeated, still alive, but barely.

Jax looked at it for several long moments, "I could kill you."

Golden mana gathered around his palm once more. The creature tensed, yet, instead of another destructive spell, the mana changed.

It became calm and intricate, layered with countless sealing runes.

Jax smiled faintly, "But I won’t, we have questions that need to be answered, "

The spell circle beneath him transformed. Its destructive matrices vanished, replacing them were elegant geometric symbols that folded inward like blooming flowers.

Golden chains emerged, not physical chains, but conceptual ones. They wrapped gently around the creature. The monster struggled immediately. Its enormous limbs thrashed.

The surrounding ocean shook, but the chains held.

"Easy," Jax extended one finger, "Compress."

The spell activated. The colossal body shuddered and the creature roared as its size began to shrink rapidly.

Kilometer after kilometer disappeared. The creature roared once more, but its voice was much quieter and less intimidating.

Its limbs shortened and its armor contracted. Within moments it was merely hundreds of meters long, then dozens.

Finally, after a bit, it had become scarcely larger than a household cat in this world. Its countless eyes blinked in bewilderment, even its tiny rotating jaws continued turning indignantly.

Jax couldn’t help smiling, "That’s considerably less intimidating."

A final rune appeared beneath it. A perfectly smooth translucent sphere formed around the miniature creature and the orb sealed itself with a soft chime.

The tiny monster immediately hurled itself against the inside, but he barrier didn’t even ripple.

Satisfied, Jax reached forward. The orb floated gently into his waiting hand. Inside, the once-apocalyptic creature glared at him with all the fury it could still muster.

Jax studied it closely. Now that it was no longer the size of a mountain, its features became easier to examine.

Its anatomy still refused to match any species he knew. Every instinct told him this was something ancient. Something that should not have existed beneath the Western Varoza Ocean.

He turned toward Astra’s barrier. She had managed to sit upright by now, looking between Jax and the tiny captive in astonishment.

"You,"She blinked twice, "You shrank it."

"I did."

She stared at the furious little creature bouncing uselessly against the inside of its prison. Then she looked back at Jax, "You’re taking that home?"

Jax laughed at that proposition, "Not home."

He held the orb up, watching the imprisoned creature continue its futile attempts to escape.

"I’ll be giving it to Meridia, she can figure out what this thing is,"