Chapter 652: Four Soul Domains!

"Vyaghra, you are still far from evolving into a Sacred Beast, but this battle will help you widen your horizon. Observe carefully."

"Yes, Master," Vyaghra said, but he had only just finished speaking when the third elder’s attack arrived.

The Frozen Starsea above began to ripple like a real sea, glittering waves of ice rolling across the sky. From within them, sharp pillars of ice came raining down, each streaking through the air trailing a pale tail of light like a comet. Vyaghra tried to follow their paths with his eyes, but there were far too many to dodge. One of them pierced through Maximilian’s wing, leaving a gaping hole, while another pierced his back just behind Vyaghra.

His crimson blood splattered as he began falling.

Bam!

His giant draconic body struck the flower garden. With a low growl, he pulled the ice spear out of his back, blood splattering along the motion.

He slowly opened his hand, where Ume and Vyaghra lay unscathed. He had grabbed Vyaghra from his back at the last moment, before he hit the ground.

"M-Master..." Ume whimpered, obviously concerned. Her eyes were already turning teary from the injury Maximilian had suffered. "Let us fight alongside you. We didn’t come here to become your burden."

Vyaghra also nodded with her. He would rather die than become dead weight to Maximilian.

"It’s alright," Maximilian’s deep voice echoed as he gave them a reassuring look with his golden eyes. "I know what I’m doing. Your only duty here is to observe."

With that declaration, he covered the duo in a net of Death Lightning, which he tied around his neck in the form of a necklace.

Meanwhile, the poisonous mist from the flowers below began seeping into his wounds, and his eyes widened in pain. But for some reason, he didn’t bother to stop it.

"Hahaha, you really overestimated yourself, Maximilian," the third elder laughed, the one who had impaled him with the ice spear. "You are nothing compared to the power of four Middle-Stage Celestial Dragons."

Maximilian had only just spread his wings again when the land beneath him suddenly froze, the frost crawling across his body.

"Hey, what are you doing!?" the second elder shouted at the fourth elder.

The ice had not only frozen Maximilian but the entire flower garden, from the flowers to the scorpion constellation trees, their stars dimming under the layer of frost.

"It’s not my problem if my domain is an area-wide type," the fourth dragon scoffed. It was he who had raised the glaciers with his domain. The Heavenly Glacier allowed him to freeze everything that touched the ground, even an opponent in the Late Stage of the Celestial Realm. Besides, he couldn’t just let the Floraisan Clan take the bounty for killing Maximilian when it was the Neige Clan’s elder who had severely injured him.

He gave a sideways glance at the third elder. The latter understood his intent and released another rain of sharp pillars from the sky.

"You bastards, showing your true colours!" the first elder shouted, snapping the branches of the Celestial Worldtree forward and cutting down most of the spears. Those that broke scattered in the air like shattered stars, the frozen sky answering with another glittering wave.

Meanwhile, the second elder’s poison was already working to melt the ice that was trapping Maximilian, the stardust eating away at the frost with a quiet hiss.

Now that Maximilian was only one decisive attack away from death, whoever killed him would reap the greatest rewards.

The bickering of the four dragons grew sharper as they unleashed more of their power, not to kill Maximilian, but to stop the others from doing so.

The first elder’s branches grew thicker, the stars on their leaves burning brighter until the Worldtree looked like a galaxy trying to burst out of its own skin. The second elder’s constellation trees lifted their tails higher, the glittering poison thickening into a shimmering purple storm. The third elder’s starsea surged and rolled like an ocean preparing to fall upon the land. The fourth elder’s glaciers rose with a deafening groan, their peaks piercing the sky like frozen mountains of heaven.

Four domains, all equally powerful, all trying to overwhelm one another.

Several cracks spread across reality, the space growing unstable as each domain struggled to overpower the others. The land began to split, the purple flower field tearing apart in vast fissures while the roots of the Worldtree tore free from the earth. In the sky, cracks spread through the icy blue like a shattering mirror, the stars of the starsea falling out of place. The glaciers collided with the withering garden, ice grinding against stone and branch with a sound like a thousand screaming blades.

Just at that point, the ice trapping Maximilian cracked open, and he freed himself.

"This is what happens when domains of similar power try to overpower one another," Maximilian explained to Ume and Vyaghra, still unharmed within his necklace of lightning. "It is a perfect moment to completely shatter their domains with an even more overpowering one."

The dragons shifted their focus back to the freed Maximilian, their eyes widening.

"Kill him! We can divide the rewards equally!" the first elder shouted, snapping his branches at Maximilian, knowing that letting him gain the upper hand again was dangerous.

"Fine!" the second elder growled. The scorpion constellation trees thrust their stingers forward at once, and the stars at their tips blazed like needles of purple light.

"Don’t fall behind!" the third elder shouted as the Frozen Starsea crashed down in a vast wave of ice, its glittering crests breaking over the sky like a collapsing galaxy.

The fourth elder snarled and slammed his claw into the ground. The tallest glacier tore free from the earth and rose into the air before plummeting towards Maximilian like a meteor, trailing a tail of frozen light.

Branches, stingers, waves and a mountain of ice, all of them closing on one point from four directions, blotting out every inch of the sky.

Just as the attacks were about to land, Maximilian whispered, "Soul Domain: Black Hole!"