Chapter 158 Soulmancer (Part 2)

"Bastard!" The dark elf muttered, holding his leg in agony. His anger flared up.

"That's it. Now allow me to show you what power truly is," The dark elf shouted.

"Domain," He called out and just as he did, everything changed.

Shadows started to emerge from the surroundings as they took the form of various eerie creatures and monsters. Though, those were just a few shadows that had taken form and become corporeal. As for the rest, they combined together as they covered the surroundings.

The ground, the sky, and the surroundings. Everything was covered in shadows. With darkness reigning supreme, even the dean had a hard time finding the dark elf's position.

"Haha! Bet you can't even figure out your own position," The dark elf laughed. His ecstasy was beyond imagination as for the first time since the start of the battle, he had the upper hand.

Then, the shadows converged under the dark elf's control. Forming a dome, they encased a radius of 500 meters.

This limited not only the space that the dean could move within but also provided the dark elf with great versatility since the elven man could hop around shadows and move to any place within the dome without any problem.

After all, that was what a domain actually was. A place or area where you are the god. You control everything in that specific place.

And looking at the dark elf's domain, it wasn't too shabby as he had strong control over it, and by the looks of it, even though he could expand the domain; he didn't since that would consume his energy and could also affect his control over it.

Not to mention that a larger area might give the dean an upper hand. After all, the dean was using the scythe as a weapon, and to use it optimally, he needed a larger area so he could freely swing it during attacks.

"Hmphh!" The dean harrumphed as he disappeared from his position. Appearing behind the dark elf. The dean slashed his scythe.

"Zhingg" The scythe cut through the air as it made its way towards the dark elf's unguarded back.

However, just as the tip of the scythe was to touch the dark elf, it stopped.

"Tsk…Tsk…Tsk.." Clicking his tongue thrice, the dark elf turned around.

Waving his hand, the dean's scythe slowly moved away.

The dark elf looked into the dean's eyes. Trying to find a hint of fear or uneasiness. However, the dark elf found nothing as there was nothing.

The dean's eyes were cold and emotionless while an eerie smile sported his face.

"Arghh," Groaning in anger, the dark elf pushed his hands forward as he sent the dean flying.

Right now, the dark elf had complete control over shadows and with the dome made out of shadows, he had countless shadows to manipulate.

That's also how the dark elf stopped the dean's attack. He had used the shadows to cover the dean's scythe and then stopped the scythe from moving.

Also, this time; the scythe's uncanny ability to cancel out the shadows didn't work as the domain had nullified it.

The dean flew back as he collided with the dome. A wall of shadows cushioning him, he didn't receive much damage. Though, that wasn't the dark elf's intention in the first place.

No! The dark elf wanted to do something else. Just as the dean made contact with the shadowy wall of the dome, hands appeared as they restrained the dean's limbs.

With hands and feet restrained, the dean hung up to the shadow wall as a corpse nailed to death.

The dark elf disappeared, the shadows engulfing his body as he appeared right in front of the dean.

"Now, let's torture you a bit, shall I?" The dark elf spoke. His face sported an eerie smirk as he felt great pleasure seeing the dean in the condition he was in.

Then, accessing his spatial storage; the dark elf took out a crooked blade. The blade had various cuts along its edges that seemed like an animal's teeth.

"So this is my favorite torture tool. The croctooth blade. You see these strange jagged edges, well they are laced with a poison that would make you moan in pain. Also, this blade has a very peculiar ability. Though, you will have to suffer from it to find out," The dark elf spoke. His visage turning more and more creepy by the moment.

However, the dean didn't care. Heck, there wasn't even a hint of nervousness on his face, nor was there any fear.

All that could be seen was his calm expression and cold eyes that continued to stare at the dark elf.

"Splattt" the dark elf pierced the sword through the dean's leg.

"That's for the dagger you threw," The dark elf spoke.

Then, pushing it deeper; he infused a bit of his mana into the sword. As soon as he did, the sword lit up as the jagged teeth at the edges of the blade started to move.

"Now how do you like this ability of this blade? Huh? Tell me, why are you silent?" The dark elf taunted.

The edges moved back and forth. The dark elf pushed the blade deeper. The blade dug deep into the dean's flesh, blood leaking out of his leg; even small pieces of flesh flew out of him.

With his leg being mutilated by the dark elf, the dean suddenly started laughing.

"Hahaha!! Don't you feel it? Or are you too lost to feel it now? Well, whatever, I don't care since you won't be able to do anything. After all, you only have a few minutes left," The dean spoke coldly.

With a dreaded expression, the dark elf finally noticed something. For the first time in years, the dark elf felt fear. After all, even if he was a celestial, it didn't matter as he wasn't immortal.

Even though it was not easy, he could die nonetheless, and for one to kill a celestial; only a celestial or someone stronger could do so.

However, even death didn't scare him as much because as a celestial, he could be reborn again. Though, he would be back at point zero.

No! What the dean did was scarier. He had actually manipulated the dark elf's soul.

The thing was that as a soulmancer, the dean had great control over souls. Also, he used another type of energy apart from mana and was a sort of energy known as "Astral Energy".

Using this energy, he could control souls at a greater level and even refine them. Hence, in his previous attack. He had infused his Astral Energy into the dagger.

Therefore, when the dagger hit the dark elf, Astral Energy traveled deeper into the elf's body and made its way to his soul.

Right now, Astral Energy had reached the dark elf's soul and was in the process of controlling it.

Hence as the dean told him about it, the dark elf panicked as he had finally realized his mistake. Previously, when the dark elf was mutilating the dean's leg; he felt his body getting weaker and his control over his mana also felt much lesser than before.

However, he ignored it at that moment as torturing the dean gave him more ecstasy than ever and for him to stop and look into himself would have ruined his fun.

Therefore, for the dark elf; it was nothing but his own carelessness that put him into such a crisis.

"I don't care. I will kill you before it happens," The dark elf shouted. His calm visage finally broke as he felt himself being on the verge of insanity.

"Let's see how you do it," The dean spoke. The same eerie grin sported his face as a storm raged behind those calm eyes.

"I will wipe that disgusting grin off your face," The dark elf spoke and disappeared.

Coming out of the shadows, he appeared behind the dean. Then, controlling the shadows around the dean, he wrapped them around the dean.

Stopping the dean's movements, he slashed his blade as it left behind a shadowy arc.

The blade sliced through as it struck the dean's hand. However, with the soul armor covering his body. It failed to do any damage as the soul armor absorbed the attack while the blade got stuck within the armor.

The soul armor wasn't like a typical armor, having a very soft fluffy outer layer; it not only dissipated attacks but also trapped the weapons within it.

Also, at times; the soul armor had the tendency to become as thick as it could. Not to mention the dean fusing another soul within the armor to make it semi-sentient and allowing it to have a spell being etched into it.

The spell was named,

[Astral Guard]

It used a very minute amount of astral energy to sense the surroundings and make the dean aware of any attacks coming in his direction from his blind spots.

With the blade stuck within the fluffy surface of the armor, the dean smirked as he swung his scythe.

"Splatt"

...

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