Chapter 457: Invasion [23]
If I had to move from point A to point B by walking fifty meters, and I used a skill that shortened that distance or completely erased the distance between the two points, then this prison was basically telling me, No. Follow the rules.
I frowned.
Then what about offensive magic?
If it could prevent me from manipulating space, perhaps that was all it was capable of controlling. There was only one way to find out.
I drew my blade and swung it toward the wall, releasing a rift slash that tore through the air and shot toward the transparent barrier.
The slash struck.
A sharp impact echoed through the strange space.
But nothing happened.
There wasn’t even a visible crack.
The bluish lines flowing through the wall continued moving as though my attack had never touched it.
I narrowed my eyes. To think Rift Slash could be rendered so unimpressive.
"Fine. What about other offensive skills?"
I raised my hand and began testing them one after another.
[Flame Orb].
A blazing sphere shot toward the wall and exploded against its surface, but the flames scattered harmlessly without leaving even a scorch mark.
[Inferno Lance].
A concentrated lance of fire slammed into the barrier with enough force to shake the surrounding air, yet the wall remained completely intact.
[Deathroot].
Dark roots erupted from the ground and rushed toward the barrier, their twisting tendrils striking against its surface before recoiling as though they had collided with something far harder than they could penetrate.
I frowned deeper.
I even started using skills I didn’t normally rely on, including those under the skill lines [Frost Vein] and [Blood Tyrant].
Ice spread across the ground.
Blood-based attacks struck the wall.
Different elements, different forms of attack, different levels of destructive power.
None of them worked.
The results were all the same.
Nothing.
Not even a scratch.
I finally decided to use one of my strongest options.
[Hand of the Raging Sun].
Divine light gathered around my hand, growing brighter until the entire area was illuminated by its radiance. I drove the attack toward the wall, pouring enough power into it that I expected the barrier to at least react.
It did.
For a brief moment, the bluish lines within the wall flickered.
Then they stabilized.
The divine attack dispersed.
The wall remained completely untouched.
I stared at it for a moment before slowly lowering my hand.
That actually pinched my confidence a little.
[Hand of the Raging Sun] was usually my solution whenever I encountered a defense that refused to break. Divine power had allowed me to overcome plenty of stubborn defenses before, so seeing it fail to even damage this prison made me realize just how different the thing trapping me actually was.
I clicked my tongue.
"Seriously?"
I looked at the wall again.
It wasn’t simply durable.
It was operating on a completely different level.
I decided to bring out the big gun.
If brute force wasn’t working and even my divine skills couldn’t put a dent in this place, then perhaps it was time to see whether the prison could withstand a domain.
I activated the domain skill I had obtained after defeating Caius.
[Architect Tyranny].
The moment I released it, the space around me began to respond. Mana surged outward from my body as the authority of the domain started to spread, attempting to establish my control over the surrounding area and replace the existing rules with my own.
But before it could properly expand, something happened.
The domain was dismissed.
Not slowly.
Not after a struggle.
It was rejected so violently that the force of the backlash slammed into me, making my entire body jolt as if I had been struck from the inside. My feet slid backward across the ground, and I had to steady myself before I lost my balance completely.
I exhaled and swatted my hands, shaking off the strange sensation running through them.
"So that was a no-go as well?"
I stared at the prison wall, my expression becoming more serious.
If even [Architect Tyranny] couldn’t establish itself here, then this place wasn’t simply blocking my skills. It was actively rejecting anything that tried to impose a different set of rules on it.
I continued to ponder.
What if I used my innate skill domain?
That was different.
Far different.
My innate domain was much more powerful than Caius’s, and it was the very reason I had been able to break out of his domain in the first place. Back then, I hadn’t escaped by simply overpowering the domain through raw strength.
I had overridden it.
I had forced my own domain over his and replaced his authority with mine.
If that had worked against Caius...
Then perhaps it could work here too.
But...
Was this prison a domain?
Yes.
Sort of.
Not in the way I was thinking.
It wasn’t the domain of an individual, where someone had imposed their will over an area and established their own rules within it. This was a prison created for a single purpose: to entrap whoever was caught inside.
Nothing else.
That meant there was no guarantee that using my domain would work.
Another thing that concerned me was the recoil.
If [Architect Tyranny] had been rejected that violently, then my innate domain would probably receive an even more aggressive backlash, especially considering how much more power it required to use.
And that wasn’t even the only problem.
Activating my domain would burn through a huge amount of mana. If it failed again, I’d be left with significantly less power and would have to spend time recovering before I could properly test any other method of escape.
I couldn’t afford that. Not right now.
I was still thinking about what to do when I suddenly noticed something drifting upward through the air.
Smoke.
My eyes followed it down, and I looked at my belt.
One of the [Soulshade Sigil] Narg had given me was emitting the smoke.
My expression changed immediately.
The color told me exactly what was happening.
Someone was in danger.
And not just anyone. Zarah.