Chapter 220: Rhain VS Lyra III
Chapter 220: Rhain VS Lyra III
"Domain of the Crimson Empress!"
WHOOSH—!!!
The entire scene within the arena suddenly shifted.
In a fraction of a second, the stone tiles, the air, and the very space itself vanished.
Rhain found himself standing in an endless, scorching field of roaring orange-crimson fire.
Towering walls of Heavenly Flame erupted in all directions, completely sealing off the sky and the ground.
It was as if he had been transported directly into the heart of a blazing inferno.
The hundred thousand spectators stared at the blazing dome with expressions of dread and awe.
To their eyes, the combat ring had simply been swallowed by a massive sphere of crimson fire.
"What is that? What is happening?"
"The entire arena is on fire! I can’t even clearly see inside!"
"Is that another martial art? Why does it look so similar to what I have heard of Domains?"
Up on the grand stage, every single dignitary shot to their feet.
The Patriarchs, the High Preceptors, the Preceptors, Lucius — all of them were standing, wearing the identical expression of earth-shattering disbelief.
"A Domain," Patriarch Thorian gasped, his voice filled with disbelief. "That is a Domain!"
"A Domain," Patriarch Caelan repeated, his voice hollow with shock. "A Spirit Manifestation Realm cultivator has manifested a Domain."
"Impossible!" High Preceptor Aldren blurted out, completely losing his usual impassive demeanor. "She is at the Spirit Manifestation Realm! Forging a Domain requires a minimum of ten percent comprehension of a Law! That is the absolute threshold to step into the Domain Master Realm! How could a nineteen-year-old girl possibly achieve this?"
Every pair of eyes on the stage turned toward the only person who seemed entirely unsurprised.
Matriarch Seraphine.
Seeing everyone looking at her for an answer, Seraphine began to speak with an expression of immense pride.
"Two years ago, when Lyra first stepped into the Spirit Manifestation Realm, she insisted that I show her my Domain. Against my better judgment, I did. She sat within my flames and studied them daily," Seraphine explained to the dumbfounded powerhouses around her. "Within her first year, she comprehended three percent of the Law of Flame. By her second year, she reached nine percent. And just last month... she breached the ten percent threshold and formed her own embryonic Domain before she even reached the Core Formation Realm."
Seraphine turned to face the stunned dignitaries.
"Even I was shocked," Seraphine admitted openly. "In the entire recorded history of the Solathane Dynasty, spanning around 5000 years, there has never been a single cultivator who forged a Domain without first reaching the Core Formation Realm. It was considered a fundamental impossibility. Yet my daughter shattered that impossibility at the age of nineteen."
Her words fell upon the stage like divine thunder.
"So this is what you meant," Carmilla murmured, "when you said she still had a final trump card."
Among the Preceptors, the reaction was even more visceral.
Fabian stood stiff, his mouth hanging slightly open, unable to form words.
He had spent over a century cultivating.
And in all that time, he had only reached nine percent of the Law of Wind.
He had never formed a Domain.
That final, crucial one percent had eluded him for decades.
Beside him, Preceptor Krell was in a similar state.
His severe features were frozen in an expression that wavered between profound admiration and soul-crushing inadequacy.
Sixty years of dedicated spear cultivation, and his comprehension of the Law of the Spear had reached nine percent, the same ceiling that had trapped Fabian and every other half-step Domain Master in the Academy.
And this nineteen-year-old girl, she had surpassed them all.
Even the Domain Master Realm High Preceptors — Aldren, Octavius, Mordecai, and the others, who had each spent decades forging their own Domains, stared at the blazing arena with expressions of deep solemnity.
They understood better than anyone exactly how monumental Lyra’s achievement was.
In the entire recorded history of the Solathane Dynasty, there had never been a single documented case of a Spirit Manifestation cultivator comprehending a Domain.
It was not merely rare, it was supposed to be impossible.
Yet Lyra had done it.
The Preceptors, the High Preceptors, the Patriarchs, all of them shared the same grave assessment.
The match was over.
It was fundamentally impossible for a Spirit Manifestation cultivator, no matter how physically monstrous, to defeat an opponent who possessed a Domain.
It was a power that belonged to an entirely different dimension.
Beside Vice Dean Myrielle, Seris stood very still.
Her usual serene composure had vanished.
Her pale purple eyes were fixed on the blazing dome of fire that had swallowed the arena, and for the first time in the entire tournament, her delicate hands were clenched tightly in her lap.
She wasn’t impressed by Lyra’s talent.
Nor was she marvelling at the impossibility of a Domain at the Spirit Manifestation Realm.
She was scared.
Her husband was trapped inside that inferno.
Without a second thought, Seris dashed toward the edge of the grand stage, fully intending to leap into the arena to save him.
"Seris, stop!"
A vivid red blur intercepted her. Dean Carmilla appeared directly in Seris’s path, gently but firmly placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder, locking her in place.
"Dean, please!" Seris pleaded, tears welling in her beautiful eyes. She looked desperately between Carmilla and her master, Myrielle. "The heat is too much! Please, you have to stop the match! You have to save my husband!"
The word echoed clearly across the quieted stage.
Husband.
Lucius, Patriarchs, the High Preceptors, and Preceptors, all turned their heads, staring at Seris.
Lucius’s eyes flashed with a chilling light.
She had just openly admitted Rhain as her husband before them.
Carmilla offered Seris a warm, reassuring smile, gently patting her trembling shoulder.
"Calm down, little niece," Carmilla soothed, her melodious voice carrying a calming magic. "I promise you, if his life is truly in danger, I will personally save him. Just watch."
Seris bit her lip, her hands clasped tightly into fists.
But she eventually nodded, her eyes returning back to look anxiously at the blazing inferno below.
Carmilla turned her head, her bright, mischievous eyes locking onto Matriarch Seraphine.
A mysterious smirk played on her lips.
"Sera," Carmilla said softly, yet loud enough for the other dignitaries to hear. "If your daughter is allowed to have a trump card... what makes you think that little thief down there doesn’t have one of his own?"
Seraphine frowned, her eyes snapping back to the arena.
Inside the Domain of the Crimson Empress, the heat was apocalyptic.
Lyra floated a few feet above the sea of fire, her body completely wrapped in the roaring orange-crimson Heavenly Flame.
She looked down at Rhain like a supreme queen of the inferno looking at a condemned mortal.
Below her, Rhain stood amidst the roaring inferno.
His dark Inner Palace robes had already caught fire, and his pitch-black protective essence was continuously trying to dispell the heat of a Domain powered by a true Heavenly Flame.
"You should be proud that you forced me to use this," Lyra’s voice echoed from every direction within the fiery realm, carrying absolute authority. "But now... it is over."
Rhain looked up at the hovering queen of flames.
Despite his burning robes and the oppressive pressure of the Domain, there was no panic in his dark grey eyes.
"You are correct," Rhain said calmly, his voice slicing through the roar of the inferno.
Suddenly, Rhain’s entire aura transformed.
BOOM—!!!
A blood-red explosion of fire erupted from Rhain’s body.
The Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame broke free from its restraints.
The blood red fire surged upward, enveloping his entire body in a majestic pillar of blood-red light.
He looked like a God of Fire descending upon the mortal realm.
And the moment the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame fully manifested, something astonishing occurred.
The walls of crimson fire that had been pressing inward, threatening to consume Rhain alive, suddenly recoiled.
They pulled back as if struck by an invisible force, retreating several feet from Rhain’s position.
Rhain slowly lifted his head.
Deep within his pupils, a brilliant, piercing golden light ignited as the Heaven-Grade Eyes of Truth fully activated, seeing through every illusion, every law, and every weakness of the Domain before him.
Rhain stared directly into Lyra’s eyes.
"It is over now."
_____________
Outside the Domain, the opaque sphere of crimson fire that had swallowed the arena suddenly flickered.
From within the solid wall of flame, a new light emerged, a blood-red glow that pierced through the orange-crimson barrier, growing brighter and brighter until it was visible to every single spectator in the plaza.
The hundred thousand guests stared in utter bewilderment.
"What is that red light? Is that coming from inside the Domain?"
"Two different colors of fire... there are two sources of flame in there!"
Up on the grand stage, the dignitaries who possessed Spiritual Senses powerful enough to pierce through the Domain’s outer shell had already seen exactly what was happening inside.
"Oh God..." Patriarch Thorian collapsed back into his seat, "Another Heavenly Flame," he breathed, his voice trembling. "The boy also possesses a Heavenly Flame!"
Patriarch Caelan’s face had gone completely white. "Two Heavenly Flame wielders in the same generation... in the same battle...it hasn’t happened in recorded history."
High Preceptor Aldren’s deep-set eyes were wide with incredulity. "The blood-red flame... its quality is terrifying. It is at least equal to, if not superior to, the Emberford bloodline flame."
Krell exchanged a look of profound shock with Fabain as he asked in a trembling voice, "Fabian, what kind of monster have you brought in our academy?"
Fabian could only swallow hard. He had long since run out of words.
Myrielle, who had heard rumors of his Heavenly Flame from her sister, finally saw the reality of the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame with her own eyes.
The sheer magnitude of the blood-red fire radiating from within the Domain made her very soul tremble.
Lucius’s amber eyes had narrowed with a dangerous light.
A Heavenly Flame. A True Heavenly Physique wife. A mysterious connection to a Grandmaster Alchemist. And now combat prowess that could match a Domain-wielding prodigy backed by a thousand-year-old noble family.
The threat level of Rhain Voss had skyrocketed beyond measure.
Seraphine had gone utterly still.
Her sharp eyes locked onto the blood-red glow emanating from within her daughter’s Domain.
"How..." Seraphine whispered, staggering a step backward, "Another Heavenly Flame, and one that is challenging Lyra’s Domain fire. This... this is impossible..."
Seris stood near the edge of the stage, her delicate hands clasped tightly together beneath her chin.
The terror that had gripped her heart just moments ago had evaporated into thin air.
Her pale purple eyes were sparkling with admiration as she stared at the blood-red, golden-eyed God of Fire in the arena below.
"Husband... you look so amazing..."
Seris murmured, her cheeks flushing a deep rosy pink, completely transforming into a starry-eyed fangirl while the rest of the people were having a collective heart attack.
Inside the Domain of the Crimson Empress, Lyra Emberford stared at the blood-red inferno engulfing Rhain’s body.
Her blazing crimson eyes were blown wide open.
Of all the scenarios she had prepared for, of all the trump cards she had imagined her opponent might possess, this was the one possibility that had never crossed her mind.
"How..." Lyra’s voice carried a tremor she couldn’t suppress. "How do you have a Heavenly Flame?"
Rhain didn’t answer her question.
He was silently assessing the domain with his Eyes of Truth.
Lyra gritted her teeth, forcing the shock down with sheer willpower.
"I don’t know how or why you possess a Heavenly Flame," Lyra shouted, her voice brimming with fury, "But I will not lose today! You are still inside my Domain!"
Lyra raised her hands, forcefully activating the innate suppression power of her embryonic Domain.
Even though it wasn’t a complete Domain Master’s territory, it was still enough to boost her own strength by thirty percent while suppressing an opponent’s cultivation by thirty percent.
Even a peak Core Formation expert would feel their essence stagnate under this pressure.
She pressed her hands down, directing the full, crushing weight of the Domain onto Rhain.
Rhain simply rolled his shoulders.
He didn’t even flinch.
The Abyssal Sovereign Physique was an existence that stood at the apex of all physiques.
It bowed to no force, submitted to no authority, and acknowledged no suppression from any power below its own unfathomable station.
Lyra’s Domain suppression was insignificant before it.
Lyra’s crimson eyes were filled with visible alarm.
"What..." she screamed. "My Domain can’t suppress you?"
She was starting to feel genuinely nervous.
She had sparred with Half-Step Domain Master elders in her family, and even they couldn’t shrug off her Domain suppression this easily.
Just what kind of monster was she fighting?
But Lyra refused to yield.
She raised her rapier high, channeling every last drop of her essence and the full, devastating power of her Heavenly Flame Domain into her strike.
"CRIMSON TEMPEST REND!"
Lyra launched forward, channeling every drop of her power into her rapier.
The Heavenly Flame coating the blade blazed with unprecedented intensity, and simultaneously, the walls of fire comprising her Domain surged inward, converging on Rhain from every direction.
The Domain’s flames and Lyra’s personal assault struck simultaneously, a coordinated, all-out offensive that left no room for mercy.
Rhain’s golden eyes narrowed.
He raised his heavy dark broadsword, channeling the Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame directly into the blade until it glowed like a brand of divine punishment.
"Empyrean Purgatory Bloom. First Form."