"Pledge your loyalty, or burn to ash!"

My voice echoes through the desert, using my screech perk to make my entrance known.

Just moments ago, memories of the entire battle flooded into my mind from a body double that was killed in the shockwave following the Lich King's transformation.

Even while traveling over a kilometer above the desert, my dark blood-red soul energy aura melts the desert sand below.

It looks as if an enormous ball of fire is rocketing through the desert and burning everything in its path.

I'm fully armored up, using my ranked-up buff to create the manifestation of my dark black greater form while an even larger layer of Soul Energy surrounds it and manifests an enormous black flaming sword.

My eyes are locked on a wave of orange light that is fractions of a second away from engulfing my teammates and turning them into pawns for the Lich King's army.

My eyes pulse, and my aura grows as the desert turns to a sea of liquid glass below me.

Everything and everyone is engulfed in my Soul Energy's Flames.

I position my trajectory downward to aim my blade at the enormous shadow knight with a [0] on its chest stained in an orange light.

Then, my wave of fire collides with the overwhelming wall of energy that is the [Curse of The Lich King].

The collision makes another devastating shockwave of energy almost equivalent to the collisions of Ember and the Lich King just moments ago.

The orange wall of energy tries to eat away my blood-red flames, but it does not tear them apart with ease like every other roadblock it manages to instantly phase through.

A unique trait of these flames starts to absorb the energy that eats away at it, and just milliseconds after the collision, the massive ball of fire begins dismantling and pushing back the orange cursed energy.

It spreads throughout the impossibly wide and tall wall, like a colony of fire ants attacking its prey and consuming it faster than it can move forward.

My teammates who were moments away from certain doom are consumed by my flames, but the link through my Rising Emperor's Domain treats their mass as a part of my own body and passes through them like a warm breeze.

The thousands of newly awakened Ghouls and Wraiths on the other hand are incinerated and absorbed into the dark red flames.

All of their weapons, broken cores, and charred remains fall into my fire and end up inside my item storage once they're killed.

The swirling orange Soul Energy left behind in the atmosphere does not dissipate, it is eaten up and absorbed by my flames as well.

I swing my blade from a downward position, starting at the ground and up to the sky to release a Soul Energy attack straight at the Dark Guard with a [0] on its chest.

The liquid glass of the desert is parted as my energy slash rips through it, hundreds of kilometers into the earth, tearing through the shadow knight's armor without any resistance at all.

I fly right over its head as it's sliced in two, then incinerated by my flames.

[Level Up] x226

Level-up notifications ring in my ear, alerting me that I've hit level 1785, but this upward slash that took out the Dark Guard wasn't even the main purpose of my attack.

My gaze is still held steady on the Lich King that is wielding an impossibly large scythe, and the instant stat increases from this kill only powers my movements forward even faster.

It swings it downward, and across its body at a 45-degree angle pointed straight at Ember in his newly ranked-up true dragon form.

My Red Soul Energy Sword collides with this dreadful black scythe less than 10 meters away from Ember, and the earth-shattering collision that ensues can be felt vibrating in the sandy desert over 100 km away.

Red and Black energy radiates off both of our weapons, as they're not even touching, but their Soul Energy's fight for dominance at a standstill over 5 meters apart between them.

The Lich King is holding its scythe with two bony hands swinging downward, engulfed in dark magic and eyes glowing orange.

I swing my sword up, using every ounce of new power I've managed to absorb and obtain while awakening.

It feels like all of my bones are breaking, and every muscle fiber is tearing, but I don't let up.

I continue to push upward and let my flames burn brighter.

Red arcs of electricity start to erupt from my flames, as well as enormous tornadoes of wind that keep the fires growing and raging on.

Every element in my status is being pushed to its limits and imbued into my Soul Energy to add to this slash.

We hold this position in place for just over half a second, but it feels as if hours are going by in my mind.

The explosion that follows pushes both of us backward.

The Lich King is sent flying upward and back into the desert while I'm thrown down to create a deep crater in the ground.

This doesn't hold either of us back from charging up our weapons and immediately going back in at the other for the kill.

I jump into the air, holding my enormous manifestation of a dark red flaming sword.

Even in my greater form, being over doubled in size again by the Soul Energy surrounding it, my form is just about ⅓ the size of the Lich King's final form.

Ember swoops in as I jump up, allowing me to land on his back to gain more speed while concentrating my power into my blade rather than my footsteps through the air this time.

There's another reality-shaking clash of energy, sending ripples of heat, light, and Soul Energy vibrating through everything nearby.

We're both sent flying backward again, however this time I have Ember to guide my movements and don't have to steady myself, instead I charge up another attack without thinking about stabilizing in the air.

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Ember speaks through our telepathy link while our Dark Red Soul Energy begins to merge together.

"Fashionably late, aren't you? Time to kill this monster."

Ember releases a concentrated wave of flames forward at the same time I swing my blade and both of our attacks collide with the black aura of the incoming scythe.

This time, after vibrations rattle the desert, the Lich King's long curved blade is actually pushed backward a few meters before the release of power.

With our combined attack, we've got it beat on pure strength, just slightly.

However, our opponent notices this too and more black aura starts to surround its blade and flood from its inner Dark form.

The monster's voice echoes throughout the desolate flame-covered battlefield as it raises its scythe again.

"Impossible. A mere mortal and a weak dragon have stood up to me in the form of a Dark God. This act shall never be remembered, I shall erase it from history. With you two as my servants, the world shall only know of the Immortal Lich King. The Dark One. No- The Dark God."

It swings its scythe downward again, but I get an eerie feeling from it once the black aura around it starts to swirl and shift.

Halfway through its downward slash, the tip of the scythe disappears into thin air.

Or, more like, it falls away into the dark aura of shadows.

From behind me, a massive black portal opens, and the pointed tip of the monster's blade comes rocketing out.

The rest of the curved weapon follows, and I turn my body to block it with my blade at the last moment.

Without my full attention being captivated in the charge up, and a switch in momentum, it overpowers me and I'm sent flying off of Ember's back while blocking the scythe.

My Soul Energy Sword still keeps a direct hit, so it never manages to cut through my body, but I'm shot flying past the Lich King at close proximity just in time for it to create another jet black portal and swing its scythe through this one too.

I twist my body again, and this time, with enough momentum to clash with it using equal power, my Soul Energy blade collides with a small portion of the Lich King's scythe that sticks out of a black portal that floats in the air.

At the same time, Ember lets out a concentrated beam of fire at the Lich King's main body, and manages to burn away a portion of its black cloak, and swirling black energy of its greater form underneath to reveal the bright white bone of the monster's lower ribcage.

I spot a shimmering orange light inside it, and make the split-second deduction that it must have some kind of core or power source.

As soon as I come to this conclusion, however, the energy and cloak that Ember burned away reforms and covers up the orange glow again, and I have to block another incoming scythe from the black portals that form all around me.

I don't have the momentum to fully protect myself this time, and am sent rocketing into the desert floor to create another deep new canyon in the molten sand below.

As I shoot back up to the surface, I watch Ember narrowly avoid the swing of a scythe that appears from behind him, then sends off another fire attack to melt away a small portion of soul Energy and reveal that orange light again. I come to the conclusion that I need to switch things up.

I activate the perk of my Rising Emperor's domain, [Power Holder], and feel 44 geopoints with stats I'm able to steal right now. 6 of them are my ranked-up teammates, 37 of them are all the unconscious elites over 5km away, and 1 is an unknown new link of loyalty at a very high level.

The natural range of my Domain has risen exponentially from the level-ups and increase in energy control.

Without even thinking for more than a fraction of a second, like turning on a passive buff, I take 10% of everything they have and notifications ring in my inner ear while I fly back up at the Lich King.

[+5,584 Strength]

[+4,950 Defense]

[+5,888 Agility]

[+6,292 Speed]

[+7,220 Mental Strength]

[+14,087,516,777 Mana Control]

A surge of power flows through me. All of my base stats are nearly doubled and the increase in mana control increases my overall energy control and significantly buffs my Soul Energy. I sense Ember's Soul Energy capacity rocket upward too.

It feels as if a dam has broken and energy pours out to cover his true form in a layer of fire at a whole new level than it was moments ago.

The black scythe from the Lich King appears from Ember's blind spot out of a black portal, and the moment he detects it, there's no time to dodge.

He can only turn his talons in the way to block.

As he does, the two forces collide with even power, and the glowing orange eyes of the Lich King widen in confusion.

His claws wrap around the monster's black scythe, and at the same moment I swing my Soul Energy blade upward and aim right for its chest where I witnessed the orange glow pouring out just moments prior.

With its blade stuck in the grasp of a flaming dragon, and my crimson energy sword pointed at the creature's heart, the Lich King knows exactly what is about to happen.

It lets out a blood-curdling scream, and a declaration that echoes through everyone's ears.

"I am the Dark One. The Undead King! I will become the next Demon Lord. You mortals cannot stop me, impossible! If you dare to defy the natural order of my new world, I will take you down with me!"

As my energy sword rips through its black cloak, incinerating the Dark Shielding around its chest area, I dive deep into its rib cage while swinging my sword.

An enormous orange gem rests inside it, flowing with Soul Energy, and pumping power all throughout its body.

Before I can even bring my sword down on it, it begins to glow brighter and brighter as if it's about to explode.

I make tight shielding of Soul Energy around my head, heart, and vital organs, but leave everything else nearly defenseless, and charge my blade with all of the remaining Soul Energy I have.

A cracking sound ripples through the air as the monster tries to take its blade back from Ember's grasp, but he holds on with bloodied talons, tightening more onto the sharp blade.

The Lich King sacrifices over 20 meters of its scythe, severing the end part by closing its dark portal.

Ember still holds onto the creature's broken portion of blade while releasing a full-powered highly concentrated beam of fire at its head.

At the same time, a new portal is formed right behind me, and the cracked and broken scythe comes through it, pointed right at my back.

With the expanding core about to explode in front of me, and the enormous black fractured scythe coming at me from behind, the only possible way I could dodge either of these would be to give up on my attack and run.

However, that's not at all what I plan to do.

I follow through, pushing my Soul Energy Blade deep into the orange gem at a diagonal angle.

Predicting that it will explode the moment I break through it, I position my body in the way of its blast to be violently propelled in the direction it does.

The scythe swings down right where I was, and slices through my left shoulder and left leg.

Without the violent orange blast that pushes me to the right side, it would have been a direct hit.

However, my main body is propelled far away while the broken gem erupts from a slit that my sword managed to produce and expels its energy at a constant rate from inside.

The orange blast melts away my skin at close proximity, but isn't able to breach any of my denser Soul Energy shielding.

While flying backward through the air, I use self-regeneration to grow back my lost limbs and melted flesh, then concentrate on the new black portals that appear to my sides while I plummet toward the liquid glassy ground.

I block every one of the blows with my energy sword, watching black shards of the scythe's metal get chipped away with every collision it makes.

By the time I hit the ground, less than half of its weapon remains.

At this point, I'm fully regenerated, and I jump back into the violent explosion of orange energy from its core.

The Lich King continues to let out a death screech as it tries to obliterate everything in its vicinity, but the Aura that comes off of Ember and myself is far too strong to be eaten by its orange Soul Energy.

I grasp my blade tightly, jumping directly through the violent orange aura eruption, while bashing away its final attempts to block me with its shrinking scythe.

With my gaze locked onto the orange core gem that is still floating in its chest and releasing power, I swing my blade at it again, this time with no external threats left to stop me from releasing everything I have into a final attack.

My sword plunges into the crack that my previous attack produced, and I allow all of my Soul Energy to erupt from my blade and engulf what is left of the stone while shattering it to pieces from the inside.

My flames stretch outward, engulfing more and more with boundless hunger.

The more it absorbs, the stronger my flames become. As I get stronger, the Lich King's energy that attempts to slip away becomes weaker.

All of the energy from this orange blast falls into my dark flames, and they engulf the Lich King's entire body.

There is no hope for it to escape.

The crystal disintegrates, and every drop of the Orange Soul Energy in the surrounding area disappears in an instant to leave nothing but a skeleton in a black cloak holding a shattered scythe.

The screeches stop, and the waves of energy that threaten to tear the desert in two cease entirely.

Ringing notifications sound in my ear, and the remains of the Lich King fall to the molten desert below.

[Level Up] x414

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Combat Magic [Superior Dark Summoning]

[YES][NO]

[Use Absorption]

Buff: Curse of The Lich King

[YES][NO]

[Use Absorption]

Stat: 3188 Mental Strength

[YES][NO]