Malik had them leaving at the crack of dawn the next day. They had barely had time to wake up before they were each running north. The plan was to reach a sponsor's domain before the end of the day and by tomorrow, arrive at the domain they were going to try tearing down. They ran the first several hours in silence as each of them took time to wake themselves up.
During the short rest periods they would take, Owen and Myra would rake turns fighting off Malik. he was a fearsome opponent and it scared Owen a little bit just how capable he was, despite knowing he had already done all this stuff before as a regressor. Despite saying eh was limiting his power, each of his blocks seemed to perfectly deflect each of Owen's attacks. The only time he had managed to catch the man off guard was when Owen had shifted his bracers weapon form more than a dozen times while swinging it towards Malik's head.
Myra and Malik were more balanced as sparring partners and each of her vicious attacks were returned with ever increasing strength. Owen didn't waste his time either as he practiced shaping the essence marbles into different shapes. He had realized after several conversations with Peggy that he was limiting himself too much by always keeping the essence shape the same marble. The way the energy was displaced in marble form, made it a lot harder to control the outcome of your attack.
Most of the day passed, with them stopping every couple hours for a several minute break. Owen finally got tired of waiting and messaged Malik. "So, why do we need to stop at your sponsor's domain first? Secondly, how do fight large groups of enemies as a melee fighter?" Owen had assumed he was a melee fighter, but all signs pointed towards that being the case. Both questions were also to try and create idle conversation. Malik had practically been a brick wall ever since Myra had joined them.
Deciding to cut the ice, while he waited for Malik to return his message, he spoke out loud. "So, is everyone excited to break a sponsor's domain?" Malik's eyes were unfocused, but he came back to himself and grinned at Owen. "Yeah, though I should explain more, before we actually go through with it." Myra focused in at that and moved a little closer to the other two. "There is an event coming up, it is mainly focused as a fight between the sins and virtues." Owen's mouth dropped, though he quickly recovered. He supposed it made sense, especially with Malik specifically targeting a sin's domain.
"Essentially, we are supposed to have our war in the shadows and fight over domain locations. If I can taker a piece of my sponsor's domain and place it in the sin's domain after we crush it, i will get credit for the destruction. Normally, this aspect of the event won't happen for a long time, but with Owen's unique abilities, I should be able to easily create a lead." Myra stared at the two of them slacked jawed, before scowling at Malik. "So, you are going to claim credit for something Owen is going to end up needing to do for you?"
"His sponsor isn't a virtue." Malik retorted. "Plus, I saved both your and your people's lives." Myra's scowl only deepened, but she didn't say anything. The next several hours were silent and Owen felt a wave of relief wash through him when they finally were within sight of the domain they had been aiming for.
The whole location looked like they were heading for a farmstead, but the energy surrounding the place felt odd. Owen had several moments, were it felt like he was wasting time and he had to fight against immediately sitting down and practicing some of his projects. He had purchased a puzzle box that would let him practice moving his mana more fluidly and it took all of his will power not to immediately begin working on it. Both Malik and Myra seemed to be facing the same issue, before the energy finally died as they kept moving.
There was still an energy in the air, but Owen wasn't able to focus on it as they hadn't been the only ones aiming for a domain. Standing in front of them were more than a dozen men. Owen scanned them and groaned at the sight he got in return.
*Initiate of Sloth - Level 74
Initiate of Sloth - Level 71
Initiate of Sloth - Level 68
Initiate of Sloth - Level 54*
Despite his groan, Owen had felt excited and instantly moved in to fight, but Malik placed a hand against this chest. "I've got this, I am going to need your strength at my counter's domain anyways." Malik disappeared in the next moment and they saw him next brawling with one of the men inside of the house of the farmstead. The more than a dozen enemies seemed to freeze in place for several seconds as they seemed to try and decide whether to attack Owen and Myra, but they eventually seemed to make up their mind and moved towards the building.
Malik was a wrecking ball of power and shattered every defense his enemies could construct. Owen and Myra did their best to follow his movements, but how do you track the movements of a force of nature. The ground seemed to shudder with his every step and attacks seemed to fracture the air. In less than a minute since the fighting started, Malik stood by himself, stretching out his limbs as the last body hit the ground.
"That was...Well, it was impressive." Myra said, before pulling Owen aside. "I'm sorry, but why does he need either of us on this trip?" Owen shook his head. They both actually knew why, but each of Malik's displays of power had far surpassed anything they would be capable of. Malik disappeared again and reappeared a couple minutes later, holding what looked like a flagpole. Owen cocked an eyebrow, but Malik grinned and messaged him. That was when he remembered his earlier messages and quickly read through them.
He spoke the first one out loud for Myra's benefit, but he left some of the critical information out. "To claim the enemy domain, I need to place this pole as they domain falls apart and then I will be given credit for the win." He spoke out loud, but in his message, he went into more detail. "Any one using that specific sins power will be effected rather strongly by the flag and lose out on large portions of their power. It isn't anything that should exist yet on earth." Was what his message read and Owen stared at the flagpole.
He also spoke out his answer to the second questions Owen had asked him. "Fighting in large groups as a melee fighter can be really challenging, especially since they tend to be limited in AoE attacks. Usually they have to compensate with a domain, though it isn't unheard of to use affinities to try and control the flow of those larger fights." Malik said as he stowed the flag and the map he had given both of them flashed as a new location appeared listed.
It was further north and both Owen and Myra groaned, they would need to run for another couple days, before they would reach their target this time.
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Xerxes looked out into the emptiness of space. He had watched both Lucas and Owen separately a couple times, though he hated not being able to intervene. Not only the sins, but the virtues had also broken several of the universal laws. He cursed as he continued flying towards the center of the universe, the center of everything.
Not only had both sides introduced Regressors into the mix, but they had introduced so many. Flashes of a different worlds passed by Xerxes eyes as he stared into the abyss. Different times began converging and He felt at the energy and pulled it into himself and he scanned the broken wisp of time.
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Fourteen regressors and fourteen sponsors, all of them fighting to ascend. Of course their respective gods felt above the universe and chose to break rules, but Xerxes couldn't help the smile of enjoyment that appeared on his face when he picture Owen turning each of their domains into barely functioning wisps of energy.
No one could've predicted Chaos energy being on a barely initiated world and all of their plans would fall to rubble if they continued to not notice. his only worry was this Malik boy. He knew too much and he was dragging Owen into the conflict. It would bring down disaster on them both. Xerxes sighed as he waved away the image and sighed. He slowly moved back towards his realm and got ready to finish the last set of steps, before he would be ready to try and help rat ascend.
If they managed to help her ascend before the sins and virtues could have someone ascend then they would need to wait more than a millennium, before space would be settled enough for someone else to make the attempt.
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A chamber echoed with screams of discourse, before one of them stood and the voices quieted.
"How are none of you aware of these movements? You each have your charges, how are these pitiful children moving through the constellation arrays without issue."
They were also watching Owen and his friends move tirelessly towards Sloth's domain. He didn't seem to care thought and honestly the rest of the sins shouldn't either, but something felt off about their movements. They had collected a methods of stealing the ownership of a domain, before immediately moving towards a sin's domain. It didn't make sense and Envy continued to pace back and forth. In reality he was the only one watching the boy that didn't stand out as much, while the others stared at Diligences Inheritor.
They couldn't make heads or tails of the movements, but something felt off about the boy. Deciding not to take any unnecessary risks, they sent their second strongest squad to back up Sloth's squad. It was a risk and left them open, but they had trusted their gut and they wouldn't stop now.
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Their group arrived a mile or so outside of the domain finally. They had continued to run almost nonstop and had only stopped a mile or so outside of the domain's barrier. They needed to sleep and now they finally had the chance to. Each of them fell deep asleep and even Malik, who had volunteered to take the first watch, fell asleep while on watch.
The following morning, Owen bolted upright and panicked as he didn't remember taking a turn to stand watch. He stood up frantically to see that both Malik and Myra were fast asleep. He felt himself calm down slightly, but felt like there were eyes on him. Even after moving around for several minutes, he couldn't shake the feeling. He ended up activating the farseeing skill, but when nothing showed up, he forced himself to ignore the feeling.
He knew it was something and that it would probably give them issues, but he wasn't as worried as he knew the time before their attack was coming up soon. The feeling of being watched never wavered and finally Owen couldn't stand it anymore. "Malik, Myra, wake up." Both of them stirred and Malik shot up abruptly, mimicking Owen's earlier wake up. The man seemed genuinely flustered as mumbled apologies as they all got ready to move.
Just as he had quickly felt eyes on him, the others seemed to notice as well and eyes darted back and forth throughout the forest they were camping out in. The domain stood just on the other side of the small forest area and looked like a cozy cottage home. They had gotten closer to it the night before and each of them had felt like collapsing right then and there, but Malik had urged them onward.
"Where are those fucking eyes coming from?" Myra asked, the sound of exasperation already seeping into her tone. Malik looked around as well, btu sighed. "It is probably the skill of someone who is protecting the domain. If the skill is this indiscreet, they want us to know that they know we're coming." Myra grumbled, but it didn't make sense to Owen. "If they knew we were coming, why wouldn't they just plan an ambush?" Malik actually laughed at that. "They can't beat me, even if this area counters the connection to my sponsor."
Owen felt slightly jealous at that, how easy would their past struggles have been if he was strong enough that enemies wanted to keep their distance. Moving into the range of the domain, Owen felt the feeling that could best be described as apathy. Nothing seemed to matter and only after several seconds did the feeling seem to wash itself away. Malik seemed to struggle with it the most and his aura felt weakened considerably, though not so much that Owen thought he would have a chance.
They had only made it a couple hundred meters into the domain, before people came out to greet them. Dozens of people poured out of the surrounding woods and Owen felt his blood begin to boil as he made eye contact with several people.
*Herald of Envy - Level 80
Duke of Envy - Level 91*
They energy radiating off of them felt exactly like the energy that had burned up and consumed his father. he felt a hand enclose his and his feelings calmed only barely as he looked over and made eye contact with Myra. "Don't lose your cool, we don't have some god that can step in this time to save you." Owen's first instinct was to release her hand and smack her for the insolence, but the feeling felt hollow and was counteracted by the energy of the domain.
"He wasn't sure how the sins were able to influence or control the feelings of others, but it just made him feel a mixture of exhausted and frustrated." Malik had been speaking with the Inheritor for Sloth it seemed and Owen tuned in as Malik made a broad declaration. "I am going to claim this domain for myself and then we will see just how stronger you idiots are."
More arguing happened and Owen ignored the grandstanding as he scanned the people involved. Those representing sloth had a bored expression on their faces, but both were extremely attractive women, who radiated the feeling of cuddling in a warm bed and sleeping the day away. Owen had to blink his eyes several times to clear the image and a shudder ran down his spine as one of the women made eye contact with him and smiled.
Her teeth were stained yellow, with black plaque covering her teeth and gums. Owen wanted to gag, but kept back his bile as he scanned the people of envy. Nothing especially stood out, but the energy they radiated only reminded Owen of Jared and his father dying.
"I feel like we have wasted enough time, either you back off or die, we will be stealing this domain regardless." Both women gestured towards the cottage home that stood in the center of the domain and Malik, Owen, and Myra moved towards it. Owen could hear arguing behind them from both groups and he whispered to Malik. "Are you sure we will have long enough for me to tear this down?"
Malik grinned. "I don't see why not, with me protecting you, it'll be impossible. Plus Myra will be able to hold her own against both of those fools sent by Envy."
Owen nodded and tuned out the world. He had a rough idea of how to break a domain, but he hadn't ever been able to practice the process. Everything was connected to its original power source and small lines of energy that wasn't quite mana connected everything to the world as well as to the universe. In order to sever the connection this domain had to Sloth, Owen needed to burn through those connections and establish his own. Normally, this would be impossible because of the power disparity, but Chaos made all of those rules moot.
Owen began gathering a storm of chaos and pushed it into a marble form, just like he would if he was creating an essence marble. Chaos weaved together with chaos and Owen opened his eyes wide as the energy began to be too much even for him. he quickly scanned for the hidden threads of energy that connected the domain to the universe, or more accurately wherever Sloth was. His farseeing skill showed him the way and his eyes landed on the threads.
Chaos collided with a demigod's strength in the next moment. Large collisions of power clapped together and created shockwaves that destroyed the cottage around him. His body began to morph oddly, but he forced himself to keep the ever increasing chaos energy held against the threads of power controlled by the demigod.
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Sloth stared out into the universe and feared death. it was the only thing that really bothered them. Their path was designed to be almost impossible to climb to the peak with, but this competition was their chance to climb even further and into the heavens.
They suddenly felt something stretch and warp their connection to the domain they had created and fear wracked Sloth's entire body. They tried to fight back against the force, but their actions were limited by the system, sense the world was still being initiated.
Stretching out their awareness, they saw a chaotic mess of energies collecting on the karma that bound the domain to their existence. Despite their best attempts at finding the source of energy, the chaos itself had wrapped around the users body, partially shielding them from the gaze of their power.
Panic began to rise and their connection to the domain frayed and finally disconnected. Pain wracked Sloth's mind, as their mind was flung back to their body.
They knew they hadn't been crazy to fear death and whoever had just wielded chaos to fray karmic connections was a reaper.