"Domain Expansion: Graveyard of the Forgotten."

The world instantly turned grey. It seemed to have died.

The balcony, the World Tree, the burning city, they all vanished in a ripple of cold, colourless distortion.

Damien found himself standing in an endless, twilight wasteland filled with millions of crooked tombstones stretching to the horizon.

The air was cold enough to freeze mana in his veins. The gravity here felt wrong, heavy, smelling of rot and absolute despair.

[System Alert!] [You have entered a 7th-Order Domain.] [Warning: User stats reduced by 50%. Mana regeneration halted.] [Warning: Golden Dragon Aura is being suppressed.] [Survival Chance: 0%.]

"Zero percent," Damien laughed bitterly, spitting a clot of blood onto the grey dirt. "Honest system."

Charron floated above the tombstones, his form growing larger, more monstrous.

In his Domain, he wasn't just a Lich. He was a God of Death.

The damage Damien had inflicted, the shattered jaw, the broken ribs, healed instantly as the gravestones around him pulsed with grey light.

"You fought well, child," Charron's voice boomed, echoing from everywhere at once.

"You have power that defies logic. But a candle cannot burn in a vacuum."

He pointed a giant skeletal finger at Damien.

"Rot."

It a projectile that seemed to represent the rules of this world.

HISS!

Damien's Golden Dragon Aura flickered and died, suffocated by the atmosphere. The Shadow Armor hissed, evaporating like steam on a hot pan.

"Argh!" Damien dropped to one knee.

The skin on his arms began to turn grey. His veins blackened as necrosis magic bypassed his defenses and attacked his life force directly.

He couldn't stop it. The gap in tiers was too absolute. A 3rd Order, even a Dual-Core one, simply didn't have the "Authority" to exist inside a 7th Order Domain.

'I can't move. I can't breathe. Is this what an 7th Order feels like? It's not a fight… it's an execution.'

Charron descended slowly, his spine-like staff raised high to crush Damien's skull.

"Your soul is bright," Charron whispered, hovering inches from Damien's face.

"It will be a fine lantern for my collection."

Seeing this, Damien tried to lift his sword, but his arms felt like they weighed a thousand tons. He looked up at the descending staff.

'I need more power. System… do I have anything left? Anything to edit?'

[DP: 0.]

'Damn. So this is the wall.'

He gritted his teeth, refusing to close his eyes. If he was going to die, he would die looking at his enemy.

The staff came down.

CLANG!

It didn't hit Damien.

A barrier of pure, blinding White Light materialised between them. Not gold. Not fire. White.

A vine, thick as a tree trunk and glowing with vibrant green vitality, erupted from the dead grey earth of the Domain, wrapping around Charron's staff and halting it in mid-air.

"Who dares intrude on my Domain!" Charron roared, flinching as the white light burned his skin like acid.

"I dare."

A voice, weak but regal, echoed through the wasteland.

Damien turned his head, his vision blurry.

Walking through the grey mist, barefoot on the dead earth, was Queen Aelinor.

She looked terrible. Her white dress was stained red with blood from the birth.

Her face was pale as a sheet, and she was trembling with exhaustion. But her eyes… her green eyes were burning with the fury of a mother whose child had been threatened.

In her arms, wrapped in a simple cloth, was the newborn Princess. The baby wasn't crying anymore. She was glowing, acting as a living battery of infinite Life Mana for her mother.

"You tried to kill my daughter," Aelinor whispered.

She raised her free hand.

"World Tree Art: Verdant Sovereign!"

BOOM!

Roots exploded from the ground, shattering the tombstones.

Grass and flowers bloomed instantly in the dead wasteland, spreading out from the Queen's feet like a wildfire of life.

The Queen's 7th-Order aura flared, clashing violently with Charron's death mana.

The grey world began to crack.

"The Elf Queen," Charron hissed, retreating from the vines as they tried to grab his limbs.

"You should be dead! You just gave birth! Your mana core should be empty!"

"It is," Aelinor admitted, coughing blood.

"I am burning my lifespan to stand here. But that is enough to kill you."

She looked at Damien.

"Get up, nephew."

She waved her hand. A green light washed over Damien.

instantly healing and buffing him.

The grey rot on his skin vanished. His mana reserves, which had been locked by the Domain, suddenly unlocked and flooded to 200%. The crushing gravity of the Graveyard lifted.

"She's cancelling out his Domain rules," Damien realised, standing up. His Dual-Core roared back to life, the Gold and Black swirling violently.

"He is too strong for me to kill alone in this state," the Queen said, her voice tight with pain.

"I will break his shield. I will hold him down. You… you deliver the stroke."

"Understood," Damien grinned, the blood dripping from his lip making him look savage. "Tag team it is."

"Insolent insects!" Charron screamed, his ego shattered. "I am ETERNAL!"

The Lich slammed his staff down.

"Bone Tsunami!"

The ground liquefied, turning into a tidal wave of millions of sharp bones rushing toward them.

"Isabelle! Now!" Damien shouted into the void, praying the contract link still worked across the dimension.

It did.

Outside the Domain, back in the real world, Isabelle lay exhausted on the balcony. But she heard him. She felt his will.

"Gravity… CRUSH!"

Inside the Domain, the sky cracked. A massive, invisible gravitational foot slammed down on the bone tsunami, flattening it instantly into powder.

"What?!" Charron looked up, confused.

"Now, Auntie!" Damien yelled.

Queen Aelinor screamed, pouring her life force into the spell.

"Nature's Judgment: Thorny Prison!"

Thousands of glowing white vines shot out, faster than sound. They pierced Charron's ghostly shield, wrapping around his arms, his legs, his staff, and his neck.

SIZZLE.

The Life Mana burned the Lich like holy water. Charron thrashed, roaring in agony, but he couldn't break free. He was pinned between the Queen's life and Isabelle's gravity.

"Damien!" The Queen shouted, her knees buckling. "Do it now! I can't hold him!"

Hearing this, Damien instantly launched himself.

He didn't use a skill. He used everything.

He condensed the Golden Dragon Aura into his right hand until it was a miniature sun.

And on his left, he condensed the Shadow Magic until it was a black hole.

Doing this, he then brought them together.

"Dual-Core Secret Art: Chaos Lance."

He merged the two energies into a spinning, unstable drill of gold and black energy on the tip of his sword. The space around the blade shattered.

After which, he flew straight at Charron's exposed chest.

"NOOOO!" Charron screamed, seeing an energy that opposed the very concept of his existence. For the first time in a long time, he, the undead lord, finally felt the fear of death

"My Lord! Save m—!"

Damien thrust.

SHING!

The Chaos Lance pierced straight through the Lich's chest, shattering his ribcage and drilling into his core.

"This," Damien whispered into the Lich's ear, "is for interrupting the birth."

BOOM!

The energy exploded inside Charron.

The Domain shattered like glass. The grey world vanished.

Pop.

They were back in the Queen's bedroom.

Charron's physical body was gone, vaporised by the blast. Only a black, cracked soul-crystal remained floating in the air where his heart used to be.

The Queen collapsed onto the bed, unconscious, clutching her baby.

Damien fell to his knees, his vision going black. His Dual-Core state collapsed, leaving his eyes reverting to their natural sea-blue.

But he reached out and grabbed the floating black crystal before he fell.

[System Alert!] [12th Demon General Defeated.] [You have altered the course of the Great War.] [Calculating Reward…]

Damien didn't hear the rest. He let the darkness take him.

....

[Somewhere in the Void]

A pair of massive, ancient eyes opened in the darkness.

They weren't angry. They were amused.

"The 12th has fallen? To a human child?"

A deep, rumbling laughter shook the stars.

"Interesting. Very interesting. Voss… you have bred a fine monster."

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