Damian’s eyes burned from the light and his ears rang with a high-pitched whine that drowned out everything else.

One moment he’d been standing on the terrace beside Elizabeth and the others.

The next, he was hundreds of meters away, his boots touching ground that should have been solid pavement but was just dust and shattered concrete.

’W-what just happened?’

His vision swam as he tried to focus, tried to understand why the buildings around him had disappeared, turned to powder and ash that floated in the air like snow.

Then he saw them.

Thousands of children from the orphanage, their small faces twisted with terror, some crying and some too shocked to make any sound at all. The staff members clustered around them, trying to shield them with their bodies despite having no idea what they were shielding them from.

Elizabeth knelt a few meters away, blood running from her nose, her purple hair disheveled, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.

Kuro landed beside him with a heavy thud, his raven form expanded to its larger size, his crimson eyes wide and unfocused.

’Kuro is... drunk? Death energy is... too much...’

The mental voice was slurred, barely coherent.

Damian’s head snapped toward movement in his peripheral vision.

Castor lay on the ground maybe twenty meters away, his body twisted at angles that made Damian’s stomach turn.

Yara crouched over him, her hands glowing with healing Aura that poured into his broken body in desperate waves.

’He’s alive... But barely.’

"Oh~ no one died?"

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, echoing across the devastation with genuine surprise that sounded almost pleased.

Damian’s entire body went rigid, his hand moving to his spatial ring on pure instinct.

Another voice answered, this one deeper and colder.

"These Unnamed Four are stronger than expected."

’Who?!’

Damian’s blood ran cold.

Then movement erupted around them.

’Too fas–’

He couldn’t track or follow what was happening, his eyes catching only snapshots, frozen images that his brain struggled to connect into anything coherent.

Black-robed figures wearing masks, bodies moving at speeds that turned them into blurs and afterimages.

Three of them.

One figure among them stood out, his Aura radiating with intensity that made Damian’s core react instinctively.

That figure was already moving toward them, closing the distance.

Gregor blurred.

One moment the grey-haired man stood among them, the next he was gone, Damian’s eyes couldn’t follow and couldn’t see anything except the afterimage burned into his vision.

"Absolute Aura Dominion."

BOOM

A perfect sphere materialized in the distance, appearing instantly where the strongest figure had been.

A hundred meters in radius, the boundary solidified into walls of pure concentrated Aura that glowed white-gold and hummed with power that made the air shimmer even from this far away.

It was a domain with its boundary closed.

Whatever was happening inside, nobody on the outside could see or interfere with it.

****

[Inside the Domain]

The world had changed completely.

Gone was the ruined cityscape and the dust and debris.

Instead, the Fourth Shadow King found himself standing in a sphere of pure white-gold Aura.

And at the center stood Gregor.

His presence dominated the space, his control over the Aura so absolute that the Fourth Shadow King could feel his own power being suppressed, fighting just to maintain its integrity.

"Shadow Council?"

Gregor’s voice came out quiet, but it carried with perfect clarity.

The Fourth Shadow King shifted his stance.

"Fourth Shadow King of the Shadow Council." The voice behind the mask stayed level. "You must be the Aura Sovereign... The Death Cult warned us you would be troublesome."

Gregor said nothing for some time, but his expression hardened.

"The Death Cult." Each word came out flat. "So... this was coordinated."

"Of course." The Fourth Shadow King’s Aura flared around his body. "Did you think we’d attack without preparation? Without knowing exactly who we were facing?"

His hand moved as a spear materialized in his grip.

"We know all about the Unnamed Four." The Fourth Shadow King’s voice dropped lower. "The Aura Sovereign who treats Aura like an extension of his own body, the Phantom who is one of the fastest humans, the Undying One who refuses to stay dead... And the Healer... well, nothing special about her."

He took a combat stance.

"The Death Cult gave us everything we needed to kill you."

"Was there any information about my Domain? I guess not."

Gregor’s voice stayed quiet as Aura wrapped around him like armor, coating his shoulders, his chest and his arms. It covered him piece by piece, transforming him into something that resembled a knight forged from Aura itself.

’Indeed, there was no information about what existed inside his Domain... just that he possessed one.’

The Fourth Shadow King said nothing, his grip tightening on his spear.

"Because everyone who entered it never walked out."

The Shadow King laughed as soon as he heard Gregor’s words.

"You think you can keep me trapped here?"

Gregor’s eyes didn’t flicker.

"No."

The Aura around Gregor began to condense. It pulled inward, compressing into shapes that solidified in the air around him.

Blades formed first, then spears and arrows followed, dozens of them materializing one after another.

All of them hung suspended in the air.

Then, as one, they turned, all of them pointing directly at the Fourth Shadow King.

"You misunderstand."

His voice dropped lower.

"I don’t want to trap you... I want to obliterate you."

****

The other two masked figures paused as their heads turned toward the Domain that had trapped their strongest and their movements stilled for just a moment.

Vash turned to Yara, his face hardening.

"Get the kids to safety."

His voice came out flat and absolute.

"I’ll block them till then."

Yara looked up from where she knelt over Castor, her face pale, blood staining her hands from working on his injuries.

"Vash, you can’t fight two of them alone! They are stronger than–"

WHOOSH

But he was already gone.

One moment he stood among them, the next he had vanished completely.

BOOM BOOM

The twin sonic booms arrived a heartbeat later, the shockwave rolling over them like thunder, making the children scream and cover their ears, despite Yara making barriers.

In the distance, Vash stood between them and two black-robed figures, his massive frame blocking their path completely.

The Twelfth Shadow King tilted his head, his white mask gleaming in the afternoon light.

"The Undying One." His voice carried dark amusement. "We have heard about you."

The Fourteenth Shadow King circled to the side, his movements fast.

"They said you refuse to stay dead." He laughed. "How convenient... We can kill you as many times as we want."

Vash didn’t respond with words, his fist moved.

BAM

The Twelfth Shadow King’s guard came up just in time, but the impact still drove him backward, his feet carving trenches through the rubble as he skidded meters before stopping.

The Fourteenth tried to blur past, tried to get around Vash toward where Damian and Elizabeth were.

But Vash’s hand shot out, impossibly fast, and caught him by the throat mid-movement.

The Shadow King’s momentum became his enemy as Vash used it against him, swinging him in a brutal arc that ended with him cratering into the ground hard enough to send debris flying.

BOOM

"You’re not getting past me."

Vash’s voice came out cold and final.

His Aura exploded outward, the sheer pressure making the air itself feel heavy, making the ground beneath him crack in spiderweb patterns that spread for dozens of meters.

The Twelfth Shadow King straightened, brushing dust from his robes.

"Good." His voice carried anticipation. "We were hoping you’d make this interesting."

Both Shadow Kings moved as one and Vash met them with a roar that drowned out everything else.