In the sky, the circling Thunder Dragon let out a high-pitched roar.

Gaius’s figure slowly descended from the sky. His heavy armor landed on the soft sand with a dull thud.

On the other side, the Mage Herast also landed quietly. He calmly adjusted his Mage Robe.

He had barely participated in the fight. Gaius alone had been enough to suppress the Angel of Death, Sela.

The Golden Giant Dragon Sun had guarded the ferry crossing from the very beginning. Its hundred-meter-long body, like an insurmountable golden city wall, completely cut off all of Graves’s escape routes.

Gaius, Herast, and the Golden Dragon Sun.

A triangular cage formed by three Domain Level Powerhouses had locked "Thorns" Graves firmly in its center.

Graves had witnessed the entire process of Sela being ambushed and then suppressed, and his heart sank bit by bit.

From the moment Gaius and Herast appeared, he knew. ’This is a tomb tailor-made for us.’

’Every single step has been meticulously calculated.’

’The Golden Dragon Sun is responsible for blocking the way, creating frontal pressure, and drawing my attention.’

’The Angel of Death, Sela, excels at aerial combat, so Gaius—the strongest martial force of the Thunder Dragon Duchy—teamed up with Herast, known as the "Weaver," to carry out a thunderbolt takedown.’

’Their roles were clearly defined, their coordination was flawless, and their power is simply overwhelming.’

He hadn’t even had a chance to help Sela.

Graves slowly exhaled a ragged breath. He didn’t look at his companion, whose fate in the sandy crater was unknown. Instead, he turned his gaze to the man who had just personally smashed a Four-winged Angel into the ground.

"Gaius."

His voice was a bit hoarse.

"You do us a great honor by coming yourself."

Gaius looked at him without expression, as if staring at a dead man.

"The Violet Empire has overreached."

His voice, like his Domain, was heavy and direct.

The corners of Graves’s mouth twitched into a bitter smile.

’He knew any explanation would be futile.’

But he still wanted to make one last attempt.

"Name your price,"

he said.

"What do you want? Gold Coins? Territory? As long as you let me go, I can, on behalf of the Violet Empire, satisfy one reasonable demand of yours."

He tried to sway them with the promise of benefits. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

’To a Duchy, a living captive who can bring them benefits is far more valuable than a corpse.’

However, Gaius’s gaze remained cold.

"Your value doesn’t lie in an exchange."

It was a simple sentence, yet it sent a tremor through Graves, as if he had been plunged into an icy abyss.

A bone-deep chill flooded his heart.

The last glimmer of hope in his eyes was extinguished, replaced by the desperate fury and resolve of a cornered beast.

’Since there’s no way out alive, I’ll take a few of their teeth with me before I die!’

"In that case..."

Graves’s voice suddenly rose as an immense Domain Level pressure erupted from him without reservation.

"My head is right here! Come and take it!"

VWOOM!

An overwhelming wave of Domain Power erupted from him, spreading wildly in all directions!

The soft sand on the ground rapidly hardened and cracked as black thorn vines, gleaming with a metallic sheen, burst from the earth!

These were not plants but thorns formed from the purest Domain Power, covered in razor-sharp barbs.

The thorn vines grew, spread, and intertwined at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, the entire ferry crossing transformed into a terrifying Hell of thorns!

Every thorn radiated a piercing sharpness. They writhed like living creatures under Graves’s will, dancing wildly to form a protective barrier around him.

The Thorn Domain, unleashed at full power!

Faced with this final, desperate counterattack, Gaius simply placed his hand slowly on the hilt of the giant sword on his back.

"Hmph."

A cold snort escaped Gaius’s throat, as deep and resonant as a war drum.

He didn’t even glance at the black thorns dancing madly through the air, only slowly taking his hand off the hilt of his sword.

With this simple motion, an invisible but mountain-heavy force field erupted from him!

The Iron Wall Domain!

This was not a visual barrier, but an Absolute Defense woven from Fighting Spirit.

In an instant, the air became as viscous as mercury. Space itself seemed to be crushed under ten thousand times the normal gravity, and even light began to warp slightly.

The moment Graves’s wildly expanding Thorn Domain came into contact with this force field, it let out a grating KREEE. As if seized in the grip of a giant, invisible hand, its expansion came to an abrupt halt.

For a moment, the entire ferry crossing was split by the two clashing Domain Powers into two clearly distinct worlds.

On one side was a Hell of thorns—sharp, violent, and filled with the will to pierce and destroy.

On the other side was a grayish-white Absolute Barrier—heavy, severe, and radiating a tyrannical power that could crush all things.

"Kill!"

Graves’s eyes were bloodshot as he pushed his Domain Power to its absolute limit.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

Ten thousand thorn vines, glinting with a cold metallic light, shot out like arrows loosed from a bow. Tearing through the air, they stabbed toward the slowly approaching figure from all directions.

The sharpness and piercing power of these thorns, condensed from pure Domain Power, were enough to easily penetrate Dragon Scale and shred steel.

However, a strange scene unfolded.

The moment the menacing thorns entered the hundred-meter radius around Gaius, they suddenly slowed, as if they had plunged into an invisible quagmire.

Immediately after, they groaned as if under an unbearable weight, and fine cracks appeared on the surfaces of the hard vines.

Gaius continued to advance, one step after another.

His pace wasn’t fast, but it had a constant, unchanging rhythm, like the tolling of a death knell for the defeated.

He took his first step.

The thorns within a hundred meters of him trembled in unison, the cracks on their surfaces instantly widening.

He took his second step.

CRACK!

Countless thorns snapped, dissolving into motes of pure energy and dissipating within the heavy force field.

He took his third step.

BOOM!

With him at the center, a huge, circular empty space was forcibly "pressed" into existence within the Hell of thorns.

Within his Domain, though thousands of thorns raged, not a single one could get near him.

And so, Gaius walked step by step, as if taking a leisurely stroll through a courtyard, right into the deathtrap of ten thousand stabbing thorns.

His Iron Wall Domain was like a moving millstone. Wherever it passed, the Thorn Domain that Graves had painstakingly constructed was mercilessly crushed and flattened.

The clash between the two Domain Powers kicked up devastating aftershocks.

The wooden buildings by the ferry crossing were instantly shredded into clouds of splinters by the escaping energy. The merchant ships that failed to get away in time let out pained groans as they were caught in the tug-of-war between the two powers. Their massive keels snapped one by one, and the ships were ultimately torn to pieces, their countless fragments sinking into the Black Water River.