Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 54: Partial Eclipse [3]

Do it, Kairos commanded.

[CONQUEROR OF TIME: LEVEL 1. INITIATED.]

The world lost its vibrant color. The terrifying chaos of the stone balcony vanished in the blink of an eye. The loud, panicked screams of the civilians in the plaza below were muted, replaced by a hollow silence. The falling gray ash stopped instantly, hanging perfectly still in the air like snow frozen in the nature of winter painting.

The four Black Mist Knights, who were halfway through vanishing into shadow to execute their simultaneous teleport, turned into rigid statues of dark mist and jagged iron.

Time stopped!

Kairos felt a sharp, agonizing stab in his chest. It felt like a rusty knife swirling directly into his heart. Because the dark dome had drained all the natural mana from the air, the System had nothing to draw from. To keep the time frozen, it was using raw life force from his veins. He tasted warm copper in his mouth. Every beat of his heart felt sluggish and painful, as if his blood had turned into freezing sludge.

The air around him was no longer just empty space. Without the natural flow of time, the atmosphere became heavy and dense. It felt like he was standing at the bottom of a deep ocean, pinned down by the immense, invicible pressure.

[DOMINION ESTABLISHED. YOU HAVE ONLY FIFTEEN SECONDS(DUE TO LIFE FORCE USAGE).]

[WARNING: FATAL TISSUE DAMAGE INCOMING. MOVE FASTER.]

Kairos clenched Asteria tightly, his knuckles turning white. He prepared to move, but before he could take a single step, a voice echoed inside his skull.

Kairos. Can you hear me?

Kairos gasped, his breath creating a pale puff of mist in the gray air which was instantly petrified. He didn’t speak out loud. He just thought of his answer. Luna? How are you in my head right now? Time has stopped.

My mind is connected to the infinite vein, Luna’s mind voice replied. It sounded vast and echoing, stripping away his usual lazy tone. I directed my mind straight into your thoughts. I didn’t say the coordinates out loud because the hive mind would have heard me. They adapt instantly. If I spoke, they would have changed their landing spots mid-shift. They are locked in now.

Give them to me again, Kairos thought, gritting his teeth as another wave of pain lingering through his chest. He could feel his heartbeat slowing down dangerously. His ribs ached with a hollow, burning sensation that he had never felt in any dungeon.

Top left corner. Center right. Behind Terravarous. Right above my head. Luna’s voice was fading, his mental grip slipping. Hurry!! I can’t hold the connection much longer. It is burning me alive.

"Ten," Kairos whispered, his voice was hollow and dead in the frozen space.

He didn’t run. Running will take too many precious seconds. He used spatial control tied to his title. He pictured the top left corner of the balcony, right by the stone railing.

He vanished, and reappeared instantly at the first coordinate. The spatial jump tore at his tired muscles, sending a fresh jolt of agony down his spine, but he ignored the pain aside. The Black Mist Knight was frozen in mid formation. Half of its body was still dark smoke, but its heavy sword was already raised to strike.

SLASHHH!!!

Kairos swung Asteria in a strong, horizontal arc. Pushing the blade through the frozen air required immense physical effort. The silver blade met the corrupted metal of the Knight’s neck, grinning for a fraction of a second before cutting smoothly through the monster. A bright, shimmering line of silver light appeared, suspended in the gray air where the blade had passed. The energy was stacked, trapped in the pause, waiting patiently for time to resume.

"Eight."

He darted his focus to the center right.

He teleported again, his vision obscured, dark spots slithering at the edges of his sight. The second Knight was frozen in a low crouch, preparing to strike its sword across the ground to cut off their escape. The monster’s dark helm was tilted slightly, its empty visor locked onto the spot Kairos had just left.

STRUCKKK!!

Kairos lunged Asteria straight down. The holy blade pierced the center of the dark chest plate, deep into the corrupted armor. He wrenched the sword out, leaving another silver wound petrified in the silence, glowing faintly in the colorless world. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Six."

The pain in his heart was getting worse. His legs felt like they were made of heavy iron, unable to move with ease. He coughed, and a spray of blood left his lips, instantly freezing into tiny crimson droplets hovering in the air.

He looked toward Terravarous. The giant was kneeling on the cracked stone, bleeding from his broad back. Right behind him, the third Knight was frozen halfway with its dark blade inches away from the Terravarous’ spine.

If Kairos was even a fraction of a second late, Terravarous would die. Kairos teleported behind his friend. He didn’t have the chance for a clean swing from this angle. Instead, he gripped the hilt with both hands, lowering the sword down, and unleashed a brutal upward slash. Pushing the blade against the gravity of stopped time made the muscles in his forearms scream. The silver blade severed the monster’s arm at the shoulder and carved a vivid line through its ribs, exposing the dark, swirling core trapped inside the armor.

"Four."

Three targets down. One left.

Kairos looked toward the back of the balcony. Soltheia was kneeling on the ground, holding Luna. Right above them, hung midway in the gray air, there was the final Black Mist Knight. It was falling from the sky, its sword descended directly at Luna’s chest.

Kairos pushed every remaining drop of his life force into his legs. He teleported into the empty air right above the falling Knight. He hovered upside down in the frozen space, looking down at the dark helm of the assassin.

"Two."

His hands were trembling uncontrollably. His knuckles ached, and his vision was obscured with dark spots. Asteria felt heavier than a boulder. The holy light from the blade was dimming, struggling to survive in the mana vacuum. The sword was starving, just like he was.

​Kairos poured his sheer willpower into the metal. He refused to die here. He thought about Seyana’s smile in the sunlight. He thought about the promises of paper lanterns drifting into the night sky. He thought about the quiet house near the trees, a future where he could take rest. He fed those warm, human desires into the faintly glowing weapon weapon.

The silver blade enraged with an incandescent light that cut through the gray world like a miniature sun.

"One." CRACKK!!!

Kairos struck the sword straight down. The blade pierced the top of the Knight’s dark helm. It sank through the metal, through the thick black mist, and impaled all the way out the bottom of the armor.

"Fall!" Kairos commanded.

[COUNTDOWN COMPLETE. DOMINION COLLAPSING.]

The gray world shattered. Color rushed back into the balcony. The deafening, chaotic noise of the panicked plaza hit Kairos’ ears like a physical wave. The cold night wind howled across the plaza. All the petrified energy from his four strikes unleashed at the exact same moment.

BOOM!

It sounded like a sudden cannon firing at point-blank range. The four Black Mist Knights didn’t even have a chance to swing their swords. They shattered instantly. There was no struggle, no counterattack. Just four massive, powerful bursts of dark ash and broken iron rumbling across the stone platform.

The resulting shockwave blew the falling ash away, clearing the balcony in an instant.

Kairos hit the stone floor hard. His knees buckled under him. He dropped Asteria, the silver sword clattering loudly against the ground. He pitched forward, falling himself on his hands and knees. He gasped desperately for air, his chest heaving as if he had just held his breath for an hour.

Blood dripped from his chin onto the stone.

The threat was dead, but the sky was still sealed by the pitch-black dome.

Then, a loud, cracking sound echoed from above. Without the eight elite Knights acting as living anchors for the spell, the dark magic could no longer sustain itself. The massive black circle carving up the night sky began to fracture. Deep, shimmering fissures spread across the dark barrier like spiderwebs on thin glass.

With a sound like shattering crystal, the dark dome collapsed.

The black mist vanished into the smoke, blowing away on the eastern wind. The true night sky returned. The bright, glowing moon glimmered on the capital city once again, accompanied by a blanket of shining stars.

Fresh, clean air rushed back into the plaza. The suffocating vacuum broke. The natural, flowing magic of the world crept over the city, breathing life back into the exhausted breath.

Ignis let out an agonizing, shuddering breath. He raised a shaking hand and snapped his fingers. A warm spark of red fire lit safely across his fingertips.

"Huhhhh!!, thank the gods," Ignis groaned, letting his head fall back against the stone railing. "I thought I was broken. That bastard did something again."