The ash rain cloud dispersing was a surprise for Domina as she watched the cloud being replaced by the rain clouds. But unlike the normal rain, it turned out to be the rain infused with the Dragon’s purification mana.

Being hybrids the dark mages could last but Reikah was another matter, he had already faced a defeat against the Dragon and this rain would render his Hell’s Flames useless so, she had another plan.

She stood atop the broken building’s roof, the rain was a little uncomfortable for her since and she was all drenched now but she couldn’t move her eyes from the Dragon.

She watched the Dragon easily slicing through the apprentices she had taught for years. They couldn’t even last before him for more than a few seconds and before they could even cast any spells they were already decapitated.

She then turned her head to Reikah who had his hood drawn over his face to keep the rain away. He was sensitive to the purification mana because he was a newly formed Dominus. The last stage of becoming the Dominus was to eat the flesh of the demon but that also meant that he was more liable to suffer because of this particular Dragon who had the most annoying affinity.

She had no idea why this half human Dragon was so strong but she was sure that his mana wasn’t infinite and he also didn’t know their plan so, it was easy to keep him here until the other side was done with their task. Once the Dragon realised that he had been fooled, she would love to see his expression.

"Go help on the other side." Domina said as she handed him a piece of paper which had an inscription drawn over it.

Reikah glanced at the Dragon who stood in the middle of the street surround by the mutilated dark mages. His presence rolled off of him in waves that compressed the air and rain to the point that it felt as if gravity was ten times in the area surrounding him.

Reikah tore the page in his hands and a large black circle of inscriptions appeared beneath his feet before he was swallowed up by the black mist.

The Domina watched the Dragon before she leapt off from the roof and faced him.

Domina did not move immediately after landing. The rain fell steadily around her, hissing faintly as it struck the ground, but she paid it no mind. Her attention remained fixed on the Dragon before her, as if the world around them had already narrowed to just the two of them.

Only then did her hand drift to her side.

There, secured against her waist, rested a book that did not belong to this age.

It was worn in a way that spoke not of time, but of use. Its cover was darkened, the edges of its pages uneven, as though they had been handled far too often and not always with care. There were no inscriptions visible upon it, no title etched into its surface, and yet its presence alone carried a quiet, suffocating weight.

This was no ordinary grimoire.

The Tome she carried did not hold spells meant to be recited, nor circles meant to be drawn. There were no incantations waiting to be spoken.

What it held instead... were things.

Things that had once roamed freely, that had once existed beyond control, now bound within fragile sheets of parchment. Each page was a seal, each inscription a cage carefully crafted to contain something that should never have been contained.

And when a page was torn it was not a spell that was cast.

It was something that was released.

Domina’s fingers brushed lightly against the edge of the Tome, feeling the faint pulse beneath its surface, as if the contents within were aware... waiting.

Her gaze lifted, settling once more upon the Dragon. He only watched her as if she was just another nuisance like the ones he ripped just moments ago. But could he be any more wrong?

There was no hesitation in her expression, no sign of urgency or strain. If anything, she looked almost... curious.

"You’ve made quite a mess," she said, her voice calm, untouched by the chaos around them. "It would be a shame if all that effort was misplaced."

Her thumb slid beneath the corner of a page.

Slowly.

Deliberately.

"And I wonder," she continued, eyes narrowing just slightly, "how long that strength of yours will last... when you are no longer fighting something that can die."

Ocean watched her yap, full of confidence as if she had already won the battle while her stats flashed before his eyes.

[Name: Lilith

Title: Domina

Mana: Dead Mana

Class: Summoner

Authority: Codex of Sealed Calamities.]

[Class Description: Summoner]

A misnamed designation. The bearer does not summon, nor create. They release the entities bound through forbidden means and command them through the names. The Summoner binds the calamities in contracts and hence once a calamity is bound to the Summoner by a contract, they cannot be free.

Note: The type of contract plays a big role since there are different ways a Summoner summons their calamities.]

[Authority: Codex of Sealed Calamities]

An ancient grimoire that contains the pages that act as cages for the calamities contracted by the Summoner. The Summoner has to tear the page to lift the seal that traps the calamity and once the page is torn the entity is released in the world.

Note: This type of Summoning had limitations as once the Summoner has torn the page, the released calamity shall not return to the Tome.]

Ocean read the whole thing while the Domina observed him, he couldn’t help but smirk at her oblivious confidence.

"You don’t need to worry about me," he spoke as he entwined his fingers and stretched his arms above his head hearing the satisfying pops and then jerked his neck before facing her.

Domina did not look away from him as her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the page. There was no rush in her movements, no flare of theatrics or wasted motion. The restraint in her demeanor made the act all the more deliberate.

Then she tore it.

The sound was soft, almost insignificant against the steady fall of rain, yet the moment the parchment split, the air itself recoiled. The torn fragment dissolved into black motes that did not scatter, but sank, bleeding into the ground beneath her feet. What followed was not an eruption, but a quiet distortion, as though something beneath the surface had stirred awake.

The street darkened.

Not from shadow, but from accumulation.

At first, it appeared to be nothing more than soot gathering across the wet stone—thin streaks of black spreading through the cracks, pooling where the rainwater should have washed them away. Then the soot began to shift. It thickened, rising in uneven clumps that trembled as if guided by breath rather than gravity.

The first of them took shape with a wet, cracking sound.

It dragged itself free from the ground, its form assembling piece by piece, as charred bone forced its way through layers of ash. Its spine arched unnaturally, ribs exposed and blackened as though burned long ago, yet still intact enough to hold together a body that should not have functioned. Its limbs were too long, too jointed, ending in clawed digits that scraped against the stone as it pulled itself upright. Where a head should have been, there was only a warped skull, half-melted and fused, with hollow sockets that glowed faintly from within.

Then another followed.

And another.

The notification popped before Ocean’s eyes.

[Ash Crawlers

Dog-sized aberrations formed from charred bone and compacted soot, their bodies appear half-burnt yet unnaturally intact. They move in packs with jerky, predatory coordination, using elongated limbs and clawed digits to leap directly at a target’s face or throat. Despite their brittle appearance, they regenerate from ash residue unless completely destroyed, making them persistent swarm-type threats.]

Within seconds, the ground ruptured in dozens of places as the Ash Crawlers clawed their way into the open, their movements jerky at first, before settling into a predatory rhythm. They moved low to the ground, circling, their skeletal bodies coated in soot that constantly shed and reformed, as though they were perpetually burning from within.

Above them, the rain stirred.

A shrill, grating sound split through the air, sharp enough to cut through the steady patter of falling water. Dark shapes tore through the low clouds, descending in chaotic spirals. Their wings were wrong—too thin, too tattered, with feathers that looked more like strips of blackened flesh.

Another notification popped with the description for these creatures.

[Hollow Ravens

Large, eyeless avian entities with tattered, shadow-like wings and distorted skeletal frames. They emit piercing, dissonant screeches that disrupt focus and swarm targets from above, aiming for exposed flesh such as the eyes and face. Their erratic flight patterns and relentless diving attacks make them effective aerial harassers in large numbers.]

The Hollow Ravens plunged downward, their empty sockets yawning open as they screamed, a sound that carried no voice, only raw distortion that made the air shudder around it.

They did not circle.

They dove.

At the same time, something else slipped into existence, unnoticed for the briefest of moments.

From the edges of the shattered bodies scattered across the street, from the damp surfaces of stone and flesh alike, slick, black forms began to slide forward. They were small, formless at a glance, but as they moved, their true nature became clear.

[Grave Leeches

Amorphous, black, slug-like parasites that cling to surfaces and silently approach their targets. Upon contact, they latch onto exposed skin and begin draining mana directly from the host, causing rapid internal destabilization and physical weakening. They are slow but difficult to detect in chaotic environments, relying on stealth and numbers rather than direct aggression.]

Grave Leeches, their bodies glistening as though coated in oil, stretched and contracted in slow, deliberate pulses. They did not rush. They crept, clinging to surfaces, slipping into gaps, their movements subtle and patient as they sought contact.

The street, once empty, had become a living infestation.

Domina watched it unfold without a word.

Ocean did not move.

For a single moment, the creatures held their positions, as though bound by an unspoken command. Then, as if a thread had been cut, they surged all at once.

The Ash Crawlers were the first to reach him.

They moved in packs, their bodies skimming over the ground with unnatural speed, claws scraping and snapping as they lunged upward, aiming not for his body, but for his face, his throat, his eyes. One leapt directly at his head, its jaws spreading wider than bone should have allowed, a jagged crack splitting along its skull.

It never reached him.

Ocean’s hand moved, not with force, but with precision. His fingers closed around the creature mid-lunge, halting it as easily as one might catch a falling object. For a fraction of a second, its limbs thrashed, claws scraping uselessly against his arm. Then pressure followed.

The body collapsed inward with a brittle crunch.

Bone splintered. The structure holding it together failed in an instant, and what had moments ago resembled a creature crumbled into fragments of ash and charred shards that scattered across the wet stone.

The rest did not hesitate.

Three more sprang from different angles, one aiming low, another from behind, the third launching itself toward his shoulder.

Ocean stepped forward, his movement minimal yet perfectly placed. His foot came down, and the crawler beneath it was reduced to a flattened mass, its bones snapping with a dull, wet sound before disintegrating entirely.

He turned slightly, his arm sweeping outward.

The motion carried no visible strain, yet the impact was absolute. The two remaining creatures were struck mid-air, their bodies shattering apart before they could even complete their arc, reduced to fragments that dissolved the moment they struck the ground.

Above him, the Hollow Ravens descended.

Their screams intensified as they closed the distance, wings beating in erratic patterns that disrupted the air itself. One reached him first, its beak opening unnaturally wide as it drove straight toward his face.

Ocean did not look up.

The rain around him shifted.

What had fallen in steady droplets moments before responded to his will without a visible command. The water gathered, rising in thin, razor-like streams that cut upward through the air. The first raven was cleaved in half before it could make contact, its body splitting cleanly along the centerline. The halves fell apart mid-flight, dissolving into dark residue before they ever reached the ground.

The rest followed.

Each movement was answered before it completed. Wings were severed, bodies pierced, forms torn apart by currents that moved too quickly to be tracked. The sky above him cleared within seconds, the shrill cries cutting off as abruptly as they had begun.

By then, the Grave Leeches had reached him.

They did not attack from the front. They climbed, slipping along his boots, stretching across the ground to latch onto his legs, his coat, seeking exposed skin. One made contact.

The reaction was immediate.

Its body tightened, clinging as though it had found purchase, and for a fraction of a second, it began to feed. Then it froze.

The surface of its form began to distort.

The mana it attempted to draw was not something it could contain. The purification within it surged back through the point of contact, overwhelming the creature from within. Its body convulsed, swelling unnaturally before collapsing into itself, dissolving into a thin smear that washed away under the rain.

The others met the same fate.

Some burst upon contact. Others withered before they could even fully attach, their forms unraveling as though stripped apart at the most fundamental level.

Ocean stood where he had been from the start.

The street around him fell silent once more, the remnants of the creatures already being washed away, leaving no trace of what had just occurred.

He lowered his hand slightly, his gaze settling once again on Domina.

There was no shift in his breathing. No tension in his stance. No sign that anything of substance had occurred.

If anything, he looked mildly disappointed.

"Is that all, Lilith? I expected better."

Domina’s eyes widened, nobody apart from her directly senior the Dominus knew her human name. Then how did this Dragon come to know of it? She shook her head, he could flaunt all he wanted but this was the end for him.

Ocean smirked, "Surprised? Don’t worry, I will keep you entertained until the end. Go on. Tear more of those pages and let me show you what real destruction looks like."

Domina’s face twisted into a grimace as she grabbed a few more pages and ripped.