The whole area suddenly went dark. All light disappeared instantly. People who didn't have special eyes couldn't see anything in the darkness. People who rely too much on their eyesight were disabled at this moment.
"This is..."
Lord Dramus's pupils shrank. He was a battle-hardened elite and he could fight even if he closed his eyes. But this type of darkness didn't hinder his eyesight at all. Even with the absence of all he could still see the area around him.
He gathered his mana in his eyes and picked up the particles of energy in the atmosphere. The particles of energy acted as a light that made him able to see even without light.
But what shocked him was the power. The power that was overflowing out of Souta's body.
"S-Second Stage...?!"
This was beyond his level of understanding. His elemental power was only at the first stage and according to the information he had gathered, Souta only had the first stage of elemental power.
"This is bad..." Lord Dramus gritted his teeth. The information he had was outdated. Souta grew stronger in the past few weeks and achieved the second stage of elemental power.
"Let's start it." Souta grinned before he pressed down his hand.
Bang!!
Lord Dramus was slammed into the ground by a strong gravitational field.
The [Gravitational Ball] spell was a dark attribute spell. It received a huge boost after Souta activated the [Element Drive: Dark Integration]. The boost this time was ten times larger than the [Element Drive: Dark Force].
Ugh!
Lord Dramus tried to stand but he found himself being dragged by several black tentacles. The [Shadow Bind] spell was just a low level tier 1 spell but after receiving the boost from Dark Integration, the power it possessed grew larger. Although it wasn't enough to crush Lord Dramus, it was enough to restrict him for a second.
"Fuck!"
Lord Dramus roared as he released a field of lightning and flames that disintegrated the black tentacles. He opened his mouth widely and fired a ray of lightning and flames.
Swoosh!!
Souta moved his body to the side to avoid the deadly ray. He knew that he wouldn't be able to tank that attack without suffering injuries. Although he had a parasite to heal his injuries, he still preferred to reserve the energy of his parasite.
He kicked the air and quickly zoomed the distance between him and Lord Dramus. Souta pulled out his vajra sword and slashed it at his opponent's chest.
[Crimson Moon]!!
Lord Dramus managed to block the attack using a barrier made of lightning and flame. But it only lasted for a few seconds before it collapsed.
Bang!
The red energy blows his body away. He stabilized himself in the air before he landed on the ground. When he looked up, he saw a huge beam flying in his direction.
[Bestrou]!!
"Shit!" Lord Dramus knew that it was too late to dodge. If that's the case, then he should just take the attack head-on and reduce the power of the beam by using his own attack.
BOOM!!
Souta was careful. He didn't want this old man to self-destruct just like the one in the Multiple Elements Realm. He would exhaust his opponent so that he wouldn't have any energy left to start a self-destruct technique.
That's why Souta didn't want to quickly overpower this man. With his power, he could kill Lord Dramus while using the [Element Drive: Dark Integration].
Lord Dramus would simply self-destruct once he realized that there was a huge gap in their strength. So Souta was lowering his level right now to his opponent's level by showing that the gap was small.
It means, Lord Dramus could still see a little bit of hope in escaping or defeating Souta. That's why he would keep fighting.
'Right? Deplete your energy until you can't self-destruct...' Souta smiled in his mind.
"DIE!!" Lord Dramus roared. His left fist was covered in lightning while his right fist was covered in flames.
Souta moved in the darkness as he avoided and deflected Lord Dramus's fierce attacks. Every time he saw an opportunity, he would attack to chip down his opponent's life.
Darkness moved in the air, attacking Lord Dramus in every direction. In this form, Souta could control the shadows easily. His element power was enough to achieve that.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Princess Yaniesvyl and her father already left the palace. It was too dangerous to stay there since Souta and Lord Dramus were fighting. They could get caught up and perish from their strong killing attacks.
But the darkness that enveloped the whole area made them unable to proceed further. They just stood in their spot without doing anything. They could only feel the pressure from the two fighters.
"This level... [Element Drive]...?"
Princess Yaniesvyl muttered to herself in shock. Although the [Element Drive] was common to high level experts in Holy Lands or Large Countries, it was a different case in Spring Land. In Spring Land, the experts capable of using [Element Drive] were less than ten people.
There were millions of people on this land yet only a few could wield it. This just showed the difference in their land compared to those Large Countries and Holy Lands.
"Follow me, Yaniesvyl. We'll go through the darkness." The King suddenly said.
"I understand, father." Princess Yaniesvyl nodded her head.
Even though there's darkness around them, they still have to move forward or else they would get caught up in the battle. That's the worst-case scenario.
Argh!!
Lord Dramus groaned in pain as his right hand rolled in the air, spraying blood in every direction.
Thud!
He stepped back and tried to calm his senses. His breathing was ragged and his body was full of sweat. Lord Dramus was a little bit tired.
"Huff... Huff... I don't think that I would be able to safely run from this monster... Integration? Didn't expect his element to be at Second Stage."
Lord Dramus muttered to himself as he burned the wounds on his right arm to stop the bleeding.
'This guy is strong... Stronger than the Boss of Murder Society. If my dark element is at a lower level, he would be able to keep up with me.' Souta said inwardly while scanning Lord Dramus with his eyes.
'He still has energy left. Just a little bit more and he would drain all of his energy in his mana pool.'
Souta looked down at his body. His body has several wounds but he didn't use the parasite to heal them. It's better if Lord Dramus could see that he was also injured. That way, self-destruct wouldn't come into his mind.
But Souta forgot something important.
"Ehe, I'll kill you... You will fall today." Lord Dramus suddenly laughed.
Souta stopped moving as he was confused. The next moment, Lord Dramus released a vast amount of mana as red light erupted from his body. A huge eerie magic circle formed on the ground.
'Souta, that is...' Saya said.
'Yeah, Blood Sacrifice... I forgot that they are using that type of power.' Souta replied to her grimly.
He thought that they wouldn't use the energy they borrowed from Blood Sacrifice because they have other uses for it. Even the person he met in the ancient ruins didn't use the power of Blood Sacrifice.
"I will kill you and destroy the entire Heiro Kingdom. You will be a good sacrifice. I'm sure that our King will give me more energy if I sacrifice you." Lord Dramus laughed madly.
"I doubt that will happen..." Souta smiled.
"Yeah, keep that attitude! You people from Holy Lands really think that you're the best out there!" Lord Dramus's aura grew stronger and stronger.
Souta simply narrowed his eyes and didn't say any more words. Blood slowly flowed through his skin. He was ready to use his [Blood Armor] anytime to start another round of battle.
BOOM!!
The whole area shook heavily as the aura around Lord Dramus suddenly disappeared like a bubble. All the momentum that he gathered just vanish in the blink of an eye.
Souta was surprised as he didn't know why the energy just disappeared like that. It made no sense for all those energies to disappear into thin air.
"W-What?! W-What's happening?!" Lord Dramus looked down at his body. He was confused and scared. The power of his King disappeared without him knowing anything.
'I don't know what's happening but it's my chance to capture him.' Souta said in his mind.
He was about to charge at Lord Dramus when he felt a presence above him. Souta quickly paused and looked above. He saw three people suspended in the sky looking down at them.
Lord Dramus followed Souta's line of sight. His pupils constricted when he saw the people above. "S-Sir...?!"
The three people glanced at Lord Dramus before they turned their attention to Souta. They weren't exuding any powerful energy but their presence brought some sort of pressure.
Souta felt goosebumps all over his body. He quickly activated [Blood Armor] instantly as he felt a sense of danger.
"This... Someone at SSS-rank..."
