Chapter 221: Shadow Domain

The charges detonated.

All twelve went off at once.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The blast hit the square from three sides, sending a wall of pressure through the ruins. Every weakened structure dropped almost at the same time. Support columns snapped, walls folded inward, and entire floors came crashing down beneath their own weight.

Three blocks of Oakhaven were leveled in less than three seconds.

A massive cloud of dust rose into the air, swallowing the square and turning the rain into a dirty mist. The collapse echoed through the empty streets, bouncing between the remaining buildings until the whole city seemed to rumble beneath the force.

Holden was already moving.

The 10,000x processor had calculated the collapse pattern before the first charge went off. By the time the second building hit the ground, he had already used Void-Step to reach a rooftop three blocks south.

Shhp.

Holden crouched at the edge of the roof and looked through the dust. His processor scanned the ruined square, sorting through heat, energy, and movement.

The Twins were safe.

Cora and Sera had pulled back the moment Vandiba turned toward them, escaping through the alley between the first two buildings. They were already three blocks north, outside the blast zone.

Vandiba was another matter.

His energy signature remained in the center of the collapse, buried beneath several floors of rubble. It was still strong. The Rank 4 cultivator had survived the blast and was already protecting himself from the debris.

The processor gave Holden the result.

[Target: Lord Vandiba]

[Status: Active]

[Structural Damage: Minimal]

[Defensive Aura Absorbed: 94% of Kinetic Impact]

[Estimated Recovery Time: 8 Seconds]

Eight seconds.

That was all Holden had.

Five seconds passed before the rubble moved.

A stone slab the size of a car slid aside. Another piece shifted. Then a hand appeared between the broken concrete.

Long fingers pushed against the debris.

Lord Vandiba pulled himself free.

His suit was torn at the shoulder, and the silver clasp that had held his hair was gone. Long black hair hung around his face, now covered in dust. Apart from a few scratches, however, the Rank 4 cultivator looked almost untouched.

Vandiba slowly turned his head.

His eyes moved across the collapsed square, taking in the ruined buildings and the craters left by the charges.

The smile was gone.

"Someone else is here."

His voice had changed. The smooth, mocking tone from earlier had disappeared, replaced by something colder.

"Someone else is hiding in my city."

Vandiba released his energy.

The quiet pressure Holden had sensed before exploded outward, spreading through the ruins like a wave. The rooftop beneath Holden’s feet trembled as the air grew heavy.

The Void Mantle reacted immediately.

[Rank 4 Sensory Domain Detected.]

[Type: Shadow-Poison Area Control.]

[Effect: Spatial lockdown and sensory detection.]

[Host Status: Undetected.]

The domain spread across Oakhaven.

Vandiba’s energy touched everything, searching for movement and probing every dark corner. It passed over Holden’s position and found nothing. The Void Mantle bent the domain around him, leaving only empty space where his body should have been.

Holden remained still.

To Vandiba’s senses, he simply didn’t exist.

The Twins weren’t as lucky.

Three blocks north, Cora and Sera suddenly stumbled.

The domain found them.

There was no physical force pressing down on their bodies, yet both felt as if an invisible hand had grabbed their cultivation and squeezed it shut. Their meridians locked, cutting off the energy they needed to move.

Cora’s knees gave way. She caught herself against a crumbling wall while Sera dropped beside her.

"There you are."

Vandiba’s voice came from everywhere at once, carried through the domain.

"Vespera’s little orphans. Right where I expected you to be."

He started walking toward them.

Slowly.

Holden’s processor tracked the distance.

Three blocks.

At Vandiba’s current pace, he would reach the Twins in roughly four minutes. Cora and Sera were trapped, unable to use their cultivation properly. Without it, they were two Rank 2 cultivators facing a Rank 4 monster.

Holden found a shadow.

The broken chimney of a nearby building.

Shhp.

He appeared on a rooftop one block south of Vandiba.

The Rank 4 cultivator walked below, his attention remained fixed on the north side of the city.

Holden summoned the Solar-Forged Sword.

The blade appeared in his hand.

A fallen lamppost cast a long shadow ten feet behind Vandiba.

That was enough.

Shhp.

Holden appeared behind him.

Ten feet.

The Rank 4 cultivator hadn’t noticed.

Holden ignited the blade.

FWOOM!

Instead of releasing a wide slash, he compressed the Hellfire into a narrow point and drove it toward the base of Vandiba’s skull.

The strike hit the defensive aura.

CLANG!

Dark energy burst around Vandiba’s body, forming a protective shell. The Hellfire struck it and scattered, failing to break through.

But Vandiba felt it.

He spun around.

"What?"

Shock flashed across his face before anger took its place.

A wave of shadow-poison exploded from his palm.

Holden was already gone.

Shhp.

He appeared two blocks east, standing in the shadow of a collapsed water tower.

Vandiba’s attack struck the spot Holden had left behind.

The building behind it didn’t explode.

It dissolved.

Stone, steel, and broken glass melted into a pool of dark liquid that hissed beneath the rain.

Tssss.

Vandiba stared at the damage.

Then he looked across the rooftops.

"Who are you?"

"Show yourself!"

Holden found another shadow.

A broken doorway twenty feet away.

Shhp.

"Over here."

The voice came from behind Vandiba.

The Rank 4 cultivator spun and fired instantly.

FWOOM!

Shadow-poison tore through the doorway, dissolving the concrete and bringing the corner of the building down.

But Holden was already gone.

A rooftop to the right.

The shadow under a broken satellite dish.

"Over here."

Vandiba turned again.

Another blast.

Holden appeared behind him.

"Too slow."

Vandiba spun.

The shadow-poison followed.

So did Holden.

Again.

And again.

Each appearance lasted less than a second. A quick flash of Solar-Forged fire against Vandiba’s defensive aura, followed by another Void-Step before the Rank 4 cultivator could retaliate.

The strikes weren’t breaking through.

Vandiba’s aura absorbed every hit, leaving only faint orange marks across the dark barrier.

But Holden wasn’t trying to break it yet.

He was making Vandiba react.

"Stop hiding!"

Vandiba’s voice thundered through the ruins. "Fight me properly! Face me!"

The entire domain pulsed with his anger, darkening the rain as shadow-poison mixed with the falling water.

Holden watched from a rooftop four blocks away.

His processor had been tracking every reaction.

Now the pattern was clear.

Vandiba’s aura wasn’t getting weaker, but it was becoming less stable. Every time he turned, attacked, and searched for Holden, he had to divide his energy between the sensory domain, his defense, and his shadow-poison attacks.

The domain covered the entire city.

Maintaining it was already expensive.

Forcing Vandiba to fight while keeping it active was making the cost even higher.

Slowly, the pressure was building.

Holden found another shadow.

Shhp.

"Over here."

Vandiba spun.

Shadow-poison.

Shhp.

"Over here."

Another turn.

Another blast.

Shhp.

"Missed me."

Shhp.

"Still missed."

Holden appeared behind a broken wall.

"You’re really bad at this."

Vandiba’s expression twisted.

A furious roar tore through the city.

His aura suddenly expanded before pulling inward. The enormous sensory domain began to contract, drawing its energy back toward him until a dense shell of shadow-poison surrounded his body.

The city-wide search was over.

Vandiba had stopped hunting.

He was protecting himself.

The moment the domain contracted, the pressure holding Cora and Sera down disappeared.

Both Twins immediately felt their cultivation return.

Cora pushed herself off the wall.

Sera grabbed her sword.

"Master Voss," Cora said through the comm, breathing hard. "We can move."

"Then move," Holden replied. "East side. Building twelve. There’s a collapsed roof and an alley behind it. Wait there."

"Understood."

The Twins ran.

The Rank 4 cultivator remained in the square, surrounded by his dense shell of shadow-poison. His hands stayed raised, ready to attack anything that came near.

For the first time, uncertainty crept into his expression.

"Come out," Vandiba called.

The anger in his voice had faded.

"Whatever you are, come out and fight me."

He looked around the ruined city.

"Stop hiding in the shadows. Fight me like a warrior."

Four blocks away, Holden crouched beneath the shadow of a broken building.

He didn’t answer.

There was no reason to.

The cat-and-mouse game was working. Vandiba was burning energy, his defensive aura was becoming harder to maintain, and the man who had entered Oakhaven expecting an easy kill was now afraid of every shadow around him.

But Holden knew the problem.

Small strikes wouldn’t be enough.

He could keep attacking for hours and still struggle to break a Rank 4 defensive aura. The Hellfire was forcing Vandiba to spend energy, but it wasn’t doing enough damage to finish him.

Holden needed something heavier.

Something Vandiba couldn’t simply block.

His processor began scanning the city again.

Then it found what he needed.

At the northern end of the city center stood Oakhaven’s tallest building.

A hundred-story skyscraper.

Its steel frame was still intact despite decades of decay. Cracks ran through the concrete, but the structure remained standing.

The processor calculated its mass.

Approximately forty thousand tons.

Forty thousand tons of concrete and steel hanging a hundred stories above the ground.

Holden looked up at the skyscraper.

Then down at Vandiba, still standing in the ruined square.

The idea was simple.

The execution was anything but.

A small smile appeared on Holden’s face.