Lord of Annihilation

"Deploy Domain- Swamps of Sezar!" The instant his screams filled the barren moon, waves of soul power exited Jaros' body and started to alter the environment surrounding him.

With Jaros as the center, a circle 10km in radius was instantly locked within his Domain. Lucius, who was inside the Void instantly felt an overwhelming force assault him as his body was immediately forced out of the Void.

The space within the Domain was shaped and owned by its owner. Unless one possessed strength that was superior to the Domain and thus allowing them to break free of its restrictions, they were under the mercy of the Domain's owner.

In short, Lucius would not be able to ender the Void due to the alterations performed to the Rules by Jaros' Domain.

Recognizing this fact, Lucius immediately acted.

"Set boundary, expand Field!" Lucius shouted. 

A ring of soul power instantly surrounded Lucius and the overwhelming pressure experienced by him immediately disappeared. This ring expanded until it reached a 30m radius upon which it stopped.

The Field of a Stage 2 was the precursor to the Domain of a Stage 3. While the latter was innumerable times superior to the former, the underlying concept of both these moves was the same. 

It was to claim a certain amount of space and turn it into the absolute territory of the user.

While a Field was incredibly difficult to learn and even more painstaking to master, it allowed one to have a greater chance at entering Stage 3 and possess a stronger, more perfect Domain.

'He used his Domain sooner than I expected. He's more cowardly than I thought him to be.' Lucius thought while stabilizing his Field.

Outside the 30m radius of Lucius, the environment of the barren moon started to greatly change. 

The dry, brown surface started to sink and turn muddy. Craters had begun to expand in size, with a sticky black liquid appearing within these bowls ad rapidly filled them up. Poisonous shrubs and marshes also appeared populating the surface.

The sky also changed greatly, as the previously non-existent atmosphere suddenly thickened up, with great, big clouds appearing with crackling thunders.

The dark clouds then started to gather together and heavy rain started to fall on what was now a swamp.

The battlefield which was previously an empty, barren land was now a depressing, marshy swamp!

This was the power of a Domain.

Hidden somewhere within the clouds, Jaros released an enraged shout.

"DIE!!"

AT that instant, Lucius felt his senses tingle as danger, filled his mind. Trusting his intuition, he immediately jumped into the air assisted by soul power.

"GROWL!!" The roar of a beast sounded from behind Lucius. 

Turning his head, he saw an enormous mouth of a beast lined with hundreds upon hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. It was a fearsome sight!

CRUNCH!

The beast closed its mouth creating an audible crackling in the air. The sound was similar to the clap of thunder, showing off the beast's fearsome bite force.

Having missed its prey, the beast, whose mouth was the only part that could be seen, unwilling retreated back into the swampy ground where it lied in wait for another opportunity.

Having narrowly escaped the unpleasant fate of dying by the beast's mouth, Lucius landed on the swampy ground some distance away. His feet immediately began to sink into the mud, hindering his footwork by a large margin.

For a person like Lucius whose, greatest strength was his speed, this was an unfavorable terrain.

'This is why his Domain is so troublesome.' Lucius sighed to himself, before jumping into the air once more. 

CRUNCH!

Another mouth appeared in the spot he was previously in, missing its prey once again. 

Creating steps out of soul power, Lucius started to run across the Domain while evading the attacks from the unknown beast in the swamp.

Once having entered a Domain, said person cannot leave the Domain until and unless the Domain was broken (or removed).

Even if one reached the 10km border of the Domain, they would find an invisible wall blocking them from leaving the altered space. 

Next comes the question, how can a Domain be broken?

Well, there were two ways.

One is to have a contest of Domains, where the two parties each deploy their respective Domains and battle for control over the space. If one person's strength is higher (i.e. higher Stage) then said person would naturally win. 

However, this was only the case when there was an absolute difference in strength. Such as one party being Stage 3 and the other being Stage 4. In this case, the difference of strength was absolute and the Stage 4 existence would definitely win.

Now, what if the strength of both the parties was in the same Stage but had a difference in their levels?

Well, here the contest would boil down to who had greater amounts of soul power (allowing their Domains to last longer) and who's Domain had better (or higher) Rules. 

As stated previously, Domains were basically personal constructs of Rules. One used their understanding of the Rules to create an absolute territory over which they were the rulers. 

That being said, the better and higher the Rules are, the stronger and more complex the Domain would become. 

To give an example, let's compare the Domains of the Stage 3 Bertarian and Jaros, both of whom were Low-Level Stage 3 in strength.

The core Rules of {Starfall Plains} were 'Astral', 'Corrosion', and 'Gravity, while the core Rules of {Swamps of Sezar} were 'Water', 'Earth', and 'Corrosion'. Of course, there were plenty of other minor Rules which were necessary for the completion of the Domain.

Now, objectively speaking, 'Astral' and 'Water' were Rules on a similar level, while 'Gravity' was higher than 'Earth'. While 'Corrosion' was similar to both these Domains, their understanding of 'Corrosion' was vastly different, thus varying their powers.

If these two were to fight, the eventual winner would be the Stage 3 Bertarian. This was due to his Domain being fundamentally better having been constructed on better Rules.

And here lied another fact, Domains could be constantly altered and improved!

As one's understanding of Rules become better, they could apply these learnings to improve their Domain making it stronger.

'Water' and 'Earth' could turn into 'Matter' which was a fundamentally higher Rule compared to the former two, vastly improving the strength of the Domain! 

Thus, to ascend past Stage 3, the conditions were no longer as simple as reaching a certain amount of soul power. In addition to meeting a certain requirement of soul power, one's Domain must also reach a certain level before one can ascend.

Having explained all of that, coming to the second method to break a Domain.

It was naturally...to kill the owner of the Domain.

This was the most inelegant, mindless way to break a Domain and also the method Lucius was currently seeking to employ.

Using the steps made out of soul power, Lucius stayed in the air for the majority of the time, avoiding the swampy ground and the creature that lied within. With his abundant battle experience and Field to neutralize the pressure from a Domain, Lucius freely moved through the Domain searching for Jaros.

And speaking of Jaros, he was not having a good time.

'Why are my wounds not healing?! What is this strange soul power?!' Aggrieved cries resounded within his mind.

The first attack that was seemingly blocked by his armor had in actuality wounded his insides by a great extent. His organs were in a great mess and his soul power circulation pathways were affected by a strange power.

(AN: Remember, [Eviscerate] was a technique that ignored the exterior and attacked the interiors.)

However, this wasn't his greatest injury as the injury on his neck caused by Lucius' second attack was even greater. If not for his quick response, he would've lost his head!

Now, considering the healing effect of Stage 3 soul power, these injuries would normally take only a few seconds to completely heal. However, this was where the real problem lied.

Lucius had taken care to infuse a good amount of [Annihilation Energy] into both of those attacks. And against [Annihilation Energy] which possessed the property to destroy anything and everything, soul power was not an exception.

Each time Jaros tried to channel his soul power into the locations of his injuries, the [Annihilation Energy] which took residence in those locations immediately responded, destroying all attempts.

This caused the entire process of healing to slow down by an incredible amount. 

Still, the difference in quality between Stage 2 and Stage 3 did exist. No matter how fierce [Annihilation Energy] was, under the constant grinding and attacks of Jaros' soul power it was bound to be exhausted.

'Under the pressure of my Domain, that dog is surely trapped and rendered helpless, if not already dead.'

'When I'm done healing and if he's still alive, I'll show him what hell is like!'

It was then, a chilling voice sounded underneath Jaros' body.

"Found you. You sure hide like a cowardly snake." 

What followed was the swing of a scythe alongside the appearance of net weaved out of millions of threads of light.