I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1210: The Darkness of Death [part 2]

Northern flew through the domain like a missile of wind, spiraling and parting the very darkness itself with an explosive speed, one unlike the domain had ever witnessed before.

[Incoming]

’Already noted.’ Northern frowned as he turned his head slightly to the right. Just as the thing—whatever it was—was about to collide, he halted abruptly. The wind displaced because of his abrupt stop gained a sharp age, and exploded in the direction of the incoming projectile.

However, just as it collided and was supposed to tear it to shreds, a ball of darkness protected it. It easily pierced through the wind blades without getting hurt but its speed was reduced. As it passed through, Northern already shot a punch forward.

His fist connected with the darkness, but instead of shattering under his might, it merely rippled. Northern noted it felt like striking the surface of water with so much force.

The sphere of darkness pulsed, and suddenly erupted.

Tendrils of black shot out in every direction. Northern twisted mid-air, wind surging around him as he dodged left—but the tendrils curved impossibly, tracking his movement like living things.

His body divided instantly. One Northern continued dodging, weaving through the air with wind-assisted agility. The other shot forward like a bullet, abandoning the fight entirely and racing toward his father’s fading signature.

The sphere didn’t pursue the fleeing clone. Instead, it expanded, the darkness unfurling into a humanoid shape—tall, faceless, wreathed entirely in shifting black that seemed to drink in the moons’ light.

Northern’s eyes narrowed as his Omnisphere registered its heat signature.

Nothing. Not cold. Not hot. It was simply nothing. It didn’t have a temperature signature and certainly didn’t exist.

[Anomaly detected. This entity has no thermal presence despite physical interaction. Contradiction with observed physics]

’I know Aoi, tell me what I don’t know!’

The dark figure raised one hand, and the air around Northern suddenly thickened. Not with wind resistance—with pure darkness. It poured into the space like liquid filling a container, surrounding him in a sphere of black.

[You’re using Windless]

Windless created a zone of absolute stillness that should have expelled the darkness but it didn’t move.

Instead, it solidified.

The liquid darkness crystallized into jagged obsidian walls in an instant, trapping him in a cage. Northern’s fist lit with flame—Ignis Dominus—and he punched the wall.

The fire blazed brilliantly for a half-second, then dimmed, as if the darkness was suffocating it. The obsidian cracked but didn’t shatter.

[Energy absorption detected. Flames are being drained at point of contact]

Northern’s jaw tightened.

[You’re using Binding Weave]

He switched tactics, threads of soul energy spun from his fingertips and lashed out to ensnare the dark figure beyond the cage.

The threads passed through it like it wasn’t there at all.

But the cage was solid. Real. He could feel it, touch it, and it was draining his flames.

’What—’

The dark figure tilted its head, and the cage collapsed inward, walls rushing toward Northern from all sides.

He dissolved into wind and shot upward, bursting through the top of the cage before it could crush him. The moment he reformed, his Omnisphere flared with warning.

[Three more signatures approaching. Fast]

Northern spun mid-air.

Three more shapes emerged from the darkness of the plains—each one humanoid, each one draped entirely in that same void-black essence.

One raised both hands, and the ground beneath Northern’s position inverted. Up became down. Gravity reversed in a localized pocket, yanking him toward the sky-that-was-now-ground.

Northern adapted instantly, using the reversed gravity to accelerate his flight, but the second figure was already moving.

It stepped through space.

One moment it was 200 meters away. The next, it was beside him, hand thrusting forward. Northern blocked with his forearm—and felt his essence drain at the point of contact.

It didn’t feel like it was stolen, it was more like pouring water through a sieve.

[You’re using Lightning Chains]

He yanked his arm back, chains of lightning whipping out of them. The bolt leapt from his hand, arcing toward all four figures simultaneously.

The lightning struck.

And refracted.

The third figure held up one hand, and the lightning bent around it like light through a prism, scattering into seven different directions—none of which hit their targets. Instead, the redirected bolts curved back toward Northern himself.

He created a wind barrier, dispersing the electricity harmlessly, but the first figure was already moving again.

This time, the darkness around Northern didn’t attack him—it attacked his senses.

His Omnisphere suddenly lit up with dozens of false heat signatures. Phantom winds. Fake movements. His own sensory web was being polluted with false information, drowning the real in an ocean of lies.

[Interference detected across all weave components. Filtering...]

Northern gritted his teeth and split again. Two more clones burst from his body, each one immediately shooting off in different directions—toward his father, away from the fight, creating distance and confusion.

The four dark figures didn’t pursue the clones.

They multiplied.

Each one split, mirroring Northern’s own technique. Four became eight. Eight became sixteen.

And every single one radiated that same impossible nothingness.

***

1.1 kilometers away...

Northern was racing toward his father’s signature but suddenly he jerked to a halt.

A wall of darkness erupted from the ground ahead, stretching up into the false sky like a tidal wave frozen mid-crash.

He shifted direction, trying to go around—but the wall curved with him, always staying ahead, always blocking.

[The domain is actively preventing approach to the target location]

Northern snarled and unleashed Sola Nova, pouring everything into a supernova-scale explosion aimed directly at the wall.

The flames detonated with apocalyptic force.

The wall absorbed it completely. There was no scorched mark on it, no crack, it simply ate an explosion the level of a supernova.

***

Back at the main battle...

Northern was now fighting thirty-two dark figures.

Each one had a different ability:

One made his attacks pass through it, but its attacks were solid.

Another reversed the vectors of his strikes, turning his own force against him.

A third created copies of his techniques in darkness, countering fire with black flames, wind with void currents.

A fourth erased sections of space, forcing Northern to dodge holes in reality itself.

And no matter what he did—flames, lightning, wind, soul threads, absolute zero ice—every attack either passed through them harmlessly or was absorbed, reflected, or nullified.

But their attacks always landed.

Northern split again. And again. Five clones now, each engaging different groups of dark figures, trying to create an opening, trying to reach his father.

Every clone was stopped.

Every clone was surrounded.

And his father’s heat signature was growing fainter.

[You will need to stop]

’What?’

[Stop]

The urgency in her mental voice made him freeze for a fraction of a second—and in that moment, one of the dark figures’ attacks passed *through* his guard and struck his chest.

His essence plummeted.

[You cannot win this fight]

’I can—’

[I have completed Analysis of the domain. You cannot interact with them, but they can interact with you. These entities share the same properties as the domain itself. They are projections. Illusions given weight by the Soul World’s authority. You are fighting the domain, not people]

Northern’s eyes widened slightly.

[The Patriarch is not fighting you. He is using his Soul World to stall you. The domain recognizes you as an intruder and is responding accordingly. These figures are not real—they are defense mechanisms. You cannot damage what does not exist, but they can damage you because the domain has authority over everything within it]

Northern dodged another strike, his mind racing.

’Then how do I—’

[You do not fight the illusions. You fight the domain itself. Or you find a way to make yourself part of it—so the domain no longer sees you as an intruder]

Northern’s jaw clenched as another wave of dark figures began materializing from the ground.

His father’s signature pulsed weakly at the edge of his Omnisphere.

He was running out of time.