The Darkness System: Rise of the Broken Sovereign

The Trenchtooth Leviathan coiled—and then struck.

Its massive serpentine body launched upward from the ocean, using water manipulation to boost its speed. A column of ocean surged beneath it like a living pillar, propelling the thirty-meter beast upward with terrifying velocity.

WHOOOOSH!

Kael’s eyes narrowed. Darkness pooled along the edges of Shadow Slayer, and then Slaughter Intent flooded through the metal.

The blades turned red-black. The intent pressed outward, distorting the air around Kael’s hands.

”Sky Rending Technique,” Kael murmured. ”First Form—Falling Star.”

He swung downward.

CRACK-SLASH!

Two arcs of compressed darkness and slaughter intent shot downward toward the Leviathan’s ascending body. The slashes tore through the air, leaving trails of black energy in their wake.

The Leviathan’s twelve eyes tracked the incoming attack. Its jaw opened.

FWOOOOSH!

A concentrated beam of high-pressure water erupted from its throat. The beam collided with the Falling Star slashes mid-air.

BOOM!

The water beam shredded through the darkness-infused slashes, dissolving them into harmless particles of shadow. The water attack continued straight toward Kael.

SLAM!

The beam caught Kael in the chest.

WHOOSH!

His body launched backward. The ocean blurred beneath him. The shore approached. The village approached.

Gravity clamped down on his body like an invisible hand. His backward flight halted fifteen meters from the village’s outermost buildings. His feet found air, and he stabilized, the Cloak of Flight fluttering violently around him.

Hhhh...

He rolled his neck. Crack-crack.

His chest throbbed where the water beam had connected. Not enough to injure seriously—his Void Body Refinement Tier 4 Peak absorbed most of the impact.

But this was enough to remind him that a Rank 8 Mana Heart beast was no joke.

Kael smirked.

This is a good time to try out my new technique.

He planted his feet on air and drew a slow breath.

”VOID CORE.”

Darkness gathered from the space directly in front of his chest. Pure, primordial darkness pooled together like liquid night, condensing into a single orb.

Vvvvvrrrr...

The orb pulsed. The mana fluctuation was enormous—the air around Kael distorted, space bending slightly around the concentrated darkness.

The orb sank into his chest.

THRUM!

His aura exploded.

Mana Heart Rank 3 climbed—surge—Rank 4. The air around him cracked. Crack-crack.

Rank 5. Lightning arced uncontrollably from his body. ZZZT-ZZZT!

Rank 6. The ocean surface below him depressed, a crater forming in the water. Whuuump.

Rank 7. His eyes flickered with darkness, pupils expanding, silver flecks burning brighter.

The surge stopped. His aura settled at Mana Heart Rank 7—four ranks above his actual cultivation.

This is the Void Core, Kael thought. Darkness compressed into a secondary core. Temporarily elevates cultivation by compressing darkness output. +300% darkness output. Passive absorption of mana around him to sustain the core.

He looked at the Leviathan in the distance.

The beast had landed back in the ocean. Its twelve amber eyes reflected something it hadn’t shown before—caution.

Kael smirked.

”Lightning Body.”

CRACKLE-BOOM!

His body transformed into living lightning. Pure electrical energy replaced flesh for a fraction of a second, and he moved.

ZIP!

He appeared directly in front of the Leviathan. The beast’s eyes widened—pupils dilating in shock.

Kael raised one Shadow Slayer blade, Slaughter Intent and gravity coating the edge.

”First Form—Falling Star.”

SLAAASH!

The blade came down. The force was overwhelming. The slash connected with the Leviathan’s head, and the thirty-meter beast was launched sideways across the ocean surface.

WHOOOOSH—CRASH!

The Leviathan’s body skipped across the water—splash-splash-splash—before plowing through a wave and vanishing beneath the surface.

Kael floated above the impact zone. He reached for his Cloak of Flight and folded it carefully, storing it in his Void Storage. If the cloak got damaged in the fight, replacing it would be annoying.

He applied gravity to himself instead—a steady field beneath his feet, pushing upward against the planet’s pull. He floated.

The ocean erupted.

ROOOOAAAR!

The Leviathan shot upward from the water, its entire body wreathed in churning ocean. Water spiraled around it like armor, and its jaw opened wide.

FWOOOOOSH!

A massive water attack—ten times larger than the first—erupted toward Kael. The pressure behind it could have flattened a city block.

Kael raised his hand.

Multiple dark orbs materialized around him—five, seven, ten. Each one the size of a fist, pulsing with compressed darkness.

”Devouring Darkness.”

The orbs launched.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Each orb detonated against the water attack, darkness consuming the water on contact. The massive assault dissolved—piece by piece—until nothing remained but steam and scattered droplets.

Sssss...

The Leviathan roared again and dove.

Kael chased.

He flew across the ocean surface, gravity pulling him forward at incredible speed. The water beneath him parted from the pressure of his passage.

SPLASH-SPLASH-SPLASH!

Without warning, shapes burst from the water on both sides.

[Ripsharks — Mana Heart Rank 5. Pack hunters. 12 detected.]

Twelve shark-like beasts, each six meters long, with translucent bodies and rows of visible teeth. They launched from the water simultaneously, jaws snapping.

SNAP-SNAP-SNAP!

Kael didn’t slow down. He raised his hand in a swiping motion.

Dark spikes materialized in the air above the Ripsharks—dozens of them, each one two meters long, made of condensed darkness.

They rained down.

SHK-SHK-SHK-SHK-SHK!

The spikes impaled the Ripsharks. Blood erupted in crimson clouds. The Ripsharks shrieked—SQREEE!—and died, their bodies sinking back into the ocean.

Splash... splash...

The water turned red.

The Leviathan saw this. Its twelve eyes tracked the slaughter. And for the first time, the beast felt something it had never felt before.

Fear.

It turned. Its massive body dove deeper into the ocean as it eyes were filled with fear of this tiny creature. The blue scales disappeared into the darkness of the ocean depths.

It was running.

”Oh no,” Kael murmured. ”You don’t get to leave.”

ZIP!

He dove. His body hit the ocean surface and kept going—slicing through water like a blade. The salt stung his eyes briefly before his mana reinforced them.

Breathing was not a problem. His lungs—reinforced through Tier 4 Peak body cultivation—could hold vast reserves of air. A body cultivator at his level could remain submerged for hours without strain.

The Leviathan dove deeper. The ocean grew darker and colder.

The pressure increased.

Kael felt it immediately—the crushing weight of hundreds of meters of water pressing against his body. But he surrounded himself in a sphere of gravity, countering the ocean’s pressure with his own field.

Whuuuuum.

The pressure neutralized. He kept diving.

The water turned from blue to black. The only light came from the Leviathan’s luminescent blue scales, fading ahead of him.

Lesser beasts appeared from the darkness—Rank 3 and 4 scavengers drawn by the blood trail.

One clamped onto his left hand. CHOMP. Its teeth scraped against his skin but couldn’t pierce—Tier 4 Peak durability was beyond them.

”Lightning Fangs.”

ZZZT-ZZZT-ZZZT!

Arcs of lightning erupted from his body in all directions. The scavengers convulsed—twitch-twitch—and floated away, dead.

Kael kept pursuing. He was gaining. The Leviathan was fast, but Kael with lightning body was way faster.

Closer and closer.

He could see the weak point now—the junction between the Leviathan’s head and neck, where the scales thinned and the flesh pulsed visibly.

Kael drew one Shadow Slayer blade. Lightning coated the edge. Gravity compressed around it. Darkness seeped into the metal.

Three forces. One blade.

He stabbed forward.

”Raishōton.”

SHHK!

The blade pierced through the junction between head and neck. The Lightning-Gravity-Darkness fusion tore through scales, flesh, and muscle with ease. The blade sank deep—half its length buried inside the Leviathan’s body.

AHNHN...

The Leviathan screamed. A wet, gurgling sound that resonated through the water. Its body convulsed—once, twice—and then the light left its twelve eyes. They dimmed, one by one, like candles being snuffed.

...flicker... flicker... gone.

The massive body went limp. It sank deeper, bleeding out. Dark crimson clouds of blood billowed from the wound, dissolving into the ocean.

The Leviathan was left barely alive.

Kael withdrew his blade. He formed a claw on his right hand—darkness condensed around his fingers, creating five-inch talons of solid shadow.

He drove the claw into the Leviathan’s body and grabbed hold.

Then he pulled.

His Tier 4 Peak physical strength engaged fully.

The thirty-meter Leviathan rose.

Kael lifted it.—a creature dozens of times his mass—using raw physical strength.

Then he flew upward.

WHOOSH!

His gravity field reversed, launching him toward the surface. The ocean around him parted as he ascended, the Leviathan’s body cutting through the water behind him.

Light appeared above. The surface.

SPLOOOOSH!

Kael burst from the ocean, water cascading from his body and the Leviathan’s. Sunlight hit his skin. Air filled his lungs.

He hovered above the surface, holding the massive serpentine body aloft with one clawed hand. Blood trailed from the corpse, dripping into the ocean below.

Drip... drip... drip...

Kael’s eyes scanned the horizon.