Requiem Of A Failed Hero

[Balance]

'What is this?'

Raith squinted his eyes at the runes that floated in front of him. This was what Sage had called his art. It was just a single word and he couldn't understand much of the single word. How was this supposed to be an art?

'What am I supposed to do with this?'

[Realize it]

'Uh?'

[Arts are inherent, they are inborn, compared to skills where you can use them as you deem fit and their proficiency will increase, hence causing you to be able to utilize them more. Arts are different.

Arts carry more power and essence of being because of their close bond to the trueness of its user's form. Art is capable of exponential growth, it is of endless potential compared to skill. That is why in every way, art will always outdo skill]

[Art because of its peculiarity can only be achieved through years of training but the first step is realization. That moment where the essence of one's art is realized. Realizing that essence is tied to your path and your true form, it is a place where you can never lie to yourself]

'Isn't this a bad time to do all that?'

[I did mention that if you manage to do that it would significantly raise our chances. But I'm not particularly putting my hopes on you]

"Moksha"

Whom!!

Following the thick voice that resounded through the dark clouds was a mighty storm that suddenly struck out from the middle of the distance that separated Raith and the stone monk. Spiraling out of space, the storm violently rose uprooting even fallen trees that were beginning to merge with the soil, everything was enveloped in a wicked gale, guided by the viciousness of the dark clouds.

A disastrous cacophony was unleashed, the ground was being pulled out at a tremendous rate, and the storm razed the ground, heading for Raith.

"What the fuck bro!"

Raith leaped, flying onto one of the humongous trees that had been separated into two perhaps by the impact of the former fight in this place. From that point, he leaped even higher, scaling into the sky to outrun the razing speed of the wind, but an even violent gale awaited him in the sky.

And he willfully jumped into its embrace. The wind finally catching him began to condense in a circling pattern, trapping Raith in the middle of it.

The grounds that were being uprooted were not an exception also, they were being carried viciously by the wicked storm and added to the encirclement. The stones and large trunks intermittently smashed Raith's head.

He lost control of his body, no matter how much he tried to move, grab onto something or even materialize a sword, he couldn't move an inch of his body not even his finger in the slightest.

His entire movement had been completely restrained in the circling entrapment of wind he was caught in.

The stone monk finally put his hands together in a prayer form and closed his eyes with a vicious smile.

"Annika"

The monk softly spoke but its voice rumbled like thunder.

Purple lines of light like aurora, flooded the air and ran across the entrapment, all in different directions. As the monster clenched its hands together, they all began to change direction, folding into each other and weaving around the circle.

He rubbed his palms against each other as if he was trying to crush something. The purple lines had now become some sort of beautiful purple threads weaved by the delicate hands of space itself.

"Ignite"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A terrific explosion reverberated into the air, causing the entire gate to shake with a fierce and threatening tremor, even the air shook tremendously, the grounds were so much affected the cracks within them began to shatter.

A cloud of smoke covered the area where the explosion was focused and everything suddenly became slowed.

The stone monk had a satisfactory visage, slowly he put down his hands and held them behind his back. Turned back and began to float away like the work here was done.

...

WHAM!!

An outburst of pitch black aura pierced into the darker sky, carrying a hue even darker compared to the darkness that overwhelmed the clouds and the atmosphere. It was a sea of darkness adorned with sparkles like stars.

And this aura violently pierced everything in a frenzy. The stone monk turned back to Raith, a deep frown etched on his face.

It probably was saying 'For fuck sake' Raith was quite the persistent bastard. Although Li Mingwu displayed far better battle prowess and was able to entertain the monster.

But for some reason, the stone monk who took his time with Li Mingwu looks like he wants to end it quickly with Raith. Most of the time he had this stern expression on his face, he seemed to not be enjoying this fight.

The monster stretched out its hand, spreading out all five fingers, and a deep frown on his face as he hoped Raith would die with this attack.

"Jinsei"

A massive outstretched palm of purple aura was replicated, shot directly at the explosion center where pitch black aura was raging from. The hand gripped the area and clenched tightly, crushing everything–as the monk moved its hands, so did the projected purple hand.

The stone monk released its grip and returned his hand to his back, the projected hand disappeared like it was never there, leaving remnants of the rocks that had been peeled from the gale earlier on.

Everything had been crushed to dust by the hand.

The dark aura was slowly fading, losing its craziness and vigor.

[You are using Ultimate Skill GREED]

The dark aura that seemed to be fading away suddenly returned to life, stretching out like tentacles, they elongated and got attached to anything they could attack themselves to, the clouds, the fallen trees, the grounds, several thick black aura-like tentacles with sea of star faintly glinting amidst its disturbing darkness were attached like webbed strings all over the place.

And a single man floating in the middle of it.

A change seemed to have enveloped Raith. He didn't have his usual jovial, ready-to-take-anything look. Instead, he stared with a dark indifference to what was happening around him.

The stone monk's relaxed face now crashed to a tensed frown. He brought both his hands to the front and slowly clenched them–he was now beginning to glare at Raith with an almost palpable boiling anger.

Greed.

The black tentacles suddenly began to devour everything it was attached to... at a tremendous speed. The ground, the trees, and the cloud began to lose their color, in a matter of seconds, the colorful world became a grey world.

[Domain Of GREED has been manifested]

[Everything within this world will be consumed by you]

Raith's mind was blank, since the moment he decided to give himself to the seed of greed and let it take control even if it was for a little while, his mind went numb and he had no idea of what was happening, nor did he have control of what he was doing.

Every ruler had their Domain. There are three things most important to a ruler: Authority, Error code, and Domain

Authority was the sphere of their influence, Raith thought being a ruler meant a significant increase in his combat ability, but that was a big misunderstanding. Rulers operated differently compared to regular beings, they had authorities that could never be bent no matter who they were pitched against.

There was a reason why they were called rulers after all.

Error code was the systemical ability that enabled the ruler to be capable of bending the voice of the world's influence to a certain extent. Now that extent can be reduced or increased based on the strength of the ruler's error code and the seed of sin maturity.

Domain granted the ruler a world where he is paramount, just like Domain of Darkness. It wouldn't be too far-pitched to say that Domain of Darkness was a rip-off from a ruler's Domain.

However, to manifest Domain, rulers had to give themselves wholly to the seed of sin in them. Which was dangerous, it always comes with detrimental effects... something that could ruin them was bound to happen if a ruler relied on a great deal of his power.

Of course, each ruler's response to this phenomenon is different. Rulers without any care for morality whatsoever, will gladly accept the chaos their sins bring into their lives and become powerful curators of chaos and mess. While those who dearly hold onto morality and don't want to lose themselves, like Raith... always have something huge to lose.

The stone monk looked around, it was quite obvious to him that he was doomed. The frown that was etched on his face did not disappear, instead, it became more crude, and the monster wore an expression of the devil itself.

He grabbed the rosary around his neck and pulled it out with force, the beards of the rosary scattered across the air but instead of following the natural will of gravity and falling to whatever place, they began to float and circled the monk.

The stone monk's eyes became pitch black with no eyeballs.

He slowly lifted his index finger.

"Way of the monastic tradition..."