One Mistake

Spitting black blood on the ground, the divine monster weighed his options, whilst losing an arm had deprived him of one of his moves, this didn't meant that he had shown everything just yet.

In fact, he felt convinced that he could unleash something entirely new after his awakening, his mind felt sharper, he could feel his own soul and it small movements.

He had gained an immense understanding of himself and with it, came comprehension of an ability closely tied to his own being-

Smiling dementedly, he ushered in two words.

For a brief instant, the endless forest they were all in vanished, quickly follow by the installment of a new one, similar yet much gloomier and foreboding of something foul, something ancient, something that shouldn't be uncovered.

"Domain: Enigma" 

The only child of Mystery whispered, revealing an enhanced domain, one born from his own divinity, inherited from his parent.

The scenery seemed the same as Whispering Woods but one look up would tell a different story, trees extended from the sky, the area was naturally distorted, as though one was standing on a sphere at all times.

Despite having their feet one solid ground, both of the men were disoriented for an instant.

The domain was much larger, even harder to escape from...

It's whispers were much louder as well.

Both Roderman and Solitar were affected, they had to try and block off the words being told to them, they could feel that whatever they were saying held the potential to turn anyone mad.

They spoke of eldritch truth, something beyond this world.

Implying that the monster's lineage was simply godly in nature, but even beyond it.

During the short instant of confusion, the monster took the occasion to unleash a new move, rather than clencing his hand into a fist while pointing it at Solitar, it made slight movement with its index finger.

As if urging him to come closer and against his will, he was warped right in front of the one-eyed monster.

Swinging his arm, Solitar managed to block the brunt of the hit but the shock went through his whole body either way and sent him flying into a tree.

His arms trembled from the shock, the thin twigs serving as limbs for the monster contained impressive power, enough to take the swordsman out if he wasn't careful.

The minister wasn't able to follow up with another attack as Roderman made his move, dozens upon dozens of silver shapes began to pour out from every direction.

Not panicked, the monster waited for them to close in on him, some even jumping down from trees, he waited until the very last second to point his finger at Sir Solitar, movement he had never done before.

Instead of warping reality or warping the man closer, they were both warped to one another's positions.

This had been a version of this move that he had tried to do before having his face revealed, but now, he could only point at a single person.

He hoped that the silver shapes would be caught up in their momentums and strike the dark swordsman, but he wasn't able to even see if it had worked as the sheer mass of them blocked his view and senses due to being made of nothing but energy.

Also, Roderman was upon him.

He was fully prepared to deal with something capable of slicing through his distortions this time however.

Having already imagined the scene in his mind, he was obviously taken aback when he noticed that the king didn't have his sword.

Immediately worried about this, the monster stared up and luckily, this was exactly where it was, coming down on him like the sword of damocles at excessively high speed.

Charged with the silver and blue energy, even if it didn't appear quite as potent as before, he wasn't willing to take risks just to get a hit in.

In the split second that he took notice of the ambush and everything else, he began to warp away whilst simultaneously maintaining the protective distortion, an act he wouldn't have been able to achieve before.

His awakening was still fresh, he still had much to learn and discover about his new form.

Roderman struck the barrier with his fists, both of them at once.

His arms charged with the same energy as the sword, it didn't manage to break through like before, confirming that the divine boost had made the monster untouchable for the king.

It didn't pierce through, but it was inneffective, the blow disrupted both the barrier and his warp, leaving standing in the same spot as the sword threatened to strike his now weakened barrier.

Whilst this was going on, the monster noticed that the silver shapes had all vanished, their energy going to the falling sword instead.

With his means of escape still compromised, the minister could only move away from Roderman, of course, things couldn't be so simple, Solitar, seemingly unharmed by the little trick from earlier, was charging toward him as well.

Doing so with extreme speed, the sort of speed that couldn't be stopped, he was going in for the kill, the monster was convinced of it.

Pushed by the various threats coming from all sides, he rose his hand at Solitar whilst raising one leg, striking Roderman's chin with his knee.

He woud allow the sword to stab him, but in return, he would take out the dark swordsman!

His warp and barrier may be disrupted, but he could still manipulate reality.

In mere instants, Solitar was right in the minister's face, both seemed like they would unleash their mortal strike any moment.

"Got you!" spitting vile blood, the monster enclosed his hand, but he had spoken a bit too soon.

Solitar had already figured out the conditions needed for the minister to activate some of his abilities.

Obviously, he needed to extend his arm and do a certain movement with his hand to switch, bring closer and mess with reality.

The second condition, highlighted when Solitar had cut branches from a tree to shield Roderman, he needed to be looking at the target of his ability.

This was why the monster hadn't used any of such abilities before his awakening, he had had no eye to see and would have thus needed to visualise the target with his extra senses, much more difficult than simply looking at what he desired to interact with.

Although Solitar couldn't be certain about that second condition entirely, the whole point of the silver shapes had been to confirm this, now, he needed to trust his guts.

Covering the monster's only eye with one palm, only his left hand was distorted and destroyed.

Leaving the being formerly known as Faceless Lord, wholly open for an attack.

With one arm, he swung at the spot Roderman had first slashed, slicing through the emfeebled barrier with ease, the minister's though body stood no chance.

His upper and lower body were separated.

The Stillborn of Mystery felt weightless.

He felt cold.

He had let the Obsidian Queen down.

He had failed his mother.