Battling The Darth Lord

The flapping of a dragon's wings caught Trent's attention, and he glanced up to see a dragon—one that wasn't his—soaring toward him with the Darth Lord perched on top. 'You will kill and undo my actions, you say?' Trent mused, adopting a channelling stance.

As the Darth Lord's dragon roared, preparing to unleash fire, Trent took his arms backward. "[Fyrestorm]..." he chanted quietly, jabbing his arms in response. "[Dome of Drake]," he finished, manifesting the same fiery dragon head he had used to destroy the Boss in the Dungeon.

The Darth Lord's dragon's fire blazing torrent collided with Trent's fiery dragon head with a spectacular, deafening roar of flame, a battle of power. Trent's [Dome Of Drake] surged forward, its jaws snapping at the Darth Lord's dragon's fire, attempting to consume and overpower it. But the Darth Lord's dragon had the height and push advantage, unleashing more flame from its gullet to Trent, who stood his ground

Trent's [Dome Of Drake] roared loudly in return, intensifying its flames and expanding its jaws with ribbons stretching out further, trying to wrap over the dragon's flames, gaining ground inch by inch. With one final surge, Trent believed he was going to overpower it. Suddenly, a different fiery explosion occurred behind him, strong enough to sway him even with his high [Strength].

Trent cursed as he tumbled briefly on the snow, recollecting himself in mere seconds. He had forgotten about the fire he left his killers to die in. Seeing the courthouse engulfed in flames, Trent felt a part of his heart lighten. But it immediately clenched as his eyes darted to the Darth Lord, who had unsummoned his dragon and just landed on the snow, revealing his dual-bladed scythe.

'Nice weapon,' Trent mused. 'Can't wait to collect it.'

"I was once the avatar of the goddess. She granted me a new life and sent me here from my world to 'bring balance'," the Darth Lord spoke, reaching for his head as if he wanted to reveal his face. "I wielded the Orb like you did and Aetherians became a permanent entity in the Paradox, worsening the chaos, just like she wants."

Trent got to his feet and watched the Darth Lord unmask himself, dropping the black sculpture to the snow.

'Is this how Aetherians really look like? Wow,' Trent exclaimed in his mind, locking gazes with the piercing silver eyes of the Darth Lord. His facial features were sharp and angular, with high cheekbones and a strong jawline, scarred with some tribal marks. Trent couldn't help but notice Aetherians looked like beings from Avatar, but dark-skinned rather than blue-skinned.

"The goddess is an adversity, a plague on the Paradox and you do not see that," Hakemeer, the Darth Lord said, his Aetherian lips hardly moving.

"[Flash Strike]!" Trent dashed with extreme speed, a blur of red, swinging his lightsaber at the Darth Lord, who sank in his belly quick enough to evade it. Their gazes met at that moment, his strange eyes to Trent's visors. "That's a hella impudent word to use on who gave us both new lives," Trent said.

"Life or curse?" Darth Lord replied, swinging his scythe at Trent, who zoomed away, creating space between them again. "I will make sure I'll remain the first and last avatar of hers." The Darth Lord sliced the scythe through the air, and it seemed the atmosphere slicked as well. "[Actuality: Distortion]!" He proclaimed.

Trent's eyes widened as he remembered that the Darth Lord currently possessed more Manifestations than he did, though Trent knew he could surpass him. The Darth Lord must have been here for a long time and had spent many more hours on cultivation.

[Actuality: Distortion] is a Manifestation that shatters the principles of the atmosphere into countless fragments according to the manifester's will. This ability grants the manifester multiple visual perspectives of their opponent and numerous strike points, while their opponent perceives only a single image of the manifester.

Trent stood in confusion as the world around him shattered. Looking straight ahead at the first fragment, he could see the figure of the Darth Lord, posed in a swinging motion. He suspected that wasn't the current Darth Lord. "[Flash Strike]!" Trent could hear that familiar, common Essence Manifestation and even with his heightened abilities, he couldn't evade all of the Darth Lord's out-of-nowhere attacks, but he managed to suffer only a graze.

Trent grunted, healing his arm with Mana immediately. 'This guy's strong. I may be strong, but there is still a lot to learn. Dammit. But I believe this will counter this Manifestation.'

Trent placed his lightsaber in his palm as quickly as he could just before the Darth Lord emerged from another fragment to strike. Trent unsealed a Dungeon again, but this time, the complete version to eradicate the effects of the [Actuality: Distortion] because a Dungeon requires more channelled Mana.

"Dungeon Unsealed. Level Three! Dungeon! [Cardinal Across Shadows: Ragnarok]!"

The Darth Lord was swayed back by the materialization of the Dungeon, his body tumbling out into the darkness as the dark snowy scape transitioned into an igneous, bloody terrain of destruction.

Trent smirked behind his mask as the Dungeon completed its transformation, the atmosphere shifting immediately and bringing about a position that wasn't there in the first place. Trent took his arms apart to start manifesting the Manifestations that came with level three [Cardinal Across Shadows]. "You don't have a Dungeon? It seems you haven't slain a Boss yet," Trent teased. "We could have had a tug of Dungeons, then."

However, the Darth Lord remained resolute and hovered into the Dungeon's sky with Essence. With one hand gripping his dual-bladed scythe behind him, he brought forth his other hand and crossed two fingers to his eyesight. "What's the need of acquiring Dungeons and enslaving Bosses, when I have mastered the Manifestation to dissipate any," he said, his voice resonating all through the terrain as a red glow started to form between both fingers.

'What is he doing?' Trent stood in anticipation just as he was about to Manifest the creatures of the Dungeon into action.

The red glow between the Darth Lord's fingers spread out like the energy of the Orb of Permanence. "[Reverse: Dungeon]" he proclaimed, and the energy spread even farther.

Trent couldn't believe his eyes as the Dungeon he had just Manifested moments ago grew cracks all over its atmosphere and shattered into pieces, revealing the snow-capped Darth Society once again, the remnants of the Dungeon flowing away like dust.

'Did this guy just break my Dungeon?!' Trent asked in disbelief.