continues struggle(chapter 168)

Chapter 168

Viridian Gallowglass unleashed his Domain of Destruction. Reality itself twisted under his command. The earth buckled and split apart, rivers of molten lava spilling into the void Althea had created. Storms gathered overhead, black clouds swirling with fire and lightning. Gravity shifted — chunks of stone and debris rose into the air, only to be hurled back down with crushing force. Viridian's eyes blazed with emerald fury, and he raised his hands — a mountain of fire and stone rose with them, crashing down toward Grey with enough force to shatter cities.

Grey's heads moved in perfect sync, their jaws opening wide. A tri-headed blast of lightning and wind erupted upward, meeting the falling inferno in an explosion that blinded them all. The shockwave shattered the ground and tore through the landscape, but Grey was already moving — and so was Cao Shen. The Domain of Endless Night returned with a vengeance. The light was devoured. Everything fell into absolute, crushing darkness. The air grew cold and still, the only sound the rasp of Grey's breathing — and the whisper of something far more dangerous. Shadows moved. They hunted.

Grey's heads lashed out blindly, but his strikes met nothing. Cao was everywhere and nowhere, his form slipping through the void like smoke. Blades of darkness lashed at the basilisk's legs and flanks, carving through scales and flesh with vicious precision. A tentacle of shadow wrapped around Grey's middle head, tightening with the strength of a constricting python, until the bones cracked. Blood splattered the ground. But Grey's rage was unstoppable. His body shook, and a wave of electricity surged outward — not as lightning, but as pure force. The shadows were ripped apart, and the darkness fell away — just in time for Elise Fontaine's voice to rise.

Her Domain wasn't seen — it was felt. A resonance that rippled through the air and sank into their bones. Grey's movements slowed again, but this time it wasn't simple weight. It was something far worse. Doubt. Fear. Every injury felt magnified, every failure replaying in his mind. The three heads twitched and jerked, their coordination fraying as they fought not just the Order, but their own unraveling certainty.

Imari Oshima struck like a comet. Fire and steel became one in her hands, and she tore across the battlefield with blinding speed. Her blade found its mark again and again — carving through Grey's legs, his sides, his throat. Blood sprayed in crimson arcs as the basilisk stumbled, each cut burning with arcane heat. And still, the Order pressed forward — their domains merging into a storm of knowledge, destruction, darkness, and truth. Grey's defiance was fading. But his fury? His fury was only beginning.

Grey's rage boiled over. It wasn't just anger — it was something far deeper, more primal. A storm of fury and desperation twisted through his very essence, feeding on the pain and humiliation the Order of Merlin had inflicted. His three heads threw back and roared, a sound so raw and deafening it cracked the air itself. And then it happened. His Domain of Change exploded outward — but it wasn't the same. It was evolving. The chaotic love magic that had been simmering inside him burst forth, intertwining with his power in a way that defied comprehension.

The battlefield shattered. Reality twisted and broke as Grey's Domain took hold — a world of constant, shifting transformation. The ground rippled like water, then crystallized into jagged obsidian peaks. Flames turned to rivers of ice; the sky fractured into countless swirling colors, and the air vibrated with impossible melodies. Matter and energy danced and fused, reshaping into strange, beautiful, and terrifying forms. This wasn't just alchemy — it was chaos made manifest, love and fury interwoven into limitless potential.

The Order of Merlin felt it — and for the first time, they hesitated. Althea's Domain of the Mind fought to hold its grip, but the endless possibilities of Grey's evolving Domain pushed back. Her golden runes fractured, rewriting themselves into new symbols she couldn't control. Memories slipped through her fingers like sand, and her omniscience wavered as the flow of time and reality splintered. Viridian's elemental onslaught collapsed into itself — fire became stone, lightning froze into crystal, and gravity bent and twisted unpredictably, sending his own attacks spiraling into nothingness.

Cao Shen's shadows surged, but the darkness was warped. His endless night bled into color, and the void cracked with blinding light. Shapes moved within his domain — not his summoned predators, but things born from Grey's chaos. Creatures of liquid crystal and burning wind turned on the shadows, ripping them apart. Elise's voice rose in a desperate attempt to anchor reality, but even her domain faltered. Truth became fluid. Fear twisted into love, certainty into madness — and those waves crashed back against her.

But they didn't stop. The five of them moved together, a perfect unit — even with their domains faltering, they attacked. Viridian hurled a maelstrom of molten stone and hurricane winds, Althea's mind-spear lashed out to pierce Grey's thoughts, and Cao Shen's blades of darkness struck from every angle. Elise's words became a storm of resonant force, tearing through the air, while Imari blurred into motion, her strikes a barrage of blazing steel. Their combined assault came like an unstoppable tide — and still, it wasn't enough.

Grey met them head-on. His evolving domain surged around him, a reflection of his will and his fury. The central head snapped forward, and with a flick of his power, Viridian's inferno turned to flowers — blooming wildly as the hurricane became a gentle breeze. The left head turned, and the mind-spear dissolved into a thousand butterflies of light, scattering harmlessly. The right head roared, and the darkness around Cao Shen erupted into brilliant, blinding fire, forcing him back.

Grey stepped forward, and the ground reshaped beneath him — solid stone turning to liquid gold, then rising into spires of crystal. He raised a claw, and time froze. The Order stood still, caught in a suspended instant — and then the flow reversed. Their attacks unraveled, their injuries returned, and Grey's wounds vanished as if they had never been. The battlefield reset, but Grey was stronger — his domain expanding, consuming theirs. Even together, they couldn't match him. And they knew it.

The air quaked with power as the Order of Merlin launched their next assault, their desperation sharpening them into a single, deadly force. They moved as one, seamlessly shifting between attack and defense, exploiting every opening with relentless precision. Viridian unleashed a tidal wave of molten lava, the heat so intense it turned the very air to fire, while Elise's voice carved through reality itself — words of absolute force that tore across the battlefield like invisible blades. Imari flashed forward in a burst of speed, her enchanted daggers striking at Grey's joints and vital points with blinding accuracy. Cao Shen's shadows surged from beneath, forming grasping tendrils tipped with obsidian spikes, and Althea's mind reached out, warping perception and twisting reality in an effort to disrupt Grey's thoughts.