'My Domain is Crumbling!!?'
The roar of disbelief flashed through the mind of the Calamitous Crow, yet it convinced itself.
"There'll be no need. I'm just an inch from cleaving him from existence," the crow thought as its four sharp claws sliced downward over Sir Kieran's head.
Dark lines spread from the cracking ground beneath its feet as the claws inched closer and closer toward Sir Kieran's body, threatening to rip him into shreds.
At the same time, the beam of energy from the sky was also rapidly approaching from above, threatening to burn through his essence.
Yet to all these life-ending attacks, Sir Kieran's eyes seemed to have lost their colour.
His hands, holding the blade, tightened instantly and the entire world went into a pause.
The claw attack halted an inch from Sir Kieran's nose. The rippling space paused just before his face. The scorching beam of energy from above froze in mid-air, along with the very space that held it.
The Calamitous Crow's movement had been stopped in mid-air, but while its body was immobilized, its mind was working at full speed. I
Its eyes widened in shock at Sir Kieran's figure—or more specifically, at the towering shadow now standing behind him.
"Dark Expansion: Eternal Night's Judgment!"
Sir Kieran fully pronounced the words, and the entire dark and abyssal-looking world was instantly plunged into an infinite, starless void.
The ground transformed into a smooth obsidian plain, reflecting an eerie crimson light emanating from the faint moon—a blood-red moon—hanging in the position where the crow's dark moon had formerly been.
Shadowy mountains began rising in the far distance, their jagged peaks reaching toward the void.
The air within the domain was insidiously heavy, like gravity had been turned to its maximum, and filled completely with a suffocating silence, broken only by the soft, ominous hum of resonating blades.
The Calamitous Crow thought in shock.
Confirming its thoughts, countless spectral swords, each forged from shadow and edged with a certain malevolent energy, began floating across the domain.
These swords drifted like wraiths, their presence incredibly unsettling, as if they hungered for the souls of those caught within the domain.
Suddenly, steps began rippling forth, echoing unnaturally and creating endless ripples on the shadowy ground as Sir Kiernal began stepping forward, his gaze now locking directly onto the Calamitous Crow.
But the one who stood before the bird wasn't the same Sir Kieran even though he held the same sword.
The man before the Calamitous Crow was like a being from hell itself, completely covered in blood-red scales with a humongous, muscular body that brimmed with physical power simply out of this world.
On the opposite side of his face besides his forehead were two long horns that pointed into the sky, ghostly flames burning gently at their tips.
The devil's eyes were full black holes, revealing a chilling abyss whose end seemed unending, trapping the Calamitous Crow's gaze within their depth.
"I had thought you would be a nice dummy for me to practice my rusty skill," Sir Kiernal said, his voice cold.
"But now, I'll be ending you for the mere thought of you judging a being like me..."
Immediately after those words, horror flashed into the Calamitous Crow's dark eyes as it watched the blade in Sir Kieran's grasp begin pulsating as if alive, gleaming like an inferno.
Sir Kieran took a few steps back, putting space between himself and the Calamitous Crow before taking a slashing stance.
Instantly, all the darkness of the domain was absorbed by the katana, which began glowing faintly with a deep, pulsating crimson aura.
The air grew colder, the weight of death becoming unbearable for the Calamitous Crow as the thousands of spectral swords scattered across the domain began converging over Sir Kieran's devilish figure, forming a spiralling vortex of shadow and steel.
With a single fluid motion, Sir Kieran performed a devastating slash, unleashing a crescent-shaped arc of black energy.
The slash travelled faster than the Calamitous Crow's eyes could follow, stretching across the entire domain and it was no ordinary cut—it was an embodiment of destruction, slicing through space, energy, and even the soul of the Calamitous Crow in its path.
As the slash expanded, it devoured everything in its wake, including the Calamitous Crow, which watched with wide-open eyes as its entire body slowly disintegrated into nothing.
The echoes of despair from all those who had suffered the same fate seemed to ring louder in its ears, mingling with the pain of its own body slowly dissolving into nothing.
At the last second, the time seemed to slow down for it, as the bird stared at the devil which was still in its slashing position.
'So this is the end of me, huh? I've simply come out to feast on a few meat and awaken my appetite after my deep slumber.'
'Yet, who would have thought I would meet him here.'
'How I wish I was the one who could bring an end to you...'
'For the millions of lives that was lost to your reckless action...'
"Woe on me for not being the one to bring and end to you..."
These were last words of the Calamitous crow before it faded away completely.
Those struck by the Eternal Eclipse Slash were not merely killed—they were erased, their existence consumed by the katana's unholy hunger.
The arc slowly dissipated, the domain collapsing into itself, leaving nothing behind but silence and a lingering scar in reality.
In the next instant, the katana slowly appeared in Sir Kieran's hands, its hilt glowing faintly. With a swift motion, the blade was dipped into its scabbard.
Not long after, a faint booming noise resounded as the black plane appeared behind Sir Kieran for less than a split second, and the man disappeared into it.
Appearing in the cockpit where Doria stood with a bizarre expression on her face, Sir Kieran slowly cleaned his spectacles with the edge of his sleeve, now rid of all the crow's blood, before sheathing it fully.
Once more, he had regained his gentle, scholarly aura as the ship resumed its direction, edging toward the next destination.
"Release the geniuses out of the spatial room..."
"What happened? Where is the Calamitous Crow horde?" Doria asked.
Sir Kieran simply shrugged before heading into his personal room.
"The threat has been eliminated. We continue onward to the Ascension Academy..."