"Stop looking down at me!!"
Dabura roared at the top of his lungs and leaped at Yahaech who was calmly hovering in the sky, watching the world beneath his feet.
The moment his legs left the ground, cracks ran through the earth and shockwaves rippled in the air upon the impact of takeoff.
A long, crimson sword with its blade wreathed in golden flames materialized in his hand.
At the same instant, behind Yahaech, thousands of solid light beams, engulfed in the same golden flames, descended from the heavens.
Simultaneously, they bombarded Yahaech with a volley of attacks.
Meanwhile, Yahaech watched everything with an amused expression as the corners of his mouth remained curled up.
Although he was very eager to release his full power after such a long time, he was afraid that this little spar might end instantaneously.
Therefore, he enjoyed it to its maximum.
He raised his hand high into the air above his head, then lifted the index finger to create a tiny hole in the space directly above at its tip.
The next instant when the hole appeared, the world tried to mend it—only to be torn open again by Yahaech forcefully to sustain its existence.
The solid pillars of light, regardless of flames of contradiction, warped around the hole before being sucked inside.
The same fate met the sword which was in Dabura's hands as he had to abandon it or he himself would have been devoured by that tiny black hole.
After crushing all the attacks of Dabura, Yahaech looked into his eyes and pressed the second index finger of his second hand on his forehead which sent another ripple of shockwave through the air.
Dabura plummeted from the heavens and slammed directly into the earth, the force behind his momentum so immense that it left his body hundreds of metres beneath the surface of earth.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though a small earthquake had struck.
After dealing with him, Yahaech mended the hole in space, which then turned into a tiny glowing golden orb.
Yahaech examined it for a moment before putting it into his mouth. When the orb touched his tongue, it melted down into the raw power which Yahaech swallowed fearlessly and closed his eyes to savour the taste.
"It's the best delicacy I've eaten in the last few thousands of years of my useless life."
He heaved a satisfied sigh, only a little disappointed that the pleasure was of only a few moments.
"Did you like the underworld?" He opened his eyes and his gaze fell upon Dabura, who, by this moment, had completely healed all of his injuries.
"See yourself when I send you there this time."
Dabura brought his hands together and formed a hand sign before he muttered something.
"DOMAIN EXPANSION: UNLIMITED FLAMES OF CONTRADICTORY SHRINE"
The instant he said those words, blood sprayed out of his ears and nose while the tiny capillaries in his eyes exploded, filling it with blood that dripped from his eyes.
But the injuries and pain that he endured were not in vain.
Instantaneously, a small portion of space that Dabura and Yahaech occupied was separated from space-time, refining it into a personal and temporary dimension.
It appeared as a tunnel of space for a brief moment, countless stars passing by as streaks of white light until it all settled into an infinite blue-black cosmos after travelling at speed of light.
Trillions of stars and galaxies suspended in the void, with a nebula looking nearest of all the celestial objects, though it was still many light years away from reach.
And despite that, an impossibly small shrine compared to the unimaginably vast galaxies and nebulas hovered in the void, bathed in golden flames.
And in the centre of the shrine, stood a single person, his body even smaller than the shrine with curled horns protruding from his head.
He wore a solemn expression on his face. Despite standing within his own territory, his heart pounded faster and faster in the fear of another man who stood just a few dozen metres away.
"Perfect! You merged two domains and one technique to create this new domain. Despite being an alien, you have comprehended the essence of cursed energy better than anyone out there. You are worthy of my praise. But again, don't disappoint me."
Yahaech said in his typically cheerful voice as he took a step forward and a few cracks appeared in the seemingly non-existent surface of void beneath his foot.
"?!?!!"
Dabura's eyes widened in disbelief and his mind went blank for a moment. He knew that the person before him was extremely and unimaginably powerful existence who had created a tiny blackhole with same amount of effort he required to put into his breathing and other actions.
But still…. Wasn't it too much?! Yahaech literally put cracks into something that was just an imaginary space with a single step.
To overpower a domain, you need your own domain and yet, Yahaech defied this law like it never existed. Like others were only ignorant and unknown of this.
Dabura again felt like all of his hopes of survival were burning down in ashes in front of him with every passing moment.
"A warrior always fights until his last breath. Did you forget?"
Yahaech asked him when he felt that Dabura was about to be swallowed in the flames of despair.
'Warrior'
Suddenly, memories flashed before eyes of Dabura when he heard this word. He remembered his time with his only friend that he had to kill with his own hands and the promise that his friend forced him to made in the last moments of his life.
He remembered that he was a warrior. A warrior who was entrusted with the responsibility to protect his people.
His eyes now gleamed with determination as he vowed to fight and protect until his death.
With just a mere thought, he unleashed a relentless barrage of slashes upon Yahaech, every slash bypassing the space and teleporting instead of travelling typically to the target.
"Let's see what other tricks you have left!"
The slashes that were aimed at Yahaech weren't nothing ordinary but empowered by flames of contradiction.
However, something unexpected happened the next moment.
The slashes that should have cut down Yahaech into bits never struck him.
Meanwhile, thousands of crimson line appeared on entire body of Dabura. In the next instant, his body turned into countless peices of flesh and before his body could collapse, the domain shattered.
Nevertheless, his body, still retaining same shape, lay flat on the ground. The only difference was that instead of being whole, it was now reduced to countless seperate peices of flesh.
"You lost."
"No! I still can—"
"You know, don't you? You can never defeat me."
"But—"
Up until now, his body has regenerated entirely like nothing happened just a moment ago.
He was defeated. Not slightly but completely and absolutely. Heck, he wasn't even able to land a single attack on Yahaech.
Yet, he didn't want to accept the reality. He didn't want to sink in the darkness of death where he would be completely unaware and incapable of protecting his people.
His delusions were only sheild that protected him from the weight of reality. And that sheild was about to break—with his death.
He had already lost thousands of his people, but not anymore. He only wished to be there, to protect the remaining ones.
But, the reality was continuously slapping him on his face.
"Dabura, tell me, what do you truly desire. For entertaining me, I shall fullfill your last wish."
This time, there was no smile on Yahaech's face. What remained was a solemn face and a deep sea of dark aura which seemed to erase the reality around him.
Yes! Reality! Dabura wanted to erase such a reality where his loved ones didn't exist! He never cared about himself, he only desired of one thing.
"I want life. A happy and peaceful life—" Dabura said and then fell silent for a moment.
"—not for me but my people."
Again, silence settled over them.
Yahaech stared at Dabura for a moment before he burst into laughter. He laughed and laughed until he possible could.
Then, came another wave of brief silence.
"Unfortunately, what you said is impossible."
"..."
Dabura remained silent, Yahaech's word reverberating in his ears. On the surface, there was no expression, but inside, every word that Yahaech said sent tremors through his spirit.
He broke.
"But—I can grant half of your wish. Once you live thousands of years of your life thinking lonely, you realize that among the heaven and earth, nobody is truly happy and there is no true peace. Everything is temporary. Only deceased have permanent peace. But you said that you want life. You contradicted your own previous statement. That's why it's impossible.
"But, it's my mistake. I asked you to ask for a wish and you did. Therefore, to compensate you, instead of happy and peaceful life, I'll revive all the people of your species that died in this war while assuring the safety of those who are still alive. Though, that security will only be temporary.
"I can send your people back to your planet and manipulate reality to revive those dead ones. I can even go as far as to manipulate the minds of the people of your entire planet so that they live peacefully for at least a few centuries. But that will require you to sacrifice yourself.
"Are you willing?"