NOVEL WEB Chapter 565: The Usurper
[Overcome adversity, defy fate, make your own choice and create your destiny. The greatest of champions are forged through a trial by fire. The quest mechanic rewards the completion of challenges and trials.]
[You have a quest..]
[Quest]
One will rule and one will perish.
Ashcroft has returned. However, there is but a single throne, and a throne cannot have two kings.
Defeat Ashcroft and devour his main soul.
Fail and be dominated by Ashcroft.
Rewards
?????
Level up
Failure.
You will be consumed by Ashcroft.
[Do you accept this quest]
Y/N
Damon was in no situation to read any of that. Luckily, the system spoke into his head. Even covered in blood, he had a small moment of clarity.
"Yes.."
He coughed up blood.
The quest began. With those words echoing in his head, Damon's body started to fade away.
Ashcroft raised his hand.
"Dominate space…"
But Damon was still fading away, and with him Abellona who was linked to him.
Ashcroft finally showed an expression other than arrogance. He showed anger.
"Time dominate…"
With that single word, Damon felt time grow to a slow crawl as if they existed in a different timeline, separate from the world.
Ashcroft's goblin ear began to bleed, falling off.
"You won't escape... return my shadow, you little thief…"
Damon took a deep breath, forcing his battered body to move. His form dissolved into darkness as he turned himself into a shadow.
"Come and take it…"
Ashcroft raised his hand with a soft, murderous whisper.
"Die…"
Damon felt his soul tremble as Ashcroft tried to crush it. Refusing to relent, he ignored the searing pain and leapt at Ashcroft, biting into his shoulder until his teeth sank into the demon's flesh.
"What are you doing…"
Ashcroft grabbed him and slammed him into the ground. He raised his hand.
"Water dominate…"
A droplet of water formed, circling around Damon. Slowly, more gathered around his glowing form.
Taking a pointed shape.
He raised his hand again.
"Freeze…"
The water frosted and froze over by his will.
He swiped down, sharp droplets impaling Damon's body in all directions. The goblin body trembled, nearly collapsing as Ashcroft felt the strain.
He looked at his prey. But when his gaze fell on the figure impaled by ice, all he saw were cold, icy eyes that didn't show a hint of defeat. Damon's gaze was defiant—so much so that Ashcroft was momentarily paused by it.
Damon weakly raised his half-destroyed body.
"I'll… kill… you…"
Ashcroft could no longer maintain time dominate. He was at his limit.
He scowled as Damon's body finally faded away along with Abellona.
Raising his hand with mild anger in his expression, he waved and whispered softly.
"System panel."
A system panel made of red letters on a black background appeared. Most of it was filled with question marks.
Ashcroft glared at it.
"What is this… who is that, and why did you give him my shadow…"
The system panel remained blank, as if the one watching didn't feel the need to answer the arrogant Ashcroft.
Ashcroft's eyes began to bleed, the red ichor dripping to the ground.
He was about to close the panel when it suddenly changed. One of the question marks disappeared.
At the top of the panel, a soft chime echoed in Ashcroft's head. It was the same familiar female voice Damon usually heard in his mind.
Welcome back to the domination system, Ashcroft.
[Your resurrection is incomplete.]
[Your current vessel is decaying.]
[Obtain your shadow to proceed.]
Ashcroft frowned. He was here. He was alive. And now the system had become active, acting like he was still dead.
No, half-alive.
His gaze fell on the familiar quest window.
[Quest]
[Return of the king]
[Welcome back, dominator. You return broken and stripped of your greatness. You exist on borrowed time.
Your title may be stolen by a would-be usurper. You cannot allow that.
Before your body falls apart, obtain your shadow and the boon of the usurper's physical vessel.]
Failure.
[Death and loss of your boons to the usurper.]
Rewards.
New physical vessel.
[Obtain that which belongs to the usurper and what you have lost.]
Ashcroft read the whole thing with an indifferent expression.
"You interfere… I would have killed him already…"
His eyes narrowed, anger flashing in his gaze.
Ashcroft hadn't given Damon any regard to begin with. He had killed many great and talented warriors, forged through hell, legends of their time.
Damon was just a brat of the new era.
Yet somehow the unknown god was actually pitting him against Ashcroft. The Ashcroft.
Surely he knew the boy would die. While it was true Ashcroft was getting weaker by the minute, and all Damon had to do was survive…
This was Ashcroft.
One doesn't encounter Ashcroft. One survives Ashcroft. That saying wasn't a joke, and that was under the rare circumstance Ashcroft didn't feel like killing.
It wasn't about how strong or weak you were. It was about how much abuse Ashcroft wanted to inflict before killing you.
The probability of Damon winning was almost zero, even if Ashcroft fell to his rank.
'The best outcome would be for him to hide and wait for this body to fail completely…'
If that was the case, the unknown god would never think so highly of him.
"Besides, where can he hide from me…"
Damon was still within the barrier. Ashcroft simply had to find and kill him before his time was up.
He knew Damon wasn't dead. If he was, his system would have notified him.
The cold, defiant eyes of the young man still lingered in Ashcroft's mind. Normally, when others faced him, his overwhelming power dwarfed them. They either gave up or were consumed by despair.
Yet Damon kept getting up, his eyes never losing that fire.
"He knows he'll lose but still wants to fight… That insect…"
Ashcroft shook his head. The unknown god was cruel. But despite how twisted he was, in some measure, he was also fair.
Which meant Damon had a fair chance of winning. No, surviving.
Ashcroft smiled, changing the way he addressed him. From now on Damon was not just another nameless ant. He was…
"My rival… No. The usurper."