Chapter 1720: Duel [3]

The sinkhole that was created in the lake was exclusively caused by Eris' attempts to seize control. Her darkness wanted to find a way to make their connection stronger, and the best method it discovered was to remove all obstructions that stood between them.

The darkness spread throughout the water, so it wasn't as if Eris could only control what was in that small area of the lake, but that was where she directed her will. Through the sinkhole, which contained a darkness she was more familiar with, she was able to connect to the more elusive form of the element that existed in the depths.

It was August's water. That much never changed. But, swimming within it were the shadows she controlled.

Neither of them moved. They stopped attacking each other, because the nature of their battle had changed.

They were now vying for control over the domain. This was a similar concept to the true sacred battles that dragons could have but simplified so it could be undertaken in human form.

August and Eris had their eyes closed as they merged their minds with their elements.

August felt the water from the surface to the depths. He could confirm that it was all his to control, but the depths were going through immense changes.

The darkness was becoming more concrete. The water was being morphed into something that could no longer be called as such, and with every molecule that shifted, August's control was dispersed.

Eris was on the offensive. Separating the darkness from the water was difficult at first. Since it was naturally occurring, it didn't have the same tactile nature as darkness created by mana. Still, because she was using a medium to control it, she was able to abuse some loopholes to mimic the separation.

Once that step was accomplished, the rest was easy.

Death and darkness were always thoroughly connected in the hearts and minds of people. Their fear of death, their fear of the unknown manifested itself in the color black and made them fear it.

At first, this kind of association didn't mean anything. However, the laws of the world were always changing in accordance with how they were perceived and comprehended.

Eventually, even darkness, which started as nothing more than the absence of light, gained a more esoteric meaning.

That was why Eris could perfectly control concepts of death despite it not being her main element.

The waters of hell were not the same as the waters of the overworld. In that place, the rivers and lakes were made to torture those who had done wrong, to erase their egos and memories and refurbish their souls to be sent back to the land of the living in a different form.

When Eris started to transmute August's domain, turning the water into a murky, liquid, yet extremely tangible darkness, it made even August himself feel sluggish.

He could no longer abuse this domain to pressure Eris. Instead, he had to find a way to counteract the spread of her influence.

Then, how was he supposed to do that?

Eris had the inherent advantage of using the darkness within his water against him, but the substance she was transmuting it into no longer fell under August's dominion.

It was so far removed, in fact, that he didn't believe he could transmute it into water again. Eris had properly secured herself a region of the lake that was untouchable.

That murky darkness, thick like ooze yet able to maneuver freely, slid through the lake, infecting every ounce of water it came across.

'There has to be something I can do.'

August sunk deep into thought. The best temporary defense he could use was ice.

By freezing an entire layer of the lake and creating a border between the water and the darkness, August could, at the very least, delay Eris until he found a solution.

'In the end, isn't there water in everything?'

It wasn't hard to reach that point of thought. In the end, everything Eris created was formed with water as the base. She eradicated its presence as much as possible so that August couldn't seize back control, but it was still in there somewhere.

'I'm just lacking.'

He wasn't skilled enough to perceive those minute traces within such a large mass. He wasn't, but he had to be if he wanted to win this part of the battle.

August kept his eyes shut tight and concentrated his awareness on a single point, a single fleck of water.

He observed the droplet in as much detail as possible, understanding the materials within and the way they connected to create a single, perceivable drop of water.

Minutes passed by.

With Eris constantly on the offensive, the ice wall that August made was practically destroyed already.

She encroached further and further on his territory while he continued to look for a way to fight back.

And though his study of the droplet didn't immediately give him the solution, it gave him the path.

If he could sense a single drop of water within this large body, if he could dissect it and see even further into the land beyond the eye's perception, then he could absolutely do the same when the subject was not a body of water, but a body of darkness.

It was still a sea, wasn't it?

Riding from the depths was a sea of darkness that tried to swallow everything.

While Eris was making big moves to gain as much territory as possible in a short amount of time, August covertly separated a small portion of her darkness and sunk his senses into it just as he'd done the droplet earlier.

He dissected it, understood it, and in less than five minutes, he found the water hidden inside.

The texture of this darkness was disgusting. It was sticky and clumped up like expired milk. Like oil and coolant mixing in places they were never supposed to mix, the curdled darkness had an essence of water hidden deeply behind everything else that was going on.

Once August found it, he finally had a case. The problem was what Eris had done in the time he took to do so.

The entire lake was dyed a deep black color. The portion that August controlled was nil. Despite being confident in taking back his territory, August was forced to jump away from the lake's surface and into the air.

After all, the darkness was already grabbing at his feet, trying to pull him into the deepest and darkest depths of its existence.

He pushed his arms out and focused again, knowing that he wouldn't be attacked at his current altitude.

'Water...'

It was there.

Hidden, yet screaming out for his aid, it was waiting for him.

August merely needed to know how to sense that call, to understand what it wanted.

And with the knowledge he gained through rapid experimentation, he did exactly that.

He visualized the darkness as oil and pulled it away from the water. Creating barriers around the base element alone, he slowly connected each little trace he found until they got larger and larger.

It was just a speck in this sea of darkness, but it was a hint of blue nonetheless.

Over time, it would spread and spread and spread until there wasn't a darkness left to control.

Or, well, that was what would have happened if August wasn't in the middle of a fight.

See, Eris knew exactly what he was trying to do, and she knew exactly how to stop it.

Mana control and domain control were her biggest strengths.

No matter how strong her opponent was, no matter what kind of talent he had, she refused to lose in these aspects.

So, when August started to spread his influence, Eris immediately moved to suppress him.

That was the first large clash of their domain battle.