Chapter 82: Hunting (End): Subjugation & Contract

The storm over the outer rift island had reached a chaotic climax. Howling void-winds whipped dark spray from the liquid void sea, throwing it violently against shattered obsidian pillars.

Inside the hundred-meter radius of Raphael’s Realm-Breaker, the air was deathly still, compressed under the suffocating weight of an absolute domain, but unlike lesser entities that collapsed instantly under the domain overwrite, the two-hundred-foot Abyssal Leviathan fought back with terrifying, primordial defiance.

Its interlocking obsidian scales ground against the bedrock with a sound like tearing metal. Dark-crimson lightning flickered wildly along its razor-sharp dorsal fins, crackling against the violet walls of Raphael’s domain. The B++ Tier anomaly refused to yield, its four golden eyes burning with unyielding, apex-predator fury.

BOOM!

With a desperate burst of strength, the Leviathan forced its massive front claws into the obsidian stone, slowly lifting its colossal triple-horned head six inches off the ground. It opened its gaping maw, attempting to condense another localized plasma burst directly at Raphael.

Raphael stood ten paces from the beast’s nose, his coat snapping softly in the residual static breeze, while his silver eyes flickered with cold, unyielding detachment.

"You have spirit," Raphael said, his deep voice echoing with terrifying spatial resonance. "But you do not dictate terms in my domain."

ZIP.

Using Phasing Step, Raphael materialized directly atop the Leviathan’s snout, right between its glowing golden eyes. He didn’t draw his adamantine blades; to subdue a beast without killing it required calculated, non-lethal blunt trauma delivered straight to its neural matrix.

Floating in the corner of his peripheral vision, the system projected clear tactical paths for subduing the entity. This was no baseline familiar... it was a primordial anomaly of a high-tier dungeon. If he wanted to bind it, he had to prove absolute physical dominance.

[SYSTEM SUBJUGATION DIRECTIVE]

- Selected Path: [BEAT IT INTO SUBMISSION]

[Requirement: Exhaust target’s vitality core through non-lethal kinetic trauma]

---

Raphael raised his right gauntlet, channeling a concentrated burst of hyper-compressed spatial energy into his fist. The air around his knuckles distorted, bending light in a tight, shimmering spiral.

BANG!

He drove his gauntleted fist down into the center of the Leviathan’s bone crest. Thanks to his Spatial Armor Bypass, the physical impact passed straight through the three-foot-thick obsidian scales, delivering a heavy kinetic shockwave directly into its brain stem. The Leviathan let out a muffled, gurgling roar as its head slammed into the bedrock, shattering a twenty-foot crater into the obsidian floor.

However, the B++ Tier beast did not fall.

BOOM!

Driven by sheer survival instinct, the Leviathan’s massive serpentine tail whipped upward out of the liquid void sea behind Raphael, breaching the domain’s perimeter with sheer kinetic momentum. The three-ton tail struck his flank like a falling meteorite.

BANG!

Raphael was launched off the beast’s snout, his boots skidding fifty feet across the cracked stone floor. The impact rattled his ribs, sending a sharp wave of pressure through his core. Even with his high endurance, taking a direct physical blow from a two-hundred-foot B++ anomaly carried immense kinetic weight.

"Impudent beast," Raphael growled softly, straightening his broad frame.

The Leviathan thrashed violently, using the split second of freedom to ignite the dark-crimson lightning along its spine. Dozens of high-voltage arc-tendrils shot out in every direction, tearing up the stone floor and creating a chaotic field of electrified plasma, but Raphael didn’t retreat. He accelerated forward.

ZIP! ZIP! ZIP!

He executed three rapid Phasing Steps in fluid succession, weaving through the lightning grid like a phantom, and reappeared directly under the Leviathan’s soft throat armor.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

In less than two seconds, Raphael delivered a brutal three-strike kinetic combination directly into the beast’s lower throat. Each blow utilized Spatial Armor Bypass, sending shockwaves through its primary mana arteries and disrupting its internal energy flow.

The Leviathan shrieked in pain, its massive head recoiling backward as streams of volatile crimson mana burst harmlessly from its mouth. It slammed its massive right claw down toward Raphael, trying to crush him into dust beneath its palm.

Raphael caught the leading edge of the claw with his left gauntlet, stepping into a low, immovable stance.

CRACK!

The bedrock below Raphael’s boots pulverized under the immense downward load, but he held firm. He absorbed the raw kinetic weight, his spatial core flaring brightly as he redirected the force back into the beast’s limb. With a deep roar of pure physical exertion, Raphael shoved the massive claw upward, unbalancing the two-hundred-foot behemoth.

He executed one final Phasing Step, materializing fifteen feet in the air directly above the Leviathan’s head. Gathering every drop of available spatial energy into his right gauntlet, he brought his fist down in a terrifying downward hammer fist.

BOOM- CRASH!

The devastating blow struck the center of the triple-horned crest with meteor-like force. The Leviathan’s golden eyes rolled back as the kinetic wave neutralized its neural center. Its massive two-hundred-foot frame shuddered violently, its claws giving out entirely as its head slammed flat into the bedrock, creating a forty-foot crater in the obsidian floor.

The Leviathan lay completely immobilized, its crimson lightning fizzling out into harmless embers, its heavy breathing echoing like a dying forge. The moment the monster lost consciousness, the system generated the Taming and Contract Seal directly into Raphael’s hand.

Raphael landed smoothly on the creature’s snout. His chest heaved slightly as he reached into his coat pocket and produced the diamond-shaped, crystalline talisman, which glowed with radiant gold-and-purple runes, and pressed the seal firmly against the center of the Leviathan’s forehead.

[TAMING AND CONTRACT SEAL ACTIVATED!]

[Target: Abyssal Leviathan (B++ Tier Anomaly)]

[Target Status: Severely Weakened / Will Broken]

[Binding Progress: 10%... 45%... 85%... 100% COMPLETE!]

---

A brilliant, golden-violet array of intricate contract runes erupted from the seal, spreading across the Leviathan’s two-hundred-foot body like living light. The glowing lines burned deep under its obsidian scales, permanently etching The Iron Spire’s crest into the beast’s core matrix.

The Leviathan’s four golden eyes slowly opened once more, but the wild, murderous rage that had burned within them was completely gone, replaced by a quiet, profound reverence. The massive serpent lowered its horned head until its snout rested flat against the stone at Raphael’s feet, emitting a deep, sub-audible rumble of absolute submission.

[MANDATORY QUEST COMPLETE: SUBDUE THE ABYSSAL LEVIATHAN]

[Objective Achieved: Target Subdued & Bound as High-Tier Domain Guardian]

[Rewards Issued to Inventory:]

- 1. 5x Summon Gacha Tickets (High-Tier Guardian Pulls)

- 2. 5x Citizen Gacha Tickets (Specialist / Artisan Domain Population)

- 3. 1x Random Weapon Gift Card (Calamity-Class Weapon Matrix)

- 4. 1x Taming and Contract Seal (Consumed)

---

Raphael released his hold on Realm-Breaker. For the first time since unlocking the Calamity ability, he felt his compressed mana reserves dip low, his chest rising and falling as the pitch-black and violet spatial domain dissolved, returning the rift island to its natural misty state.

He stepped off the Leviathan’s snout onto the shoreline, looking up at the towering behemoth as it lifted its massive body into a respectful, coiled guard stance around the perimeter of the outer landmass.

"Guard the outer drift," Raphael commanded quietly, his voice steady despite his low mana. "Permit nothing to cross the perimeter without my mark."

The Leviathan bowed its colossal head once, then slipped gracefully over the edge of the cliff into the liquid void sea below, its massive form swimming silently through the dark abyss as a permanent outer ward.

Five Summon Tickets, five Citizen Tickets, and a Calamity-Class Weapon Gift Card. With a single action, he had not only secured a B++ Rank apex guardian to protect his kingdom’s borders, but he had also acquired the key to populating The Iron Spire with specialized human talent and elite warriors.

A faint, cold smile touched Raphael’s lips beneath his hood as he activated his Waypoint Gate, stepping into the silvery-violet mirror to return to his throne room. It was time to check his other rewards; hopefully, he would receive something worth the trouble.