Chapter 198: The Sovereign Of Distance

Xanxus’s sword began to shine, and black-and-white light erupted from his body.

The pressure struck Reinhard and Emily before they could react. The remaining walls of the chamber shattered, their fragments suspended in the air as though the world had forgotten how gravity worked.

A transparent sphere expanded around them, swallowing the entire room before spreading across the island.

Reinhard felt the change immediately. The distance between himself and Emily stretched until she appeared impossibly far away, even though she stood only a few steps from him.

The floor beneath his boots seemed to extend into an endless plain, while the ruined chamber twisted into a vast landscape of floating stone platforms and towering black pillars.

Xanxus stood at the center of it all, his black-and-white sword resting against his shoulder. "Welcome to my Domain," he said.

The landscape expanded again.

Thousands of silver lines spread across the horizon, each one representing a spatial interval Xanxus could manipulate. Some connected the pillars, others linked the ground to the sky, and countless more stretched between the three Awakeners.

Reinhard’s golden aura intensified as his Heavenly Pillars emerged behind him. Twelve golden orbs rotated around his body, their combined power reinforcing his E.G.O. while resisting the pressure attempting to distort his position.

Emily raised Aeon, and silver corridors unfolded throughout the landscape.

The paths crossed and separated, creating a network of possible routes that connected her to Reinhard and Xanxus.

"Your Domain is enormous," Reinhard remarked.

"It’s the ability of SS-Rank... But that’s odd, why aren’t you using Authority?"

Xanxus tilted his masked head. "Unfortunately, I you guys caught me at a bad time–"

"So you can’t tap into it." Emily’s eyes narrowed.

"Sadly but it doesn’t matter." Xanxus moved first.

Space Shift — Zero Distance.

The space between him and Emily disappeared.

He crossed the battlefield without traveling through it, appearing directly before her with his sword already descending. Emily twisted Aeon upward, catching the blade, but the force drove her backward across the stone.

Before she could recover, Xanxus turned his wrist.

Space Shift — Rejected Approach.

Emily’s counterattack should have crossed the remaining distance between them. Instead, the space in front of Xanxus expanded, stretching her sword’s path until the blade stopped short of his chest.

He struck her across the shoulder with the flat of his sword, sending her crashing through a floating pillar.

"Emily!" Reinhard shouted.

He activated Spatial Step Enhanced and appeared behind Xanxus, Heavenpiercer forming in his hand. His spear drove toward the back of Xanxus’s neck, but the silver lines around them abruptly shifted.

The distance between the spearhead and its target expanded.

Reinhard’s thrust continued through several meters of newly created space, leaving him exposed when Xanxus turned around. The masked Awakener kicked him in the stomach and sent him tumbling across the platform.

Reinhard caught himself before reaching the edge, but pain spread through his abdomen. His Heavenly Pillars absorbed part of the impact, their golden light flickering as they redistributed the force.

Xanxus did not pursue him immediately. Instead, he raised his sword toward Emily, who had emerged from the broken pillar with blood running down her arm.

"You have excellent weapons and considerable talent," he said. "Unfortunately, neither will help you if you cannot reach me."

Emily wiped the blood from her cheek. "You talk too much."

"Perhaps you and your husband have more in common than I expected."

She stepped forward, but the space beneath her feet lengthened. Her movement carried her barely a fraction of the distance she intended, and Xanxus used the opening to attack again.

Emily blocked the first strike and deflected the second with Aeon. The third forced her to abandon her footing, and she barely avoided the fourth by shortening the distance behind her.

For the first time since entering the Domain, she understood why Xanxus had been so confident. He could force her to spend Mana correcting the battlefield before she could even begin attacking, and every adjustment gave him another opportunity to strike.

Then his sword turned toward Reinhard.

Spatial Throne — Severed Formation.

The silver lines connecting the Ashcrofts snapped apart.

The landscape between them folded into a deep ravine, while towering walls of distorted space rose along its edges.

Emily found herself on one side and Reinhard on the other, separated by a barrier that changed position whenever either attempted to cross it.

Xanxus stood between the two sides, his sword pointed toward Emily.

"Now, let us see which of you makes the first mistake."

Reinhard examined the shifting walls.

His Danger Intuition warned him that forcing his way through would expose him to a direct counterattack, while Combat Analysis projected several possible routes. Every path ended with Xanxus intercepting him or separating him from Emily again.

He could continue testing the barriers, but that would give Xanxus exactly what he wanted.

"Emily," he called, "don’t try to cross over here."

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Good. I was worried you might miss me."

"I’m trying to decide whether I should leave you there."

Reinhard grinned. "See? This is why our marriage works. You always know how to encourage me."

Emily rolled her eyes, but the exchange helped settle her breathing. They had been forced apart, yet neither had panicked. More importantly, they were no longer treating the battlefield as something they had to overcome individually.

She lowered Aeon and studied the silver lines running through the ravine. Xanxus was manipulating the intervals between them, but his Domain still needed to establish relationships between different positions. He could change those relationships, yet he could not make every possible connection equally useful without spending more Mana and attention.

Emily raised her sword again.

Eternal Moment — Crossroads of Infinity.

Silver corridors spread across both sides of the ravine. They connected floating pillars, broken platforms, and empty stretches of air, creating dozens of routes that seemed to lead nowhere. Several connected Emily to Reinhard, while others led toward Xanxus from unexpected angles.

Xanxus watched the new pathways appear.

"You intend to overwhelm me with options?"

"Not exactly."

Emily moved.

Eternal Moment — One Unreachable Second.

The corridor beneath her feet shortened, carrying her forward in a single step. At the same time, she delayed the response of a nearby spatial interval just long enough for Aeon to cut through one of the silver lines.

The ravine shuddered.

Reinhard felt the barrier separating them weaken. He immediately understood what Emily was doing. She was not attempting to overpower Xanxus’s control; she was forcing him to manage too many conflicting routes at once.

He raised Heavenpiercer and sent a golden spear through the opening she had created.

Xanxus turned his sword toward the projectile.

The distance expanded, but Emily’s second corridor opened beside the spear, allowing its trajectory to bend around the altered interval. Xanxus adjusted again, only for Reinhard to activate his Domain.

Fool’s World — Thousand-Faced King.

Multiple Reinhards appeared across the landscape, each carrying a golden spear and radiating a convincing Mana signature. Some stood on floating pillars, others moved through Emily’s silver corridors, and several charged Xanxus from different directions.

The technique did not create additional physical bodies capable of delivering unrestricted damage. Instead, it flooded Xanxus’s perception with conflicting positions, movements, and sensory information.

For the first time, his sword hesitated.

That brief uncertainty was enough.

Emily’s Aeon swept through the opening, forcing Xanxus to defend himself while the real Heavenpiercer approached from his blind side. He expanded the distance between himself and the spear, but doing so left him within reach of Emily’s shortened sword strike.

Aeon cut through his sleeve and opened a shallow wound across his arm.

Xanxus retreated several steps.

Reinhard landed beside Emily, his golden armor flickering as the Heavenly Pillars continued to reinforce him. He glanced at the blood on her shoulder, and his smile disappeared for a moment.

"Are you all right?"

"I am."

"You’re bleeding."

"So are you."

"That’s different. I’m handsome enough to make it look intentional."

Emily gave him a flat look. "Keep talking, and I’ll make the other side match."

He laughed, and she found herself smiling despite the pain. Then she shifted her grip on Aeon, and the silver corridors around them began moving again.

They had finally forced Xanxus to defend himself. However, the masked Awakener was far from finished.

The silver lines throughout the Domain suddenly multiplied, spreading across the sky and the ground until the entire landscape resembled a vast web. Every corridor Emily created was met by a corresponding adjustment, while the distance between Reinhard and Xanxus changed whenever the latter attempted to establish a direct attack route.

Spatial Throne — The World Has No Distance.

The entire Domain responded.

Xanxus did not merely manipulate the interval between himself and one opponent anymore. He altered multiple spatial relationships at once, forcing Emily’s corridors to stretch, compress, or redirect while making Reinhard’s approaches increasingly difficult to predict.

A pillar rose beneath Emily’s feet and hurled her into the air. Xanxus followed with Zero Distance, appearing beside her before she could stabilize herself. She blocked his first strike, but he expanded the distance behind her and shortened the space between his blade and her ribs.

Reinhard’s Danger Intuition screamed.

He used Spatial Push to drive himself across the battlefield, striking Xanxus from the side before the sword could connect. The impact forced Xanxus away from Emily, but the masked Awakener adjusted the distance between himself and Reinhard, turning the interruption into an opportunity to retaliate.

Their weapons collided, and the shockwave shattered the platform beneath them.

Reinhard was driven backward.

His Heavenly Pillars absorbed the worst of the impact, but several golden orbs dimmed as the reinforcement drew upon the Mana stored within them.

Emily saw the change.

She also noticed the strain in Reinhard’s shoulders as he steadied Heavenpiercer. He was still capable of fighting, but maintaining his E.G.O. and resisting Xanxus’s Domain was consuming resources faster than they could comfortably afford.

She could not allow the battle to become a contest of endurance.

"Reinhard!" she called. "I need you to trust my next attack."

He glanced toward her and immediately nodded. "I always do."

There was no hesitation in his answer, and that certainty settled something inside her. Emily had spent much of her life fighting to regain control over her own existence. Now she was standing beside someone who trusted her judgment without needing to understand every detail of her plan.

She extended Aeon, and the silver corridors began converging around Xanxus.

He recognized the change and raised his sword, preparing to distort the approaching routes. Emily deliberately left several corridors exposed, forcing him to choose which connections to alter first. Each adjustment disrupted another pathway, while the temporal interference within her Domain delayed his ability to respond to the resulting changes.

Reinhard moved at the same moment.

Fool’s World — Thousand-Faced King.

The false Reinhards spread through the converging corridors, filling the battlefield with conflicting attack positions. Xanxus attempted to distinguish the real spear from the illusions, but every correction forced him to redirect part of his attention away from Emily’s approaching strike.

She stepped forward.

Eternal Moment — One Unreachable Second.

Her path shortened, while Xanxus’s response was delayed by the smallest fraction of a second.

It was not a time stop, and it did not prevent him from using his Gnosis. It simply created a narrow interval in which his adjustments could no longer keep pace with both Ashcrofts.

Reinhard thrust Heavenpiercer through the corridor Emily had prepared.

Xanxus expanded the distance before the spear, but Emily immediately redirected the corridor, carrying the weapon around the altered interval. Reinhard followed with Spatial Push, driving the spear forward while Emily’s Aeon cut through the final connection Xanxus needed to divert it.

The spear struck his chest.

At the same instant, Emily’s blade cut across his side.

The combined impact hurled Xanxus across the landscape. He crashed through a towering pillar, and the black-and-white lines covering the Domain flickered as cracks spread through the sky.

Reinhard landed beside Emily, breathing heavily. His Heavenly Pillars continued rotating, but their golden light had weakened considerably. Emily’s silver corridors were also collapsing, their edges flickering as the strain of coordinating space and time caught up with her.

Neither of them could afford another prolonged exchange.

Xanxus pulled himself out of the shattered pillar. Blood stained his black suit, and one hand pressed against the wound across his chest. For several seconds, he remained still, examining the two people who had forced him into this condition.

Then he laughed.

It was not the restrained amusement he had displayed earlier. It was genuine delight, as though the fight had finally offered him something worth experiencing.

"You actually managed it," he said. "You forced me to use more of my power than I intended."

Reinhard raised Heavenpiercer again. "Happy to help. We offer excellent service, although our fees are rather expensive."

Xanxus lowered his sword. The black-and-white blade began shining, and the surrounding Domain grew strangely quiet. The silver lines that had filled the landscape drew toward him, converging around his body as though the entire world were being pulled into a single point.

Reinhard’s Danger Intuition erupted.

"Emily, get back!"

Xanxus turned the sword toward himself and drove it into his chest.

Black-and-white light exploded from the wound.

The force sent Reinhard sliding across the ground, while Emily’s remaining corridors shattered around her. She braced herself against the pressure, but the light continued pouring from Xanxus’s body, spreading across the cracks in his Domain.

Something was changing inside him.

Emily felt the danger before she could understand it. Her instincts screamed that whatever Xanxus was attempting would transform the battle beyond anything they had prepared for.

She raised Tepes.

Space Shift — Zero Distance.

Xanxus attempted to remove the interval between himself and the incoming attack, but his control faltered as the light engulfed him. Emily seized the opening, using Tepes to sever the spatial connection before his transformation could complete.

The blade crossed his body.

Xanxus was cut in half.

For one brief moment, the light pouring from him dimmed, and the entire Domain shattered. Floating pillars collapsed into fragments, silver lines vanished, and the island-sized landscape dissolved as the three Awakeners were returned to the ruined chamber.

Reinhard dropped to one knee, his Heavenly Pillars flickering behind him. Emily landed several meters away, her transformed body trembling as she struggled to maintain her grip on Tepes. Her breathing was ragged, and the crimson aura surrounding her had weakened under the strain.

They had won the Domain battle.

Then the two halves of Xanxus’s body began moving.

Black-and-white patterns spread across the severed flesh, knitting it together with the same unnatural precision Emily had witnessed in the altered Baal Guards and Collectors. Bones reformed, wounds closed, and the sword embedded in his chest dissolved into light.

Xanxus stood upright once more.

His expressionless mask remained untouched, but the aura surrounding him had changed so drastically that Emily’s legs nearly gave way. Reinhard struggled to rise, his weakened Heavenly Pillars unable to fully resist the pressure.

Xanxus looked down at them.

"Now then," he said pleasantly, "let’s continue."