Stella recognized the Monarch in an instant by his imposing frame that put Mister Choi to shame. He was Korrath Vaelstorm, leader of the Stratospire League and killer of Grand Elder Ren and Thal'korr. While she hadn't seen him fight, she had heard about his fearsome capabilities.
Yet, something was different about him. The Stormglass armor he wore at the ballroom was sleeker and more openly revealed his scarred, bald head and missing eye. The Stormglass armor he wore now was far bulkier, and his shoulders were crowned with spikes. It was also less translucent, taking on an obsidian shade that did little to hide the crackling storm the armor barely contained.
Despite teleporting in with the plan to kill, Stella found herself instinctively taking a step back. Korrath had already been a fearsome warlord with the skills to butcher two Monarchs and escape Ash's capture, but now he was somehow even more terrifying.
"Stella Crestfallen," Korrath said, his voice a metallic rasp that was painful to listen to. "Why do you stand in my way?"
"Because you are a danger to our new Empire," she said, and took a more defiant stance while trying to analyze Korrath for a weak point. There were none. Every inch of his body was covered in shifting plates of Stormglass armor that exuded a spiritual pressure greater than her stage.
As powerful as the aether made her, she was only in the 2nd stage of the Monarch Realm. Korrath was in a stage far greater than that, and he was no pushover.
Diana would be a better match against Korrath, Stella thought, her attention flickering to Diana through the aether plane. She was engaged in battle with the light Monarch upon Moros.
It would seem Ash's technique worked and the light Monarch is grounded.
"I'm a danger?" Korrath let out a rasped chuckle. "I'm both honored to be called a danger by you, and insulted that you think you can stop me!" He raised his javelin, which was taller than most men, and pointed its tip at Stella.
"Stormglass Severance!" He commanded, and there was an eruption of static as a web of lightning streaked through the air toward her. As it traveled slightly slower than light, Stella barely managed to react in time and teleported behind him through the aether, only to be surprised as the static hadn't been aimed at her. It had gone out in a burst in all directions.
The static reached her bubble and barely slowed despite the vast distance she had protecting her. Dipping into the aether didn't help, as the static followed her and shattered the alternate plane as it homed in on her.
Shit, Stella cursed. She crossed her arms and braced as the static impacted her. Yet instead of pain, she felt her soul and body being pulled somewhere else. The aether blurred around her until the movement stopped, and she found herself in a massive colosseum constructed of glass.
What is this place? A prison of some kind? Stella called out to the aether, relieved to feel its presence, but attempting to flee earned her a faceplant against the arena's glassy walls.
A raspy chuckle reverberated through the strange space.
"I wouldn't take the great Stella Crestfallen for a coward." Korrath's heavy footsteps echoed through the place.
Stella rubbed her nose and reluctantly turned to face the Monarch. With every step Korrath took, the glass floor of the arena cracked, and she could feel the power welling up inside him.
"Is this your domain?" Stella asked to buy time while glancing around. "It's unique from the others I've faced."
Korrath didn't stop his approach but humored her. "You've never experienced a World Domain before?"
"World Domain?" Stella asked, tilting her head. She had never heard of such a thing.
Korrath raised his arms to gesture at the colosseum as if daring her to teleport in and strike him.
"This colosseum, born from my love for combat, is my World Domain. Instead of having a separate Domain and Inner World, I combined them into one."
Stella stepped away from the wall and idly twirled her daggers. "What's the advantage of doing that?"
"There aren't any," Korrath admitted.
Stella somewhat believed him. She didn't feel storm Qi weighing down on her, nor Korrath's spiritual pressure, any more than before.
"Then why?" Stella asked.
"Because," Korrath said, slamming his javelin into the glass and sending a wave of cracks that paused before her feet. "I despise interference when fighting."
Stella's spatial ring flashed, and she brought out an All-Seeing Fruit. It was emerald green and shaped like an eye. At least my spatial rings work in here, unlike in the Crowned One's prison. The fruit was small enough for her to eat all at once.
"Surely there are some advantages to having a World Domain besides that," she said while munching. "Not that it isn't cool, I'm a big fan," she paused as she swallowed and felt the fruit's power rush to her eyes. "But with no advantage, how can you expect to win against my domain?"
Her vision changed, and she could see the flow of Qi. As I suspected, Korrath is practically fused with the arena. Should he falter, so would the arena. But that also means that so long as he stands, I'm trapped in here.
"I don't need any advantages to defeat you," Korrath snarled. He picked up his massive javelin, lightning crackled beneath his Stormglass armor, and the ground shattered beneath him as he rushed forward at a speed that didn't match his bulky form. His javelin was held in two hands and pointed forward.
Stella took a gamble and didn't teleport away.
Korrath arrived before her in the blink of an eye and thrust his javelin at her stomach in an effort to skewer her. But the moment the tip of the javelin hit her aether bubble, something interesting happened. There was a loud crack as the runic javelin snapped without Stella moving a finger.
A confused grunt came out of Korrath as he staggered back, his hands shaking and what was left of his javelin in his hand.
What had occurred was simple. The tip of Korrath's javelin had entered her bubble and was forced to slow while the rest continued with the same velocity. Korrath was the victim of his own immense strength, which recoiled against him.
"Must have felt like striking a wall," Stella taunted as she teleported forward and tried to land a hit of her own. To actually strike, she had to compress her aether bubble around her daggers to nearly zero, or her attack would never reach its target.
There was a dull crack as her two daggers impacted Korrath's right arm with all the force she could muster, shattering a panel of his Stormglass armor, but that was it. Korrath didn't even lose his footing from the strike.
Stella blinked to the other side of the arena, eyes wide. I've killed Monarchs with less force than that, yet he took it like any other hit. Her eyes narrowed. This guy is a monster.
"Running away again?" Korrath called out as he discarded his shattered javelin like trash to the side. The air around Korrath condensed into a rolling storm that billowed out and swiftly drowned his side of the arena in ominous clouds. Power crackled through his armor and rushed down his arms. He raised his hands and pointed in Stella's direction. "Let's see you dodge this!"
A wall of lightning arced at her, consuming the entire arena. In a situation like this, Stella wanted to dip into the aether and wait it out. But the arena prevented her from doing so.
The lightning arrived almost instantly, giving her no time to react. Burning Qi, she expanded out her aether bubble to its maximum range of around a meter, which translated to thousands of miles in the aether, buying her half a second of reaction time. Her bloodline activated, enhancing her reaction time beyond a typical Monarch. Her form flickered as she teleported left and right, weaving between each lightning strike with hair-width precision as the meter-wide bubble gave her little room to work with.
It was going well until a bolt clipped her shoulder from behind.
Pain lanced down her arm, white-hot and almost throwing off her laser concentration. Thankfully, her Crestfallen bloodline reacted and numbed the pain, using lightning dao to blunt the damage. She didn't have time to work out why bolts were coming from behind—all she could do was react. Faster and faster, she flickered in and out of the aether, twisting her body as needed.
A bolt passed just before her eyes, singeing her hair. She unintentionally traced its trajectory and saw it strike the arena's glass wall, then reflect back at her.
Korrath had lied. While the arena didn't provide the same benefits as a typical domain, it gave him a massive terrain advantage. The glass arena reflected his lightning strikes, and because the arena was a confined space, it allowed him to force a melee.
Stella flipped, landing upside down and propped up by only one arm as a lightning bolt passed beneath her. She spun her legs to avoid another volley and, in one fluid motion, pulled out a Corrosive Aura fruit from her spatial ring and gulped it down.
A desolate haze radiated out of her as she continued to dodge, filling her aether bubble. The initial lightning bolts simply tore through the haze, as did the reflected ones. But slowly, after dozens of reflections, the bolts lost their ferocity and began to fizzle out as they passed through her domain. Stella absorbed the ambient Qi left behind, but it was minuscule compared to the amount she was burning to maintain her domain.
After a few more seconds, the lightning finally stopped coming, and the last of the bolts fizzled out. Stella pulled her domain inwards to preserve energy and landed in a low crouch, chest heaving. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and she could feel her bloodline demanding victory.
She was exhausted and in pain, yet she couldn't help but grin.
This was fun.
Korrath lowered his hands, and the crackling lightning receded into his armor with a hiss like a snuffed flame. "I like that look on your face!" he roared and stamped down. "We are only just getting started!"
Spikes erupted from the arena floor where Stella stood, and she blinked aside on instinct, reappearing an arm's length away, straight into the path of a second cluster bursting up to meet her. She twisted, expanded her bubble to encompass her body, expecting the glass spikes to be kept at bay, only to crash through them with a crunch and a shot of pain.
What? Stella's mind spun as she slid across the shattered floor and came to an abrupt stop against the arena's wall. Why didn't my domain save me? She stared up at the glass colosseum's roof in confusion. Is it because I was moving into the spikes, rather than letting them come to me?
There was a sonic boom, followed by a looming shadow as Korrath appeared above her and punched down with a fistful of lightning. Her domain caught the fist, but the lightning arced through the bubble and struck her in the stomach. White-hot pain crackled through her body as the lightning charred her flesh and the smell of burned clothes made her choke.
"Bastard." Stella clenched her teeth and lashed out with a kick. Korrath's Stormglass armor dented, but didn't yield.
The monster of a man laughed at her feeble attempts. "You're terribly weak, Stella. Did the other Monarchs let you kill them?"
Stella responded to his taunt by abruptly collapsing her domain, shortening the aetherial distance between his fist and her by thousands of miles in an instant.
Korrath's outstretched arm was torn apart with unstoppable ferocity and a sound so loud it left Stella's ears ringing. He stumbled back, a soul-wrenching scream tearing from his throat.
His right arm hung in ruined, mismatched segments. Stormglass armor and silver bones folded into one another in a mangled mess. Instead of blood, storm Qi hemorrhaged from a hundred fractures.
Stella rose to her feet, lightning crackling in her milky white eyes, and smirked.
"My turn now," she said, munching on another fruit. It was the translucent Ethereal Spirit Fruit, which Stella had used before in the Eternal Realm. For a short time after eating this fruit, spirit roots become ethereal, allowing Qi to move effortlessly through the body. It was typically used during cultivation or ascensions.
But in this situation, it would let her better utilize the lightning Qi Korrath had just fed her. Lightning didn't just have to be offensive. Reaction and thinking speed were driven by how fast sparks could travel through her body.
And she just became supercharged.
She stepped forward, daggers in hand and ready to strike.
Korrath hesitantly stepped back.
"I forbid you from collapsing this World Domain," Stella said, the corner of her lips curling up into a cruel smile. "I haven't had my fun yet."