Whispering Woods

As Faceless Lord's domain ability covered the entirety of the once peaceful meadow, the two men began to feel the effects of this ability.

Unlike zones, which were attained from rigorous training, a great portion of talent and mind-bloggling understanding of mana and of the spell imbued into it, domains were innate abilities, one could train it but obtaining access to its powers was much easier.

Sometimes, even straight at birth.

As such, each domain was different from the other and had no strict set of rules, they weren't techniques.

The monster didn't have nearly as much control on the space around them as a mage using zone, he couldn't manifest attacks out of thin air or replenish his lost energy with his ability.

Whispering Woods was meant as a trap first and foremost, one needed to find unknown items dispersed throughout the domain to be granted exit.

People may have been able to simply walk out if he used his ability over a larger distance and enclosed too many beings, but they were only two enemies inside, the rest were just stray animals and insects, much too insignificant to put any stress on the capacity of his domain.

It also had another effect, one Sir Solitar and Roderman already knew about.

Solitar had heard of it from Superstes back then and Axiolypito had also mentioned it during their meeting.

Inside of here, Faceless Lord gained some sort of peculiar aura, the closest he was to someone, the stronger the whispers would grow.

Gnawing at the minds of its victims, most would collapse or take their own lives to prevent the voices from growing too loud.

The weakest would even be susceptible to it even if they were as far as was allowed from the monster.

When used on a small crowd, his domain should be impossible to beat.

'They are unaffected' Faceless Lord wasn't surprised that the madness-inducing effect could be resisted.

He had simply not expected it to be utterly nullified.

Warping a distance away, he confirmed that within his domain, his movement weren't slowed like before, he would be able to fight at his fullest.

He analysed his opponents, getting a much clearer sensation of them inside of here.

'Roderman is shielding his mind and reinforcing his body with that silver and slightly golden energy, what is that blue one however? He possessed no such thing before...' last time, the monster had swiftly taken the king out before he could react and reinforce himself.

Not only did he seem stronger somehow, now that he was fully prepared, Faceless Lord doubted even a dozen of fully powered hits would be able to knock the king down.

The blue energy of unknown origins intrigued him but the true problem laid with the other man.

The monster failed to understand how this man could withstand the whispers at all.

Sir Solitar was free of any sort of energy.

Not like he had exhausted everything, but more like he had never had any.

No mana, mind power, soul power, spiritual energy, killing intent and all that one could imagine! There was nothing!

'He does have life force, but it is fused with his body in a way I have never seen before' raising his arms, the monster warped away again as the two men closed in on him.

Walking behind one of the tall trees, his figure disappeared, as he controlled the twisting of space his warps caused to not alert either of them and appear behind the nagamaki wielder.

Trying to crush Solitar's skull in between his stumps, the man didn't even do as much as turn his head, stabbing blindly behind him, leaving a gash on the monster's face whilst also dodging the attack.

'What reflexes!' he couldn't but comment to himself, Sir Solitar had already turned around and was mere milimeters away from cutting one of the monster's legs off.

Reality warped once more, Roderman, expecting Faceless to appear elsewhere prepared to intercept him but he and Solitar were surprised for an instant.

Instead of warping away, Faceless Lord remained in place, Solitar's blade appeared completely distorted.

Before, it had seemed like the bending of reality was merely for show, as nothing affected by it showed any reaction to its effects.

This time, they did, the nagamaki blade was diverted, following the direction the twists in space set for it, sending the slash in the opposite direction.

'So it's pick and choose' the two warriors came to this conclusion as they quickly repositioned themselves with this new piece of information in mind, Sir Solitar had already experienced having his blade redirected by the tall monster, but he had thought it had been an effect of him popping into empty space rather than a deliberate choice on Faceless Lord's part.

Faceless Lord warped away again, the twists in reality around him stopping and resuming before he did so.

'Their immunity to the whispers makes this difficult, the man in black is much faster at reaction, attacking and moving than I am, my only saving grace is my ability and the fact that my senses allow me to follow his movements...' the fact that he had never even heard of such a powerhouse was concerning to say the least.

Indeed, Sir Solitar had been the one to slay Undying Prophet, but no one had been there to witness this-

'Hold on a moment, I was there... How- Why couldn't I remember?' he trembled for an instant as he realised that he had indeed encountered Sir Solitar before.

It was only for a split second and he had frankly not seen much more than a dark blur...

Still, he couldn't comprehend how this memory was seemingly unattainable until now.

'Did someone mess with my memories? Who could have done this?'

'The Scourge... Is he the second traitor?' his thoughts were cut short as he was forced to move once more, this time, he began to consecutively warp all around at high speeds, causing the area to remain distorted.

'No matter... I need to deal with them and avenge Axiolypito'