The Epic Tale of Chaos vs Order Chapter 2448 Facing the Fourth Realm (IV)

As soon as the phrase Ancestor Domain escaped the lips, a surge of primal fear exploded in Cain and Abraham's instincts.

All their survival urges blared the identical alert: Flee.

Flee right away. Flee with no second thoughts. Flee and don't ever look behind. Sadly for the Scarlet King and the Heartcram King, their speed fell short.

Dark currents poured from the Dark Blood King, racing through the heavens like a swelling wave. Before a single breath could pass, the shadows engulfed both monarchs entirely.

The shift occurred in a flash.

One instant, they hovered far over the Ocean of the Blood Sun.

The next, an utterly alien realm surrounded them.

It stretched into infinity—a pitch-black emptiness, hushed and without end. No heavens above, no earth below, no edges in sight. Just shadows extending everywhere.

Subtle luminous circles pulsed through the void, resembling quiet warps in the fabric of space. Shattered remnants and wandering scraps drifted without purpose, crumbling bit by bit into oblivion.

The instant Cain entered, a crushing wave of loneliness overwhelmed his spirit and essence.

Yet that marked merely the start.

On reflex, he attempted to inhale for calm.

Air was absent.

His torso failed to expand. His lungs grasped at emptiness.

Shocked, he parted his lips—but silence reigned. Not a whisper of resonance stirred in this realm.

Cain's eyes contracted sharply.

Total disconnection washed over him.

Isolated from reality itself.

Glancing below, he spotted a dim echo of his form on a layer of inky fluid underfoot. But moment by moment, that reflection dulled... vanishing, as though his being itself blurred into insignificance.

The Scarlet King wasn't alone in his turmoil.

Nearby, Abraham froze in place, his gaze betraying raw dread.

Ice crystals crept over his flesh.

This domain sapped warmth from him at a terrifying pace. The chill transcended the flesh—it was profound, intrinsic.

Should it seize an Alpha-Omega Overgod, it might ensnare a star.

"This is my Ancestor Domain," a voice resounded across the void, "the purest and highest expression of my Ancestor Power."

The pair of kings lifted their stares.

The Dark Blood King drifted down gradually from the gloom overhead, commanding this desolate expanse like its sovereign.

A profound terror seized their cores.

Earlier, his might had been formidable—lethally so—but resistance remained possible.

Now...

Utter subjugation pinned them down.

"This power allows me to overwrite the laws and rules," the voice pressed on with serene composure, "and forge a world where I reign absolute."

The words didn't originate from the silhouette overhead.

They arose from the rear.

Shock widened Cain and Abraham's eyes. His shift had evaded all detection.

The Dark Blood King now loomed at their backs.

"This power allows me to break the limits of the Third Realm," he went on, voice icy and unyielding, "and reveal a fragment of the Fourth."

He lifted his arm.

The domain's shadows gathered toward his grasp, condensing into a thick orb of blazing obscurity.

"You have the strength to call yourselves kings within the Dark Blood Realm," he stated. "But I must determine whether you possess the power to stand as generals in the battles to come."

Cain and Abraham remained clueless about those conflicts.

They harbored zero desire to serve as his commanders.

Yet clearly, their views held no weight.

The strike would descend regardless of their will.

Survival alone lay within reach.

Both monarchs unleashed their full might. Bloodlines ignited, souls thundered, and presences swelled to utmost heights.

The Dark Blood King observed patiently.

Only at their power's climax did he act.

He drove his palm ahead.

In a blink, twin colossal hands of fiery shadow formed. They bypassed all barriers of range, dimension, and duration—manifesting straight before Cain and Abraham in under a splinter of time.

Abraham's gaze bulged.

For the first occasion ever, mortality loomed so near.

Without pause, his frame burst open, morphing into a turbulent sea. Torrents of fluid core rushed every way precisely as the shadow hand crashed down.

Upon impact, obliterating force rippled through him.

It went beyond ruin.

It nullified.

His essence grew unstable. His shape started to fray. Even his spirit seemed to fracture, as if his core identity edged toward quiet erasure.

Abraham bellowed in his mind.

His watery form swelled with escalating vigor, bending the assault's framework. Simultaneously, he scattered the ruinous force away, repelling it from his center and diffusing it across the nearby void.

The clash unfolded in one frozen moment.

The onslaught proved so dominant that Abraham couldn't spare a glance at Cain.

All he caught was a vast burst of fiery shadow swallowing the Scarlet King's spot.

Then—

The domain dissolved.

The emptiness fractured.

The following instant, the trio rematerialized amid the skies over the Ocean of the Blood Sun.

Abraham's breaths came in gasps. His form quaked without control as the brush with doom sank in.

"I used everything... even my strongest defensive Ancestor Art... and my body and soul nearly collapsed."

He gradually swiveled toward Cain's location.

There lingered only a globe of fiery shadow.

"He was strong," Abraham mused darkly. "But still young. There's no way he developed a defensive Ancestor Art capable of surviving that."

Right as resignation to the Scarlet King's end set in—

The shadow scattered.

Abraham's eyes bulged once more.

Cain remained there.

Breathing.

Wholly intact.

Even the Dark Blood King betrayed a hint of astonishment.

Encircling the Scarlet King floated a golden lotus bearing thirty-three petals, certain ones blazing with might while others scarcely showed. The bloom shielded him devotedly, its glow repulsing the lingering traces of destructive shadow.

Then—

"CRACK."

The lotus crumbled.

Its strength depleted.

Cain's expression held no grin.

He had just deployed The Flow's mightiest shield technique.

But the toll had drained him dry.

His reserves neared void. His frame rang empty, his spirit stretched to breaking.

Should the fight press on—

The Scarlet King grasped the reality. Death awaited him surely.