Very quickly, night befell on the whole planet. The encroaching darkness and the terrifying chill brought with it made every human shiver in fear.

Even some of the higher beings like Taliya, Astrith, and Randuin were affected. People started panicking and officials and higher-ups started issuing orders to solve this disaster, however, no matter which technology or spell they used, the darkness dominated everything.

Everyone turned blind as they could see nothing but total darkness. Their spines shivered and the fragile ones fell unconscious. The center of this catastrophe was turning more and more dangerous.

Arthur was shouting loudly as he held his head with both of his hands and banged it on the ground. His emotions were rampaging and the chains inside his consciousness were getting more active than ever before.

In response to this, his dark blade, Makaze, was showing signs of awakening. It started emitting deep growls as it vibrated intensely inside its sheath.

Even without his consent, the blade got out of Zodiak's ring and floated vertically above its master.

All the sound was isolated and Arthur's rationality was slowly but surely fading away. He knew that if he were to erupt now, planet Earth would disappear from existence.

A single Rizaki that uses all of his power could obliterate it, so if he were to go on a rampage while throwing a bunch of powerful skills, no one could predict the outcome.

Arthur tried his best to calm himself but seeing how Claudia suddenly died and the unquenchable thirst for revenge and satisfaction has yet to be fulfilled, he couldn't help but become angrier.

If he can't get rid of it then he must contain it. Arthur started reciting the verses of the Dark Anguish Technique in hope of restraining the leaking power.

'Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires."

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills,

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.'

Surprisingly, this caused the darkness that covered the whole planet to start weakening and concentrating not on Arthur but on his blade, Makaze.

The mix of two energy divided itself, half of it melted into the blade and the other fused with Arthur. After merely five minutes, Arthur managed to get rid of the darkness and dark fog that spread in all corners of Earth.

However, his current state didn't look so good as his face was very pale and he was uncontrollably shaking.

Without any hesitation, he stood up and grabbed the floating Makaze. After examining it for a few seconds, he walked up to the worried Lucy and stretched his hand, handing the blade whilst saying

"There's no time. I need to change places otherwise everyone will surely perish. Remember, no matter what happens, don't let go of that blade."

After he said that, his form disappeared as he entered an ominous-looking dark Spatial tunnel. He didn't even wait for her confirmation as he knew she could the job.

The problem was that the second Arthur disappeared, the dark blade reacted violently. It vibrated intensely and tried to leave Lucy's hands and follow after Arthur.

Having absorbed half of the Pure Dark Mana and Death Energy that covered the Earth, the blade became stronger than ever despite being broken.

Lucy snorted and activated her special physique along with the cultivation technique thus causing half of the blade to turn into ice. This didn't last long as it shattered in a matter of seconds only to be frozen right after.

This process continued for a long while before the blade finally reacted fiercer than ever before. A big pillar of dark light descended from above and landed on Lucy and Makaze. The blade shook between her fingers and tried to break free from her iron grip.

Unfortunately, Lucy wasn't this easily defeated. Beautiful crystalline lotuses started appearing around them, pushing away the darkness and subduing the enraged blade.

Each second that passed, the blade becomes stronger and Lucy only wanted to hold it and not destroy it which is why she can't use powerful and destructive attacks. She just made use of her special physique to counter the Dark Mana and the Death Energy.

Three streaks of light flashed across the skies and landed next to Lucy. It was none other than the undead lizard, the lightning wolf and the demon, Taliya.

They didn't need to talk to understand what's going on. As they saw how Lucy was holding the blade which shook violently and was even forcing her to move, they unhesitantly joined hands.

Large waves of black flames covered the skies and instantly got rid of the pillar of dark light that has already corroded the whole area and turned it into a land of darkness where literally no light exists.

Astrith followed right after as blue lightning wrapped around Lucy's body, strengthening her physical body and giving her more strength to resist the blade. He also took a smaller form and bit down the other edge of the blade, trying to hold it down.

Taliya, the weakest one, couldn't directly hold the blade as it would kill her since she's too low-leveled, however, she didn't stay still.

She appeared behind Lucy and started providing her with large amounts of Mana. Although Lucy's Mana Pool was mind-blowingly big, any bit of Mana provided from exterior sources is always welcome, especially in this situation.

......

Arthur, who took a special Spatial Tunnel, arrived almost instantaneously to Astria. He spent his last bit of rationality to contain the power and come here. At least Astria is way bigger than Earth and if he erupts in the middle of nowhere, like the area where the Human Continent was used to be, there will be no casualties.

The second he arrived on Astria, Arthur had lost all rationality and was only controlled by his accumulated anger and rage.

It was like a ticking bomb has gone off, the range of this darkness was truly terrifying. Even the strong barrier of the World Tree wasn't spared as the world turned into a mass of darkness.

This phenomenon even reached the forgotten continent which is not only quite far away from the rest, it's even protected by an illusion barrier that was useless against the dominating darkness.

Fortunately, this only lasted for a few seconds before a more domineering force washed away all the darkness as if it was some dirt. Moreover, this force even got rid of the nuclear after-effects and the poison caused by the Divine fight.

A distance away from Arthur, there was a floating figure which assessed him with an interested look and a smirk on his face.

The man in a weird white and red outfit played with a deck of cards and randomly picked three cards then gazed at them with an almost shining pair of eyes.

"Hmmmmm 7♦ Strength, 2♣ combat ability and..... King of Spades growth. Hahahahahahahahaha, this is going to be so fun!"

As he was going to shift back his attention to Arthur, a fist came flying down at him with a monstrous strength accumulated in it. The sheer pressure cracked the space and caused the winds to rage violently.