The prince watched in horror as the monster survived the commander’s hell-storm spell. The only reason why he hadn’t turned to cinders was that he had a domination grade amulet of fire protection. The monster trapping him within its fangs was completely roasted. Its skin was a charred black, and in several places, one could see white bone. Yet, the glow that surrounded it told him it would be only a matter of time until it would be whole once again.

When the commander saw that his most powerful attack had done nothing, he shouted: “Permission given for Plasma Nova!”

The prince gurgled out laughter as he looked at the monster for the last time. “Save net!”

The creatures didn’t flinch as it was cut off from aether but waited patiently for its prey to come out of hiding. Behind them, the elite palace guards were arrayed in their respective squadrons. All of them snapped off a salute. They would soon find themselves back into their bodies without an aether cultivation. Through his mangled visage, the prince hissed out: “Plasma nova.” while reaching into his body to the heart of his artifact collection.

It was the only known item of domination stage in the entire world and he was immensely proud of that. If he was honest, he had hoped to use the one use only item that promised to lay waste to an entire continent. The monster paused when it heard the words. It channeled its entire aether reserve towards hardening its skin. Before Robert could laugh at the feeble gesture, everything turned white.

The devastation was all-encompassing. A white barrier had formed around his body to protect the user from the blast. Even though that barrier Robert felt how the entire aether pool was pulled in towards him. Within seconds, the gathered power reached a crescendo. The power was released in an enormous shock wave that devastated everything. If the prince hadn’t had the artifact of far sight, he was sure that he would have been blinded by the flash. The earth underneath them rumbled as it was being shaved away like pudding. The prince was pressed so hard into the earth by the blast that several of his ribs broke. The glow settled down to reveal the full extent of the damage, and the barrier around the prince dissolved.

He found himself in an enormous crater a kilometer deep and five kilometers wide. The explosion had revealed a layer of orange rock below the forest soil. What the prince had assumed was the heaven, was revealed to be only a magical moving painting. After the impact, they were spouting little zaps of lightning. All the trees had been uprooted and catapulted far to the back of what had turned out to be an enormous room. In a flash of inspiration, he realized that he was in a giant house with its own ecosystem. When he remembered the monster that named itself Res, he cast about.

To his great chagrin, the only thing left was a charred finger on the ground. When he realized that he had won, the prince cackled and made as if to crush the remaining finger. Suddenly, hundreds of small aether pipes shot out of the extremity and a hand began to grow out of the finger. The prince took a step back when he realized that the monster had lived through a domination-stage explosion. He gathered his strength and delivered an aether fueled kick. It destroyed all the aether pipes and shredded the hand in an instant.

For several moments, the shredded pieces of the hand lay there, motionless. Accompanied by an abrupt jerk of the biggest piece of flesh, tubes shot out once again. The prince shot one lightning after another at everything that moved. Still, the body’s reconstructing continued. Not knowing how to cope with the situation, the prince sat down to stare at the unfolding horror. After only a minute, that monster was standing once again before him as if nothing had happened. Experimentally, it moved its shoulders and grimaced at him: “That hurt.”

Robert had always prided himself on being immune to horror. He had watched beheadings and torture from a young age. But this … The creature slowly walked towards him and he was paralyzed by its menacing gate. The monster’s right hand balled into a fist and he unconsciously touched his right cheek. Before he could react, his view was engulfed by the view of his doom.

*SPLAT*