Chapter 12: Domain

The Fire Demon saw the distant sea and hesitated in its steps.

When it wanted to give up the chase, Yang Yi punched it hard in the face, reigniting its hatred.

When it wanted to roar, Yang Yi sealed its mouth with telekinesis, letting missiles explode on its body, leaving it riddled with a thousand holes.

The Fire Demon grew angrier; it realized that the ant flying in the sky was the source of all its humiliation, making it powerful yet unable to unleash its strength, leaving it utterly frustrated.

It was somewhat afraid of the sea, but anger overwhelmed its reason; its steps hesitated only for an instant before it immediately resumed chasing the loathsome little insect in the sky.

Yang Yi was not as focused as she appeared; while luring it toward the trap, she imagined aimlessly: Where did it come from? What race is it? Does their race have cultural heritage? What is their world like...

She even developed the illusion that it was quite unlucky too.

Think about it: it simply followed a nonsensical passage to a strange place, discovered a group of ant-like creatures; for a large race possessing such great power like itself, naturally it would ignore these small beings, just as humans do not notice ant hills under their feet while walking.

Then it was attacked by this group of ants.

Perhaps it was still thinking, Damn, why do these ants possess such immense power! Why are they attacking me?

Thinking of this, Yang Yi felt strange: Why am I empathizing with a monster?

She wanted to laugh. The strange sense of panic in her heart dispersed somewhat.

As soon as the Fire Demon stepped onto the seaside, the seawater immediately flowed and climbed onto its body like a living thing, freezing; this was the joint masterpiece of awakened ones from Xia Country and Arc Country. Arc Country even deployed three B-rank and seven C-rank water-controlling awakened ones, and this was under urgent time constraints.

Director Zhou was shocked by their awakening rate—theoretically, awakenings are random; the larger the population of a country, the more awakened ones exist.

Although Arc Country is vast in territory and resources with powerful military, its population has never been an advantage; the fact that it could deploy so many water-controlling awakened ones at once under urgent circumstances, does this not indicate that they have surpassed most countries in the research on awakened ones? At least in the research on how to stimulate ordinary people to awaken, they have surpassed most countries.

Recalling the human experimentation footage played by Wade Davis at the United Nations venue—almost all of it was orchestrated behind the scenes by Arc Country, Director Zhou felt heavy at heart.

————

Yang Yi felt very heavy at heart at this moment.

After luring the Fire Demon to the seaside, she stopped; she left the rest to Arc Country, after all, this was their home ground.

She stood nearby, ready to provide support at any time.

Although the Fire Demon possessed a certain degree of intelligence, the place it lived was clearly a high-temperature environment; it was highly likely afraid of water and low temperatures. If the space rift leading to Earth faced a deep sea or the Antarctic or Arctic on the other side, perhaps humans wouldn't even need to act; it would weaken and die on its own due to inability to adapt to the environment.

"Cold... pain..."

Yang Yi seemed to hear a low voice screaming; this voice had a strange tone and rhythm, carrying an ancient, wild aura.

She thought she had misheard, yet that wailing voice still echoed beside her ears.

She originally should not have understood this language, yet she simply understood it.

Yang Yi's hand hanging by her side paused for a moment; she looked down, where the Fire Demon was struggling in the frozen sea created by the awakened ones.

Everything below its waist was frozen solid, shivering violently; that fiery, violent strength seemed frozen too, like a tree stump frozen in a lake during winter.

"By the great Asarthe, I curse these damn insects!"

She understood a complete sentence. Asarthe? Why did this name feel somewhat familiar?

This familiarity brought back the panic she had barely driven away; her heart suddenly beat faster. Where had she heard this name? In a book? A hallucination? In some midnight dream from which she suddenly awoke?

No! No! No! She had never heard it!

Then why did it feel familiar?

She kept asking herself, and kept denying it.

She loosened the collar of her shirt; her chest felt somewhat suffocated.

I am just an ordinary person! She told herself: My life trajectory since childhood is traceable; I was born in a small ordinary town in central Xia Country on Earth; I like eating Buddha's hand clams, I like eating seafood; I like the humid air and leisurely life atmosphere of Haibei City; my previous job was a small accountant earning 4,000 monthly; the apartment I rented before was a one-bedroom with a private bathroom and kitchen, monthly rent 1,500; I have a secret base of my own on the seaside cliff of Haibei City; my dream is to be a rich and idle salted fish; I am obsessed with a male star from Arc Country, I like his eyes as blue as the sea; I am now a glorious civil servant eating from the imperial treasury...

This is me, the real me. What Asarthe? I have never heard of it!

She kept persuading herself in her heart; scenes of past life floated before her eyes—those childhood days, those youthful years of a young girl—yet it was those most painful memories that made her feel real, and this reality gradually calmed her down from this inexplicable dread.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, turning her head to look down at the Fire Demon.

For the first time, the Fire Demon felt fear toward these creatures the size of its fingers; it realized that if this continued, it might truly be killed.

It roared wildly, raising a black giant blade with both hands, igniting Xiong Xiong flames; the temperature rapidly shifted from orange-red to yellow-white, then further changed to blue-purple, and it fiercely slashed down at the ice mountain below that had imprisoned it.

The sturdy ice mountain did not even last a second; it was rapidly melted, turning into rising steam that enveloped the Fire Demon's entire body.

The surrounding air temperature suddenly soared; the two Arc Country B-rank awakened ones closest to it were instantly engulfed by the flames, screaming once before turning into two charred corpses. Others retreated one after another, daring not to advance a single step.

Seeing the power of those flames, Yang Yi felt danger for the first time and involuntarily stepped back.

The mist dispersed, revealing the Fire Demon's form; it seemed to have used some secret technique to unleash its potential. Its spirit was somewhat listless, covered in wounds deep enough to see the bone; even its armor was dented by missiles, one horn was missing from its head, and its appearance was utterly miserable.

But no one dared to underestimate it at this moment; if before it possessed the spirituality of an intelligent being, now it was more like a mad beast.

Its eyes were blood-red, its expression violent, holding the blade with both hands as it slashed wildly in all directions.

Before the blade arrived, Xiong Xiong flames came first, and they were blue-purple flames, a color formed only by extremely high temperatures.

The flames plowed a trench twenty to thirty meters deep across the beach; everyone swept by the flames turned to ash and charcoal.

The awakened ones, who moments ago seemed on the verge of victory, suffered heavy casualties.

A vast amount of seawater was evaporated; for several li around, the area was filled with mist formed by water vapor, and the shallow beach was instantly burned into a sheet of glass.

After quite a while, the distant seawater slowly flowed over, covering this glassy ground.

The Fire Demon roared wildly, venting its anger; the sound made the waves churn, coconuts fell from trees, countless leaves rustled down, everyone's ears rang, and a buzzing sound echoed in their brains.

Following its instincts, the Fire Demon rushed wildly toward the crowded areas, waving its flame giant blade; wherever it passed turned into black scorched earth and ash.

It had gone mad.

Yang Yi realized.

The sounds it emitted were now meaningless barking, lacking that unique tone anymore. If it was allowed to go mad like this, the people of Jin Shan would suffer again.

"Requesting support! Requesting support! It is heading toward Jin Shan!"

From a distant armed aircraft, someone was shouting at her through a loudspeaker, speaking half-baked Chinese.

Yang Yi knew this was directed at her; the other party knew her earpiece had been damaged by the Fire Demon's roar.

Recalling Director Zhou's reminders before she came—"act within your means," "do not sacrifice yourself," and the like—she could only give a bitter smile: No matter when or where, those ordinary people are innocent...

She slowly spread her arms; a wordless aura began to extend from her, an invisible force radiating outward with her body as the center.

Wherever her power covered, the seawater ceased to flow;

Wherever her gaze reached, the wind stopped blowing;

Wherever her will arrived, everything turned to stillness;

Within a radius of two or three kilometers centered on her, everything seemed to have hit a pause button: armed aircraft hung suspended in the air, people stared with wide, helpless eyes, their expressions frozen.

The Fire Demon was brandishing its massive blade, sprinting madly toward Jin Shan City; it seemed to sense something, and just as it turned to look back, its body was locked in place, then a soft voice sounded beside its ear.

It could not understand the other's language, but it seemed to feel the sigh within that tone.

"Psychic Coverage — Domain!"

The Fire Demon began to struggle, trying to break free from the bonds of this invisible force, yet with all its immense strength, it could only sway its body slightly before a thicker, more viscous power completely enveloped it.

The Fire Demon finally regained a shred of sanity from its frenzy, its blood-red eyes flowing like molten lava. It recalled the poisonous marshes of its own world; it had heard that those unfortunate enough to fall into the poisonous marshes would sink faster the more they struggled, while those who did not struggle could only watch themselves be slowly swallowed by the mud, waiting desperately for death.

The Fire Demon was like an insect trapped in resin, struggling desperately, yet its final fate seemed already sealed.

Gathering all its strength, it gazed up at the tiny ant in the sky that had restrained it; the flames on the massive blade in its hand flickered uncertainly as it sought to deliver a final blow to its enemy.

Yang Yi simply stood with her arms spread; maintaining the Domain consumed a great deal of spiritual energy, and her complexion was somewhat pale.

She found it somewhat difficult to control such power; normally, when using her psychic ability, it was as natural as moving her own limbs, perfectly responsive. But employing the "Domain" was still a bit of a stretch—as if borrowing someone else's strength.

Every time she used this power, she felt as though her consciousness was being stripped away; a foreign consciousness took over her body, turning her into a machine driven and controlled by an external will.

She did not like this feeling.

Watching the massive flame-blade slowly cleave toward her, she pressed her lips together slightly.

Then, within the Domain, the viscous psychic power suddenly transformed into a thousand threads and ten thousand strands; blood like molten lava splattered, and countless pieces of the Fire Demon's corpse scattered across the ground.

"Asathor has heard my curse; you will all welcome the apocalypse..." In a flash, Yang Yi heard its final dying words.