CLANG!

The sound was not like two swords hitting each other. It sounded like a massive mountain cracking in half. Kairos met Dyrroth in the center of the valley. The dull silver blade, Asteria, clashed against the massive black edge of Darkikor.

The impact shockwave was devastating, blowing away the falling gray ash and cleared a fifty yard circle of dirt. The solid rock beneath their boots spider-webbed, shattering into hundreds of jagged cracks. Kairos gritted his teeth. His arms shook vehemently.

He had a base strength stat of 88. He had swung a sword in a dark basement until his hands bled to build his raw muscle. He had easily overpowered aberrations and crushed Black Mist Knights, but Dyrroth was not a normal monster. He was a General. He was the Rumbling Beast. The weight pressing down on Kairos’ sword was monstrous. It felt like trying to hold up a falling castle.

"You are strong for a tiny human," Dyrroth growled softly, leaning his twelve foot frame forward. The demon warlord’s shimmering eyes burned with malice, "but your bones are still made of glass."

Dyrroth didn’t just push down. He twisted his thick wrists. The cursed black greatsword, Darkikor, scraped harshly against Asteria. A sudden burst of dark magic erupted from the black blade. It hit Kairos in the chest like a cannonball. Kairos was thrown backward. He skidded roughly across the broken rocks, his travel boots digging steep trenches into the ground to stop his skidding. He finally stopped twenty feet away, his arms numb from the impact.

He didn’t have time to catch his breath. Dyrroth was huge, but he was not slow. The tall demon instantly blurred in motion, crossing the twenty feet of empty space in a fraction of a second.

"Die!" Dyrroth roared, swinging Darkikor in a brutal, horizontal arc aimed at Kairos’ waist.

Kairos relied on his 95 Agility. He didn’t try to block the massive attack. He bent his knees and dropped to the ground, sliding under the black blade. The massive greatsword missed him, but it struck the solid rock pillar standing behind him. The volcanic stone was severed in half. The top of the pillar slid off and crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of red dust.

Kairos quickly stomped his hands on the dirt, kicked his legs up, and flipped backward, creating distance. He looked at the dark sword in Dyrroth’s hands. He noticed something was wrong. When Dyrroth swung the weapon, the dark magic didn’t just stay on the metal. It bled out into the air. A fragile, trailing shadow followed the blade, acting like a secondary sword. Even though Kairos had successfully dodged the actual metal, the trailing shadow had grazed his hip.

Kairos looked down. A shallow, bleeding cut was torn through his dark tunic. The cut burned terribly. It wasn’t normal pain. The cursed dark magic from the sword was trying to eat the divine holy light running through his blood.

"You cannot dodge the dark, little boy!" Dyrroth laughed, a rumbling sound that shook the ash from the sky.

The demon General lunged forward again. He moved with a relentless rhythm. He brought Darkikor down in an overhead chop. Kairos triggered the Primordial Law in his blood. He focused his mind, creating a tight, ten-foot bubble of frozen gray space in front of him. The demon entered the bubble.

Usually, the moment an enemy crossed the boundary of Kairos’ time lock, they turned into a rigid statue. Their movement dies, and they are helpless. But Dyrroth did not freeze entirely. The cursed greatsword, Darkikor, reacted to the time magic. The black blade absorbed the light and magic around it. As the sword entered the gray bubble, it began to eat the divine energy holding the time stop together.

Dyrroth slowed down immensely. He looked like he was moving through thick mud. But he did not stop moving. Kairos’s silver eyes widened in pure shock. The Warlord was resisting the Primordial Law.

"Your light is weak!" Dyrroth roared slowly, forcing his muscles to fight the pressure.

Kairos couldn’t stand there. If the Warlord broke the bubble, the overhead chop would cleave him in half. Kairos canceled the time lock to save his energy. The world snapped back to normal speed. He darted to the left, tightly gripping Asteria with both hands. He swung his dull silver sword, aiming a brutal, lightning strike at the back of Dyrroth’s thick knee.

CLANG!

Asteria struck the demon’s leg. But it didn’t cut cleanly through. Dyrroth’s dark gray skin was literally as hard as solid iron. The dull blade only managed to carve a shallow gash into the muscle. Dyrroth didn’t even flinch. He ignored the cut on his leg. He vehemently spun his body around, bringing the flat side of Darkikor slamming into Kairos’ ribs.

The impact was catastrophic. Kairos heard his ribs loudly crack. All the air was forced out of his burning lungs. He was launched through the air like a broken ragdoll, flying more than fifty feet across the battlefield. He crashed into the dry ground, tumbling wildly before slamming into a boulder.

"Kairos!" Seyana screamed from the distant ridge.

She took a desperate step forward, raising her silver rapier. The warm golden light shone around her body. She wanted to run down there and help him. She wanted to fight the demon warlord.

"Stay back, Your Highness!" Karl shouted, throwing his arm out to block the princess.

The old Zephyros General was breathing sharply, his leather armor was broken, but his lone dark eye was fixed on the brutal duel.

"He is getting slaughtered, Karl!" Ignis yelled, trying to step forward, a spark of blue fire jumping across his fingers. "That monster is ignoring his time magic! We have to help him!"

"If you step into that fight, Dyrroth will chop your head off in one second," Karl stated, his rough voice carrying authority. "That demon is a warlord. He is nearly an equal to the King of Demons. You cannot fight him. Your magic is too weak."

"But Kairos is losing!" Terravarous argued, his diamond fists clenching in anger.

"The boy is learning," Karl corrected him. He didn’t look away from his son’s broken body resting against the boulder. "He has relied on his speed and his time stops to win his fights. But you cannot trick a Warlord. You have to break them. Let the boy fight his own war. We hold the horde."

Karl was right. The demon horde had not entirely stopped fighting. Seeing the human boy take a massive hit, the surrounding demons regained their courage. They shrieked loudly, swarming forward to attack the Arena Champions again.

Veldra Dracortis spun his halberd, creating a wave of freezing water to push them back. "Keep the line tight! Do not let them reach the Princess! Give Kairos the space he needs!"

Down in the dirt, Kairos slowly opened his eyes, his vision was blurry. The left side of his chest burned with terrible agony. He could feel the broken bone pressing against his lung every single time he took a shallow breath. His base 82 Endurance was the only reason he was not dead. He pushed his callused hands against the dirt. His arms shook wildly, but he slowly forced himself to his feet. He spat a mouthful of dark red blood onto the gray ash, and slowly looked up.

Dyrroth, The Rumbling Beast, was walking slowly toward him. The demon warlord rested the black greatsword on his broad shoulder. He looked bored.

"You bleed exactly like a mortal," Dyrroth mocked, his yellow eyes filled with cruel disappointment. "I thought you were a god, but you are just another fragile piece of meat holding a broken toy."

Kairos tightened his grip on Asteria, his mind racing. The Warlord was right. Kairos was losing. His base physical stats were monstrous compared to a normal human, but they were nothing compared to a warlord. Dyrroth was stronger, his skin was harder, and his cursed sword ate Kairos’ time magic. If Kairos kept fighting like a normal swordsman, trying to dodge and counterattack, Dyrroth was going to break every single bone in his body.

"My sword is not a toy," Kairos said quietly. His voice was ragged, but it still carried the commanding resonance.

"Then swing it harder," Dyrroth challenged.

The warlord suddenly dropped his casual posture. He gripped Darkikor with both hands and rushed forward. The ground shook with every thudding step. He slashed the black sword down, intending to crush Kairos and the boulder behind him into pure dust.

Kairos didn’t try to stop time. He knew the cursed blade would just cut through the frozen bubble again. He waited until the last second. He used his 95 Agility to side-step the attack.

BOOM!

Darkikor obliterated the large boulder. The volcanic rock exploded, sending shrapnel flying everywhere. Kairos didn’t retreat. He stepped into the cloud of rock dust. He swung Asteria in an upward thrust, aiming for the small gap in the iron plating strapped across Dyrroth’s waist.

The dull silver blade bit into the demon’s side. Dyrroth let out an angry growl. He ripped his body away from the blade, taking a shallow cut, and swung his left fist in a brutal backhand.

Kairos ducked under the massive fist. He spun on his heel and slashed again, scoring another shallow cut across the back of the warlord’s thick calf.

He was moving fast. He was a blur of dark motion. He struck the demon in quiet succession, but it was useless. The cuts were too shallow. The iron blade simply couldn’t bite deeply enough through the warlord’s hardened dark skin, and the moment Kairos pulled his sword away, the demon’s rapid regeneration kicked in. The shallow cuts hissed and sealed shut. Dyrroth wasn’t even bleeding. He was just getting annoyed.

"You are just an annoying fly!" Dyrroth roared.

The Warlord stopped swinging his sword. He stomped his massive boot into the dirt.

RUMBLEE!!

A sudden wave of dark magic erupted from his body. Kairos couldn’t dodge it. The invisible shockwave slammed into him, throwing his balance off and sending him stumbling backward. Before Kairos could recover, Dyrroth lunged forward. The warlord didn’t use the sword. He shot his massive left hand out and grabbed Kairos by the throat.

Kairos gasped loudly, dropping Asteria. The iron sword fell to the dirt. Dyrroth lifted Kairos off the ground. The demon’s fingers wrapped around Kairos’s neck, slowly squeezing the life out of him. Kairos kicked his boots wildly, struggling to break the iron grip. He grabbed the demon’s armored wrist with both hands, using all of his 88 Strength to try and pry the fingers open, but it was impossible. The warlord’s grip was like a massive steel vice.

"I am going to pop your head off, little boy," Dyrroth whispered, bringing Kairos’ face close to his own ugly, horned snout, "and then I am going to eat the awakened princess."

Kairos’s vision began to darken at the edges. His lungs screamed for oxygen. The broken rib in his chest burned with agony. He looked down at his own hands gripping the demon’s wrist. He saw the shimmering silver veins thumping weakly under his skin.

He remembered Librarian Jovian’s completely harsh words in the ruined temple.

You must stop using the System, Kairos. You must become the system.

Kairos suddenly realized his massive mistake. He had been treating the Primordial Law like a simple spell. He was trying to cast time bubbles while fighting a brawl. He was separating his sword skills from his divine magic, but a god did not cast spells. A god commands reality.

Kairos stopped kicking. He stopped trying to pry the warlord’s fingers open. He let his hands drop to his sides. He hung limply in the demon’s massive grip.

Dyrroth frowned, his yellow eyes confused by the sudden surrender. "Giving up?"

Kairos slowly opened his eyes. The silver light burning in his irises changed. It erupted. It flared with a terrifying intensity that pushed back the dark shadows cast by the warlord. Kairos didn’t try to freeze a ten-foot bubble in the air. He entirely turned his dominion inward. He didn’t stop time. He focused the crushing weight of the Primordial Law into his own body.

"No," Kairos whispered, his voice echoing with the weight of a collapsed universe. "I am just done playing your game."