Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 219: How dare you bastard

"Honestly? I’d rather not," Vale said.

Thane shuddered as he realized he had miscalculated. He should have come more prepared or not at all. The only thing that still made him hesitant to continue was that his regeneration was second only to a healer’s.

And the target was still within his blood domain. "...I just have to exploit his blind spot... yes... that’s it..."

He raised his beaded necklace, and every bead flashed red, glowing blood red. The air tightened, and the domain shook slightly as it constricted, growing smaller around Vale.

Vale grunted as his body was squeezed tighter, as if he were in a giant’s hand. He watched in amusement as Thane began to walk around him as if he were a monster being held back by a thin rope.

"Are you trying to get to my blind spot?" Vale mocked.

But the bald man didn’t answer. Instead, he raised his hand to let his blood form into a small knife. The sword he had created earlier had been burned away.

The blood knife floated toward Vale, and his body moved without his command. His hand raised, and he snatched the knife out of the air.

Vale struggled, but it was as if he wasn’t even in his own body as it moved. He began to raise the knife to his throat. His eyes widened as he understood what Thane was trying to do. "Seriously? I can just burn this away."

And he did just that, but the knife didn’t burn as the red fire washed over it. Although it shrank a little, it wouldn’t completely burn away before it did its job.

Thane nodded in satisfaction. "Good, good. I used a lot of essence in that one, and with the domain strengthening it, you can’t easily damage it."

He waited to see the fear in Vale’s eyes as the blade was about to touch his neck, but he only found a smile twisting his lips. "I know a thing or two about using essence in excess."

Then, in his mind, Vale began to make a formation. It was a strange one, drawn with lots of intricate lines. He didn’t use it often, but since he had advanced some of his techniques and formations, he decided he liked the new upgrade.

He finished drawing it, checked it once to make sure it was correct, then filled it with essence. Suddenly, the room darkened, and the blood domain that surrounded him vanished.

Thane froze. "What did you do?"

Vale didn’t reply. He took his hand away from his neck and dropped the blood knife, then shook out his body, flexing his hands and legs in a test. "Good. I can move."

The domain that had been restricting him was gone, replaced by something else. They were still in the room, but it was now overlapped by something entirely different. "What did I do? I dragged you into a domain of my own... maybe."

The technique he had just used was Infernal Prison, part of the Infernal Imprisonment ability.

The room was now shadowed by illusionary walls of black stone and red light that formed bars.

"Welcome to my prison!"

It was a small space that could be used to trap opponents, or in this case, cut them off from interference from the outside world. It wasn’t something that could be easily broken, from the outside or the inside.

It also had the effect of weakening the trapped opponent and placing a small suppression on their essence, while Vale would become even stronger inside the prison.

It was also a setup for another technique that could only be used within the Infernal Prison.

Vale had taken a liking to it the moment he saw it, and it was part of the first technique he had learned. He liked the idea of trapping targets together with himself.

Thane took a step back from Vale. He was now absolutely convinced that he had made a mistake in trying to kill this man.

"...This is a monster... they should have sent more assassins... no... Master Knights... I have to get out of here..."

Instead of facing Vale, he turned to the translucent walls of the prison. He raised his hand, and red blood gathered, turning into a lance that glowed with red light. Thane poured his essence into the lance, so much so that the blood weapon flared and twisted.

Then he threw it.

Bam!

The lance connected with a crack that shook the prison. The translucent wall cracked where the attack hit, but it didn’t shatter as Thane had expected.

He raised his hand to create another lance, but then he saw a flash of red, and his right hand hit the ground with a thud.

"What?"

He stared down at his own hand on the floor. Then the pain hit, and he howled, reeling back. But he was an experienced assassin, and the blood that had been gushing quickly flowed upward, forming into a bow.

He turned to Vale and pulled back an arrow, all made of hardened blood. "You bastard, how dare you!"

His gentle expression was gone, replaced by a feral look, like a beast cornered.

Vale stared at him coldly, and his essence pressure filled the prison, unfurling like an unseen weight. The sheer force of it slammed into Thane, sending him crashing to the ground. His bow crumbled.

"No! No! Impossible! You can’t be this powerful! It’s not possible!" Thane struggled against the weight, throwing his own strength against it, but he was crushed.

Vale’s eyes burned with green fire, and he walked closer to the man. "In what world do you think you can kill me? I’m disappointed because you did not make this worth it, and I went through all this trouble to prepare for you."

It seemed Thane’s will had been broken. He had been an assassin all his life, a strong one who was always a good judge of his opponent’s strength. He was a predator who knew what type of prey to hunt, and he had never failed once he found prey he could kill.

But not this time. Everything had been flipped on its head. The prey he was hunting had turned out to be a predator with a maw large enough to swallow him whole.

It was the first time in his life he had been in this type of situation, and he was left broken. He had never had to run from an opponent once the hunt began. But now...

Vale’s lips curled in disgust. "Time to die."