Online Game: Starting With SSS-Ranked Summons-Chapter 601: The Sealed Demon.

His domain percentages had increased sharply through constant use over the past week. Each activation, each battle, each moment spent within Origin Sanctuary had deepened his connection to second-order power.

The beasts inside his domain grew stronger with each percentage increase. The debuffs applied to enemies intensified. The range expanded dramatically.

His domain could cover a whole city now, and with every percentage increase, that range grew exponentially. What had once been a few hundred meters now stretched for kilometers in every direction.

Arthur stood before the massive sealed gate carved into the mountainside. Ancient runes covered its surface, glowing faintly with power that had contained something catastrophic for decades.

The previous knight had died creating this seal, sacrificing everything to prevent the entity within from rampaging through the village and beyond.

But Arthur didn't need sacrifice. He had something the previous knight hadn't possessed—second-order spatial manipulation.

Arthur activated his Space domain, the air around him distorting as Space (SSS) granted him authority over dimensional fabric far exceeding normal capabilities. His talent glowed with power, the 25% mastery giving him control precise enough to manipulate reality on fundamental levels.

He reached out with spatial senses, feeling the structure of the seal. It was elegant work—layers upon layers of dimensional locks, energy bindings that existed partially outside conventional space-time, sacrificial anchors tied to the dead knight's life force.

Impressive. But ultimately insufficient against someone who could simply... rewrite the rules.

Arthur gripped the fabric of space surrounding the seal and ripped.

The restrictions tore away with ease, centuries of magic undone in seconds as Arthur's overwhelming power simply overrode the previous knight's sacrifice. Dimensional locks shattered. Energy bindings dissolved. Sacrificial anchors broke like rotten rope.

The massive gate began to open, ancient mechanisms grinding as containment failed completely.

Darkness poured from the widening gap—not natural shadow, but malevolent presence that had been compressed and confined for decades. The temperature dropped sharply as something ancient and terrible began emerging from its prison.

Arthur stood calmly, watching as he freed the demon prince that had been sealed inside.

The darkness pouring from the widening gap intensified, malevolent presence flooding the mountainside with palpable evil. Then, from within the ancient prison, came laughter.

Cackling, manic laughter that echoed across the mountain with terrible joy.

"FINALLY! FINALLY FREE!" The voice boomed with triumphant glee, distorted and inhuman. "Decades of clawing at those pathetic bindings! Decades of slowly eroding the fool knight's sacrifice! And at last, the seal breaks!"

A massive figure emerged from the darkness, easily twelve feet tall, muscular frame covered in crimson scales that gleamed like fresh blood. Curved horns spiraled from its skull, and its eyes burned with intensity. This was no ordinary demon.

The demon prince stretched luxuriously, joints popping as confined muscles finally moved freely after decades of imprisonment. His claws flexed, each one capable of rending steel like paper.

"Freedom tastes sweet," Azgorath rumbled, surveying his surroundings with predatory satisfaction. "Time to remind this pathetic world what true terror—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his burning eyes finally registering Arthur's presence.

A human. Standing calmly before the broken seal. Alone. Watching with an expression that carried neither fear nor awe.

Azgorath blinked with confusion, then his face split into a horrifying grin that revealed rows of serrated teeth.

"A human?" The demon prince's voice dripped with savage delight. "How long has it been since I've tasted human flesh? Too long."

He licked his lips with a forked tongue, saliva dripping from his maw as hunger overwhelmed caution.

"What fortune! My first meal upon freedom will be..."

Azgorath didn't finish the sentence. His massive body launched forward with supernatural speed, claws extended, jaws opening wide to devour the foolish human.

"A human."

The demon prince crossed half the distance in a heartbeat, moving faster than most eyes could track, his power propelling him with devastating momentum. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Arthur didn't move.

He simply activated his domain.

Reality snapped into place around them with crushing authority. The demon prince's charge stopped instantly, as if he'd slammed into an invisible wall made of solidified space itself.

Azgorath's eyes widened with shock as spatial manipulation pinned him in place, his entire massive body frozen mid-lunge. His claws were inches from Arthur's face, close enough that Arthur could feel the heat radiating from demonic flesh.

But those final inches might as well have been miles.

"What... what is this?!" Azgorath snarled, straining against invisible bonds that refused to budge. "No human should possess such an elem—"

Understanding crashed through his consciousness like ice water. The domain. The overwhelming spatial authority. Theease with which this "human" had stopped a legendary-rank demon prince mid-charge.

"You're not a normal human," Azgorath growled, "You're... the new knight? The one who replaced that fool who sealed me?"

His demonic pride refused to accept complete defeat. If this was another legendary warrior, then he still had options. He still had power.

Azgorath activated his own domain.

Crimson Devastation

Fire erupted around them, demonic energy attempting to assert authority that would counter the spatial manipulation. The temperature spiked to volcanic levels as Azgorath's domain struggled against Arthur's second-order control.

For exactly three seconds, the two domains clashed—space versus fire, human versus demon, second-order versus first-order.

Then Azgorath's domain simply... collapsed.

The fire sputtered and died like candle flames in a hurricane. The demonic energy dissipated harmlessly against spatial authority that treated legendary-rank power as minor inconvenience.

Space element dominated fire. Arthur's 25% mastery of an SSS-rank talent overwhelmed a demon prince's strength.

Azgorath's expression shifted from confidence to confusion to dawning horror as his trump card proved utterly worthless.

"Impossible," the demon prince whispered, genuine fear entering his voice for the first time. "Your domain... it's beyond legendary. You're... what are you?"

Arthur's smile was cold and terrible. "Someone who needs information. And you're going to provide it."

He stepped closer to the frozen demon, spatial manipulation allowing him to move freely while Azgorath remained pinned.

"Tell me about the demon hierarchy in your realm. Tell me, why did you attack the villages? What in them did you need?"