The Sinful Young Master

Chapter 372: Battle against the Frost Maiden -1

There was no dodging this. No blocking it. The attack was designed to be an absolute, overwhelming force from every vector at the same time.

Jolthar's eyes closed for just a fraction of a second.

When they opened, something had changed. His aura shifted, deepened, and became less like a pressure and more like an absence—as if a hole had opened in reality where he stood.

"Blade of the Forgotten Void," he said quietly.

Knashii erupted with silver energy.

The void patterns along its length blazed with anti-light, and the sword itself seemed to grow, stretching beyond its physical dimensions into something that existed partially in normal space and partially in that empty place between existence.

Jolthar swung the blade in a single horizontal arc.

The void energy that emanated from the strike didn't destroy the ice blades—it erased them. They simply ceased to exist as the wave of absolute nothing passed through them. The attack continued outward, carving a line across the battlefield that left a trench of perfectly smooth emptiness in its wake.

Tamnarasi barely managed to dive to the side, the void wave passing so close that part of her armor simply vanished where it touched. She rolled to her feet, breathing hard now, staring at the evidence of what Jolthar's power could do.

"That's... that's void manipulation," she said, genuine surprise in her voice.

"You...what are you?"

"I told you," Jolthar replied, his voice still calm but carrying an edge now, "you can't touch me."

Tamnarasi's expression hardened.

"We'll see about that."

She raised her sword above her head with both hands, and her aura exploded to its absolute maximum. The frozen domain intensified until the air itself began to crystallize. Ice formed in increasingly complex patterns—fractals and geometric shapes that hurt to look at directly, as if they existed in more dimensions than the eye could process.

"Eternal Glacier Empress—Final Form!"

Her body became partially encased in ice armor that made her previous power look restrained. She moved, and the speed was incredible—faster than before, enhanced by the ice reducing friction to absolute zero. Her strikes came like a blizzard, dozens per second, each one carrying enough force to demolate buildings.

Jolthar was forcefully on the defensive for the first time. His sword moved in patterns of deflection and parry, his telekinesis working overtime to redirect attacks he couldn't physically block. The ground around him was churned into rubble by the sheer intensity of the assault.

But he was analyzing, learning, and waiting for the opening he knew would come.

Because power this intense couldn't be maintained indefinitely.

Even Tamnarasi had limits.

There was a fractional hesitation in her rhythm as her stamina began to flag.

Jolthar's free hand shot out, and his telekinesis grabbed Tamnarasi mid-strike. She froze in place, her eyes widening as an invisible force clamped down on her entire body. She struggled, pouring power into breaking free, and after a moment she did—but that moment was all Jolthar needed.

He closed the distance while she was off-balance from breaking his hold.

"Abyssal Void Storm of Ascent," he said, and thrust Knashii forward.

The sword didn't pierce her armor.

Instead, it unleashed a spiraling vortex of void energy that erupted upward from the point of contact. The spiral consumed everything it touched—ice, armor, matter itself—creating a pillar of absolute nothing that ascended into the sky like a reverse waterfall.

Tamnarasi was caught in it, her ice armor shattering under the assault, her body lifted off the ground and spun violently within the void storm. When it dissipated, she crashed back to earth, her armor cracked and broken in multiple places, blood seeping from cuts where the armor had failed.

She tried to stand, struggled to her knees, and managed to raise her sword one more time.

"I'm... not... finished..." she gasped, but her arms were shaking.

Jolthar walked toward her slowly, Knashii held in a relaxed grip.

"Yes, you are."

She lunged at him with the last of her strength, a final desperate strike aimed at his throat.

Jolthar moved.

"Dance of the Void's Embrace."

His form seemed to multiply, or perhaps he was moving so fast and precisely that it created afterimages. The technique was beautiful and deadly, a series of strikes that came from impossible angles, each one guided by void energy that bent space itself.

The attacks came from the front, the sides, above, and below, all simultaneously yet somehow in sequence.

Each of his voidwrath attacks changes every time he uses it, adapting to his levels and usage.

Tamnarasi's sword was knocked from her hand. Her armor was struck in seventeen different places in the span of two seconds, each strike perfectly placed to disable without killing. Her knees hit the ground, and she swayed, kept conscious only by her tremendous willpower.

Jolthar stood behind her, his sword at her neck. Not touching, but close enough that she could feel the cold emptiness radiating from the blade.

"You're skilled," he said quietly.

"Very skilled. But I've fought things in the dark places of the world that would give the Emperor himself nightmares. You're not the strongest thing I've faced."

Tamnarasi's breathing was ragged, blood dripping from multiple wounds.

"Kill me then," she said hoarsely. "Better death than this humiliation."

"I'm not going to kill you," Jolthar replied, lowering his sword.

"You were doing your duty as you understood it. I don't kill people for that."

He stepped back, sheathing Knashii.

The void energy dissipated, and suddenly he looked less like an avatar of destruction and more like a tired young man who had just fought a brutal battle.

Tamnarasi remained on her knees, unable to process what had just happened. She had lost. Completely and utterly lost. Not through trickery or luck, but through being outmatched by someone more powerful.

"How..." she whispered.

"How are you this strong?"

"I've had good teachers," Jolthar said simply.

"And I've faced things that forced me to grow stronger or die. You're powerful, Princess. But your power has been cultivated in safety, in controlled conditions. Mine was forged in survival."