The middle of the ocean had become a battlefield.
Yuki sprinted across the surface of the sea as his enchanted boots continuously froze the water beneath his feet.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A trail of ice stretched behind him.
Above him...
Thousands of tiny winged insects relentlessly pursued him through the sky.
They weren't ordinary insects.
Each one possessed a long, needle-like stinger.
Without even getting close, they launched their stingers like arrows.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Dozens of poisonous stingers rained toward him.
Yuki twisted his body from side to side, narrowly avoiding one attack after another.
But—
"Ah...!"
One of the stingers pierced his leg.
He stumbled for a brief moment.
The skin around the wound immediately turned crimson before swelling unnaturally.
"...Damn."
Yuki clicked his tongue as he glanced at the injury.
"So that's how it is..."
"I wanted to save my skills until I faced Illman himself..."
"...but I don't have that luxury anymore."
He suddenly leaped high into the air before turning toward the endless swarm.
A brilliant aura erupted around his body.
"Wairua Kural..."
"...Bow."
Countless streams of aura gathered within his right hand before taking the shape of a magnificent longbow.
Moments later...
A single glowing arrow materialized.
It, too, was made entirely from condensed aura.
Yuki slowly drew the string.
Then—
TWANG!
The arrow shot forward like a beam of light.
It pierced straight through the swarm.
BOOM!!
Hundreds of insects were instantly destroyed.
The glowing projectile continued flying without losing its momentum.
Its true target...
Was Illman.
Far away across the frozen sea, Illman slowly turned his head.
He glanced at the incoming arrow for only a single second.
Then—
His body quietly crumbled into black ash.
The ashes scattered into the wind before disappearing completely.
The aura arrow passed harmlessly through empty space.
"..."
Yuki merely frowned.
He didn't dwell on it.
Instead, he calmly nocked another arrow.
One after another...
The remaining insects were shot from the sky.
Within moments...
The entire swarm had vanished.
Silence returned to the ocean.
Illman's weak voice echoed through the air.
"You..."
"...killed..."
"...thousands..."
"...of my pets..."
His tone remained strangely calm.
Cold.
Almost emotionless.
Yuki simply stared back.
"...So what?"
Without another word, he rushed toward Illman.
The distance between them disappeared in an instant.
Yuki swung his sword with tremendous force.
CLANG!
"...?!"
His eyes widened.
Illman hadn't moved.
Not even an inch.
He had casually blocked the sword...
With nothing but his bare hand.
"Impossible..."
Yuki immediately followed with another strike.
Then another.
And another.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
A relentless barrage of sword attacks rained down upon Illman.
Yet every single strike was effortlessly deflected.
"Damn..."
"This sword isn't doing anything to him..."
"No..."
"Don't panic."
"Every defense has a weakness."
"I just have to keep attacking..."
"Don't give him enough time to use those disgusting techniques."
Before Yuki could launch another attack—
Illman quietly clenched his fist.
Then...
He punched.
BOOM!!
"Cough!"
Yuki was blasted backward like a cannonball.
His body slid violently across the frozen ocean before finally stopping dozens of meters away.
Even so...
He had managed to block most of the impact with his sword.
Illman silently looked at his own fist for several seconds.
Then...
He looked back at Yuki.
Yuki slowly stood up.
Without hesitation, two pistols formed within his hands.
Both weapons were created entirely from aura.
"I'll use everything I know..."
"Everything I've learned..."
"Everything."
He immediately opened fire.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Streams of glowing bullets raced toward Illman.
However...
Before they could reach him...
A thick wall of insects suddenly appeared.
Thousands of tiny bodies gathered together, creating a living shield.
Every bullet was intercepted.
"...Tch."
Yuki lowered both pistols.
Then...
His expression changed.
"...?"
Illman had disappeared.
The ocean became eerily quiet.
Yuki slowly turned in every direction.
Completely on guard.
Then—
Something enormous descended from above.
A gigantic fungus crashed toward him from the sky.
Without hesitation, Yuki rolled aside.
BOOM!!
The massive fungal growth smashed into the frozen sea.
He had barely avoided it.
But—
A powerful fist suddenly struck his back.
THUD!!
"Gh...!"
Yuki's eyes widened in pain.
He was launched across the ice once again.
This time...
He tumbled several times before finally stopping.
"...Agh..."
"...Damn..."
The attack had come from Illman.
Yuki slowly forced himself back to his feet.
"...Coward."
The back of his clothes had completely burned away where the punch had landed.
The exposed skin beneath had already turned a dark shade of purple.
Seeing the injury, Chichi immediately spoke.
"Yuki."
"Illman used..."
"...Burn Poison Punch."
"If you don't remove the poison quickly..."
"...your body may become completely paralyzed."
"However..."
"If you defeat Illman before that happens..."
"...the poison will disappear on its own."
Yuki gritted his teeth.
"How much time do I have?"
Chichi remained silent for several seconds while calculating.
"...Approximately..."
"...seventy-four minutes."
Yuki exhaled slowly.
"I don't know if that's enough..."
"...but I'll do everything I can."
Without hesitation, another surge of aura erupted around him.
"Wairua Kural..."
"...Armor."
Light gathered around his body.
Moments later...
A suit of aura armor completely covered him.
"At the very least..."
"He won't be able to touch me directly anymore."
Next—
Two long spears materialized beside him.
The technique was one he had learned from Tiara.
Without wasting time...
Yuki hurled the first spear toward Illman.
Whoosh!
Illman effortlessly stepped aside.
The spear flew past him before embedding itself deep within the frozen sea several meters behind him.
Yuki immediately charged with the second spear in hand.
This time...
Illman extended one arm.
His hand rapidly transformed.
The fingers sharpened into deadly claws.
The arm itself expanded while stretching unnaturally toward Yuki.
Its speed was unbelievable.
"...!!"
Just before the attack connected—
Yuki vanished.
Illman's black eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
"...?"
He slowly turned around.
Standing directly behind him...
Was Yuki.
Not only had he avoided the attack...
He had somehow reached the spear he had thrown moments earlier.
One spear remained embedded in the ice.
The other rested firmly within his grasp.
"Kolambia."
The teleportation technique instantly closed the distance.
Without giving Illman a chance to react—
Yuki drove both spears deep into his chest.
THUD!!
THUD!!
"..."
For the first time...
Illman's body reacted.
A dense black fog began pouring from the wounds.
The instant Yuki saw it...
He immediately leaped backward, creating as much distance as possible.
He had already learned...
Nothing about Illman's abilities could be taken lightly.
From far away, he watched the growing cloud of black mist.
"What is this now...?"
"Using Kolambia, I teleported directly to my weapon..."
"I landed two clean hits..."
"Yet..."
"It still didn't seem to affect him."
"How am I supposed to kill something like this?"
Chichi quietly answered.
"...I can't answer that."
Yuki immediately frowned.
"I wasn't asking you."
Silence returned.
His gaze never left the expanding black fog.
Nearly a minute passed.
"This fog..."
"It's different from the one before."
"What is he planning?"
Then...
His eyes widened.
The frozen ocean beneath the mist had begun melting at an unbelievable speed.
"Hell...!"
Yuki instinctively retreated several more steps.
"Why is every single one of his abilities so dangerous?!"
The black fog slowly began to disperse.
Yuki tightened his grip around his spear.
The mist finally cleared.
What stood before him...
Made him freeze.
"...What?"
As the last traces of black mist faded into the air...
Yuki's eyes narrowed.
"...What?"
Standing before him...
Were two Illmans.
They were completely identical.
The same skeletal frame.
The same rotting flesh.
The same unnaturally hunched back.
The same hollow black eyes.
The same unsettling smile.
Even more disturbing—
Both of them were holding Yuki's spears.
The weapons had been completely engulfed in a layer of black corruption.
"What...?"
"I can barely deal with one..."
"Now there are two?"
"And those are my spears..."
Before panic could cloud his judgment, Chichi calmly spoke.
"Both of them are fake."
Yuki's expression stiffened.
"...Fake?"
The very next instant—
His instincts screamed.
Without questioning it, Yuki immediately jumped backward.
BOOM!!
The frozen sea beneath his feet exploded.
A third figure burst out from beneath the ice with its bare hand extended toward the place where Yuki had been standing only a moment earlier.
The attack had missed by less than an inch.
Yuki landed several meters away, breathing heavily.
Chichi spoke again.
"That..."
"...is the real Illman."
Yuki stared at the three identical figures.
A drop of cold sweat rolled down his face.
"Thank goodness..."
"Tanggine Tatu warned me in time."
"Otherwise..."
"That attack would've landed."
Even so...
A new problem appeared before him.
"I still can't tell..."
"Which one is real..."
"And which ones are fake..."
For the first time since entering Illman's Domain...
Yuki felt genuine pressure.
He had barely managed to touch Illman.
His undead creatures alone had already forced Yuki into several dangerous situations.
And now...
There were three of him.
Even if two were illusions...
They still looked terrifyingly real.
Yuki slowly stepped backward, carefully observing all three Illmans.
His entire body remained tense.
Ready to attack.
Ready to defend.
At any moment—
One of the fake Illmans slowly extended its arm.
Its hand instantly transformed.
The fingers sharpened into blade-like claws.
Its arm stretched forward at astonishing speed.
Yuki reacted instantly.
"Aegis!"
Aura burst from his body and condensed into a translucent shield.
CLANG!!
The claw slammed against it.
The shield successfully blocked the attack...
But...
A tiny crack appeared.
No...
Not a crack.
A small hole had been pierced straight through the aura shield.
Yuki's eyes widened.
"Even my aura shield...?"
The fake Illman calmly retracted its arm as though nothing had happened.
Yuki immediately responded.
Several aura-forged knives appeared around him.
With a single motion, he threw them toward all three enemies.
The knives flew perfectly.
Yet...
Instead of piercing flesh...
They simply disappeared into the fake Illman's body.
No blood.
No wound.
Nothing.
"...What the hell?"
Yuki whispered under his breath.
"My attacks are just... passing through them?"
The three Illmans continued walking toward him at the same slow pace.
Without stopping.
Without speaking.
Chichi calmly explained,
"Illman's body doesn't possess a normal physical structure."
"It is composed of numerous materials..."
"...and countless different elements merged together."
Yuki frowned.
"Then how am I supposed to kill him?"
"If physical attacks don't even work..."
"I never said physical attacks don't work."
Chichi interrupted.
"I only said his body isn't completely physical."
"If you strike him with enough speed..."
"...and enough destructive force..."
"...to reduce his body into fragments faster than his regeneration and absorption magic can restore it..."
"...then you can defeat him."
Silence.
Yuki slowly lowered his head.
"...Right."
"I understand."
He looked back toward Illman.
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Precious trained me..."
"I've become much stronger than before..."
"But..."
"I still can't move that fast."
"I can't attack faster than his regeneration."
"I can't even keep up with his absorption magic."
Chichi answered without hesitation.
"Then..."
"You should have trained harder before coming here."
Yuki sighed.
"I did."
"I trained harder than anyone."
"But apparently..."
"...it still wasn't enough."
Neither of them spoke again.
The battlefield became silent.
Then—
One of the fake Illmans suddenly stopped moving.
Its body began changing.
Dark flesh violently twisted.
It swelled.
Convulsed.
Then split open.
From within...
An endless stream of grotesque larvae poured out.
Not only larvae...
A thick black slime accompanied them.
The horrifying mass continued growing.
Higher...
Higher...
Until it spread across the entire sky like a living cloud.
Yuki could only stare upward.
His face froze.
"...What..."
"...the hell is that?"
Even Chichi's voice became urgent.
"Run."
Yuki immediately looked toward her.
"He's creating another Domain."
"If you're trapped inside it..."
"...defeating Illman will become far more difficult."
Yuki's eyebrow twitched.
"It wasn't difficult enough already?!"
"...Damn it!"
Without wasting another second...
He abandoned every thought of attacking.
Turning around—
He ran at full speed across the frozen ocean.
Behind him...
The grotesque black Domain continued expanding across the sky.
Like an endless nightmare descending upon the sea.
The battle against the Lord of Disease...
Had only grown more dangerous.