Lord of the Karmic Fate

With a grim expression, Raven swung his blade without daring to halt even for a second, forcing the black creature to keep her distance away from him.

As for his Mystique, in exchange for him using his Void Ring to attack Astra even from several tens of meters as if he was right next to her, it was consumed at a rapid pace every passing second.

Luckily, he had long ago deactivated his second Artifact's Domain, or else all of his Mystique would have gotten depleted a very long time ago!

'I need to kill her now or I will run out of Mystique...'

Clenching his teeth firmly, Raven kept swinging his blade as he chased after the nimble fox and tried his best to land a strike on her, however, even after several minutes he failed to do so.

Not only that, but his reserves of Mystique reached almost rock bottom, leaving him with less than 10 attempts to use his Void Ring for assault and 2 tries to use it for escape!

That cunning little bastard was playing with him on purpose and was waiting for his Mystique to completely get depleted!

'Damn it! Only if she would have had a higher Rank... Then I would be not struggling like this.'

With a somewhat pale face, Raven cursed silently and raised his sword to strike once more, however, just as he was ready to move his eyes spotted something that surprised him greatly.

"Luna!"

With both excitement and surprise, Raven watched as his little sister appeared right behind Astra with a sharp object protruding out of her palm, aiming to land a strike at the fox's head!

That sharp object, needless to say, was her bone which thanks to her unique Artifact she could control at will, let it be changing its size, width, or length!

She could freely manipulate all of the bones in her body, it only required her great willpower and large amounts of Mystique.

"You-!"

Astra's eyes widened when she saw the sudden appearance of the silver-haired beauty, and even before she could have said anything, Luna's strike has already arrived.

Swish!

BOOOM!

Dust rose toward the sky and a powerful ripple swept every direction the following moment, giving Raven slight hope that perhaps Luna was able to kill the beast with her strike.

Unfortunately, however, once the dust of cloud that obstructed vision finally vanished, that slight hope was immediately shattered like a piece of glass.

"She escaped!?"

Both Raven and Luna were speechless and quickly looked around, only to see not even the shadow of the cunning creature.

She simply vanished into empty air.

"No, she didn't." Raven narrowed his eyes and without hesitation summoned his Lantern of Revelation and channeled his remaining Mystique into it.

Whoosh!

Silverish light broke forth from within the Relic, bathing a large area around Raven and Luna in its glow.

"Tsk... You are annoying, human."

Suddenly, a cold voice sounded from right behind Raven, who quickly swung his blade behind his back just in time to deflect something sharp.

"The same goes to you, fox."

After defending against Astra's attack with his blade, Raven used the force behind Astra's claws to send himself forward and increase the distance between the two of them by several meters.

"Raven... Your face." Luna, jumping beside Raven looked at him with worry as at the moment he had such a pale face that he looked akin to a ghost!

One had to know that while Mystique was a unique essence that granted one the ability to achive supernatural feats, it was also part of the body and functioned like secondary stamina. If it got depleted the body could cause the body to collapse or in better cases weaken to the point where moving posed a challenge!

And as Raven was not under his Rune Mark's Blessing and already used up almost all of his Mystique reserves, it was no wonder he looked so pale and exhausted.

"It seems your little boyfriend is at his last stand." Astra grinned widely which was very similar to a cunning old hag for some reason.

Raven stared at Astra with a serious expression and after taking a deep breath he waved his hand.

Whoosh!

With a gentle flicker, six colorful bottles appeared in Raven's hands which he didn't even hesitate to open and pour all of their content into his mouth.

"Potions?" Astra was confused, but the next second her eyes widened.

It was because just under a single second Raven's Rank soared to the sky and broke the 50 mark while his aura became more vigorous than before!

~~~

° Vitality: 472 [20]

° Mystique: 500 [25] (~46~)

° Strength: 404 [20]

° Speed: 408 [32]

° Constitution: 410 [32]

° Dexterity: 397 [20]

~~~

'46 points of Mystique, huh?'

Upon seeing that he was able to avoid depleting all of his Mystique thanks to the Mixed Avatar Flasks, Raven showed a confident smile and straightened his back.

"It will be more than enough."

And with those words, even before Astra could even speak he flipped his coin and...

Allowed it to fall into the middle of his palm with its golden side visible on the top!

Right!

Just who said his coin could be only activated if it fell on the ground? Just like any coin in existence, it could also be flipped and allowed to fall on one's palm which was better because this way the coin's effect could be carried!

A moving Domain! A hidden potential, a unique way to utilize his second Artifact!

Feeling as if all of his Traits temporarily increased by another 50 points while both his Relics and Luck Enhancement were boosted, a confident smile appeared on Raven's face.

With all of this, he was 100% confident in beating Astra!

"Hmph! Arrogance truly blinds humans." Astra snorted coldly before she was forced to dodge Raven's invisible attack.

Those invisible sword strikes became not only faster thanks to the Fortune's Coin's blessing but also harder to detect! It was quite obvious that if things went on like this, even if Astra possessed strength where she could fight others several Ranks above her, it was only a matter of time before she was sliced into shreds.

"Tsk... I should stop fooling around and end this."

The ever so playful smile on Astra's face vanished and after avoiding another invisible sword slash from Raven, which this time succeeded to leave a shallow cut on her cheeks, she stomped on the ground.

"Shadow Realm!"

Whoosh!

With terrifying speed, the whole island was engulfed in complete darkness where even the silver light of the Lantern of Revelation failed to penetrate through more than three meters!

'Not good!'

Raven's face changed abruptly and quickly tossed the ancient Relic to his little sister.

"Hold it and stay here. With "

"But what about y-" Luna wished to ask something but failed as Raven didn't even wait to listen before jumping into the pitch black darkness.

One second... Two seconds... five seconds... Waiting for almost half a minute in nerve-wracking silence, Luna was on the verge to run after Raven, however, just as she was ready to take a step forward something finally changed.

BOOOM!

A loud explosion shook the ground below her feet and a second later the darkness, which obstructed vision to a point where one had trouble pinpointing where was what vanished, revealing a sight Luna didn't expect to see.

Right before her, about fifty meters in the distance, Raven stood still with his weapon pointing at the ground while before him the small figure of Astra was seen frozen into an ice sculpture.

Through the thick layer of ice, the utter disbelief on her face was clearly visible together with her eyes that were filled with nothing but fear.

"This item is better than I have thought..." standing before the now frozen body of Astra, Raven sighed with a hint of regret and glanced to the side at his approaching little sister.

"R-Raven? You..."

​ Knowing what she wished to ask, Raven showed a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine. On the other hand, her... I don't really know, but from the looks of it, she is still alive... for now."

Although Luna had no idea how her brother was able to use his Frostbite Trap to freeze Astra, she didn't really care. The only thing she cared about was that Raven was fine, and only that mattered.

"What should we do about her? I assume you have something in mind for not killing her."

Raven nodded and after using his Celeste Blade to shatter the thick layer of ice from around his leg, which was also frozen the moment he activated his Frostbite Trap, he picked up Astra's frozen body.

"Yes, actually, I do have something in mind. However, first, let's leave this Domain and bring her back to Black Moon City."

"You want to take her outside? I don't think that is a good idea." Luna expressed her thoughts with a frown.

"It's okay. We will just ask father to lend us "that" Relic."

"And what about her? Won't she get freed in the meantime we reach Black Moon City?"

"She won't. But to make sure, I have to ask you to keep channeling your Mystique into the ice while we don't arrive home. I would like to do it myself, but you know..."

"Okay. I will do it." Luna nodded with understanding and took the frozen little fox away from Raven's hand.

"Thank you."

And with that, the two left the Realm Domain.