No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

She raised a claw, releasing another surge of spatial darkness, this time freezing the air around Damien's group entirely, trapping them in place. Fluffy struggled, muscles bulging, but found himself completely immobilized. Rage Monkey roared, but even his fiery strength couldn't break free.

Damien felt the force of her power pressing down on him, cold and absolute. He closed his eyes briefly, gathering his own energy, trying to sense a weakness in the Matriarch's oppressive law.

"Struggle all you like," she whispered, voice dripping malice. "You'll remain right here, trapped, until the inheritor comes to claim you personally."

Damien opened his eyes slowly, meeting the Matriarch's gaze with unwavering resolve. He spoke softly, calmly, projecting confidence he wasn't entirely sure he felt. "I don't think so."

The Matriarch's brow twitched, slightly intrigued. "You believe you have a chance here?"

Damien's lips curled slightly. "Do you really think you've caught me?"

Her smile faltered briefly, uncertainty flickering in her violet eyes. "What do you mean?"

Damien's gaze drifted subtly toward Blackie, whose eyes flashed understanding. Her violet eyes mirrored his certainty, silently affirming that she understood their path forward.

He spoke again, this time directly to the Matriarch. "You assume you've trapped us. But maybe… We're exactly where we intended to be."

The Matriarch's eyes narrowed dangerously, clearly thrown off guard by his calm confidence.

Damien's smile grew colder. "Your inheritor isn't the only one with plans. And we've still got cards left to play."

Fluffy laughed suddenly, defiantly. Rage Monkey grinned fiercely. Blackie straightened elegantly, her posture proud and unwavering.

The Apostles shifted uneasily, sensing the tension suddenly shifting back against them.

And for the first time, the Matriarch seemed uncertain, realizing that perhaps she wasn't holding all the pieces after all.

"Then show me," she hissed coldly. "Show me this hidden card you speak of."

"All in good time," he murmured softly as time-infused death energy began to swirl around him.

Damien's eyes closed briefly, drawing deeply from within. A cold, silent surge of energy swirled forth, threaded through with ripples of time. As the Matriarch's oppressive spatial darkness pressed down upon him, he whispered softly:

"Decay."

His voice resonated like the tolling of a forgotten bell.

Instantly, Damien's death energy, cold, ancient, and infused with the relentless erosion of time, surged out. It spiraled outward, invisible but undeniable, colliding directly against the Matriarch's oppressive force. Her space-infused darkness, which had seemed absolute moments ago, rapidly began to fray.

The Matriarch's eyes widened slightly. Surprise flickered momentarily across her face, swiftly replaced by grudging respect. She gritted her teeth as her spatial darkness unraveled, falling apart like ancient parchment exposed suddenly to sunlight.

"You…time-infused death?" she whispered sharply, astonished.

With a final explosive pulse, Damien's energy broke completely through. The space-distortion shattered. The Matriarch stumbled backward slightly, genuinely shocked as her spell collapsed.

The instant Damien freed them, Fluffy roared with furious triumph.

He exploded forward, hurtling into the twelve Apostles, who quickly formed ranks to face him. His mighty sword crashed downward, scattering them like fallen leaves.

Shadow, gravity, and death pulsed from his blade, clashing against the apostles' combined elemental shields. Fluffy laughed wildly, eyes blazing with excitement. "Come, dragons! Face the glorious fury of Fluffy!"

Nearby, Blackie and Rage Monkey charged fearlessly into the Apostles' retinue, Blackie's twin crescent daggers flashing brilliantly as they froze enemies in mid-motion.

Rage Monkey swung his new Emberfang Rod with fiery intensity, scorching foes and battering them aside.

Chaos reigned around them, armor shattering, roars of pain mingling with cries of fury. They fought like storm gods unleashed, carving a path straight through the ranks of the elite dragon warriors, leaving confusion and panic in their wake.

As the chaos surged around them, Damien and the Matriarch stood perfectly still, facing each other in mutual understanding. Her violet eyes glinted dangerously; his gaze remained steady, calm, calculating.

They both knew their duel would decide the outcome.

Damien tested the limits of his perception, measuring the Matriarch's power with quiet certainty. Her mastery of darkness and space energies was astonishingly refined. He could feel it clearly, her elemental strengths were deeper, her control more absolute than anything he currently possessed with his own death and time energy.

Yet within that realization lay an extraordinary opportunity.

His mind raced with possibility. If he could somehow absorb her space-infused darkness, merging it fully with his own death and time energies, he would unlock the highest of all powers, the element above elements… True mastery of Timespace.

The Emperor Element.

A faint, grim smile touched Damien's lips, even as battle raged wildly around them. He knew what he needed to do.

But at that very moment, the sky rippled. Reality itself tore as a portal split open high above. From it, crimson hair whipped wildly in the wind. Malevolent eyes, red like dying stars, glared downward. Cold, ruthless and hungry.

It was him.

The first inheritor.

Fluffy's voice instantly screamed urgently into Damien's mindspace: "It's him! The inheritor! He has come!"

Damien's gaze sharpened immediately, locking eyes with the red-haired inheritor who hovered ominously in the sky, a cruel smile spreading slowly across his features. Those eyes burned with unmistakable greed and relentless malevolence, fixed firmly on Damien.

"Finally!" the inheritor roared triumphantly. He plunged downward like a comet, diving directly toward Damien, an aura of dark crimson energy rippling violently around him.

The Matriarch merely smiled cruelly, stepping back, her eyes gleaming with dark amusement as she watched events unfold. She had played her part—luring Damien into position, and now witnessing the inheritor's arrival. It seemed everything was going according to her plan.

"Damien!" Blackie shouted desperately, carving a path toward him with her crescent blades. Rage Monkey also roared furiously, lunging through a crowd of dragon warriors, trying desperately to intercept the inheritor's descent.

Yet, strangely, Damien remained perfectly calm, unmoving, as the inheritor plummeted toward him. Fluffy also stopped suddenly, a serene expression overtaking his arrogant face. He simply stood, observing quietly as the crimson-haired figure fell, gathering incredible momentum.