The Prince in Question Is Not Stable-Chapter 35: The Wheel Of Death – Part II

Muted Vineyard is a partial domain, a legacy skill of the Sommelier.

Sommelier’s domain has three skills.

First, it renders the opponent of their senses, putting extreme pressure on the brain by creating a vacuum.

Second, it increases the gravity, trapping them like an insect caught in a spider web.

...this is pure torture. If only I could use perception just once more.

Sommelier’s every step shook the surface and cracked the ground beneath his feet.

Yet he didn’t feel the effect of gravity at all.

He spread his arms, mocking me to try to move like I was moving before.

He clenched his fists, and they transformed into long sword needles. They were denser and stronger than the previous ones.

They had a chill that surrounded them. I could feel the cold even though I was quite far from him.

’Wait...something feel’s off...’ I thought.

He would’ve made his move until now, but the way his legs dug into the splintered vine ground-

’It’s the ground!’

Before I could even think, my legs instinctively made me duck right.

A sharp needle-like branch made of coiled vines tore the flesh of my waist in an instant.

"Kh, fuck-" I grunted and gripped the wound on my waist. All that death-loop training and I still can’t get over pain.

Blood was already beginning to leak from the wound. And I cannot lose much blood.

Right, the third skill of his domain. He can control the ground within a hundred-meter radius.

The sommelier crouched down and moved his head as if he was laughing at me. He found the whole situation humorous.

This guy was pissing me off now.

Several spots on the ground around me started to churn.

Vines were coming to life, forming into several pieces of sharp thorns.

And then in a matter of a second. All of the pointed needle thorns launched from the ground.

Under this gravity, jumping was suicide.

I stopped fighting the domain.

The gravity yanked me down as my knees hit the dirt hard.

Several vine spikes violently pierced the empty air where my chest had been a millisecond ago.

SCREECH

Another spike erupted directly beneath me.

I had to save as much aura as I could. I just angled my katana flat against my chest, and the tip of the thorn struck the steel.

It’s sheer force ground against my blade, showering sparks without a sound.

The thorn’s momentum flipped my body, launching me across the splintered ground.

I dug my katana into the ground, as my knees dragged across the floor to come to a halt.

Another spike grazed my cheek as I tilted my head slightly, standing up.

The ground trembled violently. I didn’t need to hear or see to know he was coming.

The sommelier skittered forward, closing the distance in a blur, and swung his glass-needled arm in raw diagonal force.

<Midare> (Disorder)

A minor displacement in my position, and I could see the force created by his raw power leaving a mark of sword path on the mountain behind me.

<Kasane> (Layering)

A horizontal strike with a force of dense aura infused in layering projections that followed the path of my sword.

He brought his other hand up, trying to block my attack with his glass needle, but I didn’t aim for his upper body.

I forced the path of my blade to descend and split the calf vine muscles of his right leg.

*--------------Shriek--------------* 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

The vine bundles serving as his calf muscles snapped like frayed ropes under pressure.

Thud

For the first time, he was forced to a knee.

The ground around him churned, creating several vine spikes again.

He launched them towards me to create a significant distance.

"I’m not dumb enough to let you heal-"

<Kage> (Fifth Shadow - Emptiness)

The spikes clashed against each other as I appeared behind him.

Another set of spikes in a desperate attempt to keep me at bay.

<Kage> (Second Shadow - Displacement)

To any onlooker, I would’ve simply vanished.

There was no dash, or a blur of a moment. Just a skip in reality. I had exchanged my positions to the vine closest to him.

One moment, I was surrounded by a wall of thorns. Next, I was inside the Sommelier’s guard.

My blade had already reached close to his crown.

There was no time to process information, and he knew it, too.

Even as my blade tore through the pressure of his domain and moved towards his crown, where his demonic core was.

Sommelier didn’t dodge; he leaned into the attack.

Shlikt

My katana dug deep into the side of his crown, severing the metal and carving through the structure.

The blade was moments away from his core. I could feel it.

But the sommelier didn’t shriek this time.

Instead, a horrific, soundless vibration shook his chest.

He was laughing.

At that exact moment, his right hand snapped forward in a thrust.

*THUD*

The needle word extending from his knuckle didn’t just graze me. It buried itself deep into my abdomen, punching through the front and out the back.

"Kh...h-"

The air in my lungs was instantly replaced by the cold, paralysing fire.

The toxins of his needle felt as if they were turning my blood cold.

"Kh..well, this -isn’t what I expected," I growled.

We were locked together. And his chest was moving, as if he was enjoying this. He was laughing and mocking me.

I let go of my katana’s hilt, leaving the blade dug deep inside his crown.

He was withdrawing his powers, preserving as much as he could, because the crown is the only weakness of the Sommelier.

He twisted the needle impaled in my abdomen, as the spikes on the ground curled around my throat, and gripped it tight.

I raised my trembling hands, slick with my own blood, and gripped the sides of his cracked crown.

"You know...I’m -i-impressed," I mumbled, as the spikes of vines started digging in my throat in a slow movement.

"But-" I gripped the sides of his crown with all my might.

"You shouldn’t have withdrawn your power to preserve yourself, because your crown...is just an inanimate --object," I grunted, grasping for breath.

For a moment, he stopped laughing. Contemplating what I meant.

He was almost done, preserving the powers of his core and laying it dormant in his crown.

The spikes gripping my throat were weak, just a residual of his powers.

I just forced a smile, looking at him.

<<<Blank Canvas>>>