An Understated Dominance Novel (Dahlia & Dustin) by Marina Vittori updated 2025-26 - An Understated Dominance Chapter 2699

Chapter 2699

Houtu lay motionless on the cold jade floor, her body sealed within a pale golden cocoon of light—like a moth forever trapped in amber.

Her flawless, enchanting face was frozen between disbelief and fury, eyes wide and trembling as the last traces of consciousness flickered behind them. Even as her divine strength faded, she could not stop staring at the figure standing in the distance—the man in white, leaning heavily on his sword, swaying but unbroken.

How… how could this be?

She was Houtu—the embodiment of earth itself. Within the walls of this celestial palace, she was the immovable mountain, the unshakable core of stability.

He was drained, battered, his True Energy nearly gone. And yet… she was the one defeated.

Regret and venomous resentment crawled through her mind like a nest of poisonous insects. But the sealing power was absolute—an invisible shackle that bound her body and suppressed every last flicker of divine will. Not even a whisper of her spirit could escape.

Across the hall, Aoki—his shoulder pierced and blood pooling beneath him—felt the crushing aura of earth vanish in an instant. His mind, clouded by pain, barely processed what that meant before terror struck him cold.

Even Houtu… lost?

His thoughts flashed to that moment when Logan’s sword had shattered his annihilating divine lightning, to those calm, unflinching eyes that pierced through his countless vines and struck the core of his power.

This young man… he was no mere swordsman.

Dark Murky, still trapped within Logan’s Mystical Pure Energy Seal, could not move nor speak. But within the stillness of his bound soul, his consciousness churned like a raging ocean.

He heard the stone dragons crumble. He felt the pulse of the earth’s veins fall silent.

Houtu’s “Immovable as a Mountain” had been broken.

The memory of his own defeat flashed before him—the moment his near-immortal water-element body had been cut off from the heavenly water source by that strange finger technique.

That power… that sealing art… what was it? How could it sever the link between heaven, earth, and the very source of one’s essence?

He had thought Logan was simply an exceptionally gifted warrior. Now he understood—this man’s insight into laws, souls, and the nature of energy surpassed anything they could comprehend.

And then—Aukon moved.

He didn’t vanish, didn’t streak across the hall in a blur of speed. Instead, he descended the white jade steps slowly—one step at a time.

Yet, with each step, the flawless floor beneath him did not crack—it disintegrated. The luminous jade turned to fine dust and vanished without sound, erased from existence by the sheer annihilating force radiating from his body.

It wasn’t deliberate destruction. It was the manifestation of rage so deep and killing intent so absolute that the world itself recoiled from it.

Step by step, he walked into the center of the main hall.

He stopped ten feet away from Logan.

At that distance, the air itself trembled—the invisible boundary between life and death.

Aukon’s gaze was cold as glacial fire. From within the depths of his eyes, a dark flame flickered—a flame that devoured light instead of casting it. His killing intent rolled out like the breath of an ancient beast.

He looked at Logan—at the pale, bloodstained face, the trembling hands gripping the sword like an anchor—and then into those eyes that, despite everything, remained steady and fearless.

Shock. Rage. Disbelief.

All of it churned together beneath the surface of his composure.

Aoki’s arrogance, Dark Murky’s cunning, Houtu’s steadfast power—these three were not merely subordinates. They were the pillars of Aukon’s dominion, the instruments of his will. His perfect creation.

And now—all shattered. One man, one seemingly insignificant human youth, had broken them one after another.

This was no longer a battle. It was humiliation.

It was a strike at the very heart of his authority—a challenge to his claim of invincibility, to the empire he built upon the divine essence of the Void Dragon.

This boy could not be allowed to live.

His strange, forbidden power… his command of soul and law… they could not remain in the mortal world.

Unless—

A flicker of greed slithered through the fury in Aukon’s heart, cold and poisonous. If I could devour him… if I could make his essence mine… I would surpass even the Void Dragon itself.

His killing intent fused with that desire, condensing into an aura so cold it froze the very breath in the air.

“Logan.”

Aukon’s voice finally broke the silence. It was not loud, not thunderous—but within that calm tone lurked the stillness of death itself.

“I will grant you one final grace.”

He raised his hand. Between his fingers, a dark golden flame and a sharp, platinum light intertwined and clashed, hissing violently as though heaven and hell themselves resisted their union.

The dark gold fire seemed capable of burning souls to ash. The platinum radiance looked sharp enough to slice through the laws of existence.

Aukon’s tone turned to frost.

“Kneel.”

“Offer me your divine soul imprint. Submit, and I will spare your miserable life.”

His eyes narrowed, voice dripping with contempt.

“Swear eternal fealty to me, and I may grant you a fragment of true dragon essence—to live as one of the immortal.”

He let the words hang, the air growing colder with each syllable.

“Otherwise…”

His gaze sharpened to a lethal point.

“Your body and soul will be annihilated. Your spirit will scatter into nothingness. You will cease to exist.”

The judgment was passed.

His killing intent, like an avalanche of a thousand years’ ice, crashed down upon the hall—merciless, absolute, and final.