September 21, 4021 12:15 [Jade Temple- Heavenly Stage]

How had Kaluza managed to mimic different Traits so well? Indra wondered what the basis of his Trait mutation was.

“His attributes have not changed since the match with the wolf. He is simply using the skill from that match to elevate his basic abilities. To acquire such power would need a tremendous amount of technical prowess and attention to detail. Despite his wild disposition, his focus seems to be razor-sharp. Stay alert,” Usha warned.

He’s been using a modified version of Impact this whole time?

“It appears so. Regardless, the level of discipline one would require in order to execute the fighting style of a vanquished foe is indeed an incredible feat.”

Tengri taught him well…Indra narrowed his eyes. Wait, a minute. There’s something weird about Kaluza’s forms. The movements of a cheetah, a wolf, and now a bird? He hasn’t been mimicking just one person!

“The cheetah and the bird—”

He must’ve copied the skillset from training with Móhú and Tengri. His second form is from facing Garou, but how is he able to mimic the abilities so well?

“He has only copied fighting styles and movements. I suspect he has been gathering data from the physical encounters themselves. Every time you attack, he has been analyzing your moves to add to his arsenal,” Usha deduced.

So that's how he does it. Indra frowned. He jumped back, creating some distance between him and Kaluza. He released an array of ink beads around the arena.

“Petal Four: Dark Particle Theory.”

He retreated into the array, launching a flurry of attacks. Employing Kaluza’s tactics, Indra incorporated feints into his combos. He struck Kaluza in a disorganized manner at varying intervals, catching him off guard with a difficult-to-read pattern. Kaluza swiped aimlessly at Indra, making a vain attempt to fend off the barrage of attacks.

“There it is! The move Indra used in the semi-finals! Kaluza’s being pushed back!” Grisha pointed out.

Indra felt confident in his current position, continuing his assault on Kaluza, hoping to break him down quickly. That is until he suffered a massive strike to the jaw. Kaluza’s fist came out of nowhere, sending Indra tearing through the scaffolding. He lay at the bottom of the Heavenly Stage, rubbing his mandible, hoping it would help numb the pain.

Kaluza appeared before him without any indication. Indra couldn’t detect his movements in the slightest, confused as his opponent grabbed him by the throat and threw him around the arena.

Pieces of flesh were gouged from Indra’s body in rapid succession as Kaluza’s finger talons continued to eviscerate him. Holes pockmarked his abdomen and arms, too great in number for Indra to stem the bleeding completely.

He grit his teeth, bewildered by Kaluza’s sudden change in speed. He had always been fast, but not to this extent. Before, Indra had been able to react to his quick movements by relying on reflex alone, but even that option was no longer viable. It was like their first match all over again.

Kaluza cackled, striking Indra in the face again. “What do you think? It’s finally complete! You won’t be able to get out of it this time!”

Indra’s eyes widened. His opponent’s words had given him clarity. Kaluza had activated his Domain. Indra used Null once more, extending thin threads of Shakti to search for a weakness in the construction of Kaluza’s Domain. He grimaced, taking another blow to the chest. He searched to no avail, dismayed by his findings. There were no flaws in the structural integrity of Kaluza’s Domain. It was perfect and fully realized.

Indra’s mind raced. He needed to figure out what properties the Domain affected and adapt to its specifications. Homunculi were limited in affecting their physical attributes within their Domains, but they could manipulate other aspects, so long as they had the Shakti for it. Indra frowned; he despised knowing that he would have been long finished in this tournament without Jin’s advice. The only other experience he had with Domains was Usha’s Domain of the Soul. Jin had lectured Indra at length about the specifics of Domain construction and stratagems. It was this information that had helped him discover a weakness in Prasanna’s Domain.

Kaluza was likely nearing his physical limits, no amount of Shakti could change that. So, Indra concluded, the effects of the Domain had to have been cast upon him.

“He is faster than before, yet the Domain affects you somehow…” Usha pondered.

Indra’s eyes lit up. That’s it! He isn’t getting faster! I’m the one who’s slower! He grinned, it was such a simple trick. Another strike landed, this time on his back. Indra threw a punch just before a blur entered his vision; his fist struck true. Kaluza staggered back for a moment, gritting his teeth before disappearing into a blur. The frequency of attacks increased.

Indra threw another punch. This time it missed. He managed to land roughly half of his attacks, timing them to hit before the blurry silhouette stepped within range. Slowly but surely, as they traded blow after blow, Indra’s accuracy increased till they entered a ferocious exchange of attacks. Blocks, feints, jabs, hooks, and spinning kicks flew as the fight reached a breaking point.

Fists of Impact met fists of darkness as the air pressure created from their clash caused their ears to pop. Indra slipped past Kaluza’s outstretched arm after what seemed like an endless stalemate, releasing a punch laden with Shakti.

“Petal Three: Devil’s Convergence!”

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His fist drove into Kaluza’s sternum. He could hear a slight crack as his opponent flew back, laying splayed out on a lower platform. The crowd gasped, though Grisha didn’t speak a word. Indra waited. He knew a match with Kaluza never seemed to go as expected.

A flicker of movement flashed over Kaluza’s body before it disappeared. The platforms and scaffolding above exploded as a jade pillar was hurled in Indra’s direction.

“Beast Flow: Fourth Form—Diabolus,” Kaluza growled.

Indra evaded the pillar, jumping to another platform as the one he was standing on split in two. The crowd cheered at the sight of Kaluza’s resurrection.

“He’s risen from the jaws of defeat once again!!!” Grisha announced.

Kaluza’s maroon hair darkened to black. He roared savagely, striking Indra with archaic energy conjured by his Domain. Indra’s arms ached as each punch made his bones creak from the strain. He cursed his short-sightedness. Kaluza hadn’t been attacking at his fastest during the time they had spent in his Domain. Now, he moved at his greatest speed in tandem with the slow-down effect applied to Indra to enable his fourth form.

Indra grimaced. There had to be a solution to his predicament. He thought back to Jin’s lecture hoping he could piece together some vital information…

***

“...so I can’t escape it with Null?”

Jin pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “How many times do we have to go over this? In a perfect Domain, the only way to leave is if the user themselves allows you to do so, or you kill them.”

“Is that the only way?” Indra asked, panting as he chewed another tablet.

“You can knock them out too, but that’s never a guarantee. Some have passive Domains built on constraints that allow them to remain even when the caster is asleep. Then, your only option really is to kill them, or…”

Indra sat up, crossing his legs and listening intently.

Jin scratched his chin. “Didn’t Tengri teach you about Domains? That’s his job, damn it!”

“He did, but when he got to the topic of perfect Domains, the only thing he said is to consider yourself dead if you’re caught in one.”

“Well, he’s right. The whole point about informing you about Domains is so you don’t get caught in one in the first place. Knowing how to sense and stay aware of Domains is important. Like Shakti, we don’t have confirmed reports about Domains being used outside of Yuèliàng, but there have been rumors floating around about both being used by other nations and races. In the end, it’s better to be prepared for nothing rather than unprepared for something dangerous,” Jin said.

“Right, but if I get caught in a perfect Domain, what’s the other option?”

Jin scowled. “You’re relentless—a real pain in the ass, you know. There is one other way, but you would need to create a Domain tenfold in strength to the one you find yourself trapped in. You’ll need to funnel a shit ton of Shakti into it for this strategy—no, last-ditch effort, to work. If your opponent has a larger Shakti reserve than you, then good luck because you are toast. And if you ever find yourself in the Domain of a god? Heh, just accept your fate because no mortal will ever reach the level of Shakti they possess, let alone ten times that reserve. Your best bet would actually be to try and kill that god,” he laughed.

Indra gulped. With Usha’s ambitions and his terrible luck, he felt nervous about his prospects of meeting an unfriendly god. They were, in fact, alive as Usha had mentioned. Though, he felt a small sense of relief at the fact that the Siren could not find them on account of the Devas' preference for seclusion and privacy. Stay hidden, please. For my sake. Indra pleaded.

“Hey, are you listening?” Jin snapped his fingers in front of Indra’s face. “Pay attention; you’re the one who asked for an explanation.” He cleared his throat and began a long-winded breakdown of Domain Theory. “Domains work like osmosis. If you have a higher amount of solute on one side of a semipermeable membrane, then water will flow to that side until a certain equilibrium is reached.

Adding more solute to one side will increase its solute potential and decrease its water potential. Water moves from a higher water potential to a lower water potential while also being drawn to higher solute potentials.

Shakti acts as the solute that draws in the water, astral energy. This astral energy creates the Domain’s structure and enforces the specifications made by the user. This is an extremely inefficient method, however, since you're expending much higher amounts of energy necessary to create a Domain. It's better to just kill your opponent if you have the chance.”

***

Indra’s mind drifted back to the present. He lamented his ability to fabricate only an imperfect Domain like Prasanna as he suffered another salvo of Impact strikes. His body was a wreck, leaving him in a predicament similar to his first encounter with Kaluza. He ground his teeth in frustration. He would not let anyone get the better of him again. In order to win, he would need to construct a perfect Domain, imbuing it with significantly more Shakti than he had ever managed before.

Usha, I’ll need your help with this.

“Very well, I shall lend you some of my Shakti.”

Indra tried to concentrate while simultaneously deflecting and dodging Kaluza’s attacks. He attempted to form a Domain, but his concentration broke every time he was struck by Kaluza. The battle had devolved into another war of attrition, with Indra losing ground at an alarming rate. His wounds bled profusely, and no pills were in sight to heal him. They had been banned from the tournament on account of prolonging the fights indefinitely. He would have to wait until after the match to consume one.

Indra tried several more times to form a Domain, finally mustering an incomplete shell. It broke upon contact with Kaluza, but he pushed forward, sewing the pieces of the Domain together with threads of Shakti. He clenched his jaw and bore the pain as Kaluza began to attack with even more ferocity.

Indra’s evasions became sloppier and less effective the more damage he took. The injuries compounded as he worked to reach and maintain a level of astral energy similar to Kaluza’s Domain. Usha aided him, sealing in gaps along the construct. Now, he needed to raise his energy level.

The final step wasn’t an exercise in brute force, but rather resilience and patience. Indra struggled to multitask. His movements became sluggish as his mind focused on two things at once, both necessary for his self-preservation. He raised his energy level to double. Another strike. Then he raised it to triple. Another strike. His knees buckled as he reached five times the astral energy required to break Kaluza’s Domain.

I can’t do it! Indra despaired. After all this training I still can’t win! Are my convictions simply that weak?

“Speak of this nonsense no longer, Vessel! You insult me with your self-deprecation, for I chose you to be my retainer. By virtue of this choice, you have slighted me yet again! Raise your head and complete the task you set your mind to complete! Push further beyond your mortal shackles! You said it yourself, did you not? There are no limits you cannot surpass!”

Indra clenched his jaw so hard, he feared his teeth would break under the force. He forced himself further, feeding the last of his Shakti reserves into the Domain. Eight times. He mustered one final drive as Kaluza rushed headlong at him, ready to end the fight. Ten times. Kaluza’s Domain shattered.

“Abyssal Plane: Womb of the Usurper.”