194. Domain Clash

This time, Alistair was prepared to observe. He had suspected that Jindor was going to take his enemies by surprise with his Domain.

The moment Jindor finished uttering the name of his new Domain, it existed.

The expansion was so fast that Alistair could barely register it in his vision. For an Adept, it was a different story—all three on Kadeus’s side responding before Jindor had even finished stating the name of his own.

He found himself standing on nothing in a black void, distant stars shining. The main attraction was an enormous white star seemingly thousands of feet above their heads, yet so large it covered almost the entire scope of their vision.

Alistair felt no hostility or heat from the star, but he could tell that its purpose was the utter suppression of the enemy. He assumed it would have accomplished that task if not for the presence of what should have been three Domains opposing The White Star.

Except there were only two. Gloria, the Kinetic Mage, created a void of white. Thirteen silver pillars of impossibly precise tolerance floated around her. Xu Tai’s Domain was a world of flesh, situated by an enormous, pumping, golden heart. He manifested what appeared to be the insides of a gigantic White Tiger, arteries and veins leading out and shimmering so they were partially translucent and partially opaque.

Protokoptian was swallowed up by Gloria’s Domain, yet he didn’t feel outmatched by his allies.

An internal Domain, Alistair thought. It’ll be a problem for Jindor in close-quarters with the increased physical stats.

The three Domains began to clash. Gloria and Xu Tai worked in tandem, letting their Domains merge around the edges to avoid any conflict. The void of space met flesh and a white void. Of the four Domain battle outcomes, they had reached Stalemate. There was a defined border, and both territories pushed against each other with incredible vigor.

Alistair just had to trust in Jindor, for he had his own enemies to worry about.

It was fourteen against five. It was also the first time that Alistair had ever fought in a battle between Domain users.

In a Domain battle, the task of the lesser realms was to assist the higher realm in shoring up borders of their space.

For example, while a Profound couldn’t unleash their own Domain while within a Visionary’s, they could deal with the tiny intrusions of the enemy’s Domain, which added up over time between two relatively equal parties.

Kadeus made the first move. With how expansive the three Domains were, their starting positions were around five hundred feet away, but distance didn’t matter to the gunslinger.

A Desert Eagle-esque pistol appeared in his hands. Four more ghostly replicas formed as well, overlapping at different angles. Each one pointed at Alistair and one of his allies.

Purple streaks of light beamed out of his guns. Alistair was worried that he would lose Ymira and Elbert then and there, but he was underestimating his allies.

First off, once the bullets reached Jindor’s Domain, they slowed down, as it recognized the speeding projectiles as foreign invaders. Second, Haley’s defensive Skill had already activated by the time they touched the black void.

Five rectangular slabs of clay formed out of nowhere. The alabaster shields shattered into a million pieces on impact, but the bullets didn’t pass through. Along with the shattered clay, they drifted into space.

Elbert drew an emerald sword from his inventory. The enormous greatsword was taller than he was and half as wide, yet he carried it with the equanimity of a grizzled veteran.

His weapon glowed and hummed with the Dao of Space. Momentarily, Alistair felt the laws of reality bend toward the old man. The White Star understood Elbert’s mission and granted him not only permission to violate space, but extra juice.

Alistair decided that he liked the old soldier. All those who practiced Daos in the Nexus of War had some kinship. In this case, he read Elbert like a book.

With a mighty swing, Elbert opened up a portal to the closest silver pillar. Thousands of feet of space were joined at a single seam.

Even as the portal opened, it began closing. Gloria’s Domain refused foreign intrusion, but Alistair was too fast. He activated [Mindshift], dashing through the portal before it closed.

A sudden rush of energy aided him. Foreign Dao energy blossomed around him, but it wasn’t an attack or an attempt to divert his Dao Path. Instead, Jindor lent him a hefty chunk of his own power, forming a milky shield around him.

That shield Alistair would need. The moment he emerged on the other side, he was assaulted from all directions.

Kadeus fired his Deagle. The Kinetic Mages used their environment, taking up the Domain itself and launching human-sized chunks of metal at him.

Jindor’s Dao energy protected him from those attacks on top of the incursion of Gloria’s Domain which pressed down on him like an elephant squashing a baby.

All the while Alistair prepared his finishing Skill, one that he hadn’t used in quite some time.

[Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Judgment]. Once a second had passed and he was still alive, he knew that it would be okay. The merciful bodhisattva chanted its name and emerged.

Crimson Karma covered palms of golden and coral energy. The recitation of the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī from the avatar of Avalokiteśvara failed to penetrate far within the enemy’s Domain, but Alistair hoped that those closest would heed its merciful sutras.

With a greater control over the avatar, he directed the palms in the ways he desired. He allocated one layer of palms to separating Kadeus from all his minions, and then the rest at the man himself, making them go upward, each successive palm launching him higher and higher.

The loud gong noise and shockwave of golden energy accompanying each palm strike was far louder and brighter than before. Alistair attributed this to his widening of the Ghost Node and deepening of the Justice Node since had last used [Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Judgment] against George.

Alistair used the suddenness of his attack and the attack on their Dao Hearts to sneak a [Mindshift] on the closest Kinetic Mage. With all his might, he activated [Force Fist] and spearhanded the woman in the heart, taking her out in one blow.

Even though she wasn’t a martial artist, the same principle of an attack outside of one’s perception being far more efficacious applies, Alistair thought.

Even as he struck the Kinetic Mage, he felt the walls of Gloria’s Domain closing in. The Thirteen Pillars were only barely rebuffed by the last vestiges of Jindor’s Domain. Now that he felt the immense power trying to extinguish him, Alistair realized how much of the monk’s Domain he really imbued within him.

“Don’t let him down,” Dev’rox chuckled.

Alistair jumped with the palms. His finishing Skill lasted two seconds. Two seconds of sixty palms, and he jumped as the first second expired.

[Reality Sense] let him perceive more silver chunks and an enormous fireball soaring toward him from below. Alistair activated [Frozen Claw], his ice spreading like a virus from chunk to chunk until it reached the fireball, where the entire gaseous body became encased in pale blue ice, falling to the ground after losing all its momentum.

All the while, the palms of [Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Judgment] continued to batter Kadeus, or at least that was what Alistair assumed. His Skill was far too dense with Mana and Dao energy for him to sense Kadeus, but it was almost impossible for him to escape once being hit.

Each successive strike rung louder as the bodhisattva spread its message of compassion. Alistair felt his own heart soothed and comforted by the impossibly fast speech and gong noises that perfectly fit the cadence of the avatar’s words.

As the last palm struck true, hundreds of feet in the air, Alistair also punched.

A Tier 4 [Blood Hand] bubbled around his Materia of True Martial Clarity. Alistair formed the blood affinity Mana into a spear as tall as he was. He coated the tip of the spear with the last iota of Jindor’s Dao energy, along with equal portions of all three of his Dao Nodes.

His hand screamed for relief even with the throughput of the Mythical rarity item—never in his life had he channeled more Dao energy into a single Skill. As the spear came up against the firmament, the edge between The Thirteen Pillars and the outside world, he knew it was still not enough.

Whiteness flickered at the edge of his skin, eating away his cells at a fundamental level. Without the protection of Jindor’s Dao energy, he would die in a tenth of a second.

Alistair pulled an entire third of his total Dao energy, letting it flow through his arm and spear.

The world cracked. Black stones peeked through the white void. Alistair saw Kadeus flying out of the Domain, a shocked look still on his face.

Alive, with a broken nose and holes in his robes. He had been hoping for more, but that was perhaps a bit greedy. Alistair passed through the broken border of the Domain, landing gracefully.

All three Domains looked different from the outside, and you couldn’t see the insides. Additionally, they were all orders of magnitude smaller than the inside, to fit inside the cavern.

The Thirteen Pillars was a sphere of pure white. The Black Star was a black void, except dotted with stars. Xu Tai’s Domain, White Tiger’s Heart, was a massive heart that pumped and oozed bodily fluids.

Alistair met eyes with Kadeus. An old habit from when he needed his sight. Perhaps I should ditch it, considering that I’ve now seen the power of an ocular cultivator.

The traitor dusted off his fancy coat and adjusted his conical hat. “You’re not going to let me back in, are you?”

“That much is fairly obvious.”

“These cramped quarters give you a huge advantage,” Kadeus said. “How about we take this to the surface? You’re more injured than me, so that will give you about thirty minutes to recover.”

Alistair wanted to protest that, but he realized that Kadeus was correct. Whatever mechanism the sharpshooter had used to defend against [Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Judgment] had worked remarkably well. He only hoped it was a one-time use defensive pendant.

The Domain had corroded his body at a fundamental level, the meridians flowing through his right arm temporarily scarred. The only question was, did he trust Kadeus?

Obviously not, but he didn’t need trust. He had Lesser Vipassanā to discern truth from lie, and with [Reality Sense], he analyzed every piece of data coming from Kadeus. Everything screamed that he was telling the truth.

“Aren’t your forces gathered at the surface?” Alistair asked. “Even if you don’t have any more human troops, there’s gotta be millions of zombies still around, even ones that I would find difficult.”

Kadeus shook his head. “They’re all spread out. We couldn’t call them all back once we realized you were the key. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll give you a single Orichalcum drachma as collateral. If it is a trap, you can just run away richer than almost every Foundation in this universe. You know, you actually have the advantage in this position. We’re the invaders and we don’t have the most impressive squadron. It’s safe to assume your empire is mustering up a few Visionaries to clean house at this very moment. Maybe they’re mere hours away.”

Alistair felt the air shift for a brief second as Kadeus sent over the Orichalcum drachma. That was one Multiversal Law that was impossible to break. The transfer of money was sacred everywhere.

“If only you were more duplicitous,” Dev’rox said. “If I were you, I’d take the money and just stay here.”

“Or I can just give it back and reject the deal. My character wouldn’t be impugned by that, either.”

But the more Alistair felt the new weight of his wallet, the more money signs and pure greed started taking over his mind. An Orichalcum drachma? That was absurd for a Foundation that wasn’t the scion of a wealthy clan. He couldn’t even imagine what goodies he could buy, both for himself and for his people. A single Orichalcum drachma was more money than the average cultivator could earn in millions of lifetimes.

“You know what my Dao Heart is,” Alistair said to Dev’rox. He nodded at Kadeus. “Very well. Let’s go."

----------

They didn’t exchange any words as they ascended through the series of tunnels. Kadeus didn’t so much as look back at Alistair as he led the way. Alistair wasn’t sure how the man could be so trustful. Obviously, he wasn’t going to do anything, but Kadeus didn’t know that.

It took several hours for them to ascend to the surface. They couldn’t go full speed with the constant turns and crevices of the cave, and they were hundreds of miles underground to begin with.

As the temperature slowly grew colder and colder until it was almost unbearable, Alistair knew they were close to the surface.

Kadeus exited the cave first. It was night on Nuevo Invierno, indicated by the all-encompassing darkness. Alistair guessed that if he had a normal human’s vision, it would have appeared pitch black.

True to Kadeus’s word, there were no enemies waiting for him on the surface. However, the winter storm was fierce, forcing Alistair to use his strength to plant himself still, and his fortitude to ignore the bone-chilling cold and frost.

Kadeus jumped forward, front flipping mid-flight several dozen feet forward and twisting in the air so that he landed facing Alistair.

Alistair asked his opponent a simple question. “Why do want me so bad? Do you work for the Portolons? A interuniversal demonic cult?”

“I’ve never heard of those,” Kadeus said, adjusting his conical hat and sunglasses. “You are the key. Or you possess it. I’m not quite sure.”

The key? Alistair thought. Why does sound familiar?

With his high Intelligence, he combed through his memories as if they were a perfect library of moments in time. The only mention of key that stuck out was the time Purana of the Stratospheric Flames gave him a golden key that could unlock Lisorte’s Dao History.

Lisorte, the planet that Red Harmonia called home. The man that made him feel helpless with his seemingly boundless fighting skill. One day, he would surpass Red, but now he wondered for the man’s safety.

If the key unlocked Lisorte’s Dao History, perhaps it could be used to control the prodigious talent. Alistair imagined that frontier universes would be overjoyed to have a cultivator like Red that they could control and raise to the peak.

I gave that key to Master Ko Pao. They would have to be detecting the residual energies.

“I think it sounds familiar,” Alistair said. “Your quest isn’t in vain. You just have to beat me.” He held out a hand and beckoned Kadeus forward.

“Come at me now.”