Dimensional Descent

Morgok balled up his fists and attacked with a furious momentum. His Hands of God fell down like a rain of meteors, suffocating Aina from all sides.

Aina didn’t even look up. Just as they were about to land, she activated another portal and vanished.

The Hands of God landed with a furious momentum, but right then there was an equally as furious backlash. They were almost shredded to pieces and Morgok was forced to teleport them back toward him through space, displaying an ability he hadn’t wanted to show so early on practically immediately.

His face twisted with displeasure, but there was nothing he could do. He turned his attention toward his Hands of God, seeing that they were in a sorry state. On one of them, he could see as deep as bone. The others were still fine because the first was enough of a lesson for him to retreat with the others.

He already knew that the Portal board wouldn’t just allow him to attack it, there would certainly be a price to pay as a result. It was just that he thought he could crush Lyra, or rather Aina, before that happened.

He had no idea how he was so wrong.

He knew the limits of Lyra’s skill, so when had she become such a problem?

Aina didn’t even look up, she had absolute confidence in Leonel. It was a confidence that had taken them many years of hardship to build between one another, the likes of the Gods couldn’t break that trust apart, let alone the Nomads.

The situation on the board kept rapidly changing. Pieces disappeared and separated again and again, sometimes they would change location, and sometimes they would be sent to the graveyard of sorts, sacrificed for the sake of it remaining Aina’s turn.

The more this occurred, the more Morgok’s expression changed. He didn’t really understand what was going on.

There was only so much that Aina could accomplish by doing this. Sure, she was getting a larger and larger advantage, but the fewer pieces there were on the board, the more chances that Morgok would have to reverse the situation.

The game of Go ended when both players consecutively gave up on a turn. In Portal, the rules were the exact same. Essentially, if there were still places to play, then the game would continue. And just by virtue of what Aina was doing, she was constantly creating more and more spaces to play. You could never end the game using this strategy.

Suddenly, Aina came to a stop and flicked out a hand. Three pieces soared through the air and landed in various locations.

Finally, they had an even number of pieces on the board and Morgok could go.

A fierce expression appeared on Morgok’s face as he began a counter attack. He was infuriated by what had just happened, it was time for him to show his true prowess.

Aina might be winning now, but that was purely because he hadn’t gotten a chance to go. Now, everything would change.

He quickly began to make his moves and the landscape began to change. Those watching frowned, realizing that Morgok was indeed getting the advantage back. Had Lyra made a mistake?

They played back and forth until Morgok suddenly caught an advantage and took three turns in quick succession.

The situation on the board changed once more and it looked as though Aina was backed into a corner, both figuratively and literally.

Because they were literally on the board, they had to be careful of any schemes their opponent was playing. For Aina, who was much weaker than Morgok, she had to maintain a distance at all times, especially when it was Morgok’s turn. That was because during Morgok’s turn, she couldn’t use the Portals to escape. In fact, Morgok could use the Portals to bring her to him if she wasn’t careful.

Due to this, Aina could only step on the Portals that Morgok didn’t have immediate control over. Unfortunately, the number that could fall into this category was growing smaller and smaller. As a result, she was quite literally now stuck in a corner of the board, unable to move forward because she was surrounded by antagonistic squares.

A sinister light flashed in Morgok’s eyes as he stepped forward.

Suddenly, Aina only had one move to make, but the problem was twofold.

If she made the winning move, the one that gave her a chance to change the situation in a few more exchanges, she would fall right into Morgok’s trap and teleport toward him.

If she made the losing move just to protect herself… well, it would be the losing move. On top of that, it was just a delay tactic. The next turn, she would be right back in the same exact situation, and this time her hand would be forced.

As expected, Aina seemed to see through this. This was the only chance she had.

She quickly made the winning move and Morgok flashed an ugly grin.

His Hands of God had returned to their blossoming form before, but now they exploded into action, appearing above Aina and smashing down.

There was nowhere left to go and their pieces were even. Unless she survived this, she was finished.

But that was when something absolutely shocking happened.

A spatial fluctuation made Morgok’s expression change. The last thing he saw was Aina’s indifferent expression. She didn’t even gaze at the hand above her, looking at him as though she was staring at an ant.

Was this really the Spiritual Princess?

This was the last thought he had before he was shredded to pieces, leaving mere droplets of blood where there had once been a whole person.

The world fell into silence.

One moment, they were playing a game, and in the next, one of them had died a terrible death. How the hell had this happened?

ƈοm

Patriarch Khafra’s expression turned the ugliest shade of purple, his aura rippling out in waves.