The infinite room had no walls.
No sky.
No ground.
Only distance stretching endlessly in every direction — a white vastness so pure it felt like the idea of space stripped bare.
And in the center of it all stood Samsura.
Blindfolded. Barefoot. Calm.
Suppressed to sixty-five percent of his true strength.
And still smiling.
The five of them were breathing heavier now.
Not defeated.
Not broken.
But the difference was undeniable.
This was not like fighting Grim.
This was not like overpowering low deities.
This was something else entirely.
Samsura rolled his neck once.
"You've adapted well," he said softly. "Your coordination improved. Your rhythm sharpened. Your reactions synchronized."
His head tilted slightly toward Eryndor.
"But you still do not understand what separates you from me."
He vanished.
No sound.
No displacement.
No ripple.
He simply was not there—
—and then he was.
Rein barely had time to widen his eyes before Samsura's palm touched his chest.
Not struck.
Touched.
The space between them folded.
Rein's body bent around an invisible pressure and he was launched across the infinite expanse, air detonating behind him.
"Rein!" Stellar shouted.
But Samsura was already moving again.
He appeared above Kaelus mid-swing.
Tempest Blade carved upward—
Samsura stepped sideways through space itself and the blade sliced nothing but vacuum.
Then Kaelus felt it.
A distortion.
His ribs compressed without being struck.
He coughed blood and was sent skidding backward.
Darius snapped his fingers.
"Shadow Blade!"
Blades rose from nothing—
Samsura opened a thin line in front of him.
The blades disappeared into it.
A second later—
They erupted behind Darius.
Darius twisted, chains of darkness blocking most of it, but three cuts tore across his shoulder and side.
Stellar froze the air instantly.
Ice spears formed in a perfect ring and shot inward.
Samsura exhaled.
The space around him curved.
The spears bent around his body and pierced nothing.
Then they reversed trajectory.
Eryndor stepped in.
Storm flared.
Lightning snapped outward, vaporizing the returning spears before they could hit Stellar.
And for the first time—
Samsura stepped back.
Not far.
But enough.
"Good," he said quietly.
Samsura clasped his hands behind his back.
"You three are low deities."
He nodded toward Eryndor, Darius, and Kaelus.
"You have domains. Authority. Elemental embodiment."
His head turned slightly toward Rein and Stellar.
"You two are god candidates. You stand at the gate."
He lowered his hands.
"But a mid-level deity…"
The infinite room trembled.
"…does not simply control an element."
The space between them compressed slightly.
"…we define the rules within it."
The pressure increased.
Rein grit his teeth.
"Stop talking and fight!"
He lunged again.
Dominion authority surged from him.
"Cancel!"
But Samsura did not resist it.
He allowed it.
Rein felt his authority take hold—
For half a second.
Then it slipped.
Not overpowered.
Not destroyed.
Redirected.
The concept of cancellation had been shifted somewhere else.
Rein staggered.
"What—?"
Samsura's voice echoed from everywhere at once.
"You attempt to dominate the element."
He appeared behind Rein.
"But I am the medium in which your dominance exists."
Palm strike.
Rein blocked.
The impact folded the air inward like collapsing glass.
Rein crashed into nothingness again.
Kaelus roared and vanished into wind.
Tempest Blade became a streak of rotating pressure.
He struck from twelve angles simultaneously.
Samsura did not move his feet.
He simply adjusted position by millimeters through folded space.
Each slash missed by a breath.
Then Samsura stepped forward.
Just one step.
Kaelus felt like he ran into a mountain.
The space in front of him had been compressed to the density of stone.
He bounced backward violently.
Blood trickled from his lip.
Darius transformed fully.
Shadows wrapped around him.
Chains lashed outward in every direction.
"Black Sun authority!"
The domain expanded—
But Samsura raised two fingers.
The shadows bent inward.
Not suppressed.
Curved.
Space had been warped so the domain no longer expanded outward — it expanded inward toward itself.
Darius' eyes widened.
"That's not—"
Samsura appeared directly in front of him.
"You cannot dominate what I can displace."
A palm touched Darius' forehead.
Darius slammed into the infinite ground with such force the void rippled.
Stellar's frost surged violently now.
Her arms were coated in white.
The air around her crystallized.
She moved in with raw martial precision.
Punch.
Elbow.
Knee.
Her super strength forced Samsura to finally block physically.
Their limbs collided.
Shockwaves tore through the infinite realm.
For three seconds—
Stellar matched him.
Then Samsura stepped through the space behind her guard.
Her own shoulder was repositioned two inches out of alignment.
Her punch missed.
His palm struck her sternum.
The air detonated.
She coughed and was flung backward.
Eryndor watched.
Storm energy crackled faintly around him.
His eyes were calm.
Observing.
Analyzing.
And then—
He moved.
Eight Fold Flow.
Upgraded from the Astral Sky.
Each movement carried layered rhythm.
Storm energy spiraled with Black Sun authority.
He struck.
Samsura blocked.
They exchanged twenty-seven blows in under two seconds.
Shockwaves tore outward.
Lightning cracked.
Space distorted.
For the first time—
Samsura smiled wider.
"Yes."
He vanished—
Appeared above—
Eryndor followed instinct.
Twisted.
Blocked.
The space around his arm folded but did not break him.
He countered.
Fist to ribs.
Connected.
Samsura slid back five meters.
The others stared.
He had landed it clean.
Samsura exhaled softly.
"You learn quickly."
Then—
His aura expanded.
And everything changed.
The infinite space dimmed.
Distance itself began compressing.
Stars flickered into existence in the far reaches of nothing.
Then they blinked out.
Samsura clasped his hands together.
His blindfold fluttered slightly in unseen wind.
"Enough warm-up."
He brought his palms together.
"Infinite Space Domain."
The world disappeared.
There was no longer an infinite white room.
Now—
They stood inside something like a transparent sphere.
Outside of it was nothing but endless layered dimensions overlapping each other.
Inside—
Distance shrank.
The floor cracked under pressure.
Air compressed.
Time felt slower.
Eryndor's eyes widened.
"Not good!"
The domain walls began closing inward.
Space was being folded from every direction.
Kaelus reacted instantly.
"Wind Domain!"
A surge of azure wind exploded outward.
A spherical barrier formed around Stellar.
Wind currents resisted the compression.
But the barrier groaned.
Cracks of pressure formed along its surface.
Darius was already inside Black Sun's Domain.
Darkness expanded around him like a gravitational field.
Shadows anchored him in place.
Rein struggled to stand as the pressure increased.
Eryndor didn't hesitate.
"Black Sun Domain!"
Darkness mixed with storm.
Lightning and wind spiraled together.
He expanded his domain outward and pulled Rein inside it.
Now three domains existed inside Samsura's.
Wind.
Black Sun (Eryndor).
Black Sun (Darius).
But—
Samsura's voice echoed everywhere.
"You misunderstand."
The pressure increased again.
The domain walls began shrinking.
Kaelus' wind barrier trembled violently.
Sweat dripped from his chin.
"Eryndor—!"
Darius' shadows were being forced inward.
Chains snapped under pressure.
Rein tried to expand Dominion—
But space itself bent away from him.
Stellar's frost began cracking under strain.
The difference was clear now.
Low deities project authority.
Mid-level deities alter structure.
Samsura wasn't overpowering their domains.
He was compressing the space they occupied.
Crushing the container.
Their domains were balloons.
His was the hand squeezing them.
Eryndor's mind moved rapidly.
His storm flickered.
He felt the limits.
They couldn't out-expand him.
They couldn't out-dominate him.
They couldn't cancel him.
The walls shrank further.
Breathing became harder.
Cracks formed across Kaelus' wind sphere.
Darius' domain flickered.
Rein gritted his teeth.
"How long—?!"
Eryndor's voice cut through the pressure.
"Everyone hold out for one hour."
"What?!" Rein barked.
Kaelus' barrier splintered further.
"You serious right now?!"
Eryndor closed his eyes.
"I'll find a solution."
Darius understood immediately.
"…Astral Sky."
Eryndor nodded once.
The pressure intensified.
The domain shrank further.
Stellar dropped to one knee.
Kaelus roared and forced more wind outward.
Rein planted his feet and pushed against nothing.
Darius reinforced the shadows.
And Eryndor—
Sat down.
Cross-legged.
In the middle of crushing space.
Storm energy dimmed.
Black Sun flickered.
He inhaled slowly.
Exhaled.
The pressure felt like mountains folding inward.
But his face became still.
Calm.
Detached.
The infinite compression roared around them.
Samsura watched.
Curious.
"Interesting choice."
Eryndor's breathing slowed.
His consciousness descended inward.
Past the battlefield.
Past the storm.
Past the pressure.
Into the Astral Sky.
And as the domains around him cracked and strained—
Eryndor Nasarik disappeared into meditation.
The crushing sphere continued shrinking.
Fifty minutes.
Fifty-nine.
Samsura tilted his head.
"Let us see," he murmured softly.
"Whether enlightenment comes faster than annihilation."
And the space closed in further.