Inside the Astral Sky, there was no pressure.
No collapsing walls.
No crushing infinity.
Only silence.
Eryndor sat cross-legged on the surface of a still horizon, storm clouds drifting lazily above him, lightning humming faintly in the distance like a restrained heartbeat.
His breathing was even.
Controlled.
Outside, space was closing in.
Inside, there was clarity.
He replayed the fight in fragments.
Samsura didn't overpower them.
He didn't dominate their elements.
He altered the structure in which those elements operated.
Low deities project domains outward.
Mid-level deities reshape the framework that domains rely on.
That was the difference.
Eryndor opened his eyes slowly.
"I've been trying to beat space inside space," he muttered.
Wrong approach.
Samsura controls where things are.
Distance.
Placement.
Position.
Location.
All variables within space.
Eryndor's fingers tightened slightly against his knees.
Then he understood.
To defeat Samsura…
He had to stop thinking like a low deity trying to overpower space.
And start thinking like something that exists beyond it.
Storm.
Black Sun.
Conceptual authority.
The Black Sun's domain wasn't merely elemental — it governed judgment, weight, inevitability, sentence.
It was conceptual.
But Eryndor's authority wasn't complete.
He had the domain.
He had the foundation.
But not full authorship.
Which meant his attacks lacked the final, absolute enforcement of a true conceptual god.
He didn't have the refined strike power to erase space.
But—
He didn't need to erase it.
He needed to make it irrelevant.
Storm.
Pressure.
Gravity.
Weight.
He looked up at the astral sky.
"What if space can't function… under pressure it cannot calculate?"
Space expands.
Space folds.
Space opens.
But what happens when space itself is crushed from above?
Not cut.
Not pierced.
Crushed.
He exhaled.
"This will drain everything."
His energy reserves would collapse.
His Black Sun would dim.
He'd fall unconscious.
At least two hours to recover fully.
And in this tower?
Two hours unconscious could mean death.
But there wasn't time.
Outside—
He felt it.
Kaelus' wind barrier cracking.
Darius' shadows thinning.
Rein's breath growing heavier.
Stellar's frost splintering.
The sphere closing.
Decision made.
Eryndor stood.
Storm clouds darkened.
Lightning surged brighter.
"Then I'll gamble."
He opened his eyes.
Reality snapped back.
The Infinite Space Domain was almost fully compressed.
Kaelus was on one knee, wind barrier fractured like broken glass.
Darius' chains were snapping one after another.
Rein was bleeding from the nose.
Stellar was barely standing.
Samsura watched calmly.
"Forty seconds," he said.
Eryndor stood up from his meditation.
Energy around him was different now.
Not explosive.
Not chaotic.
Heavy.
Dense.
He raised one hand slowly.
"Domain Authority—"
Samsura turned toward him.
"Storm Pressure."
Something changed.
Above the Infinite Space Domain—
A black cloud formed.
Inside Samsura's domain.
That alone shouldn't have been possible.
Blue lightning cracked through it violently.
Wind began surging upward at a speed that distorted vision.
Not outward.
Upward.
Like the sky itself was being pulled higher.
Samsura's smile faded.
"…Interesting."
The pressure increased.
Not localized.
Not directional.
Universal.
It wasn't attacking space.
It was weighing it down.
The cloud darkened further.
Lightning roared like a thousand dragons tearing through atmosphere.
Kaelus felt it instantly.
"The wind… it's not pushing…"
It was lifting.
And then—
The pressure descended.
Not as an explosion.
Not as a beam.
But as a gravitational collapse.
The weight of a storm compressed downward onto Samsura's Infinite Space Domain.
The walls of his domain trembled.
Cracks formed.
Samsura's hands rose.
Space twisted.
He tried to fold distance.
Tried to open a gateway.
But—
The storm's pressure distorted the coordinates.
Space couldn't calculate its own expansion under that weight.
It was like trying to stretch a rubber sheet while a mountain sat on top of it.
"Impossible," Samsura muttered.
The pressure intensified.
Wind screamed upward like a reversed hurricane.
Lightning struck repeatedly against the inner shell of the domain.
Then—
The sphere shattered.
The Infinite Space Domain collapsed like broken glass dissolving into nothing.
Space snapped back to neutral.
Samsura staggered.
He tried to activate his element again.
Nothing.
The storm pressure wasn't targeting him.
It was suppressing the function of spatial manipulation.
Space could not fold while under that density.
For the first time—
Samsura stood like a normal combatant.
No displacement.
No folding.
No redirection.
Just martial arts.
Eryndor lowered his hand slowly.
His aura flickered violently.
"Attack him. Now."
Rein moved first.
Dominion stance.
He appeared in front of Samsura and punched.
Samsura blocked — but without spatial reinforcement, the impact drove him back.
Darius followed.
Chains lashed forward and wrapped around Samsura's arm.
"Shadow Bind!"
Stellar appeared on the other side.
Ice formed over Samsura's legs, slowing his movement.
Kaelus vanished.
Tempest Blade flashed.
Samsura twisted and elbowed Rein in the jaw.
Kicked Darius back.
Broke the ice at his feet.
He was still a mid-level deity.
Still vastly experienced.
But the difference was gone.
No space element.
No distortion.
Pure combat.
And five of them were converging.
Rein punched again.
Air detonated.
This time it connected clean.
Samsura coughed blood.
Darius slammed a shadow-coated fist into his ribs.
Stellar drove a knee into his side.
Kaelus slashed across his shoulder.
Blood splattered across the infinite floor.
Samsura's head snapped up.
"You dare—?!"
Rage entered his voice for the first time.
He roared and forced them back briefly with raw force.
But he was slowing.
Each strike landed.
Each coordinated attack chipped away at him.
Eryndor remained standing, barely.
Maintaining Storm Pressure.
His vision blurred.
Lightning flickered erratically.
He was emptying himself completely.
Samsura swung at Rein.
Rein ducked.
Stellar froze his footing for half a second.
Darius pulled his balance off center.
That was the opening.
Kaelus had been waiting.
Wind gathered silently around Tempest Blade.
He disappeared.
Reappeared behind Samsura.
A single slash.
Clean.
Precise.
Infused with rotating arcane wind.
It cut through flesh before Samsura even felt it.
Silence.
Kaelus slowly sheathed his sword.
"We do."
A heartbeat later—
Samsura's head slid from his shoulders.
It hit the floor softly.
His body remained standing for half a second.
Then collapsed.
The storm cloud dissipated.
Lightning faded.
Wind calmed.
Eryndor's hand dropped.
And he fell from the air.
Stellar moved instantly.
She caught him before he hit the ground.
"Eryndor!"
His eyes were closed.
Breathing faint.
Completely drained.
Darius knelt and checked his pulse.
"He's alive."
Kaelus exhaled deeply.
"That was insane."
Rein wiped blood from his mouth and stared at Samsura's fallen body.
"So that's a mid-level deity."
The infinite room began trembling.
Cracks formed through the empty expanse.
A black door manifested where Samsura's body dissolved into particles.
Room Five was collapsing.
"Move," Darius said immediately.
Kaelus lifted Eryndor carefully over his shoulder.
Stellar steadied him.
Rein looked once at the dissolving void.
Atlas was no joke.
Not anymore.
They stepped through the black door—
And entered Room Four.
Behind them—
Room Five imploded into nothing.