After resurrection, Hojo was again going for another attack. But Michizane immediately rejected this little play by summoning his domain.
He couldn't let the time waste because Hojo had to duel with other six-eye users also. So, domain expansion was the best choice.
His palms got connected to each other, fingers intertwining with another, in a deliberate manner, forming the hand sign.
"DOMAIN EXPANSION: THE GREAT REFLECTOR"
A shadow emerged from beneath his feet, instantly taking over an area of a hundred meters.
Then, these shadows rose into the air, swallowing Hojo and Michizane himself, until it shaped itself in a large pitch-black sphere, which continued to gradually decrease in size before it reached the radius of ten meters.
But the space inside the sphere or better put domain remained the same. There, a throne which seemed to be crafted of obsidian materialized, and Michizane took a seat on it.
Even though this tiny dimension was dark everywhere, Hojo and Michizane could see each other without putting any effort.
When the domain finally came into existence completely, a heavy voice echoed inside it, giving a warning.
"Be on Alert. Within this dimension, any movement—no matter how minor—will be recognized as hostile action against the caster. Every force you exert will be reflected back onto your body, striking a random point. That force will then reflect again — and again — doubling with each iteration. This process does not halt. It does not discriminate. Within a mere second, the accumulated force will exceed the structural threshold of a living body, erasing you from existence completely. Remain Motionless. This is your first and last warning. Activation commences from this moment."
The message that was conveyed through the domain itself was extremely clear. If you remain motionless, you are safe.
But the moment you showed even a tiny movement, death would become absolute for you before you would even realize I'm already dead.
This was really a deadly and broken domain. For how much time, a human being could manage himself without moving.
Eventually, you would be forced to move. And that moment, your life will embrace death.
And there is no guarantee if time here worked the same as normal. What if a year here meant a second of normal time?
Hojo couldn't even express his emotions properly as his brain had already commanded the body to freeze in fear.
Michizane was just before him, as motionless as him, but the mere distance between them felt like thousands of miles to cover.
"W—"
Hojo was going to say something but before the words could form out of his mouth, the force exerted by his tongue exerted on his own body with the exponential incremental rate.
And just as Domain had warned, it didn't even take a complete second and his body was crushed under the force to such a degree that it was no longer recognizable as matter.
It was complete destruction. Even traces of blood weren't spared. Everything was erased.
[Death: 22]
[Strength: 100%]
A pop up appeared in mid air. And in the next instant, Hojo materialized out of nothing.
He wasn't frightened as before because he never felt any pain due to instant death. Death and resurrection—all this happened in less than a blink of an eye.
But he certainly had realized by himself how broken this domain was. If he hadn't been given the power of revival from death, he may have been dead long before.
Putting all this aside, how the hell was he supposed to touch Michizane?! This thought was revolving in every part of his mind and maybe body.
His mind went blank in frustration due to intense thinking in just a couple of minutes. Upon this, he didn't even know how much time had passed.
The more annoying thing than his frustration was that he wasn't allowed to move!
Just as he was thinking, his eyes catched something strange. It was very weird. The fact that Michizane himself hadn't moved from his throne. Not even an inch from his original posture.
Maybe he wasn't alone on which these fucking rules were to apply.
The moment his mind detected this irregularity, he showed an inner astonishing expression.
Inward, he felt like he had found the key to escape this predicament. But the next moment, he realized—even if it was true—then what?
This will not do anything. Yeah, if he had the ability to move and Michizane hadn't, then it would be a blessing for him which god himself had descended to give him.
With this, he could literally increase his strength without limits. He just had to simply touch Michizane as much as possible.
Desperately, he again tried to find a clue. But unfortunately, he got nothing in his hands.
With nothing left to do, he decided to put his all speed to touch Michizane before the domain could execute him.
Anyways, he will not feel anything.
So he did this. And—same happened which he had already expected.
[Death : 23]
He simply wasn't fast enough to overwhelm the speed at which his body was destructing.
But still he tried again and again until he felt satisfied with his nonsense.
[Death : 40]
[Strength : 100%]
Seeing the screen, he felt helpless. He had already been killed 40 times by just one six-eye user and he hadn't even powered up a single time.
This wasn't really hard for him. It—it was extremely and most fuckingly hard.
He was slowly feeling both his mind and body giving up on this. He couldn't do anything.
He looked at Michizane who sat on the throne, staring at him, motionless.
Suddenly, he realized something! Something which may be his hammer for crushing this situation completely.
Michizane and his throne was looking bigger to him. Due to no object and only darkness, it was really hard to tell if any motion had even happened here.
But for relativeness, the position of throne was absolute, fixed in the centre. And if the throne was looking bigger, this totally meant that Hojo was now a little closer to the throne.
Maybe because of his multiple sprinting efforts toward the throne, the distance he covered before his death was being added, resulting in a motion of a few inches.
Now, he had his resolve.
He again tried to sprint at full speed. Not once, but as many times as possible.
[Death: 41]
…..
[Death: 78]
…..
[Death: 169]
…..
[Death: 355]
And he finally stopped. Just before Michizane. He was right. Motion was actually happening.
This might be impossible if he didn't had the power to revive infinite times.
But—now—he could touch him.
[Strength: 125%]
[Strength: 150%]
[Strength: 175%]
[Strength: 200%]
….
[Strength: 1000%]
Suddenly, his power increment stopped after gaining 10x strength.
Suddenly, everything around him vanished as he returned back to where Yahaech and others were.
"Your time is up. Now Izumi will fight Hojo."